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Vortex to be retired soon?


stashua123
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Now mind you, I could create a rumor this bland. Its like they looked at the park and said, which ride is older has some maintence issues... Vortex. Will Vortex be removed eventually, yes. But this year, probably not. But then again who knows... SOmeone at the park does.

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^ Right, this type of "rumor" isn't very interesting. Of course master plans are going to include anticipated ends-of-life. If it's true that Vortex's popularity is waning with costs increasing, planning for its retirement certainly seems logical.

I disliked this coaster ever since the 90s, mostly for the lack of legroom as of late, but I actually enjoyed my last ride in the front of a car on the back half of the train. That said, I wouldn't mind its removal if a suitable replacement was installed.

Considering how long it took to determine Son of Beast's fate - with 0 riders and a "dissatisfying" ride experience, I can't imagine that any master plan involving its removal is anything close to finalized. Vortex still isn't a "bad" ride unless you're tall and don't know which seats to pick, and I've seen it pack a "crowd" on a moderately busy day this season. (I waited a full 15 minutes.)

Will things change (or continue a current downward trend) "in a few years"? If they do, I suppose it's mildly interesting to know that someone at Cedar Fair might be "making plans".

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About being a bad ride experience due to the height of the rider. I am 6'4" and around 250 lbs. I have no trouble riding Vortex, providing I ride the front seat of the coaster car. My trouble seems to be Adventure Express. I usually turn my legs a little to the side to give me a little extra room.

Has anyone taken a spin on Cedar Creek Mine Ride, with the extra coaster train from Gemini? (I read an article that Cedar Point was testing this idea) Did it every happen? Just curious.

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That is really a general statement - Vortex will be retired in the next few years. Heck, lots of rides will be retired in the next few years. I just still can't get over how some can throw away a multi-million dollar machine because they don't "like" it - to just toss it out, condemn it to kingdom come, think they could do better. Those machines were state of the art for their time and need to be respected, as some regard them as their favorites.

I saw that coaster in NJ floating out into the ocean. My children thought it was funny. I looked it up on RCDB and YouTube, and realized that it meant a lot to some - and to now see it just washed away was heart breaking. It was nothing special, but to some it was "everything".

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I'm not jumping on The Vortex closing bandwagon at all- BUT, there was a coaster at KI named the Demon. Its life expectance came to a close at the age of 22 and by then it was "ready" to come down. Different situation but still a steel coas (or 26er. By comparison, Vortex is 25 (or 26).

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Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, steel to steel. The process of life, one is made, runs, and dies, for example a few of the slides at the latter WaterWorks.

To me, this is great news! With the ride gone, a new ride put in, like a clone! *as BB1 said in a sarcastic tone*

If it goes, it will be missed, but if it stays well congratulations Vortex riders, you may ride on

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Has anyone taken a spin on Cedar Creek Mine Ride, with the extra coaster train from Gemini? (I read an article that Cedar Point was testing this idea) Did it every happen? Just curious.

No it never happened. It's true that they were testing it but nothing happened.

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It is also easier for them to maintain wooden coaster as the cost of custom making wood pieces is cheaper then fabricating and installing steel track. Plus no matter how much you "protect" steel, it will rust and degrade over time. That is why you still see some old woodies around.

**I am editing this post for those who need more explanation***

It is cheaper to repair small sections at a time as in a wooden coaster than it is to replace steel sections of a steel coaster.

The wooden coaster requires wood that can be cut to size and replaced by the park maintenance staff with normal carpentry tools. A steel coaster, if a section of track or support goes bad that whole section has to be replaced, which would mean that the process of building a new piece of track and replacing it is far more costly than a wood coaster. For one, the part would have to be fabricated by an outside company which will cost $$$$ since track is not available due to Arrow no longer being in business. Yes, I know normal maintenance parts are available from S&S. Plus I will bet you S&S will not want to keep making parts, because this will require to have tooling setup to make these few parts for these old coasters. After so long; when the demand goes down, the cost of keeping the old tooling creates a monetary loss for the company. So since steel sections last longer than wood, by the time the track needs to be replaced, it would be an exorbitant amount of money to repair a 25 year old coaster.

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^ Amazingness? (Oh, you were asking that literally... Nevermind.)

Seems like steel fatigue would be a fairly important deciding factor in removal of a ride, at least as far as the physical state of the ride goes. Vortex has been carrying tons and tons of trains and the people in them for 25 years. It seems feasible, especially as Vortex is an Arrow ride with some hard transitions (much like Big Bad Wolf), that fatigue could be a fairly prevalent issue at this point in its life. You try holding up a couple tons of roller coaster trains going 55mph over jerky transitions hundreds of times a day each summer for 25 years. (Not that I know any actual physical conditions of Vortex for a fact... It's just conjecture.)

Disneyland, I'm assuming, had similar issues with running Space Mountain essentially year-round from 1977 onward. They replaced the entire coaster structure in 2003. Vortex is neither as much of a landmark nor owned by Disney, who's got the capital to do things like spend $100 million on a single ride. Therefore, It's logical that the ride may be retired in 10 years or less.

Personally, I'd like to see it replaced by any variation of B&M looper (particularly floorless or invert, though a wing rider wouldn't be bad, either. I'd ultimately prefer it to be a standard sit-down, but B&M hasn't done one of those in ages that I recall.) Vortex has a solid niche in the ride lineup as the looping ride in the park, and the collection would feel unbalanced without it. Then again, I also didn't realize until I went to Great Adventure this summer that coaster collections at most large parks feel unbalanced to me if there isn't an Arrow looper, so maybe I'm biased.

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Just last Saturday Kings Island posted this on facebook: "The Vortex gave 1,120,052 rides during its 25th anniversary season in 2012, fourth-most in the park." The three rides at KI that had more riders were: Diamondback- 1.8m, Racer- 1.4m, and Beast- 1.4m. Vortex is a very popular ride. Eventually it will be removed from Kings Island, but not anytime soon. Anaconda on the other hand I could see leaving soon. I don't know the numbers, but I'd assume it was one of the lowest ridden major rides at Kings Dominion.

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I would love to see a suitable replacement for Vortex. In the coaster department there are really only two things that I believe KI could use; a B&M invert (as mentioned above) and/or a GCI wood, both of which would fit very nicely within the space in which Vortex currently resides. The only issue I'd have with the GCI is capacity, but putting it in the very back of the park might alleviate some of those concerns.

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I would like to know if parts for Arrow coasters are really as hard to come by as the rumors say they are. Many coasters like Iron Dragon, Corkscrew, and Gemini have been retiring certain trains so they can use them for parts. Coasters like Big Bad Wolf have been closed altogether.

I'd really like to know if these coasters are as hard to maintain as I hear.

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It is also easier for them to maintain wooden coaster as the cost of custom making wood pieces is cheaper then fabricating and installing steel track. Plus no matter how much you "protect" steel, it will rust and degrade over time. That is why you still see some old woodies around.

Oh really? And you've seen the budgets? Did you get this information from "people you know?" The information you supplied about budgets to steel coaster maintenance is just plain wrong. Seriously, just stop.

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