Intimidator305

I'm pretty sure every investment since 2013 has been somewhat-revealed early by Carowinds through leaked plans or clueless naming on the park's website photos. Fury was kept secret just as bad as Banshee and GateKeeper.

I did OCNJ back in 2012 and OCMD recently this summer and I love them both. Both are very unique and I love the vibes of both their boardwalks. Thanks for sharing!

Yup... already starting it. Carowinds GM Mike Fehnel has been trying to throw everyone off of it not being a water park addition and then they go ahead and name that photo on their website "Carowinds-Waterpark-Teaser-Rotator.jpg". Not to mention trademarking the name 'Carolina Harbor' well in advance giving away the new name of Boomerang Bay. I expect more to be accidentally revealed before the announcement in 30 days.

Like a lot of their other data, I'm sure it is from a sample group that was questioned and polled at the park. This has happened to me a Kings Dominion, Kings Island, Cedar Point, and Carowinds and one of the questions is always 'Where are you from?'. And also, season pass sales.

It's almost a tradition now of Carowinds teasing... Like Windseeker and Dinosaurs Alive's teasing they stupidly named the file of the photo "Carowinds-Waterpark-Teaser-Rotator" so that confirms Boomerang Bay rather than County Fair will be turning into 'Carolina Harbor'.

If anyone is bored at work today a good way to pass time and have a laugh is reading the comments on the Carowinds Facebook page about Thunder Road closing...

^ Thanks for the photos and surviving the Carowinds fanboys' tears and rebellion to #SaveThunderRoad. Demolition should begin August 4th I heard.

All standups and flyers are the devil's coasters in my opinion. Not the largest fan. I hope a flyer never makes its way to Virginia... although it has been a long-term rumor for BGW to get one eventually. I believe KD's next coaster in 2016/2017 will be less 'generic' than many are speculating.

100% agree - With the trims hitting even harder nowadays and Fury right next door, Intimidator has lost a lot of its charm. I've always considered the ride to be over when it hits the MCBR, too. Cedar Fair is doing a wonderful job investing into this park, but it just has a lot of catching up to do with the lack of attention Paramount gave them. By the end of the decade this could easily be one of the top parks in the chain if the investments keep rolling along.

'Tis a sad day to see Thunder Road leaving. Personally, I'd rather see every 10 other coasters in the park go before Thunder Road besides Fury, Intimidator, and Afterburn obviously. I'm one of the biggest Rebel Yell/Racer/Thunder Road fans out there, but I trust what Cedar Fair has in store in the long run and am not on the #SaveThunderRoad bandwagon. Thunder Road is definitely the least iconic of the 3 and in my opinion the one in the worst shape, so it's only fair that it goes first. I believe the other ones are safe for many years to come, so the good news is Carowinds fans still have almost exact replicas within a days drive while looking forward to what the future holds at Carowinds. Bring on the August 27th #BigSplash2016 announcement! Only 1 month and 1 day away...

Interesting opinion on the second half of the ride - that's where I feel Fury could have been excellent, but comes up quite short compared to the first half of the ride. After the dive under bridge the ride is a letdown to me as I feel it wastes a lot of potential in my opinion. The ride is intense and wonderfully designed the first half but to me it definitely seems after the bridge the ride was just going for 'length' with an uninspired layout. I still love the ride though. I feel like Leviathan was a great beginning for a B&M giga, Fury 325 took it to the next league, and their next one will be out of this world.

I absolutely love both rides, but give Intimidator 305 the edge as I find it more of a 'comfortable' ride than Maverick. On the topic of Intimidator 305, with a rename and possible re-theme for both Intimidators this offseason I wonder if the announcement will come with the 2016 announcements, after the season (November-ish), or even after the new year begins? Anyways, I'd buy your Intimidator merchandise ASAP before it is considered 'vintage'.

8 days of brews and coasters! What more could someone want? Since you're schedule is so compact and non-weather pending, I might suggest riding the 'headliners' at each park right after the capacity monsters in case of maintenance issues or a storm. Such as riding Volcano at KD first, then straight to Intimidator 305 and riding NightHawk at Carowinds first, then straight to Fury 325. I've learned this the hard-way - better to be safe than sorry and get in rides just in case, especially on those Intamins! Have a good trip! EDIT: I realized you're doing Dollywood/Pigeon Forge on Saturday (checkin/checkout day for many of the cabins, hotels, ect.) - if traffic is bad on the main Parkway, use Veterans Blvd (Dollywood is on this road) and take an alternative route until you get out of Sevierville.

