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Rank the Kings Island coasters

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. Watching Shawn Sanbrooke's vlog from Kings Island just now gave me the idea to make a thread for people's personal rankings of the park's coasters. We have a thread ranking Cedar Point's coasters, so I'd be intrigued to know people's rankings for the other large coaster park in Ohio! Do bear in mind that I've never been to Kings Island, but here's my estimated ranking of sorts for how much I think I would like each ride:
  1. Diamondback
  2. Mystic Timbers
  3. Banshee
  4. Flight of Fear
  5. The Beast
  6. Backlot Stunt Coaster
  7. The Bat
  8. Woodstock Express
  9. Adventure Express
  10. Vortex
  11. Invertigo
  12. The Racer (both sides)
  13. Flying Ace Aerial Chase
  14. Great Pumpkin Coaster
As I aid above, I've never been to Kings Island, so I'm not sure whether this would actually hold true if I was to visit. But how would you rank Kings Island's coasters?
 
Won't rank them all, but in broad categories:

Good - Beast, Mystic Timbers, Diamondback, Flight of Fear

Meh - Banshee, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Adventure Express, all the other stuff that's not actually bad just indifferent.

Actually crap - Vortex, Invertigo
 
From my visit in August 2017, in which I rode 10 coasters at King's Island.
1. The Beast
2. Diamondback
3. Mystic Timbers
4. Banshee
5. The Bat
6. Flight of Fear
7 & 8. The Racer (I didn't notice a difference between either side)
9. Vortex
10. Firehawk
 
An interesting thing I've noticed is that neither of you seem to like Vortex. I don't think I'd like Vortex much either, and it is ranked #787 in the world on Captain Coaster, but the people I watch online who've been to Kings Island recently seem to have really enjoyed it! Both the PBE guys and Shawn from TPW said it was brilliant and in their top 3 coasters in the park; maybe they've changed the wheels or something to make it smoother?
 
All I remember is it being absolute dog ****. It was rough, the track was poorly shaped, it had a horrible layout and rubbish pacing. Only one of those would be helped by new wheels. ;)

3rd best ride in the park is a stretch, but Kings Island doesn't have a particularly impressive lineup, let's be honest.
 
All I remember is it being absolute dog ****. It was rough, the track was poorly shaped, it had a horrible layout and rubbish pacing. Only one of those would be helped by new wheels. ;)

3rd best ride in the park is a stretch, but Kings Island doesn't have a particularly impressive lineup, let's be honest.
I think Scott from PBE even called it his favourite ride in the park, and Shawn called it his 2nd favourite steel coaster there behind The Bat, but to be fair, I think both tend to be greater fans of Arrow than most...
 
Never been there this is out of interest
1. beast
2. diamondback
3. mystic timbers
4. the bat
5. banshee
6.flight of fear
7. racer (i consider it one credit)
8. backlot stunt
9.adventure express
10 vortex
11 invertigo (**** boomerangs :( )
 
1. Beast at night.
2. Banshee. Great ride. Totally underrated by most.
3. Mystic Timbers.
4. Diamondback.
5. Firehawk*. What can I say? I enjoyed it, was sad to see it go.
6. Vortex.
7. The Bat.
8. Invertigo. Meh, but was glad to finally get on one of these things.
9. Backlot Stunt Coaster. Not actually bad, but this was my 3rd one of these so it didn't leave much of an impression.
10. Flight of Fear. Again, not bad, but not my first one of these so nothing new.
11 &12. Racer. Both sides were meh.
13. Adventure Express. Meh.
14. Flying Ace Aerial Chase.
15. Woodstock Express.
16. That Pumpkin thing that I didn't ride.

Yeah, lots and lots of creds at KI but quite a few of them are the height of mediocrity. Could do with a new headline act I reckon.
 
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I was there 10 years ago, I didn't get to ride everything, anyways...
1. Diamondback
2. Beast
3. Racer
4. Flight Deck
5. Vortex
6. Adventure Express
7. Fairly Odd Coaster
8. Rugrat's Runaway Reptar
 
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So many creds but yeah, as people have said, not the best selection overall:

1. Diamondback - Great Hyper. Easily the best coaster in the park.
2. Mystic Timbers - Relentless GCI with plenty of airtime. Perhaps a little too smooth though...
3. Banshee - One of my least favourite inverts, but still a solid coaster.
4. Flight of Fear - It’s really shaky but in some parts of the ride that does add to the thrill a little.
5. Beast - During the day it’s basically just trim: the ride. At night it’s much much better, but still no holy grail.
6. The Bat - One of the better suspended coasters; more-so at the front than the back.
7. Adventure Express - Cool mine train. Has a bit of thrill as well as character. Love the ending, personally.
8. Backlot Stunt Coaster - These are weird but decent enough family coasters.
9. Racer - Not very memorable, and I only rode it a few weeks ago.
10. Invertigo - I’ve enjoyed other inverted boomerangs, but this one not so much.
11. Woodstock Express - it’s fine for what it is, obviously.
12. Flying Ace Aerial Chase - Meh. And those bulky restraints </3.
13. Vortex - It looks really cool but is one of the worst Arrow coasters I’ve done. So yeah, ****.

