PKIDelirium

The first drop was downed between 12:45 and 1, barely visible on the camera, but visible.

Perfectly fine on Verizon in general, signal can be problematic while inside the Flight of Fear building (and in the past, the TRTR/Crypt building).

Well, that was unexpected. I figured Orion had sand in the rails from the start, but adding sand to the spine on parts of Diamondback after 11 years? They added sand to the spine on Leviathan's first drop at CW after the first season because of how close that park is to residential (surrounded, actually) but that's after one season, not 11 years...

Well he did say it's not his photo.

I also just noticed that all of the structural cross sections below the track gap have been removed, clicking back through the time lapse on the camera, the crane was doing that before making the cut in the track. It appears to have now removed the cross sections to the left of the peak, and is up around the track level.

Visible gap cut out just beyond the lift peak now, looks like the first drop might be the next to fall.

The turnaround gets quite close to the midway, the LaRosa's and Arcade buildings, and the highest parts of the lift are close to Beast. Caution will be needed. Firehawk and SoB had more clearance around them to work with, so I imagine this is more "surgical" in nature.

Considering that is (was) the entrance and that tree was just to the midway side of the train shed part of the station, I'm gonna say the entire thing was downed at once.

Yeah, it looks like they've installed the lockout area fencing for the first drop.

B&M track isn't welded at all, the connections are all bolted together. I saw some brief welding a while back down at the base of the first drop, but they were down on the ground, so maybe they're welding the anchor nuts to the footer bolts above where the track is attached on said bolts. It's been done before, when X-Flight was relocated from Geauga they had to jackhammer the footers apart and cut the bolts from underneath the track because the anchor nuts were welded to the foundation bolts. The rails are sanded in some way at every joint so all the transitions between track sections are fully smooth, you can see the missing paint on Diamondback and Banshee at the joints where this is done, although I don't think they use anything that would look like welding for that process.

They've sold out Vortex and SOB already (for now) online but they still have Orion https://www.kingsislandgear.com/collections/nanocoasters

They might use the other crane that's still in place. It uses a wheeled base with outriggers instead of crawler tracks, so it could probably be set up anywhere around the course without needing to build up a base pad like for the crawler cranes. Even without the extension boom attached it has some serious reach.

Only time I was there was for the holiday event in 2006. While not priced into oblivion like WinterFest 2005, there's no arguing the production value of WF2005 totally destroyed the old Beach event. Beach's thing was cheap, but you could tell it was cheap. The pedal boats on the lazy river were, uh, interesting. Those things couldn't steer well enough to keep up with a winding lazy river, and the length of them was less than the width of the river itself. Just on my one time through that, I encountered several mishaps in the form of boats turned around in reverse with staff seemingly never going out to check, and personally encountered a boat in front of mine that was stuck sideways at a curve. Out in the back part of the river away from the event area, it was quite dark and again the staff they claimed were keeping an eye on the course seemed to be non-existent. Someone on a boat that came up behind mine during that jam had a flashlight and I was able to use my boat to nudge the stuck-sideways one back on track. Other than that it was just a big tent in the empty wave pool to act like a "festhaus" sort of place, a few small carnival rides, vendors (including KI's glassblower), and a sketchy looking "sled down a slide" thing.

I actually think The Vortex station, with the open sides closed in and the dividing wall between the main part and the storage shed removed, could make a good park museum. Put the doors where the exit is, and keep the entrance stairs area as an overlook. They could keep a piece of the storage track siding right there where it's next to a Bat footer.

I wouldn't mind seeing the batwing element just left in place where it is and freshly painted. Right on the midway, they could even put up an info board/sign about Vortex where the photo spot sign is now. I mean, what else would fit in that little area for it to be in the way of future development?

Terrain is a major factor at KI. Just look at how WindSeeker looks from the Weatherbug camera for example. Also, Orion doesn't have a monstrous support column right at the peak like Diamondback does, so the proportions will look strange until it's topped.

There's still another column assembly around the same height as the current highest one that will be on the drop side.

Well that news just totally threw me for a loop, no pun intended... After Firehawk's demise, I had assumed Vortex would be safe for at least a few more years. There are older Arrow multi-loopers still in operation, including at Cedar Fair parks, like CP's Corkscrew.

Not to mention that Python is far from being the most comfortable coaster of its class. The fourth row of the train can't even be used because of how violent it would be. It's a decent ride in the front row, but the second and third are rather dicey.

Another incorrect spelling of Banzai... And Surf Dog is not on RCDB. RCDB lists powered coasters, but Surf Dog ain't there.

I have one actual rollback "credit" on it. It was the end of 2006, closing night. Train launched, at the end of the launch run the LIMs shut off and the brakes grabbed at the back of the train right before it cleared the launch track, and we only made it about 2/3 up the helix.

The easement is probably something to do with the power lines.

I think it was 2006 or somewhere around there, using the now-defunct Viking Fury locker location.

If it is a B&M Giga, I hope it doesn't have that insanely high-up final brake run. It looks ridiculous.

I've never seen any "wardrobe malfunctions" at Pipeline, but I've seen my fair share of epic faceplants by the hotshots that think they can just jump in and be a pro surfer.