KIghostguy

Totally agree. I know people will swoop in and say “It will ruin the surprise!” Absolutely not. They tried a similar strategy last year with International Street. As an employee, I saw the refurbished International Street three different times before opening day, and there were still surprises on opening day and over the next few weeks as everything in the project was completed. This “surprise” strategy would have worked in probably 1986, but with the park’s social media so popular, there is no good reason for them to just be so quiet on updates with the largest investment in the park’s history. They were super quiet on updates even before coronavirus. It costs literally nothing to post new pictures to Instagram, and it comes with lots of benefits to the park—you get more positive coverage, you get a wider audience, you can get more people interested in the project. Like you said, Mystic Timbers was nowhere near this quiet. I mean, that photo from a few weeks ago of Orion the dog in front of Orion’s entrance was the first official photo from the park of Area 72 since December. Unbelievable! It’s nice to see the park take a lot of pride in what they add. Unfortunately, that pride and enthusiasm from the park’s side has not really translated into their infrequent updates. It almost makes Orion seem like an afterthought to the park.

Yes, but I believe that was done from the park’s end and not part of the original plan. I’m not 100% on that, though.

They were still working on specific plans for the theming in January. Unfortunately, I think it would be one of the easier things to cut. I sure hope I’m wrong, but I’m not that optimistic with so much capital getting eliminated in both 2020 and 2021. Even if it wasn’t cut, I seriously doubt it will be fully installed by whenever opening day is. The Notice of Commencement from 2018 listed Daniels Wood Land, and they’re based out of California. It took me almost a month to get a single book from Amazon; who knows how long it would take to ship potential props or other elements from California?

"A few years ago" would have been--supposedly--around 2015 or so when the figures were actually destroyed.

The train figures were kept in one of the maintenance “graveyards” and allegedly, they were melted down a few years ago.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the station’s already been demolished.

Orion was testing this morning. I could see it from my backyard.

I work at Emporium.

No need for personal attacks today!

Someone posted the physical map a month or so ago:

He’s not going to be any more specific; it’s like pulling teeth.

No, the seating has been there for a while. You can see the umbrellas in the left hand side of this photo I took. I’m sure someone has a closer photo of the whole seating area.

Like Newspapers.com? Or did you actually take the time to go to a historical society/library/etc.?

I watched the Kings Island part of that livestream. Mike Koontz said that he rode Orion twice in early March before everything shut down. He said the view was “spectacular” and that it’s now his favorite ride in the park.

You’ll enter through Firehawk’s photo booth (it won’t be a photo booth anymore) and walk down stairs into the queue. The “prop building” is in the queue right before the stairs up to the station. The exit of the station connects to the main Area 72 midway and takes you past Orion’s photo booth, which is a new structure.

This area isn’t large enough to plant a bunch of trees down the middle of it, and even if you could add them in its present state, it would cause lots of congestion in what’s sure to be a high-traffic area.

Flight of Fear was designed with four train operation in mind. I'm honestly not sure of specifics in the ride's train operations, but I know who to ask for more information. The Beast was indeed designed for four train operation and that's the sole reason why there's the brake shed after the first tunnel. A lot of people online say it never ran four trains because there were capacity issues. Richard Fussner, the park's loss preventions director at the time The Beast was built, told me it was because running four trains at one time were too heavy and causing too much stress on the track. The Beast has never ran more than three trains when it's been open to the public.

You can see that they planted two new trees in front of CHAOS.

At long last, an on-the-ground shot of some Area 72 work: https://twitter.com/KyleKruthoffer/status/1264397046376730625/photo/1 Too bad there was radio silence from the park of these types of photos between the ACE construction tour and now.

Yes, that would make sense. The executives at the park at that time that I’ve talked to use opening day to refer to the grand opening.

The upper railing (not the total cage) was added in the first few weeks the park was open. Dennis Speigel went up one morning to the top platform shortly after the park opened for the day and found a young child sitting on the railing so his dad could take a picture! They immediatly closed the tower and installed the higher fencing.

I love that documentary. One thing is for sure, you can never have too much Vincent Price.

Taken last year, walking out of the park.

I rode Revolution at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and thought it was a really fun ride. It doesn’t stand out in my mind as particularly forceful, but the drops had almost standing airtime, especially on the backwards trip.

Orion is cycling right now.