McSalsa

Great Trip Report! Also, this photo is awesome: I know you were just going to try for a Vortex Panorama most likely, but I love how in a ironic twist you can see Orion to the left and Diamondback to the right, and they look like they are facing each other (and they appear around the same size) with Vortex stuck in the middle of them.

Oh- oops. My bad- now that I think of it, I don't think I ever saw or heard Vortex stop there, so all I ever heard was the "Cleared Lift" bell.

This is awesome- it is nice to have all these classic Vortex sounds archived. (I had a idea for a use for it in No Limits 1 but it didn't work like I'd hoped- I'll still enjoy just being able to listen to Vortex's sounds again) Also I had heard that bell ringing noise dozens of times while in line for Vortex, and never realized until now it was for when a train had crested the lift hill or if 3 trains were stacked on the brake runs.

I perfer "The Darkest Day"- though TBH while it is listed here under Paramount, they played it until at least 2010- 4 years into Cedar Fair's ownership. I remember vividly it playing on my first ever Beast night ride back in 2009. I have heard the 2nd song (Wanna say they changed the Song in 2011), but feel like I haven't heard music on the lift hills in a while. Just the usual "Welcome To The Beast. Please keep hands and arms inside the ride. Thank You." spieling. Though a song I will associate with Beast is this, as when I was waiting for the ride on Opening Night 2014 (aka when Banshee first opened- it was a 90 minute wait which was peanuts compared to the 4 1/2 hour Banshee wait I did earlier in the day) with my sister this played on the then-new FunTVs in the que and I thought it fit the vibe of the coaster we were about to ride perfectly (especially because it was a night ride):

Reading this, I noticed it is just for Membership and Season Pass holders and is considered a "preview". Since the last day for this is January 5th, 2020 I imagine regular ticket users would be able to ride on the 6th of January 2020 if everything goes smoothly. So the soft opening may be in 2019, but the full opening is likely in 2020. THIS COASTER'S OPENING SPANS TWO YEARS!

I saw this video the other day. I agree on how he calls Beast "The World's Biggest Backyard Coaster"- it kinda does fit that bill when you think about it. Also while I had connected Beast's "lineage" to Dinn Corp., CCI, GCI, and Gravity Group he pointed out how RMC's rise is also, in part, due to The Beast. So my current favorite coaster- Cedar Point's insane Steel Vengeance- likely would not even exist if not for The Beast. Plus, even though it may not have a crazy intense layout (minus the final helix- I really wonder how intense those early rides pre-1979 opening day must have been with the reduced banking AND no trims there!) The Beast is still an incredibly fun ride and my favorite coaster at Kings Island as well (not sure if Orion will dethrone it or not). I like the bouncy feeling the ride gives (well 99% of the time- some wheel seat rides went from bouncy to actually rough), how immersive the ride is with the wooded setting (I hope Orion doesn't hurt this too much), the fact it is actually a LONG ride so you feel you get something worthwhile after a long wait, the views from both lift hills are epic (the 2nd lift has my favorite view from any lifthill I have ever been on so far- though Magnum XL200's first hill comes close) and of course the super intense double helix is probably my favorite element STILL on any coaster ever. Add all this up, and in spite of the straight track and trims, you still have a amazing ride in my book.

^ I would say yes, all 3 of the last big coasters (Diamondback in 2009, Banshee in 2014, and Mystic Timbers in 2017) opened with the park on opening day and Orion will likely be no different. I would avoid actual opening day though: Banshee and Mystic Timbers both pulled 4+ hour waits on their opening days (I was there- and waited for it- when Banshee opened). However, weekends afterwards should be MUCH better, at least until around July when the summer crowds start to kick in. And I expect even Orion will have pretty short wait times on most weekdays before local schools let out.

Yeah, if they were adding something like a roller coaster, there would have been land clearing and stuff during the 2019 season: I went during Halloweekends in September and there was none of that. The big rumor I have heard is that in 2020, the beloved former family boat ride Paddlewheel Excursions is supposed to return. I would also not rule out some sort of dark ride.

As far as I recall from last year, no. The normal Fast Lane line for Mystic Timbers was turned into a single rider line, and the same was done with Flight of Fear (which won't be open this year due to its que getting modified and Orion construction).

And rumor has it, SFGam may not be looking to add another woodie, but might RMC American Eagle. If that happens, bye-bye 9300 feet of wooden track (since RMC Eagle would be Steel I-Box) and suddenly Kings Island is way out in front in terms of total wooden coaster track.

