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Kings Island | Mystic Timbers | GCI Wooden Coaster

I can almost picture all KI fans like:

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The shed... the shed of it all!

I actually find what KI have done genius. They have really trolled everyone by thinking there was something relevant inside the transfer shed other than a glorified music video. I am intrigued to see if it really helps run the ride on 3 trains, because I haven't seen that in any of the videos so far... Can you imagine double-stacking, listening to an entire Spotify list from KI? LOL
I can imagine their Spotify being full of old 70's, 80's, and 90's songs.

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Some thoughts...

Here is a park with a weird history of themed experiences that are all a bit odd... Tomb Raider, their mine train... This.

The similarity to the ending of the park's mine train (where a heavily themed lift hill of suspense crests into the station, for those who haven't been on it) is uncanny, except here it is clearly self-aware.

The mockery this makes of PR hype bull****tery is absolutely hilarious.

I love it.

But do I think it's actually a good idea?

Er...

Well, on the one hand, I think the only people who follow online media hype trains about rides like #whatsintheshed are enthusiasts. On the other hand, is not having something pretty epic in the shed worth the backlash? What COULD it have even been. There is nothing that they could have done that would live up to their media hype train.

It's GOT to be a joke. I think it is both amazing and stupid.

Kings Island is awesome.
 
I can imagine their Spotify being full of old 70's, 80's, and 90's songs.

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Mostly 70's though. Mind you, the events happened in 1983.
Airtime was phenomenal. And I really can't compare it to anything else at all.

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Good to know! I can't wait to ride it next this Saturday.
Also, sorry for the questions, but how are the restraints?
 
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TBH, I don't want to know what's in the shed, but for a good reason:

From April until I go to KI, I will NOT visit this thread, visit Youtube, or even read/watch any of the news surrounding the #Whatsintheshed. I will do this so I can be surprised, and so I can have a better experience. I will not speculate that much, but I really want to be surprised by this ride.
Don't get me wrong, I want to ride this woodie, as it will be my first GCI (I know, haven't been much anywhere) and, of course, to find out what's in the shed.
And, that plan has been ruined by my stupidness.
 
Rode it on Easter. found it profoundly Fine. Not good, not terrible, just middle of the road. the elements were so stacked on top of each other none of them felt like they had time to breath. The Shed was miserable and as i was walking around the park all day i heard comment after comment making fun of the shed and KI's marketing in general.
 
Rode it on Easter. found it profoundly Fine. Not good, not terrible, just middle of the road. the elements were so stacked on top of each other none of them felt like they had time to breath. The Shed was miserable and as i was walking around the park all day i heard comment after comment making fun of the shed and KI's marketing in general.
This is exactly the response I think I'm going to have, too. Every GCI I've been on has left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed (apart from Joris, which is fun).
 
So something I wasn't advertising widely... I never knew what was in the Shed until today. I purposely blocked this construction discussion the beginning of the year, and kept myself in the dark until I would be able to ride.

One thing led to another, and I was not able to get to Kings Island until today (June 4). Plenty more of a trip report to come, but I thought I would share my hot takes on Mystic Timbers.

It's like Prowler... but with a shed
This is exactly what I was expecting. Prowler, while a good roller coaster for lesser tier parks such as Worlds of Fun, still left a lot to be desired. The roller coaster started out with a good punch, but always felt like it lost steam on it's return voyage, relying too much on left-and-right laterals to provide thrill, rather than simple up-down airtime hills.

Bearing that in mind, we hopped on Mystic Timbers this afternoon. Not being familiar with the layout beyond an out-and-back design, I was pleasantly surprised to find a greater amount of airtime hills on Mystic Timbers than on Prowler. Speed and pacing also kept up nicely, with good transitions both as lateral and vertical g-force. The moment finally came to find out what's in the shed; since I knew there was no additional track work installed beyond the brake run, I was expecting something along the lines of projections (a Kings Island staple!) or physical animatronic-ish stuff. Well, I wasn't far off, and it was as lackluster as I expected. I mean, is it bad if my favorite part is the radio that plays 1970s and 1980s pop music?

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Coming off the first ride, I could see Mystic Timbers as a definitely passable roller coaster for Kings Island. Great even. But I wasn't so convinced on the forces and speed, while simultaneously facing the similar question of comparing it to the grandfather of the modern wooden coaster a few hundred feet away.

So my friend and I decided to wait for a second ride at night, just to better feel out the layout and experience things with a different setting. While not the iconic pitch-dark scenario on Beast, in part due to unfortunate lighting placed along the Thunder Canyon water ride, Mystic Timbers opened up as a totally different ride experience at night. Speed and pacing felt faster, airtime was great, iconic GCI laterals felt more... lateral-y. The ride never let up, and kept hauling all the way into the brake run.

This is my seventh GCI roller coaster. Given it's tallest height and speed, good layout and placement, and fantastic pacing (especially at night), I think I am going to place this second only to Thunderhead as my #2 over all. While on the surface this ride compares most with Prowler due to the similar layout, I would actually compare the ride most to American Thunder, which too features a fast pace with a peppering of small hills and turns (American Thunder comes in third for me). Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised with this ride, and really look forward to other folks getting to ride it to see their reaction. Definitely a better of the bunch for GCI.

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I got to ride it at night(my first time) and during the day today before I went home. This coaster shines at night. It isn't a bad ride in the day time. But when it's dark, this ride is a new animal. Already looking forward to going back.
 
Prowler, while a good roller coaster for lesser tier parks such as Worlds of Fun, still left a lot to be desired. The roller coaster started out with a good punch, but always felt like it lost steam on it's return voyage, relying too much on left-and-right laterals to provide thrill, rather than simple up-down airtime hills.

You might be mis-remembering Prowler's layout. While there are several left-and-right lateral movements on the out run, the back run on Prowler is famous for its triple down which has great pops of air. I'm also not sure when you rode it, but Prowler is a "night ride" coaster. If you ride it first thing in the morning it can seem a little sluggish, but it holds that speed through the entire layout.

Glad you enjoyed Mystic Prowler though.​
 
You might be mis-remembering Prowler's layout. While there are several left-and-right lateral movements on the out run, the back run on Prowler is famous for its triple down which has great pops of air. I'm also not sure when you rode it, but Prowler is a "night ride" coaster. If you ride it first thing in the morning it can seem a little sluggish, but it holds that speed through the entire layout.

Glad you enjoyed Mystic Prowler though.​
I rode Prowler on a late July afternoon, and was able to do a number of rides back to back. I did head into the ride with higher expectations after having heard how outstanding it was for a 100 ft coaster - it just didn't pack forces to the magnitude I thought it would, especially compared to similar specced woodies like RF2.

I liked that Mystic Timbers went with a more traditional out and back layout, which allows for more straight airtime hills.
 
Got my first rides in yesterday, multiple rows at different times of the day. Started in the front which was great, then found out that the back row is amazing. Maybe I'm a fanboy, but I think it's perfect. I even bought a hat. lol
 
It's a great coaster, it doesn't have ejector as most people have said, but it's a really really fun ride. It provides such a fun coaster experience and the shed is ****ing fab, SORRY OUT IT.
 
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