McSalsa

Ehh, if this happens, I had my own Joke: The Beast- Presented by Snickers PS: I too hope this does not happen, or if it does Kings Island at least somehow stays at least somewhat similar to how it is now. Though I fear that may be unlikely.

Yeah I thought of that. Of the 3 rides though, if something structural or track repair does need done, Magnum probably has the best chance that Cedar Fair will pay to have it done. Anaconda and Viper probably won't warrant a expensive repair like that at all, if Vortex couldn't. Granted if it is really bad, even Magnum's popularity won't save it. Volcano's issues were bad enough that they removed it even though it was clearly one of the most beloved coasters at Kings Dominion.

IMO of those 3, Magnum probably has the best chance of survival as it is still pretty popular in spite of its age. When I was at Cedar Point a few weeks ago (first weekend of Halloweekends) I noticed in the operator's booth it has already given 1,000,000+ rides this year alone. Raptor, for comparison- one of CP's most popular B&Ms, was only at 930,000. Though I do think they may have to give Magnum a major overhaul/repair soon, due to its age. Anaconda and Viper are probably screwed though.

You forgot about The Bat. I would think AE is safe because Mine Trains have not really been getting demolished as of late, with some of them going on to be 50+ this year like Cedar Creek Mine Ride. The Bat I have started to worry about: it is over 25- the age at which Big Bad Wolf was demolished- and it is a rarer model than the very common Mine Train coasters, with seemingly many more moving parts. I do think it'll stick around for a while, but I don't know how much longer it really has. And while they are not Arrows, I have similar thoughts about Invertigo and Flight of Fear in the upcoming decade (2020-2029).

Also if you read the blog, Gold and Platinum passholders can get 30 minutes of ERT on Saturdays and Sundays as Vortex has been added to the lineup for that alongside Mystic Timbers and Diamondback.

Vortex probably is structurally safe now, but I guess Kings Island's maintenance crews have been monitoring it and realized it's gonna need some big re-tracking or structural replacement this offseason to stay that way, which for a steel coaster is very expensive. And with declining ridership, Cedar Fair probably doesn't wanna spend millions of dollars on a aging ride that is losing popularity. Granted this could also mean some part was actually rare and expensive, and thus cost too much for Cedar Fair to justify replacing it. I do remember meeting a staff member at Holiday World who said they removed Pilgrims Plunge/Giraffica because a replacement part was gonna cost $1 million dollars by itself, and ridership for that ride was already declining even though it was a mere 5 years old. I also fear that we are about to see a lot of coasters go defunct in the next 5-10 years. Magnum XL-200 started a coaster war in 1989, and with that war many new rides were built, but now those same rides are approaching the 30+ year old age when most parks say a ride has reached the end of their life. The still-popular ones that warrant it will get the maintenance and care needed to keep them running (to a point, sometimes repairs or parts are just too expensive even for legendary rides). But the lesser stuff (mainly Boomerangs and SLCs, etc.) is probably doomed. Heck, we have already seen this with most of this era's signature wooden coasters getting demolished or RMC'd.

Yeah, I also think it was probably metal fatigue- I don't think replacement parts for Vortex could have been that expensive, and it was still a very high capacity ride. KI probably would have preferred to keep it around at least a few more years to be a low-wait option for guests. But, if the structural integrity was going bad, then this was sadly the only option. Firehawk probably was a parts issue, as Vekoma seems to have stopped supplying parts for their older, less popular ride types as they move onto new ones. While I fear for Bat (it has lasted longer than Big Bad Wolf already), I think Adventure Express will be OK- it has a mostly wooden structure, and there are some very very old Mine Trains still in Operation (Cedar Creek Mine Ride turned 50 this year and is still in operation with no signs of going away). I think the fact they are family coasters and thus not as fast or intense as the big loopers helps a lot in this regard.

