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Cool, I'll fire it up and not open it for the first 4 hours of the day for realism purposes...

I went the weekend before last and wasn't going to do any sort of report or review, but with this discussion, I'll throw my hat in the ring. I thought Orion was fantastic. Millennium Force is the only other giga I've been on. I hesitate to say Orion was better...but definitely different experiences. I would say if you're looking for excitement, Orion is definitely ahead in that category. The airtime is strong, and the elements are exciting. I would take it over Diamondback hands down, and I like Diamondback. While there are obviously less "airtime moments" on Orion, they are undoubtedly stronger. Yeah, you fly into the brakes way up in the air and there's definitely momentum left on the table, and of course at that point it would be great if there was more to it, but in my 3 rides I never felt like it was short like the feeling I got with SFGAm Goliath. I can't help but feel like the people that have complained about this thing love the smell of their own farts. The rest of the visit was great with fastlane, because of course it was. We got on everything except Adventure Express because it was down for part of the day. Some of the rides had waits (Orion 30 min, MT 20 mins, Beast 20-30 mins towards nighttime) because the park was pretty crowded, but can't complain about those waits knowing how the standby lines were. The atmosphere was still good with the decorations and everything was done well. The haunts aren't my interest at all, but I do enjoy the Halloween atmosphere. I was with a friend and his step daughter who never had a proper experience with the Beast. I believe they had only been to the park once before and weren't impressed with it. We went and rode too early and it was still fairly light out and just let the grouper put us in the middle of the train somewhere. We went and rode Diamondback and I insisted we go back to the Beast for our last ride, asked the grouper for the front, and had them ride up there. My buddy told me afterwards that he had told his step daughter not to say anything bad about it because I wanted to ride again and they were again unimpressed with our first ride. Obviously that opinion changed entirely with the front seat night ride; they loved it and he said something along the lines of "that's the only way I ever want to ride that again." I always enjoy sharing experiences like that with my friends. Still love Banshee as well, and don't understand some of the hate it gets...great speed, with sustained forces and decent intensity. I prefer this to Raptor...and think Banshee and the Batman clones are my favorite inverts. Had the back seat on Racer this time, and it beat the hell out of me...I don't mind some jostling, but it was not a good time. I had a better time with KI than CP a couple weeks earlier, at least this year. Hoping the forecast for this weekend trends a little warmer over the next couple days as if it's going to get up to about 60 I'd like to go again this coming weekend. I really do love this park.

Posted pics to the FB group, but figured I'd add my reviews to the park here. Spent about an hour and a half in the park on Friday. Obviously $62 is very steep for just an hour and a half, but it's right in line with my Jersey Shore pier experiences over the summer. Good news (for me, not the park) is that it was pretty dead and I had free reign the entire time I was there. Hit each coaster at least once as well as a couple flats. If I had time I would've loved to hit more of the flats and reride the coasters some more as they have a very good lineup. Here are my thoughts on what I rode... Sandy's Blasting Bronco was my first ride of the day...rode in back and it was a blast. Totally smooth, fun floating sensation through the immelmans and some good forces. Very strong launch, especially the unusual backwards launch. Rode it again later in the front. Definitely a different ride up there...thought the floating sensations were more prevalent in the back but more positive G's up front. Shredder was a solo ride for me and therefore I didn't spin a whole lot. Much longer layout than I expected and while there's nothing crazy in the layout, the ride is great for families and could get pretty intense if you can get a good spinning ride. Was surprised by its height as well. While I've definitely ridden spinners that give a wilder ride, the length of this one puts it right up there as well. Shellraiser was a love/hate ride for me. The layout is insane with a good powerful launch, that awesome drop with the holding break on top with the view of New York, and some great inversions. However, some spots got so rough that it was bordering on being brutal, especially at the bottom of the big drop. If they can do some work on those spots, this ride would be top 20 material for me, but I just can't put it there the way it is. BTW, the rest of the park patrons were avoiding this thing like the plague. I thought it was closed because I never saw it run the first 20 minutes I was there, but just turns out no one really wanted to ride it. Not sure if it's the buried entrance, the intimidating look, or if the word is out that you get pretty beat up, but it was a ghost town in that station the whole time I was there. Slime Streak had some pretty terrible trains (and I'm only 5'8") but the ride itself was actually really fun. You get some minor floater over the hills and this thing cruises along pretty good through the course. Also surprisingly tall with a big drop for what is intended to be the small family coaster. Timmy's Halfpipe Havoc was my first Halfpipe coaster because I've never wasted my time with Elitch Gardens. I was totally alone on the ride and it was really damn fun. Sandy's was my favorite coaster in the park, but this was my #2. Got some good spinning going and the airtime was a fun sensation. It feels like a glorified swinging ship but just a lot of fun. Unfortunately I was too short on time to hit many flats, but had to hit a couple of the unique ones. The S&S tower was a must ride and for some reason it was almost freaky the way it went up in its own shaft, which really added a sensation of height to the ride. Not sure what the actual height is, but between being way above the mall roof, having a long view of the NJ Turnpike, and being face to face with the NYC skyscrapers, it felt a million feet tall. It was running in combo mode and while the launch was pretty good, the drop sucked. But the uniqueness more than made up for the lame drop. Also, not sure what the name of it was but had to get a ride on that modern looper style ride. Instead of having to work a floor pedal to get the car flipping, you simply had to use the joystick to flip either forwards or backwards. Very easy to ride in "flying mode", stay upside down, or just flip the thing manically forwards or backwards. I don't get nauseous easily but I held the stick forward for like 7 or 8 consecutive flips and was almost ready to hurl. This stupid thing is insane lol. Wanted to get on the Air Race, Frisbee, and maybe some other stuff but had to hit the road. If you want to check this place out, right now is a great time to do so as crowds are very light and you'll get to just do whatever you want as much as you want. Just remember you can't re-enter once you leave so plan accordingly. Plenty of food and restrooms inside the park. Didn't encounter any unreasonable security (I was alone while my wife shopped) which was a positive. The free lockers were very easy to use with the same wristband you get when you enter the park. For me, skiing is my #1 passion (parks are #2) but I didn't end up checking out Big Snow as the real season is only a few weeks away. But I did see quite a few people heading in with equipment. Maybe next year in July I'll have to stop by if I'm in Jersey. For now, I'm still trying to get over the shock that this place is actually open and that I can do my two favorite things (neither of which ever involve a roof) under one roof.

