The Vortex Poll

[homestar92]

If Vortex goes, so does my season pass. I'm honestly not joking. I would never swear off KI for good, but I'd be a once every few years sort of guest rather than a 15-20 times a year guest (who typically spends at least some money each visit)

Get rid of Vortex, and Kentucky Kingdom will overnight have a better coaster lineup than KI in my humble opinion, and will become my new home park.

[matt112986]

Kings Island has more excellent coasters than KK has coasters, and while I love Vortex it isn't exactly high on my best KI coasters list. KK has 2 excellent coasters, one ok one and one bad one + a kiddie coaster. I think you'll find very few people share your opinion.

[IndyGuy4KI]

7 hours ago, homestar92 said:

Get rid of Vortex, and Kentucky Kingdom will overnight have a better coaster lineup than KI in my humble opinion, and will become my new home park.

So the new Eye of the Storm sucked you in at KK? J/K  I have heard great things about their coasters besides T3. I hope to visit there this coming season. Hey whatever floats your boat, I have never seen such dedication to Vortex, besides maybe by VortexBFFforever.

[MDMC01]

I enjoyed T3- it's an odd little coaster  Give it a try and see what you think. Storm Chaser is also pretty fun, but stick to the front as the back is painful!

[IndyGuy4KI]

I rode it as T2, it was ok. Not a reride machine. I will give T3 a chance for sure.

[homestar92]

1 hour ago, matt112986 said:

Kings Island has more excellent coasters than KK has coasters, and while I love Vortex it isn't exactly high on my best KI coasters list. KK has 2 excellent coasters, one ok one and one bad one + a kiddie coaster. I think you'll find very few people share your opinion.

Kings Island has no coasters in my top 5 wooden coasters (though perhaps that will change this year) and 1 coaster in my top 5 steel (Vortex).

KK has two of my top 5 steel and one of my top 5 wood. So, take Vortex out of Kings Island, and there's a clear winner...

Heck, removal of Vortex might make me agree with the general consensus that Cedar Point has a better coaster lineup than KI... But let's not get carried away.

[matt112986]

So just ignore all the other coasters KI has? And the fact that The Beast is rated one of the best wooden coasters? It's all your opinion and that's up to you but you seem to be coming to what I'm sure many would consider a silly decision by ignoring the 11 coaster advantage KI has. All 11 of them would have to be pretty poor coasters to not match the KK lineup. I'm sure many here would put both Banshee and Diamondback above Vortex in KI lineup and likely above KK coasters as well. But that's just what I think the general opinion would be. I'm sure you can agree that your opinion would be a stretch for most coaster enthusiasts?

[IndyGuy4KI]

13 minutes ago, matt112986 said:

So just ignore all the other coasters KI has? And the fact that The Beast is rated one of the best wooden coasters? It's all your opinion and that's up to you but you seem to be coming to what I'm sure many would consider a silly decision by ignoring the 11 coaster advantage KI has. All 11 of them would have to be pretty poor coasters to not match the KK lineup. I'm sure many here would put both Banshee and Diamondback above Vortex in KI lineup and likely above KK coasters as well. But that's just what I think the general opinion would be. I'm sure you can agree that your opinion would be a stretch for most coaster enthusiasts?

No sense in coming off argumentative matt112986. Everyone has their opinion no mater what another posters opinion is on a coaster or park. That is why we have a forum, to discuss different perspectives and opinions. Differences are a good thing, not bad.  

Back on topic, it seems from the poll results Vortex is much more liked than I originally thought. That is some cool data to see.

[Hank]

Keep what you have.  The more variations on a "roller coaster" a park has the better.  Sure, it's a little rough, but what the heck do you want - it's a friggin' roller coaster!

[homestar92]

^^^Banshee does rank high on my overall list purely out of convenience of being near home, though I'd trade it without second thought for any other B&M invert that I've ridden except for Patriot and the Hungarian Horntail side of Dragon Challenge.

