McSalsa

Oof. No, I do not consider 2 wings and some fries a meal. Actually thought about eating at Island Smokehouse when I was at the park yesterday, but it had a huge line so I decided against it and later went to Hank's Burrito Shack instead. The Burrito I got there was great, and decent sized too. So I guess I made the right call. Reject Chicken Wings. Embrace Burritoz.

It had been 693 days since I last rode a roller coaster (Millennium Force at Cedar Point on September 15th, 2019 around 8pm) and it had also been 757 days- over 2 years- since I had been to Kings Island. Things just kept getting in the way of trips to the park. Mainly COVID-19 (stupid virus ruining everything). However, yesterday morning I woke up, fed the dogs, and was ready for another regular coaster-less day. Then my sister came in my room with a grin on her face, and said these words: "Get your stuff ready, we are going to Kings Island". My happiness level increased by at least 400% in 2 seconds. We had to pick people up, and it is a long drive from Indianapolis so this was not a full day at Kings Island- we arrived around 1pm, though we did stay to close. This meant I didn't get to ride every single roller coaster and stuff, but I feel I got a lot in for only being at the park for 9 hours. I also got to try a lot of new things- mainly the new-for-2020 but I missed 2020 so it is still new-to-me GIGA COASTER, Orion. Upon arriving at the park, I really wanted to ride Orion, so after getting my group's blessing I headed over and got in the que. While walking to Orion I saw The Racer had zero wait- this will come into play in a bit. I got in line for Orion, stood still for 5 minutes, and saw a bunch of people leave. Then I saw mechanics show up. DANG IT! So I exited the que, and looked at Racer again- my coaster less streak would end up being broken by a classic woodie. For 2021, The Racer got a big retrack from The Gravity Group. I rode in 5-2, my favorite seat on the red side of the coaster. There was some decent airtime, but the main standout was how GLASS SMOOTH the retracked section of the coaster was! It was actually a little jarring after the turnaround, that section was not crazy rough but you could easily tell where the ride had NOT been re-tracked. If you have been avoiding The Racer due to roughness the last few years, give it a try now. It is MUCH smoother than ever before (I told my group about the no lines, and they all also came to Racer and all of us agreed it was far smoother). After The Racer I went and got a cup of water. On the way to get this, I saw Orion running again with guests, so I went over and got back in line for it. There were a good number of people in line, yet a mere 15 minutes later (epic capacity!), I was in the station and sitting down in Row #6. SHORT ORION REVIEW AHEAD (not as long as the one I posted in the Orion thread) Kings Island's controversial B&M Giga has been a hot topic the past 2 years, even before it was officially announced, since the blueprints were leaked around April 2019. People were expecting something huge even by giga standards- 330 feet tall, 350 foot drop, 7000 feet long, that kind of thing. A ride to squash Fury 325's pewny stats. Then we found out we were actually getting a 287-foot, 300-foot drop, 5300' foot long coaster which was far more in scale with Leviathan and Intimidator 305 instead of Fury. People began to say Orion was gonna suck. Well, my only other Giga I have ridden to compare Orion to is Millennium Force but: If Orion sucks, so does the generally beloved Millennium Force, because I found these 2 rides to be equals in terms of ride experience. The 300-foot drop on Orion breaks zero records, but it is still a massive drop with great airtime. The ride is noticeably more intense than Diamondback, and even packs better airtime than both Diamondback and Millennium Force in terms of strength (Diamondback may still have more total airtime due to being nearly all big hills, Orion's airtime beats Millie's in both categories). The short length is a bit of a drawback, but I found it was not nearly as bad as I was initially fearing based on the POVs. Orion ended up- to me- defying the naysayers and being a great ride. I am very happy this coaster is at Kings Island, and now when I visit the park I can get my Giga coaster fix without needing to drive 5+ hours and deal with Cedar Point's super crowded nonsense. After Orion I headed out and towards Diamondback, planning to hit The Beast on the way. Passing the wall to the field of sadness to the left (RIP Vortex), I got in line for Beast and waited about 20 minutes once again. I had been hearing that The Beast was running rough in 2021, and...yeah it kinda is. I was sitting on a rear wheel seat, so maximum roughness potential, but I also got jostled around a lot. Not day-ending (I'd say a ride I got in 2018 was worse when I hurt my shoulder), but really annoying and it did distract from the ride. I still had some fun on this Beast ride but I do feel a good re-track is in order. GRAVITY GROUP (or GCI)! I SUMMON YE! After The Beast, I heard from my friends the wait for Mystic Timbers was not bad, so I headed there next to find another 20 minute wait. OK, not too bad, I got in and waited. Before I was dispatched (I was sitting down in the train) I heard a little girl screaming she was scared and wanted off. They got her off, but the driver running the coaster opened his door and took some time to show her the ride controls to show her how safe the ride is. While delays for ride dispatches can suck, I will tolerate this- that was nice of the driver. I then got a wild ride on Mystic Timbers: way smoother than The Beast, and with tons of crazy little dips that give small pops of airtime. We hit the shed, and I got the Snakes and Cars combo. As we departed the shed, I finally saw the old Son of Beast eyes I had heard were in there. 20 rides after my first and I finally noticed them! Always something in the shed you didn't notice before, it seems. After that, I reunited with my group and we hit up Miami River Brewhouse (ironically they were in there right as I walked past it, good timing!) and got some food. I was feeling exhausted already and thus didn't feel super hungry so I split a BLT Sandwich and Tater Tots with my sister, but it was delicious. Crunchy bacon and tasty tots. I also got some water and then powerade to drink, and rested for a bit in brewhouse. Then we decided to hit the car, rested a bit more, and switched into our waterpark gear to go to Soak City. After riding the KI & MV Railroad to get to Soak City, we headed for the Breakers Bay way pool. The cool water felt so refreshing and helped rejuvinate me. A bit later we did the lazy river, which was fun too. We attempted to ride Zoom Flume, but the line didn't move and we waited 10-15 minutes. And after that there was only 30 minutes until Soak City closed (we got there late) so we headed back to the dry park and rode Banshee, which had a very short wait. Banshee was hauling, so much that the final inversion which is usually slow was, well, not slow. After riding Banshee we got hungry again, so we hit up Hank's and me and my sister split a Chicken Burrito. It was DELICIOUS. The line was moving fast too. After a tasty Burrito, we went to ride Orion again. It was night now, and Area 72 is simply spectacular at night. Kings Island did an amazing job on this section of the park. The line for Orion had grown a bit now but we were still on in just 20 minutes. Again, amazing capacity! By the time we got on, Orion had turned on its lighting package- this was a night ride. And we got assigned the front row! This night ride was even better than the daytime one I had earlier. The wind at the bottom of the first drop was so intense, I could not hear my own thoughts! All the airtime moments were even stronger than earlier. This was quite a epic ride. After the Orion night ride, we headed over to The Beast hoping to beat the 9:35 fireworks closure. But we failed so we had to sit it out and didn't ride until 10:20. I got a rear wheel seat again, though thankfully it was about 10% smoother than the daytime ride and thus tolerable this time. I did still get tossed a bit, but not too much. The ride experience was crazy- the woods were pitch black on this night, the only thing I could see was Orion right before the dip after the first turn- and seeing Orion made that part feel like a drop ride. I am a teeny bit annoyed Orion had to go this close to Beast, but only a teeny bit. Night rides on Beast are very, very far from ruined IMO. The double helix was pure insanity per usual. As much as I love the new Orion, I still think The Beast at Night is the best ride experience you can get at Kings Island. After riding The Beast, we headed out of the park and made our way home. It felt so good being back even if I didn't have time to ride all my old favorites (Diamondback, The Bat, Adventure Express, Backlot Stunt Coaster, etc. were all sadly forced to be skipped) BUT I WILL RETURN AND RIDE THEM AGAIN! Now, my usual Pros/Cons: PROS +Amazing Ride Operations +Park was very clean +Most rides were running great +Food was great +Orion is an amazing new addition CONS -Waterpark was busy, and some slide lines didn't seem to move (Zoom Flume mainly) -Beast could use a retrack soon: it is still a great coaster, but if unchecked it will become un-rideable in the near future And that was my latest trip report. Sorry for no photos- I had my phone, but it's battery life has been really "ehh" recently and I forgot my charger at home. As usual questions and comments welcome. MCSALSA AWAY!!! (Flies off but doesn't see Orion's lift hill and smashes into it)

