thisdougsforu

First off, congrats on the baby-makin'. On Boomerang, yeah. I mean listen, as I always say here, I totally believe the folks that work in the park or that visit constantly who say it usually runs well....but the damn thing NEVER runs when I visit and at this point may as well be gone, at least to me. Seriously- every visit the ride not only is down, but never has maintenance working on it or anyone even near it. It just sits as decoration. It's really bizarre that I have such a cold streak with that coaster. If I didn't know better, I'd say the ride was retired already!

I got in my Eagle sunset ride and egads, the old girl is running rough late in the season. Still fun, though. We got in the park at opening on Friday night and everything was walk on pretty much until it was dark. Crowd picked up then, but even at that it was either station waits or just a bit more in some cases. It was a good time.

We are taking the kids to Frightfest tonight. Amazing weather for it. We figure to get there right as it opens at around 6 and then can get in some rides before it gets dark and the spooks come out (our youngest will probably get freaked). Sort of bittersweet in that this may be our last ever visit to the park. We are planning to put our house up for sale late winter and move to Tampa when school is out, and due to this we didn't renew our passes. I suppose we may do HITP later this year, but even if that's the case, tonight means last ride on the Eagle. That makes me kinda sad. If it is my last ride on it, I figure a jaunt through the woods at sunset on a brisk evening is the way to best remember her.

Actually it's only been three years since Fireball was added. LOL...Fireball is not a major full circuit steel coaster..its not even a coaster. Are you trolling me? We knew the park wasn't going to get one this year, though. The best chance we are going to have is an announcement next year for a coaster to celebrate the 50th anniversary.

I think this is a pretty sweet addition to the park.

Seeing people whine in the King's Island thread that their park's newly announced gigacoaster isn't unique enough makes me want to punch through my hat. Meanwhile I'm sitting over here ready to talk myself into the tilt-o-whirl we are about to receive.

Ah, ok, I totally forgot about the Tourbillon rides. I'd think that is actually a VERY good possibility. Those things don't take up much room and probably carry a pretty low price tag, even compared to a Discovery. And I think the discussion for the new attraction has been very reasonable here, especially compared to some past years. I'd be ok with a Cyborg Spin as a flat and heck, now it's been brought up I'd say that's probably my odds-on-favorite to be put in. However, I'd be ecstatic if we landed a Discovery. If one of those suckers went in the back of the park, that would be a hell of a view. Probably a best case for the park actually. If we do get something bigger, next year would probably be our best chance given the anniversary.

The roughness in Boss for me is that is shakes super hard at speed and can give me a headache. The roughness in Hurler was that with the cramped train and quick turns, i kept knocking my knees together. Was a real bitch to walk around the park the rest of the day, and I'm a medium sized guy in good shape. I just can't handle the knee slappers. As for the never ending saga or will or won't be get an rmc raptor....we are moving to tampa/st. pete within the next calendar year, so at least I will have a homepark that does have an rmc one way or another, ha! In regards to the Joker, yeah, its a great family ride and just based on that really needs to stay. It's one of the few rides that aren't ultra kiddy, but also don't have a height requirement. My kids love it.

The Freespin still seems to make the most sense to me as well. It would fit just fine right in that area and we are one of the last in the chain without one (actually, are we the only park at this point without one?). Seriously though, the upcoming additions will really be interesting since most of the modern flats SF parks add are now already in place. Outside of Tidal Wave, what would really even come down at this point for replacement? Yeah, I know Ninja is rough but it still operates just fine and for a park like this, I just don't see them removing a mechanically reliable coaster, even if for another one (like the RMC). And yeah, yuck on a Skywarp. I am being 100 percent serious in that I would much rather us get a tilt-o-whirl or some other classic flat versus one of those. Decent idea on paper, in practice, at least thus far, no deal. They also seem super redundant in a park with a new super looper. If I had my choice on what our next realistic addition would be (I am, sadly, not counting an RMC Raptor as realistic) it would be a giant discovery. Those things look badass. If I had to place money down on what our end of the year announcement will be though, it would be the scrapping of Tidal Wave and installation of a Freespin.

