Without the benefit of foresight, I purchased a Cedar Fair Platinum Pass in the fall of 2019 and a FastLane Plus voucher during Kings Island's President's Day sale. This put me in a position of good luck that was downright absurd when I took a trip to Mason, Ohio in the park's first week of operation for the 2020 season. I can count myself among Orion's earliest riders, and thanks to my wristband, I was able to score three laps on a day where single-issue boarding passes were distributed to mitigate the crowds packing into Area 72, its themed area.
Orion is the third giga coaster by Swiss designers Bolliger & Mabillard. Anybody who has found their way to this blog is surely familiar with these industry titans, who represent the closest to a "sure thing" for parks that can afford to build one of their rides. They are reliable, high-capacity machines that offer smooth rides and big thrills, albeit at a high cost. As it pertains to Orion, Kings Island spent roughly the same amount they spent to construct the entire park for its 1972 opening. The price of steel increased sharply between the opening of Carowinds's Fury 325 and Orion, which may have had an impact on Orion's design.
From its announcement, the ride drew skepticism and even outright criticism from enthusiasts because of its stats, its length, and the relatively low number of elements. At 5,321 feet in length, Orion is less than 40 feet longer than Diamondback, located just across the park. Because both the lift hill and brake run are so much taller on Orion, the duration of the course from crest to brake run is several seconds shorter than Diamondback, and both by length and duration, it clocks in as the shortest B&M giga coaster. Even that definition is a sore spot for some enthusiasts - while Orion's first drop is a beastly 300 feet, it uses a ravine to achieve that drop, rising "only" 287 feet above its station as it climbs the first lift hill. Derisive comments about Orion being the second-best B&M hyper in the park have dogged it since its footers were poured.
Even the elements themselves were the targets of pre-opening scorn. After the drop, Orion features a side-banked hill commonly considered a wave turn, a turnaround, a speed hill, an airtime hill, a helix majestically christened "Orion's Belt," and a small dip before it careens into its brake run. From the digital POV video that accompanied the ride's announcement, it was predicted that the ride would offer little intensity, less-impressive airtime than Diamondback, and overall little merit to justify its existence in a park that already had a world-class hyper coaster. (Note: officially, B&M considers its giga coasters to be specimens of their hyper coaster model.)
When the official, live POV was released just a week before its first riders event, suddenly a wave of enthusiasts flooded forums with mea culpae about their skepticism. Compared to the CGI rendition, the live POV made clear that Orion would haul through its layout, tearing up almost every element. The digital version was actually astonishingly accurate, but the sterility of a digital park, with a perfectly-fixed nose camera, gentle synthesized screams, and a windless forest surrounding it, completely undersold the sheer sense of speed that a giga coaster delivers.
I was predisposed to loving Orion, even if the ride's forces fell short of Diamondback's (which underwhelmed me on my first visit to Kings Island, anyway). Millennium Force, for example, has never been outside my Top 3 roller coasters, because I value ambience and a sense of "going somewhere" just as much as the sensations delivered by the track itself. I have never been bothered by its "forceless" experience after the first overbanked turn, because I have been too busy screaming in delight as the train careened through the trees and over the water. Orion gets a head start on providing its sense of "going somewhere" with its well-themed training hangar. Orion has a small story component that casts riders as trainees in a new space defense program, and the hangar is full of Easter eggs and allusions to other Kings Island attractions, enveloping rides of Kings Island's past and present into one global canon.
The train leaves the station and engages the lift hill almost silently. I honestly could not feel the chain, so smooth is the motion. The ascent is also fairly rapid, and I believe that Orion's 287-foot climb takes less time than Diamondback's 230-foot climb. Just before the front of the train crests, the chain slows down, which I assume is to reduce chain wear. The stall is only for a moment, and before anyone has a chance to panic, the train is yanked over the apex of the hill.
The first drop is absolutely unbelievable. While I have not ridden Fury 325, many enthusiasts have favorably compared Orion's first drop to Fury's, and I cannot imagine a ride having a more impressive drop than Orion. Though several feet shorter than the drop on Fury 325, it is also a few degrees steeper, and honestly in the opening moments, it may as well be in free-fall. The back row delivers sustained airtime that, as a novice enthusiast, I have difficulty classifying. Many riders have surely pinpointed the exact magnitude of the airtime with the Ride Forces app, but whether it registers as strong floater or standard ejector, this drop, taken from the back row, is more satisfying than any airtime moment I have ever experienced. The drop also lasts forever. Even as the drop levels off slowly and gradually, the acceleration is constant, and riders' bodies never seem to fully catch up with the train. If there is a better drop on Planet Earth right now, I almost don't want to know about it.
After the first drop, the valley is drawn out and gentle, sparing riders from intense positive Gs (for the time being). I think I actually prefer this design choice, because it allows the focus to be on the sights and the speed. This beautifully sets up Orion's first element, a wave turn standing 174 feet tall. This element's enjoyment will largely be determined by riders' expectations. Some enthusiasts built themselves into an expectation that the element would provide a jolt of sideways airtime, in the manner of an RMC outward bank, and have thus considered this hill a dud. I, on the other hand, was blown away by the gracefulness of the element - even though I was not pulled out of my seat too strongly in any direction, I felt like an ace pilot, masterfully maneuvering through space. After the crest of the turn, as the track corrects its roll and its yaw, there is a quick nudge of floater airtime, making the descent feel almost like another first drop.
The ride wastes no time pulling up into its turnaround. I do not know if this is statistically true, but the ascent feels much steeper than the ascent into the wave turn, and the ride sustains some moderate positive Gs through the turnaround. The fact that Orion is able to reach the 200-foot mark on its second element while maintaining a sense of speed and force is astonishing, and the element is shaped to offer a brief, skewed view of The Beast heading off into its forest course. The steep banking is maintained through much of the turnaround, almost creating the sense of pulling out of an inversion. Looked at objectively, the forces through the turnaround are not strong, but experienced holistically, the dive is jarring and unexpected because it develops so much faster than the wave turn.
The track makes a slight left turn to set up what, for many, is the defining highlight of the ride: a 56-foot tall speed hill taken from ground level. This element offers several seconds of sustained ejector airtime from the back row. With my hands up, I felt my torso being stretched and elongated as the clamshell kept my legs in place while the ride pulled my hands higher and higher. As incredible as this speed hill is, I do not know if I would rank it as my favorite element - a testament to the rest of the layout.
The speed hill is followed by what is almost unanimously considered Orion's weakest element: a 147-foot tall airtime hill with a conspicuously-placed trim brake on the way up. On all of my rides, there was at least some appreciable floater air, but it is my grim displeasure to report that the trim brake has the capability to neuter it. When the trim is gently grazed, this hill still compares favorably to the return trip on Diamondback, but when the trim is fully engaged, the result is more like the second hill on Magnum XL-200: a gentle tug that belies the intensity of the forces on the rest of the ride. Strong air, weak air, or no air, careening down a 150-foot hill is still an invigorating thrill that only a roller coaster can provide, and I am grateful and amazed that Orion offers this on four separate occasions.
Even with a trim brake, Orion carries some speed into its helix, Orion's Belt. The coil gradually tightens as it climbs to its apex, retaining a near-circular shape as it begins its descent. Opinions on Orion's Belt seem to be the more evenly split than on the other elements, with some considering it the underrated surprise of the ride, and others considering it pointless. I fall somewhere in between, based on my experience. It is definitely not forceless, but I felt most of the positive Gs at the top of the helix, and they were definitely milder than I expected. Most of the ascent is almost too drawn out, where the experience feels little different than a stretch of straight track. Let me be clear: at these speeds, a section of straight track is immense fun. However, as far as providing the bone-crunching mix of laterals and positives that most riders expect from a helix, Orion's Belt may not even be a top-3 helix in the park. This is more a credit to Kings Island's lineup than a knock on Orion. As the track drops out of the helix, it wraps underneath the first drop. Watching construction footage, it appeared like this moment would find the very limit of the clearance envelope, but in fact it is not a near-miss. There is a slight hand-chopper effect on the left side of the train, but otherwise the support structure is not a feature of the layout here.
As the ride approaches its final dip, it can finally be felt that the train is not moving at its top speed, but the scale of the element tightens up accordingly. There are not one, but two surprise airtime moments. There are pops heading into and out of this dip, and the airtime is strong in both moments. As pleasantly surprising as the forces were, I found this closing to be a bit strange. The compressed scale took away from the massive, otherworldly aura that giga coasters provide so well. That being said, my "complaint" here is that the ride provided me with 50 seconds of unadulterated speed and scope, and then traded that in its final three seconds for a couple of bursts of quality airtime. If only other rides had such "weak points."
Orion is a hit, and does plenty to distinguish itself from Diamondback. Knowing that many riders (and readers) would rush to compare Orion to Diamondback, I tried to make as many observations as I could, but I think the difference is simple: Diamondback offers consistency, while Orion offers variety. Both rides boast the same world-class quality of a B&M, but while nearly all of Diamondback's elements provide solid, sustained floater, Orion mixes things up and uses each of its elements to do something different. As one would hope, Orion's first drop blows Diamondback's out of the water, but there are moments along the layout that, depending on one's preferences, are outdone by Diamondback.
I was able to take one lap from the back-right, one from the back-left, and one from front-and-center. The overall ride experience was definitely stronger from the back, but Orion offers so much variety that riders should clamor for an experience from both ends of the train. The first drop still offers impressive airtime from the front, along with an incredibly intimidating view of the ground, owing to its violent crest and steep angle. The wave turn offers more sustained force from the front, but a more-thrilling exit from the back, specifically on the right side of the train. The turnaround is most forceful from the front, but there is some gentle airtime offered by the back row on the exit. The speed hill is incredible from anywhere on the ride - jarring and sudden from the front, sustained and intense from the back. Because of the trim brake, the large airtime hill will offer a better experience from the back, as the train pulls itself over the crest. Orion's Belt is a unique experience on both ends - from the front row, it hits its punch of positives about halfway up and gradually relaxes, whereas from the back, the positives hit near the top, suddenly shifting to mild airtime on the descent. The final two airtime moments are about equal from each end of the train.
I genuinely hope to make many future trips to Kings Island to experience Orion, but I have not decided how I compare it to Millennium Force, the other Ohio giga coaster. Judging only by what the track itself provides, Orion is the clearly superior ride, matching Millennium Force's sense of speed while also delivering a greater variety of forces. Assessing a ride as not only its track, but its landscape, background, and sense of scope, Millennium Force levels the scale, and may even tip it back the other way. Orion is not helped by how much bare earth is exposed in its opening year, but once some greenery has grown around it, this ride may be unstoppable. Whichever one is better, I look forward to riding both frequently in the future.
Scores
- Appearance - From miles away, Orion towers over the park and imposes itself. 10
- View - The trees, The Beast, the park, and the ride's own track. Will only improve with green. 9
- Comfort - The restraints are perfect and the track is impossibly graceful. 10
- Layout - Every last element is memorable - even the "disappointing" ones. 9
- Intensity - The eternal drop, the speed hill, and Orion's Belt (on a "good" lap) deliver. 9
- "Wow" Factor - From the queue to the brake run, an incredible experience. 10
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