 

As for Diamondback, the only word I would use to describe it is "tedious". It's a textbook example of the "Boring and Mediocre" side of B&M that was so prevalent in the mid to late 00s. I truly don't understand why anyone who has ridden any hypercoasters from Morgan, Arrow, Intamin, or late 90s/early 00s B&M could rank it highly. But I am glad it's popular. It keeps lines short for the better rides.

 

Beast is a ride that I have a huge appreciation for due to its historical significance, but compared to modern, twisty, airtime-filled wooden coasters like Thunder Run, it really isn't very thrilling to me.

 

All this isn't to say that I dislike KI's lineup besides Vortex (I don't at all, I actually think it's very well-rounded), just that I'd rather spend a day at a park with three coasters that LOVE than with a dozen that I think are just pretty good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[matt112986]

That's understandable, I just found riding their 3 good coasters over and over again got boring after a while. The 5 - 10 minute dispatches at Lightning Run were the final straw for me and my brother to head back to KI for the day. I just can't see giving up KI variety for 3 coasters, even if they were my top 3  

 

I doubt you would have much to worry about though. I think Vortex will be around for many years to come. Cedar Fair doesn't seem to like tearing down coasters that have no issues and aren't in the way of major expansions. And Don has said in interviews before that there is plenty of room to expand without removing anything. You don't get 16+ coaster parks by tearing them down all the time. 

[calakapepe]

On 2/28/2017 at 3:45 PM, Thrill_Biscuit said:

Had to read through the whole thread just to make sure we didn't need to break out The Vortex song! 

The "smiling face" of Vortex has become such an inseparable part of the Kings Island landscape, removing it would have the same effect, at least for me, of removing the Eiffel Tower. To the novice eye, it has a timeless look to it. Perennial need-of-paint-job aside, the ride never seems to look 'dated.' I enjoyed it many times last season, mostly because I've learned when to "brace." To another 30 years!

The smiling face??

[RaiderLAS]

I am a huge Arrow enthusiast, so it always pains me to see or hear of rumors regarding any of their classics being removed.That being said I have always preferred their smaller corkscrew models over their multi-loopers. I still love Vortex, but I'd be much more distraught over the removal of a coaster like Corkscrew at Cedar Point. However like others have stated, if Vortex were to be removed I'd expect something just as groundbreaking (pun intended) as Vortex was when it was introduced.

[jcgoble3]

8 hours ago, calakapepe said:

The smiling face??

See it?

The loops are the eyes, the track between them is the mouth. And you could say that the corkscrew between them is the nose.

[SonofBaconator]

^Great now I won't be able to stop seeing that

I'm a fan of Vortex's classic design. Its simple and not over complicated. I just wish that there could be some trains with modified restraints. I personally prefer the newer style of restraints as opposed to the OTSRs on Invertigo and Vortex. 

[BuckeyeBond]

9 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

^Great now I won't be able to stop seeing that

I'm a fan of Vortex's classic design. Its simple and not over complicated. I just wish that there could be some trains with modified restraints. I personally prefer the newer style of restraints as opposed to the OTSRs on Invertigo and Vortex. 

EXACTLY!!!!!

[calakapepe]

Its been mentioned for years.. but I still think getting vekoma to figure out new trains with better restraints, or even if the soft OTSR material from Intamn--

GETT HIM! AHHHHHHHHHHHH
NEVER AGAIN INTAMIN! NO! IMPOSSIBLE!

[KIBeast]

I love The Vortex. However, I am of the opinion that as much as I love it, its' shelf life seems to be coming to an end. I am positive that Ouimet will come up with something great to go in that spot. For me, it will always be the ghost of The Bat location. I loved that ride and unfortunately, it was poorly designed.

[calakapepe]

I used to kind of wish Arrow would've taken The Bat and simply make the track banked so it'd work the way it needed to.. How the current bat works

[matt112986]

^If I recall correctly it had lots of damage from the design flaw and would need significant repairs and a redesign which is why they scrapped it.

 

^^Corkscrew at Cedar Point opened in 1976 and is still kicking. Vortex may still last a while yet. I think its great location is its biggest threat currently. 

