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I came across a twitter post from the KIHistory Twitter page showing a picture of an floral arrangements where they state, "Kings Island used to showcase new attractions in a large floral display outside the park entrance." The picture below taken in 1991 showing the incoming Adventure Express back where the themeing shows the track closed at the now infamous Outpost 5. A lot of people think Outpost 5 originated with Son of Beast, when actually Outpost 5 references back to Adventure Express instead. KIC members have been discussing this for the last several years when it comes to using the Outpost 5 name and symbol for theming of Kings Island's next coaster (now Orion.) The answer to the the origins of Outpost 5 have been right here this whole time. The picture source is @Tomkatt7's picture from his 90's thread posted back in 2009. In addition, @Gordon Bombay in his post below gives a great explanation as well. The next time you hear a ride op say on the microphone: "Number 5 is Alive" it is not referencing SOB 2.0, Adventure Express or Kings Island. It is not related at all. Tell us your thoughts and if you know any more info about Outpost 5. Do you have any old pics of Outpost 5 or the symbol?

I know this has been said a lot, but I love that blue color. Looks much better than the renderings in my opinion!

In an off year with no major ride, I would love a full revamp and restoration of Adventure Express. High capacity ride that appeals to and accommodates a large number of guests.

Looks like more track has gone in!

I went to Ikea today for a bookshelf and was excited and stunned to see Orion all the way from I75. It's only brief, but I saw it on the way down and back. It's amazing.

Here's an update from WildGravity Travels, and it looks like you can see the start of the second hill from Great Wolf Lodge!

Is the question literally asking if Adventure Express was not completed and there was supposed to be more after the final lift? If so.... No. Adventure Express was built as originally designed.

I do not believe that was the case. Keep in mind: many Arrow mine train models (and some Arrow suspended models) feature two lift hills. Adventure Express' station sits above a ravine and the pathway features a slight rise in order to deliver riders to the station. The train descends, makes a run, climbs the lift and then goes about its course. It needs a lift hill to return to that station. For a long time, the prevailing rumor has been: there was more to the ride envisioned, then scrapped for budget cuts, so instead of another ride sequence, the design was modified to turn into the station. I don't believe that to be true. The ride would need a significantly taller second lift in order to complete another run and return to the station at that elevation. Not to mention, many of the early concept art designs that have popped up online over the years do not show an extended ride. I believe the ride exists as intended based off other Arrow models, the topography, early marketing materials, and the existing length. Any longer and it'd be a real rarity in terms of length/experience time. Another example to check out of the lift hill to station effect: Ninja at Magic Mountain. I also don't have much experience with this ride and its history, so this is just my personal assumption. @Shaggy, @TombraiderTy, @TOPGUN1993, or @gforce1994 may have some better analysis/info.

They've gotten quite a lot of work done today already!

Agreed. The drop also appears more pronounced/steep than in renders, I'm very curious how the 'wave turn' will look (and obviously ride) irl, it's massive!

There has been a lot of yelling, and arguing lately, myself included. I thought I would take a "time out", and look back at some of my older pictures. it was cool looking at how things used to be. Rides that are no longer around, and a big time new coaster that was quite a production when it was built! Nice and shiny. So everyone take a few minutes, enjoy, and remember that we all have a good time at the park, so there is no reason to yell about stuff outside of the park. 1990 1991 1993 Yep, I was young and stupid once too!!! LOL

I'm hoping for the world's tallest Zero-G-Stall instead of the wave turn. Oh well, I can only dream. Yes, that wave turn looks intense and very snappy. Hopefully we'll keep some good speed through the element.

Is it just me? Or does the way the sun shines on the banked track on the wave turn make it look like a pretty quick and snappy bank?

THIS.

I believe they are pre-assembling the next large support for the wave turn on the ground.

My suggestion on the survey was to open at 2pm on Saturdays (like the original Winterfest and the one year return of Winterfest did). That didn’t happen either. Carowinds does open their Winterfest at 2pm on Saturdays, so must be a park to park decision for hours. Just seems to me that people would shop, skate, and spend more money if they had more time in the park, especially on busy weekends.

KI has been working on network software/hardware updates that affected the live stream to the internet. Luckily they were able to keep a local feed at the park to make the time laps video. The timing of these upgrades were unfortunate, but there was no hidden agenda behind them not being live on the internet. At this point, the cameras are back up and running and we can continue to discuss what we are seeing on the live feed in the Orion Thread. Consequently, there is nothing more to discuss. This thread will now be locked.

