Carowinds’ Next Coaster
- Thread starter thomasellerjr90
- Start date
Considering all of the work they're doing with refreshing an area and bringing in new flats, I'd give it a couple of years at least...
So this is a rough guess, but for the next coaster's location, I think the park will demo the Action Theater at the back of Aeronautica Landing and have it run along the perimeter. The aeronautica blueprints show the theater's queue line being demolished, and it would open up a fairly large plot of land.
For the ride model, I'm predicting a B&M Dive similar to Yukon Striker. I made a rough mockup for the ride path. This fits in without going over the other new rides, and putting it here would give the park the opportunity to do a south gate refresh. It would also add some significant height to that side of the park.
I think this is still a ways off though. I think the park will likely focus on family additions in the short term, like adding antique autos to the Dinos area or adding a new water ride, so I think this could open in 2025 or 2026 at the earliest. Maybe Vortex will be converted to a floorless coaster first.
[EDIT] I'm looking at the blueprints and realizing this actually wouldn't fit. ;/
For the ride model, I'm predicting a B&M Dive similar to Yukon Striker. I made a rough mockup for the ride path. This fits in without going over the other new rides, and putting it here would give the park the opportunity to do a south gate refresh. It would also add some significant height to that side of the park.
I think this is still a ways off though. I think the park will likely focus on family additions in the short term, like adding antique autos to the Dinos area or adding a new water ride, so I think this could open in 2025 or 2026 at the earliest. Maybe Vortex will be converted to a floorless coaster first.
[EDIT] I'm looking at the blueprints and realizing this actually wouldn't fit. ;/
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I'd like to see Hurler get demo'd and replaced with a stronger woodie. I wasn't a fan of the decision to remove Thunder Road, and the park is lacking a good wooden coaster as a result. I know a lot of fans want Hurler RMC'd, and I love what they did with Twisted Timbers at KD, but I wouldn't want them to do pretty much just the same thing while still not filling that wooden coaster void. I don't see anything major happening for at least a couple years regardless.
Yeah, I'm on Team Modern Wooden Coaster too. Hurler is abominable, but I agree that I don't want to see it RMCed. If WoF 2023 goes well, maybe they could "GCI" Hurler with some Titan Track, new elements, etc? Otherwise, I'd just be in favor of demoing it and building a quality, modern, Mystic Timbers-esque woodie elsewhere in the park.
Carowinds has always screamed GCI to me for some reason. I mean the way I see it anything to push that brutal drop off in quality further down the chain of rides for that park would be amazing. Amazing Top 4 make it an amazing Top 5 before the uh……10 roller coasters I don’t really care if I ride ever again.
The problem with another woodie is this is a park unwilling to run properly their one remaining adult size wooden coaster. Remove the brake and keep up with the increased maintenance schedule and I'd place this park clearly above KD, just like all KD would have to do is upgrade their woodies (both) to have a clear edge over Carowinds.. Of course a new GCI would be more worth the maintenance, but could also be reduced to nothing better after a decade without it.
I would be in favor of the park removing the trim from the bottom of the drop and Titan-tracking the turns. There’s also the fact that GCI has retracked and reprofiled Hurler numerous times, and they put Titan track on Wolverine Wildcat at Michigan’s Adventure.
Hurler feels like it has the bones of a good coaster but it’s absolutely killed by that trim and the tracking. If they fixed those issues with the ride, I’d argue the Carowinds could easily fill the solid wooden coaster gap.
If you ask me of the 3 US former Paramount Cedar Fair parks that are structurally similar. (KD, KI, and Carowinds), Carowinds of those three by far has the worst supporting cast unless you really LOVE Nighthawk which is certainly an opinion. But after that it's like.......Boomerang, Basic Arrow Looper, Hurler, Ricochet with no drop, Vekoma Hang and Bang, Mine Train, old B&M Stand Up, Jr Woodie, and a Kiddie Coaster. ON TOP of this they have no rapids, no log flume, no chute the chutes. Before they brought in County Fair there were largely no relevant flats except probably Scream Weaver and Southern Star.
Cedar Fair has done well with Carowinds, it's MUCH nicer than I remember pre-Intimidator nowadays but it still has that feeling after you've done the top 4 (a reason well enough to visit), where it's like "okay.....now what?" I can entertain myself far better with KD and KIs supporting casts to their Top 3 and 5 respectively. There's just something about Carowinds that doesn't hit for me like it does other thoosies and I LOVE Fury, Copperhead, Intimidator, and Afterburn to bits. But yeah it needs more "quality/fun" coasters in its lineup severely.
Cedar Fair has done well with Carowinds, it's MUCH nicer than I remember pre-Intimidator nowadays but it still has that feeling after you've done the top 4 (a reason well enough to visit), where it's like "okay.....now what?" I can entertain myself far better with KD and KIs supporting casts to their Top 3 and 5 respectively. There's just something about Carowinds that doesn't hit for me like it does other thoosies and I LOVE Fury, Copperhead, Intimidator, and Afterburn to bits. But yeah it needs more "quality/fun" coasters in its lineup severely.
Coasterguy95
Intimidator 305 enjoyer, I make yt vids, watch em!
That's incredibly logical. The KD one never got very rough on the straight bits, and shouldn't put much wear on them, but those curves are a maintenance hog.
I contend the #5 coaster at Carowinds is currently Goldrusher, yeah that's the drop-off, straight to mine train. I don't know what's #2, 3, or 4, not even sure about 6, 7 and 8, but I know what's #1, #5 and Nighthawk.
I love a woodie, but the train designs for taller guests kills you no matter how smoothly it runs. If your body has to twist to secure the safety system then in my mind it is poorly designed. I would have ridden Troad a ton more except for those horrible trains. Just my opinion, but why not have t-bar restraints between your legs which allow you to sit and move naturally.
Not exactly sure where to put this…but there are apparently rumors on Twitter that Carowinds is planning to remove a “big attraction.” I can only imagine that something would be removed to make way for a new coaster. Especially if they end up removing an existing coaster.
That attraction probably won't be standing when the work is done.
Apparently a ride op on Twitter is saying that it is slingshot, but I’m still skeptical as there have been no substantial sources or evidence:
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
I mean I know Kings Island removed their Slingshot, but this one was only installed 7 years ago.
All of the slingshots are on the way out of the CF chain. I expect them all to be removed by the end of 2023.
Does it have something to do with the Orlando Freefall accident that occurred earlier this year? Perhaps insurance costs went up for Funtime attractions and CF doesn’t want to pay for them?
They should never have removed Thunder Road to begin with.