Vortex was, like many other people on here, my first looping roller coaster. My first ride was in 2009, and this was only the 2nd coaster I rode on that trip that broke my fear of them (Beast was the 1st). I enjoyed it, but it was not until I found out how good the ride was from 5-1 in 2010 that I fell in love. Since then, I have ridden the coaster on all but 2 of my recent visits to Kings Island: in 2014 when Banshee opened (waiting 4 1/2 hours for Banshee sucked up all our time) and on a day last year when a bad wheel seat Beast ride hurt my shoulder, making Vortex a no-go. I do have some memories already from 2019, which will be the ride's final season, from my trip back in July. Beast was down, so I headed over and got what may have been the best ride I ever got on Vortex from 7-1 after about a 30 minute wait. A old guy was sitting behind me in 7-2, and he also loved it. Later on, I came back for a night ride while the rest of my group was smoking, and saw a little kid who had just hit 48 inches who's parents said he had ridden it twice in a row and was going for a 3rd. That made me "D'AWW". I feel bad for that poor kid, and his parents, who now have to explain the coaster he loved so much isn't going to be there in 2020. RIP Vortex: I will probably be there for Haunt to get last rides on you. Please don't be like Firehawk and be down the entire time, open up, I wait 20 minutes and then go down again. Then again, Vortex has generally been much more reliable to me than Firehawk ever was.

Oof. After Firehawk was removed last year, I was expecting the other coasters at the park would all last at least a few more years and co-exist with Orion. Sadly I woke up to find this. I'm one of the people who actually liked Vortex, to the point when it does go, it is gonna be my new favorite defunct coaster or ride, surpassing Pilgrims Plunge/Giraffica for that title (and fairly easily). Unlike Firehawk- which I only ever rode 4 times- I have been on Vortex 23 times so far and on almost every visit (will likely being adding to that total as was planning to go for Haunt this year). It's one of my go-to rides on days like Haunt Saturdays, when the park gets very crowded. Which makes this much more of a gut-punch than Firehawk was. Plus Orion is replacing Firehawk, and looks to be a big upgrade, but I fear we are waiting a while before something replaces Vortex, at least until 2023. I think a B&M Dive is pretty likely- they are GP Pleasers, High Capacity, and comparatively cheap versus B&M's other big looping models. KI is gonna want to replace Vortex's capacity eventually, and Vortex had really good capacity so that will be tricky to do. A RMC wooden coaster could also be a option, but Steel Vengeance is still CP's newest coaster and will likely still be very popular in 2023 even if CP adds a new coaster soon, so I don't know if they would add a similar-ish RMC to Kings Island so soon. Most of the other ride types I can think of in this spot are more expensive, such as a B&M Floorless (would be a pretty much direct replacement for Vortex) or a Mack Multi-Launch like Copperhead Strike (but CH cost $30m so if this is the model they wanna replace Vortex with it may be a few years, possibly as late as 2024 or 2025). I also fear for Invertigo (which I thought might go before Vortex but it could live a few more years from Stinger parts), The Bat, and maybe even Flight of Fear in coming years. They are all also aging models and parts I imagine must be getting harder to come by. (Adventure Express is older but Mine Trains seem to last crazy long, and by their standards AE is still young) And of course for all the other Arrow Loopers in the chain (Corkscrew, Anaconda, Carolina Cyclone, etc): if Vortex is going, I don't see the other ones outliving it by that much.

In terms of height, according to RCDB, Nemesis @ Alton Towers at a mere 42.6 feet tall. However it does have a 104 foot largest drop, because it goes into a ravine. Also in spite of its small size I have constantly heard it is one of the best B&M Inverts ever made. Random Fun Fact: You could stack 7 and half Nemesises on top of each other and the ride would still be a tiny bit shorter than Fury 325, B&M's largest coaster to date!

Oof. If you were planning to go to Holiday World for their Halloween event and were hoping to get some night rides on The Voyage in, I had bad news: that won't be happening this year. The Voyage is slated to get yet another massive re-tracking, and thus must be closed for the rest of the season. From what I can tell Raven, Legend, and Thunderbird will all be open though. Giant traditional wooden coasters like Voyage need lots of upkeep, especially with how intense Voyage is (even with the MCBR on) and this is more proof of that. Hopefully when Voyage re-opens in 2020, it is a smoother ride for at least another short while (until the next inevitable major retrack).

