bgwfreak777

So if I follow your logic, we need to have a seperate poll for every type of steel coaster. Why just loopers? Why not mine trains? Why not bobsleds? I think Mitch's poll is just fine like it is. Montu and Afterburn are still in my top 10 steel list and are both loopers.

Last time I rode Hurler around 5/8 the trim was on and I don't know if it was just sluggish in general, but the coaster had no air at all on the hills that day. They actually installed the one at Carowinds last fall around September. Maybe it's just a temporary thing until Carowinds can spend the money to completly rehab the ride, like Bart Kinzel said they are planning to do once Thunder Road is done.

Looks like they're really coming along with the place. Glad to see it. Is Cyclone considered part of Luna?

They put the M&M's back on the steps. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! They weren't on there on 3/6. And yeah, I don't get the abandoned Ferris wheels on the side of the road either. They are eye catching though and I always would get excited until I realized the thing had no seats on it.

That looks like a great park, on par theming-wise with Busch Gardens Williamsburg, if not even more.

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=53855&start=290

Richard that is one amazing PTR. And my timmy was the last one too.

I appologize if this is a repeat topic, but I don't recall ever seeing one on this topic. For our international/well traveled members, are American themed lands in parks a pretty common thing? Here we seem to like Europe a lot for theming, sometimes Asia, and more recently Australia has started being used a lot for water parks.

Nice to see Adventure Express get some love, I still think that's one of the best mine train coasters out there.

Sadly mine was this:

SFOG has honestly one of the best coaster lineups out there imho, my complaint is the fact that it's always felt so ghetto to me and I've had some scary experiecnes there as well that I won't bore you with. Also, as long as you don't hit Carowinds on a Saturday, you can pretty much be done with all 12 credits (you won't get the kiddie unless you steal a kid) in less than 5 hours.

Great report Benny, I'd be so much more likely to do that than bungey jump off a bridge or dam like they like to do here.

Trims can ruin a ride or in spots, like 305's 2nd hill trim pretty much kills your chance at air unless you're in the back. And now I'm hearing that they did add a trim to the first drop, which may not affect it as much since it's looking like a magnetic trim instead. There are ones that are very bad like Mean Streak and Beast that just are very tacky and while I understand the purpose, I just wish they could trim it another way or another place on the ride. It seems Carowinds did some tweeking to Intimidator's, because I heard the end of April it was trimming really hard, but ever since then it's been very light. I've never had it trim me hard before personally and I've gotten 52 rides so far.

You make Dorney look...like a real park! Loved the pics, you guys are hilarious.

I love the pic with Pigwidgen (sp?) sitting on your arm.

I think my issue is that I have pretty big legs, due to the way I'm built, years of cycling and weight lifting too. But anyway, I got the belt on myself no problem, but they said the bar wasn't down far enough. They pushed on it once, then said it wasn't down far enough and basically told me to get off the ride. I guess I shouldn't have gotten so pissed off and walked around and tried another seat, but at that point I was just ready to be done with the park.

There wasn't anything trimming us on the drop Saturday, but maybe that's something added Sunday morning.

Yeah the manager I stopped and talked (which frankly he seemed very nice) was like "well, we are afraid of being sued now basically so they can't put any real pressue on the restraints because we're basically afraid of being sued for internal bleeding or whatever". It just seemed to me that they didn't even want to try and help. It was like, oh well, we can't help you. Get off our ride. Glad to hear of another Bojangles fan. Charlotte now even has its own Bojangles arena -- the Bojangles Coliseum. I drove by their corporate headquarters yesterday on the way to an interview.

Six Flags America time... Still a nice looking entry. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Hello waste of time. I'll get to that later... When did Clark Gable get brought back from the dead? And why is he at Six Flags? This actually used to be a top 10 wooden coaster for me, now it's just a smooth rather boring ride. It has no air anymore, and so I dub thee Mean Streak Jr. We also got stuck on the brake run because of some problem with the other train on the lift. Otherwise we'd have been out of the place in 1.5 hours. Why did I ride this? Oh yeah, Sean needed the credit. A themed SLC? What? ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE?!? Welcome to the GAP. No, not the store. The huge gap between the wheels and the track. Fancy Mini tower actually worked, so I got the credit. I couldn't really tell the difference in height (30 ft shorter) than Carowinds Drop Tower. Wild One was down. They were working on it, but I had the credit and didn't feel like sticking around with our long drive back home. Waste of time #2. Why was it a waste of time? A: They want to charge you for lockers, when they have a HUGE station where they could put boxes. B: I couldn't get the belt to snap, and the op refused to let me try the empty seat next to me. The ride was a walk on! Why couldn't I try the other seat? I even stopped a manager and he said he thought that was strange. Oh well, my fat butt already has the credit, so moving on... Oh, that's gonna bring back the crowds. One of the weirdest round ups I've seen. It sits on the ground forever then finally tilts up. Seems Six Flags America has a "no helping" policy now. Strange how Six Flags Over Georgia will gladly slam the restraint down on you. I got the belt on by myself, had the restraint locked, but they said it wasn't down far enough. Then the (again no lines) the op said they couldn't help me and that I had to get off the train. Really? You can't even let me try a second time? NO GET OFF THE RIDE FATTY! Is what they might as well have said. I'll be glad to never return to this park. Also let me say how crappy this ride looks. The track has been painted, but the trains look HORRIBLE and so ghetto. They look like something that was picked up at a garage sale. Rant over, moving on... Well here's one Intamin ride I was able to get on. Sad to say Rodeo was the best ride I rode at the park. I'm really liking these break dance rides all of a sudden. Happy Cow says: This ride made by Huss! Who says Six Flags can't theme? Cracked pretty much sums up how I feel about this park. I just don't know why SFI even keeps it and doesn't dump it like they did SFKK. It's such a tiny park, and except for the front of the park, it's in very bad need of some shade. So overall the trip up to the park was a total waste of time and gas, and parking fee ($15) except for two things. The break dance which was good, and then I finally got to stop at a real Popeye's chicken fast food place. Their friend chicken is slightly better than Bojangles, but not a HUGE difference like I've been told. Plus, no Bojangles sweet tea. This trip report brought to you by D.C. traffic. It sucks. Thanks for reading, and hopefully this won't be the last trip report of the year for me...

