JJLehto
Hyper Poster
What better way to kill an unexpected 6 hour delay at the airport? A trip report of course!
Sorry no pics, airport WiFi is awful but hey...there is no angle or shot I can possibly have that hasn't been seen before.
I recently took my first ever trip to Carowinds on a quiet Thursday. Thank goodness it was, because one thing I noticed was outside of Fury and Copperhead Strike operations were quite slow. Despite a short line, one train ops on Afterburn really slowed it down, and Intimidator was shockingly slow and perpetually stacked. Nothing really seemed to move quick, perhaps I have been spoiled by KI and their superb ops, even on a very slow day.
As for the rides itself, there were quite a few down. Actually nearly every flat, as well as Hurler, (though I consider myself lucky honestly about that one). Nothing really seemed standout anyway. The park does have quite a solid top 4, though a very steep drop off after. Not much detail needed, most were as expected and nothing mind blowing. I will say Nighthawk seemed rougher than the one in KI? Vortex was also a bit head bashy which I didn't expect because it's not that fast or intense.
So let's get to the good stuff.
Copperhead Strike. This was a fun ride. On the scale of Cheetah Hunt to Maverick I wasn't sure which direction it would lean more, and it fell pretty much smack in the middle. Overall, a moderate ride. Certainly more airtime and intense moments than CH, but clearly less than Maverick, though it's launches were quite weak, more so than CH. Still a fun ride, the hang time is great, its 2 strong airtime moments are wonderful, and it did have some whippy moments sprinkled throughout. Enough to break up the generally forceless layout. So yeah, a fun, moderate but well blended ride. Would've liked more intensity but guess that's what Maverick is for.
Afterburn. I always heard this was an old school, forceful B&M invert and it did not disappoint. As advertised. Deff gunna be right near the top of my B&M invert list, deff above Montu and even Banshee.
Intimidator. This was the surprise of my day. I didn't expect much but, at least in back, there was some solid airtime on every hill and I even felt some pull on the first turn and that unique turnaround. I've only been on each for one day but from my personal experience I think I'd take it over Diamondback.
Fury 325. The big one, it did not disappoint. POV's didn't do this ride justice. I knew it would be fast but wow. I didn't expect much feeling on all those turns but there was way more pull and tossing around than I imagined. The 2nd to 3rd turn complex really took me by surprise, as did the twisting drop off the helix turnaround. Through much of that I struggled at times to keep my eyes open the wind so much, Glorious first drop needless to say. This was a surprising B&M and is certainly my #1 non RMC, top 5 overall.
Won't say much about Cedar Point, except it was a very successful Coastermania, and i don't care I still love Millennium Force. What a great ride it still is and perhaps still the best to marathon. I also confirmed that, in back, I do quite enjoy Gatekeeper, Magnum is still good and seemed less bumpy than usual? Steel Vengeance is still a min blowing masterpiece though wow something was up with operations. So slow moving I thought it was 1 train ops...my shock to see they had 3! A fairly small line was an hour, and even ERT at first was 35 mins. Perpetually stacked with long waits, all day. For night ERT things did pick up and managed to get 4 rides in the final hour, so 6 on the day and wow is my body feeling it! What a ride.
Overall a good trip, and there's till SFoG to come tomm!
Sorry no pics, airport WiFi is awful but hey...there is no angle or shot I can possibly have that hasn't been seen before.
I recently took my first ever trip to Carowinds on a quiet Thursday. Thank goodness it was, because one thing I noticed was outside of Fury and Copperhead Strike operations were quite slow. Despite a short line, one train ops on Afterburn really slowed it down, and Intimidator was shockingly slow and perpetually stacked. Nothing really seemed to move quick, perhaps I have been spoiled by KI and their superb ops, even on a very slow day.
As for the rides itself, there were quite a few down. Actually nearly every flat, as well as Hurler, (though I consider myself lucky honestly about that one). Nothing really seemed standout anyway. The park does have quite a solid top 4, though a very steep drop off after. Not much detail needed, most were as expected and nothing mind blowing. I will say Nighthawk seemed rougher than the one in KI? Vortex was also a bit head bashy which I didn't expect because it's not that fast or intense.
So let's get to the good stuff.
Copperhead Strike. This was a fun ride. On the scale of Cheetah Hunt to Maverick I wasn't sure which direction it would lean more, and it fell pretty much smack in the middle. Overall, a moderate ride. Certainly more airtime and intense moments than CH, but clearly less than Maverick, though it's launches were quite weak, more so than CH. Still a fun ride, the hang time is great, its 2 strong airtime moments are wonderful, and it did have some whippy moments sprinkled throughout. Enough to break up the generally forceless layout. So yeah, a fun, moderate but well blended ride. Would've liked more intensity but guess that's what Maverick is for.
Afterburn. I always heard this was an old school, forceful B&M invert and it did not disappoint. As advertised. Deff gunna be right near the top of my B&M invert list, deff above Montu and even Banshee.
Intimidator. This was the surprise of my day. I didn't expect much but, at least in back, there was some solid airtime on every hill and I even felt some pull on the first turn and that unique turnaround. I've only been on each for one day but from my personal experience I think I'd take it over Diamondback.
Fury 325. The big one, it did not disappoint. POV's didn't do this ride justice. I knew it would be fast but wow. I didn't expect much feeling on all those turns but there was way more pull and tossing around than I imagined. The 2nd to 3rd turn complex really took me by surprise, as did the twisting drop off the helix turnaround. Through much of that I struggled at times to keep my eyes open the wind so much, Glorious first drop needless to say. This was a surprising B&M and is certainly my #1 non RMC, top 5 overall.
Won't say much about Cedar Point, except it was a very successful Coastermania, and i don't care I still love Millennium Force. What a great ride it still is and perhaps still the best to marathon. I also confirmed that, in back, I do quite enjoy Gatekeeper, Magnum is still good and seemed less bumpy than usual? Steel Vengeance is still a min blowing masterpiece though wow something was up with operations. So slow moving I thought it was 1 train ops...my shock to see they had 3! A fairly small line was an hour, and even ERT at first was 35 mins. Perpetually stacked with long waits, all day. For night ERT things did pick up and managed to get 4 rides in the final hour, so 6 on the day and wow is my body feeling it! What a ride.
Overall a good trip, and there's till SFoG to come tomm!
