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CAROWINDS

Park News - (8/18/10) According to the latest scuttlebutt, the gearbox on Nighthawk that needed replacing had to be made for it overseas in Holland. The park is still waiting to get this new piece but hopes to have the ride up and running again by Labor Day Weekend if possible.
    (8/17/10) For anyone keeping track, Nighthawk at Carowinds is STILL closed… going on a month now it seems. With Haunt on the horizon, anyone know if they’ll get it open soon?
    (8/11/10) Carowinds has announced details for this year’s Scarowinds event which will include 6 Haunts and 5 Scare Zones this year. The haunts include:: Defex (New), The Asylum, Dead Inn, Last Laff 3-D, Silver Screen SINema and Slaughter House. The Scare Zones: Camp Killauee, Feeding Frenzy, The Cemetery, The Playground and Cornstalkers (which looks to have been demoted from Haunt to Scare Zone...)
    (8/2/10) Catch up on the CoasterStock action that took place last weekend over at JohnnyUpsidedown.
    (6/11/10) Carowinds has announced the details for this year’s Coaster Stock event taking place at the park on July 24th from 7am to Midnight. According to the flyer Coaster Stock will include an entire day’s worth of Exclusive Ride Time events, both before and after the park closes to the general public. The days events will also include an all-you-can-eat Buffet, a special Q&A Session, unique competitions, freebies and some ‘sneak peaks”.
    You can get a ticket for just $43.49 and Season Passholders can get in for $18.99. You can buy tickets and keep up on the latest details as they are finalized at the official Coaster Stock page here.
    (3/15/10) While I briefly dropped into Carowinds on Saturday to process my season pass early, I was happy to see Intimidator testing all three trains over and over and over. The trains were running either empty…or with only a few water dummies… so they weren’t moving very quickly through the course just yet.
    Meanwhile Behind the Thrills has posted a bunch of pictures taken during an in-park pre-season ACE tour that shows off the new colors of the Carolina Cyclone which are just weird to see. It almost looks like it’s not quite finished… but it is. New Snoopy / Peanuts themeing is up all over the place of all the removed Nick characters, and while they posted a bunch of Intimidator photos… it wasn’t mentioned if Thunder Road was going to be ready for the start of the season or not after having more sections rebuilt this winter.
    (2/26/10) Carowinds big announcement today wasn’t a new attraction, but instead a brand new feature filled Carowinds.com website. However it was worth noting that the new park map on the site shows off the new colors of the Carolina Cyclone… which seems to have a mixture of yellow and purpleish-blue track sections.
    (1/27/10) Carowinds has announced that Coaster Stock will take place this year on July 24th and they want to know what you want to see happen this here. Click here for more.

2010 - Intimidator - (4/2/10) CoasterForce has posted their report on Intimidator as well as a ton of photos from the opening event.
    (3/29/10) Carowinds opened their new Intimidator coaster with great success over this past weekend and you can find several reports about the new coaster online at Behind the Thrills as well as Theme Park Review. You can also see a video showing off the first ride shot by on-board camera on Dale’s son, Kerry Earnhardt, taking his first ride on Intimidator.
    All is not entirely well however, as I’m saddened to report that some larger riders may experience difficulty fitting into the restraints. While this is true of any ride, I was contacted by one reader who had just come from Busch Gardens Williamsburg and while they were able to fit into the restraints and ride Apollo’s Chariot they were unable to ride Intimidator at Carowinds. While they claimed that the Intimidator seats felt a little narrower (or could it be that Apollo’s are just broken in?) the main difference is that Apollo’s ride ops were only requiring the lap bar to come down “2 clicks” while Intimidator crews were requiring it to come down “3 clicks”.
    Does anyone know if there is any kind of size or mechanical difference between the seats and restraints used on a standard 4 across B&M Hypercoaster and this new model that has so far been exclusively built for Cedar Fair parks? Unlike the two previous CF installations at Canada’s Wonderland and Kings Island that are not that close to parks with 4-across models, Carowinds is close to two markets with such rides at Busch Gardens Williamsburg & Six Flags over Georgia. I would think Carowinds is bound to attract a decent number of guests who have successfully ridden the 4-across versions at the other parks who are bound to be confused when turned away from Intimidator.
    (2/5/10) Behind the Thrills talks with Carowinds about the test run shortly afterwards as well as confirming that Scooby Doo’s Haunted Mansion will also become Boo Blasters on Boo Hill.
    (8/27/09) Carowinds announced the B&M Hypercoaster we’ve all been waiting for and named it Intimidator, after NASCAR legend, Dale Earnhardt. The ride will feature Cedar Fair style Red & Black trains with staggered seating, with the lead car themed to look like the front of Earnhardy’s Chevy Monte Carlo. The layout is an L-Shaped Out & Back full of drops and airtime, and contains some impressive stats.  The coaster is 232 feet tall with a 211 ft first drop at 75º. This is just the first of eight total drops on the coaster with the first four drops all coming in at over 100 feet tall: 211’, 178’, 151’, 105’, 90’, 62’, 52’, and 48’. The top speed is expected to be around 75-80 mph along the 5,316 feet of track for a total ride time of 3:33. (Ha! How ironic is that, as Earnhardt was #3). It will also use 3 trains and cost $23 million to build. Looks like a beauty of a ride that is going to change the Charlotte skyline for sure. Check out the graphics and videos at the official site! For those looking to compare stats the only other B&M Hypercoasters that are longer are Nitro at 5,394 feet and Behemoth at 5,318 ft, that comes in at just 2 ft longer than Intimdator. The only B&M Hyper that was taller is Silver Star in Europa-Park that is 239.6 feet tall, with a 2:19 ft drop. In the grey area… Diamondback and Nitro also feature first drops of 215 feet… but stand 5 feet shorter at 230 feet tall.

