Turtlepower

It will be interesting to see which coasters they put up next, so that this becomes more clear. They have plenty of coasters on hand to make signs for already, it would seem. I've kind of had the thought in my head that the "test purpose" section of these posters might be relevant to Project X and it's elements. For instance, part of the Invertigo test is "Effects of extreme gravitational pull" which may be a reference to positive g's X will have in the helix. "Evasive maneuvering" on the Firehawk poster could be a reference to the several near-miss elements X will have. Both Test Purposes on each poster wouldn't apply, but if this theory is right, they would essentially be saying X is deriving elements from coasters which have been at KI at some point.

Also, the current XBase sign reads "Experimental Testing Flight Training Site". So that does seem to go along with the area's theming.

Except for anonpirate, of course.

I just came back to list the elevation but I'm too late, good catch. The difference is that ET sits at 765 feet above sea level and WS is at 749. I'm using Google Earth for those numbers. So that's why I thought it would end up looking shorter. They're building it on the lowest elevation in the park.

The only thing that may keep them from claiming it's 300 feet tall or greater is how it will be viewed from the ET. I may have gotten numbers mixed up, but hadn't it been determined that 296 feet was from the zero point of 740 feet elevation? So 1,036 feet above sea level? The view from the 264 foot deck of ET would be within a foot or two of that if you're standing up. 301 foot tall WindSeeker would peak at about 1,050 feet, and even sits about 90 feet closer to ET. So basically this will be noticeably shorter than the 301 foot WS sitting close by. But a 301 foot drop is still a big drop, and will be a lot of fun.

They could drop a video that day that shows a group of KI enthusiasts who after spending months feverishly "decoding" the new ride become so obsessed with figuring out the name of the ride they band together to storm the Cedar Fair offices. They can't stop us all.

The year before Leviathan opened, CW folks didn't even know for sure there was a coaster coming yet at this point. There was construction, but no footers yet and definitely no teasers or anouncements for anouncements yet. I think it was still a week or two away from teasers on 7/11 that year. Still time, enjoy the Antiques.

I'm not sure if it's just an internet thing or what, because I fee like people aren't like this so much in person. There have been 2 cases in this thread alone where someone had "corrected" me, but had actually said the same thing I did, they were just so eager to do it they hadn't taken the time to comprehend what I was saying. There were also times where 2 different members who were obviously children were laughed at and mocked for sharing their opinions. I'm like you though, I stopped coming here when that mod was handing down infractions for not capitalizing ride names.

How did the whole process of lining up take place? Was it just a huge crowd or line at the front gate waiting, then gates opened, followed by a running of the bulls back to MT? Or was there some sort of organization to the thing that didn't involved kids getting trampled? (I specifically meant on pass holder preview night, but I guess opening night experiences would help too)

As the kids say, this thing will be LIT!

I agree, and I felt like the park was more diverse in what it offered back then. It definitely has a lot of great coasters now, but I miss having things like shows in the Action Theater and Tomb Raider:The Ride to break it up a little bit. FoF is still the best themed ride in the park, and still a good ride. Delirium is great, Drop Tower is good. If only they hadn't missed so big on Son of Beast... I can only dream of a KI that has an RMC'd SOB, Beast, Diamondback, and 2020 giga.

Just another reference point that is mostly useless for us: Leviathan was having it's first footers poured in mid-July (14th-ish) of 2011. They at least had a generic sign up talking about building something new, but nothing in terms of theming or what was being built. Teasers started a couple weeks later, on or around July 28th. Station supports were in the parking lot around August 7th. The official reveal was the morning of August 18th. It's worth noting that they had their WindSeeker opening that season and it opened late, for some reason. I could see teasers starting today, or a month from today. Going by the Leviathan timeline, it would be very soon, within the next week since footers have been in for several days. Also, July 20th is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and a Saturday, so maybe they would start then with space exploration being a hot topic of conversation that day.

Speaking of track, did we ever learn where that piece of Firehawk that was lying around that first week ended up?

You'll probably already hit these points the best you can anyway, but I'm particularly interested in the hill after the first drop (speed? G-forces? Any possibility of being slightly overbanked?) and the helix (again, speed? G-forces? Any air time at the top of it?)

That's a tight fit! It looked from your video like there were a couple other near-misses with supports leading right into this coming out of the helix. I would guess the 4th is on the speedhill after the turn around? I'll check out the video and find out since it's tough to tell on 2d video!

Yeah it does, and that comes directly after the helix element which should have one or two of it's own.

What if they're going to pull the tree out of the ground, roots and all, and the crater left behind will be enough to put the lift hill height right at 300'?

What if that's our Kite Eating Giga Tree?

The lone tree remains! That is dang near directly under the peak of the lift hill. Why is it still there?

They should just call it Flight Deck. Reuse the old signs, save a couple bucks.

I had done a little bit of side by side watching myself between the KI coaster and Leviathan/Fury. Doing the same as you did here results in the KI coaster ending about halfway through the second to last camelback on Fury. That's the quantity. I haven't ridden Leviathan so I can't comment to the quality. I still think the KI giga could be higher quality than Fury, but a lot will depend on that helix. I look at the KI giga as 3 acts: 1) The first drop and banked left turn. It's 85 feet more drop and 10 mph more than Diamondback, leading into a 2nd hill that's 10 feet shorter than DB's 2nd hill..... at a slight left turn and sideways. It'll be a lot of fun. 2) The turnaround and speedhill. We'll see how that ascent into the turn feels, but after that we're looking at about 194 feet down (third largest coaster drop in the park once this is built), curves to the right, then to the left, then into the 60 feet tall speed hill and out of your seat. 3) Final camelback, helix, and finish. This is the crucial element, in my opinion. The final camelback is about 140 feet high (similar to Diamonbacks second hill at 131 feet), so it should have good airtime. Then into the helix.... On that video, it looks so-so, but how will it feel? If there were ever a spot to incorporate near-miss head choppers, this is it. If it's a disorientating rush that makes you keep your hands down in fear, the ride as a whole will be a big winner. If it just feels like it's burning off speed to get into the brake run then it will still be good, but not one of the best. The presence of nearby foliage throughout almost every drop of this ride will increase the feeling of speed, like what MF has.

Not outside of the southwest Ohio area, unfortunately.

Do you really consider it over 300 feet if the observation deck is only at 275? This is clearly a budget Eiffel Tower, and Cedar Fair despises Kings Island.

I'm talking more in terms of theming than actual ride elements outlined on the plans.

The video looks very interesting, thanks for doing that! It looks like a pretty fun ride. It will be interesting to experience the first banked turn. It looks like there's about 2 seconds of sideways air time there which should be thrilling from that height (I think I saw that it crested at 180 feet?) and speed. The turn around is also going to be interesting to see how it feels, and the section right after the turn around looks fantastic. Also how will the airtime of the final camelback transition into the positive G's of the helix? Post helix looks pretty tame. Love that it's going to be in amongst the trees rather than out in the open. I'm still wondering if there will be another small surprise added in that we haven't seen from the plans. I think this will be everyone's favorite ride in the park for a long time.