Quote of the week.

Superman is my favorite floorless coaster. I love the forces and that layout. It also surprised me last time when I stopped at the nearby shopping mall and saw it poking above the quarry up there.

^Nice report! I always try to look at the positives after riding a new coaster, and there are plenty of things to like about Orion: The chain lift is ridiculously quiet. I realize most won't care about this but I find it quite pleasant The first drop is world class, especially in the back During the wave turn, if you're seated on the far left, you can lean outward and stare 175 feet straight down. Fun. This this absolutely flies over the speed hill and the resulting airtime is glorious Combine all that with the fact that it's a reliable B&M, it's a capacity machine, it complements the other coasters really well, the theming is pretty solid for a CF park, and the operations at KI are always lightning quick, and you have a great overall coaster in my book.

https://youtu.be/sCnx9JKaQ24 If you are heading to Dollywood this weekend. Checkout the haunted mountain coaster. Coast and Ghost.

That's awesome, hooray forward progress

Haha, this is pretty much my take on Orion as well. Rode it for the first time this weekend and absolutely loved it. The first drop is incredible, I was out of my seat the entire way down. The wave turn is a cool element and something I don't think we've seen on a hyper/giga. The turnaround pulls some nice Gs and the speed hill has legitimate ejector air, followed by sustained floater air on the next hill. If I do have a criticism of the ride, it's that it does feel a little short--but that's more because it's hauling ass the entire time and I didn't want the ride to end. With FL+, we were able to ride it six times. We did 3 rides in the morning and 3 at night, and the night rides felt even faster. It was the first giga my kids have ridden and all of them said it was their favorite coaster ever.

I think you'll enjoy the ride. Based on this post and your other posts here. Don't compare it to other rides like most people do, just go enjoy the damn thing. The new theming is cool, the ride looks nice, and yeah it also has a 300 foot drop and goes 91 miles per hour. I loved Orion and rode it over and over. Too short you say? That's fine, just gives me more time to hop back in the FL+ line to walk-on and get back on the 300 foot drop that much sooner. If I ever get to the point that I just want to complain about a ride like Orion, I'll probably stop going on roller coaster trips.

I guess my tastes in coasters aren't that refined.... it goes 91 miles per hour and has a 300 foot drop. That's cool as sh*t. It also has tons of airtime, it's butter smooth, it hauls ass the entire time. It does exactly what you would want a giga coaster to do. thrillseeker, I feel like based on your post you're going to love the thing.

Mine Blower at Fun Spot. I thought it was definitely the better of the two Fun Spot wooden coasters.

This past Saturday- October 24th, The Texas Thrillseekers were invited on a behind the scenes tour of Superman: Krypton Coaster by park President Jeffrey Siebert! Here are a few photos from that tour.

I got a request, how about robot based on the now defunct Drachen Fire coaster from BGW.

Queue Times says it topped out at 75 minutes, which means if you waited 4 hours for Candymonium then you deserved to stand there for that entire time and suffer for your bad decision making.