Hello everyone.

I just got back from my trip to Kings Island today. If any of you were there today, did you see what happened to The Vortex? It got stuck at the stop right before the corkscrews. Can anyone tell me what caused it?

I was there and I saw a train with passengers stopped up on the brakes. There were two park employees (one in red, the other in blue) up there examining. While they were up there, an empty train was sent halfway up the lift hill and was stopped. Not sure what caused this but I believe I saw it running later in the evening.

Yeah I went to ride The Racers and came back and it was working fine so I rode it. It ran just fine too. I saw the guys walking up there. Hmm... Makes me wonder though.

Well, the mid-course brakes are block brakes. The train likely got stuck up there because there was likely still a train sitting on the brake run immediately adjacent to Shake Rattle and Roll. Now, this was likely a result of the computer shutting the ride down for some reason (could be anything from a faulty sensor, to some sort of computer issue). And the reason you likely saw people up there on the mid course brake, is because there were people on the train. It is standard procedure when a ride goes down for mechanical reasons for ride operators to go and talk with the guests on the stranded train in order to keep them calm and alert them to the current situation.

And the empty train was sent onto the lift hill so that the third train could enter the station and be unloaded.

Are the ride ops not doing a very good job or this becoming a computer or mechanical problem on The Vortex?

Uh, computer shut downs of rides are nothing new, and do NOT indicate (usually) major issues with the rides. Furthermore, it does no illustrate an inattentiveness of the ride operators running the ride.

The sensors used on the rides are very sensitive. Sometimes what the sensors think is a train is actually a bug or something else. And sometimes, like all things electrical or mechanical, they fail and must be replaced. They are designed to fail safe, that is to indicate a train when in fact there is not one there....far safer than the reverse!