Intimidator Opening Weekend

[Rustbucket]

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.

[beastrider97]

More B&M goodness! I watched the POV, I wonder how it is compared to DB.

[pkiboy]

About the First Rider Shirts I have asked as well im Just Wating from someone from Marketing to call me back They have extras I knew they did . At first they told me they didnt but i got ahold of the right person. It was great to See some of the KIC Universe at Carowinds. Don was very happy to see most of us as well. See most of you guys at Kings Dominion On Friday.

[StalkerChick]

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.

Well, we are heading toward Richmond next week.

correct they were not giving out first rider shirts epic fail on their part i would have easily paid to have one. Adam if you get one you beter hook me up too!!!

And I'm more of a fan of Afterburn than Intimidator. And we talked to Don awhile while we were in line, and he said they asked him down to help open Timmy, but he had an alterearer motive to bring back the eagles. lol And I'll see you this weekend as well!

[DaveStroem]

I agree that not having shirts available was an EPIC fail. They could have made a limited number of shirts and sold them with the proceeds going to the Dale Earnhardt foundation. I bet they could have made more money from first rider shirt sales then what the first rider auction made.

[CoastersRZ]

I am a HUGE fan of Afterburn! I was bummed that the ride was closed on my last visit to Carowinds last year. The ride has excellent pacing, and is full of non-stop thrills from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.

There were some issues with Platinum passes, however. My Platinum pass worked fine on Saturday, but it wouldn`t scan on Sunday. There were apparently others` passes who had worked on Saturday and not on Sunday.

[The Interpreter]

...and then...

Tell us what happened next. How was that handled? How long did it take?

[CoastersRZ]

Well, I was directed to the admissions services booth, which fortunately had a window inside the metal detectors, as well as outside the detectors. The lady asked for my drivers license and scanned my pass again. She then had to wait for her supervisor. The supervisor then scanned my pass again to see that it said it was not valid. So they wrote down my pass number, and printed me a "Carowinds Platinum Walk In" receipt that was successfully scanned at the gate. All told, it took about ten minutes to get the pass situation straightened out. Both the worker at the admission gate and the admissions services booth were very courteous and apologized to me about the situation, and the fact that it took ten minutes to be resolved. (The pass also did not scan at the parking tolls, but fortunately there was a nice supervisor there, and that situation was resolved without paying the parking price).

Hopefully this was just a glitch at Carowinds yesterday, and is not indicative of a problem with my pass. I guess we`ll see when I visit Kings Island in a couple of weeks!

[The Interpreter]

With no pictures on the passes, I still earnestly await the morning they start up the admissions process only to find out no computer in the park is working. Great Adventure had this issue about four years ago....talk about a zoo...and they HAD pictures on their passes. Not a single POS terminal was working (point of sale). And didn't for hours. Paper, pencil and trust.

[Colonel_SoB_fan]

Silver Dollar City makes passholders show another form of I.D.

[CoastersRZ]

Yeah. I can see that being a disaster. I can`t even imagine the entire system not working. That would be a nightmare if you were visiting the park that day!

While the situation was a slight inconvenience, it was really no big deal, and the employees were very nice about it. Sometimes things like that happen with technology. It was opening weekend after all, so there are bound to be some bugs that need to be worked out.

[The Interpreter]

With no working computers, Great Adventure not only had to trust its customers, it also had to trust its associates not to make off like bandits with unregistered parking fees, merchandise sales, admissions, and so on....Somehow, I imagine quite a bit of revenue was lost to what is politely called shrinkage that day.

[CoastersRZ]

I can imagine so. There have been days when the computer in the rides ticket booth at Coney has had issues. Although I`ve heard that Coney is upgrading their computer systems this year, so hopefully all the bugs get worked out before Coney opens. Which, by the way, Coney opens for the season in 61 days.

[pkiboy]

I can imagine so. There have been days when the computer in the rides ticket booth at Coney has had issues. Although I`ve heard that Coney is upgrading their computer systems this year, so hopefully all the bugs get worked out before Coney opens. Which, by the way, Coney opens for the season in 61 days.

My Pass didnt scan Sunday something was wrong with the scanner So the guy had to Manually type in my pass number witch took forever to load. Now on the other had Dave and His Family passes wouldnt scan and the girl told Dave that I cant Let you in because the Red X came on the screen Oh he was Not a happy camper lets just say that. I hope my pass scans at KD on friday.

[The Interpreter]

And by looking at it, there is NO sure way to tell whose pass it is, whether or not it has been renewed, etc.

An interesting system Cedar Fair has...for now, at least.

[CoastersRZ]

Yes. My pass came up with a Red X on Sunday when they tried to scan it in. That is when the admissions associate directed me over to the admissions service center. They then asked for my driver`s license since my pass wasn`t scanning for whatever reason. Its just odd that it worked Saturday and NOT on Sunday. I would have thought it wouldn`t have worked on Saturday if it wasn`t going to work. But I had no problems on Saturday. Go figure.

I know why they no longer do it (to save on printing costs), but it still seems like at least printing names and years on passes would be beneficial for if the computer systems do in fact crash one day. I can see no printing pictures on the passes, but names can be helpful. Especially since KI in the past has had people sign the backs of their passes with pens (and not permanent markers). I`ve had the pen wear off of my pass before simply by taking it in and out of my wallet. (When I renewed my Platinum Pass last year and they gave me a "new" 2010 pass (its the old style Platinum Pass), I wrote 10 on the back in permanent marker so I would know the difference between my 09 and 10 pass.)

[Rustbucket]

Yes. My pass came up with a Red X on Sunday when they tried to scan it in. That is when the admissions associate directed me over to the admissions service center. They then asked for my driver`s license since my pass wasn`t scanning for whatever reason. Its just odd that it worked Saturday and NOT on Sunday. I would have thought it wouldn`t have worked on Saturday if it wasn`t going to work. But I had no problems on Saturday. Go figure.

I know why they no longer do it (to save on printing costs), but it still seems like at least printing names and years on passes would be beneficial for if the computer systems do in fact crash one day. I can see no printing pictures on the passes, but names can be helpful. Especially since KI in the past has had people sign the backs of their passes with pens (and not permanent markers). I`ve had the pen wear off of my pass before simply by taking it in and out of my wallet. (When I renewed my Platinum Pass last year and they gave me a "new" 2010 pass (its the old style Platinum Pass), I wrote 10 on the back in permanent marker so I would know the difference between my 09 and 10 pass.)

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.

[DaveStroem]

Same issue here. It worked fine on Saturday but red X on Sunday. I understand that there can be issues, but the attendant didn't chose her words carefully and torqued me off.