WoodVengeance

Lights in the station are still on as of five minutes ago. I saw security near the exit of The Bat, so that's good. Hopefully that'll help prevent trespassing.

Right. The station is clearly visible from The Bat's exit path. There's no need to trespass to make clickbait videos with names like "OMG Son of Beast IS RETURNING???? 300+ FT TALL???"

That's really unfortunate. Are they trying to get closer to the station using the SoB exit ramp or queue? Seems security needs to be stationed in that area.

It's a bit unrelated to the thread topic but this is something I found very intriguing a while back. When the speculation on Orion began in 2019, we started seeing two sets of B&M track showing up at clermont steel fabricators. One set of brown track that was labeled "MCR" which ended up being for Candymonium and blue track labeled "MCT" that ended up being for Orion. The way B&M track is labeled is whatever model they are (MC being for mega coaster, a.k.a. hyper coaster) and third letter that correlates with the number of the coaster for that specific model (So think Apollo's Chariot being MCA or Raging Bull being MCB). This was also how it was found out that Yukon Striker was designed before Valravn because it was a letter behind, despite opening three years later. Candymonium (MCR) and Orion (MCT) both opened in 2020, but we never saw anything relating to a MCS which should've been designed in-between Candymonium and Orion. I always wondered if this MCS was supposed to be CGA's Hyper before it got cancelled.

I feel you there. It's still entirely within the realm of possibility that this could just be for something minor like demolition or a new haunt attraction. I don't want to put myself in the mindset that this is going to be anything more than that, especially since I feel it would make more sense to put something major in Vortex's plot first since the land has already been cleared there and is much more of an eyesore in my opinion. If we start seeing stuff like land clearing or RMC trucks showing up on-site, then it would be an appropriate time to freak out.

It's very apparent that Adventure Port was a last-minute decision for the 2023 season. Mike Koontz stated in an interview that they haven't decided the new rides for Adventure Port until late July, early August of last year. Also, the ball for slingshot got repainted for 2022 despite that ride never opening and being demolished mid-season. I believe it was speculated in another thread that the Top Thrill Dragster refurbishment going on at Cedar Point may have delayed a major addition for Kings Island that could've originally been scheduled for 2023 or 2024. This is just my speculation so I can't really say for certain what the original plan was, or if Dragster even delayed anything for us to begin with.

That and because they were lighter trains, they ran through the course a lot slower. If you look at older POVs of Son of Beast without the loop, it moves extremely slow towards the end of the ride. Looks as if it could valley very easily.

In addition, it has been reported that all of the RMCs Cedar Fair installed in 2018 have had significant maintenance issues. I saw a video from one of the winter chill outs at Cedar Point where one of the maintenance workers placed RMC in the same boat as Intamin in terms of reliability, which isn't a good sign at all.

That's how I feel and personally I don't want another B&M at KI as well. Thinking from the general public's perspective and the trends Cedar Fair and Kings Island have had lately in terms of coaster additions, it is a very safe pick to put in a B&M Dive.

With the removals of both Firehawk and Vortex (both of which were inversion-focused), I think it's likely that whatever our next major coaster will probably have inversions of some sort. As of right now: Banshee, Flight of Fear and Invertigo are the only coasters in the park with any inversions, and I do feel Invertigo may only have a few years left at the park at-most. Even then, that's still a broad category that applies to many different coaster models. If I had to place a bet on which coaster model is the most likely (not the one I personally want there), I would guess a B&M Dive Coaster. I definitely would like something different than another B&M, but from a business perspective it makes the most sense. Both Valravn and Yukon Striker have been immensely popular with the general public at their respective parks and do rather well in terms of both reliability and capacity. In addition, I think a Dive coaster in the former plot of Vortex would look quite well. Although Cedar Point already has Valravn in the same state, I don't think it's enough of a detractor for Kings Island not to get one. Again, I personally don't want a B&M Dive at Kings Island as I feel there are other coaster models that would compliment the park's lineup better like a Mack multi-launch, RMC or Gerstlauer. But at the end of the day, the general public is the main draw for any park. Regardless, it's still a complete mystery what's going to happen and we'll just have to wait until we do start seeing activity like land clearing or permits from mason hall. It might be at least another year or two before we start seeing that type of stuff happen.