...ok, I have rested up a bit and let the Day 1 part of the trip go up itself for a while: now, time for Sunday- Part 2! Ride rating system for new rides (or major updates) is in Part 1. Part 2: Sunday, September 15th, 2019 Some of the people in our group slept in, so we didn't leave Breakers Express until ERT was almost starting, thus we were not going to get Steel Vengeance ERT. When we arrived at the park, we instead opted to ride Valravn (save for "B" who won't do a ride with inversions unless it is Maverick) since according to the app Maverick was down. We were sat in the back row, and while hanging over the edge wasn't as intimidating, I got some nice airtime on both vertical drops as well as the airtime hill near the end of the ride. The ride was also very smooth. After getting off Valravn, we headed over to TTD, but found it was still broken as whatever happened on Saturday was major, so it would be closed all day. No TTD rides on this trip for me then, d'oh! However, Maverick was back open, so we headed over to it to find a 30 minute wait. For Maverick that isn't bad at all, so we got in line and waited. When we got on the line had already swollen up to over a hour, however! Maverick didn't break down this time, so we were able to board and got a awesome ride- lots of airtime, plenty of twists, and a powerful launch were all highlights. After Maverick, we headed over to the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad, and rode it down to the Millennium Force plaza. However MF was a hour wait at this point, so we skipped it and got some food at the nearby food trucks. I got a hot dog. Most of the group wanted to ride Sky Ride to GateKeeper, but since I'd be riding alone I decided to walk and see if I could beat them to it. I did, but part of the reason was the rest of the group had decided to go to the car for a bit. So I rode GateKeeper solo, as it was only a 15 minute wait, from the 2nd to last seat on the right wing. The ride was running great, good g-forces and speed (It was for sure not being "GateSleeper"!) and I even got some airtime on the airtime hill. After riding GateKeeper, I headed over to Wicked Twister which also had a short wait, about 5-10 minutes. I rode towards the back, and thus really got "spun" on the backwards launch. Good fun. After riding WT, my group was back so I rode it again immediatley after, but we went for a seat closer to the front, and got another great ride. Then we rode GateKeeper again, again about a 15 minute wait, and this time I rode from the very back. It was about the same as the first ride a bit earlier. My friends decided to smoke for a bit, so next, I rode a new ride I had never ridden at Cedar Point before... NEW RIDE: Troika Basically, it's the exact same ride as Shake Rattle & Roll at Kings Island with a different paintjob. However, both rides are fun, as you spin and twist in the air. Score: 7/10 After Troika, my friends were done smoking, so we went and rode MaXair. If you have ridden Delirium, MaXair is the same thing but the ride cycle goes 1 swing longer once it gets up to full speed, thus making MaXair the better of the two rides. After MaXair, my group went to see a show, so I went and rode Raptor again since it was so good on Saturday. The line said it was a 30 minute wait, but due to B&M Capacity it was really only 15 minutes, the line for Raptor just kept moving. I noticed in the Raptor control booth there was a drawing that called Raptor "Queen of the Birds". If Valravn is the "King", then that means Raptor married him, and I imagine GateKeeper is the royal bodyguard, LOL. Raptor was a bit weaker than it was on Saturday, but not by very much and it was still a epic ride. After Raptor I got in line for "Boo" Streak, and right before I got on my friends show finished but I was close to riding so I rode solo. Boo (Blue) Streak was running pretty decent, not too rough, but the airtime was also a bit weak. After that, my friends went and got some beer and were eating at Chickie+Pete's, so I sat in the Raptor/Blue Streak plaza and just chilled for a while. I did get some nice pictures during this time, which you can see at the end. Also, it drizzled a little bit, but not for too long or very hard at all. When my friends were done eating, we headed out of Raptor/Blue Streak Plaza to find it was 4pm, which meant the Great Pumpkin Parade was going on. We followed it as we were heading for WindSeeker, but my sister and friends realized some haunts were open (unlike Kings Island, CP has a few indoor haunted attractions open on Sundays). I broke off from the group yet again since I don't like Haunts too much, and headed down the beach boardwalk. With Hotel Breakers closed, this was actually quite nice as there was barely anyone on the boardwalk. At the end of the boardwalk, I spotted my target ride: A big old Arrow from 1989. Magnum had about a 10 minute wait, and was back down to 2 trains instead of 3- a good sign that the park was much less crowded than on Saturday. I rode in 6-2 near the back, and got lots of good ejector airtime as usual. After riding Magnum, I headed back up to meet my friends at WindSeeker but they had moved on, so I went over to Iron Dragon to ride that. As the ride climbed up the lift, suddenly, we got E-Stopped: and a ride op came up and took a phone from someone in the front row. I saw this happen on Raptor too. When will people learn? Le sigh. However, with the phone taken, the ride started back up and I got