The Crypt (Kings Island)
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2010) |
| The Crypt | |
|---|---|
 The sign outside The Crypt at Kings Island. | |
| Kings Island | |
| Area | Rivertown |
| Coordinates | 39°20′24″N 84°16′01″W / 39.3401351°N 84.2670625°W |
| Status | Closed |
| Cost | Approx $20,000,000 |
| Opening date | April 5, 2002 |
| Closing date | October 30, 2011 |
| Ride statistics | |
| Attraction type | Giant Top Spin Thrill Ride |
| Manufacturer | HUSS Maschinenfabrik |
| Height | 80 ft (24 m) |
| Drop | 70 ft (21 m) |
| Speed | 13 rpm |
| G-force | 4.3 |
| Participants per group | 77 (2002-06) 47 (2007-2011) |
| Duration | Approximately 2 mins |
| Height restriction | 54 in (137 cm) |
The Crypt was a Giant Top Spin thrill ride located at Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. Originally constructed by former owners Paramount Parks, the ride officially opened as Tomb Raider: The Ride on April 5, 2002. It featured numerous special effects in relation to the theme of the 2001 Paramount film, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Following the 2007 season, new park owner Cedar Fair removed all references to the film from both the ride and its indoor queue line. The name was also changed to The Crypt.
An outdoor, smaller version of the ride opened at sister park Kings Dominion in Virginia in 2005 as Tomb Raider: FireFall. Its name was also changed to The Crypt prior to the 2008 season. The Crypt was no more after October 30, 2011.
History
For the 2001 season, Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal, a log-flume water ride, gave its last ride. On April 24, 2001, the area around Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal was fenced in, with the phrase, "An exciting new adventure is coming in 2002" written along the fence. Kings Island officially announced Tomb Raider: The Ride on July 2, 2001 by placing the 17-foot-tall (5.2 m) Hindu goddess Brahma prop used in the first movie (and later, in the ride's preshow) in front of the park's Eiffel Tower and Royal Fountains. After the Paramount Parks were sold to Cedar Fair and all licencing rights were dropped, the rides within the park continued to operate with the Paramount movie names for the 2007 season. However, on January 21, 2008, Kings Island's main web site replaced the name Tomb Raider: The Ride, with the new Cedar Fair name "The Crypt". The Crypt faces its last rides on October 30, 2011
Design
The rides interior was designed by Technifex, a company specializing in theming rides such that smaller, regional theme parks can achieve the same rich and thorough ride theming as a destination park, such as Disneyland.
A behind the scenes and on-ride video of the old Tomb Raider: The Ride incarnation can be found on various video websites by searching, the former a Travel Channel special dedicated to the mechanics and story of the ride. There are also numerous Facebook groups dedicated to the attraction and its return. Additionally, there are a few petitions to return the ride to this incarnation.
The Crypt is a higher-capacity version of the highly popular smaller Top Spin located at many amusement parks. Initially, TOMB RAIDER: The Ride accommodated 77 riders. When it was transformed into The Crypt, its capacity was reduced to 46 (by removing the first row of the gondola).
Tomb Raider: The Ride (2002-2007)
In the attraction's Tomb Raider: The Ride incarnation, the attraction's entry plaza contained a Special Edition Jeep parked by the tunnel's entrance to represent Lara Croft's presence at the site. Atmospheric, specially composed music (some sampling the movie's score played throughout the plaza and into the queue. A large antechamber sectioned off one cycle's worth of guests and played a video pre-show in which guests learned the story of Lara Croft. There, too, was established the storyline of the Triangle of Light, an ancient powerful artifact sought by Croft in the film.
