Kings Island to Debut New Orion Giga Coaster on Opening Day - April 11th!

© Kings Island

One of the largest new for 2020 roller coaster projects in the U.S. now has an opening date!  Kings Island will open Orion along with the park on April 11th, 2020.  The park has posted their schedule for the year and also confirmed they plan to have the giga coaster ready to do for opening day.  This news means that riders only have less than three months of waiting until they can get their first rides on Orion.

© Kings Island

And speaking of the ride, if you haven't been following construction you've missed a great deal of the ride's 5,321 feet of track going into place.  The park has already flown through the coaster's second hill, turn around (seen up top in a recent image from the park), and more recently the third and fourth hills as well.  Orion will feature a 300 foot first drop (also seen above) that will send the trains roaring around the track at a top speed of 91 miles per hour.

© Kings Island

It has been fun keeping tabs on Orion from Kings Island's webcam - here is a shot of the coaster from this afternoon.  Crews are hard at work on the giant helix that comes near the end of the ride.  From this image it looks like they're almost at the halfway point of the element.  That only leaves a relatively small amount of track and supports to go before the ride is complete!

That should leave plenty of time for testing ahead of the planned April 11th debut.