[calakapepe]

Yeah, but what I mean is make a new coaster correctly but with completely new track

So same layout.

 

[Sythe]

^If I recall correctly it had lots of damage from the design flaw and would need significant repairs and a redesign which is why they scrapped it.
 
^^Corkscrew at Cedar Point opened in 1976 and is still kicking. Vortex may still last a while yet. I think its great location is its biggest threat currently. 

Well Corkscrew is different. It opened at a more well known park with the closest looping roller coaster hours away. It's so iconic especially because it goes over the midway. Vortex isn't very iconic or anything. It has a bigger likelihood to be torn down sooner than Corkscrew.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[Creed Bratton]

Without looking at historical/iconic values.....which ride has the higher ridership? I would say Vortex has the higher ridership with Corkscrew struggling some days to actually get riders (I've witnessed ridership counts/reports where it's struggled to get even 1000+ riders in a day).

Both rides sit in valuable space however....so at this point...it's really up in the air which would be leaving first.

[medford]

On 3/2/2017 at 10:00 AM, homestar92 said:

s for Diamondback, the only word I would use to describe it is "tedious". It's a textbook example of the "Boring and Mediocre" side of B&M that was so prevalent in the mid to late 00s. I truly don't understand why anyone who has ridden any hypercoasters from Morgan, Arrow, Intamin, or late 90s/early 00s B&M could rank it highly. But I am glad it's popular. It keeps lines short for the better rides.

I thought this was an interesting comment.  I haven't ridden a ton of hypers outside of Diamondback, far, far less than you.  Unless there is one that I'm not thinking of (pretty sure there isn't as I haven't attended a very large variety of parks) I've been on Diamondback, Son of Beast (if you include that as a Hyper) Magnum XL and Wild thing.  Its been too long since I've been on Magnum to give it a proper comparison, but only a few years since I was at Valleyfair, and Wild Thing (Morgan) is still fresh in my mind.  I'm 99% sure you've been to this park as well, so I'd love to year how you compare it to Diamondback.  To me, Wild Thing had a great first drop, not as good as Diamondback, but still pretty good.  The floater air time on the 2nd drop was great as well, I'd put that on par w/ any of Diamondback's "floater" hills, perhaps you could argue better.  The ending bunny hills, kind of similar to Magnum with the tunnel was pretty good, but its the middle, figure 8 of that ride that just totally kills it.  Overall, its still pretty good, but no matter how good you personally think the beginning or ending of that ride is, I don't know how you could get over the middle figure 8 track of that ride when comparing to Diamondback.  According to my cousin, who lives in upstate Wisconsin and gets to the park a time or two every few years, Wild Thing is their best coaster, Renegade (CGI) blew that ride away in a landslide.  I'm pretty sure we've discussed Renegade in the past, I'm pretty sure you love it, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

As far as Vortex, I would hate to see it go, but would understand.  I love, Love, LOVE the look of the coaster, as others have said, you can't un-see the smiling face.  I love the spot it occupies, I love the first drop, corkscrew, double loop, etc...  however the ride often causes me to grey out thru the double loop, the batwing beats me up and I'm often left feeling a bit nauseous.  As much as I love coasters, my body doesn't allow me to ride them a bunch in succession w/o feeling nauseous.  A fast pass wouldn't help me much as I definitely need a bit of a wait thru rides, stack up too many in a short span and I feel it, however 1 ride on Vortex and I'm done for a while.  I don't hold that against the ride, in my younger days I could ride it 3-4 times before I got the same feeling, I haven't aged as well as the ride.  But none the less, I still love it and my now 8 year old will drag me on it a few times a year.  Usually mom rides that one with him, but 2 years ago when she was pregnant with our now 1 year old, I had all the coaster duties, which I wasn't going to complain about, but he didn't get to ride Vortex as often as he would like because I knew it would shut me down for a bit, which would in turn shut him down.  If I ride, I usually hit it up late in the day when I know we are planning to leave soon.  Interestingly, I made him ride corkscrew at Valleyfair (similar, but shorter, not as good as the version at Cedar Pointe) and he didn't like it a bit.  The first time it was just us as we were waiting for my wife's cousins to meet up with us.  As we were getting off, they were just getting into the park and that was the first thing they wanted to hit.  That arrow looper was too rough for him, but Vortex he enjoys.

