silver2005

Looks like they're working on the brake run pieces, too.

Exactly what part of that article was disrespectful? I don't get that vibe at all.

If you don't mind the drive, most of the hotels in Port Clinton are great. Also a great town to hang out with some great restaurants and lots of lake side beach.

I believe I see the crew preparing a blue drop support.

Could the new building colors be a hint to what the Orion station could look like?

Chattanooga Choo Choo would be a welcome song to hear.

Beast in back wheel seats (1-3, 2-3, etc) can be pretty bad. Racer is bad in pretty much any wheel seat sans 1-1, though, Blue Racer has been getting much, much better in front wheel seats. I had the best Racer ride of my life at the Haunt opening night in a wheel seat towards the middle of the train on Blue (I want to say 4-1). I have noticed Bat has been getting a more noticeable vibration this season, mostly around the far helix, not really rough though. More like a light rumble strip on the highway. Flight of Fear has that worse along with more of a rattle than most people say DB and Banshee have (BTW, the 'rattle' on our B&M's don't bother me in the slightest). I wouldn't say Vortex and Invertigo are 'rough' per say, its just the way Vekoma and Arrow set their wheel bases, it has a lot of give for shuffling, which results in headbanging. I can ride both pretty comfortably, albeit with some body control. Adventure Express is that way as well, but it gets points for only having a lap bar.

Sorry, I'm booked tonight, for realsies.

Hey, we're just simply giving the public what they want. Watching a modern engineering work of art go up without obstructions- serious business. On a more curious note- does anyone know why they'd be covering the ground with what looks like big wooden boards?

Now I'm imagining him switching it up and going by helicopter for pictures and then hovering by the Eiffel Tower to clean off the lenses of the 2 cameras. Just wait until the freezing rains we get this winter.

If I remember correctly, Paramount had a long grace period where they had some decisions that rubbed off the wrong way with guests such as getting rid of alcohol and blue ice cream, etc. that they later corrected (I think all 5 park managers got involved in saying Paramount was trying to change too much too fast if I remember the story correctly). I know this is very optimistic, but I think its possible, however unlikely, that if this happens and the new chain is more SIX oriented than FUN, that they will have the same thing with the new parks and customer bases of those parks. I will admit this is pretty unlikely. I will probably try to go to Kings Island a few times within the first season of this happening just to get a feel for things and make my decision from there whether to continue patronizing the park(s). Overall though, as they say in the Star Wars universe- I have a bad feeling about this.

But CP never said anything similar to Mantis 'reaching the end of its service life' in regards to its transformation into Rougarou. KI has also done more recent interviews stating rides like Vortex lasting only 25 years alluding to that premise.

Here's my running theory on the timing of The Vortex removal announcement. We haven't really seen a big Arrow looping coaster go down due to pure fatigue yet. Yes, some have been torn down already, but realistically, none of those were at the end of their lifespans. Examples- Shockwave @ Six Flags Great America- Six Flags originally wanted to put Superman: Ultimate Flight in Whizzer's spot, and due to the Save Whizzer campaign, they went with Shockwave's removal instead. Great American Scream Machine @ Six Flags Great Adventure- Shortly after Six Flags left Kentucky Kingdom, they took Chang to be relocated to Great Adventure, and GASM had dwindling ridership at the time which made that an easy decision. Steel Phantom @ Kennywood- Most people know of that one- it was made too big and fast for what it was, then Morgan came in and transformed it into one of the best steel coasters anywhere. I'm not familiar with Orient Express' reason for removal from Worlds of Fun. So with that, given Vortex's age, it is really the first one to make it to this stage and the oldest of the bigger Arrow looping coasters left (Anaconda and Viper were built after Vortex). Now, given the late season timing, I'm guessing something came up that Kings Island took note of as being a sign of that fatigue, enough to out-price its ROI, and something I imagine S&S has studied in taking up the Arrow parts supply. I'm sure all designers keep track of how their rides age. It probably just so happens it was noticed in the middle of their Orion hype campaign, thus, it was announced a bit after Orion as the best way the park had under those circumstances to give it its time.

Yes, storm the one Porta Potty they have there. Hoist it into the park so we can finally have our true X-Base restroom.

Good news- I think I now see restrooms in X-Base. Bad news- They're only temporary and not available for use by guests.

Good is in quotes because no one is happy about about any removal in general, but it appears people would have liked a better means of communication from the park on the removal announcement. Not implying it being fine, as stated in another post in this thread, I don't like it being removed as well. It was intended to be asked to see where people are coming from with their criticisms of how the park handled it. EDIT: I edited the original post to hopefully get across what I was aiming for.

So what would a better Vortex removal announcement look like to those of you not satisfied with it (including the context given that Firehawk was just demolished and Orion's announcement)? EDIT: Edited to hopefully reword it better to not seem like it was a good announcement per the conversation below.

I think its safe to say that most people guessing on how GP reacts to the ride only really have anecdotal evidence. Unless this info is coming from a dedicated sociologist, most people are going to take these estimated GP reactions with a grain of salt.

I think its just sheer coincidence that both Firehawk and Vortex bit the dust at nearly the same time. The former was a maintenance nightmare, even in the eyes of the GP, and anyone familiar with Arrow coaster longevity kind of sensed Vortex's end in the near future (not as near as most expected for sure).

^That's one of the best enthusiast inside jokes ever. Kudos.

The lifespan of Tennessee Tornado and X2 will also be interesting to check in on. X2 is probably on the shorter end, but aside from the inversions, a lot of Tornado's track and structure are close to the ground or underground along with improved engineering being not of the Ron Toomer era.

My thoughts have nothing to do with the popularity. I'm talking more on the track and structure. I'm convinced that's why Vortex is leaving.

This may be possibly chalked up to generic park responses, but the thing I keep hearing on the media reports is the park stated that Vortex lasted longer than its life expectancy. If that part is consistent throughout the industry, I'd be wanting to get last rides on the bigger Arrows soon (Anaconda, Magnum, Viper) as they aren't too much younger than Vortex.

As said in a previous post, my first Vortex ride was shortly accompanied by my first Beast night ride. It was really tough building the courage to finally do both after a while, but it was so cool to have that in combination. My dad used to work at P&G, so we used to always go during the weekend they bought out the park. If you've ever been that weekend, you know its walk on city. Even Firehawk in the first row was a walk on that day. Back when Paramount still owned the park and allowed re-rides if no one was waiting in your row, I got 6 straight Vortex rides without leaving my seat in row 6-2. I really liked to ride it early in the morning or at dusk when it was cooler, especially in the front row. The breeze coming off the nose feels great. Of course, riding it near the back is great for one of the greatest first drops ever. The lift provides one of the better views of the park.

^Made by KIC's very own @Thrill_Biscuit