If Firehawk was still there, I’d have ranked it third or fourth. Really liked it. Shame they gave one of their best coasters the chop, but obviously the new Giga will be better.
 
1. Beast at night.
2. Banshee. Great ride. Totally underrated by most.
3. Mystic Timbers.
4. Diamondback.
5. Firehawk*. What can I say? I enjoyed it, was sad to see it go.
6. Vortex.
7. The Bat.
8. Invertigo. Meh, but was glad to finally get on one of these things.
9. Backlot Stunt Coaster. Not actually bad, but this was my 3rd one of these so it didn't leave much of an impression.
10. Flight of Fear. Again, not bad, but not my first one of these so nothing new.
11. Beast in daylight.
12 & 13. Racer. Both sides were meh.
13. Adventure Express. Meh.
14. Flying Ace Aerial Chase.
15. Woodstock Express.
16. That Pumpkin thing that I didn't ride.

Yeah, lots and lots of creds at KI but quite a few of them are the height of mediocrity. Could do with a new headline act I reckon.

This is actually quite spot on. A majority of the coasters are actual cancer not worth riding. There was a reason it took me two years to get on Mystic Timbers.. it's just not worth going given their line up. Given that I live two hours away and it's technically closer then Cedar Point, that says a lot. Once the Giga arrives, that will certainly help that's for sure but if its anything like Leviathan, not by a ton.
 
I think the cool kids are saying "don't AT me" these days......

Diamondback
Bat
Banshee
Mystic Timbers
Invertigo
Flight of Fear

Adventure Express
Vortex
Woodstock Express

Racer
Firehawk
Backlot Stunt Coaster
Beast

Flying Ace Aerial Chase

g

a

p


Son Of Beast
 
Been a solid 7 years since my last visit, so I'm sure this would be different on a revisit
  1. 52954a0a75e02d1094a3a8935e190fd1.gif
  2. Diamondback
  3. Bat
  4. Vortex
  5. Firehawk
  6. Flight of Fear
  7. Adventure Express
  8. Invertigo
  9. Backlot Stunt Coaster
  10. Racer
  11. Flying Ace Aerial Chase
 
1. Beast at night.
2. Banshee. Great ride. Totally underrated by most.
3. Mystic Timbers.
4. Diamondback.
5. Firehawk*. What can I say? I enjoyed it, was sad to see it go.
6. Vortex.
7. The Bat.
8. Invertigo. Meh, but was glad to finally get on one of these things.
9. Backlot Stunt Coaster. Not actually bad, but this was my 3rd one of these so it didn't leave much of an impression.
10. Flight of Fear. Again, not bad, but not my first one of these so nothing new.
11. Beast in daylight.
12 & 13. Racer. Both sides were meh.
13. Adventure Express. Meh.
14. Flying Ace Aerial Chase.
15. Woodstock Express.
16. That Pumpkin thing that I didn't ride.

Yeah, lots and lots of creds at KI but quite a few of them are the height of mediocrity. Could do with a new headline act I reckon.
When did this happen?

Rest of the list is near enough on point though I would put the top 4 like this;
1. Beast at night
2. Mystic Timbers
3. Diamondback
4. Banshee
 
When did this happen?

It didn't, stup', I just wanted to hammer home the point that a night ride on The Beast is (very probably) a far superior experience to a day ride. But that is, of course, only based on video evidence and testimony from others, rather than first hand experience myself.
Sincere apologies for any confusion this may have caused. Please forgive me.
 
It didn't, stup', I just wanted to hammer home the point that a night ride on The Beast is (very probably) a far superior experience to a day ride. But that is, of course, only based on video evidence and testimony from others, rather than first hand experience myself.
Sincere apologies for any confusion this may have caused. Please forgive me.
But as you haven't ridden it at that time surely you can't put it in the list. And even if you had, they aren't 2 separate creds so why include it as such? Would you do that with every other cred? Helix isn't particularly incredible first thing in the morning but the night rides make it into a top tier world class coaster. Should we split our rankings into time of day lists?

anigif_sub-buzz-29169-1513182791-5.gif


As of now, the Beast is the best coaster in the park for me because we rode it at night. You would have to take into account both times of riding if you did it on multiple occasions to give an average outcome and rank.
 
Ok ok, jeez...
Ladies and gentlemen, due to popular demand, and when I say popular I mean Delly P, I hereby remove 'The Beast in daylight' from my KI rankings because, as Tom has so eloquently pointed out, I've not ridden The Beast in Daylight and therefore cannot pass judgment.

The things I do for you @DelPiero ;)
 
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