bgwfreak777

Yep, Heritage USA was the actual property name for PTL I guess you'd say. The outbound trim hardly ever engages, the return trim usually does but it's more a light tap to me than a hard trim. Of the 4 B&M hypers (including Diamdonback) I really never had a problem with the trims. I think B&M seems to overcompensate on speed, and then trim it for the ideal ride experience. But that's just me.

Looking at Chessington, it's funny how European/Asian parks like to theme to American themes, like the wild west. Then in America we like to theme to Europe. Nobody is ever happy with where they live I guess. Great PTR's dude. Also, your opinion of Megaphobia is pretty much mine of the two Hurler's. Ride in the front, for great air and fun. Ride in the back if you want a disjointed spine.

It's interesting that the ops on the other coasters weren't up to par. I had the same thing at Kings Island last year, with Diamondback crew kicking butt, and the rest acting like they were auditioning for Six Flags.

So a bit of trivia, anyone know what that tower is way off in the distance? Anyone? Bueller? It's the former PTL high rise! If you don't know what PTL or who Jim & Tammy Bakker were, then google them. Very little of the former campus remains, but the shell of that tower is still there.

Well Thunder Road lost its tunnel. I don't know what Cedar Fair has against tunnels.

The assigned seating does work I think, you have a full train more often and the station isn't full with people looking all confused at the short little queue's for each row.

I love the new Rebel Yell logo! Sweet! Maybe they'll get around to doing one for Thunder Road. The 35th birthday of TR is next year.

Thomas Town does look slightly bigger than the SFOG version, which is good for the kiddies I guess. r.i.p. Two Face. Did you happen to spot the Ultra Twister track? Edit: I also don't recall ever seeing a 7-Eleven in a strip mall like that. Well, maybe it's because it didn't have the logo on the building. Dude! You guys are gonna go back in time!!! (random movie quote)

I saw one of the ops and she said that they expect to start doing single rider passes soon. This should prevent groups from getting in the single rider line. The past 2 times I've been there, the single rider was a longer wait than the regular line.

I guess I'm just a loser for calling it Timmy. And Nighthawk has gotten a bad rattle the past couple years and I don't even ride it but maybe once a year at C3 or Coaster Stock. Firehawk made me feel like I was falling out of the restraints. I guess at this point Batwing is probably my favorite since Carowinds has let NH go.

I'll agree with you on that. They missed checking my restraint one time already because of that. I know 3 of the crew though, and I know they are doing their best to adjust to this new style of train.

Whenever I get up there, I might as well not even do a PTR. lol Oh well, I'll just have to ride it instead. Side question: Are the restraints identical to Maverick's? They look to be, which means I don't have to worry about fitting since I fit on Maverick fine.

Looking at those Great Bear supports I know Walter was thinking, you want to build my coaster WHERE?!?

I had no idea you were a teacher, that makes 2 coaster lovers I know that are teachers.

Yesterday I got up to 15 rides so far on Intimidator. My first 3 of the day were all in row 6. 666? Scury. My next/last was on 7 or 8 I think. The back is my favorite, but it's a great ride wherever you sit.

Wow, Carrot Top came up from Charlotte, lost his muscles, and looks angry about it! Great pics by the way, can't wait to try it out.

I grew up in San Francisco, but have only had sex with two men. That should tell you how straight I am. Seriously though, great photos from Pufferfish. Can't stand NASCAR, but I'd rather have a coaster slightly-themed to that than not slightly-themed at all. I needed to laugh. Thanks.

