Rustbucket

Yes. Manhattan Express is worse than Mean Streak regardless of seat location.

This was there last year.

I had the same issue. My picture was X'ed out. I had to go to the admission's office to get a free pass like old days. It took about 10 minutes for them to straighten things out. The supervisor lady told me that this glitch will be straighten out once all the parks are open. We will see.

My daughter and I flew down to Charlotte Friday evening for the Intimidator Opening rides. My daughter wanted to see the coaster on Friday so we drove down to Carowinds BLVD to see the latest B&M hyper. We were able to get 2 seats (#42 and #43) for the auction at $75.02 a piece. My Diamondback auction price was around $175.00 per seat. The total amount for the charity was just over $10,000. We got to the park around 7:45 am. There were cars lined up before the parking lot until 8:00 am. We were asked to arrive at the park between 8 am and 8:30 am for the first rides. We registered our names and received two Intimidator first ride T-shirts. More on this later. Around 9:30 am, we were lead to Intimidator entrance which is right across from Nighthawk (Borg) entrance. I ran into Don Helbig. We discussed Intimidator versus Diamondback versus Behemoth. He actually said that Intimidator is more like Nitro than Diamondback or Behemoth. Also, I told him that I am still upset that Flying Eagle is down at Carowinds. When I said that Don brought a director at Carowinds and told me to tell him about Flying Eagle. It seems that Don is also not too happy about the Eagle. Around 9 am, we were asked to pick the seats for the first rides. My daughter and I picked the row 6-2 on the first train. Strangely, the first ride did not really impressed me. Frankly, our first Diamondback ride was not very impressive either. We went on a second time and got a 8-2 ride. Now, that was much more impressive ride. Behemoth (#210) Lift Hill - the angle of the accent felt slightly steeper than Diamondback's accent. The lift hill felt slightly faster as well. First Drop (211 feet drop 232 feet tall) - No question Diamondback descent is better. Intimidator first drop felt more like Behemoth than Diamondback. The velocity is not as great as Diamondback. (214 and 230 feet for Diamondback respectively) Second Hill - This twister second hill was interesting. The air time was not as good as Behemoth or Diamondback, but the twister drop more than made up for the less air time. After the descent, there was a small straight away. Third Hill - A small trim brake did not do much at all. This was the sweetest air time hill. From 8-2, I felt both floater and ejector air. The air time was greater than Diamondback third hill. It was comparable to Behemoth's fourth hill only more forceful. Turnaround - Similar to Behemoth turn around except much tighter. There was a noticeable lateral force on the way down. I did not feel any lateral on Diamondback. This one I felt moderate lateral. Two air time hills - These two hills were comparable to Diamondback fourth hill with brakes. In fact, there were two trim brakes on the fifth hill. MCBR - Not much braking. The drop off the MCBR had a nice ejector in the back. Hill and helix - The camera was on the helix. This was comparable to Behemoth more so than Diamondback helices. There was a nice transition to a last drop with good lateral and air combination. The ride ends with a long brake run. Overall, Intimidator is another great B&M hyper. I actually think the left side of the train is better than the right side. Without a doubt, 8-2 is BY FAR the best row. We tried every single row except for 5-1. On Saturday, we got to ride the first and the last train of the day. We ended up riding Intimidator 25 times this weekend. (10/10) It is getting very difficult to rank these coasters. I am not sure if I can really rate these fairly. Riding Diamondback over 700 times last year may have ruined my senses. I will need to ride Behemoth (10 times) and Intimidator (25 times) more to fairly judge these. Frankly, I still think Diamondback rear is the best. About the First Rider T-Shirt - I was asked at least 8 times by various people (including a ride op on Ricochet) about the first rider t-shirt. It seemed that they did not give these out except for the auction winners on Saturday. Can someone confirm this? Intimidator puts Carowind in the map for the coaster enthusiasts like me. Fortunately, I come to Charlotte about once every 2 months for business. I will get to ride this more this summer. One more thing, I thought the ride ops were some of the friendliest people I came across. They really seem to care for people who were riding the ride. I hope this continues. Well, we are heading toward Richmond next week.

1. I am looking forward to this Saturday at Carowinds. I got two seats for Intimidator 43 and 44, I think. Bryn Hough from Carowinds personally called me today to let me know about the auction. 2. I will also be at Kings Dominion next weekend for Intimidator 305. My coaster season started 3 weeks ago at NASCAR Cafe in Las Vegas and KBF in Buena Park, CA. I may go to SFGAd, Hershey, and Kennywood this year as well as KI and CP. I have not been to SFGAd and Kennywood.

8 miles to the west. It takes about 15 minutes to get to the entrance.

