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Kings Island
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cedar Fair Entertainment
 Park News - (5/15/12) Our friends at CoasterFusion report that they will be holding a special event at Kings Island on August 12th called CoasterQuest. Check out all the details and register online here.
(5/14/12) Kings Island is happy to report that The Vortex is celebrating it’s 25th Anniversary Season this year. Over the years, The Vortex has delivered 36 million rides.
(4/25/12) Kings Island reports that several new food options will be introduced to the park this season. The list includes “never frozen” hamburgers, gluten free pizza, philly cheese steaks, mega churros, burritos, gourmet burgers, battered fish & chips, plus new healthy choice drink options, fresh salads, fruit and more. Oh… and Freestyle Coke machines in select locations. The park has also put up a new Dining Plan ticket options on their ticket sales page as well.
(4/19/12) Good news for Kings Island this week. The park’s GM tweeted out word that their 3D Dinosaur film in the former Action Theater will be free to all guests this season. The attraction was an upcharge item last season.
(3/22/12) Want to see more aerial photos of Kings Island? Even more pictures can be found over at KICentral.
(3/20/12) Kings Island will launch their ‘Countdown to 40’ campaign on Twitter starting on March 20th. It will feature daily trivia questions about Kings Island where you can win prizes like park tickets, behind the scenes tours, merchandize and more. 40 prizes will be given away every day through April 28th… opening day. Just follow Kings Island on Twitter to play.
(3/19/12) Some great aerial photos of Kings Island, as well as Coney Island and The Beach from October 2009 have been posted to the photo gallery at KIExtreme.
(3/7/12) Kings Island fans may want to check out this week’s episode of In The Loop as the guys chat it up with KI’s own Don Helbig about Crypt, Son of Beast, Soak City and a big new show coming to the park.
(3/5/12) To mark the 40th Anniversary of Kings Island, the park has released a new special park logo. Got to say that I think it looks awesome and I hope they keep part of it going forward. Kings Island first opened back on April 29th, 1972 at a cost of $30 million. Only 7,000 guests came through the gates that first day which had a ticket price of just $6. Kings Island will open for the 2012 season on April 28th, and will begin daily operations on May 11th.
(2/29/12) Special thanks to a local area reader who snapped a quick picture of the Invertigo repaint this week.
(2/21/12) Good news for Kings Island Gold and all Cedar Fair Platinum Passholders this year, as they will be able to enjoy one hour of early ride time every normal operating day of the 2012 season. The list of rides offered during this special morning hour will be coming soon.
In other news, if you missed the episode of Ghost Hunters when they were poking around Kings Island at night your in luck. A reader sent me a link to where you can watch this very episode online.
(2/15/12) Kings Island has announced that Invertigo is getting repainted for 2012 and will feature Aqua track with Royal Blue supports when it reopens. Kings Island also announced on their Twitter feed that, “The Crypt has reached the end of its service life. Will be replaced by an all-new Halloween Haunt experience.” While putting the building to use, short-term at least, as a new Haunt is a good idea, it really is a shame that what was imagined as being such a unique thrill ride concept back in the days of Tomb Raider, lasted less than a decade before being shut down.
(1/20/12) Glacing at the new 2012 Kings Island website, it appears that any mention of The Crypt (formerly: Tomb Raider: The Ride) has been removed from the site. Both in the listing of rides, as well as in the list of ride height requirements. Back on Halloween Screamscape did report a rumor that The Crypt was thought to possibly be on its way out of the park, and right now that is looking like the truth after all, though we’ve yet to get an official confirmation from the park.
(1/13/12) This week’s episode of Ghost Hunters on Syfy takes place at Kings Island where they search for the ghost sighting of the little girl in a blue dress and a few other restless spirits said to inhabit the property and/or nearby cemetery.
(10/31/11) I’m not sure how legit this rumor is, so please take it with a grain of salt until I’ve gotten a better lock on the story. That said... I’ve heard an early rumor claiming that The Crypt (formerly: Tomb Raider) may be on the way out of Kings Island for good. Not sure if they are thinking of moving it to another park, or if there is something wrong with it. Anyone else know more?
2012 - Soak City / Boomerang Bay Expansion - (9/6/11) As rumored Kings Island announced a $10 million plan to expand the park’s Boomerang Bay waterpark… and rebrand it as Soak City. A new main entrance will be built, along with a new larger wave pool, and the lazy river will be rethemed as an “action river”. Unfortunately, those hopeing for half a dozen new slides will be very disappointed, as there are none on the way. Apparently you don’t get as much for $10 million in a water park as you used too… that or all those new cabanas and lounge chairs they are planning are quite costly. There are also plenty who are critical of the plan, as a chunk of the budget is obviously going in just to remove and replace the Aussie themed elements just added to the park in the last big overhaul, which seems unnecessary. (Not to mention those who think the $10 million may have been better off spent on a new coaster, or a few flat rides, or even a plan to fix and reopen Son of Beast…)
The press releases also keep saying how the plan is going to nearly double the size of the park… but while only adding a single new attraction (ie: wave pool) it just seems counter-productive to add space for twice as many people in the waterpark, while not doubling the number of attractions for the people. There is also a concern many local fans about how the formerly heavily themed Kings Island attractions are not only becoming to generic, but that the park is slowly becoming ‘Cedar Point South’ instead of trying to maintain it’s own unique identity.