Ride FireHawk and Flight of Fear at opening to avoid long lines Visit the park at night one day to get rides on Beast, Banshee, and Diamondback The WindSeeker rides are more fun than people give them credit for Don't forget about The Bat as it's not the most visible ride to find Ride in the 2nd row of a car on Racer for a smooth fun ride on a classic You can totally knock everything out in the park in two days and have plenty of time for re-rides.

According to John Pagel, the former park PR Manager, putting a restroom in near Intimidator 305 and Flight of Fear would be very costly because the park's existing infrastructure doesn't have sewer lines past the current restrooms near the entrance to Safari Village so it would all have to be added and require everything to be torn up that's in the way. I believe the price was ballparked around 2.5-3 million dollars (back in 2010 when 305 was added) just for a restroom? I've never really understood the complaints for a restroom back there. It takes about 2-3 minutes from Intimidator to get to the Safari Village restroom. Anyways, I can't imagine them expanding in that area again until Anaconda is removed.

^ Well the rumor went around for a while was that the reason Intimidator 305 is red and yellow is because it was supposed to create an area similar to X-Base at Kings Island with Flight of Fear and FireHawk... That is until Cedar Fair purchased and signed the agreement with Dale Earnhardt Inc. for Intimidator at Carowinds and then decided to use the name/theme for both rides since they were paying for the rights and they figured it would be a bigger draw. I don't know how much of this is true, but it would have been interesting to see what it would have looked like if they went for a FireHawk-like theme. Realistically, if they re-theme the ride I'd still love to see that theming come to the park. I feel like it would be easier to do with what they have than to turn the ride into a Safari Village themed ride.

^ The theming has aged with the ride in its 10th season this year, but to be honest it wouldn't be worth the investment to re-theme the ride. Personally, I'd like a general spruce up - Give the ride some paint, replace the billboard wrappings, and change the Downtown Los Angeles signage to 'Downtown Richmond'. Kings Island could change theirs to 'Downtown Cincinnati' and Wonderland could change theirs to 'Downtown Toronto'. I always thought some greenery and the color scheme like in the ride's original renderings would have made the ride look better and fit in more with the Congo/Safari Village area.

^ As far as I know the only backup to this rumor so far is Jason McClure from Cedar Point mentioning it to the local Cleveland news.

That menu (especially the drinks) is worth admission alone and is better than any attraction in the park. I would love to visit this event one year, although when I do go down there it is usually during the Christmas season which just misses this event. Definitely hoping to make it just for this in the next couple of years!

Judging by the looks of the place, no new attractions in years, lack of crowds on a 4th of July Saturday, and the recent rumors this place could very well be on its way out soon. I'm sure many of the water parks across the Cedar Fair chain would appreciate that slide tower and Carowinds sure could use a Tornado funnel slide. Thanks for all the photos! So sad to see the parks look like this now - at least Kings Dominion received Batman/Dominator and Americana.

^ To be honest, B&M Dive Machines have the least amount of head banging of their OTSR collection of coasters so that design wouldn't make much of a difference as far as the smoothness goes. However, I would like to see this design implemented as it would make the dive coaster that much more different than Rougarou next door (still many similarities) and would make the hold on the first drop even more exciting.

It is quite obvious that it isn't a real B&M design because it actually has a fun layout after the MCBR unlike their recent coasters... Couldn't resist. Excellent effort and rendering - Thanks for sharing!

1 Giga: Intimidator 305 1 Hyper: SkyRush 1 Hybrid: *haven't been on enough to fairly decide 1 Invert: Volcano 2 Woodies: Thunderhead, Blue Streak 1 Launched: Top Thrill Dragster 3 Anything: Maverick, Griffon, Expedition Everest

^^ Although the fire effects have been broken before, often they are just turned off because of 'wind' since the riders are so close to the effect.

^ Dollywood 2016. The official announcement will be Friday, August 7th.