It happened 2 years ago on Labor Day weekend. It was clear to me at the launch that the train will not make to the top. It was not very rough although not as smooth as TTD roll back. It took 2 maintenance people and 2 ride ops to push the ride back. We were on the ride for about 15 minutes before the maintenance people showed up.

OK. It seems that not too many people are going to Carowinds for Intimidator there. How about 4/2/2010 at Kings Dominion for Intimidator 305? Good Friday opening, and my kids will be on Spring Break the following week.

Is anyone going to Carowinds for the opening of Intimidator on 3/27/2010?

It also happened with TTD.

Most ever Magnum XL-200 (1500 + I stopped counting) Most in a year Diamondback (328 and counting) Most in a day Xcelerator (54 times without getting off!)

Actually, I agree with Legend. Legend never did anything for me. I rather ride Raven. If you want a great CCI, try Boulder Dash.

I just heard from my brother who is in Korea that Everland is removing Eagle Fortress, easily the best suspended coaster I have ever been on. I checked the Everland website in both English and Korean and see Eagle Fortress completely removed from the park map. This is really a sad news. After Big Bad Wolf closing announcement, I am really saddened since Eagle Fortress and BBW were quite good. And then there are four....... Ninja, Iron Dragon, Vortex, and Filghtdeck.

In July, I actually caught someone's wallet during DB ride. It was floating slowly through the air and I caught it around almost by the hammerhead.

One thing I noticed was that the park already spent $14 million already and expect to spend $11 million for the ride. This is not very clear on how much the total ride costs.

Good report and good to see that you had good time. I always enjoyed KBF. KBF has the most friendly ride operators of any park I visited in the US. Also, KBF has a decent collection of coasters as well. Ghostrider is my favorite. It has gotten rougher over the years. I am not sure if I can do 26 times in a row like I did it in 2004. Also, I had a marathon run on Xcelerator in 2006. I rode the ride 54 times in a row. Doing that also ruined TTD. I no longer find TTD launch as intense.

I am only at 286!

Good trip report. I do think that the park gets a bad rep. Two thing I complained about the park are the line jumping and rather indifferent attitude by ride operators. KBF ride ops were so much more enthusiastic than SFMM ops. Still, I have been to other SF parks with much worse attitudes. I have been to SFMM 6 times in last 6 years and found it to be quite enjoyable. Only bad thing about the park is the crowd. It is a busy park (except once in 2004 when it was raining). X2 is, by far, my favorite in the park followed by Tatsu. I am not sure if you ever rode X, the inside seats are far smoother than outside ones. They tend to bang heads. I think X (2) is the only coaster that I still cannot figure out the layout by just riding the ride. This is my top 5 steel coaster. I agree with your review of Riddler's Revenge and Tatsu. Frankly, Riddler's Revenge is the only stand up coaster I like. Tatsu is my favorite flying coaster - over Firehawk. (I like Firehawk better than Superman rides at other SF parks.) Ninja was running much better this year than recent years when I was there in June. Scream! has gotten much rougher over the years. I always wanted Goliath to have better airtime along with series of lateral after the brake run. Otherwise, I love the drop into the tunnel. Terminator was very much like Renegade at Valleyfair with all the twisting drops. I am glad that you had good time. It is my must visit park when I am in southern California. BTW, you could have gotten 20% off with SF season pass on your souvenirs.

I saw a few of you on 8/22 around the park. I was with my daughter and my son for about 3 hours in the morning. I did not register for the event since we were going to CP later that day. I was wearing the Behemoth T-shirt.

I recently experienced "graying out" on Dragon Fire at Canada's Wonderland. It was not a remarkable ride, but there are some just happens. There has been only one coaster that I "grayed out" more than once, Silver Bullet at KBF during final helix. I believe I had graying out four times. I am not sure why that one gives me such force. I never had graying out in any other inverted coasters.

I have a question about Platinum Perks at CP with KI pass. I assume the perk is for Platinum pass only. Does CP still have 1 hour early rides on Sundays? Thanks in advance.

Two years ago, the ride ops stopped The Beast on lift hill to check my son who was 48 adn 1/2 inches at the time. He also had a wirst band. They still checked his height once again.

Kings Dominion was my home park. My first wooden coaster and my first coaster in the US was Grizzly in 1982. Shaggy, thank you for the memories and very accurate analysis of Kings Dominion. Like everyone said, Volcano is truly a unique inverted coaster. With 2 launches like Wicked Twister, this ride is the only full circuit invert I have ridden from Intamin. I am not sure why they have not built more of these. Shockwave was my first stand up. Rebel Yell was my first racing coaster. King Kobra was my first looper. I remember waiting 90 minutes for Ananconda in 1991. Man, I miss the Safari.....

I rode my first 3 coasters in South Korea. I was back in Korea in 2008 and visited Everland. T-Express and Eagles Fortress are top notch. I also visited Canada's Wonderland this year.