2010 - Planet Snoopy - Confirmed - (11/3/09) The Carowinds website has released the new names for many of the attractions to be rethemed to fit into the Planet Snoopy theme. So far we’ve got the Character Carousel, Charlie Brown’s Wind Up (Kiddie Wave Swinger), Flying Ace Aerial Chase (Runaway Reptar), Flying Ace Balloon Race, Joe Cool’s Driving School, Lucy’s Crabbie Cabbie (Taxi Jam), Peanut’s Yacht Club, Red Baron, Sea Dog: HMS Beagle, Snoopy’s Express Railroad, Snoopy’s GR8 SK8 (Rocket Power), Snoopy’s Space Race, Woodstock Express (Family Odd Coaster), Woodstock Gliders and Woodstock’s Whirly Birds (Sporticopters). The park’s Kalidoscope has also been renamed as just plain old ‘Scrambler’ on the website as well. No changes so far to Spongebob 3D or Scooby Doo’s Haunted Mansion.
    (8/23/09) When Cedar Fair finalized the takeover of Paramount Parks at the end of June 2006, the contract for the Nickelodeon characters was set to expire by the end of the 2009 season. For 2010, all the former Paramount Parks will be replacing the Nick characters with Snoopy and friends in 2010.

2011 - Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular - Rumor - (8/28/10) Carowinds has confirmed the addition to Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular for Summer 2011, which will also result in extended hours each day (until 10pm) from June 27th through August, 7th 2011 which is a godsend, as Carowinds has always closed a little too early for my tastes.
    Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular is described as a $1 million “nighttime walk-through light and sound experience featuring Snoopy and the PEANUTS gang”. “Designed using a diverse mixture of low energy and high efficiency LED lighting, this immersive light and sound spectacular will stretch from County Fair through the entrance of Planet Snoopy and feature more than one and a half million LED lights adorned from trees and buildings. Midways will be accented by vibrant animated and stationary light displays, vivid theatrical lighting and other cutting edge special effects, all orchestrated to a custom designed audio soundtrack.” You can watch a video showing off the attraction as built at another park in 2010 at this link.
    (8/12/10) Carowinds has begun posting a series of hints about the park’s 2011 attraction on their Facebook page. The hints are taking the form of the park’s picture on the site, which started on Tuesday with an extreme close up of a flicking candle flame followed on Wednesday by close up picture of a computer board. A close up look at the board reveals the “Javelin Systems Inc.” which came up as a company that made security / surveillance systems amongst other things. Curious.
    (8/4/10) After getting two great coasters back to back, no one expects Carowinds to add a major new attraction in 2011. According to my last rumor, my hunch will holding true, but instead of taking the season off, Carowinds will try out something special next season. Look for Carowinds to try out their own version of the Snoopy Starlight Spectacular evening experience in 2011, which will also be a great reason to keep the park open a bit later each evening in the summer to ensure it gets dark enough to see those twinkling lights.