fryoj

A wing would absolutely not be the same draw as a giga. That's an eye roller. Millinium Force is still a bigger deal at CP than GateKeeper and is many years older. Also, it wouldn't be that much cheaper. Even a wing would be $20 million +. As for markets, like you said, KI is on par of attendance with CP and CWon. KD and CWinds are, at least in the numbers that are accessible, significantly lesser in attendance. That matters more than the market. KI is one of their flagship parks. To "quote" the guy you referenced, theres even less evidence of a Wing than a Giga. Park management has gone on record(and someone else will have to find the reference) saying they were recommending the addition of a Giga.

Footers around the station should be soon. Track won't show up on site until after the ride is announced. So probably August.

I was looking at this pic and trying to visualize some things and realized something staggering as to the scale. The lift on this thing will be taller than WindSeeker. O.O

I'm not 100% it'll go all the way to the SOB plot. It could just go up into the old safari clearing and turn around there. I could also see the station ending up somewhere by the existing maintenance buildings and tying into X Base there. But overall, that layout does fit with rumors we've heard.

Doing the same basic layout of Fury got ~5000 feet. This one was ~5700. Furys actual is 6602.

Path of least resistance, if they did indeed want to get to the SOB plot. Just over a mile there and that's with no detours, helixes, nor accounting for the up and down of the track. Granted, we are waaaaay too early in the process and Friday it could all change with more clearing, but I'm really starting to lean on this being the general layout we end up seeing.

Or, even worse, think it's still Firehawk and not even know it's a new coaster. They haven't built a flyer in this country in 10 years. There's almost no chance this will change that. Or a Flat Giga

The mods asked us not to continue with the discussion on the other thread. Read this thread. It's not about a single comment where a KI staff member talked down about people to those people. This goes deeper and has been going on for years.

It could just be a primer coat. Primer would likely be gray. We had a discussion a while back on the Giga thread about whether CSF ever puts primered track outside, and someone said they have seen it before.

So are you saying KIC members are dimwitted? Do you count yourself in that? You do realize that you'd be included in that staff members opinion right? But maybe you are right. Maybe Kings Island and Cedar Fair management could care less about KIC and the enthusiast community and encourage their staff to talk down upon them.

I'm betting money that if a member of the staff was recorded saying that and it hit social media, they'd be looking for a job. Calling your most dedicated fans that is just stupid. At times it appears the park has people handling their social media that don't understand social media. If you are in a position to deal with the public for any sized company, let alone one as large as KI, you have to be able to let criticisms roll off your back. After the park went on what sounds like a holy crusade to keep pictures off here because they wanted the whole thing to be a surprise, and for people to wait for opening day to see the finished product, they are asking to be judged on the product that they presented on opening day. If it wasn't going to be done opening day when everyone was going to see it anyway, it's childish to throw a fit over pics at an earlier stage of incompletion. Especially when no one really knew if the pedestals were gone. People clearly care about that. Having pics of them gone, and letting it be known they wouldn't be coming back could have diffused this issue months ago. They also don't make any additional money if they never upkeep anything and GP stops coming. Expansions and improvements are how amusement parks keep the crowds coming to pay the bills. KI's purpose for existing is to separate as much money as they can from people. Improvements like the ones this year is one of those ways. Don't pretend they do what they do for our benefit.

It's where YungStud is going to hide the Green Intamin track.

The first post in the thread has a link to the Notice of Commencement if you want to see it.

Also, that's by the greenhouse. They've been dumping dirt there for years.

Double, but you can find the originals and more here: http://www.wildgravitytravels.com/hersheypark-2020-and-kings-island-2020-giga-coaster-track/ It's very interesting. The letter codes seem to be correct. The skip means one of two things. Either MCT is headed overseas, so they are getting a jump on it, or, like has been suggested, MCS has been skipped or delayed. One of the Hershey track pieces has production and an April date wrote on it. The gray track does as well. It also has station wrote on the gray track. That would be the first track produced and we aren't that far outside of the window we saw Banshee track start to show up. Granted, we have no reason to expect an announcement before the first couple weeks of August. So no track headed to King's Island will be leaving there before then. I'm assuming thats just a primer coat on that track. I'm not sure what I'd think about a gray coaster. That may very well be KI's track.

Yeah, the queue remaining is perplexing. Thats not where you'd save money on a $30+ million dollar coaster. Saving it for a future flat is possible, but that opens up even more questions. I'm becoming more convinced that the new coaster won't interact with the Firehawk plot, so a courtyard with flats and food would make sense there. Just odd that you'd save that.

I guess I never considered that the park would own their own transformers. I'm used to dealing with jobs where the utility won't let you touch the equipment, but I've only wired up residential and small commercial buildings. As to why it's still there, I agree that the plan is probably to reuse it. But it sitting there a few months doesn't automatically mean that. We don't know for sure what the plans are for the Firehawk plot. It's not a guarantee that the new coaster is going there. There were people saying the decision to remove Firehawk occurred last summer. If thats the case, the new coaster certainly isn't going there, and they could be still deciding what to do there. It's also possible that they are just going to relocate that service to another part of that plot. O'Rouke, to our knowledge, is the only contractor who's been on that plot, and they are not EC's. They could be waiting till they start actual construction to move the box. As to the concrete trucks, they are probably pouring the floor, or around that new pole barn they are building.

I still see both ponds in both pictures. Just the green blends with the foliage around it. Whatever was done between March and October though in that area doesn't scream coaster prep. OK. The stuff by The Racer was the obvious clearing. Nothing I've seen from the Eiffel Tower shows the small clearing shown above. If they have indeed done more work in that area since October, that might be a sign of something coaster related. Otherwise, I'm leaning toward it being something that was going to happen regardless of what they built this year.

Are you talking about by The Racer, or the small area in the pic above just above the boneyard?

Thats from October. They hadn't even closed Firehawk yet. They just started clearing by The Racer in the last few weeks. Even if that is legit clearing, theres no reason to think it has anything to do with the 2020 project. They wouldn't start clearing then stop for 6 months.

I agree that's neat, and a great touch. But whats up with the mismatched awning?

I'm pretty sure you can see at least an excavator in one of the pics on site. I'm sure theres a dozer somewhere too. They have more work to do there even if they are done knocking down trees. If it is indeed a transformer, they'd need the power company to come out and remove it. That's not something they'd typically let a customer touch. So it could be as simple as waiting on them to come remove it. If it's not in the way of anything, or they are just going to relocate it, that could end up being a bit before they touch it.

One think that gives that more credence, is that they'd start footer work at the station area. So it would make sense to get that area cleared first to get started on that. They could work on the rest of the ride clearing later. Another thing that layout could mean. That rumor about Firehawk's closing decision being made last Summer could have been true. If they put the station down there and never touch the Firehawk plot with the new coaster, it's possible. That would leave the Firehawk plot for bathrooms, concessions, or other rides in the future as a part of a new loop path. Edit: I added a very poor drawing giving the gist of what would be a possibility.

I've wondered that, but come back to it being too big of a chokepoint between the antiques, Vortex and WindSeeker. I think it's more likely that they'll put a path through there that ties back to X Base and have the station somewhere on that path. That eliminates the dead end for both areas and gives two points of egress for the new coaster.

I wonder if they are selectively leaving trees or just haven't got to them yet?