Went to the park yesterday for the first visit of the year. A few random thoughts- - Supergirl is the best flat in the park, easy. I liked the Fling, but this thing is an improvement in almost every way. It's a blast to ride. The color scheme and lights also look really nice, and it adds a lot to that section of the park. - All the woodies were running the best they ever have for me, collectively. Also, having recently ridden Hurler for the first time at Carowinds, all of a sudden Boss doesn't feel quite as bad, haha (i also took Zach's advise and that worked wonders). - It is extremely rare that I ever eat in any theme park, but the heat sapped us yesterday and we didn't have the energy to eat after we left, so we hit up JB's for the first time ever. My wife was in the mood for BBQ and I know that we've heard here it's the best place in the park. You know what? It was actually really good. The pulled pork sandwich was great. Even the chicken tasted good. - It really sucked to have thunder river down in the heat. - When Xcalibur comes back online, we will have a really nice collection of flats. At this point, outside of a Giant Discovery, I'm not sure what I'd even add. Given that our park will rarely ever get a coaster addition, it will be interesting to see what they keep adding year over year since we usually just get flats. - Walked over to check out the tidal wave area and yeah....the story can be it's just down for the year, but I'd bet a couple dollars that the ole girl has given her last ride. The park really needs an attraction on the east side to bring folks over that way, as right now everything good is to the west and traffic is really slanted that way. While a coaster would be best, will a giant discovery fit on that site? I'd assume it will, but I've never seen one in person and am not familiar with the footprint. All in all, a good day. After the disaster that was last year, the park seems to be in a MUCH better spot. It will be interesting to see what they add, now that a lot of refurbs and replacements will be completed by this season's end.

Will Thunder River be open this weekend, then?

Yep, rumor or not I've thought that ride was next to be on the chopping block.

Going by the usual MO of six flags, Supergirl will be open on Memorial Weekend. Good to see that it's already operational and running great a couple weeks ahead of time. Fling was my favorite flat, so I'm excited to ride this. It looks like this goes higher than Fling?

Captain Obvious. haha Good on you for getting out of this... place... We really enjoy Charlotte and it seems like there is so much less of a cultural/racial divide. It's a very comfortable place to be compared to St. Louis. My wife and I stayed downtown in Charlotte for the weekend and given that we've both wanted out of St. Louis for some time now, we really were thinking hard to moving to Charlotte. Such an amazing city. We both have fantastic jobs here though, which is sort of a boat anchor. Ugh.

That was a fantastic story about finally getting on Fury. That coaster is going to haunt me now. Luckily, work will take me to Charlotte at least once per year, most likely every April. That means I'll be able to indulge on the reg from time to time. And re: the earlier post about Afterburn being world class- yeah I think I agree with that. It was a fantastic ride that was unfortunately wedged between going on the "big 3" at the park. In many other parks that would be a headlining attraction.

I had been looking forward to my first visit once we have a weekend with warm temps. Then I visited Carowinds last weekend for the first time and Fury totally ruined me. I feel like grinding my SF pass into dust now, haha. Hey, at least because of riding Hurler, I now hate Boss just a little less. That rough ass coaster knocked my knees together so much I felt like my hockey days after being whacked in the knees with sticks. Was painful to walk around the park for a bit. At least Boss gives me a good ole fashioned low cranial headache that I can take an aspirin for!

Haha, funny you say that. That's kind of what I felt. Fury is like a bigger, badder, more intense Intimidator. I think I'd actually slot Copperhead above it because at least that is quite unique. Again though, I'd kill for my local park to have a quarter of one of those bad boys (SFSL, ha!).

It really is a specimen. It's a masterpiece of design, both architecturally and as a coaster. The problem with riding it first (and again, and again) was that as great as the others coasters I rode were....they just aren't Fury 325. You know what? That's fine. Sometimes the best song on a record comes first. The others are no slouches though. Intimidator or Copperhead would easily be headliners at many parks. It just so happens that Carowinds has a bunch of headliners. If any of you have wondered about visiting Charlotte to ride that coaster, do it. Fury is amazing (and you get a cadre of other cool coasters with it). This smile don't lie! That was after my first ride. What a rush.