Blah blah blah, pictures! Isn't that what I should really type? Anyway, you all know the deal by now but I'm going to try and cover some stuff that I haven't seen too much in other trip reports. Yes, of course Intimidator is in here too...somewhere. First stop of the day was NASCAR Speed Park! OK, not really. Uh oh, Visions of Diamondback dancing in your head? Thanks Carowinds for keeping the fans off, since it was like 39 DEGREES! Kerry Earnhadt talks about how much he hates NASCAR and can't stand NASCAR fans. Oh wait, that's what I was thinking. Actually I don't HATE it, just not my thing even though I grew up less than 20 miles from Charlotte Motor Speedway. There was a stalker in the crowd. My first album cover shoot turned out pretty good. The rumors are true... I am straight, and available. Oh wait, no, I meant to say they do have a single rider line! And it worked really good! After the initial rush in the a.m. average waits were around 20 minutes. 20 minutes! For a new beemer! Can you believe it? The gift shop is nice, but too cramped I thought and created a Dollywood gift shop-style bottleneck. Geek On to Planet Snoopy, which looks really good except for something coming up. I love Snoopy looking up at Woodstock like, what you doin up thar? I love the new look. At least for all you Flying Eagle purists, at least Woodstock is in the bird family. Express Yourself. Which brings us to the eye sore of Planet Snoopy.... somebody please tell me this isn't the final product! They ripped out Dora and Swiper and just left random landscaping and some that looked like it wasn't even put together properly. Honestly, it was horrible looking. I'm really hoping they just ran out of time and didn't have time to finish it. Planet Snoopy looks so good otherwise. This was the extent of the theming on Snoopy Junction. Best part of Planet Snoopy now (besides the flyers) is the views you get of Intimidator! Worship me. Tommy took off. Why so devious Alan? Afterburn's windows never looked so good. Snoopy was evicted too. This ride got a great overhaul though, I was pleasantly surprised. I won't spoil the surprises, and there are some! Yeah, if you pay Carowinds $1.03! Yes! ONE DOLLAR AND THREE CENTS! For cheap 3D Glasses! OK one spoiler....the villian/ghost is called are you ready?...... BOOCIFER! What the? We laughed all day at Boocifer. I can't even get over how much Intimidator changes Carowinds. Same old guns though. Did I mention our ride ops move REALLY fast? This was a nice thing they added back to the park this year. They took out the shooting gallery near Reptar, er, Flying A.C.E.'s bridge and replaced it with Antique Photos a while back. It's in front of the arcade they use for Dead Inn @ SCarowinds. Howdy Pardner! You want one of my $4 Cokes? (Seriously, $4 for a 20 oz now). This guy was fired from Dollywood's Timber Tower for looking at internet porn. @Wings - BEST SIGN EVAR. The food was not so good though and $15 for a burger, fries and a Coke is outrageous. Don't know why I never noticed this before, but its very creepy! And we're walking! Another nice off season addition was the Goldrusher sign. Jerry Helms has been with Carowinds basically since the park opened in 1973, and he's still with them! He's a great guy to talk to as well. He's the VP of operations I believe, but I can't recall his exact title. Was Kaleidoscope not Cedar Fairish enough? I do like the new sign though. Bring back the roof! I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes... For those larger folks like me wondering about the seats, they do seem narrower but only slightly. I also thought they had MORE butt room, so they actually were roomier to me overall than Goliath South. Collin shows a newbie how to pound it. After all the shots of dirt and flags from this ride in 09, I didn't even ride it opening day!!!! Some final thoughts: Gold Rusher, Carolina Cyclone & Ricochet all got skipped by our group because they both had long lines! What in the world are people thinking waiting 30+ minutes for a 30 year old Arrow (which does look good in its new colors I think) when there is a brand spanking new Beemer across the park with 20 minute waits! Overall I'm very please with where the park seems to be heading in operations, overall look and rides overall. Several things I'd like them to focus on (not that my opinion matters): Snoopy Junction - Do something with it! Food - You've got to be kidding me to charge me $15 for the crap I ate there. Drinks - $4 for a 20 oz is outrageous. Overall a great opening day, and I can't wait for my next ride on Intimidator. With Afterburn, the Flyers and Intimidator all being on the South Carolina side of the park, my opinion of SC has gone up considerably. Thanks for reading along again, and until next time...enjoy the ride.

Come during SCarowinds and you'll find out. I worked last fall at the park and honestly saw like 1 hour+ waits on Afterburn. I can't imagine what Intimidator will draw. They had the whole queue full at times, but the crew was hauling it all day long and kept that sucker going like I've never seen. Plus you don't have the hassle of the invert overhead seats and such, so that makes it even faster. By 2:00 the average wait was 20 minutes for us. Kudos too for not making us rent lockers!!! Oh, and avoid that place like the plague Memorial Day weekend. Unless you want to hear banjos.

