The Crypt (Kings Island)

The Crypt
Name:	The Crypt
Formerly:	Tomb Raider: The Ride
Location:	Kings Island
Section:	Rivertown
Type:	Thrill Ride
Status:	Operating
Opened:	April, 2002
Manufacturer:	Huss Rides
Designer:	Huss
Model:	Giant Top Spin (Capacity reduced to that of a typical Top Spin in 2008.)
Height:	80
Drop:	70
Speed:	6rpm
Inversions:	9
Duration:	2:00
Capacity:	49
Cost:	Approx $20,000,000
Gforce:	4.3
Height Restriction:	54 inches
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The Crypt (Formerly and still commonly referred to as Tomb Raider: The Ride) at Kings Island is a fully enclosed Giant Top Spin thrill ride built by HUSS Rides. It opened at Kings Island in 2002 and is the world's only Giant Top Spin.

The Crypt was a higher-capacity version of the highly popular smaller Top Spin located at many amusement parks. Initially, The Crypt accommodated 77 riders. In 2005, its capacity was lowered to 56. In 2007, it held 67 riders; the 10 remaining seats were removed. The Top Spins installed at other former Paramount Parks (The Crypt, formerly known as Tomb Raider: Firefall at Kings Dominion and Firefall at California's Great America) are newer, floorless models with a more standard Top Spin capacity of 38-40 riders.

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 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".

As "The Crypt", all Tomb Raider references have been removed from the attraction. The altar chamber (the room in which the ride actually takes place) which formerly contained the temple walls, engraving of the goddess Durga, the stalagmites, lava pool, and volcano, is now devoid of all effects. While the 60 foot relief of the Hindu goddess is still hanging on the wall, it's light up eyes and it's light up fire and ice emblems are not used. The volcano structure on the ground of the chamber and reaching up the back wall is still present, but is not filled with water (which was illuminated to create the lava effect.) Instead of theme lighting and effects, the chamber is kept in complete darkness for a more disorienting experience. Tomb Raider: The Ride's old, specially-composed musical score is gone. "The Crypt" utilizes a simple howling wind track during the load sequence, and a light, drum-driven "jungle" sounding score for the ride portion. (See below for more information.)

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 & it's return. Additionally, there are a few petitions to return the ride to this incarnation.

The rides interior was designed by Technifex, a company specializing in themeing rides such that smaller, regional theme parks can achieve the same rich and thorough ride themeing as a destination park, such as Disneyland.

Storyline

As Tomb Raider: The Ride, the experience begins as guests enter into the mouth of a jagged cavern that has appeared in the forests of "Rivertown", one of the themed areas at Kings Island. Entering the cavern, darkness covers the crowd and eerie sense of foreboding ensues. As the guests enter into the ante-chamber of the ride, a huge, 10-armed statue of the Hindu goddess Durga surveys the crowd as they wait for the circular door at the left of the statue to open. After a short pre-show video, the circular door is illuminated with the symbol of the "Triangle of Light" that is inscribed on the door. The door rolls away and guests enter into a huge, dark cathedral-like chamber, where they are separated into the three rows to fills up the ride vehicle's three rows. Drum beats resound through the hollow altar room, and just in front of the vehicle, construction lamps illuminate excavation equipment used to uncover the secrets hiding in the tomb.

The drum beats come to an abrupt and echoing halt as strange music fills the chamber. The construction lights go dark, leaving the vehicle in darkness. There is a sound of an object moving, as if dislodging itself from stone for the first time in centuries, and the vehicle begins to move forward and up. It falls back down and then swings forward with greater force, this time scaling to a height enough that when the vehicles headlights turn on, a huge 60-foot tall engraving of a goddess appears on the wall. Awaken from her sleep by the intrusive noises, her eyes illuminate a piercing blue, and lasers shoot from them, scanning through the vehicle. When she spots the riders, she utters something in an ancient language and in her right and left hands, fire and ice begin to illuminate and light up the darkness, revealing the sheer size and magnitude of the enormous temple, covered in vines and ancient hieroglyphics.

The vehicle's axle unlocks, leaving the rows of seats to dangle as it's tossed backwards over the arc of the ride's arms. Lara Croft's voice resonates, "You're making a big mistake!" The vehicle is hurtled backwards away from the goddess' engraving as her laughter fills the chamber. It circles back to in front of the goddess' face and this time, only the ice is illuminated. The temple is illuminated in blue and mist fills the room. The vehicle rockets skyward and the guests are pointed directly into the spikes of icy cold stalagmites. As the goddess' ancient language fills the chamber yet again, the icicles turn blazing red and begin to melt, splattering water onto the riders. Just before they crash down, the vehicles spins back to the ground. The poles have shifted, and fire is now the ruling element. The vehicle finds itself placed directly over a pit of shimmering, hypnotizing molten lava. Facing completely downwards staring into the water, the vehicle slowly lowers itself towards the bubbling lava as fountains of it begin to leap upwards and towards the riders.

