Existential angst as a WDW fan?

[Disneyfan]

Carowinds! I lived in North Carolina during early my childhood and my elementary years. Don't know if they still have that white line down the border of the two states. But we thought it was the best thing ever to stand on it like we were doing jumping jacks and be in two states at one time.

Sounds like a fun weekend!

[ada]

Sounds like a great trip, have fun!

[Goofballs]

bacchanalia of a typical Disney trip

That’s not a word I ever would have thought to use to describe a Disney trip, but I see how it fits.

I hope your mental health weekend brings you exactly what you need. Take care.

[mgarbowski]

Glad you found your vacation niche for now. Also, congratulations on the weight loss. Best of luck on the next, and often oddly harder phase of keeping it off.

[All about me]

I am soooo jealous. In Oct 2016, I too got a free day by purchasing the Platinum Pass for the following year. With the free parking and four Cedar Fair park days already planned in 2017, I stood to save over a hundred dollars. But of course once had the pass, I wanted to use it for 'more'. After researching all the Cedar Fairs I have never been too, Carowinds was at the top of my 'want to try' list and I planned out a week long vacation involving that park, Kings Dominion and visits to a Great Wolf Lodge in the vicinity of each park. Unfortunately, unforeseen responsibilities prevented it. Glad you got to go and enjoyed it.

Have you been to Kings Island? If not, it's an easy 3 1/2 hour drive from Ann Arbor down the I-75 and there are a couple of reasonably priced hotels nearby (avoid Super8 Mason like the plague; even if they paid you to stay there, it would still be poor value) as well as the significant more expensive Great Wolf Lodge which is right next door and awesome! The Diamondback, Banshee and Invertigo are all great roller coasters and the Firehawk is amazing! You start out lying on your back and then they flip you over so you are hanging under the track to fly thru the air! If you have been to Kings Island, how does Carowinds compare?

[bnoble]

I have been to Kings Island, but not for probably ten years. I'm going to CoasterStock next month with my daughter.
https://www.visitkingsisland.com/pla...s/coasterstock

Hard to make a comparison since my Carowinds experience is so much more recent. Back ten years ago, when I had visited both parks around the same time, I thought KI's lineup was better. But both parks have invested a lot since then. Will be interesting to see if that still holds. I haven't been on KI's Firehawk yet. But, I much prefer B&M flyers to the Vekoma Flying Dutchman. Carowinds' version has not aged well. #ouch

[jillyb]

Carowinds! I lived in North Carolina during early my childhood and my elementary years. Don't know if they still have that white line down the border of the two states. But we thought it was the best thing ever to stand on it like we were doing jumping jacks and be in two states at one time.

Sounds like a fun weekend!

Yes, the white line is still there.

[jillyb]

You were in my neck of the woods. I can't handle the coasters at Carowinds but my DD loves them, especially the Fury 325. That a big NOPE! for me lol

[Denise25]

My DS17 is a coaster fan, and for his HS graduation in June I got him the Cedar Parks platinum pass! We live in Richmond so he goes to Kings Dominion all the time, loves the Intimidator. This past summer he went to Carowinds and loved Fury. The plan for the platinum pass, aside from going to KD, is a coaster adventure -- drive to Kings Island, then Cedar Point, then Dorney Park in PA. I should have him meet up with you! :)

[Alcachofa]

One of the rides in that collection is Fury 325, a B&M giga. It's sort of a twister combined with an out-and-back, and it is fierce...

Just checked out the pix in that link and my only reaction is

[bnoble]

Next Monday, I'm going to the Cedar Point pass-holder preview of Steel Vengeance, a Rocky Mountain Construction hybrid refit. They take cranky wooden coasters and use the bones of the structure to create new steel rides. The prior ride, Mean Streak, was definitely cranky; I rode it once a year, whether I needed chiropractic services or not.

My favorite bit about the new ride's stats? Record #9: Most airtime on any roller coaster (27.2 seconds) I'm an airtime fiend.

The others they've done get rave reviews. I haven't been on one yet, but Iron Rattler at SFFT is currently #4 on the Golden Ticket steel list. I rode it in its wooden incarnation as Rattler about 10 years ago, and it was a death trap. Anyone who can do that can work miracles.

