Kings Island | Orion | B&M Giga Coaster
- Thread starter Pear
- Start date
Gazza
Giga Poster
I remember when certain Thoosies who got the first ride on the opening day of the Maurer Skyloop at Dreamworld were claiming it as their #1 ?
I find that such a **** take. Something being better than nothing at all doesn't push it to the level of being good.
Or else there can be no bad coasters, because any coaster is better than none at all.
about Orion.BansheeBerry
Roller Poster
I don’t understand what’s wrong with the theming? Does it detract from the experience? Most people I’ve seen on social media seem to like the theming, and at the very least haven’t disliked it enough to complain about it.
Magic-Man
Mega Poster
But it's not bad theming, and it's not a bad coaster? I don't get your point here.
TLARides
Hyper Poster
Welcome to the world of die-hard coaster enthusiasts, man.
Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk
Magic-Man
Mega Poster
Yeah. I just don't get the complaints here, personally. It's clear that Cedar Fair didn't have the money on hand to build a longer coaster (Fury and Orion supposedly cost the same, and Fury is taller and longer), but they chose to spend a little extra cash to add some theming to make it an all around good experience. I kinda hate this fandom sometimes, there's always gotta be something to complain about.
It's been a year since the blueprints were originally leaked. Get over the short length and like the coaster for what it is. It's a freaking giga, you could have gotten a million other smaller, less thrilling coasters.
Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.
Hutch
Strata Poster
I'm afraid that's just kinda how it is for passionate people, whatever the passion may be.
I think most of us have accepted that Orion is what it is, but that doesn't mean we can't point out the flaws or wonder what this could have been.
The theming neither adds nor detracts the ride experience here. The stuff I've seen of the queue and station are fine, but the whole area in front of the ride is pretty ugly. It's looking like Dorney Park with that big space of concrete lol. I know Cedar Fair can do better. I actually like some of the plazas they've done for Gatkeeper, Fury, and Valravn.
And the mindsight of "I'd rather they didn't bother" is fair. "Better than nothing" doesn't always work: imagine a park like Worlds of Fun finally gets a coaster after all these years, but it's a Zamperla Volare. "Ooh but it's better than nothing" my ass.
BansheeBerry
Roller Poster
How does the theming not add anything to the experience? That is what I don’t understand. I certainly think Millennium Forces station music adds something to the experience but since it’s Orion and it’s located at KI the station music apparently adds nothing.
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Pear
Strata Poster
Could have also gotten a million other smaller, more thrilling coasters.
Hutch
Strata Poster
Station music isn't going to affect how the ride is, at least for me. I like the station music for Millennium Force, but whether it's actually playing or not isn't going to change how I rate the ride.
Another good example are the building cutouts right after the turnaround on Superman - The Ride. Scenery objects for the sake of theming. They don't add anything. Actually, replacing those cutouts with trees would be better.
Magic-Man
Mega Poster
This is about the best we could have gotten before being too extreme for the GP. Besides, most people prefer fun to thrills. Just look at the mixed reception to I305.
And look at the overwhelmingly positive responses to Leviathan, Fury and Millennium Force...
The issue is not what it is, it's what it could (should) have been,
Magic-Man
Mega Poster
You missed the part where steel has increased in price since the time that those were built, and I've seen a lot of enthusiasts call this the second best giga (under Fury).
I'll leave this argument alone from now on, but I just hate the entitled "It should have been more!!!!" attitude a lot of enthusiasts have about this coaster, especially when most of them haven't ridden it yet. It's not Fury, the lift hill isn't a meaningless 13 feet taller, we get it, move on.
I missed no such thing.
Five year history of steel prices from the first hit on Google.
For what it's worth, I just hate the fanboy aspect of this brand new coaster being lorded as one of the best coasters immediately. If we get stick for assuming it's bad, they should get it equally for assuming it's good.
The height actually has nothing to do with it (to me, at least).
I mean, at the end of the day another huge B&M has been built and that does make me happy. I look forward to getting to ride Orion in the coming years (assuming they haven't let it go to **** like the other B&Ms in the park). I just think it's difficult (maybe, impossible?) to argue that this lacks the flair that Fury has. Money or space or anything to logically justify that doesn't make it any less of a shame.
EDIT: Also this is open now so UNSTICK!
EDIT: Also this is open now so UNSTICK!
Antinos
Slut for Spinners
I've been able to experience new rides at Kings Island since Paramount owned the park and they honestly did a great job with Diamondback, Banshee, and Mystic Timbers to an extent. But I look at so many aspects of Orion and I can't help but think they just phoned it in. I have so many questions regarding the design...Why didn't they fully utilize Firehawk's old plot? They could have, at the very least, shifted the station and brakes 15 feet north to achieve a 300 foot lift and shut everybody up. They could have turned the station and brakes 90 degrees and made the ride 300 feet longer. Why didn't they center the ride's first valley in the ravine? The park didn't even fully utilize the terrain where they could have leveraged it for an even larger drop. The park could have turned the layout to go behind Racer's turnaround instead of running next to The Beast - why did they decide to go this route? What were the ride's geological and infrastructure constraints? Could the ride REALLY fit only in that exact spot, or did they have wiggle room to translate and rotate the ride to more nicely hug the terrain? Did Cedar Fair honestly only allocate 30 million for the ride and not a cent more? What about particular elements - could they have actually made the first hill a wave turn (Intamin and Guerstlauer have done them in pursuit of RMC, why not B&M)? Could they have done something funky with that vanilla turnaround?
I design cars for a living, so I often ask myself a bunch of questions like this when I review rides. Knowing what it takes to design things and then viewing the final product has given me a good understanding of how design objectives and efforts input at the beginning of a development process affect the final product. From what I can tell, Orion was either so overconstrained at the beginning of the design process that all creativity was choked out of the ride from the onset or, more likely in my opinion, it's just a very lazy design. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the ride is good, but in a time where coasters are being built with more and more exotic elements, Orion is just so basic and vanilla. This ride would have truly been a worlds best pre-Maverick - the layout follows trends from the early to mid 2000s, but times have changed, and THAT is why it's so easy to **** on this ride.
I design cars for a living, so I often ask myself a bunch of questions like this when I review rides. Knowing what it takes to design things and then viewing the final product has given me a good understanding of how design objectives and efforts input at the beginning of a development process affect the final product. From what I can tell, Orion was either so overconstrained at the beginning of the design process that all creativity was choked out of the ride from the onset or, more likely in my opinion, it's just a very lazy design. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the ride is good, but in a time where coasters are being built with more and more exotic elements, Orion is just so basic and vanilla. This ride would have truly been a worlds best pre-Maverick - the layout follows trends from the early to mid 2000s, but times have changed, and THAT is why it's so easy to **** on this ride.
Matt N
CF Legend
Taylor and Alec from Coaster Studios have now ridden it, and their opinion is a resounding “OK”:
Taylor has said that they’re going to try and get more rides, but take from that what you will.
EDIT: Apologies; forgot to add that the review doesn’t start until quite a way into the video; I heard someone say 6:27. So if it’s only the review you’re interested in, skip to that point.
EDIT: Apologies; forgot to add that the review doesn’t start until quite a way into the video; I heard someone say 6:27. So if it’s only the review you’re interested in, skip to that point.
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