This is not my poll, but I do love these head-2-head type polls as I feel they are more accurate than popularity polls as representing how well-liked a roller coaster really is (plus this method is great at revealing hidden gems at parks that never get any attention). So I figured I would post about it yet again. The ElloCoaster basically replaces the old Mitch Hawker polls, which ended in 2013 for some unknown reason (I fear something bad may have happened). This year, ElloCoaster boasts a new poll: THE STEEL POLL IS FINALLY HERE! Here is a link to the ballots for wood and steel: http://www.ellocoaster.com/the-ballot Note that coasters RCDB lists as kiddie on the steel poll don't count. Granted, this is a bit odd since Great Pumpkin Coaster is listed as "Family" for some reason, but Wilderness Run (formerly Junior Gemini) at Cedar Point is listed as kiddie (and thus not in the poll). I'll also give a tip for this poll- especially for the steel part. My suggestion is to use Control+F and look up the parks you have been to, and then mark all the coasters you have ridden in those parks. Then when you have done this for all your parks, delete the coasters you have not ridden and then begin your rankings. I imagine most people are gonna be deleting well over 2,000 steel credits they don't have. BTW, here is what my personal ballot looks like- my entire wood Ballot (have only ridden 10 Woodies even counting Racer as 2), plus my Top 10 Steel (out of 27 that counted towards this year's ballot): WOODEN COASTERS 1. The Voyage @ Holiday World 2. The Beast @ Kings Island 3. Mystic Timbers @ Kings Island 4. The Legend @ Holiday World 5. The Raven @ Holiday World 6. The Racer (Blue) @ Kings Island 7. Blue Streak @ Cedar Point (Blue Racer ran so well over Red IMO in 2019, there was a big enough gap that Blue Streak sneaks between them!) 8. The Racer (Red) @ Kings Island 9. Hoosier Hurricane @ Indiana Beach 10. Woodstock Express @ Kings Island STEEL COASTERS (Top 10 out of 27 Ridden that Operated in 2019) 1. Steel Vengeance @ Cedar Point 2. Maverick @ Cedar Point 3. Millennium Force @ Cedar Point 4. Magnum XL-200 @ Cedar Point 5. Diamondback @ Kings Island 6. Raptor @ Cedar Point (Surpassed Banshee and others with some epic rides a month or so ago) 7. Banshee @ Kings Island 8. Top Thrill Dragster @ Cedar Point 9. GateKeeper @ Cedar Point 10. Valravn @ Cedar Point BTW, here are some things I am looking forward to in this poll: -Where will Steel Curtain, Copperhead Strike, Yukon Striker, and MAXX Force end up ranking as these are the new-for-2019 coasters? -How will Vortex rank in its only year on this poll (should give a good idea how loved/hated the ride really was)? -Will Wildfire @ Kolmarden defend its title as the #1 wooden coaster from last year? Or will El Toro or some other coaster steal the title? -What steel coaster will win best steel coaster 2019? (My guess is: Steel Vengeance @ Cedar Point!) -How will the B&M Gigas, Fury 325 and Leviathan, rank- as to give us a realistic expectation for how Orion may do in 2020? -What rides will be "MOST SUCK"?

Technically, it is a tie between Orion and Intimidator 305, as both of them have 85 degree drops: https://rcdb.com/4520.htm Though if you count launched Gigas, Red Force takes the cake with a 90 degree drop: https://rcdb.com/10698.htm

Wow, that looks cool. I like how it goes from a sit-down coaster to a inverted/suspended coaster and then back again while still doing inversions. Clearly this is still very early in development (I expect final models will seat more than 4 people) but it already looks interesting.

Yeah, Adventure Express seems much more do-able to get to hit 1 million. Invertigo may not even have enough capacity to hit 1,000,000 guests per year since it only runs 1 train.

Based on that- assuming the other rides held somewhat steady to 2015- Vortex was still one of the more popular rides in the park in terms of rider numbers. It probably dropped one spot- thanks to the debut of Mystic Timbers, which from everything I have heard is in the million riders club (which would put it ahead of Vortex). Also 862,000+ riders per year would actually be the most ridden ride at a lot of parks- I think I even read somewhere that Kings Dominion's MOST RIDDEN coaster, Dominator (at least I think), only gets like 850k-900k riders per year (though I imagine a lot of this is probably because Kings Dominion is a park that generally only gets 1.5-2 million guests per year or so, Kings Island gets 3-3.5 million)!