Well, outta nowhere (2nd time now) I ended up going to Kings Island for the first time since July 2019 (stupid COVID!) and finally got to ride Orion, twice. Row 6 during the day and a Row 1 Night Ride. Orion has given Kings Island a ride that is just as good as Millennium Force in terms of ride experience. I consider the ride experience on the two coasters to be tied: Millennium is longer and has a nicer setting along the beach, but Orion has the superior forces in terms of both positives and airtime. I actually enjoyed every element on Orion- they were not all slam dunks, but the way some people were talking I was expecting nothing from the wave turn, turnaround, and helix and they were actually OK- I got a little bit of air on the wave turn, the turnaround had some nice positives and the drop is massive from it (POVs did it no justice) and the helix actually had some decent positives (a huge improvement if compared to Diamondback's helixes). However, I do agree the more praised elements were indeed standouts. The 300' drop? Oh lord, I loved this drop. It is my new #1 drop on every coaster I have ridden so far, sorry Millennium Force (also a 300' drop but not as much airtime). Wonderful strong floater air, and it feels like a Drop Tower with how long it feels like you are dropping. The speed hill was everything I had hoped for and more, great sustained flojector for several seconds. And the final 2 airtime moments- the sideways hill and bunny hop into the brakes- caught me off guard with how strong they were. The length also did not bother me as much as I was expecting, though I still do think it is a weakness and wish the ride had a few more elements. But I didn't feel ripped off by the length post-ride. I also really enjoyed all the theming elements, and I won't spoil it but if you pay attention, they actually show the connection Area 72's other coaster, Flight of Fear, has with Orion with a plot point of how they ended up creating the Orion vehicles in the storyline. I barely had time to see the whole video though due to one of Orion's other pluses- the capacity. Good lord, most other rides this would have been a 45+ minute wait yet Orion had me on in 15! B&M hit a home run in this regard, Millennium Force's capacity isn't bad but it does not compete with Orion. Orion did go down once I saw during the day- but it wasn't down for long, as I grabbed a quick ride on Racer which was a walk-on (I will do a full TR later and thus talk about ReTrak LOL) and then it was pretty much up all day. Millennium Force is also usually OK on reliability but I have seen it have big issues, I was able to get my first ride on Orion MUCH easier than my first ride on Millennium Force was (go back on my old trip reports and read about it on my first Cedar Point one from September 2017). I have actually put Orion ahead of Millennium Force in my rankings for the reasons of capacity and reliability- in terms of ride experience, as I said, it's a tie. I am very happy Kings Island finally has a Giga coaster, and while it may not have the world-beating stats some were hoping for, I for sure am not gonna shun a ride that is as good as Millennium Force at what I consider my home park. I would also say it's the best ride in the park...when the sun is up. Night Beast is still the best ride experience you can get at Kings Island (Night Orion is also epic though, I say do both if you somehow can). I also really, really wanna ride Leviathan and Fury 325 now.

