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Beast- Genius or Garbage

Edward M

Edward M

Strata Poster
Beast's long wide turns, airtimeless drops, and rather uneventful layout could lead some to say it is a piece of garbage that just lingers through it's far too long ride time. Beast's beautiful terrain, amazing night ride, and feeling of being out of a theme park could lead some to say it is a masterpiece for using it's many trees and unique landscape to make a one of a kind ride.

So what do you think, is it genius or garbage? Also, please have ridden the ride before putting your opinion. As a YouTube video can't give you a true opinion.

As for me I, obviously, think it is a masterpiece. It is my favorite roller coaster because of how beautiful it is. It provides a different experience from others rides and puts you in an unfamiliar environment where you feel like you are on the back of a beast. I was lucky enough to ride this one in the fall. On the second big drop right after the first, I saw such a beautiful sight. The leaves were falling all around me and rays of sunshine were coming out of the trees. It was an unbelievable sight. The rest of the ride is like that too. This is my favorite ride because it isn't the usual ride. It is an experience that is unlike any other roller coaster I've been on.
 
Gotta agree with Canobie. While my first time on it was a night ride, it loses that appeal and mysticism once I rode it during the day. The ride expereince was completely different, and it utterly baffled me.

At its originally debut, it was a masterpiece. Compare it to Voyage and Boulder Dash, its turd.

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It USED to be genius.

Then it got rough because CF didn't want to pay to maintain it. (See also: pretty much every woodie they own.)

Then it got trimmed to death. (See also: Mean Streak)

NOW it's garbage due to bad management by corporate bean counters at CF.
 
Beast is one of the largest in-house projects in the history of amusement parks. The roller coaster covers 34 acres, and was specifically designed to avoid trees engineers thought should stay. The lead engineer, Charles Dinn, left Kings Island afterwards to become the father of the modern wooden coaster with Dinn Corporation. (Which led to Custom Coasters International, fracturing into GCI and GG) It was the world's tallest, fastest, longest wooden coaster in its debut, as well as the first major roller coaster to have an advertising campaign.

It is difficult to find a roller coaster with such a deep, rich history. Of course Beast isn't the greatest wooden coaster in the world; and has a long, meandering layout that was seemingly drawn by a blind man. It's greatness lies in its massive size - both in physical and historical sense.

Beast is my #6 wooden coaster overall, and still maintains one of the greatest nighttime roller coaster experiences out there.
 
Well it will never be the best ride in the world it is very old and it has a bad layout it will always be a classic and for that it is great.
 
The beauty of Beast is that it can't be rebuilt, relocated or copied.

The massive size of the layout, the meandering through the woods, and the sense of speed make it different. Does it have airtime? No. Is it smooth? Nope. Is it a lot of fun? At least for me, yes. I can see why people wouldn't like it, as well as why people love it.

As Hyde mentioned, it's got a rich history and started a lot of ideas and companies. It did a lot of bold things most designers wouldn't try (that low angle drop after the second lift, for example). It's like a early work of art, inspiring great painters and sculptors. Later innovations may trump the past products, but they are the ground for the future.
 
I don't believe "it used to be good", I recon it's probably better in it's current form actually.

Because all the things that make Beast good and interesting are age related. Those overgrown trees that surround it, the unpredictably "poor" pacing, the tunnel of wtf, the poor audio quality on the lift hills that rhythmically raises and lowers in volume as you pass each awkwardly placed speaker... All whilst acceding towards the stars. I don't know how anyone couldn't like Beast. It's an incredible ride. Those aspects of it which should be laughable are actually just accepted as it's essence. The music becomes terrifying and falling sideways out of the car as it banks before picking up any speed... Is well, fun. (PMBO is similar, I think. People slate it, but actually it's qualities are what people shun it for. It's as if people decided "this is a sign of a bad coaster" without actually experiencing it and seeing that it's deeply fun when done "right" - quotation marks because I highly doubt any intention. It's all fluke. Arguably why it's "bad", I know, but just enjoy coasters FFS.)

The thing about Beast is that it's one of those rare coasters that clearly should be considered terrible, but it's actually just deeply fun, and I'd go as far to say it's actually quite "moving". You do unfortunately have to ride it at night to understand what's truly so incredible about it, but that's not to say it's bad during the day.

The sheer size of it and the distance away from the main park you find yourself is breathtaking and despite the layout being less than interesting, the meandering through the trees leaves you unable to really place where you are.

Beast isn't genius, because I do not believe for a second that any of it's qualities are part of purposeful design, but it is good. And on top of that, it's really interesting AND it's at a really good park.
 
The 47 magnetic trims CF installed are why it used to be better. It had plenty of airtime and the lateral G's were massive.

After the Paramount sale, they avoided retracking it for years until it got rough and then when they finally started the retracking, they added magnetic trims all over the ride. CF can't maintain wood coasters worth a damn. The evidence of that is everywhere, Shivering Timbers, Beast, Timber Wolf, the Hurlers, the Grizzlies, even dare I say it, even Mean Streak, all used to be good to great coasters.

Then CF neglected the maintenance and stuck trims all over the place, creating the worst collection of wood coasters of any chain.

YMMV
 
When it was confirmed they were building The Beast, it started raining lollipops, Morgan Freeman and Chuck Norris showed up wearing matching fezzes, then came the parade of the Pygmy goats through Tesco, and some guy started blasting "Don't Stop Believin'" and Oprah gave everybody a car. As then a burst if light radiated from the site of The Beast and everyone not involved forgot.

