Kings Island 2020 - Orion: B&M Giga

It's awesome. This is going to be such a great addition for KI. I can't help but feel like it's missing one more substantial element, a little short. But it still looks so so so fun. Better than Leviathan. Not quite on par with Fury. BUT it has that AWESOME second hill. That is going to beat anything on Fury. It's so high up and banked 90 degrees. That is going to be the beans.

Looks more element dense and eclectic than Millennium Force.

Just wanted to give an update on the site.

For those who didnt get to watch the stream or had difficulty watching the park's live stream (yes i know it was bad, I had people commenting on mine that my stream was better) check it out here:

Onto the pictures!

Crane is on site. Actually the larger part rolled right in as I was over taking pictures(:

Transfer area and exit out of the Main brake is done.

A look over at the location of the final turn into the path of the main brake as well as a close spot of the drop.

The lone footer trying to hide.

Work continues on the concrete pouring down near Racer

SkyHigh Coasters will be in charge of I believe erecting the steel. Don't quote me on that though.

Firehawk trains just sitting around

Heavy machinery and or track looks to be moved soon as they have concrete barriers down near Banshee. The barriers where up two weeks ago but it looks like they where moved from the road for now.

Finally the crane is assembled and just waiting for the tires to be installed then onto the site it will go!

Just my opinion, yes I have seen the stats of the ride, I have seen all the comments about the ride on Facebook and everywhere and honestly? I say who cares what the comments say! As a regular that goes to Kings Island almost weekly, I am personally excited to see this project evolve throughout its construction and cannot wait till Spring of 2020!

This is definitely going to be better than Jr. Gemini (now known as Wilderness Run) at Cedar Point, possibly on par with GateKeeper even though the color is a little bit of a deeper blue.

There's a bunch of enthusiasts who are upset about this announcement, but honestly this ride looks awesome! Maybe it's not the best in the world, but it still looks to be a high quality ride. I mean they took the best elements of the first few gigas (floater airtime, speed hill, figure 8, treble clef) and put them in one ride. The only knock is the length, it's a bit short. But still looks like a top tier coaster.

It's like the Carowinds situations. It just seems so.....redundant.

If you're going to have 2 B&M Hypers in one park, the layouts should be....different.

^They...are different. Sure, there's tons of parallels, but each is different enough, especially given the hypers being 2x2. I'd say Fury is the most different of the 3, with its speedy low-ground first half and treble clef. If it was an Intamin coaster with the exact same layout, I doubt anyone would consider it too similar to Intimidator.

As for Orion, sure, it does have standard B&M large airtime hills, but even those will be a little different than Diamondback with the shorter trains. I do think it's kind of BS that Cedar Fair has made sure Orion stays in the shadow of Millennium Force after 20 years. That valley could have been used to achieve the longest drop on a non-launch coaster instead of barely scraping by with 300'. With a layout lower to the ground, cost difference might have even been nominal. I hope that Orion's pacing and elements will make it seem like a more complete ride than Leviathan. Time will tell.

[gouldy]

TylerE wrote:

It's like the Carowinds situations. It just seems so.....redundant.

If you're going to have 2 B&M Hypers in one park, the layouts should be....different.

I would gladly attend a park that was filled exclusively with B&M hypers/gigas, to be honest.

I've been to Canada's Wonderland, and I think having a B&M Hyper and Giga at the same park is something all parks should aim to do

Alot of track pieces are now onsite for Orion:



Source: http://www.wildgravitytravels.com/orion ... update-19/

Track installation has begun:



Also, a webcam has now gone live on the parks website: https://www.visitkingsisland.com/explore/live-video

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters ... _track_up/

Such a pretty blue. It's the same blue as the rail and ties of GateDamnfuck. It's going to look so beautiful in the skyline of KI.

GerstlCrazy wrote:

It's the same blue as the rail and ties of GateDamnfuck.

I searched that on RCDB and no results came up, but I'll take your word for it.

Quick update out of Kings Island. Base of ORION's lift has been installed as of Monday, September 23rd, 2019

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2019/september/lift-base-set-on-new-orion-roller-coaster-coming-to-kings-island

Also a quick update filmed by yours truly regarding HAUNT opening weekend as well as a look at ORION on Friday, 9/20/2019, the new scare zones for HAUNT this year and the all new Drums of The Dead, which replaced my favorite show from HAUNT, Blood Drums

I'm sorry if I'm already getting annoying with this, but this roller coaster is going to be stunning to look at..... the blue is so perfect.

Up the lift hill we go:



Source: https://twitter.com/KingsIslandPR/statu ... 2249247744

Some track has been installed at the bottom of the first drop:



Source: http://www.wildgravitytravels.com/orion ... update-23/

Nice!

Most of the brake run is now in place:















Source: http://www.wildgravitytravels.com/orion ... update-25/

Orion has now been topped off:

Awesome!

The drop actually looks really good, and steep.

Nice little time lapse by the park of the construction up till now:

Train for Orion:







Source: https://twitter.com/CoasterForce/status ... 0759599105

The second hill (or first wave turn as it's more like) has been topped off:



Source: https://www.facebook.com/ohiovalleycoas ... 7470992000

F***