CoasterGuy06

And that's why Cedar Point is Cedar Point. I thought it was Cedar Point because of some trees and a peninsula.....and concrete and trash cans

Well the park has been open for about a month now so I thought it was a good time to bring you guys up to speed on the changes the park made in 2010! I have pictures to document many changes, but not all of them. Here are some of the "big" things this year: -Both Pirate and Acapulco Drop have reopened after prolonged closures last season. Both had some major work done to them prior to reopening -Wild River Gorge had an extensive rehab during the off season after last season's boat flip incident. This includes all major elements being rehabbed, new operator control panels, new safety system, etc. -The park finally has an indoor restaurant -The blue pavement was redone and is no longer blue -Space Shot has officially reverted back to the name Stratos Fear Screamer, which is the name it opened under. -The park is adding a live show into the old arcade -The park also has a new ticketing/season pass system -Rampage received lots of new track work. The big pothole is no more. On to the pictures! First things first: Celebration Street. It received new garbage cans, planters placed down the street, and had trees replanted on the sides (these had been removed around 2003) This is a "new" store called Voltage Inside the store Some of the Rampage shirts available for purchase A permanent "Slush Factory" is being added This actually changed last year. This was previously a Boardwalk Fries. This building had been the employee cafe since 2007 and is now "Chubbie's BBQ" which is the first indoor restaurant in the park. (It was an ice cream parlor from 1998-2001, and since then there has not been a true indoor place to eat) The former Arcade is being transformed into the "Star Theater" where a "80s 90s and beyond" music show will be held during daily operation Show schedule Many of the redemption games from the Arcade have moved to this building, which has mainly been used for storage. This building had been Pizza Junction until it moved to Boardwalk's old spot last year. It is now the "VIP Cafe" (employee diner) The blue pavement area has been repainted and had planters added as well. Giant Wheel was repainted in the off season. The inside of the trough on Cahaba Falls was repainted The wooden walkway was also replaced The cars on Mind Spinner were also repainted and it is now running faster than the past few seasons. Scrambler also received a new paintjob Seatbelts were also added, allowing the ride to drop both the height requirement and the "no single riders" rule. Marvel City Diner has a new name and some new menu items. This is currently the 3rd location for the Birthday Party House. It was in the Arcade from 2006-2009. The park began a multi year project to remove all of the old PVC fencing/que railing. Here is Barnstormer's new fencing. Marvel Mania also had its fencing replaced And finally so did Motorcross Space Shot has returned to the Stratos Fear Screamer name It also had numerous upgrades performed in the off-season. Wild River Gorge had this structure added to its que The wave machine once again making waves The whirlpool once again whirling Park employees also now wear name tags instead of ID photo badges. Zoomerang's entry gates were repainted and the floor was replaced in the station. Larry Cochran, the new CEO of Adrenaline Family Entertainment though all of the wooden posts in the park looked kinda dull, so they have been painted a variety of colors. That's all I have for now! I hope you can come visit the park soon!

You have to realize the decision to remove the "charm" from the Paramount parks in favor of movie tie in rides/attractions was likely made by the head honchos at Viacom, who were using the parks to sell their other entertainment ventures, and not necessarily the idea of the people running Paramount Parks.

You realize Busch and Cedar Fair also have preffered parking right? And you know other parks have mandatory "storage bins" right? They also did a little thing the Six Flags had NEVER done it its history: finish a season cash flow positive. Although I wish Shapiro had stayed, from what I have read about Weber from his Paramount days I don't think he is necessarily a bad choice.

Eli Bridge issued a safety notice to parks a few years ago that they should not allow single riders on Scramblers unless they have installed seatbelts. Some parks have just decided to enact the rule even if they have seatbelts though.

Six Flags is NOT building a park in Nigeria...they are licensing their name for the park. It's pretty easy money for them.

^^That was what we did on KD's opening weekend. Hit KD on Friday, arrived at SFA at opening and hit all the coasters (going to Gotham City first), then headed back to KD. We were only at SFA about 2.5 hours, but that was with a couple of re-rides, picture taking, and a visit to guest relations.

^^ I was there this past Saturday. If you can, get there at opening and go straight to Gotham City. We got 2 rides on S:ROS and one each on Batwing and Joker's Jinx in 20-25 minutes. The two wood coasters should be running 2 trains, but Batwing was the only steel that even had a second train on the transfer. Have fun!

That's me in the TPR shirt in your Drop Tower picture

I like how fast the crew moves, but they have GOT to settle down. They seemed very flustered at times when trying to assign seats (one guy going so far as to push a kid back into a row) and they would also sometimes miss checking restraints here and there because they were skipping around so much trying to avoid stacking. Overall still a good crew though.

Generally speaking, the first time a train is run for the season parks will use dummies, sandbags, etc. to simulate weight because all of the moving parts are kind of "stiff" since they haven't run in a while, regardless of temperature. I remember when Rampage ran it's blue train for the first time of the 2005 season. It was probably at least 85 and even with the sandbags it CRAWLED the first couple of cycles.

