CorkscrewMcPuke

I'm gonna guess it has something to do with troublemakers throwing things or spitting onto those coming up the lift hill. I have no evidence to back that up.

Definitely wouldn't be in the park's best interest to retrack The Beast. Seeing as it was an in-house project, the last thing they want to do is throw a bunch of proprietary pieces onto it so they have to wait weeks for OEM replacement parts when it needs repairs. If I'm not mistaken, Vortex had to shut down for a couple of weeks a few years back because of a lift mechanism failure.

You could also put a pathway under it very easily.

Nothing could prepare me for this.

It's a very safe ride. By the time it rolled around, Arrow Dynamics had perfected that model line.

I think it deserves a silent, dignified death personally.

I love seeing stuff like this. Adventure Express is probably the most sentimental ride to me out of any park, as it was my first roller coaster. This is a coaster that holds up very well against the sands of time, as looking more run down works well with its theming. I'm quite hopeful for its future, as mine trains tend to have very long lifespans.

With the destruction of Son of Beast and the exit of Paramount from the picture, Action Zone's really been a vacuum for theming. With most of the stuff having been themed to Paramount licensed films, it's kind of been an uphill battle for Cedar Fair to get a coherent style going for the section. I do think they want to eventually go for a full horror getup for it, but with so many rides not really compatible with said theme still having service to offer the park I'm guessing they're kind of stuck.

Luca Pizza (Pizza De Roma) is a pretty good contender since you live in Indiana.

It's definitely a bit lackluster compared to a specimen like Iron Dragon. That old Top Gun music in the queue definitely used to help make up for it though, believe me. God, I love that movie. Especially the volleyball scene.

Keep in mind though, the longer the layout is the more costly it is to continuously operate. That's one reason among many that The Vortex was such a terrible candidate for retracking.

I can see it going two ways for The Bat. It will either be removed to make way for a more modern coaster within the next few years or they will build up the traffic around it with a modern coaster nearby, giving it a few extra years of operation. Either way, I suspect that said coaster will likely be using Son of Beast's old station. I'm not very fond of it, but we can definitely expect the Adventure Express to be the last operating Arrow coaster at King's Island within ten years or so. Personally, I'll be ultimately content with that so long as AE gets to live indefinitely. Wooden supports and low G's are beneficial attributes that The Bat just doesn't have. It's definitely going to be sad to see such a unique type of coaster disappear from the world. I'm happy I was able to ride it and The Vortex so many times.

You are sorely mistaken about Flight of Fear.

I think the closest thing we will get to seeing Phantom Theater from this point on would be a fully rendered 3D recreation of the ride. Consumer level modeling software has certainly reached the point where such a project would be easy for a park like King's Island to do. It all really depends on whether or not something like Phantom Theater would be something that would market well to kids well in the 2020s-2030s. It's likely not in the park's interest to bring it back to their kid section in our current social climate, but who knows?

Glad I wasn't the only one to snap it on the web archive. That being said, being a web designer in 2002 was cake.

I'd love to hear "Go at throttle up." as the lift hill speed increases towards the top.

Are they really? That's surprising to me. If it's flat rides, I'd definitely want to see Skylab return. HUSS is still making modernized versions of the Enterprise model. Other than that, it'd be down to bringing back a new and improved arcade. Coasters are one thing that you can never truly bring back.

The Bat's age is definitely a major factor in its removal. Despite very high reliability, it is going to eventually suffer from the exact same problems Vortex is in time. Truthfully, seeing the classic Arrow suspended coasters go is more heartbreaking than anything else. Talk about a unique experience.

Rough coasters are the best ones. I love being manhandled on rides.

It's all part of life unfortunately. Everything decays with time, and very few things are practical or even possible to repair indefinitely.

So this year we've seen the demise of the beloved Vortex after 33 seasons. We know that wooden coasters are known for their potentially indefinite lifespan, but given the age of many steel coasters in the park, it can be expected that at least a portion of them will follow suit with the late Arrow looper. Which of these do you all think are most likely to get the axe in the coming decade? What are your feelings about your predictions?

While Son of Beast was built poorly The Bat was a prototype model, which never bodes well for parks. Funny enough, the current Bat (Top Gun) is one of the more reliable coasters in the park, as it was the last suspended Arrow coaster ever built. Come to think of it though, I do fear for its future. It will be approaching the same age as Vortex soon enough. Unlike the Adventure Express, the park's other Arrow, The Bat has an all steel architecture, which would make it very expensive to replace. I do fear a mass exodus of steel coasters from the park during the 2020s.

There's only so much they could have done with it before needing to rebuild it completely from the ground up, which would have taken all the magic out of it anyways. It's sad to see things like this go, but it had a very long life for such a large Arrow looper. It leaves behind a legacy that won't soon be forgotten. Everything's dust in the wind, you know.

Too much alien tech interfering.