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CAROWINDS

Park News - (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.
    (1/12/10) Carowinds has reported that the first of the three Intimidator trains has arrived at the park. They also say to stay tuned as they will announce the details of the Intimidator First Ride Charity Auction later this week.  As for other park news, I’ve heard from another source that work has finally begun on this year’s winter rehab on Thunder Road. They tell us that the focus seems to be replacing the track sections on the outward journey from running towards the turn-around. Anyone have pictures?  Also... Carowinds has teased that they will have an announcement, possibly about some other new attraction, coming before too long. Hmmm... a new theme and name for the Haunted Mansion dark ride perhaps?
    (9/29/09) Screamscape has heard that we may see Scooby Doo kicked out of the Haunted Mansion ride by the time the park reopens next spring. It’s thought that the ride may very well be just slightly rethemed to remove Scooby Doo and Crew and replace only those figures with more generic looking people. Anyone know more?
    (8/23/09) Carowinds has updated the official Scarowinds website this weekend, adding in details about this year’s new attractions!  There will be 3 scare zones this year, adding in the new Playground into the mix with two returning zones: The Cemetery and Feeding Frenzy. A single show is listed called Fangs, which I assume is new as well. There will be 8 Haunts as well… Camp Killauee (NEW), Silver Scream Sinema (NEW), join up with returning favorites: The Asylum, Cornstalkers, Final Summons, Dead Inn, Slaughterhouse and Last Laff in 3D.
    (8/8/09) With this week’s interesting news bit about the Cheetah at Wild Adventures, it brought back to light some discussions I’ve had with a few people about the possible future plans for Thunder Road. As we approach the end of the 2009 season and the start of Year 3 of 5 for the Thunder Road rebuild project. Some have been wondering if the concept of replacing the old PTC trains with GCI Millennium Flyer trains has been brought up at any point, as the old 3-bench PTC trains have to be getting a bit long in the tooth by now.
    (8/4/09) Just a quick update on that report about the Carolina Cyclone getting repainted this winter. According to a reader who says they were the one to ask the question, the park did not specify WHEN it will get repainted, or how much… only that the ride will be getting painted.
    (7/10/09) I’ve been told that the rehab on Thunder Road from GCI over the past two winters is only two parts of an entire 5-year long rehab project that will eventually see pretty much the entire coaster rebuilt by the 2012 season. Any way you can speed that up to a 4 year project? With 40% of the project complete you can really tell when your riding on new or old track sections now, as you go from a butter smooth section to suddenly being jack-hammered out of your seat.

2010 - Intimidator - (2/5/10) At around 4pm yesterday Intimidator took it’s first test run and was successful. You can see a video of the event embedded below from YouTube. 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.

    (1/15/10) Carowinds has announced the details of the Intimidator Charity Ride Auction in a partnership with the Dale Earnhardt Foundation which will benefit many various charity organizations. Bidding for the first seats will begin at $50 a seat and continue through to 11:59pm on Tuesday, March 23rd. Click here for all the info and to make a bid.
    In other news, Carowinds has also posted some new pictures of the Planet Snoopy rehab taking place on their Facebook page, including some wild new colors for the former Runaway Reptar. Oh and new pictures showing off the first Intimidator train sitting on the maintenance tracks as well as pictures the train coming out of the shipping container.
    (12/22/09) Carowinds reports that the last piece of track for Intimidator was installed yesterday, as well as posting a few other pictures of the now complete structure on their Facebook page.
    (12/9/09) New pictures of Carowind’s own Intimidator coaster have been added to the official site this week, along with some showing off a small block building going in near the ride as well. Bathroom or Gift Shop maybe? I’ve got to say that I’m liking the look of that twisted second drop they’ve got posted.
    (12/1/09) I passed by Carowinds the other day on the freeway and I’ve got to say that I am very impressed with the look of Intimidator. I didn’t have the time (or a camera) to make it worth while for a close-up visit, but “gigantic” was one of the first words to come to mind while taking it in. From afar, it looks like most of the coaster has been installed, with the cranes on site clustered around the finale area and brake run. While I couldn’t see for sure if there was still track to be placed, a picture sent in by a reader in Ohio does show off one of two semi-trucks they spotted hauling Intimidator track headed for the I-77. It wont be much longer before the last pieces of track are set in place. In the meantime, check out the latest photos posted to Carowinds Connection.
    (11/13/09) A construction update for Intimidator was posted to Theme Park Review not too long ago and it looks like they’ve got about 70% of the ride track in place right now.
    (10/14/09) From the look of the Intimidator webcam yesterday, it looked like they were topping off the ride Tuesday afternoon. Pictures of the topping off have already been posted to Carowinds’ Facebook page.
    (10/13/09) After taking a peep at the Intimidator construction cam yesterday, it looks like they still have a piece or two left before the lift hill is topped off. I guess all the rain we’ve had lately has slowed them down a bit. Should be done any day now I’d guess.
    (10/12/09) While some great new pictures from the Intimidator construction can be found at the official site, Carowinds posted a Tweet late last week claiming that the lift hill should have been topped out late Friday or over the weekend. Time to go by soon I guess to see what the new skyline looks like.
    (9/7/09) Some good construction pictures from Intimidator can be found at the official coaster site.
    (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.