Keetz

From what I understand, the ops cannot stack more than 2 trains worth of riders, or 8 people per row in the station. So it's kind of a combination of asking, and getting lucky I think. Both times I asked there were 8 people waiting for the front row I believe.

I visited Carowinds for the first time ever this Saturday and Sunday with a friend. We had an amazing time! The park was extremely clean. The weather was fairly cold and resulted in coasters opening late, but operations were overall very good. Fury 325 - This ride is my favorite B&M. I got to ride 3 times, once in the back, once in the middle, and once in the second row. I wanted a front row ride but the rows were assigned. The drop in the back seat is amazing. You get a nice forceful pop, and then float for a good 3-4 seconds. My 3rd favorite drop behind El Toro, and Sky Rush, but ahead of i305. The pull out is forceful and made me grey out once. The opening twisty bits are really fun giving a good but controlled sensation of speed while still throwing you around a little bit. The turn around and 91 degree dive into the tunnel was a really fun element with strong sideways floater. The return turn was more fun than I expected, and the following airtime hill provided really strong floater. The trim was variable, one ride it didn't engage, and one ride it engaged pretty strongly. The airtime was good on all rides. The helix wasn't very forceful, but the headchopper was a good effect. The last two airtime hills brought some nice air. Overall it's my favorite B&M and has a nice mix of elements for a really long entertaining ride! The ride experience is very complete. For me it ranks ahead of AC, Nitro, i232 and is about even with Bizarro at SFNE (granted it's been a long time since I rode that ride). Rides like i305, Skyrush and El Toro are in an entire different class though. The ride is gorgeous, and is a fantastic investment to the park. I loved it and the GP were loving it. I can't wait to ride it in the front seat later this year. All seats were assigned when loading Fury 325, and the crew was really churning out trains. Most trains went out very full, however sometimes the crew would get slowed down and sent out empty rows, and multiple rows with only 2 people. Some trains had as many as 12 empty seats by my count. When I asked for the back row, that was granted, but twice I asked for the front row, and got denied. It seemed very weird that there was no procedure to wait extra for the front row. I mean I already waited months to ride, I was willing to wait extra for the front. To add salt to the wound, both times I asked for the front row they ended up giving the front seat to people only a few spots behind me in the queue that didn't even ask . Oh well I'll be back, I knew causing a scene for the ride ops wouldn't do anything. Afterburn was an amazing invert, probably my favorite, tied with Alpengeist. The pacing was excellent, and the batwing was so forceful in the back seat and it was a really snappy invert. The line was never longer than 10 mins the whole weekend. Intimidator was fun, but felt like the most calculated B&M ever. It was really smooth, had decent floater, but just felt very slow paced. The ending helix felt like a joke compared to Nitro's helix. Thunder Road was a pleasant surprise. It was only racing if you yelled RACE to the operators enthusiastically. The ride had a good rumble to it and had some fun pops throughout. Fairly smooth throughout, and it only got "rough" towards the end, but it was still fun and not back breaking by any means. It would be weird to see it go considering that it is in great condition. Overall, Fury 325 got me to visit the park, and I left feeling very impressed with all of my expectations exceeded. Cedar Fair seems to have done a great job with the park. I will be back there soon. It makes me look forward to visiting Cedar Point this summer!

I definitely misspoke when I said "It's important to remember that while enthusiasts love i305, the general public find it incredibly intense." I think my sentiment makes more sense in terms of coaster polls. Fury 325 is probably going to be a golden child for the golden ticket awards, and less so for Mitch Hawkers poll. The opposite might stay true for i305? I hope i305 at least breaks top 10 this year, the ride is amazing. The coaster polls debate is a can of worms that I don't want to open though. Off season is almost over, and then the speculation can end! I think we all might be going a little stir crazy.

Ouch my first tpr smack down. Wasn't meaning to imply anything is wrong with i305. The coaster is beautifully engineered chaos unleashed that will make you black out. My #1 steel. I would ride it all day if I could. After visiting kd with friends a few times however I noticed that my friends loved i305, but could only handle so much. Half of them quit after 2-3 rides. Intamin certainly kbows how to make rides that will make you brag about getting your ass kicked. I've seen some of my friends respond to coasters like el toro, skyrush, and i305 as "that was so intense and good but I can't ride again." I've heard many of my non enthusiast friends say they prefer nitro over el toro cause it's so fun. Maybe my friends are weak? To me It seems like B&m makes coasters that are more re rideable to the average person because they are "super fun" (and often lacking in crazy forces.) In this vain I think that Fury will have mass appeal to the general public because it is gigantic and scary looking, but ultimately Will give a fun, fast, twisty and floaty ride, opposed to the most intense ride of your life. In essence it might not turn as many people off because it caused them to black out, or was too violent.

I really don't think the trim cuts off as much speed as you think. The trim may not have even been activated on the test run. The helix comes directly after the airtime hill-- helices shave off a lot more speed than hills, combined with the fact that this helix is absolutely massive. Is it possible that the trim is there to act like a sensor? Perhaps once the train passes the trim the next train can be dispatched without E-stopping the train on the lift? The trim looks like it didn't do much, and is probably only there if the ride is really hauling. I think Fury 325 is gonna be a huge hit for Carowinds. It's important to remember that while enthusiasts love i305, the general public find it incredibly intense.

I hope they leave the cameras as is, and don't move them or turn them off like HW. ^^^^This Also, Have they done envelope testing yet? Do they need to do envelope testing?

