Earns the status of "Most Terrifying"

Sought out and ridden by serious coaster addicts from all over the world, The Beast, at Paramount's King's Island, is the "Holy Grail" of wooden roller coasters.  The Beast is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's longest wooden roller coaster and was recently ranked in USA Today as the number 1 classic coaster of all time.  
Even after 20 years of operation the legendary Beast is still the World's Longest Wooden Roller Coaster. 

Living only 2 miles from the park for about 10 years, gave me numerous opportunities to experience The Beast in all it's incredible unbridled furry. 

To completely appreciate the Beast, you need to experience it from as many different riding positions as possible, every seat is a uniquely different experience. Sitting in the first car gives you the incredible sense of being swept along by a thunderous, and very powerful predator.  Completely at its mercy, your smiles stretch into screams (of excitement) as you blast into sudden gut-wrenching twists,  turns, dips, and The Beast's famous double helix.  This awesome predator rips through the rambling wooded terrain on 7,400 feet of track propelling you at breath-taking speeds exceeding 64 miles per hour.  In addition to its signature double helix The Beast maintains the ride's incredible intensity with double lift hills (big ones). 

And don't forget, you should also make it a point to ride in the very last seat, in the very last car.  Just make sure you're up to it though, wow what a whip-saw, bone jarring ride.  Like being drug behind an ugly enraged runaway wildebeest.  You'll take a pounding back here, and experience some way-powerful centrifugal forces, but hey, that is the beauty (and the beast) of a "World Famous, Number One Classic, Wooden Roller Coaster." 

A few Specifications:
7,400 feet of track
64.77 mph max. speed
135 ft. first drop length
covers 35 wooded acres

Click photo for an awesome lift hill view. 
Photo courtesy: Paramount's King's Island  


9.5        The Venerable King of Beasts

There is nothing else like the Big Shot anywhere on the planet. This is a "hair on fire" thrill ride, a clear winner in any "Fear Factor" rating.  Perched nearly 1,000 feet above the city of Las Vegas on the roof of the Stratosphere Hotel & Casino, the Big Shot launches you straight up the tower with the same force a fighter pilot would experience in an ejection seat. 

From the time you step onto the roof of the Stratosphere, and take in the vista of the desert below, you know this is going to be a very, very intense experience.  

After depositing anything lose like sunglasses, keys, purses, teeth, in the baskets at the base of the ride, you strap into your contoured seat with trepidation. You hear a brief count-down and once the ride operator drops his hand . . . you're GONE!  You're instantly blasted skyward, pulling 4 G's as you rocket up the tower, and in just  two and a half seconds you're 160 feet up the tower.  It's amazing how quickly the roof top of the hotel shrinks as you blast up the tower . . . you're now looking straight down at the desert floor . . . you get the sensation that you'll just keep going, right into space.  At a total of 1,160 feet above the desert floor the effect is quite dramatic to say the least.

CAUTION Riders experience either an incredible rush of exhilaration or one of shear terror.  This ride does not seem to leave room for middle ground reactions.  It easily qualifies as the most terrifying thrill ride on this planet. 

9.0   (fear factor 10.0)

The Zukozone