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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/02/2019 in all areas

  1. Hello everyone! As you saw by the title above, I have decided to announce the construction of a model of OUR FAVORITE ARROW LOOPER Vortex! You are probably wondering why. The simple reason is that I like to challenge myself AND I have nothing better to do (well, this second reason isn't entirely true, but you get the idea). The model will be made out of Knex (1. because I have a few of them; and 2. Idk what else to build a roller coaster model with) and as of 12/2/2019, the blueprints are currently being worked out. I will try to post regularly and update y'all of the construction.
    7 points
  2. I actually cried I laughed so hard.
    5 points
  3. I did this the other night, i hope this is what it will look like when it's done!! Enjoy!
    3 points
  4. I would also imagine Anaconda has a bit less stress on the Track and Structure, Vortex was a record breaker and had a longer layout which most likely meant more in maintenance. Not to mention just my theory, but I'd imagine having the corkscrews and loops so high in the air also didn't help. I'm thankful for 33 years, I want more, but she very well could have gone even sooner.
    3 points
  5. Entirely possible. Maybe as part of the next ride's themeing... whatever that may be. Maybe work it into the Orion storyline? That could be fun too. Also, the powers that be tell me that the theory about Anaconda at KD playing some sort of role in the removal of Vortex is simply not true. That ride is a couple of years younger than Vortex. When its day comes, it will come.
    3 points
  6. PROGRESS REPORT 1 - 12/2/2019 The first step in recreating this fan-favorite roller coaster was the layout. Since Vortex is based on, well, the actual Vortex itself, that was one item checked off the list. Next, I had to tackle one of the hardest challenges in recreating this ride. As you may know Vortex sits on uneven terrain, with the lowest point being the bottom of the Batwing. This is a challange since I am building this model on flat ground. The first step I took to solve this puzzle was to find the hight of the tallest point of the ride, which is the lift hill. The hight of the lift hill (after looking it up) is 148 ft tall. Then, using the two images above as perhaps the best references I could find, I counted the number of complete sections from the top to the bottom of the hill. Because several are hidden by trees, I had to estimate an extra section. The total sections I counted was 11. Feel free to correct me if my counting was incorrect. I then divided the hight of the lift hill by the number of sections and go 13.45 (which is the hight of each individual section according to my calculations). Moving on with the process, I used this topograhical map of the Kings Island area to find the elevation difference between the approxamate place where the lift hill is and the lowest point on the Batwing. I am aware that this map is slightly dated, but its the best I could find on a short notice. I determined the elevation difference between the lift hill and the Batwing is about 12 feet. This information is relevant because since the lowest point on the Batwing is the lowest point on the ride, I am making the lowest point on the Batwing (pretty much) ground level and I am raising everthing else up, since it sits higher. That is all for today! If there is any inaccuracies in my data, please feel free to correct me!
    3 points
  7. I highly doubt it. The question for me is if KI will respond.
    3 points
  8. Looking forward to it! I hope that sometime in the future I’ll eventually have time to build a working Vortex model.
    3 points
  9. I need more time to prepare myself, I'll never be ready. Here's to praying they do a plaque like they did for Son of Beast.
    2 points
  10. Video, but yes. I was honestly hoping the park would do a mounted pov closing day or something, but at least there is this. On another note, everytime I see a new post in this thread my heart drops a little bit at the thought of demolition pictures.
    2 points
  11. Here's the tweet for those who don't want to go looking for it
    2 points
  12. I follow a few of the Youtubers who are coaster enthusiasts and ElToroRyan posted this video recently about The Beast. I thought people would be interested in seeing what he had to say about it.
    2 points
  13. On the first day of Christmas, Kings Island gave to me....... ...... a completed Orion reverse treble clef!
    2 points
  14. Looking forward to seeing your progress.
    2 points
  15. Nice! I cant wait to see the finished product! I love knex because if you have enough pieces, you can spend hours building them up and making them somewhat realistic. I sometimes make support structures and coaster elements in my free time.
    2 points
  16. The weather is pretty miserable here in general. Cold, wet drizzle and dreary... Ive been decorating the lawn with Christmas decorations and its a bogg, I cant image what a swamp that must be back there and how hard it would be to work in it.
    2 points
  17. Might be a travel day for the guys to get back to the job site.
    2 points
  18. Hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving, Who would have thought back in the decoding thread we would be starting the turn around the week after thanksgiving! Can we get to the helix by Christmas?
    2 points
  19. I think that trolley has fixed locations but I could be wrong. Every time I have caught it was near the Chick Fil A at 9:30pm.
    2 points
  20. Looks like Orion's 85 degree drop angle just got confirmed from the park!
    2 points
  21. Uh....okay. Last year's tour was in the top 10 highest grossing of all time...and had by far the highest gross per show ever. He also kicked heroin in the 70s which is why he is able to make so much more money per concert than anyone out there. Past his prime huh?