It's a great coaster. Put it on flat ground it's boring, but I really like it snaking through the woods. And it's also kne of very few coasters that has that danger factor to it. While it's perfectly safe, that helix at the end feels like the train is going to just shake the structure down. Marvelous coaster.
 
2012Jarrett said:
When it was confirmed they were building The Beast, it started raining lollipops, Morgan Freeman and Chuck Norris showed up wearing matching fezzes, then came the parade of the Pygmy goats through Tesco, and some guy started blasting "Don't Stop Believin'" and Oprah gave everybody a car. As then a burst if light radiated from the site of The Beast and everyone not involved forgot.
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Journey's flagship song came 2 years after Beast opened, but great analogy nonetheless.
 
rollermonkey said:
The 47 magnetic trims CF installed are why it used to be better. It had plenty of airtime and the lateral G's were massive.

After the Paramount sale, they avoided retracking it for years until it got rough and then when they finally started the retracking, they added magnetic trims all over the ride. CF can't maintain wood coasters worth a damn. The evidence of that is everywhere, Shivering Timbers, Beast, Timber Wolf, the Hurlers, the Grizzlies, even dare I say it, even Mean Streak, all used to be good to great coasters.

Then CF neglected the maintenance and stuck trims all over the place, creating the worst collection of wood coasters of any chain.

YMMV
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Beast has been a roller coaster of many trims from its infancy. Initially, there were trims on the first drop and through the brake shed. Later, Paramount ditched the first drop brakes, and added magnetic trims to the second drop and drop into the rose bowl. CF's only addition as the return of the first drop trim brakes.

I also had the opportunity to ride Beast under the Paramount regime, and did not notice much difference in smoothness compared to CF. Let's be honest - it's a wooden coaster, it's going to be rough. As long as my spleen doesn't fall out as on Son of Beast or the Villain, things are relatively comfortable.
 
I've only ridden the Beast a few time when I visited the park for the day, I enjoyed the coaster very much as not been on anything as large or fast before, but I did think why have such a long covered brake section when you could have some mini camel-humps to produce some airtime & alter a few other parts of the ride.

The "night-time" ride in complete darkness was one of the best experiences I've had esp the tunnels 1/2 lit with 10w bulbs & the brutal covered double helix.

Of course the newer woodies will overtake this classic coaster for enjoyment, airtime etc. but we have to be thankful Kings Island constructed such a world breaking coaster & it's still running a quick 65 mph (105 km/h) today.

I'm sure Cedar Fair / Kings Island could extend / alter the track / layout or give it the "iron horse" treatment if they wanted to.
 
sparky2u said:
I've only ridden the Beast a few time when I visited the park for the day, I enjoyed the coaster very much as not been on anything as large or fast before, but I did think why have such a long covered brake section when you could have some mini camel-humps to produce some airtime & alter a few other parts of the ride.

The "night-time" ride in complete darkness was one of the best experiences I've had esp the tunnels 1/2 lit with 10w bulbs & the brutal covered double helix.

Of course the newer woodies will overtake this classic coaster for enjoyment, airtime etc. but we have to be thankful Kings Island constructed such a world breaking coaster & it's still running a quick 65 mph (105 km/h) today.

I'm sure Cedar Fair / Kings Island could extend / alter the track / layout or give it the "iron horse" treatment if they wanted to.
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Beast is easily one of the most unpredictable coasters out there. I rode it twice on my past visit back in August, once in the morning, once after a torrential rainstorm. Morning? Slow, boring, and I wanted it to end so we could go ride Flight of Fear. After rain? That thing was bookin'! Rode it once at night this season after a hot June day and it was AMAZING. You feel trapped in a horror movie riding it at night! You get a poo ride or an amazing ride, it depends on the conditions.

If CF gets their head out of the toilet and looks around at all the great things RMC has done, maybe if The Beast gets into a position where it becomes less-rehabbable, we could see The Beast UNLEASHED (potential name, you KNOW they'd market it that way :p) it could become the best coaster at the park. I see two places they could add inversions. Get rid of the trim tunnel and turn it into a drawn-out downhill barrel roll you gently accelerate through. At the top of the second lift, have it basically turn into the ending of Outlaw Run where it turns into a half roll into a full roll, sort of like a Medusa drop into another downhill barrel roll. And pull an Irat with the drawn out turns and make them undulate. And maybe up the theming. Turn the queue waterfall back on, maybe some roaring sounds in the tunnels. I could see either orange or messed up silver rails (like Nemesis, assuming it always looked rusty) looking nice on it.
 
Re: RE: Beast- Genius or Garbage

Shut your mouth. No inversion on Beast. Topper track would work just fine.
 
How about we just let GCI retrack it completely.

Cause after the nastiness that was put onto Cyclone at New England, I would rather not deal with anymore topper track on older coasters....ever.

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I have to say, my first night ride on Beast was one of the best coaster experiences I have ever had. That being said, I still enjoyed it during the day, only not as much. It's definitely a coaster I will ride multiple times on any trip to Kings Island.

Ps- hi.
 
Intricks said:
How about we just let GCI retrack it completely.

Cause after the nastiness that was put onto Cyclone at New England, I would rather not deal with anymore topper track on older coasters....ever.

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I agree tho I've never ridden only seen POVs. Looks rough!
 
^ Don't worry - it is not a rough roller coaster. Definitely throw you around through the turns, but not to the point of pain.
 
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