a fun, smooth ride swooping through the trees. Iron Dragon may not be the most intense coaster ever, but it's still fun. I then headed over and walked onto a ride that is actually intense, Rougarou, next. This time I was put in the very back, and while I found the front row of Rougarou quite smooth, the back is kinda rough. I was able to avoid headbanging, but I had to be defensive to do so. I did still enjoy the ride, however. After Rougarou, I headed back to Power Tower, to find my group was still not done on the beach. I chilled near the Iron Dragon plaza for a bit, watching a heavy metal music show, then wandered to Valravn and took some pictures. Then I headed to Power Tower again, then I saw Corkscrew had literally no wait, so I went ahead and rode that. The retro paint job on the trains is actually pretty cool, and the banners that were added this year to both Corkscrew and Gemini are nice. Sadly, besides looking cool, and I am not really a fan of Corkscrew's trains: they are lifted up a bit higher than Vortex's, and thus while I am comfy and snug on Vortex, here I felt cramped up. I didn't get headbanged because of this (I was too tight to be moved) though. And Corkscrew did have some good g-forces and airtime. I am not a huge fan of Corkscrew but when it is a walk-on, I'll ride it, it's a OK ride. However I very much perfer KI's Vortex. After Corkscrew, I headed to the Magnum Gate, and waited for my group. They came in, and hearing Corkscrew was a walk-on, we got back in line to find it had broken down, so we got out of line. We then headed over to Power Tower. Earlier, Space Shot was down, but it had been fixed and re-opened. So we did that side. NEW RIDE: Power Tower- Space Shot Imagine Drop Tower at Kings Island...but in reverse. Instead of going up slow and then dropping, you get SHOT UP instead. Then you bounce around near the top for a bit, get some great views, and come back down slowly. I really liked this ride, though I do still perfer Drop Tower at KI as I thought it was a bit more forceful, and I like the suspense of waiting for the drop from high up. Also, I was on the side facing Valravn and Raptor. Score: 8/10 After Power Tower, my friends wanted to ride Iron Dragon and Rougarou. Both were about the same as earlier: my sister was the only one of the 4 of us who rode Rougarou who didn't like it (Roommate B sat out), she got headbanged because she is short. After Rougarou, we got in line for Millennium Force, which we planned to make our final ride of this trip. The wait was about 40 minutes, but the line moved pretty well. As the sun was gone and darkness was setting in, we got a quasi-night ride on Millennium Force, and it was great. The speed was much better than our 1st ride on Saturday, as the ride was fully broken in, and I did get some decent airtime to boot- plus I was riding in the very back car, so I got yanked over the 1st drop and then fell 300 feet getting airtime the whole way down. After the final ride on Millennium Force, we headed out, used a nearby restroom, and chilled for a bit watching the screamsters from Frontier Town head out past us which was fun. We also heard the Millennium Force crew send out the final train of the night. After this, we headed out and left the park, and came home. And that was Day 2 of Cedar Point! Had a ton of fun both days, but Sunday was better because of less crowds. We probably are gonna take a year off from Cedar Point in 2020, as we wanna hit up other parks, so it'll be a while before we come back. Hopefully Gold Pass madness has died down a bit by then. Anyhow, before I give some final thoughts...MOAR PICTUREZ FROM SUNDAY!!! Steel Vengeance in the morning! I didn't ride this Sunday, but felt as my #1 coaster, I should take a pic of it anyway. Not only is CP teasing about Orion's height, but they are lying and adding 2 feet to Millennium Force's!?!? It's Wickedly Twisty! A King and His Queen. (According to Raptor's ride op box at least) Boo! Going for a Loop! A huge barge. And in the distance, that white thing is a 2nd huge barge. Boardwalk views. Hotel Breakers- it's not super cheap, but this place is convenient to stay at when visiting Cedar Point. Magnum XL-200: Even when you see it, you won't believe it! 30 years old and still awesome. A big awesome 300 foot Giga Coaster, and a big broken 400 foot Strata Coaster. WindSeeker from the boardwalk- this pic was cooler last year when we got a rainbow in it, though. Valravn near sunset. OK, that's it for pictures. Now for final Pros/Cons of both days... PROS +Amazing Rides +Beautiful Landscaping and Scenery, even if not themed very much +Ride Operations were generally fast for most rides (Magnum XL-200 and Raptor especially) +Express Hotel was decently clean and nice to stay at CONS -Monster crowds on Saturday: the park nearly hit capacity, and I was waiting 45 minutes for Magnum and stuff! (Really made me respect how CP has kept their old Arrow coasters and such, they were lifesavers!) -Top Thrill Dragster breaking down and not running Sunday -Many other rides did have breakdowns, though not as bad as TTD's as they all re-opened at least, and I did get lucky with Raptor on Saturday Anyhow, that is all for this trip report. Comments and questions are, of course, still welcome. Now I await my next trip, which will probably be Kings Island Haunt. Haunt at KI can get busy, but after "surviving" this Saturday at CP, I think I will more than be able to handle KI's Haunt. McSalsa Away!

