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Park has confirmed to me via email that all season Fast Lane will work for Winterfest. Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

I'm for just taking the TRTR box down and doing something more akin to Rivertown there like a decent water ride or a flat ride.

TRTR is one of the reasons that "Paramount" was a terrible operator towards their end of the stewardship of the park. Lots of $ spent, great idea, and the theme looks on point, but the ride itself was not a long term solution. It should have been built on the other side of the park where it would have loosely fit in the jungle theme of Adventure Express, and the viewshed would have been more appropriate with fof there. Kings Dominion version, while not in a box and not a giant, was much better done and area appropriate. It was a sight to behold...I wouldn't have the stomach to ride, but I enjoyed watching it in between Volcano: The Blast Coaster rides.

I said similar. When I saw this photo, it struck me how much I do miss Vortex. I am hoping that whatever replaces it will be worthy of the site.

Yeah, I was mainly talking about the model itself. I highly doubt we would see nearly the amount of theming and effects that are present on Voltron Nevera.

Hey thanks to @AlexCutlerDDN for starting this forum to get the opinions of the fans. First of all, Vortex was a very special coaster with historical significance to the park. To this day I'll never understand why they demolished that beautiful station house that was used for both the original Bat and Vortex. (Meanwhile they leave the action theater, tomb raider, and Son of Beast station house sitting around looking terrible) So back on topic, I have some ideas for The Vortex plot and on new attractions in general. I feel that there has been a strong family focus on the park since the addition of Banshee in 2014. Mystic Timbers was a good family coaster (48" height requirement) addition, the antique autos was a great family ride, they revamped Octoberfest into adventure port with some new flats, and we had two planet/camp Snoopy additions in 2016 and 2024 respectively. Orion has been the only real big bad thrill ride addition and I'd like to see something a bit more on the thrill level replace Vortex. Just about anything by Mack rides would be fantastic, I'd go for an Intamin launch coaster like pantheon, or I'd love to see a new gen Vekoma (especially a flying coaster that could use that terrain and pay homage to Firehawk as well as Vortex). As for other additions, boo Blaster needs to go sooner rather than later and I am 100% behind a phantom theater revival. However, one could make the case to build a ground up phantom theater elsewhere in the park and that would be great as well as long as it stays true to the original attraction and does use practical effects and animatronics. I would like to see an indoor coaster or dark ride return to the tomb raider building. @Cedar Fair Fanboy has a great idea of a vekoma madhouse in that space and I think it's a really solid idea. We all know that Action Zone needs a refresh/retheme however, I would much prefer to see The Vortex plot addressed, phantom theater return, and a new attraction inside the tomb raider building before removing or retheming rides in Action Zone. I think the Action Zone refresh can wait until around 2030 and let the other projects take priority. I guess that is my opinion for what it's worth and the only other thing I should mention is they should do whatever refurbishment/maintenance necessary to keep the Monster and The Bat operating for many more years to come. Keeping both of those classics is more important to me personally than getting a new ride of any kind.

A special event in the spring months (April and May) like the Peanuts Celebration or an expanded Food & Wine Festival would be a nice kickoff to the season before the summertime live entertainment lineup starts.

Having visited Carowinds this year, I would say the theming in Aeronautica landing is pretty good. The whole area had a nice feel, and had background music playing that made it feel like a Disney type experience. Definitely a unique area. I would hope that Action Zone gets some love at some point. Obviously, the Vortex plot needs a replacement. I still wouldn`t mind seeing a flat ride in Area 52, since both rides back there are 54" height requirments.

I will say it was never removed because it was never offered in the first place. Not the”bait and switch”. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the support.

Except they presumably can't do that. The concept of a highly-themed top spin ride experience in a box is patented to Paramount Parks, and based on how the detheme into The Crypt went, the rights to that patent apparently did not pass to Cedar Fair. This is a pretty bold assumption regarding the cycle. I'd sooner guess that the locking/unlocking of the gondola required by the TRTR cycle was already doing quite a bit of wear before the 9-flip cycle showed up. We can assume that the 9-flip cycle, which was the same cycle used on KD's Tomb Raider/Crypt, had proven sustainable there, so they attempted to make it work on the Giant Top Spin. IIRC, Giant Top Spins were no longer offered by HUSS by the time our Crypt bit the dust (plus our Crypt only kept the KD cycle for a year and a half), so one could extrapolate that both KI and HUSS found Giant Top Spins to be unsustainable. Once upon a time, a user here claimed that TRTR was a test by Paramount to see if they could get an ROI on Florida-theme-park-level investments in their regional theme parks. Had TRTR been a bigger draw, it would have seen more money spent on refurbishing effects, and future additions would have been closer to the TRTR scale. I have no idea if there's any truth to it, but it does provide a context that, to me, makes sense for why Paramount went crazy on the budget for the 2000-2002 installations and then immediately dialed back to "cheap and cheerful" installations and unsustained theming until the sale to Cedar Fair.