While my first post earlier was focused on the teaser for the removal, now I kinda wanna talk a bit about how I felt about Wicked Twister itself. I really enjoyed Wicked Twister- it was nowhere near my favorite coaster in the park (not easy to be that when said park has Steel Vengeance, Maverick, Millennium Force, Magnum XL-200, Top Thrill Dragster and Raptor) it was a very fun ride, even if it was gimmicky. The launches were powerful, and looking straight down from over 200 feet in the air was actually more terrifying to me on Wicked Twister than it was on Valravn. Every launch, I was always a bit worried that the LSMs would overshoot and we would launch off the spikes RCT style. Sadly, I understand the removal: Wicked Twister is probably a expensive ride to run, and was not very popular. Yes rides like Magnum XL-200 and Rougarou usually also have stupid short waits but at least they have very high capacity to explain said short wait times. Wicked Twister did not have high capacity, running only 1 train and thus taking at least 3+ minutes between dispatches, yet only once did I ever have to wait for it (45 minutes for my first ride in late 2017, and that was only because the only other coaster running in the park at the time was Blue Streak due to cold temps- Blue Streak had a 90 minute wait at that point!). This was good for me, Wicked Twister was a coaster I enjoyed snagging quick rides on while my friends smoked and stuff. But from a park's POV, keeping a ride that expensive to run (5 launches per cycle had to be heck on their electric bills) with such low ridership was clearly not good. Something I do wanna praise Wicked Twister for though: I rarely ever saw it down, which is odd considering Intamin made it. Cold temps, as stated below? Wicked Twister was open. Windy? Wicked Twister was somehow open (I once rode it with 30mph wind gusts which was crazy!). On my visits to Cedar Point from 2017-2019, I never saw it down yet I saw TTD, Steel Venegance, Millennium Force, Maverick, and even Valravn go down a few times each...especially TTD. But never Wicked Twister. Wicked Twister goes next to Vortex and Firehawk on my short list of defunct coasters I have ridden, and while TBH I miss Vortex more, if I had a chance to ride one of them again and for some reason cannot choose Vortex, I would re-ride Wicked Twister over Firehawk.