I'm not really bothered by the rattle on Banshee. Then again, I can enjoy rides that are considered pretty rough like Vortex and Rougarou, so maybe I am very durable and thus probably not the best person to ask about these sorts of things.

I was at CP this weekend, and I took my own pic of this, so here is more proof this is real: Also yeah I dunno why they have Millennium Force listed at 312, everything else I have read says 310. There was a 2nd tank that referenced Cedar Point's Jumbo Jet as well but I never took a pic of it. Edit: Oops, forgot the quote the OG pic, and not sure how to add it in now.

Hello everyone! This past weekend, me, my sister, her boyfriend and our 2 roommates (who will be called "R" and "B") went to Cedar Point for a 2-day trip. This trip was also during Halloweekends. I did ride a few new rides on this trip, so I need to show the "ride rating system" I guess: RIDE RATING SYSTEM (For New Un-ridden rides or major updates) (Won't be used until Part 2 Though) 10=ZOMG THIS RIDE IS EPIC 9=I Adore This Ride 8=I Really Like This Ride 7=This Ride is Fun, I Like It 6=It's OK Enough, Will Ride Again 5=Meh, No Feelings Either Way for Various Reasons 4=Ehh, Kinda Bad 3=Yuck, Bad 2=POO, THIS RIDE SUX 1=SUPER POO, THIS RIDE SUX EVEN HARDER! 0=WHO MADE THIS MONSTROSITY!?!? PART 1: Saturday- September 14th, 2019 We left for the park very early in the morning, but due to some unforseen delays, we didn't make it to the park in time to beat the rush to Steel Vengeance. So instead we headed for Ohio's 1st Big Blue Giga Coaster (there will be 2 in 2020), Millennium Force. We got on after about a 20 minute wait, and got a solid ride on the OG Giga Coaster. It was fast, but due to the fact this was early in the morning the ride was still "warming up" and thus was a bit sluggish compared to how it typically runs later on. This is something that happens to a lot of coasters though, not just Millennium Force. Don't judge a ride just based on a early morning ride! It was still a lot of fun though, even at this early stage. After MF, we decided to go get in line for TTD, but my sister stopped to get a drink, and it took 10 minutes to do so because the cashiers at the Coasters Drive-In were clearly still learning the computer system (With a bunch of locals in school, I imagine CP had to do some extra hiring just for Halloweekends). We got to TTD about 10 minutes after the park opened, and it already was over a 1-hour wait. This was the first warning of what was to come. We didn't wait for TTD, and instead headed over to Magnum XL-200 which was a walk-on. Magnum may not be the smoothest ride out there, but the coaster's powerful ejector airtime (even so early on it was strong) and great setting more than make up for it IMO. Also, I love that they brought back the final tunnel lights and fog. Heading down the midway, we next hit Gemini. Our roomates went for the Blue Train, while my sister, her boyfriend, and me rode in the Red- very split up though as I went for the very back of the red train (but a middle seat in that car), and they were near the front. Gemini is a fun coaster- pretty smooth when you aren't on a rear wheel, great airtime, and it does the racing thing a lot better than Kings Island's Racer. And to make it even better, we on Red Train won! HAHA! After Gemini, we headed into Frontier Town, as we were heading towards the Forbidden Frontier "New for 2019" attraction but we didn't realize it was closed for the season. While in Frontier Town, most of us (B sat out- he is still intimidated by certain rides) rode Skyhawk. My sister and R both freaked out on this ride last time, and they still did a little bit here, it went much better than last time. Me and my sister's boyfriend both just enjoyed the ride though, Skyhawk is good fun. After Skyhawk, we did a quick stop in the CP Town Hall Museum (always cool), then headed down Frontier Trail. This is when we learned Forbidden Frontier had closed for the season (D'oh!) so after a quick stop at the petting zoo, we headed down the midway (locking some stuff in a locker down the way), and found some food trucks past Millennium Force. I got some Nachos with cheese because they were cheap, and I eventually ended up breaking away from the group to ride Rougarou by myself. This is when the crowds had really began to pick up- Rougarou, usually a walk-on, had a 30 minute wait! Still the good news is, Rougarou is a B&M that runs 3 32-passenger trains, so the line at least moved very well. And when I did finally get to ride, I got front row! Rougarou is much smoother from the front row, and the ride has some great intensity and g-forces. Another fun ride. However, what I saw at the top of the lift hill terrified me: THE PARKING LOT WAS 100% FULL! My friends had gone to ride GateKeeper, so I headed over to meet with B who didn't ride. We chilled for a bit near GateKeeper Plaza, when I saw Raptor do a empty test run. I headed over to check it out- there was a small line of people waiting for the ride to re-open from whatever breakdown had happened, but it wasn't bad. I got in line. They