At the last possible second, the vehicle swoops forward, pulling guests to the rear of the temple and holding them completely and utterly upside down staring into the active, smoking holes in the side of a volcano. Just when the vehicle feels as if it may fall into the lava, it swings upwards to the top arc of the ride, staring down at the goddess engraving. She screams as a white piercing strobe light fills the temple. Her fire & ice emblems begin to flicker on and off. The ride's effects go crazy as smoke, fire, icicles and lava surround guests. Then, held at the top of the arc, the vehicle free falls the complete 70 feet through the smoke clouds to the base of the statue where it began just as the effects accumulate. The voice of Lara's father fills the chamber. "No one gets the best of Lara Croft! Unless she lets them... But I didn't raise that kind of girl!" The music crescendos and the lights all turn back off for one solitary moment as the goddess' eyes light up one last time and her laugh fades away. Then, the construction lights come back onto the excavation equipment in front of you and peace is restored to the temple.

"The Crypt" controversy

When Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. bought the former Paramount Parks, all of the rights and licensing to Paramount Pictures films were granted to the parks for a 10-year span, giving the parks enough time to phase out the themeing or to purchase the rights permanently (with this "trial period" ending in 2017). For the first season operating under the Cedar Fair name, Kings Island continued to use the [[{Tomb Raider]] theme. During the off-season between 2007 and 2008, all references to any Paramount movies within the park were removed, including that of Tomb Raider.

Significant Changes were made to the queue & theme:

• The ride was renamed from "Tomb Raider: The Ride" to "The Crypt"
• The "Triangle of Light" in the queue was removed.
• The "Triangle of Light" carving on the cave entrance was covered.
• The queue line began being lit with red flood lights.
• Skeletons were scattered throughout the queue.
• The rolling circular door no longer separates the queue from antechamber, as it has a permanent "Triangle of Light" engraving. Instead, the antechamber is part of the queue line.
• The monkey warrior statues were removed from the antechamber, replaced with skeletons and rubber tarantulas.
• The giant Brahma goddess statue featured in the preshow room was removed and replaced with an equally sized "bat demon" previously used for Kings Islands Halloween event.
• The stone walls that were illuminated to match the preshow video were covered in a camouflage mesh.
• The pre-show video is not shown.

Changes on the Ride:

• The themeing on the lower half of the ride chamber was removed (The Triangle of Light, the altar, the excavation equipment).
• The Durga goddess engraving on the wall & the vine-covered columns on either side of her are still present, but are not lit or featured in the ride. Often they're invisible due to the darkness of the ride.
• Few lights are used. The "loading lights" (previously themed to excavation equipment) remain on through the ride cycle.
• The icicles & lava pit have been removed. The lava pit is replaced with stones, but the cement floor is visible all throughout the ride.
• There is no soundtrack. Generally the ride takes place with a "howling wind" audio loop or no sounds at all.
• There are no special effects or lighting. The ride takes place in pitch black darkness.
• There is a new ride system. (Tomb Raider: The Ride was often criticized for not doing any "Top Spin" moves. The ride system was utilized more to feature the special effects than to do any flips or swoops, and as such wasn't seen as operating as the intense "thrill" ride it could've been, but more as a dark ride that goes upside down three or four times. The Crypt's program spins riders upside down nine times (more than any other ride in the park.)
• The ride (which opened as the world's only Giant Top Spin -77 person capacity-) had it's third row removed for the 2008 season, lowering the capacity to a more traditional size of 48 )this could be because the three rows were tiered to create a "theater" effect so that all riders could see the effects. Since there are no effects, the third row was removed so that the ride could perform more thrilling dives and spins, which the old ride was simply too large to do.)

Generally, most Kings Island fans & visitors report being "disappointed" by the changes to the ride. They report a desire for a return to "Tomb Raider: The Ride" or at least an incarnation of the ride that is more centered on themeing. After all, the ride opened as undoubtedly the most highly-themed ride in the state, and has been reduced to a mish-mash of themes and a visually uninteresting ride with a non-existent storyline. Fans do applaud, though, the changes that have been made even during the 2008 season which prove that the ride has not been "given up on." New ride programs are introduced occasionally to try to change the experience, and from time to time, the ride does operate with effect lights, a slight musical score (drums and flutes), and the goddess carving on the wall is illuminated. This is an undeniable step up from the statistics at the beginning of the summer in which the ride was in complete pitch-black darkness and techno music played during the ride (later, howling wind noises accompanied it).

Fans of the original Tomb Raider: The Ride are extremely ecstatic as a whole to learn that the goddess carving on the wall is now being illuminated in the ride chamber: a hint to them that some aspects of the original ride may return in the coming years. It's logical that the ride may be refurbished during the off season. After all, Tomb Raider was falling into disrepair: The lighting system was failing, the ride was becoming jerky, and during it's final season in 2006, it was closed for the last two months of operation. Technifex designed state of the art theatrical lighting powered by a technologically-advanced computer system, and at present, it's being underused, as there's nothing to light up. In the future, there's technically no reason for the icicles and lava to be kept out of the ride, as neither is copyrighted by Paramount, and the lighting fixtures are already set up to highlight them during the ride.

External links

• Kings Island Central information - Alternate source of details and stats.
• Tomb Raider: The Ride at Kings Island