MASON, OHIO: They traveled from far and wide to Kings Island on Thursday just for a chance to ride what is being billed as the start of a modern era of the wooden roller coaster.
The wraps were taken off the Cedar Fair amusement park’s secretive Mystic Timbers roller coaster, and amusement park aficionados finally got their answer to just what the heck is in the “shed” and at the end of the ride.
Nobody wants to spoil the surprise, but let’s just say the shed is the reason why many think this marks a new era of the wooden roller coaster.
The challenge in building a new wooden roller coaster — the first in Ohio in several decades — particularly at Kings Island is the fact it is already home to what some would argue is the best in the world: The Beast.
The new coaster doesn’t shatter any world records, but with its opening to the public on Saturday, the Cincinnati-area park is now home to the most wooden roller coaster track of any park anywhere when you combine the lengths of its four coasters.
Instead of setting out to top the sheer size and force of the Beast, Adam House of Mystic Timbers designer Great Coasters International said the team looked to pack as many thrills as it could from out-of-your-seat airtime to banked curves along the ride’s 3,265 feet of track.
“This is a modern-day fast coaster,” he said.
Park General Mike Koontz said this opening could mark a new “golden era” of the wooden roller coaster because it’s not just a ride but a totally immersive experience from the time the guests first approach the ride’s entrance.
“Mystic Timbers is more than just a ride, it is a story-drawn experience,” Koontz said.
Twisted history
The ride spins an elaborate story line that tells the tale of the workers fleeing in panic in 1983 when they attempted to set up a lumber yard in the woods of Kings Island.
The lumber yard has sat frozen in time from the abandoned truck found wrecked at the entrance to the ride to the old signage urging guests not to go into the shed found at the end of the ride.
The roller coaster even pauses midway up the lift hill with one last shout from a worker to turn back and not to enter the shed.
The ride then zips along a wooded hilly terrain of the park at about 53 miles per hour.
It comes to an abrupt stop inside the shed that looks to have been untouched since the workers fled decades ago.
Music from the 1980s suddenly blares from an old-school boom box, and riders are confronted by what caused all the commotion in the first place. The best part of the ride is that what’s in the shed and what transpires in the shed vary from ride to ride.
It is this unexpected twist and heavy theme, said Amy Steele of Holovis, the ride’s special effects creator, that separates this attraction from most other wooden roller coasters.
“[Kings Island] is really setting the trend of the modern roller coaster,” she said.
Enthusiasts line up
Some 300 roller coaster enthusiasts traveled from 19 states to get a sneak peek Thursday.
Massillon’s Duane Books, a member of the American Coaster Enthusiasts Club, was the first car in line at 3 a.m. to get into the parking and walk briskly inside the park for the first ride at 5 a.m.
“I wanted to be the first one on it,” he said. “That’s just the way I am.”
He said he took time off of work at Nickles Bakery to venture to Kings Island and then to Virginia to catch the new rides at amusement parks there over the weekend.
“This [the Mystic Timbers] is proof that you don’t have to be the tallest or fastest to be the best,” he said.
Fellow ACE member Josh Brown of Sagamore Hills agreed.
Although the height restriction is 48 inches, Brown said, the new coaster offers a smooth ride that the whole family — even those a bit timid on rides — should enjoy.
“It is a zippy ride,” said the data analyst for University Hospitals with a laugh at his dropping a reference to the University of Akron. “I’m excited to have a new wooden roller coaster in Ohio — it’s been quite a few years.”
Craig Webb, who held on for dear life on the new coaster, can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3547.