cycled the ride for 30-45 minutes (I only waited this long because all huge rides had lines about this long anyway), even putting a 3rd train back on the track, but I stayed and waited it out as they were cycling constantly and this was a B&M after all, and then Raptor re-opened and I was on one of the first trains back out. And I am glad I waited for it, because this was my best ride ever on Raptor: it was pretty smooth, save a few turns here and there, and the speed and g-forces were excellent. The final turn was still rough as heck, though, as always. After the awesome Raptor ride, I met back up with B: the rest of our group had STILL not gotten on GateKeeper! It ended up being almost a 2-hour wait for them! We only barely made it back to our locker in time to get our stuff. We also ate a cancellation fee for a hotel 20 minutes away we had booked, and just booked Express Hotel at this time (I was shocked they had empty rooms still avaliable considering the crowds, but then again if this was mostly Gold Pass people they would not be using the hotels I'd imagine), as we were nervous about the park hitting capacity and stopping people from coming in. We then headed over to Maverick, but it broke down as we got there, and after 30 minutes of waiting for it to re-open, we gave up for now. After this, we eventualy headed over to Magnum XL-200 again. It had a 45-minute wait, but with everything having big lines we just sucked it up and chose Magnum anyway. The line did move amazingly though with all 3 trains running and the ride ops working crazy fast, but it was indeed about 45 minutes due to the sheer number of people in line. I think Magnum had more people in line for it here than Diamondback typically does during Haunt! However, we played some games on our phones, looked at the awesome "30 Years of Magnum" posters, and after 45 minutes we did get on the coaster. Magnum was warmed up now, so the ejector airtime was very strong now, and we got a even better ride than the one earlier in the day. With the sheer amount of crowds, and us needing to rest, we headed to our Hotel for about a hour and half. On the way out, we saw numerous cars parked in weird spots, and a huge line of cars were coming in the park as well. After "recharging" at the Hotel and getting food at McDonalds, we headed back to the park around 9pm- and found tons of people were leaving, thankfully! However while the crowds had died down a bit, most major rides still had huge lines. For a while I broke off from the group again and got in line for Top Thrill Dragster, but the line for it was moving so slow, I ditched when I checked my phone to see Maverick had re-opened and was "only" a 1 hour wait. However, Maverick was down when I got there (it had re-opened: for 10 minutes!) However I still dodged a bullet, as about 10 minutes before I would have gotten on TTD (had I stayed) it broke down and stayed down. At Maverick, my group re-united briefly before my sister, Roommate R, and her boyfriend went to do a Haunt while me and Roomate B went to ride Gemini again. Gemini gave us a great night ride, and there was no wait for it as the crowds had thinned out at the less popular rides at least. Then we headed over to Magnum XL-200 yet again for a 3rd ride, which we waited 5 minutes for. It was even better than the 2nd ride, since it was night now making the lake a black abyss and the tunnels pitch black...save the last one which at night becomes a colorful mess. After Magnum XL-200, the group reunited yet again at Steel Vengeance (save "B" who would run over and ride Maverick twice when it re-opened near closing), and we got in line at 11:15pm. At 12:30, after passing through the new metal detectors and everything, we boarded the Blackjack train. A 75 minute wait for Steel Vengeance isn't too bad, especially when you consider it was 2 1/2 hours earlier. And the ride was worth it- Steel Vengeance is my favorite coaster, and this ride reinforced its claim to that title. Tons of sustained ejector air, smooth track, aggressive turns and barrel rolls...and then you do it all again underneath the structure. An amazing ride to end a kinda rough (due to crowds mostly) but still great day. And now, for pictures from Saturday: The sun rises over the Indiana/Ohio Border! All Fear the Great Wind Mill Army! Cedar Point! Complete with Seagull to the bottom right. Don't Touch GateKeeper's pumpkins. Power Tower and TTD. 2 Huge Rides at a park filled with them. The OG Big Blue Giga Coaster, Millennium Force! Rougarou and Iron Dragon. Gemini and its namesake midway BEWARE OF BIG PIG!!! Snake River Falls, and Forbidden Frontier (both closed) GateKeeper MaXair, Sky Ride, and Raptor, as seen from GateKeeper Plaza TTD at Night. In true TTD fashion, not very long after this, it would break down. (Shocked how good this pic came out) VENGEANCE WILL BE MINE!!! (Sorry for blurry pic, at night my phone typically kinda sux) And that is all for now. Tomorrow I will probably post part 2, which will speak of how Sunday went (Minor Spoiler: A LOT BETTER). Per usual, questions and comments welcome!

