STLcoasters33

In the latest pictures Waltny posted to Instagram, it looks like there might be an LED strip running along the left side of the lift. It didn’t appear to be part of the catwalk, but I might just be getting my hopes up!

Looks like they’re now under the shed! Will one train be exposed to the elements once all three are on the track, or is there enough space between the transfer shed and the station to keep them all covered?

I wonder how soon we’ll see the trains installed? I’m also hopeful they’re not all the same paint job. I looove the one they’ve already released, but variety is always nice

I just rode Goliath at SFMM for the first time yesterday, and if Orion is any more forceful than Goliath’s helix I might fully black out

My apologies if this isn’t down to the exact track piece, but we’re nearing the home stretch! (Photo originally taken from the King’s Island website)

I’m sure once I see it in person I will be a big fan. If I remember correctly someone posted that there will be similar lighting to Fury’s on the first two hills. For those of you familiar, are Fury’s lights the same or do they change colors? I feel like I’ve seen it illuminated both green and purple. Also previously mentioned - light up wheels would really set this thing off!

I feel like I’m in the small minority that doesn’t love Orion’s colors... a different color on the spine definitely would have set it off! I really hope the trains each have a different paint job - I’d love to see one of them have some more of the red/orange color that was used on the trim of the photographed car for the sake of standing out a bit more. Regardless of color, I am going crazy waiting to ride this thing!

For those of you familiar with how other recent installations went, should I expect Orion to open with the park? I typically plan my KI trips for when the Cardinals play the Reds, but unfortunately the baseball schedule isn’t aligning with the coaster schedule this year, which means multiple trips, because I’m not waiting until August to ride this thing! I’m half tempted to make the drive when it opens to the public. I would expect crazy lines for Orion, but I really don’t know what to expect for the park as a whole the first few weekends. My only trip this year was on a Sunday night in July when they shut some of the rides down for about 30 minutes For lightning around 5:30, and after that just about everything had less than a 10 minute wait. We were able to get multiple rides on just about every coaster, including 7 rides on Diamondback, including a sneaky reride for the LROTN during the fireworks (shoutout to the KI employee seated behind us for calling us out but not ratting us out, we drove 6 hours thank you for letting us have it lol). Best coaster experience of all time, hands down. Not sure how uncommon that is for KI, but having SFStL as my home park, that is definitely my style lol. Do new coasters generally bring out a lot more people, or is it a bit of a wash because those people are in line for that ride?

Love those colors together. I wonder if all the trains will be painted the same, or if there will be variations of the same colors?

Do the rest of the hills typically go up like the lift, starting at either end and meeting at the highest point? Very curious what’s been done (if anything) on the backside of the wave turn

Looks like more of the drop as well as the bottom of the final support!

Good shots! To anyone that has seen it in person, is the track itself two toned, or is that just dust from construction that has settled on the spine?

There’s so much busy work to do in the station area haha. I would think we would start seeing track work on the bottom of the first drop at the same time they start on the lift? A few more weeks and this thing’s really gonna start to take shape!

A changing color gradient would be the ultimate. No doubt the white lights would make it stand out, but I’m always biased towards the more colorful options, especially with the space theme

The more I think about it, the more I think we’ll see blue LEDs running up the lift, along with a combination of blue/purple/maybe even red on the supports of both the lift and the second hill much Lille Fury 325. Side note - there’s lift/track color conversations going on in both threads ATM, not sure which to post this in