RIP Wicked Twister 2002-2021. That video also may have given some hints at what may replace Wicked Twister- here is my thoughts/prediction: I think the Tornado in the film is not a reference to Wicked Twister itself, but a much older Cedar Point coaster- the Cedar Point Cyclone, which was located not far from where Wicked Twister sits now (GateKeeper sits on the site of the old Cyclone but there is no way they are removing GateKeeper anytime soon). With the old sports stadium near Wicked Twister also removed, there may be room to cram a woodie in that spot. Not a gigantic record-breaker, but a small yet quality wooden coaster from GCI or the Gravity Group would fill a huge hole that has existed in Cedar Point's lineup for years and got worse when Mean Streak was transformed into Steel Vengeance. And a wooden coaster is gonna offer higher capacity than the 1-train Wicked Twister did, even if it can only run 2 trains. Wicked Twister may also end up at another park, though we can determine that by if Cedar Point takes it down carefully or just rips it apart. I would bet if it is relocated it is probably going to a smaller Cedar Fair park without an impulse.

Quick question: How many trains running? All 3, or just 1 or 2? If less than 3 then it may hint one of the trains was the issue.

This is IMO my best ever shot of the Eiffel Tower. Taken from Oktoberfest Pond Area, in 2018.

I finished the book a few days ago, but have not had a chance to write a review until now. It has been repeated a lot so far, but this book is great. Since I have done tons of my own KI history research I thought I knew almost everything about the park's history, and thus a lot of the book was stuff I knew, but there was still a decent amount of stuff I did not know and even the stuff I did was fun to read about again. It was great reading from almost all the past GM's and managers and stuff and why they did what they did, learning about why certain rides were the way they are (wanna know why The Beast has so much straight track, for example? This book explains it!) and also some of the stuff that was proposed but never came to be, including rides that never were and the proposed fixes for Son of Beast after it closed in 2009 that were all rejected (IMO some really radical changes too). My favorite section of the book may well actually be the Mystic Timbers section- it went into so much detail about why the park added a GCI, and then all the theming changes before the coaster opened. Including the alternate shed ending that never was and was replaced by the snake (I won't spoil what it is you will have to read the dang book like I did). 10/10 would highly recommend. Oh, and a final note: I love the images the book opens and closes with.

Hmm- if I had to guess, I would say...Cedar Point. They were rumored to get a new coaster in 2021, but it was supposedly delayed due to COVID, and this thing is supposed to be big and break records- Cedar Point loves that stuff. HangTime at Knott's Berry Farm was apparently very well received in 2018, so it is possible that Cedar Fair now wants a even bigger and badder version for their flagship park. Sorta repeating what happened with Xcelerator and Top Thrill Dragster, in a way. As for what record I expect to be broken: # of inversions, most likely. We are probably looking at a ride with 14+. As for where in the park I'd see this, survey markers were seen around the Antique Cars in Frontier Town in 2020. Hence the "space" challenge that was mentioned by Gerstlauer. Though if this new ride is in Frontier Town, that really isn't gonna help draw the crowds away from Maverick and Steel Vengeance since the new ride will be in the same section as them, so now there will be 3 rides with crazy long lines (unless the Gerstlauer ends up having great capacity but even then it probably will have long lines) in Frontier Town. Plus, a big new ride at Cedar Point? That would get Gerstlauer noticed. If not Cedar Fair, I could see Sea World possibly adding this to one of their parks since they are on a coaster-buying spree. Or maybe Herschend for Dollywood or Silver Dollar City. I don't see Six Flags buying such a large and expensive coaster, same goes for most of the small non chain parks as well. Very slim chance this goes to KI- I don't see us getting anything until 2023 at earliest. If this does end up going to KI this soon somehow, then it is likely gonna be The Vortex replacement- though opening a new coaster on a anniversary year seems unlikely, especially since CP didn't do that for their 150th.

YAY! Look what showed up on my porch today. PS: My other 2 books- The Beast 2 and Always Cedar Point- also pictured just to show the whole collection.

Ok I will correct you. Vekoma made one of these as recently as 2018, and they still offer them on their web site. The Mine Train is actually one of Vekoma's most popular models, and they clearly copied/took inspiration from the old Arrow Mine Trains of the past. (Granted the newest Mine Trains from Vekoma are computer designed and such, and thus are probably way smoother than the older Arrow models) https://www.vekoma.com/mine-train-coasters PS- Adventure Express IMO serves a spot in KI's lineup. It is a fairly popular ride with good reliability and great capacity and also a cult following, and while 30 years is old age for most steel coasters, Mine Trains can go 50+ so AE is actually only middle aged.

I have caved and ordered the book as well via Amazon. It should be here by the 19th according to my tracking. I am excited to read it, and add to my small-but-growing amusement park book collection that I have started (I have The Beast 2 by R.L. Stine and Always Cedar Point by John Hildebrandt already- so this book will be #3...)