The quote “Number 5 is Alive” has no reference to Adventure Express, Son of Beast or even Kings Island. Simply coaster fans mistakenly connecting dots to something it’s not.

Adventure Express Trivia to be taken with a grain of salt... I recall during winter 1999 (when Action Zone was being built) a replacement section of Adventure Express track was located in the parking lot. I remember this because the short section of Arrow track was placed somewhat near where they were storing the track for Face/Off (Invertigo.) I saw it with my own eyes. I always assumed it was the zig zag section that used to have a mist effect right after you left the station. Seems like the track looked "different" the following season (newer) so I figured that section might have rusted. Especially since the mist effect disappeared in summer 1999. Never had it factually confirmed, but always assumed thats what happened.

I remember that floral arrangement. I thought it was the actual entrance to the ride when I was little. Haha Would be cool if they brought something like that back.

Definitely more track was already laid today....It also kinda looks like out of the picture more stuff is going on. For example, it seems more supports are being placed...I think. It's hard to tell.

More track going up now? Cleo has a piece of track in a weird vertical angle..

Totally agree. Plus all the decor is designed to look great in the day as well as night (in fact a lot of the detail is lost at night, so it would actually be better to have more day time)

The Bat isn’t getting slower and slower because of age, The Bat has a VFD motor or variable frequency drive and can be sped up or slowed down in the programming of its PLC. I adjusted some of its ladders logic back in 2002 and I’m sure by now it’s been modified many times since. There is multiple position sensors along the entire lift and I programmed the PLC to start slow up the lift until hitting the first sensor to reduce wear on the lift chain from the start then it was programmed to speed up and would maintain its full lift speed as long as the other train wasn’t occupying the block brakes before the station, if it was then the PLC would slow the VFD to allow time for the block brakes to clear and if by the time it reached the last sensor at the crest and the block wasn’t clear it was programmed to stop, again that was done to reduce wear on the lift motor.

In Fury's construction time lapse, you can see that those supports weren't removed until after construction was finished. So I assume that will happen with this too.

What will make the giga seem even taller is the train on it, look how small it is on fury. I already think ours looks bigger in person because they look a very similar height, but ours is buried in the side of the park Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just be HAPPY to much complaining on here. My goodness, park announces we are finally getting a GIGA, people complain about the height, i mean come on people. The webcams are down, who cares, just wait until they are brought back up. The park had a reason they were down. Maybe they had to "rewire" the tower but they had to put a different camera up there at the same angle?? Just leave the park alone about this. We are all in this for the love of coasters and we love Ki!!

I love seeing all of this old stuff in one thread. Here are a couple of my own photo trip reports from back in the day. (I can’t believe that the photos are still being hosted somewhere after all these years.) On another recent thread, @BeastForever was wondering why some people would throw around things like “this site ain’t what it used to be”...I think some of the above things, and these trip reports are an example of why some of us miss the “good old days”. I would count KIC Day as one of the best days of my (arguably pathetic) life...I made some friendships that day that have lasted all these years. KIC Day Photo Trip Report (2008) Then, with the relationship still going strong between the park, and this site we were given an off season event! standbyme’s Blues Party PTR (2009) And here is @Gordon Bombay’s excellent trip report for the same event...I wish the photos were still visible...hint hint!) Battling the Off Season Blues - The Day in Photos Good times! I miss a lot of our past members. For the record, I am not saying that we all got along back then...just like every “family”, people argued...but it did seem like we were at least more of a cohesive unit than we are now. And also for the record, I appreciate quite a bit of you “newer posters” that have tried to keep this spirit alive over the past few years. (I gave up for a few years and just lurked because I didn’t think it was worth trying to keep a presence going on here.) I am glad that your passion for the park has kept this site going... I really need my daily Kings Island fix! It would be nice if everyone could meet face to face again like this again..I think it’s a lot harder to be mean/disrespectful to someone once you can put a face to the name and know what they are actually like. One last “shout out”... I think Brad @IndyGuy4KI & @malem are doing an excellent job at moderating! It’s got to be a nightmare of a job trying to please both us and the park...I know most of us appreciate it. (At least the ones of us who aren’t jerks do...just kidding, just kidding. )