A Gotham City retheme of Action Zone would be welcome.

Yes, but Valravn has white paint on the bottom of the track. For a 1:1 paint job to Vortex, both the track and supports would be painted dark blue, with just the rails on the track painted orange.

I never really noticed it, but to me, Valrvyn's paint job is similar to Vortex's paint job.

I'm not opposed to a top spin going back in there but I think the point is that it's never going to happen. They are maintenance heavy rides that in general do not get high ridership at the parks that do have them. How many parks do you see building new top spins versus parks removing top spins? I think lost Island built some kind of top spin but Kings Dominion, Six Flags Great America, and now Six Flags Great Adventure are all parks that I can name immediately that got rid of their top spin. As for the madhouse concept, I loved Houdini at great adventure and waited 30 minutes for it twice. I think madhouses are more about the illusion of flipping upside down and about the story/thematic elements. Sure a top spin is more thrilling but which ride will have less maintenance and higher ridership? I'm just saying that a high thrill ride that only daredevil teens and park enthusiasts will ride is not what the current park leadership is going to invest in. A mad house is right up their alley of trying to appeal to a wider audience with a new attraction. You can have smaller kids on a madhouse, teens, parents, and grandparents. It really is a family attraction that everyone can enjoy while being a very rerideable ride if the story is compelling and the effects are done well. The Houdini madhouses are possibly some of the worst ones compared to some of the ones they have in Europe. So while I'd enjoy a top spin, a madhouse is still a really really good option and there aren't very many of them in the USA so at least it would be something unique and different.

Hey Kentucky Kingdom, you should buy your coaster back! *nudge nudge*

I agree. Personally, I don't really understand the hype for a Vekoma Madhouse when it doesn't really look like that impressive of a ride to begin with. To me it just looks like a room with a rotating wall, that's it. Might be a unique experience for one ride, but not one I could see myself riding more than once.

Madhouses are lame. That building was built for a top spin, and that's what should go back in there. All they do is rock back and forth, thats it. No thrill in that at all. I rode Houdini's Great Escape a few years ago at SFNE and didn't care for it at all. I thought it was boring and I left the ride thinking "that was awful!" I'd rather have even the 2 inversion, ferris wheel in a box cycle Giant Top Spin back than a madhouse. But what really needs to go in there IMO is a normal Huss Top Spin. Make it like TR:TR but without being themed to the TR IP. Like, instead of icicles, theres spikes, instead of shiva, its a different goddess, slightly different ride cycle, ect. Maybe I'm just salty I'll never get to experience TR:TR ever. I sadly never got to ride it, but I did manage to get The Crypt in V1 of its life during 2008 with the 9 inversion cycle, and the ferris wheel in a box cycle. That was the single handedly scariest experience I've ever had on a ride. Still to this day the only ride to make me nauseous, and the only ride to truly scare me.

Listen, You are trying to say to us that building a top spin inside, will be better than a Madhouse. If it's past Six Flags, yes but Cedar Fair owns the majority of it. They don't want a high maintenance ride that function the same way as "all the Top Spins" they would rather do a new ride that'll be costly but have less break down. Top Spins needs a lot of motors, electrical and oil fluids. Madhouses only need Electrical and Hydraulics that mostly swings the gondola. And you can do more with a Madhouse than a Top Spin.

Time Traveler is great! Would love to be able to ride something like it on this side of the Mississippi. @BeeastFarmer it isn't nauseating at all.

Have you ever been on Time Traveler or Ride to Happiness? Time Traveler is not nauseating at all to me. I rode it 25 times in 100 degree weather in the same day and enjoyed every single ride. Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

I really want a MACK Spinner that includes inversions like Time Traveler at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo.

Huss top spin in the Crypt building. Nothing else should go there but a top spin. And a Gerstlauer Infinity that breaks the inversion record in Vortex's plot with a batwing where Vortex's batwing was to pay tribute to the ride. And the same color scheme as Vortex. Essentially a modern day version of it.

It's a new model Mack Rides has put out. There's only one currently at Europa Park called Voltron Nevera. Think of it kind of like Mack Ride's take on a Gerstlauer Infinity.

They are only available to 2025 pass holders

Everyone can hope that the Holly Jolly Trolley battery lasts longer than it did last year on each day of operation.