There are also many out there who are worried that the new “Soak City” will reopen as a separate attraction, requiring it’s own admission fee. After all, every other “Soak City” branded park in the Cedar Fair chain, is a separate ticket park, including the one at Cedar Point, but according to Kings Island’s own Don Helbig admission to Soak City will be, “Included with park admission as it has always been.”
(8/9/11) In a strange move, I’m told that Kings Island’s big makeover for Boomerang Bay may be more in name only and not so much on the attraction side of things. Yep… even though the park’s last big expansion saw the new name of Boomerang Bay put on it, now I’m told they will likely rename the park as Soak City. As far as the expansion / upgrade goes, the only new attraction I’m aware of so far will be a new large wave pool. I’d hope for more slides to be added, but dropping in a wave pool by itself seems to fit the Cedar Fair pattern from the past few years where they did the same thing to Carowinds and Valleyfair. (I’m thinking these kinds of projects help pay for themselves right away, because with new wave pools comes prime real estate to put down private cabana rentals, which have been a top priority for waterparks in general the past few years as they are fetching a huge premium price from guests willing to pay for private access into a simple “tents”.
(8/5/11) What latest rumors for Kings Island in 2012 points to the park making a substantial multi-million dollar upgrade to the Boomerang Bay waterpark that will see both improvements and new attractions added.
???? - Son Of Beast - Rumor Only - (5/9/12) There is a very interesting post over at KICentral this week where one of the readers claims to have bumped into Matt Ouimet during a visit to Kings Island. During the very chat, he explains that Ouimet mentioned that they would have to add something new to Kings Island in the future to replace Son of Beast, because they didn’t feel there was anything reasonable that could be done to fix it.
That said… it sounds like Son of Beast is done for and we can likely expect to see it taken down by the end of the year, as I’m sure the park is tired of dealing with all the guest questions about it. I can only assume they’ll use the site for the park’s next big coaster when they are ready.
While I know many were hoping to see another Texas Giant style transformation done to Son of Beast as well as Mean Streak at Cedar Point, I’ve long had a feeling that Son of Beast may have been beyond hope. Mean Streak, much like Texas Giant, still has a solid structure to rebuild a new ride experience upon. Meanwhile one of the big issues with Son of Beast all along has been complaints about it’s wooden structure. This goes back to 2000, when the ride was just built and Kings Island filed a lawsuit against Roller Coaster Co. of Ohio, Wooden Structures Inc, and Universal Forest Products with claims that ride has insufficient support structures, that Universal Forest delivered subgrade lumber for the coaster along with various other defects. According to the Paramount Park’s lawsuit, Paramount “contends that the companies engaged in negligence, malpractice and breach of contract.”
Son of Beast has been a problem child since construction started on the massive ride, and my gut feeling is that Ouimet’s words true… Kings Island would spend far more trying to fix and rebuild this ride than it would cost to build an iron horse style coaster system from scratch. I think it’s time to let this one go…
(5/3/12) Kings Island has confirmed to the local news at the end of this article that there are no plans to reopen Son of Beast for the 2012 season. The company is still said to be evaluating their options on what to do with the ride.
(7/22/11) While I’ve heard about various plans to save Son of Beast so far this month, another anonymous source wrote in to say that none of it is going to happen. From what they’ve been led to believe, the board determined that it really wasn’t financially feasible to repair / rebuild / remodel Son of Beast and still get a decent ROI on the project, so one of Kinzel’s last orders of business may have been to sign the death warrant for Son of Beast. After all, they’ve already lost more than the coaster, but a slew of lawsuits from injured riders which were all settled. The SOB has cost them quite enough already...
(7/20/11) According to a new rumor sent in, another possible plan of action under heavy consideration for Son of Beast is to hire on the Gravity Group to not only retrack and modify the existing ride, but to also provide a pair of new Timberliner trains for it as well. No word on if this plan is leading out over any of the others yet, but I think they’ll have to make a choice soon.
(6/16/11) While I don’t know exactly what may be involved in the rumored “fixing” of Son of Beast for 2012, I’m told that whatever takes place will be the ride’s last shot. If it doesn’t work, we can expect to see Son of Beast demolished to may way for a new ride in the future.
(6/14/11) While it is still too early to say for sure if this is true, we did get a rumor earlier this month claiming that work to possibly fix Son of Beast could begin before the end of the Summer season in an effort to reopen the ride for the 2012 season. As part of this process, I’m told we may see some major modifications to the track layout as well.
On top of this, another new attraction is also rumored to be on-deck for the 2012 season, but no more information was available. Anyone know more about either project?
