homestar92

If you ever get down to Atlanta, I recommend you give Blue Hawk a ride. It's a Vekoma looper, which are generally agreed upon as being more painful than Arrows, and the new trains made it a downright pleasant ride. Granted, Vortex is my favorite ride. So my "pleasant" is not the same as the general public's "pleasant". However, I think that such a retrofit could really do Vortex good and make it even more loved than it already is.

The comment about the air being eerily calm is pretty much the only thing pointing toward Vortex (however, one could argue that the air would become more calm if a hawk ceased to fly around in it). Firehawk just makes the most sense for removal and the Firehawk removal rumors predate the announcement that something is being removed. Plus, given Vortex's significant place in Kings Island's history, I imagine we'd get more than 12 operating days' worth of notice that it's being removed. Plus Firehawk's poor reliability and comparatively low ridership when compared to most other coasters in the park make it the prime candidate for removal. People think Vortex is unpopular because they don't like it, but Vortex is one of the most ridden rides in the entire park, and it's got a 48 inch height requirement. Removing a 48 inch ride would upset many children who are not yet at 52 inches. As far as I know, Firehawk has the strictest height requirement among all rides in the park. That, combined with its downtime and poor hourly capacity probably contribute to its lower ridership.

If we extrapolate from existing data points, probably a Haunt maze that will be painfully visible from the main midway all season long. Though it does have a large station. You could build a pretty darn good haunt maze in there.

I agree with you in that The Bat is almost certainly not being removed. However, don't read too much into the paint. They painted King Cobra just one year before it was removed.

^ removing Invertigo would open up the parking lot for expansion. You could probably build SIX rides if you built them over the parking lot! - homestar92, channeling his inner Terpy.

^ You could honestly fit a giant coaster of Beast or Son of Beast proportions in there. The only thing with using that land for a Giga is that it would be an interesting layout for one. Most gigas are basically an out-and-back design (with I-305 being the most different of the bunch, IMO). It doesn't seem like a giga coaster tract of land, however, there is also a ton of land back behind there and even back behind Action Theater.

Someone I know said that they heard on the news that the announcement of which ride was to be removed will happen today. I can't find anything to back that up, though. Has anyone heard anything similar? Last I heard, the announcement would be "later this week". I guess either way, we'll know within the week.

Are we really assuming that good business decisions are a part of Kentucky Kingdom's M.O.?

I mean, it's not like RMC leaves the track in place when they refurb rides. They're quite used to working with wooden support structures. However, it's worth noting that while RMC has done some crazy stuff with small rides (Hurler and Twisted Twins being notable examples, Adventure Express is WAY too small for the typical RMC design. Most RMCs at least marginally resemble their original form. RMC Adventure Express would be a brand new ride with a very very small amount of reused support structure.

Vortex would open up a similar patch of land as Firehawk if removed, but the actual Vortex footprint would likely become just queue, station, and brake run, with the ride layout extending into the woods. Ultimately, I'm fairly certain that 2020 will bring either a Giga or a dive coaster. Those are the only products in the B&M catalog that I think would make any sense to install at KI.

A Vortex line extending all the way to Juke Box Diner is only a 30 minute wait if you have a good crew. And I measured that time back when they used the switchbacks in the station. It's probably even less now.

The park has confirmed Flight of Fear is going to operate during Winterfest. Flight of Fear will survive at least another season.

^Consistently sending half-full trains every 90 seconds still equals more riders than sending full trains half as often on a ride that spends 25% of its life broken down, which is pretty much the case with Firehawk. The only reason people think Vortex might be removed is because they don't like it and they think that means that everyone doesn't like it. I'd imagine Vortex's numbers have gone down a bit since those figures were recorded, but it's still likely pulling nearly a million a year and is still one of the most ridden rides. People also forget that Vortex is very popular among younger kids, as it's one of the very few "extreme" rides with a 48 inch height requirement.

At least as of 2014, The Bat is one of the top 10 most ridden attractions in the entire park, pulling over 3/4 of a million riders annually. Plus, it sits on very undesirable terrain and it more or less follows the outermost edge of the property line , so it's not really sitting on particularly useful land. As long as it remains reliable, there would be little incentive to remove it. Backlot, Invertigo, Firehawk, Flight of Fear, and the three Planet Snoopy coasters all pull fewer riders. Honestly, I'd imagine Flight of Fear would be pretty high on the chopping block. I think the only reason it's not being discussed is that the park has confirmed it will operate during Winterfest this year.