Thanks- yep, this is pretty much what I imagine this view will be like next year...with Invertigo's colors updated, Son of Beast and Firehawk gone (you can see the very tip of its lift hill in this picture), and Banshee also added of course. This pic also really shows what I mean by how Orion will help "fill out the skyline". In 2020, it is gonna seem like the Eiffel Tower is surrounded by giant rides. When 48 years prior in 1972, I'd bet not much was even visible from this location besides the Eiffel Tower and maybe the old sky ride.

Yep, that's the picture. Also that is what I imagine Orion is gonna look like, maybe a smidge smaller but this isn't far off. Also I do believe the big 200' overbanked hill will be clearly visible from this location (I imagine it'd be coming up just behind the Eiffel Tower) and possibly even the turnaround.

On the topic of "How Big Will Orion Look", from the parking lot...I'd say it will look about the same size as Diamondback, maybe even a bit smaller though. My basis for this: I looked closely at a old-ish 2011 skyline pic (still has Son of Beast and stuff but also WindSeeker), and you can see Firehawk in this picture which was 115 feet tall. Orion, being 287 feet tall, is roughly 2.75x taller- which is also how much bigger Diamondback looked from this same image. (I would share the specific image but I am not 100% sure where I got it from or who the original owner of the picture is) Orion only being 287 feet tall isn't the only thing though, you could have built a 330-foot Giga in Orion's spot and it would only barely look taller than Diamondback, because DB is in a great spot to look as big as possible while Area 72 (formerly X-Base) is tucked in a back area of the park and thus any ride put there isn't going to seem as big as it really is from the main parking lot. However, another thing I noticed- in that 2011 pic, from the Son of Beast area (now filled by Banshee on the skyline) to WindSeeker there was a huge "hole" where there were no tall rides surpassing the treeline from this view. Firehawk, Racer, FOF, etc. were all not tall enough. Orion is going to fill this hole quite easily. Pictures of Kings Island's Skyline in 2020 are going to be very cool looking.