    2 points
  22. Some new signage in The Beast que Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  23. I saw this video the other day. I agree on how he calls Beast "The World's Biggest Backyard Coaster"- it kinda does fit that bill when you think about it. Also while I had connected Beast's "lineage" to Dinn Corp., CCI, GCI, and Gravity Group he pointed out how RMC's rise is also, in part, due to The Beast. So my current favorite coaster- Cedar Point's insane Steel Vengeance- likely would not even exist if not for The Beast. Plus, even though it may not have a crazy intense layout (minus the final helix- I really wonder how intense those early rides pre-1979 opening day must have been with the reduced banking AND no trims there!) The Beast is still an incredibly fun ride and my favorite coaster at Kings Island as well (not sure if Orion will dethrone it or not). I like the bouncy feeling the ride gives (well 99% of the time- some wheel seat rides went from bouncy to actually rough), how immersive the ride is with the wooded setting (I hope Orion doesn't hurt this too much), the fact it is actually a LONG ride so you feel you get something worthwhile after a long wait, the views from both lift hills are epic (the 2nd lift has my favorite view from any lifthill I have ever been on so far- though Magnum XL200's first hill comes close) and of course the super intense double helix is probably my favorite element STILL on any coaster ever. Add all this up, and in spite of the straight track and trims, you still have a amazing ride in my book.
    1 point
  24. Sleep well tonight. "Seeable" demolition probably won't start until after the first of the year.
    1 point
  25. The number of trains running on Vortex unfortunately will not be figured out until a later stage in the development and construction. But I definitely guarantee at least one . I am working on a few more details and will publish an update sometime today.
    1 point
  26. I just about spit my coffee out. Kentucky Kingdom has posted a spoof of the Orion announcement on their Twitter page. I think it is about the funniest thing I have ever seen on coaster social media. I love KI and Orion, but this spoof...they are genius on social media. Go check it out.
    1 point
  27. The Spectacular show in the KI Theater needs to go. The parts with the characters are just unbearable. They should save that stuff for the Peanuts Theater show. The KI Theater is the best venue in the park and it deserves an A Class choreographed and vocal production with no characters.
    1 point
  28. Kentucky Kingdom has no chill, I wish every park would be like this
    1 point
  29. yeah the weather is kinda strange today. I live right near the park.
    1 point
  30. Yes! Wow, I forgot about that. This new rides seems totally redundant and better suited for a smaller park...
    1 point
  31. I never understood this addition for Magic Mountain. It has the same racing/continuous gimmick as Twisted Colossus, will likely be low capacity, and is from a manufacturer who's launched rides typically have a reliability issue at the onset.
    1 point
  32. I think the better question is if anyone knows why its been pushed back so far. This isn't a good look for Premier either.
    1 point
  33. Who else thinks they need to change the show inside FestHaus
    1 point
  34. I would bet that most of the track work will be done by then.
    1 point
  35. I would think that would be the case.
    1 point
  36. Holly Jolly Trolly was running this evening. I saw the 6:30 and 9:30 show happening in the distance and watched the entirety of the 8:30 performance. They perform in different locations throughout the evening, so it’s hard to know where they are going to be.
    1 point
  37. They had Linus there Sunday. Even toward the end of the night when the park was nearly empty. It was lightly rainy almost all Sunday night but the only thing that did not happen any time during the night was Holly Jolly Trolley. They did not open a few food stands and closed some early, but this is the proper way to handle a slow night and not upset the customers that spent their money to come.
    1 point
  38. It has to be something terrible too. Those bootleg CG animated films from the $5 bin at Walmart would be perfect.
    1 point
  39. Looks like they have started the rise into the kinda-treble-cleft-dive-turn thingy.
    1 point
  40. I think you might just be one of the few people that Vortex meant more too, but I'm really glad there are people like us that share such a love for this coaster, it really felt like home to me and if I lived closer you can guarantee I would have worked there, deep down inside even though I am an engineering major and have terrible anxiety, being high up on Vortex or any coaster for that matter is my happy place and I would love to at some point be a ride mechanic that way I can be where I feel at home all the time, but as for losing Vortex I'm still thankful for all the memories it gave and the people it had such an impact on. Seeing that final night I really saw a community that came together for Vortex with enthusiasts of all ages and races. It really made me happy. Every enthusiast has a ride that really means the world to them, and I'm really glad Vortex got to be mine. It will forever live on in our memories, and now as a nanocoaster
    1 point
  41. 1 point
  42. Re: Orion's effect on existing ride wait times- I love the idea of Invertigo having a shorter line; it's actually a decent coaster IMO (best seat is right side, going forwards up the first lift). However, I'm still very excited about Orion and expect it to eclipse The Bat as my favorite coaster in the park.
