Carowinds Discussion Thread

[coneyislandchris]

17 hours ago, coasterbill said:

- It was nice walking around looking at palm trees without a jacket on in December thinking about how thankful we were that Fury was closed for our safety. On the same day our friends were posting pictures of this:

You're just going to keep dunking on them year after year, aren't you? I'm here for it. 

[coasterbill]

Probably. It’s a Christmas tradition.

[boldikus]

13 hours ago, Baffles said:

That photo of Nitro running in the snow is hilarious and awesome. The majority of B&M rides can run in sub-zero temperatures, and as the pacing is so quick on Fury I would not expect it to be an exception.

I remember working at Alton Towers and the only reason Nemesis wasn't able to run in snowy and icy conditions was due to icicles on the track - so maintenance went around and smashed them all off to get it open.

Great Adventure has run Batman with snow/ice on the track and riders on the trains getting hit in the face with said snow/ice.

Source: I was one of those riders. (Dec 2017)

[pproteinc]

On 12/22/2020 at 6:46 PM, boldikus said:

Great Adventure has run Batman with snow/ice on the track and riders on the trains getting hit in the face with said snow/ice.

Source: I was one of those riders. (Dec 2017)

Well Afterburn is open during the winter months. As for hyper Intimidator has the longer trains. I’d say in normal Winterfest run it during the day but it has valleyed before during a cold Scarowinds night before. Fury has the shorter trains and yes goes way faster but I’ve been on it on a cold November day and it almost didn’t make it through the treble clef turn around. They closed after that for the remainder of the day. On top of all this non factor we all now Cedar Fair Christmas events are more so for foods, entertainment and family rides and atmosphere. Nothing new here 

[coasterbill]

Maybe Intimidator wouldn’t valley if they would turn off even one of the 837 trims that line the track.

As for them closing the ride just because it “almost valleys” with riders on the previous cycle... that’s adorable. The person at the Nitro panel just has to take a deep breath, remember that “mama didn’t raise no bitch” and press the dispatch button again (it’s in the operations manual just like that I think).

PS: That said, I don’t expect every park to do that. Still, does this even matter? These are the highs as far out as the forecast go. Carowinds is in Charlotte, not Barrow, Alaska. We just spent a week there. It was unseasonably cold. It was still not cold. It’s going to be almost 60 degrees today. Stop.

Even if they kept their own dumb policies they could run anything they wanted almost every day for the next nine days... well, except they can’t because they’re closed for the holiday week because Carowinds is gonna Carowinds.

[boldikus]

9 minutes ago, coasterbill said:

The Nitro person at the Nitro panel just has to take a deep breath, remember that “mama didn’t raise no bitch” and press the dispatch button again

 

[Baffles]

On 12/22/2020 at 11:46 PM, boldikus said:

Great Adventure has run Batman with snow/ice on the track and riders on the trains getting hit in the face with said snow/ice.

Source: I was one of those riders. (Dec 2017)

Haha, it seems you aren't a real enthusiast unless you have experienced this sensation.

[chschris1]

Y'all need therapy.

[coasterbill]

Get ready! You’ll have plenty of time to get ready...

[CoasterGuy06]

I use to joke SF was better than CF because they still ran their B&M hypers without seatbelts...but SF really has run circles around CF during the pandemic 

[KIEnthusiast]

9 hours ago, CoasterGuy06 said:

I use to joke SF was better than CF because they still ran their B&M hypers without seatbelts...but SF really has run circles around CF during the pandemic 

Did 6 Flags open Orion? No. They just kept Jersey Devil closed. So there.

[CoasterGuy06]

The point was Six Flags has tried to extend seasons where they were allowed to open whereas Cedar Fair cut back the season at most of their parks.

[dankeykang]

Yeah, really nice of Cedar Fair to extend season passes through 2021 and subsequently remain closed for all of March and April.  The passholders will really appreciate that.

[thrillseeker4552]

Hopefully the park will be able to remain open from May all through the end of the year. That's still a decently long season.

[prozach626]

On 12/28/2020 at 11:17 AM, coasterbill said:

As for them closing the ride just because it “almost valleys” with riders on the previous cycle... that’s adorable. The person at the Nitro panel just has to take a deep breath, remember that “mama didn’t raise no bitch” and press the dispatch button again (it’s in the operations manual just like that I think).

I'm way late to this conversation. Maybe Six Flags is trying to take a few pages out of the Action Park playbook.

[KIJester]

For those that are interested....

Carowinds Skytower cams back on-line. FINALLY!!!!

[ilyf15]

now it's up to Kings Island to turn the webcams back on

[coasternut]

^ K.I. hasn't even listed their hours yet. Only preview weekend. I'm fairly sure (just guessing) Coasterstock is off or delayed.

[JJLehto]

Well, I know I always say I never do weekends if I can help it and never opening day. BUT I will be at Carowinds tomm, Sat, for opening day XD   What can ya do? I need to end this road trip sometime. 

Hope it's not tooooo dreadfu- eh it'll prob be awful. Its ok I am finally putting my CF Platinum Pass to use, so honestly if I can grab just a few rides and bolt after a few hours, fine by me. Speaking of: So I don't have my actual pass yet. I've not been to any CF parks since I got it. I have (both digital and physical) my pass with proof of purchase, the QR code etc that you get from their email. To anyone who has used it before: Is this enough for admittance? 