It might look a bit awkward, but it's also the reason that Raging Bull's 65°(208') drop is one of the best on a steel coaster anywhere despite the increasingly taller and steeper drops that have been built since. The world would be a better place if they hadn't engineered it out of their designs. I haven't ridden Raging Bull, but I have ridden Apollo's Chariot and Nitro, and I prefer no predrop. Maybe Raging Bull has a better profile than AC? But I find that the back seat of Nitro gives superior air to AC. It's just so floaty and amazing. Hell I think I even prefer Hydra's drop in the back to AC. I still think the best approach for a world class steel drop though is to rocket riders up the lift at 15+ miles and hour and just throw you over the drop like i305, Skyrush, or El Toro back in the day. I love me some Intamin, but I'm glad B&M also exists to make rides that are just pure fun. The drop on Fury is gonna be pure floaty bliss.

Very accurate. I mean just judging by the reaction of the dummies, this is clearly the most force less B&M coaster ever built

I guess a better description of the concept I am going for is a Beast/The Voyage hybrid but by RMC. Sprawling, lots of airtime, close to the ground. I think if executed properly it would be world class. I haven't been to the park myself (I'll be visiting this year). But with my amateur degree in Google maps, there is quite a lot of land surrounding the park. At this point I am just dreaming though. We won't know for a few weeks. Also, Dragon Challenge is 15 years old...wow.

Though the teaser did have a car peeling out. It reminds me of Verbolten. Maybe they will take a note for how Verbolten did it. A drop down into LIMs and then launched up to a taller hill where you would have an OMFG steep drop.

Not that my opinion counts, but if I were to hazard a guess. Outlaw run might have been a test run for DPHF. It cost $10 million and is a huge hit. What if Dollywood builds a $15-20 million dollar RMC in the style of the Beast, but RMC style. They seem to have lots of wooded area to use. A tall RMC with tons of low to the ground crazy twisty sections through the woods would be a huge draw. Imagine what RMC could do. Also the idea of a launched wooden coaster has no appeal to me. Launched coasters are typically shorter and the feeling of going over a steep drop like El Toro is incomparable.

And one last question about the early entry... If I bring a friend with me and I have a season pass, would they be able to get through? I figure that it wouldn't work with a big group, but do they allow one person?

I have a question about the season passes... I'm thinking about getting a platinum season pass cause I'll probably visit Cedar Point, Carowinds, and Kings dominion this year. How does the early admission stuff work? On the website it says I'll be able to get early rides on Fury 325. Does this also apply if I visit Kings Dominion and Cedar Point?

Are you being serious? Hercules was horrible in so many ways. It was trimmed to death and it was still rough. The only good part about Hercules was the drop, and it was trimmed. If Hydra got put in last year I would agree. Hercules would have made a kick ass RMC conversion.

WHOOAAAAAAA! That is a sight to behold! That barrel turn looks so tiny.

Seriously, this building company, and the one used for the Thunderbird really know how to get B&M up. It's like once they built the lift and drop, everything else is a piece of cake.

^^^Yep This is the middle slower paced section it seems. It would have been awesome if they lowered the speed turn on the return leg to make it really short and then add two low lying airtime hills into a tighter helix. I won't complain though because the ride overall looks awesome and Carowinds forked over millions to build a giga coaster.

It was better than Viper at gadv. I learned the proper technique for Viper, basically strong bracing. So Manhattan Express was moderately enjoyable. Viper was another TOGO engineering marvel. The last turn banked and turned left, then went straight maintaining the baking and went upwards slamming your head into the restraint. It was like getting body slammed by a coaster. That being said, when can RMC start converting steel coasters?

Judging by the speed it goes over that turn in the POV video I think riders will get a nice pop of floaty sideways air, which should be a really fun and weird feeling.

Fair enough. Well, a lad can dream that the management team sees it, and decides to build it. It would give gadv the possibility of having the #1 Steel and #1 Wood coaster in the world.

Being as it's off season and gadv has not gotten a brand new coaster in a few years... I keep thinking about an awesome spot gadv could put a coaster.It would require removing the flat next to skull mountain, and the boat driving attraction. But I think it would be awesome if gadv added an intamin giga coaster that went around switlik lake. It could be a cross between millennium force and i305 with tons of twisties, low lying air time, and a crazy fast run through those woods. Maybe even call it the Jersey Devil. Nitro and El Toro are the air time machines of gadv, and this would be an intense run through the forest. This is just me dreaming though. Is there anthing preventing gadv from building back here? They built on similar land when they built nitro.

The building crew had to spend a lot of time hauling track up to 325 feet high. Now they are like bruh this is easy... LETS GO!

I can't wait to see how cedar fair implements the hornet theme. I'm praying for a tunnel at the bottom of the drop filled with mist and hornets so we can really feel the sting and fury.

Well, Leviathan's track was completed on February, 7th. The remaining work like testing, electronics was done in about few weeks after that completition date. So again, Fury is supposed to be open on March, 28th, depending on weather, according to Mike Fehnel. Well in that case, it looks like track wise, Fury should finish by early Feb. Now that the drop is finished, and the opening turn is well under way, there are only a few more spots needing tall track. I reckon the low parts of the ride should spring up quite quickly. I have my fingers crossed that this beast will be open for the opening day, or shortly there after.

Leviathan completed it's first drop November 25th. Both coasters seem to be following the same construction scheme, start with the station and brakes, and then do the lift and first turn. Leviathan opened 5/6/2012. So Fury might not make opening day, but it doesn't seem to be on a six flags schedule.