After a rising wall revealed the "secret" entrance to the eighty-foot tall altar chamber of the goddess Durga, riders were seated on the 77-seat gondola divided into three stadium-seating rows. The ride (synchronized to a soundtrack featuring special-effect noises and voiceover from Angelina Jolie and other members of the film's cast) then lifted up to the eyes of an eighty-foot tall carving of Durga on the forward wall. Her eyes (embedded with laser lights) scanned the car, and fire and ice emblems held in two of her six hands illuminated. The ride then flipped through the darkness before stopping with riders looking straight up at razor-sharp icy stalactites on the ceiling. It released, flipped again, and came to a stop holding riders looking straight down on "lava pits," pools of water cascading from a massive volcano stretching up the chamber's back wall. In time with the music, the lava would begin to jump up, as fountains narrowly avoided splashing riders.
After another flip through the darkness, the ride circled around the bottom of its arc, looking up at the goddess on the wall. As fog and lights filled the room, the fire and ice effects went off at once as, in time with the audio track, the goddess screamed and her fire, ice, and eyes went dark. She appeared to "wake up" once more as one final blast of fog emanated from the Triangle of Light prop at her base, nearly contacting riders before fading away (this used as a device to keep riders engaged during the ride's lengthy homing procedure before the bridges could lower to allow guests to disembark).
For the majority of its time as TOMB RAIDER: The Ride, the ride included four inversions, extended "hang time" over the lava pits, a goddess with laser-eyes and LED fire and ice emblems, fog, and a synchronized musical score composed specifically for the ride, lasting 2:30.
The Crypt (2008 - 2011)
In June 2007, Cedar Fair Entertainment Company purchased all five Paramount Parks from Viacom. After the 2007 season, the parks had the "Paramount's" prefix removed from their names and references to the licensed film properties within the parks were removed. At Kings Island specifically, The Italian Job: Stunt Track was renamed Backlot Stunt Coaster; Top Gun became Flight Deck; Drop Zone: Stunt Tower was renamed Drop Tower: Scream Zone; FACE/OFF was renamed Invertigo and Tomb Raider: The Ride became The Crypt.
The change in name was met with a change in theme, as many aspects of the original ride were removed to cut ties with the film. The Durga goddess statue on the wall of the chamber was painted over, with the ride's water and fog effects removed. The 77-seat gondola specific to the Giant Top Spin was reduced in size by removing the first of its three rows, thus reducing the capacity by one third, but theoretically allowing the ride to perform a more "thrilling" ride experience to compensate for the removed special effects. The ride performed a nine-inversion cycle like its sister ride at Kings Dominion for the 2008 season and for a month of the 2009 season. Beginning in 2009, the ride was reprogrammed to perform a more tame cycle with only two inversions (half the number performed during the TOMB RAIDER: The Ride era).
The Crypt has consistently been changed and updated thematically, having originally operated in 2008 with a techno-music soundtrack in pitch black darkness which was quickly replaced with howling wind and beating jungle drums. Gradually, more of the theatrical lighting used on TOMB RAIDER: The Ride returned to the ride, as well. The queue line (which had had a specifically-composed musical score during the TOMB RAIDER: The Ride era) played an album of atmospheric scary music from the Midnight Syndicate until 2011, when both the queue and ride were outfitted with music from the score of the film Inception. 2011 also saw the addition of new lighting and props in the queue line, and manual doors used to separate the queue line from the ride where the rising "vault door" once stood, again preventing riders from seeing the ride in action - or even seeing what type of ride it was - until they are seated. In the middle of the season, the red, gold, and yellow LED lights that formerly illuminated the "lava pit" were turned back on, and stay illuminated throughout the ride cycle (though there is no water in the pool). As well, blue lights were positioned on the goddess statue which flash as the gondola reverses direction halfway through the course.
On January 20, 2012, The Crypt was removed from the park's website, though no official mention of its closure has been made. Then on February 14, Kings Island confirmed via Twitter that The Crypt would be removed for the 2012 season. It was confirmed that an all new Halloween Haunt attraction would take its place.[1]
At its closure, The Crypt was the world's only Giant Top Spin, and performed two inversions on a cycle that lasted about 1:10.
References
External links
- Kings Island Central information - Alternate source of details and stats.
- Tomb Raider: The Ride at Kings Island