TBH I have found Racer's airtime- and its smoothness- can vary quite a lot. Sometimes my butt won't leave the seat at all, other times the airtime is stronger and there is more of it than Mystic Timbers has. And sometimes it beats the tar out of me, other times it felt glass smooth. On my rides from 2009-2018, riding Racer was a gamble- probably the least consistent coaster I have ever been on so far. One day in 2018 I rode it 5 times because a friend who was with us kept wanting re-rides and each time was different, one ride was absolutely horrible and then it would turn around and be good on another (luckily the good rides outdid the bad 3-2). The Blue Racer track work it got in 2019 made that side clearly superior, though I was not able to visit Kings Island in 2020 to ride Red Racer when it had the same work done. I am hopeful this retracking will make the ride smoother more often, as well as give more airtime more often, because Racer at its best is great while at its worst, it can sometimes make me think it is even worse than Invertigo in terms of being the park's worst adult coaster.

I will be honest: of the coasters in that general area, I expect Adventure Express to outlast Flight of Fear. Arrow Mine Trains are not dying off the way their loopers or suspended coasters are- only ONE of them has been demolished since the model was introduced in 1966, with a few mine trains outlasting their original parks and finding new homes. In fact the OG Arrow Mine Train at Six Flags Over Texas is STILL in operation and there are currently zero rumors that one is going anywhere. Adventure Express is also young compared to many of its peers, having opened in 1991 instead of the 1960's. S&S and other companies still make Mine Train parts to this day so getting parts isn't an issue, and the fact the ride is more family oriented and pulls less G's than a extreme coaster like Flight of Fear helps. Flight of Fear is also a mere 5 years newer than AE, and has the LIM launch which will probably be far harder and more expensive to fix as it ages versus AE's simple lift hills. Adventure Express has a good shot at seeing its 50th Anniversary in 2041, IMO. Flight of Fear will probably make it to the 30-35 year range like Vortex did, very good for a intense steel coaster but being only 5 years newer than AE, that means AE is probably gonna be around after FOF is removed. This expansion is still very possible though: just with AE still in operation but FOF removed and replaced with the wing coaster. The flat rides could still work in those spots, but the museum would need to relocate.

Millennium Force at Cedar Point on September 15th...2019. It has now been 532 days since that ride- my record for longest "drought" between coaster rides since I broke my fear in 2009 is 594 days. If my next ride comes at Kings Island Passholder Preview 2021 on May 8th, that record will be broken as this new drought will by then have reached 601 days. Ironically if Kings Island is my next park to visit- which it should be I assume- Orion is most likely gonna be the ride that breaks the drought. So the "gap" will be between 2 Blue Giga Coasters with 300 foot drops. LOLZ.

Note: I didn't get to the park in 2020 and thus have not ridden Orion yet, though I fully expect that will at least make this list once I can get back to Kings Island, which seems very likely to happen this year. #1- The Beast #2- Diamondback #3- Banshee #4- Mystic Timbers #5- Delirium (was a tough choice between this and Flight of Fear for current #5 spot. Before it was closed Vortex was also in the running for this spot.)

I am pretty sure it is Schwur des Karnan...and in terms of raw size stats, it's massive. https://rcdb.com/11615.htm 239.5 feet tall- taller than Diamondback! 219.8 foot drop. 90 degree drop. 4,051.8 feet long. Only 1 inversion though (if Kings Island is replacing Vortex with one of these they will want more inversions than that obviously though). These infinity coasters clearly range from tiny to mammoth. ...holy cow, that looks awesome. The theming does look a little much for a ride at a park like Kings Island, but then again Kings Island has been increasing how much theming they have for their new rides (see Mystic Timbers and Orion) for the last few additions so I wouldn't completely rule it out. I am pretty sure the sign above Beast calls it the Kings Canyon Mining Company though as of late (before 2019 it was Beast Canyon). The theme works though: for over 40 years, The Beast has tormented and caused mayhem for the workers of the Kings Canyon Mining Company. In 1987, they constructed a huge robot to battle The Beast, which did so for 33 years (ties Vortex into the story) until its steel weakened due to age and The Beast finally defeated it in 2019. However, the workers have constructed another huge machine, ready to battle The Beast once again.

A model that keeps sticking out to me honestly is one you didn't list: Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster. HangTime at Knott's Berry Farm went over very well in 2018, and this model would do a few things to make it unique at KI/the region: -Vertical Lift Hill. Nothing else at either Kings Island or Cedar Point has one of these. -A Beyond Vertical Drop, something no other coaster at Kings Island has. Since it would be very different from Valravn it would not interfere with the CP Coaster, yet would still give Kings Island a "Dive" type coaster. -Numerous inversions. Could easily feature 6+ and fill the gap left by the retirement of Vortex. They could even go for the North American or even world inversion records with this model, at which point you are also replacing the 5 inversions lost when Firehawk was removed. -Can be VERY compact, so it would not really need the entire former Vortex plot- they could build a bigger one if desired, or even just leave extra space for more new flat rides/other additions as well as the coaster itself. If they go bigger infinity coasters can go over 200 feet tall as well. -Very likely way cheaper than a large B&M or Mack coaster. Due to the COVID pandemic, this could be a huge factor.