[homestar92]

I do enjoy Valleyfair and I agree with your analysis that Renegade, not Wild Thing, is probably their strongest coaster. I also really liked Excalibur, not because the ride is that great but because it was so surprisingly good when I had such low expectations for it. I will admit that the sheer joy of getting to see Ed Alonzo again may have influenced my opinions of the park as a whole. But I digress.

Now, I've only ridden Wild Thing a few times and it was years ago, so it's not fresh in my mind. That said, I think for me, the bunny hills are what do it. I'll concede that B&Ms do have more consistent pacing throughout than most Arrows or Morgans. So yes, an Arrow or a Morgan night have spots that aren't as great as others, but when they hit the fun parts, oh man is it incredible! I think Diamondback offers a moderate degree of thrill throughout and never stops being fun, but also never has that one point that it goes from good to great. I guess for me personally, I'm willing to slog through elements that I don't love that much if the ride gives me something incredible to make up for it. That's kinda where I am with Banshee as a good analogy. I HATE really slow inversions. The last inline twist is frankly one of my least favorite elements in any coaster ever but I still consider it one of my favorite coasters because the rest is just so good.

I will also admit that I'm not the average park guest. Parks don't build rides for people who have traveled the continent and ridden hundreds of coasters. Most of the people I know who really, really like Diamondback have only been to a handful of parks at most and have little else to compare it to. And I fully admit that before I got big into this hobby and started traveling all over, I was a pretty big fan of it too.

It's also entirely possible that familiarity has bred contempt. I know Diamondback like the back of my hand. Nothing on it catches me off guard and I definitely think they can affect one's enjoyment of a ride. Or maybe it's just the fact that I've ridden other B&M hypers that I think are more fun, like Apollo's Chariot and Raging Bull, and knowing that they can do better causes me to be disappointed. I admittedly can't fully explain why my opinions are what they are. I guess it's just very subjective and I can't concretely identify what makes me like or dislike a ride.

 

 

 

[medford]

thanks for the well thought out reply.

I just can't get over that middle section of Wild Thing, frankly it blew me away with how boring that section was, it was like eating a crap sandwich on two pieces of great bread, doesn't matter how great the bread was, its still a crap sandwich   Although overall, its an enjoyable ride, so perhaps that analogy is over the top.

Excalibur was OK, but based upon your reviews, it doesn't surprise me that you enjoyed it more than I.

I agree that familiarity does breed contempt.  You start to notice the flaws, the exciting portions no longer excite as much.  I think that is why I enjoyed my son's voyage thru new coasters at KI as he grew into the height.  The best thrill I've ever had riding a roller coaster was the look we gave each other at the end of Renegade; neither of us were really expecting a ride that enjoyable.

[SonofBaconator]

Vortex is still the 5th most ridden ride in the park according to the rider count as of 2014. It's actually one of the few that still passes the million rider mark. I don't know if this information hold up is considering this was back in 2014.

https://KICentral.com/forums/index.php?/topic/30475-kings-island-rider-counts/

 

[VortexBFForever]

^In 2015 and 2016 Vortex's count was in the upper 900,000's, just below 1 million. As uncomfortable as I feel to admit it, its yearly ridership has been decreasing.

2014 is so far the last season that Vortex gave over 1 million rides.

[Creed Bratton]

What year did the lift hill chain break? That could be a factor due to the downtime.

[SonofBaconator]

1 hour ago, VortexBFForever said:

^In 2015 and 2016 Vortex's count was in the upper 900,000's, just below 1 million. As uncomfortable as I feel to admit it, its yearly ridership has been decreasing.

2014 is so far the last season that Vortex gave over 1 million rides.

If it means anything, the ridership on a lot the coasters has gone down if you look at the picture above. Maybe a fresh coat of paint might attract riders back!