Hello again, I had the opportunity to hit up Kings Dominion and added on Six Flags America since I had a pass this year to Six Flags. Awe, 305 looks so cute and tiny from my hotel. We got there from Charlotte just in time for opening and decided to run to 305 first just in case it had problems later in the day (which it did). The red train greets us and laughs at us because silver wasn't up yet. Hmmm....when was Millennium Force painted red? We got one ride and it didn't take long at all for a middle ride even with one train. I was surprised at how quickly they could move when they did have both trains on. Dominator had a very long line, and wouldn't get any shorter because the park was PACKED. We waited until after lunch, but still it was at least a 45 minute wait. I don't recall, but didn't they used to run 3 trains on this? It only had 2, and none in the storage shed. Wait, how did I transport to Carowinds? They repainted it to match Southern Star. lol Hi Hypersonic station. I don't miss your ride at all. Grizzly was running amazing. Insane, fast and great laterals. One of my favorites still to this day. You do have to know how to ride it though. I paid my respects to Geauga Lake and rode El Dorado for the first time. It was fun. Should've ridden it when I was at Geauga Lake. We like it dirty in the south. Especially our coaster trains. Smoother than Thunder Road? Check. Cool new decals. Welcome to Congo! Where we have NASCAR, aliens, a snake, volcanos a bobsled and a crypt! Outer Hanks added goat to the menu. Geek shot. Intense and fun? Probably not as good as the ride though. I cower in front of Boocifer's awesomeness. Back for more big red. I loved the ride overall, but it comes in at #5 on my steel list, bumping Millennium Force down a notch. I prefer the other Intimidator, but that's just me. Both are great rides. I liked the trains and actually wasn't bothered by the restraints at all. Anaconda liked to laugh at us when 305 was broken down so much. Come ride me! It would yell. But we just ignored it. Nice of the park to line up matching busses next to Dominator. Stupid Eiffel Tower. ugh. This pic reminds me of the old pics in the 70s when the film would run out, but it would still take half a picture and the rest would look like this. There were cheers and applause when the chasers came on. Night ride in the front row was great. Also I never blacked/grayed out at all on any of my rides. Sean knocked me over so he could ride first. Redfoot12 from TN & TPR joined us for some rides for the evening. Sorry, forgot to get a pick of him. Never seen this pic before. Sean meditates as we wait for our last ride of the night, Volcano. Can you tell me how many Smurf's are still hiding in there? I'm working for Gargamel on the side. The aliens landed on the tower. Did Kings Dominion get a deal on chasers? Dominator got its own. Call Screamscape. Intimidator is leaving Carowinds next year for KD. Ride On! Six Flags America coming up next.

Saturday I got 3 rides total on 305 with all the problems. Silver train kept going down, which would of course back up the line, then they'd stop it again and add it back on. Looks like it's a problem with the wheels. I got one back row, one front row and one middle ride. Front row was in the dark and was a strange experience going up the lift and those chasers, it looked like some type of movie. Anyway when they had two trains on, I thought the line moved better than I expected. I just wish the park wasn't crowded like it was, I only got one ride on Volcano and none on Flight of Fear which had a full queue most of the day and even when I walked over there in the a.m. after getting my first ride on 305 first thing when the park opened, the queue was already out to the external door. I can't complain though, I got at least one ride on most everything I wanted to ride except Flight of Fear. This park could do with a fast pass system though. Oh and there isn't a trim on the hill. I think what people are seeing is how it slows at the top (I'm guessing) to disengage the catch car. A friend of mine who rode it opening weekend said it was doing that then. Only trim was that terrible one on hill 2.

Dick would not approve of you using your Platinum Pass so much. I think you'll enjoy Intimidator and I'm checking out its brother this weekend. Wait, was that the sound of an Intamin cable snapping?

Is it the same kind of simulator that's been in that building? I can't recall what was in there before Corkscrew Hill (before Ireland), but it made me slightly sick and normal individual seat simulators never bothered me.

Hurler at Carowinds finally tapped me one time on its trim after the first drop. I don't know if it was that trim or the fact it was kind of cool Sunday, but the thing had no air at all in the front. Normally it's trying to eject me from the front of the train every time. It's sad that I could only ride Hurler in the back the first 2 years, and never again after that. I think it's poor design myself, and frankly why can't they reprofile the first turn and make it 90 degrees instead? I'm thinking that would be less stress on the structure myself, but I'm probably wrong on that as I'll soon find out.

I'm happy to see the place finally getting some TLC. Kind of like I've been very happy with my home park Carowinds and how Cedar Fair has turned it around, not even including Intimidator.