Gary, Good to finally meet you in the flesh. It's funny you took the pic of Dale Earnhardt Blvd. because (honestly we didn't plan it this way) we ended up eating dinner at Carino's off of that exit last night. Seemed very appropriate after meeting his son on Friday, and riding his ride the past 2 days. Great report Edit: LOL I made it in the report.

Yeah, can you imagine how insane Carowinds is going to be Memorial Day weekend with the Hall of Fame opening and NASCAR Race Week all in the same timeframe? I've lived here all my life and I've only been to 2 races, so that tells you how much I like the "sport". But it's a very smart move for Cedar Fair with the popularity of NASCAR these days.

Elissa just wait, in 3 years they will rip all the NASCAR related stuff off of it anyway and just keep the name.

I was the same way puffer, I was limited on time so I was more concerned with riding. I still need to get on Row 1 to make a fair comparison to Diamondback which is my favorite steel, but either way even its #2 on my steel list, that's pretty freaking awesome to be in my back yard. Back row kicks Diamondback, Apollo & Goliath South's back rows though for sure. Those are the only 3 other B&M hypers I've been on yet. I'll be out there in the 30 degree weather tomorrow morning waiting for it again.

At least on paper, Carowinds' Intimidator looks like a much better more re-rideable coaster. Considering I live only 30 minutes from it, and 5 hours from 305 guess which one I'll be riding a lot more this season. I've been very impressed this year with the massive amounts of money CF is putting into the park. I was worried about a year ago that they really weren't going to come through on their promise to make Carowinds a premier park. But when you see what they've been doing and are planning for the future, I'm very pleasantly surprised. As far as the future, I'd love to see a flat package. A frisbee, top spin and a Ferris wheel are my wish list. A frisbee or top spin would go nicely in that green grassy plot right in front of Timmy. Go check the webcame if you don't believe me.

I'm back with the Planet Snoopy pics, enjoy! Snoopy's Gr8Sk8 (try typing that 3 times really fast) is coming along great. I have a soft spot for this ride, mostly because the year it debuted (as Gauntlet) in 1990 was the year I graduated high school. I remember riding it the night of Project Graduation (R.I.P. PG) and then seeing Expose in the soon-to-be remodeled Palladium!!! Too bad I wasn't a shutter bug back then. Flying A.C.E. (hehe) Aerial Chase, like someone said, looks more Nick than it ever did as Reptar. Nick Store out, Snoopy Boutique in. Hey! Why are you taking pics of a kiddie land? I'm over here! Take pics of me! The cafe is coming along and looks very purdy. So we had some time to kill before we could watch Timmy (sorry, I like calling Intimidator that for short. Deal with it!) so we hung out and then went exploring the expanded water park. Oh and yeah, in the background is the secret frog hopper we are getting! Sharon!!!! See, it says "ozzie", oh never mind. Thunder Road's multi-year rehab is coming along. This part of the park seems so far away from the rest of the park, that it doesn't even seem like you're still in Carowinds. Oh yeah, you're in Boomerang Bay! And we're walking! Ship wrecked. Noted! Something just looks dirty about that position. Malaria! The Ride! I'm surprised they haven't yanked the mini golf out yet. It's so uncommon to see them at corporate parks. Head Banger's Ball used to be a good show when I was a teen. Giant beemers always make cafes look better. Back to Planet Snoopy...Tommy took off, and Snoopy is landing. I already like Woodstock 100% better. I just can't remember the name of the remodeled kids area. I see Dora hasn't totally been forgotten. I was ecstatic to see the Nick crap taken off the carousel! I hope they don't put Peanuts on there in the next 2 weeks. It looks soooooooo much better like this. I love classic carousels, and they have an oldie and goodie. Mommy why don't they have more red rides!?! Our only remaining monorail. There can never be enough red. Geek-gasm! It's running! It totally changes the look of Planet Snoopy. Go back one page for more pics of Timmy. I'm feeling rather Crabbie all of a sudden. Lucy's Crabbie Cabbie train was sitting on the lift. I know you're so excited. Please, please refrain from starting 10 threads about how awesome this ride is. Carowinds leave it like this. It looks so much better! And we reach the brake run of yet another trip report. Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading.