First Look: POV Video for Kings Island's Orion

Needs some themeing but seems like a sweet ride

I've been there, but it's been a while. I see Flight of Fear toward the end, so did this replace Firebird (or similar name)?

This thing looks rough, short, and lame IMO. Give me a small hyper like Goliath SFOG, Mako, Expedition GeForce, or Skyrush over a massive "giga" like this or Millennium Force anyday. Cedar Fair could have at least spent the money on building a second half of the ride.

Also I don't know what it is about Kings Island and rough coasters but this already looks rattly as heck. Of course it could just be the camera mount, but if the ride feels like it looks in the POV it's going to be really dissapointing. I went to KI last year and was really dissapointed at how rough Banshee, Diamondback, and well pretty much every other coaster in the park was. The only smooth coaster in the whole park was Mystic Timbers.

The new Hersheypark hyper coaster looks better IMO.

I have not been on the Orion hate bandwagon, but this does not look like a great ride. It looks rough, incredibly short, and like there is almost no airtime in the majority of the ride. Aren't smoothness and floater air supposed to be B&Ms calling card?

After the drop, this reminded me a bit of Formula Rossa - a coaster that's all about speed and G-force in the turns over airtime. But POV video doesn't do that ride justice, so I wonder if that's the same for Orion, as well.

Looks like its more of the camera that's providing the perception of being rough. Banshee and Diamondback where as smooth as silk in October for us. I'll disperse my reservations until after I ride it. Gives me Leviathan vibes, which no doubt it was designed to be, and if it's as good as Leviathan I'm all in.

While it still looks like a solid ride, this one doesn't look as strong as Fury 325 or Leviathan to me. My gut feeling says it will probably not replace Diamondback as the best coaster at Kings Island, but will still rank in the top 2-4 coasters there. If all goes as planned, I'll be making my next visit out there in 2021 to try it out.

Gigacoasters are not my favorite either, but of those that are out there I do think the B&M ones are the best. I like Intamin much better overall, but B&M on the gigacoasters.

If this ride is at least equal to Leviathan it will be a nice addition.

General Public may love it; even they may wonder “where’s the rest of it?” Looks lame (never thought a new GIGA could look so boring); so here’s to it riding better than it appears online! Orion won’t make me need to return to KI - quite the opposite. Fury clearly maintains its dominance and “Hyper-Candy” looks better than this. So here’s to enthusiasts declaring Orion a ‘short but sweet’ ride IRL!

I think it's impossible to ascertain roughness from a POV, so anyone making such an assessment is fooling themselves.

My biggest takeaway here is the lack of elements that accentuate the speed of the coaster. If you're going to build a 300+ foot tall machine, you want to utilize that momentum and speed to the max. It appears that the top speed of the coaster is reached at the bottom of the first drop where the track skims about 5 feet off the ground in a fenced in grassy area. Leviathan's first drop features a tunnel, while Fury 325 drops into a fenced grassy area that at least has some other track and supports to accentuate that 93 MPH speed (it also has a tunnel later in the course after the turn around).

The helix at the end looks like it may pull some solid positive g's, but it's not unique when compared to the more inventive high-g maneuvers on Fury 325 and Leviathan.

The shortness of the layout is pretty similar to Leviathan, which I praised compared to Fury 325, which appears to be longer just for the sake of being longer with a few extra bunny hills thrown in at the end. However, without actually riding this new gigacoaster, I would still approach it with an open mind.