Le sigh. And it's officially over. Sadly I was unable to come get 1 last ride in on Vortex, things kept getting in the way of visiting the park during Haunt so my final memories of the coaster are from July 13th. At least for the most part, they were good memories: I got kinda beat up on the last ride in 2-2, but I also got some epic rides earlier that were actually quite smooth in 7-1 (complete with ejector air). I have kept track of my rides ever since my first one in 2009 (like many on here, Vortex was my first looping coaster) and I managed to get 23 rides total over a 10 year span- considering I only got to KI once a year until recently and even missed a few years, 2.3 rides per year average isn't too bad I'd say. While I am excited for Orion, I am gonna miss Vortex- unlike Firehawk, which I only rode 4 times because the line was almost always too long, Vortex was a staple on many of my Kings Island visits: with short wait times, it was my go-to coaster for crowded days or if I just wanted to kill a bit of time (say if I wanted to do a Beast night ride and it wasn't 100% dark yet). Whatever replaces Vortex (I expect 2023-2025 range to be when this happens) is gonna have some big shoes to fill. Then again, Vortex itself replaced The Bat, one of the most famous defunct coasters ever created. Hopefully KI can pull off the hat trick, and the 3rd coaster (I do think a coaster will go in Vortex's spot- it is very uneven and thus would not really work flat rides and stuff) to occupy that plot is as epic as Vortex must have been when it opened in 1987.

To add to this: CBS didn't even own the park very long. March 2005 (the CBS Viacom Split) to June/July 2006. Italian Job Stunt Track- a small coaster but still a coaster- was pretty much a Viacom addition, and I'd imagine at that point in 2005 it was pretty much done with construction and ready for testing. The main thing CBS did was jack up lots of prices around the park, to increase profits and make it look better to potential buyers. The only actual additions the park made under CBS ownership came in 2006, when Hanna-Barbera Land became Nickelodeon Universe. A few kids rides were removed- including Scooby's Ghoster Coaster- and a few were added, but nothing major was removed under CBS (Viacom was the one who got rid of the Antique Cars and sent the Flying Eagles to Carowinds) and they very likely did not spend $30 million on the replacement rides that went into the then-new Nick U. (And this does not factor in the Antique Cars, I-Street Renovations, Switch from Reds to Brewhouse, Blue Racer Trackwork or Glockenspiel Fixes of 2019 that surely cost money)

^ Also, for the record: I have heard Beast runs with less trims (they shorten some of them by taking small sections of them off) during the spring and fall seasons compared to mid-summer as the ride is usually only running during weekends at this point, and it is usually cooler so the rides don't run as fast as they do on hot summer days.

TBH, not too shocked. I went about a month ago and it was crazier than I have ever seen any park, Halloweekends already got packed at Cedar Point and now you have a shiny new $99 Gold Pass boosting crowds even further (though even had they not done Gold Pass the park would still be PACKED today- people seem to love the Haunt events). Even a 10% boost or something from Gold Passes would drive the park to capacity, based on previous years. Plus it is very, very nice today. May and June next year may also see a slight attendance bump from Gold Pass, but at least those months were not crazy crowded to begin with like August-October have become. Heck, from what I have heard today Kings Island is very crowded as well (my sister is there without me ATM- there was no room in the car for me to come). Banshee is apparently a 90 minute wait. I have not seen a line for it that long since Opening Day 2014!