I do think some park will eventually build a 200-foot wooden coaster again, but not with the traditional hand-cut track rides like The Beast, Mystic Timbers, etc. use. Even had it been properly built, Son of Beast would have become rough very quickly anyway simply due to the fact traditional wooden track starts to wear out noticeably faster on rides beyond 125 feet, especially when you go over 200. The 159-foot tall Voyage at Holiday World needs extreme amounts of care and maintenance to keep running well, and most parks won't work as hard as Holiday World does just to maintain 1 ride like that. However, in the years since Son of Beast's failure, new wooden track styles- laser cut prefab track and RMC's topper track- have emerged, and both of these seem like they could handle a 200+ foot tall coaster. It has been a while since Intamin has made a woodie though, so I would imagine if some park did decide to do a 200-foot woodie in the 2020s, it would likely be a RMC with topper track. Topper Track RMCs may not be "true" wood coasters, but they do market them as such, and I do think a 200+ foot version is possible. But I am not 100% sure if Kings Island will be the park that builds one of these first. I expect Orion will be the newest coaster at Kings Island for a good while, since it is a $30 million dollar ride, and there are usually at least 5-year gaps between rides (possibly with a smaller cheaper ride in between) that expensive these days unless a park is really trying to build itself up like Carowinds. And Cedar Point is probably going to push Steel Vengeance well into the 2020's, and won't want to build something seen as "similar" at Kings Island until the hype for that fully wears of, so Kings Island might still get something different (like a B&M Dive if Valravn hype has worn off or Mack Multi-Launch, or even something from Gerstlauer or something) as its next big coaster.

Oops! Sorry, they are both Sea World San (Insert Rest of City Name Here), so my mind got the 2 parks mixed up for a second.

Sea World San Diego. Ben43065 also forgot Candymonium, the B&M Hyper Coming to Hersheypark, and Sea World Orlando has also confirmed a coaster for 2020 but has not announced what it is yet (Sea World is going all out in 2020, it seems).

So, the leaked blueprints were legit. And DustinTheNow's prediction was nearly spot on, save there isn't really a trim brake before the big floater hill and he had the evac stairs on the wrong side. This is gonna be a great ride, my only complaint would be the short-ish length (only about the same as Leviathan in terms of ride time). The elements on this coaster look a lot better than Leviathan's though. Also I hope there are as many trees around this ride eventually as there were in the animation, if that ends up being the case night rides will be epic. This will probably be the best coaster in the park to me, at least at daytime (Beast after dark is hard to beat for almost ANY coaster). I will need to ride it though before I can truly make that call. Also, 1650 pph. This thing is going to eat lines as much as Banshee! Also, I did a bit of math a few days ago- I would guess this new coaster is gonna be $30 million or so, based on what Leviathan cost in 2012. I then estimated how much it would cost to build the coaster to the length of Fury 325 or so...it would likely cost $37 million then, I can understand why they may have gone a bit short on length then: $7 million is a lot of extra money, and a longer coaster probably would not have attracted as many extra guests as it would need to make up for that. Plus, I did some research, and Cedar Fair has only spent more than $30 million for a new coaster twice: Millennium Force in 2000, adjusted for inflation, was $38 million and Top Thrill Dragster in 2003 was $33 million. Since then Fury 325 and Copperhead Strike- both at Carowinds- were at but did not go over $30m. (Fury 325 probably should have been like $38 million based on my calculations but apparently from what I have heard the Carolinas gave Cedar Fair a deal or something and helped pay for it a bit) I would assume Cedar Fair doesn't usually spend more than $30m on new roller coasters. Edit: Also, for how this ride is gonna be 3 minutes, my guess: 1 minute lift hill. 1 minute ride. 1 minute on brake run.

I dunno, if I was a news reporter who loved to also ride roller coasters, I would have done the same as a excuse to go to Cedar Point.

Yeah that's true. Splashin' Safari's 2 are the only water coasters I have ever been on, so it's possible I just think of them as average sized when in fact they are giants compared to their peers. I knew they were the 2 longest in the world, but if Cheetah Chase is what your average-sized and length water coaster looks like, then HOLY CRUD WILDEBEEST IS HUGE. And Mammoth is even huger.

For anyone interested, the Holiday World website has the stats for this new slide: https://www.holidayworld.com/rides/cheetah-chase/ To be honest I am a bit surprised- compared to Wildebeest and Mammoth, Cheetah Chase is kinda small. Both Cheetah Chase tracks combined are shorter than Wildebeest! Then again I have learned from rides like Raven, Maverick or Mystic Timbers, just because a ride is small does not mean it lacks intensity or fun. Cheetah Chase should be a fun water coaster, given it is from the same manufacturer that made Wildebeest and Mammoth anyway.