Oops- fixed that one a day or so ago. Thanks for pointing it out. Also I decided to look at the rankings again, this time only counting the best side of a ranked dueling/racing coaster. The results changed a little bit. 1. Cedar Point- 182 Still #1 by a lot, but lost a few points due to only 1 side of Gemini (Blue ranked higher than Red) counting. 2. Six Flags Magic Mountain- 148 No changes- both Twisted Colussus and WCR duel, but you ride both sides when you board as both loop around. 3. Kings Island- 112 Unranking Red Racer (as Blue was rated as the better side) cost Kings Island 2 points. However, KI moves up because... 4. Hersheypark- 102 The loss of a side of Lightning Racer dragged HP's rating down by 12 points, so HP went from tied with KI to 10 points back, and thus it no longer uses its Skyrush tiebreaker against KI... 5. Six Flags Great America- 102 ...instead, it uses it on SFGam! Sadly for SFGam, Skyrush's 14th beats Goliath's 56th, so SFGam remains 5th. They also lost a few points due to the "removal" of a side of American Eagle. 6. Six Flags Great Adventure- 97 No dueling/racing coasters here so no change. RIP Rolling Thunder...though I dunno if that would have been Top 500 anyway due to its mixed reviews. 7. Six Flags Fiesta Texas- 83 Again no changes, as SFFT has no dueling or racing coasters either. 8. Busch Gardens Tampa- 83 Another park with no coasters that needed "removed" because racing/dueling. RIP Gwazi 9. Carowinds- 80 Grit yer teeth. Bear the load. RIP Thunder Road. 10. Six Flags Over Georgia- 79 Still gets in on tiebreaker over BGW, again no changes. Racing/dueling coasters are actually somewhat rare I realized looking this over.

Sorry for this post being 2 days late, but my sister got me another Amusement Park related book for Christmas. She got me the book this thread is titled after: Always Cedar Point, by John Hildebrandt. Have not read the whole book yet but it is enjoyable so far. I did skim through a see a section about The Beast, oddly enough, in a mainly Cedar Point based book. It was very interesting to read how the ride is viewed by other parks. PS: My copy is in way better shape than FlightofFear1996's obviously.