The inevitable day finally arrived. Before leaving the park at day's end, I would take my last ride ever on Vortex, 9.5 seasons after my first ride ever on July 23, 2010. Bittersweet as it would be, I knew I was not alone in the pain of enduring Vortex's inevitable goodbye, as I would see when I would be joined by friends and even family throughout the day as we shared final rides. Here is what perhaps the most memorable and bittersweet Closing Day would have in store. I had some housekeeping to accomplish first i.e. turning in my Rides uniforms and packing my things to move out of my dorm room after the day ended, so I arrived roughly 10 minutes after the park opened. I figured it would be busy yet I was still surprised to see a HUGE line for Fast Lane, probably due to many passholders waiting until this day to redeem their complimentary Fast Lane Plus. I don't even need to say where I headed first... ...during Vortex's last ERT ever. The station was already filled and the rest of the queue was rapidly filling. In fact, it was full after my first ride and the temporary queues were brought out once again. As for my last ever first ride of the day on Vortex, it was a great start to the day as always. Before I rode again, though, I headed back to the front of the park in hopes that the Fast Lane line had shortened. I was already considering buying Fast Lane since I knew it would be a lot more crowded than the previous night. My prediction was true, as the line was less than half of its previous length. Several minutes later, I headed back to Vortex with Fast Lane on my right wrist. I had decided to not renew my Platinum Pass this year, as I realized that I had used it only as an alternate means of admission for when I didn't have my associate ID on me. If I had renewed it, I would have done it just for the free Fast Lane Plus and Bring-A-Friend ticket, which by themselves cost less. So not only is Vortex retiring this year, but my Platinum Pass (and my digital camera, more on that later) are being retired as well. The Fast Lane line was at various lengths, but I did not have to wait for more than 10 minutes (yet). I didn't mind waiting though, as it meant plenty of time to snap pictures from various places. I also made sure to include my crewmates in a lot of them since they wanted me to take pictures. I rode Vortex three more times, and then I saw a group of KICers whom were among the first KIC friends I ever made (including @IndyGuy4KI). Of course we couldn't resist riding Vortex together one last time, so I joined them for my next ride. For one particular friend, this was our first time riding together in four years, so this ride was extra special for us. And we loved every moment of it. I couldn't find our on-ride photo (even after the trains after us had their pictures loaded) on the kiosk, so we got pictures of us in front of Vortex just in case. I'm glad we did, as I never got the on ride photo. But we'll remember our ride nonetheless. We soon parted ways, exchanging numbers so we could meet up later if desired. I saw a few more friends talking in front of the batwing. We took the next ~15 minutes just watching Vortex and reminiscing while a train roared by every few minutes. By this time, the cloud cover had started to clear and the sun came out for the rest of the day. Vortex will be the second-most-ridden defunct ride in park history, behind Enchanted Voyage. Two Arrows now top the list of most-ridden defunct rides. I got two more rides on Vortex before I once again headed back to the front of the park. This time, I was meeting up with my two brothers Joel and Jon, my nephew Ezra and niece Priya (Joel's two oldest kids), and Jon's girlfriend and her kids. Joel actually used to ride Vortex with his friends in the days before I visited, and he would later tell me it was one of his favorite rides as well. Since he had stopped going to Kings Island before I started riding Vortex, we had never shared a ride on it. For Ezra and Priya, this was their first trip ever to Kings Island. Ezra is just over 42" tall and Priya is just under 40", so of course neither of them were tall enough to ride Vortex. Ezra seemed really interested in riding Backlot Stunt Coaster, Dodgem, and Zephyr (all of which are 48" rides) and I told him that he wasn't tall enough for them now but someday he would be. We all headed back to Vortex so Joel and I could get our ride on it together. While Joel and I rode Vortex, everyone else headed to the Antique Autos, which would become Ezra and Priya's very first ride at Kings Island. To minimize the time spent apart from them, I had redeemed a front-of-the-line pass Pass Perk at Guest Services when I met everyone at the gate. During our shortened wait, we talked about each of our histories with Vortex and reminisced our own memories. We had more in common than I thought; he also prefers riding in the back seat, and like I said earlier it was one of his favorite rides as well. Best of all, both of us were really happy to share one ride together. We really enjoyed our ride together! It brought back memories for Joel and made new memories for me as we shared his last ride on Vortex. This was what I most wanted to happen before Vortex closed, so this ride was one of the most special ever. We waited for everyone else to finish their Antique Autos excursion, and then we started heading toward Planet Snoopy. Ezra and Priya enjoyed their first ride ever. While walking past Vortex, I felt happy that even though they would never get to experience Vortex, they would at least get to see it. By the time we reached Planet Snoopy, Ezra was wanting to try nearly