[geek1997]

The picture where the coaster cuts under that bridge makes me very anxious. I can't reconcile the perspective with the size of the car and actual clearance. Gah.

[George]

Next Monday, I'm going to the Cedar Point pass-holder preview of Steel Vengeance, a Rocky Mountain Construction hybrid refit. They take cranky wooden coasters and use the bones of the structure to create new steel rides. The prior ride, Mean Streak, was definitely cranky; I rode it once a year, whether I needed chiropractic services or not.

My favorite bit about the new ride's stats? Record #9: Most airtime on any roller coaster (27.2 seconds) I'm an airtime fiend.

The others they've done get rave reviews. I haven't been on one yet, but Iron Rattler at SFFT is currently #4 on the Golden Ticket steel list. I rode it in its wooden incarnation as Rattler about 10 years ago, and it was a death trap. Anyone who can do that can work miracles.

That doesn’t look much like Mean Streak. Did they totally rebuild/change it? It looks more like Goliath at Great America, a coaster that was built from the ground up.

Is this the same company that redid Colossus at Magic Mountain?

[bnoble]

The drop and other bits were re-profiled, in some places significantly, but it is MS's bones. Yes, these folks did Twisted Colossus.

[bnoble]

The picture where the coaster cuts under that bridge makes me very anxious. I can't reconcile the perspective with the size of the car and actual clearance. Gah.

There's a headchopper illusion on the 90' turn to that section that is much more anxiety-provoking.

[George]

The drop and other bits were re-profiled, in some places significantly, but it is MS's bones. Yes, these folks did Twisted Colossus.

Do such rehabs render these coasters smooth?

[bnoble]

Reportedly. I will let you know next week!

[bnoble]

Today is media day. A (facebook) friend runs one of the four major coater enthusiast clubs, and is there this morning. His take below. NB: He does not usually say things like this; he is very much NOT the Disney Food Blog of the roller coater universe.

Screen Shot 2018-04-25 at 10.40.09 AM.jpg

Given that Cedar Point already has two of the top 10 steel rides....wow.

Edited to add: another long-time enthusiast describes it as: "Non-stop insanity."

[momof2boys]

Just saw this article pop up in my Yahoo news feed:

https://www.freep.com/story/entertai...nce/549346002/

[bnoble]

More reactions from folks in my feed from media day:

The TL;DR review is: "Worst to first." No joke. Not like first at the park, but maybe first period. [...] second half is crazy bananas. So many unexpected moments.

Parks that put in an RMC are met with reviews of 'hitting a home run.' But CP... they hit a grandslam on this one. [...] It's enough for you to say, "Okay, no more, I'm done, please stop ride" but no, you still have another trip inside the wood structure

[George]

This video makes it look really smooth:

[bnoble]

Didn't make it on the ride, but had a nice evening.

The passholder preview offered a 1.5 timed window for a single ride on Steel Vengeance. The ride was down when I came back during my window, and running single-train operation at the end of it, and there was no way I was waiting in that line. Even when it got back up to two-train operation (out of three) the wait was up to ~2 hours due to the backlog, and I was not interested. Tony Clark, the Park's PR director offered me the opportunity to come back either of the other two preview days, but I have other things going on. In short: they made the best of it, and I appreciated it. Platinum passholders get an hour of ERT every morning (together with on-property guests), and I'll just hit it during one of those later in the season.

The rest of the evening was great. All the Frontiertown rides were open. I got three laps on Maverick with a 5-20 minute wait each time, and hit pretty much everything else with little or no wait. The park was also offering (reasonably substantial) samples of new menu items at each of the area's food locations. The stuff I tried varied from not great (soggy hot wings that felt microwaved) to really pretty good (spiral fries topped with smoked brisket, black beans, "cheese" sauce, and BBQ sauce). The weather was lovely, and I got a chance to try out my season-long digital picture package. This is good at all CF parks, so I'll be getting good use out of it at CoasterStock with my daughter at King's Island. Plus, I got this great sunset from Maverick's station:

31743506_10156358234802767_8731455903296913408_n.jpg

(That's unedited, out of my iPhone camera.) Looking forward to the season!

[Disneyfan]

This video makes it look really smooth:

Your video made me dizzy just watching it. Very brave people riding this ride. . .

[jillyb]

Nice pic!

[HeyHeather]

New horizons. Have a blast this summer :D