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 Review of The Beast @ Kings Island
1 Rating Posted by: ginzo on 8/9/2006 11:02:00 PM
I grew up on the Beast. Many carefree teenage summers were spent riding this an easy 10-15 times in a single day. This ride was an absolute marvel of excitement and intensity. I remember holding on for dear life in the back seat before they crippled the Beast with ratcheting lapbars and seatbelts. The night rides were absolutely unbeatable, as you were pulled out into some strange other world built on out of control speed. Going down the second lift hill used to be pure adrenaline as you dove towards the terror of the infamous helix. This is all gone now. Killed by the trim brakes and roughness. How the heck can they justify braking going down both lift hills? Sadly, I agree with all the haters. The Beast is an oversized mine train now, a shadow of its former grand self.
 

Review Comments

praxis on 8/10/2006 1:47:15 PM said:
Sad to hear the big guy has gone, er, downhill. Especially since deterioration seems to be creeping up on BoulderDash, too.
ginzo on 8/10/2006 3:53:32 PM said:
Obviously, the Beast is much older than Boulder Dash, but its always sad to see a good woodie left to rot. Im planning a giant theme park road trip next year, and Lake Compounce is definitely on the list. I hope Boulder Dash is in good shape when I ride it next year.
praxis on 8/10/2006 4:05:28 PM said:
BD was still pretty good when I last rode this summer - but definitely rougher/more of a "who punched me in the neck?!?" kinda feel to it. Hopefully LC will fix that glitch.
Timberman on 8/10/2006 11:20:46 PM said:
Ginzo: Your perspective is very interesting to me, since you write as someone who knew the Beast in its former glory and can compare it then to its current condition. I am a dyed in the wool wooden roller coaster fan. I spent most of my formative coaster years in the East and Southeast, and riding the Beast became sort of a lifelong ambition that, sadly, I did not achieve until 2004. At that time, I was notably disappointed in this legendary coaster, so much so that I didnt review it. I thought maybe I had caught it on an off day. Two years later, however, I rode it again, and on that day I wasnt just disappointed, I was angry. I felt like the continued praise for this ride was not doing the wooden coaster cause any favors. The only review I sort of regret posting on this site is the one I wrote for the Beast, because it is, on the whole, unnecessarily harsh and offensive to some. However, I reluctantly stand by it, because it more or less captures my impressions of the ride. I appreciate the Beasts place in roller coaster history, and I respect any ride that created such legions of wooden roller coaster devotees. Yet much like the Riverside Cyclone, I think the intervening years of modification, deterioration, and, perhaps, neglect have destroyed what was once great about this ride.
ginzo on 8/11/2006 9:23:18 AM said:
I think a lot of people are still in denial about the Beast. Massive hype has a way of warping the way we see things. Then, of course, there are people who respond to excessive hype with a reflexive contrarian view. It seems that the Voyage is getting a bit of this anti-hype backlash, which to me is sad because I personally think that is an undeniably excellent ride. Another problem is that wooden coasters perform very inconsistently. They run great one day, and then terrible the next. One more confounding factor is that recent years have produced the majority of the excellent wooden coasters out there. The bar has been raised tremendously. Part of why the Beast was so well loved was because we didnt have the Voyage, El Toro, Thunderhead, Boulder Dash, Avalanche, Hades, Balder, Colossus, and the like at the time. A final factor to consider is that the individual ratcheting lapbars really did help neuter the Beast. The former experience of holding on for dear life as if you were going to fly out is gone, replaced mostly with excessive roughness. You can make a similar claim about the Racer. It used to be a massive, stand-up style airtime machine, but installing individual lapbars and neglect have done away with that. Lets face it, all of PKI is poorly maintained. Is there any coaster there thats not pretty darn rough? Maybe Top Gun in certain seats.
hrrytraver on 8/11/2006 4:01:45 PM said:
nice dialogue, guys. i dont have anything to add, but just to say that great modern woodies or no, classic is classic. i trust all the beast "haters" regarding the rides current state, but im confident that if it was riding today like it did for me in 93, it would still be getting tons of non-delusional, non-emporers new clothes raves from enthusiasts.
bumprnugit on 6/12/2007 11:30:04 PM said:
20 some years ago, The Beast was on my most wanted to ride list (I vividly remember it making national news the year it debuted, prior to my "enthusiast" status), but as the modifications were made, my desire to travel to "coaster mecca" evaporated. I have never made the trip. Friends and aquaintances have, and the reviews are either love it or hate it - very little middle ground. The same thing happened to my beloved Riverside Cyclone - emasculated and a mere shadow of its former self. Two decades ago, I recall spirited debates of which ride was better. For veterans it is now shaking of fists and gnashing of teeth. I didnt think the ratcheting lap bars would have had a more adverse effect than all the trims, but your follow-up details exactly what has changed. Whomever coined the phrase "to love and have lost is better than to have never loved at all" was obviously not a wooden coaster enthusiast.
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