When I went to the park, I went directly to Kraken right at opening so I was able to ride it both ways with minimal wait. Their headsets did not fit over glasses, so being very nearly legally blind, I wasn't able to enjoy the ride at all with the VR. The focusing mechanism mitigates this a little, but my eyesight is really bad and my two eyes are not equal. Their system just couldn't accommodate bad vision at all. So maybe my frustrations left me a bit biased, but I think the ride is better without VR and it certainly wasn't worth killing the capacity like it did. I'm not upset to see that feature gone.

Greg Scheid used almost exactly those words in reference to Firehawk during the Banshee announcement. I knew my Sheldon Cooper-esque eidetic memory would come in handy one day! It's around a minute into this video: I do believe the ride is Firehawk. That said, I don't believe that "one of our own" is meant to be a clue.

The fact that it needed new footers is not ominous at all. Diamondback had to close for a weekend a few years back because some footers needed replaced.

^ Plus, this is purely anecdotal but Firehawk seems to have taken a sharp and fast dive in popularity over the last few years. I know, I know. Wait times do not equal popularity. However, I remember maybe 5 years ago, Firehawk would consistently fill its line and have hour-plus waits. Nowadays, it seems like half the days I'm at the park, it's sending half-empty trains. Vortex ridership has probably gone down in the last five years (we did get a new giant loopy coaster in that time, so that's to be expected) however, it doesn't seem to have been affected nearly as much as Firehawk. Also keep in mind, Firehawk may be a fairly recent addition to KI, but the ride had been around for many years before it ever made it to our park. Having just ridden Blue Hawk at Six Flags over Georgia last week, I was very impressed by that makeover. Any chance Vortex is being "removed" but actually getting a refurbishment a la Blue Hawk or Rougarou? I think the chances of that are somewhere above zero. Very inexpensive compared to a new ride, but it would undoubtedly boost ridership quite a lot for at least a short time. All that being said, Vortex is my favorite ride and Firehawk and WindSeeker are my wife's favorite rides. One of us is going to be having a bad time pretty much no matter what, it seems.

^^Also worth noting, Delirium being painted was never announced. That ended up just being a surprise when we showed up for Media Day. Whatever they have contracted Baynum Painting to do, I don't think we'll necessarily hear about it. Does Baynum do woodies? The coasters that really need painted are Vortex, Racer, and Diamondback. Of those, I'd imagine Vortex would be the one to get fresh paint, given that it needs it pretty badly and is in the same general area as the improvements we're speculating on.

Tiques where the Dinos were Racer refresh (not a refurb, as I think it'll just be some track work, new paint, and maybe some station improvements) Fresh coat of paint for either Vortex or Diamondback (but probably Vortex since it seems everyone agrees the other improvements are going in Coney Mall)

Well, building a track for them would require permits, which haven't been filed. But running them on a road that already exists wouldn't require any. There's a nearly half-mile long road in Coney Mall that was recently vacated and is currently only used as the queue for a Haunt (and queues can be easily moved)...

So I was in camp 'Tiques, but now I'm leaning toward a refresh of Racer with the return of the backwards train. I found an article from 2008 when the backwards Racer was turned back around to face forwards. Notice the verbiage in the first paragraph. http://www.fox19.com/story/8118165/no-more-backwards-racer-at-kings-island

Part of me loves that idea. But part of me is also so loyal to the Kenwood Texas Roadhouse location that it would feel like cheating on a significant other to ever eat at a different location.

^It wouldn't surprise me if that were true. Most people aren't like us. Most people go only to the park that is closest to them with maybe the occasional trip to a destination-type park. Kings Island and Kentucky Kingdom really don't compete with each other, so an agreement like this costs both parks nothing and gives them a nice perk that can help with recruitment. Kings Island dollars are much more threatened by movie theaters, the Cincinnati Reds, and other entertainment options in Cincinnati than they are by Kentucky Kingdom. When I was at Silver Dollar City an employee there told me that they have an agreement so that they can get into SFStL with their employee badge, so I know that agreements like these do exist.

I think Cedar Fair just hates racing coasters that share names with great classic rock anthems.