I had a business trip in Charlotte last week and with the weather being great, I got to sneak off for a few hours at Carowinds. This was my first ever visit to the city and park. Amazing town. Fury had been taunting me during the duration of the trip, as my conference was only a couple miles away from the park, and it was visible to me the whole time. When I got to the park, I only had a couple hours so I grabbed a Fast Pass Plus. Didn't even grab a map or anything....just made a beeline for where I thought Fury was. Given that it's the size of a skyscraper, it wasn't hard to find. The park was really crowded on the Saturday night that I went, but thanks to the Fast Pass I just had brief station waits all night (even on Copperhead Strike!). As I sat in the train for Fury, my heart was pounding. Several years ago I was scared of roller coasters. I'm terrified of heights, you see. Ever since getting over that fear and learning to love the rides, height never really bothered me much. 325 feet is different though, and I was terrified. Up the hill I went. As it crested, I could see the curvature of the horizon and the planes landing at Charlotte airport seemed to be at eye level. It's hard to describe what happened next. Fury 325 is just a fucking amazing piece of roller coaster design. Break neck speed (but VERY smooth!), amazing overbanks, the underground tunnel buzz, and finally those awesome airtime hills. Astounding ride. I rode it two more times, once in the rear, once in the middle (first ride was up front). I actually liked it best in the front. My coaster count isn't what some of you guys are as I'm newer to this, but Fury is EASILY my #1, supplanting Mako. I next made my way to Hurler. Uh, yeah. One ride was more than enough. My home park is Six Flags St. Louis, so it's not the roughest woodie I've ever ridden (hello Boss, you nasty rough bastard), but it was still super rough in the corners and I knocked my knees pretty good. I'll take the credit, but it made me sore enough where I kinda was hoping I just had passed. Next major coaster on deck was Copperhead Strike. I loved pretty much everything about this. Smooth as glass, super fun inverts and all sorts of interesting elements. Love this coaster! Great theming throughout as well. A real winner. My next major coaster in the park was Afterburn. Solid invert. Nothing really to say other than I really enjoyed it. Final highlight for me was Intimidator. This is a badass coaster! It felt like I was out of my seat the entire time. Just an airtime machine. Super fun coaster. Then yeah I did some of the other rides, but those were the major ones worth talking about. Carowinds is a really cool park. Wish I had more time to spend, but I made the absolute most of the time spent. Three of the coasters in the park are world class. Copperhead Strike, Intimidator and Fury. Fury isn't just world class, it's top of the class. Seriously, what a freaking ride that beast is. I have never so thoroughly enjoyed a ride as that one. It's almost the perfect coaster to me.

Thank you for the report. Sounds like a lot of maintenance is going on which is a good thing. I'm intrigued to ride Boss with the reprofiled drops. Those are always the parts that got me the worst. Hope they are smoothed.

What's up Jay? This is Doug (Spooky Villages). Cool to see you post here. I'm pretty excited to get visit Carowinds for the first time ever in two weeks. I have a work event in the city later in week, and it ends on Friday at noon so I'll be heading straight to the park for a few hours of coaster time.

I believe the people who work in the park that post here when they say it's usually running....but yes, this thing is NEVER running whenever I visit. I consider it a rarity when it's up. I'd guess they just don't want to staff it on many days? No clue. As for other park advice, I think Zach pretty much hit it. If you enjoy wooden coasters I think you'll enjoy the park. Also, some STL arena pics as promised last page - http://www.bigsquidrc.com/monster-truck-madness-old-skool-memories-of-the-st-louis-arena/

The Bigfoot on Lindbergh is gone now, too, unfortunately. Moved away and sold it to one of the local car dealerships to use as a repair shop. Zach I actually just scanned some photos in of some various monster truck shows that I attended at the barn. I'll post a link to them tomorrow when they are online. You may of been at one. The barn was a great spot for monsters. I just turned 35 so we are close to the same age, and man, it was awesome as a young kid. Bigfoot moved to Pacific, MO in 2015. I worked in the Lindbergh shop from 2004 - 2007 and then again from 2010-2012 and the place was getting really long in the tooth. When the Bommaritos wanted to buy basically that entire section of I270 real estate, Bigfoot settled on Pacific as a new location as there was a heavy equipment service shop for sale that fit perfectly for the use plus all the tax breaks, yadda yadda. Pretty funny that the team is now located about 10 minutes from Six Flags! Since we are talking monsters, if anyone saw the Grave Digger coaster concept from last years IAAPA, it was done by a friend of mine who works for Feld (Monster Jam's parent company) who is a big coaster/monster nerd. I'd love to see that come to fruition at some point!

Some cool video here via the YouTubes of a truck pull that took place in 1990 at the back of the park - You can still see this area straight off of the lift hill from the screamin' eagle. They would do monster trucks and demo derbies back there around this time as well. A friend who works for Bigfoot gave me these shots. Same area. Another friend of mine who is a monster truck junkie that also worked at the park in the late 80's said the pulls/monsters were part of a yearly Country Fair event that took place.

As luck would seem to have it, my job is sending me to Charlotte for a conference that just so happens to end on the same day that Carowinds opens for the season, and the building is only 6 miles from Carowinds. I am thinking of booking a late flight home that evening which would give me about 3-4 hours at the park ( never been there before). edit - answered my question