(4/25/11) A great article that covers the past, present and possible future of the Son of Beast coaster at Kings Island was posted to Cincinnati.com, which includes some great quotes towards the end by myself as well. Check it out…
(11/24/10) Is there a glimmer of hope for Son of Beast? Well… not for 2011, but according to an anonymous source who was at IAAPA last week, they claim to have overhead a conversation between someone from Cedar Fair and the Rocky Mountain guys about possibly doing work on Son of Beast in the future. Of course this may be every coaster fanboys dream rumor being talked about as well... so take this with a grain of salt until we hear something more serious.
(8/13/10) We’ve heard from several sources that the work taking place in the Son of Beast station building is indeed for a new Halloween Haunt attraction and not part of a covert effort to get the ride running again.
(8/2/10) The new land clearing behind Son of Beast is real it seems, and can be seen from the tower’s observation deck if you look through the gap where the loop used to be to the land beyond. Even more interesting are the reports from those riding Flight Deck who claim to have seen workers pounding/sawing away at stuff in the SOB station, along with the sound of power tools. I’ve got to wonder, are they working on something in the station for the ride… or planning to turn the station into a Halloween Haunt?
(7/28/10) I’m told that some new land clearing has actually begun behind Son of Beast. While I’m not sure what this may mean, another reader has pointed out that the former SonOfBeast.com website is now auto-forwarding all visits to the Intimidator 305 page. Odd… very odd…
(7/19/10) I don’t know Cedar Fair has reconsidered or not, but for some reason a new rumor has popped up claiming that Son Of Beast is under consideration for the Texas Giant treatment… having it’s layout reprofiled and wooden track system replaced with steel track. It could just be a fanboy dream for 2012… but you never know. Maybe there is still hope.
(6/30/10) A not so good rumor floated my way this week regarding the fate of Son of Beast. According to the source, Cedar Fair officials are said to have weighed their options on fixing the coaster against the cost and benefits of doing so and the view wasn’t good at all. While it certainly may be possible to fix and make the ride enjoyable, the cost involved as well as the cost of the PR campaign needed to turn around the notoriously bad reputation of the ride was deemed to be cost prohibitive. If true, we will likely never seen SOB ride again.
(4/9/10) Causing quite a bit of fuss for Kings Island fans is the fact that Son of Beast has been removed from the new park map now posted online. This seems to lock in the previous news that there was little if any chance at all of the ride reopening this season.
Of course the big rumor in industry circles is that Cedar Fair may be in contact with the company who came up with the new all metal track system being added to the Texas Giant right now. Of course this makes perfect sense as Cedar Fair has not one but two major attractions in Ohio (SOB and Mean Streak) that could greatly benefit from this kind of make-over technology if it proves successful for Six Flags.
(3/18/10) While the last news article to touch upon the fate of Son of Beast seemed to imply that there was little chance of it opening again, this alternate article actually says that the park hopes to reopen the coaster later in the season and that the park is currently in talks with companies about long term fixes to the ride.
(3/17/10) Kings Island reports that as of right there are no plans to reopen Son of Beast for the foreseeable future. KI’s GM, Greg Scheid commented, “Eight days after I took over, the accident occurred. We have struggled with it ever since. We have smoothed out the ride. Most people will say they are comfortable with the ride, but I am not comfortable with the ride.”
(11/16/09) Now even the local news is starting to report that Son of Beast may never reopen. Still... the bottom line is nothing seems to have been decided for sure in the halls of Cedar Fair, so we’re still watching and waiting.
(8/24/09) While nothing has been decided, I’ve heard that there are three likely solutions to the whole Son of Beast problem. One… they could just close the ride and demolish it. Given the number of problems they’ve had with this ride over the years, no one would be surprised at this outcome. The other two ideas are costly, and still may not fix the problem entirely. One idea is to look at replacing the ride’s structure with a steel support system, in addition to complete retracking as well as a new third train design. The other would keep it as a wooden ride, but would involve a complete design of the track, eliminating the two giant helixes as this seems to be the focus point of all the problems and complaints they’ve had with the ride over the years.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing the second option used… going with a layout that has more ups and down and less radical turns. While I doubt it’s still possible, I wouldn’t mind seeing the loop and old trains return as well, but that’s just me.
(8/11/09) Kings Island has announced that Son Of Beast will remain closed for the rest of the 2009 season. As for the future of the ride, they claim that it’s fate wont be decided until sometime during the off-season. I have to imagine that at this point, all options are on the table right now, so anything can happen. According to a reader report from the park yesterday, they already had spotted that the SOB trains had been shrink wrapped and placed away in the maintenance bays.
(7/31/09) The news reports that the stage investigation into Son Of Beast is now over and that they found “no irregularities.” Son of Beast is still currently closed however and park spokesperson Don Helbig said that he couldn’t speculate as to when it might reopen.
(7/28/09) While the exact findings of the investigation of Son of Beast have not been released, the local news reports that inspectors have been called out to check out problems with Son of Beast more than any other coaster in Ohio. In most of the previous injury cases, it was determined that a pre-existing condition caused the rider’s injury There is still no timeline set to reopen the ride this season.
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