every ride he saw. He and I rode Linus' Launcher together after waiting a cycle. Both of us like How to Train Your Dragon, so he was excited to "fly like Toothless!" Both of us had fun. He wanted to go again but I reminded him that there may be other rides he would like to try, although we could do Linus' Launcher again if he insisted. Joel and the others suggested we ride something we could all ride together, since they would leave at 5 and it was just before 4. We headed to Boo Blasters since it has no minimum height requirement (and it seats 5 to a car and there were 5 of us since Jon's girlfriend and her kids had to leave at 4). I did warn them that the line was likely very long but should move at a decent pace due to the continuous loading. Ezra didn't seem so sure at first about riding Boo Blasters because of its spooky theme, but felt like he could do it after some encouragement and basically telling him that it is basically a big game and we would all be riding and "defeating the bad guys" together. Charlie Brown's Wind Up caught his eye and he wanted to ride that as well, so we planned to do it after Boo Blasters. We ended up waiting roughly half an hour for Boo Blasters. Its queue was full, including all the switchbacks. Ezra and Priya were getting hungry as was the rest of us, but other than that they handled the wait fairly well. This was the longest I have ever waited for Boo Blasters, and I usually would not think of waiting that long for it. But this time I had a reason to. Eventually all five of us piled into a car and off we went. Ezra and I had one blaster, Joel and Priya had the second, and Jon had the third. Ezra got a little nervous at some parts and murmured "This is scary" but as long as the blaster was in his hand he bravely shot at the targets and said "We defeated the bad guys!" at the end. Walking out the exit, he exclaimed, "I'm not scared anymore!" I'm glad he liked the ride. It was a nice ride for all of us. Since we were hungry, we got some food. Specifically, we got both my and Joel's favorite sweet treat: blue ice cream! Jon didn't get anything, but Joel and I got waffle cones while Ezra and Priya split a dish. Both of them loved their first ever helping of blue ice cream while Joel and I enjoyed our waffle cones. While snapping this picture of my ice cream and what little of Vortex I could see from there, a train sped into the picture at the last second without my knowing of it coming! After we had all inhaled our blue ice cream (at least the kids did -- Joel and I were still finishing), we headed back to Charlie Brown's Wind Up. Both Ezra and Priya rode, and it was the first ride they themselves would ride together. Both of them really enjoyed the ride with their hands up. The op played Simon Says, one of which was to roar like a dinosaur. Ezra loves dinosaurs, so needless to say he roared the loudest of all the kids on the ride. Jon, Joel, and I loved watching them on the ride. I rode this ride on my first KI visit when I was still under 54", so this brought back even more memories. This brought Ezra and Priya's first KI trip to a close. I would say it was a success, as they enjoyed all four rides they rode and Joel and I enjoyed our ride together on Vortex. This definitely won't be the last time they come out to Kings Island, as long as I have comp tickets on hand. After they left, I headed straight back to Coney Mall. It was roughly 5:10 by the time I reached Vortex's batwing, where I saw a lot of other fellow enthusiasts and fans. I had forgotten that FYE Coasters had arranged a meetup and group photo in front of Vortex at 5:15. Since it was about that time when I returned, it was perfect timing. Brian Lamm captured the group photo: I know I had missed the KIC group photo but at least I made it to this one. Part of FYE's plan was to have a big group ride, but that would mean waiting in the huge line. Plus I had three other friends waiting to meet me for some rides together, so I headed off to get even more rides in. I returned to the Fast Line to find the longest FL line for Vortex that I had ever seen. It went back almost all the way the the gray gates where WindSeeker's evacuation device is stored. I considered getting a WindSeeker flight since its line was a lot shorter, but I was already with my friends who also had Fast Lane. We waited about 15-20 minutes before riding again. This was the case for our next ride as well. In line for our next ride, it was 6:00 and it started to hit me: It was last hour. The last hour ever that Vortex was open to the public. It was really happening. In just one hour, we were going to witness Vortex closing for the last time. Thoughts of this reality flurried through my mind as I continued to grab pictures, using my mom's camera and my phone. As for my own camera (which had taken a beating over the 7 years I had it) it suddenly rendered unable to take any pictures or videos, as the shutter button stopped working. That and the failing display confirmed that my Canon Powershot ELPH 110 HS had also reached the end of its service life, and the last picture it would ever take would be of Vortex. After our rides, we noticed a WCPO camera crew conducting interviews. I wanted one, but by the time I reached them it would already be time for them to pack up and move on. At least I got to talk to Don and Chad and tell them about when I hit 1200 the previous night and the day I rode it 93 times. Don told me good job for passing his count (still at 1,199). As I took more than 50 photo-per-post limit, there will be a part 2! How will VortexBFForever and Vortex spend their last moments together? Stay tuned...