If you're referring to the space between BLSC and Diamondback, I think a slingshot ride (or any tall flat ride for that matter) would look a bit cramped in the skyline being located that close to the Eiffel Tower. Maybe it could be placed in Rivertown in the area where The Crypt was? That area of the park is really lacking in flat rides and opening up the area where The Crypt was could present the possibility of a flat ride expansion for that section of the park. Personally, I think there are other options they could go with for flat rides but I don't think a new slingshot ride would be a bad fit.

As nice as the lighting packages on the ET, Orion and MT are, there's something uniquely beautiful about the classic lighting on the grand carousel.

Yeah, I couldn't hear it all when I rode AE today. It doesn't help that AE's lift hill is pretty loud as well.

Yeah, seems Kings Island should know by now not to use bright yellow paint after having to repaint Invertigo and Diamondback.

Just did my first ride on "Sol Spin" and I thought it was pretty fun, although spinning rides aren't really my cup of tea. All joking aside, this should be a good fit for the park once Sol Spin actually does open, from my ride on Kentucky Kingdom's version (Pictured here. Same exact ride model as Sol Spin), I found the over the shoulder restraints to be pretty tight if you have a larger form, but they aren't nearly as restrictive as Drop Tower's restraints. I do have concerns about the capacity being only 24 seats, given Kings Island is a much larger park than Kentucky Kingdom and even at KK it had a pretty long line earlier in the day (In the picture it's pretty empty since this was right before closing). Maybe if KI ran theirs more efficiently it might not be too bad, but we'll have to wait and see.

Looking through my old photos, those signs were there since at least 2019.

Hard to tell since the photo is so distant, but it looks like they repainted and/or added some theming to the trains.

I think it primarily depends on Kentucky Kingdom's budget. Although you can consider KK to be a competitor to Kings Island, Kentucky Kingdom is a much smaller park that doesn't have nearly the same amount of attendance that Kings Island has. That park also has a strict height restriction since it's located right next to the airport, so I don't think a hyper would really be feasible and that's probably one of the reasons we haven't seen one built there. There are still several coaster types I can see replacing T3 that would make sense for the type of park Kentucky Kingdom is, but I'm unsure whether the T3 replacement (if it's even a coaster at all) will have much of an effect on Kings Island's next coaster. I'd be willing to bet we'll probably see Vortex's replacement before T3's, but time will tell.

The 24-seat model can be used for permanent installations, like Scream Extreme at Kentucky Kingdom

It's quite possible. Kentucky Kingdom already has Lightning Run and Storm Chaser, both of which offer unique coaster experiences that Kings Island doesn't have an answer for. Unlike Kings Island, it's very apparent Kentucky Kingdom doesn't have a budget for something like a B&M or Mack. Also, it's a much smaller park so I imagine capacity wouldn't be as important either like it would be for Kings Island. It's important to note that Herschend just acquired Kentucky Kingdom only a few years ago and it's still unclear how much they want to invest in the park. If a coaster ends up in T3's spot (which even then there's still a strong possibility it might not be), I can easily see it being something like an RMC Raptor, Gerstlauer or new-age Vekoma. It's also very possible that it could be a waterpark expansion, a flat ride or nothing at all. Time will tell.

Beast just went down

I'm still on-board with the idea of merging Action Zone and Oktoberfest together in creating a new themed area of the park. Probably might be a few more years before anything happens in Action Zone though.

At least it's not limited to just the rides in Adventure Port like a certain "other park" would have done

I remember Mystic Timbers's construction was shown on a live cam. Same went for GateKeeper, Valravn and Fury 325 at other parks.