So last Thursday Skycoastin Steve and I decided to make the 5.5 hour drive up to Carowinds for their opening day. It was my first visit to the park so we were going with the plan of getting as many credits as possible and brave what would surely be a long line for Intimidator later. Much to our surprise when we arrived inside the park about 1:30 the line was only 10 minutes! Overall we were able to get all the credits except for Nighthawk (which was the only ride not running all its trains), with 2 rides on Afterburn and 5 on Intimidator (including rows 1 and 15). Some thoughts on the coasters: Intimidator- Wow...this ride is just so much fun. So much floating airtime over the hills plus the crazy turnaround was really good. The only negative is the helix after the midcourse just felt like "oh we just need to fill space so here it is." Woodstock's Express- fun little ride. We waited longer for this than any of our rides on Intimidator. Afterburn- Seriously wicked invert. Very fun and intense. Thunder Road- Wish they would have been racing, but overall pretty smooth ride. You get a nice whiff of fresh pine on the newly rebuilt sections. Carolina Goldrusher- pretty bland mine train. Plus it takes way too long for the train to park itself in the station. Carolina Cyclone- I was really surprised with this ride. It was a pretty fun Arrow looper, plus I had completely forgot there was a helix at the end. Hurler- I liked this one better than the one KD's. Fairly smooth with a couple nice pops of airtime. Ricochet- It's a mouse. Next. Carolina Cobra- Granted, I never really have had a problem with Boomerangs, but I really enjoyed this. The new style restraints are nice. I hope more parks will look into these. Vortex- other than a couple of rough bumps I though this was a nice little ride. Flying Ace Aerial Chase- Ah...here's the rough ole' Vekoma we all know and love. Overall I though Carowinds was a really neat little park. It's hard to believe it has 3 B&M's, but it does and they are some solid rides. Intimidator is a home run hit for the park, plus the crew was really pushing the crowds through. I highly recommend everyone go and check it out! Hello Goliath! We are not going to be riding you today, so you will be dropping in my rankings from #1 to #2. Bye newly painted Batman...see you soon! What's that on the horizon? Apparently something big is going on today. Who knew? Curvy goodness! I really like the new train design. The trims really do not change the ride. We're here! Now to get my pass processed... The site of some infamous photos Welcome to Carowinds Hello to the one coaster we did not ride The reason why we are here The only negative to the ride One of the very very few times all the trains were stacked. Carowinds two new additions for 2010. Scooby's Fairy themed express ride Good to see the former Paramount parks still have the good stuff Top Gun! Eh...it's a better name than Flight Deck. Weee! Shark train looooooooop The Jet Coaster Lifty goodness twisty! Immelman! This wound up being the only photo I took...oops. Through the trees! I would have waited for a train...but they were only running one train Skytower goodness Uh-Oh...boomerang time The new trains are nice eh... Is Carowinds getting their own Thomas Town too? Looooooooop Track growing from the trees Running out of captions... In honor of Skycoastin Steve We got on with basically no wait after the ride reopened from some downtime THROUGH THE TREES! Vortex and Goldrusher In case you forgot where we were Ah...good ol' Vekoma Jr. Hang 'n' Bang Thanks for reading!

I liked Intimidator better than the other B&M hypers I have ridden (Goliath SFOG and Apollo), but I rode Apollo when I was a little under the weather so my opinion of it might be skewed because of that. *edit- And you guys were doing a great job yesterday. There was one guy, I believe his name was Anthony that I wound up sitting in seats he was checking on 3 of my 5 rides...dude seemed so excited to be doing his job.

The longest I waited today (5 rides) was 15 mins or so...it was really short all day and the crew was doing a good job.

They must REALLY enjoy changing the color scheme of that train. That's at least the 4th different one that I know of. Nice pics though...I really enjoy Gulf Shores and Waterville is a nifty little place.

So if Carowinds is going to use the original KI method are they also going to tell a group of people that do not mind being split up that they cannot use the single rider line?

Well it looks like I'll be visiting Carowinds for the first time on opening day...I guess this will be an interesting experience.

It could also be that it is a policy they only enforce at times (like when crowded) or it is one that is no longer enforced and maybe someone forgot to tell that one employee. Because lord knows how many in season changes that have been implemented that later an employee says "nobody told me." And yeah the Carowinds trip is going to be insane....what we fools do for our coasters.

^Yes, there is a new map coming. Finally.

Well the picture is back when Rampage had the flames on the train But I would fight someone before they could take away Rampage

I spy Rampage on their website .

The park has announced they will be adding a theatrical show for the 2010 season and will be holding auditions in a week.

Y'all sure are excited about that video

^^ My take on the boomerangos: I LOVED the Boomerango (UpSurge!) we installed at Alabama Adventure in 2009. I am usually more of a ride a slide once or twice and be done with it, but when we had our employee ride night I kept going back and riding it over and over, it was that much fun. IMO, Boomerangos > mat racers, in fact, between all the major style waterslides I have been on I put it second behind MasterBlaster at Schlitterbahn (although I have not been on any of the Proslide tornados or their varients, but I have talked to a couple of people that like boomerangos over tornados) . Also, it seemed to be very popular with our guests, as almost everyday the stairs leading up to it would be FULL shortly after opening even on weekdays.

Regardless of if the park makes it or not, they get bonus points for installing a Boomerango. Those slides are so much fun