Here are the results of something I did just for fun. Lolz. Something I have seen said a few times is: Kings Island has one of the best roller coaster collections in the world. However, where exactly does Kings Island stack up? Who has the best collection overall? I thought randomly, for fun, if I could find a good poll and figure out a decent points system, I could add up the points each park's coaster collection had and then determine how good people actually think the coaster collection is. A few weeks ago, the Vote Coasters poll created by Youtuber Coaster Bot finished and shared their Top 500 results. This poll includes both steel, wood, and hybrid coasters in 1 single list- thus making it easy to use- and uses the Mitch Hawker head-to-head comparison system. It also got plenty of voters- 2,700+ people voted in the poll. So I decided to use this poll's results. https://coasterbot.com/votecoasters-fullresults2020 As for a points system, I was watching a Youtube video about how a NASCAR season would go using the F1 points system, and I thus looked at the F1 points system and had a idea: what if I used F1 points for this? Since F1 gives points to the Top 10, and this poll ranked 500 coasters (OK more were ranked but at the time I did this only the Top 500 were visible) I translated F1's points system into this: Top 50: 25 51-100: 18 101-150: 15 151-200: 12 201-250: 10 251-300: 8 301-350: 6 351-400: 4 401-450: 2 451-500: 1 Any coasters that couldn't crack the Top 500 are worthless and earn a park 0 points. And so I went through and found every park that had at least 1 coaster on this list located in North America- fun fact I found 80 different North American parks with at least 1 ranked coaster- and added up all the points all their coasters earned. Note: Since the Vote Coasters poll treats them this way, racing/dueling coasters do count as 2. In the cases of ties, my tiebreaker is this: which of the two parks has the higher ranked "Top" coaster? This actually came into play a few times. And using this system, here are the parks I found with the Top 10 coaster collections in the United States, Mexico, and Canada... #10- Six Flags Over Georgia Pts: 79 Ranked Coasters: 8 of 11 Best Ranked Coaster: Goliath- 59th The first park to make the Top 10 is Six Flags Over Georgia. 8 of the park's 11 coasters were ranked in the Top 500, though their top coaster surprised me a bit- Goliath, their B&M Hyper Coaster, was higher than Twisted Cyclone (which placed at 69th). Goliath is also the reason SFOG was ranked in the Top 10- Busch Gardens Williamsburg actually also had 79 points, but lost to SFOG on Tiebreaker because Goliath beat Alpengeist, their #1 coaster ranked at 76th. I imagine BGW is going "grumble grumble Pantheon 2021 grumble grumble" over this. #9- Carowinds Pts: 80 Ranked Coasters: 5 of 14 Best Ranked Coaster: Fury 325- 5th Carowinds makes the Top 10 pretty much on the strength of 4 coasters: Fury 325 led the charge by far, but Afterburn, Copperhead Strike, and Intimidator also did very well. Nighthawk came in at the rear end, ranked at 394th, and added a small amount of its own points. These 5 coasters combined earned 80 points, enough to beat SFOG by 1 in spite of SFOG having 3 more coasters ranked. And this is in spite of 9 coasters at the park earning zero points. #8- Busch Gardens Tampa Pts: 83 Ranked Coasters: 7 of 9 Best Ranked Coasters: Montu- 44th Tampa Bay beats Williamsburg, and makes it into the Top 10 unlike its sibling. Iron Gwazi's delay into 2021 likely holds BGT back somewhat but even their 2020 coaster lineup is strong. Montu led the charge at 44th overall, but Kumba, Cheetah Hunt, and SheiKra were also fairly high-points coasters. In 2021, when you add Iron Gwazi, BGT is going to be pretty stacked and will likely rise even higher on this list. #7- Six Flags Fiesta Texas Pts: 83 Ranked Coasters: 6 of 10 Best Ranked Coaster: Iron Rattler- 37th ...and BGT ALSO loses a tiebreaker to another park and thus wishes its planned 2020 coaster arrived on time! SFFT already has TWO RMC's, as well as one of the world's best B&M floorless coasters. It is another strong lineup for a Six Flags park. #6- Six Flags Great Adventure Pts: 97 Ranked Coasters: 8 of 12 Best Ranked Coaster: El Toro- 4th Dang! Just 3 more points and SFGadv would have joined "Club 100". One of the greatest coasters ever- El Toro- leads the charge alongside Nitro, Kingda Ka, Bizzaro, and a army of B&M coasters. Jersey Devil should be good enough when it opens in 2021 to easily get this park into the 100+ club though! #5- Six Flags Great America Pts: 108 Ranked Coasters: 11 of 16 Best Ranked Coaster: Goliath- 56th ...and welcome to said Club 100 and the Top 5! SFGam is a massive park, with 16 coasters (both sides of American Eagle counted) and 11 of them good enough to rank. Goliath leads the charge and has a strong supporting cast featuring Maxx Force, Raging Bull, the OG Batman The Ride, and more. #4- Kings Island Pts: 114 Ranked Coasters: 10 of 15 Best Ranked Coaster: Mystic Timbers- 43rd ...and here is Kings Island, aka "our" park. Kings Island is the first park on this list that actually increased its rank in 2020 with the addition of Orion, and while Orion would be the #1 coaster at a lot of parks being a Giga at Kings Island it was beaten by Mystic Timbers and Diamondback. Banshee and The Beast also ranked pretty high, and more points were added by Flight of Fear, The Bat, and The Racer to secure a Top 5 spot. But what were the 3 parks that managed to beat KI's coaster lineup? #3- Hersheypark Pts: 114 Ranked Coasters: 9 of 15 Best Ranked Coaster: Skyrush- 14th ...Hersheypark beat Kings Island via a tiebreaker, with Mystic Timbers 43rd place not being enough to outdo #14 Skyrush. Hersheypark also moved up with a new ride in 2020- Candymonium- as well as the fact they have a great wooden coaster collection, 2 more Intamin coasters, Great Bear, and Sooperdooperlooper to solidify their lineup. You don't hear Hersheypark get mentioned much for "elite coaster lineups" but clearly, you should. #2- Six Flags Magic Mountain Pts: 148 Ranked Coasters: 14 of 19 Best Ranked Coaster: Twisted Colossus- 17th SFMM, the current park with the most coasters, should not be so shocking to be very high up. Twisted Colossus, X2, and Tatsu are 3 of the highest regarded coasters out there and you have even more solid coasters in the lineup well past that. And with 14 coasters of the 19 coasters here earning at least 1 point, SFMM got a whole lotta points. Alas, it was not enough to defeat... #1- Cedar Point Pts: 188 Ranked Coasters: 14 of 18 Best Ranked Coaster: Steel Vengeance- 1st OH LAWD! 188 points!?!? Cedar Point just piles on both the quality AND the quantity. Steel Vengeance is the #1 rated coaster in the world. Maverick, Millennium Force, and Top Thrill Dragster all also made the Top 50 and were thus elite earners. Raptor and Magnum XL-200 both did great considering their age. GateKeeper and Valravn also earned solid amounts of points. Cedar Point had likely already won at this point and Gemini, Wicked Twister, Rougarou, Blue Streak and Iron Dragon hadn't even been counted yet. Sadly Corkscrew and Mine Ride earned zero points, but CP didn't need them to. SFMM would need to add TWO elite level rides just to surpass Cedar Point. This lead is crazy huge. And those were the results I got from this system. And here are some fun facts: Holiday World did not make the Top 10 (they were 16th), but the average points earned by each of their coasters was 14.0...the highest of any park with at least 3 coasters! For comparison Cedar Point's average was 10.44 and Kings Island was 7.60. Wild Adventures in Georgia was the largest park in # of coasters to not score a single point. 7 coasters, no points. Embarrasing! Kings Dominion probably would have made the Top 10 if they still had Volcano: The Blast Coaster. Comments and suggestions for a better points system (if you have any) are welcome. If the Vote Coasters poll does another poll at the end of 2021 I may do this yet again, and we can who rose and who fell based on the new rides!