Re-open the International Restaurant as a LaRosa's sit-down pizzeria.

I'd love some TLC to be given to Adventure Express. I might be wrong, but I feel like the arrows no longer pop out of the wall/ceilings in one of the tunnels anymore, and I wish they'd bring back the smoke effect and do some better lighting or effect work in the lava tunnel. Although, really, it's still a really fun ride. My 7-year-old son isn't a fan of roller coasters with big drops, but he loves AE. I actually took my first night ride on it with him this year and it's a really fun ride in the dark.

https://www.cincydirect.com/Index.aspx/Larosas-Pizzeria-Store/ A little pricey but you get 12 cans...you may find them cheaper online somewhere else

It sucks because they say follow the construction of the new water coaster but then there is no cam lol

During the season, you can change which way the camera is facing.

I agree with this. I think CGA is the one who painted there Drop Tower to look like a gaint redwood. KI could do the same if they were going to go with a dark forest or mystic beast section of the park. Congo falls would actually fit that theme. The only others would be Delirium and Invertigo needing a paint job or naming change.

Yeah it looks like another support then more track today!

They will knock out couple pieces a day imo

Great Pumpkin polar coaster challenge anybody?

Tip- if you want to make LaRosa's sauce sing- add a bit of kick. A bit of a spicy flavor really goes with LaRosa's pizza sauce very well. Also helps if the sauce is pretty fresh out of the oven. Especially when I order hoagies and calzones, I either add jalapenos on them or on the side. silver2005, who wishes KI would take a page from the Reds and offer calzones in the park.

That's gonna be a rare picture soon, Orion, Diamondback, and Vortex all together.

Also, considering Kings Island was home to the first suspended coaster ever built, I think it would be fitting to also eventually be the last park with one. I could easily see The Bat out-living the other American suspended coasters

Looks like more track is being placed!

There is a difference between can't and won't lol

According to RCDB, Python was relocated to Coney Island from Splash Zone Waterpark in Wildwood, New Jersey. It only started there in 1996 though so who knows what history it has beyond that.

Yikes that page has a lot of errors... take most of that with a grain of salt. Regarding Boat Tag, it was added in 1992 (per an April 10, 1992 article in The Cincinnati Enquirer), but it was not included in the 1992 park guide. It was however included in the 1993-1995 park guides, but not the 1996. So it could be reasonable to assume Boat Tag was at the park 1992 through 1995, or four seasons. Edit - In terms of photo, probably but not what you had in mind, but here's Boat Tag (center) in a 1993 aerial, courtesy Ohio Department of Transportation.

It's definitely a bit lackluster compared to a specimen like Iron Dragon. That old Top Gun music in the queue definitely used to help make up for it though, believe me. God, I love that movie. Especially the volleyball scene.

This photo is taken from 48 south in Lebanon near the OSP post.

If I'm being completely honest, (and forgive me if this comes off a little negative, especially this late in the game), what we're seeing right now is precisely why I was never on board with the whole "you won't notice 13ft" argument. With the elevation disadvantage, paired with its placement in the back left of the park, I think were beginning to see that it really could have used all the height it can get in order to appear more imposing onto the rest of the park. Or at least, its a slippery slope. I would say that it was never so much about 13 ft as much as it is about 20-30 ft, given the expectation that it was going to clear 300 ft by at least some amount, even if by just 5-10 ft. Having it at 300 flat was kind of pushing it to begin with, but take away an additional 13 ft? And yes, I do think it results in a noticeable discrepancy between this and previous gigas... However, on the other hand (and this is positive), I'm starting to think that what is lessening the ride visually (placement), will end up enhancing the ride from an experience standpoint. Come to think of it, I never wanted this to be a parking lot coaster anyway, so I'm actually glad to see it break from Fury and Leviathan in that regard. Sure, it won't be as immediately noticeable at the front of the park, in the way the aforementioned B&M gigas are... But if better night rides/seclusion come at the slight expense of imposition onto the rest of the park, then that is an A-ok tradeoff in my view! Think about it. Would you rather be riding past a mundane ocean of concrete, traffic lines, and car light glare, OR flying through the trees and foliage of the dark Ohio woods after sundown? I think you know my pick...

Cool, so the lift will be done and construction moved out of frame by the time we get a camera back. KI hit a home run with this one!

Hello... only been about four years since I last posted... I don't think I ever posted a thread here on AE's design, but I did contact R&R Design years ago and spoke with the company's president, Rick Bastrup. He was kind enough to send me some incredible concept-art of the ride... Here's an incredibly-small picture of the Monorail crossing Adventure Express' track, from R&R's website... And here's an overview, circa 1993, of that... (source unknown)