I recall them telling me when I go I can go to somewhere and get my actual ID, makes sense if you need to get the ID in park they have to first let you in. So Im hoping to get in, do some rides, then maybe few hours in go get my physical ID. This feasible? Edit: I also have the day I booked for Carowinds, I had to put in my pass # and they took is so again all should be fine?

[AmyUD06]

1 minute ago, JJLehto said:

Well, I know I always say I never do weekends if I can help it and never opening day. BUT I will be at Carowinds tomm, Sat, for opening day XD   What can ya do? I need to end this road trip sometime. 

Hope it's not tooooo dreadfu- eh it'll prob be awful. Its ok I am finally putting my CF Platinum Pass to use, so honestly if I can grab just a few rides and bolt after a few hours, fine by me. Speaking of: So I don't have my actual pass yet. I've not been to any CF parks since I got it. I have (both digital and physical) my pass with proof of purchase, the QR code etc that you get from their email. To anyone who has used it before: Is this enough for admittance? 

I recall them telling me when I go I can go to somewhere and get my actual ID, makes sense if you need to get the ID in park they have to first let you in. So Im hoping to get in, do some rides, then maybe few hours in go get my physical ID. This feasible? Edit: I also have the day I booked for Carowinds, I had to put in my pass # and they took is so again all should be fine?

Yeah, if you want to keep your pass in the App you can.  If you want a physical card, bring a printout of the code from the e-mail and they can issue you a physical card at the main gate.

[JJLehto]

Oh good you kinda pre empted my next thought: do we even NEED the physical ID? I mean I'll do it, esp if the park gets crowded but long as I can get in and go straight to riding, I'm cool. 

[AmyUD06]

Yup, you don't need the physical card anymore. I'm old school, so I like to have it.  It takes like 30 seconds for them to take your picture (which they will likely have to do anyway) and scan a plastic card and hand it to you.  They're not specially printed with your name or photo or anything.

If you never go to Carowinds, it might be fun to have a pass with that park's name on it just for laughs...mine has Michigan's Adventure since that was the first CF park I went to back in 2017 when I started my current tradition of having passes.

[SharkTums]

Let us know how it is! Hoping good thoughts for you!

[JJLehto]

12 minutes ago, Mike240SX said:

Yup, you don't need the physical card anymore. I'm old school, so I like to have it.  It takes like 30 seconds for them to take your picture (which they will likely have to do anyway) and scan a plastic card and hand it to you.  They're not specially printed with your name or photo or anything.

If you never go to Carowinds, it might be fun to have a pass with that park's name on it just for laughs...mine has Michigan's Adventure since that was the first CF park I went to back in 2017 when I started my current tradition of having passes.

LOL that is a pretty funny idea, bc no I deff don't ever go here. I only am this time since I'm in Eastern TN and it's not that out of the way haha Pretty excited though, Fury alone is worth it. 

9 minutes ago, SharkTums said:

Let us know how it is! Hoping good thoughts for you!

Ha thanks. I see FL is still an option for tomm. If its like bad right from the start will just try to nab one real fast. But I'm ready to make the most of it. I'm just glad to be coastering again and putting my pass to use. The fam got this for me as a christmas gift 2019!!

[JJLehto]

Well it went if anything a bit better than expected. 

Arrived 10:15 and sure enough people were there already but they were letting us in already, which was nice. It also hit me no one paid for parking. Least at that time. With platinum I wouldn't have anyway but yeah people were just going through, no one was even at the booths. So that was interesting. 

Naturally waited for Fury. The line itself was quite short honestly but the ops were slow, took about 45 mins and by this point line was huge so did a quick loop of the park. Nabbed Copperhead Strike, Afterburn, Intimidator before grabbing lunch. All the lines were short but slow moving. Strike was the quickest honestly. I get it, it's opening day. This is precisely why I don't do this lol 

But amazingly after swinging back to Fury and seeing that it was moving quicker I hopped in line and though it was longer physically, took only 30 mins. After this I had an amazing stretch where the wait was like 10-15 mins. No joke. Did 4 in a row for 6 on the day. Given how it started, no FL etc I cannot complain! Also having no idea how ops really work in the nitty gritty I wonder how much impact people have. Honestly, there were quite a lot of people not listening, paying no attention, a walk of shame on near every ride which is a frequency I've never seen, and in one case some people after being almost yelled at by the op "You cant leave stuff in the station" and to please get off the ride and just refusing, to the point where the op said "All 3 trains are waiting, you are holding everything up" and they still refused...some dude on line volunteered to hold their stuff. Yeesh.  

Also two enthusiasts (besides hearing their convo, we can always just tell...) kept hogging the B&M rows to themselves. Plopped down one on each end, and ofc no one is gunna test sitting between em. Maybe I've gotten so used to FL and zipping through I've never realized how much hassle people cause. That said for opening day not sure if it was thaaaat crowded. I ducked out around 4ish to head to Doswell for KD tomm but yeah not a bad day for a few hours on season opener. Should also say: I enjoyed Copperhead Strike more than last time. I was pretty meh about it but this visit, idk why but it was better. A little more punchy and whippy and this was before noon. Intimidator still a bit of an underappreciated gem, Afterburn is great and Fury.....nothing needs to be said. Though after 2 once it was really warmed up. My god, I forgot how fast that thing is. Like the low dive before the big helix almost couldn't keep my eyes open. What a ride. 

Then the rest....I didn't bother lol Carowinds has to be one of the most unequal parks out there like what a strong top 4 then plunges off a cliff.