10 hours ago, foze.bear said:

At least the sun looks like it is staying behind those clouds.  

I'm too OCD for this view once removal is complete. More hills appear on left side than right 

If anyone here has any updated information on peices of Vortex, let me know!!! And going there this summer with the veiw gone, is really going to hurt.

It's going to hurt more, for me, to stand where the batwing was and not see 6 inversions nor my favorite drop in the park.. Luckily Orion should end up a great first drop as our first truly steep first drop. (Diamondback is debatable :p)

13 hours ago, MDMC01 said:

That webcam pic of what's left of Vortex's lift from far away is a little eerie. Also, it seems like they are being very delicate with the removal as they are removing sections at a time (the close up pictures show this well as there are small gaps between the pieces of track that remain); is this typical of coaster deconstruction/removal?

I would imagine it depends on the size of the structure they are removing. But as far as something the size of Vortex, I would say yes. When they were demolishing Son of Beast, they didnt take the whole structure down at once; They removed it section by section for safety reasons and to make the cleanup of the debris easier. Taking out Vortex in one go would be a massive undertaking and it would be a difficult mess to clean up. So this is a more effective way of doing it.

Forewarning. It’s a crystal clear day and the sun is out. It’s such a beautiful day, but that also means Vortex will disappear into the shine for a few hours.

Ugh.  No bueno.  I had a dream last night I somehow arrived at the park for the last of the demolition.  It was a bitter sweet dream.

53 minutes ago, TJ_Kirby18 said:

Forewarning. It’s a crystal clear day and the sun is out. It’s such a beautiful day, but that also means Vortex will disappear into the shine for a few hours.

It’s very hazy and going to make the camera quality less than optimal till at least mid afternoon. It’s one of those days that the sun hits the clouds and turns into a huge high key softbox that is about 2 stops hot. 

Another section down.

Well the lift is gone. Now all we have is the predrop, the drop, and the first 2 turns. 

58 minutes ago, Waltny said:

It’s very hazy and going to make the camera quality less than optimal till at least mid afternoon. 

Just waiting for the conspiracy theories. 

It's gonna be so weird without Vortex on the Skyline. That part of the park was like going through a time machine back to the 80s. It's always been Beast, Racer and Vortex front and center since before I was even born. It's not gonna look right without that pretty arrow. 

It just occurred to me that Vortex was Kings Island’s last 80s coaster. That means there are no longer any coaster from the 1980s at Kings Island. 

3 minutes ago, Bdd127 said:

It's gonna be so weird without Vortex on the Skyline. That part of the park was like going through a time machine back to the 80s. It's always been Beast, Racer and Vortex front and center since before I was even born. It's not gonna look right without that pretty arrow. 

I couldn’t agree more. This forever changes the whole look of the park. 

I remember how empty the park looked (and map) when SOB was taken down.  The Banshee filled that void but the back of the park will just feel empty until something is built in its place.  But it will be very hard to fill The Vortex void.

I say just concentrate on what is new and filling the skyline with ORION.  We have much to excited about for the coming season.  And excitement for speculation of what will replace The Vortex.

I'm glad I rode Vortex back in August. I do regret not riding Firehawk in 2017.

7 minutes ago, KIguy2004 said:

I'm glad I rode Vortex back in August. I do regret not riding Firehawk in 2017.

The last few years, I've actually stayed off Vortex during our trips because I felt like I was "aging out" (40 and not in the greatest shape will do that to you). This summer, my nephew asked if I'd ride with him, and so I did, not realizing it would be my last ride on it. Thankful to have had one last go-round on a coaster that used to terrify me (the weightlessness on the barrel rolls always convinced me as a kid that I was about to fly out). 

That skyline is going to look pretty barren right behind the Eiffel Tower, and that walk from Rivertown to Coney Mall is going to be lacking one of the most photogenic places in Kings Island. I can't even fathom what that area will be like without Vortex looming over everything. 

1 hour ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

Well the lift is gone. Now all we have is the predrop, the drop, and the first 2 turns. 

The apex of the lift is still there. Not for long though. 

2 hours ago, Bdd127 said:

It's gonna be so weird without Vortex on the Skyline. That part of the park was like going through a time machine back to the 80s. It's always been Beast, Racer and Vortex front and center since before I was even born. It's not gonna look right without that pretty arrow. 

I think it's going to be more weird coming over the crest of The Beast's second lift. (Vortex was older than me) That view will be dramatically different, and you probably won't be thinking about it until it hits you.

19 hours ago, MDMC01 said:

That webcam pic of what's left of Vortex's lift from far away is a little eerie. Also, it seems like they are being very delicate with the removal as they are removing sections at a time (the close up pictures show this well as there are small gaps between the pieces of track that remain); is this typical of coaster deconstruction/removal?

It looks more and more eerie the way Vortex looks, being partially missing and just weird looking. 

Down went the top of the lift.

That just doesn’t look right. As of today. Vortex is no longer 148 feet tall. 

The first drop was downed between 12:45 and 1, barely visible on the camera, but visible.

 

2 minutes ago, PKIDelirium said:

The first drop was downed between 12:45 and 1, barely visible on the camera, but visible.

Nice catch. 

A little unrelated, but when you do the time lapse overnight, you can see around 5 a.m. last night a large flash on IS. Wonder what that is (maybe this should be a ghosts thread). 

Even with all these pictures, it still doesn’t seem real to me. Almost makes me afraid to visit the park in April

1 hour ago, cdubbs727 said:

Nice catch. 

A little unrelated, but when you do the time lapse overnight, you can see around 5 a.m. last night a large flash on IS. Wonder what that is (maybe this should be a ghosts thread). 

Yes the overnight time lapse catches interesting things! I know they have overnight maintenance, security etc but the light patterns can be unique timing wise!

9 hours ago, TJ_Kirby18 said:

It just occurred to me that Vortex was Kings Island’s last 80s coaster. That means there are no longer any coaster from the 1980s at Kings Island. 

Dang. Yeah, I always thought of Vortex and Beast as the two "older coasters" (in other words, old standby coasters) of the park* and it's interesting that while the oldest of the two has just celebrated it's 40th season, the younger is being dismantled. It will be interesting riding the surrounding rides (such as WindSeeker, Beast and even Diamondback) in 2020 to see how the former Vortex plot looks from those angles.

*Yes, I know that Racer and Woodstock's Express are older, but of the four, I'd say I rode Beast and Vortex are more memorable to me...

EDIT: IMO, that picture of Vortex's lift/pre-drop being gone makes it look like Vortex is actually in the process of being constructed instead of being removed ...

^ I guess you could kind of count The Beast as an 80s roller coaster. It opened in 1979, but became well known the following year. If they ever remove The Beast, I'll be crying.

15 minutes ago, Shawn Meyer said:

^ I guess you could kind of count The Beast as an 80s roller coaster. It opened in 1979, but became well known the following year. If they ever remove The Beast, I'll be crying.

The only way Beast closes is in the highly highly highly unlikely event that Kings Island shuts down. 

9 minutes ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

The only way Beast closes is in the highly highly highly unlikely event that Kings Island shuts down. 

Well it could reach “the end of its service life”, if someone wanted it to.  

20 minutes ago, King Ding Dong said:

Well it could reach “the end of its service life”, if someone wanted it to.  

I believe they're going to do whatever they can to keep it around. Beast is a lot more legendary and iconic to the park than Vortex was.