    1 point
  43. I think that's supposed to be 9.1 MPH.
    1 point
  44. Reviving this thread. I'll put my story on it tomorrow or the following day. Seeing a concert tonight and just no time. But suffice to say, I believe The Beast to be the greatest coaster in world history. Without The Beast, no other world-class coasters that we know of really. No Boulder Dash or Ravine Flyer 2. No Voyage or Steel Dragon. None of them. No GCI. No Mystic Timbers. Anyway, beyond that I can think of or find at least a hundred reasons beyond pure ride experience why its the best. As far as pure ride experience, I LOVE that it isn't an ADD (No offense to anyone with this disorder for real!!) rollercoaster throwing elements out left and right. Nope. I LOVE that its hills aren't steep at all really so you gets this very real sense of increasing speed and momentum. I'm still surprised to this day when I go down the first hill at how slow it starts and how fast its screaming by the end. Not too many coasters do that. I adore going through the ground so that you only realize how fast you are hauling when you leave the tunnel. I adore how the speed picks up before the Helix and my favorite is the slam when you hit the helix. I still get kinda scared about it over and over and have ridden it hundreds of times easily. The whole ride picks up speed and gets better and better and better. It never gets worse for a single second IMO. All other coasters seem like they are trying hard to do all these things, and I love and appreciate them all. But The Beast never tried to do that. If it did it would take away momentum and make the ride lose steam slowly as most airtime coasters do. Smoking is bad for you; but, The Beast is Keith Richards with a cigarette dangling precariously from his lip with a low-slung guitar playing Gimme Shelter. It's timeless and will always ride good. Generation after Generation. None of these upstarts can say that and they are all Johnny Depp trying to be Keith Richards in his portrayal of Captain Sparrow. Beast doesn't even have to try and is still cooler. The Beast is the Roller Coaster experience of a runaway minecar boiled down to its purest expression. It is the Elixer...the Philosopher's Stone of Coasters. I would't be surprised if The Beast is depicted in the great Pyramid. I can't decide which is more significant of a South-West Ohio landmark: the Serpent Mound or The Beast? I could go on...
    1 point
  45. Unlike KI and CP, the crowds at KK for Hallowscream have been just right with minimal wait times. It was nice to see the park alive again at night (last time was when SF owned the park). One really cool thing KK did was to line and light the pathway track of the antique autos with tiki touches - really cool and spooky touch. KK also used their picnic grove to outsource their two haunted houses (free with 2020 season pass). Maybe KI could utilize their picnic area for some desperately needed new haunt mazes (it really is a good use of typically unused space in October, and outsourcing is the word in business these days.)
    1 point
  46. The first thing I remember about The Beast was how mysterious it seemed. The majority of the ride is hidden by the woods , which is one of the best things about the ride. I also remember that on my first ride, I smashed my ear against the side of the car as we went through the double helix.
    1 point
  47. If you had placed odds 40 years ago that The Beast would retain its title as longest wooden roller coaster in the world all these years later, what would they have looked like? Perhaps each park attempting to out-do the last hadn't really kicked in like it did in the 90s, but I doubt anyone envisioned The Beast retaining that title for as long as it did. I adore the ride, and I'm so excited that they are bringing back the paw prints again (I wouldn't complain if they brought back The Vortex prints and Top Gun prints (though that would be awkward) this season as well). I don't have crystal memories of it, but one of my many memories of my youth is riding it with my mother. My father wouldn't do roller coasters, and I don't do spinny things (like the tea cup) so when it came to rides, it was either my sisters or my mother (or a friend eventually) My mother passed away when I was 12 after a second battle with cancer, sometime after her first battle I think she got the inkling to do something special with each of her 3 kids each summer, just mom and kid for a day or two. Our thing was always a trip to the zoo and a trip to KI, and a trip on The Beast was always a must. As I've grown older, I now get to ride the rides thru the eyes of my children. While the personal appeal had diminished slightly with age, it was quickly revamped as my oldest son grew old enough to ride The Beastie, then Flying Ace Ariel Chase, and exploded when he got his first rides on The Beast, Racer, Vortex, etc... shortly before his 5th birthday. Watching his face the first handful of times he rode each ride has been priceless. I have no clue how many times we've ridden The Beast together, but one trip will always stick with me. We were coming out of the double helix, sitting in 1-2 and starting down the last little bunny hill when a hawk must have seen something on the track, as we started careening up the hill into the brake run, certainly this bird was going to fly off. Sadly, it did not; I quickly had visions of Fabio and grabbed my son and ducked as much as we could behind 1-1. As we pulled into the station and the lap bars went up, practically the whole train ran into the front to see the damage (there wasn't any, but the riders in 1-1 confirmed that it had been a direct hit.) That is a ride I'll never forget. My daughter will be 7 this year, and I'm praying she gets the courage to ride The Beast (though I'd settle for The Racers, Adventure Express, etc...). She is definitely intimidated, hasn't even been on flying ace arial chase yet. I've got a hunch that our 3 year old will be a little more daring like his brother; we'll see how he handles The Beastie this summer.
    1 point
  48. The Beast was the first coaster I ever rode on, it’s hard to believe it’s been 6 years since then It was me and my friend at age 8, we are still the type of friends that compete to be the toughest to a certin extent, our Dad’s put us together because they knew as long as the two of us were together, neither one would chicken out, I remember that ride as one of the best of my life. We still remain great friends and to Kings Island at least once a year together. My Dad also rode The Beast in 1979 as a teenager, he said its somewhat different from how it is now but is still a very fun ride!
    1 point
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