It's amazing how insignificant the ride looks from the front of the park compared to other gigas as It barely looks bigger than DB, but if you go back towards Great Wolf, it looks significantly larger than DB.

Just wait til you see it up close!

That’s what she said 

Shots my Mom got of Orion from the Kings High School back parking lot:

 

Anyone know the elevation change from DB's lift to Orion's?
I tried to find a topography map and it didn't go very close.. but it seems like it might be a 50ft ish difference?

20 minutes ago, calakapepe said:

Anyone know the elevation change from DB's lift to Orion's?
I tried to find a topography map and it didn't go very close.. but it seems like it might be a 50ft ish difference?

I remember somebody saying that a while ago in this thread. Maybe around pages 40-50. I'm not 100% sure though.

I’m guessing there’s about a 20-30 ft elevation difference (With Diamondback sitting on the higher land). 

I broke it down somewhere earlier in this thread.  I want to say that Diamondback’s lift hill sits on land ~30-40 feet higher than Orion’s.  I honestly can’t remember.

Now this is were it would be nice to have the webcams. The lift hill is done and we can’t see anything else that is going on. Right now they could be doing the head chopper section but the great members of this site can’t take pictures of that which sucks. 

2 hours ago, LovinMeSomeBanshee said:

I broke it down somewhere earlier in this thread.  I want to say that Diamondback’s lift hill sits on land ~30-40 feet higher than Orion’s.  I honestly can’t remember.

Wow, that makes the height difference seem almost insignificant. 

Here's another pic from my mom today. If you go to a Kings High School football game next year, you'll be able to get great views of Orion when it's light out. Hopefully Orion has a nice light package on the lift and maybe light up wheels so you can get great views at night too! 

 

29 minutes ago, ethancoaster said:

Wow, that makes the height difference seem almost insignificant. 

The feeling of going down that drop wont seem insignificant though.

8 hours ago, calakapepe said:

Anyone know the elevation change from DB's lift to Orion's?
I tried to find a topography map and it didn't go very close.. but it seems like it might be a 50ft ish difference?

 

Google Earth shows right where DB highest point is roughly 749 feet and Orion is roughly 746 so it is nearly the same. Now, the bottom of Orion's hill is for sure lower elevation than DB. Looks like roughly 717 feet around the bottom of Orion's first drop

10 hours ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

Shots my Mom got of Orion from the Kings High School back parking lot:

 

Tell your mom I said Thank you.

Great pictures; and yes, thank you to your mom! Also, why is that K-Line shipping container back there? Hmmm...

17 hours ago, Hueney020 said:

Now this is were it would be nice to have the webcams. The lift hill is done and we can’t see anything else that is going on. Right now they could be doing the head chopper section but the great members of this site can’t take pictures of that which sucks. 

Wow. How did people function years ago when they actually had to wait patiently until something was complete to see it????

Wow. How did people function years ago when they actually had to wait patiently until something was complete to see it????

Cameras. The same way they always functioned, just with this stuff called film and not silicon.

If I'm being completely honest, (and forgive me if this comes off a little negative, especially this late in the game), what we're seeing right now is precisely why I was never on board with the whole "you won't notice 13ft" argument. With the elevation disadvantage, paired with its placement in the back left of the park, I think were beginning to see that it really could have used all the height it can get in order to appear more imposing onto the rest of the park.

Or at least, its a slippery slope. I would say that it was never so much about 13 ft as much as it is about 20-30 ft, given the expectation that it was going to clear 300 ft by at least some amount, even if by just 5-10 ft. Having it at 300 flat was kind of pushing it to begin with, but take away an additional 13 ft? And yes, I do think it results in a noticeable discrepancy between this and previous gigas...

 

However, on the other hand (and this is positive), I'm starting to think that what is lessening the ride visually (placement), will end up enhancing the ride from an experience standpoint.

Come to think of it, I never wanted this to be a parking lot coaster anyway, so I'm actually glad to see it break from Fury and Leviathan in that regard. Sure, it won't be as immediately noticeable at the front of the park, in the way the aforementioned B&M gigas are...

But if better night rides/seclusion come at the slight expense of imposition onto the rest of the park, then that is an A-ok tradeoff in my view!

Think about it.  Would you rather be riding past a mundane ocean of concrete, traffic lines, and car light glare, OR flying through the trees and foliage of the dark Ohio woods after sundown?

I think you know my pick...

 

Here are some pics I got this evening. 

I have to say, I've never been more excited for Orion until I drove by tonight. Seeing the lift hill complete was incredible. It's amazing seeing it loom behind Diamondback when you're getting off the exit. That's going to be one heck of a drop.

3 minutes ago, JubJester said:

I have to say, I've never been more excited for Orion until I drove by tonight. Seeing the lift hill complete was incredible. It's amazing seeing it look behind Diamondback when you're getting off the exit. That's going to be one heck of a drop.

Me too. you can spot it from very far away, almost when you can first make out the Eiffel Tower from a distance and it looks way bigger in real life.

Diamondback used to seem nearly vertical to me.

Now it seems about as vertical as The Beast.

22 minutes ago, Nutterie said:

Diamondback used to seem nearly vertical to me.

Now it seems about as vertical as The Beast.

Just wait til you ride it. Imagine Valravn with lapbars and an extra second of freefall.

I've been meaning to post these but I keep forgetting. I took these the day that the lift hill was finished. I also apologize that there are 17 photos but I thought that I should share all of my best shots! Im so glad I found this community! I always just looked at the posts, starting with the 'Decoding 2020' I never thought I'd be involved in the actual content. I appreciate  whenever I get lots of likes on my posts! It makes me feel like a bigger part of the community  and y'all are the best! Like I've said, I will be taking pictures like this til its done! (I hope to get pics when they start running test cars xD ) 

Sorry for double post! I'm not sure if this is a problem or not, but, I made a FaceBook page to post all of my photos on so i'm not filling up an entire page of photos and only post a few. I will provide a link below. It will take some time for me to filter out my best pictures, but I hope to be adding to them regularly  so make sure to check it out! I will of course  post my very best shots here!!

Here's the link to my page!

https://www.facebook.com/The-Coaster-Nerd-114764029969283/?view_public_for=114764029969283

So I assume they will put the chain on next correct?   They will need multiple large cranes for that.

On 11/9/2019 at 1:05 PM, calakapepe said:

Anyone know the elevation change from DB's lift to Orion's?
I tried to find a topography map and it didn't go very close.. but it seems like it might be a 50ft ish difference?

DB's lift sits on land at elevation of 756 (source: https://webmap.co.warren.oh.us/wcgis/auditor/)

Orion's lift sits on about 746/748 (so roughly 10 feet lower --- unless they re-graded the land any)

4 hours ago, mikejenkins1 said:

So I assume they will put the chain on next correct?   They will need multiple large cranes for that.

Chain I believe happens after track work is completed. 

Cam is back on!

Looks like we didn't crest the horizon from the webcam's perspective :p
We'll definitely have that happen when we are on the observation deck though.. at least the lower one.