Woah. Imagine how different Kings Island would have ended up had that happened. My thoughts on this (Warning- BIG POST AHEAD): The park would have ended up separated from its former Taft brethren, as Paramount still gets those. The Bat (then TOP GUN) would probably have still happened as that was in the works well before it opened in 1993, just with a different name and theme, but: no Flight of Fear (Paramount likely builds a 2nd FOF still but at Carowinds or Canada's Wonderland). No Drop Tower- Cedar Fair always seemed to add S&S Combo Towers instead. No Invertigo- Cedar Fair generally avoided Vekomas. No Son of Beast- Cedar Fair would have known better than to add such a massive woodie thanks to their experience with Mean Streak, so the park would actually dodge a bullet there. No Tomb Raider: The Ride as Cedar Fair would not do a mega themed ride like this in 2002 as Kinzel was still stung by Disaster Transport's flop. No Delirium (because no TR:TR and Delirium was apparently built just due to the early success TR:TR had). No Backlot Stunt Coaster- though this means the OG Antique Cars and Flying Eagles both stay, likely even to this day. Yay a plus! Even the Cedar Fair era stuff is not "safe". No Diamondback- as we likely would have gotten a hyper much earlier than 2009, maybe even in the mid to late 90s. It would have likely been a Morgan or a early era B&M. No Banshee in 2014- we likely do get a Invert, I would guess sometime in the mid 2000s, and it would probably be somewhere else as there would be no failed Son of Beast to replace. A GCI may have come sooner, or maybe we'd even have a Intamin Prefab built back when they were on much better terms with Cedar Fair, so also no 2017 Mystic Timbers most likely. With no Canada's Wonderland or Carowinds under Cedar Fair, would a B&M Giga have even happened? This puts Orion in some doubt, though it could still be a thing- heck, maybe we even get the FIRST B&M Giga. I also have to wonder: what would have come instead, because Cedar Fair would add new attractions to the park obviously. As stated in the previous paragraph, I do think we probably get a hyper much sooner, as well as a Invert, and a modern wooden coaster (GCI most likely, small chance Intamin Prefab). Other new big coaster additions would probably include a B&M Floorless (maybe even the record breaking one Cedar Point turned down to build Maverick) or a B&M Flying Coaster (Firehawk never comes, read on...). Flat ride additions would probably include a S&S Combo Tower. I dunno if Phantom Theatre would remain, or what Cedar Fair would replace it with. Lion County Safari probably leaves as Cedar Fair doesn't do animal attractions like that. Firehawk never comes in 2007, because I don't think Cedar Fair buys the other Paramount Parks in 2006. They just wanted KI, so they never go into massive debt. Because of this, Geauga Lake never closes (Cedar Fair suddenly had a lot of debt and a bunch of new parks that needed rides so they cut Geauga Lake), and because of this X-Flight likely stays put where it spends the rest of its life until its demise at the end of 2018. Geauga Lake probably doesn't get many large additions post 2004 though, but at least they'd be open. (Geauga Lake would probably be in a similar state to Worlds of Fun right now in terms of new additions and stuff). I fear for the other Taft/Keco parks though in this AU. If Cedar Fair skips on buying them in 2006, because they already have KI, then it is likely they end up under CBS ownership for several years at least. Would Six Flags have bought them? Probably not due to huge debt at this time. IMO Kings Island would likely be in much better shape than all the other former Taft parks in 2019, unless Busch Gardens or some other great owner bought them. And to end this: for a brief period in the 1990s, the kids area would have been...Berenstain Bears! (Then becoming Snoopy in late 90s)

From what I heard, most likely. Kingda Ka has had its launch cable snap and things like that and has been closed for long periods as well. The same is true for the smaller Xcelerator at Knotts, which was the prototype for this model. Interestingly Red Force in Spain, a newer and more updated version of this ride (though not quite as tall), uses LIMs instead of a launch cable. However because it is way over in Spain I have no idea how much this change has helped reliability versus the old cable launch models.

From what I have heard RMC can indeed do loops, but their lead designer, Alan Schilke, doesn't like them so his designs don't use them (save Tennessee Tornado which he did with Arrow in 1999). Thus we aren't likely to see a loop on a huge RMC Hybird Coaster as long as he is the designer. Thus if the park did decide to build a huge RMC (I would not be opposed) I'd imagine they might have to either come up with a new theme (they'd probably go this route- it would just be a huge RMC with little to no storyline ties to SOB), or find some way to explain why there isn't a loop in a SOB "tribute" coaster.

Can confirm this. Showed up to the park last year during Haunt on a Saturday, rode everything except Firehawk at least once. Diamondback and Mystic Timbers were 5 minute waits or less early on. Then around 2pm the crowds began to kick in, those 5 minute waits became 30...45...and then by the time Haunt began they were up to an hour. Granted the ride crews at KI have also been doing a great job so the longest I actually had to wait was 1 hour for a Beast night ride, Mystic Timbers was only a 45 minute wait in spite of being listed at 75 since the ride crew was getting trains out very fast. Then around 11pm, people begin to leave usually, so the lines ease up a bit around this time- though they don't go back to how short they were in the morning, they will go from say a 60 minute wait for Beast to about 30'ish towards close. If you don't mind staying late, you can sometimes grab 2-3 extra night rides on coasters and stuff if you get lucky.

According to the web site Que Times (which apparently uses Cedar Fair's data), Beast has re-opened. If this is correct it must have just gone back up not long ago, as most other rides in the park have decent listed waits (will probably get even worse as Haunt approaches) yet it is listed as just being open.

Here is a picture I took with my phone on Saturday July 13th this year. Vortex was the first roller coaster I actually took a "solo" picture of, as all my pictures before this were park "skyline" pics. I took this picture while walking over to Vortex as Beast had broken down, had to wait 30 minutes (longest I have ever waited for Vortex- it got pretty busy this day because Saturday in July) but I did get a great ride in 7-1 so IMO it was worth the wait.