Merry Christmas everybody! 2020 was not a good year for many, but soon it will be 2021 and hopefully 2021 will go smoother for everyone. Including a new year at Kings Isla... (500ft. Robot Santa is unleashed by the Russian Mafia and its first action is to blow up Kings Island) NNNNNNNNNNUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!! ROBO SANTA MUST BE DESTROYED!!!

I actually just got the 2nd Book from my sister as a gift just a few days ago. She works as a school teacher and she found it in a clearance sale for $1. It is a bit beaten up, but I like it so far (have read about halfway through). It does start to get weird near the middle of the book though as DiamondBeast says.

To be 100% honest, some of my best memories of Vortex came from July 13th, 2019- the last day I would ever ride it. The ride's closure hadn't been announced at that point (and we only knew of Orion from leaked blueprints) and I have not been able to get to Kings Island since due to COVID-19 and stuff. So I was just going in under normal "I'm gonna ride this" thoughts. The same thing happened with Firehawk in 2018 too- my last rides were taken without knowing the ride was closing. It was a hot and busy Saturday in July- it was a midnight close too which generally tells you there will be large crowds. I had already ridden Diamondback (30 minute wait) and Mystic Timbers (20 minute wait)- the waits for those 2 were still lowish mainly due to great fast dispatches on both rides. I went over to ride Beast while my group smoked, but I found it broken down, so I went to ride Vortex. Surprisingly Vortex actually had a 25 minute wait, even though it too was doing well on the dispatches. I went and rode in 7-1, and got a great ride with good ejector airtime and decent smoothness. A old dude was riding behind me also got a great ride. Later on, my entire group rode and I had another great ride, also in 7-1. I also got a night ride that evening and while it was rougher and less fun (2-2 could not compete with 7-1) I did see a kid get off behind me who was overjoyed and had ridden 3 times in a row though which I found heartwarming. Also, while waiting for Beast's last ride of the night that day, I saw a train on Vortex go by with 1 person on it who seemed to be having a lot of fun. Vortex was my first looping coaster, and I still thought it was a good ride in its final season of 2019. A bit rough, but it had what seemed to be the perfect layout for a old-school Arrow looping coaster and the airtime on the 1st drop was great, especially in the back cars. However I can understand why it was removed- it was 33 years old, and such a large and intense roller coaster would wear itself down quite a bit over 33 years (I still think metal fatigue has to be one of the main reasons the ride was removed) and its popularity was slowly dropping every year, as it had gone from 1.1 million riders around 2014 to only around 800k in 2019, thus the park probably didn't think it was worth spending a huge chunk of cash to have major sections/ of the coaster replaced when they could build something new and generate way more hype in the spot instead (but now that COVID has hit, this may be a while- the park was NOT banking on a pandemic). Since I was unable to get to Kings Island in 2020, I still have yet to see The Vortex plot in its current state. I have seen photos, but sometimes photos don't do things justice. I imagine it is gonna sting at least a bit to see a big field with some trees and The Beast behind it where a huge Arrow once stood. Oh, and from July 13th 2019, I give you the first picture of a roller coaster I took with my current phone- well at least focused on just 1 coaster (I had taken a few of the park skyline and Eiffel Tower before this). It is a picture of Vortex, taken as I walked past it to wait in that 25 minute line. The ride really was very photogenic.

...and when I got on Youtube, THIS popped up in my feed. The Animation from the 1999 Son of Beast announcement. Compare this to the animations for Orion, Banshee, or even Diamondback and it is obvious animated coasters have come a LOOOOOONG way.