KIghostguy

The real reason will be included in my book, which is coming out May of next year. The reason is not as dramatic as many of you think.

The crane is gigantic! I'm looking at it right now from the windows of Mason High School!

Taken yesterday. I will certainly miss the visual of Vortex. The ride experience? Not so much.

I’ve attached a photo from April 14 of this year and a photo from today. I went up and touched the hangar door and it is fresh paint. Two paint buckets are hidden behind the fog machine in the outer left corner.

Flight of Fear is in the process of being repainted. There is a new coat on the hangar doors and the blue stripe around the building.

The Ohio room at Emporium.

Always enjoy reading your posts @TombraiderTy and I am looking forward to more "installments!" To answer your question, the park has always served LaRosa's. I've attached an ad from the 5/26/1972 Cincinnati Post.

Surprisingly, Don Miller is not in the Hall of Fame.

No. Firehawk’s trains are incompatible with Nighthawk.

It will have pictures and text throughout, but it will be more information than photos. It will not be like one of those Images of America books.

I have contacted him, I’m just waiting to hear back.

Yes, it will be on Amazon. I am also hoping to sell it in the park!

I am extremely excited to officially announce Kings Island: A Ride Through Time, authored by yours truly! This will be the first book ever written about the history of Kings Island! It will be released in early May 2020 by Theme Park Press to coincide with the opening of Orion and will feature exclusive interviews with the executives that have shaped the park through the years. I am very excited to share this news with you all, and to keep you updated through this process. I really can’t wait to share this book with the public next year!

In regards to your first question, Monster was removed after 1980 and was shipped to Canada's Wonderland. We got a new Monster for 1982. The last dip on The Racer was removed because executives wanted to increase the height clearance on that path with it being opened up to guest foot traffic.

They removed like one grove of trees next to the MCBR. Your post is quite the overreaction!

Just because it operates at capacity sometimes does not mean those people liked it once they got off. It's true everybody didn't like Vortex, but I think that a lot of people on this website really don't understand what most of the general public thought of it: they hated the ride experience. It's hard to gauge for a lot of people on this site since they are enthusiasts and don't live in the area, but that is the consensus for most of the GP in Mason at least. I do agree that this closure was likely not planned or expected like with Firehawk.

To make them identical to the C.H.A.O.S. building. Notice the gray bottom third of the middle building. I like how they are going for thematic consistency for the area, even backstage.

The removal of two rides months apart does not equal a trend, and especially not some sinister scheme like you are alluding to.

This is not true at all, and I can’t help but wonder why this narrative is so popular. Banshee attracted a very large crowd that year. Mystic Timbers resulted in the best annual attendance since 1998. Both had a very large ROI, especially Mystic Timbers.

It wasn’t that parts were hard to find, they were just exorbitantly expensive. The cost-per-rider for Firehawk was just ridiculous.

Wow, exactly! You have hit the nail on the head. Just like how they removed The Beast and The Racer!

Here is an article from the Cincinnati Post on it from December 17, 1984. 1985's attendance also surpassed 3 million.

During the main summer season, yes. But the first time Kings Island attendance went over three million people for the first time ever was 1984.

People at my school were celebrating the news today. It’s easy for older members to get nostalgic, but I don’t think people on here understand that the general public largely has a profound hatred for Vortex.

Why? Cedar Fair has been a wonderful owner. They have made so many improvements to the park and have transformed it for the better. The park is being run by very capable people.