I am not going to do a long drawn out report, just a few quick notes that I noticed while visiting at the park last Saturday.

-Crazy lines to even get into the park. Many children from schools were there, which made waiting in line for rides even worse.

-Son of Beast is not nearly as bad as everyone says. It goes 80mph and it will shake a bit. I sat in the back seat with Wes and we found it tolerable. Boring ass layout though. It has the potential for airtime, but it just isn't there.

-The walk back to Flight Deck needs an operator back there. Line Jumpers galore. Ridiculous people who can't wait in a 10 minute line! UGH! That walk back there is still ridiculous too. I mean wtf, you have to hike it!

-Take advantage of the drink wristband if you have a season pass. For 10 dollars, you drink all day long for free. With our group of 8 got the price down to 50 cents a drink. Most of the day it was Sprite. I do love their Red Creme Soda though. That is the bomb.

-Diamondbacks line ran quite smoothly. The group waited no more then 35 minutes tops on a Saturday. I did not fit, due to my thighs, I was close, but no cigar. Everyone that did ride it in the group loved it. They sat in the very back and got massive amounts of airtime. Our friend Jeff got his 100th credit on it.

-Vortex looks very nice this year!! The bright paint really does make a difference.

-Adventure Express was fine. No themeing on at the end. Which makes the ride just as stupid...but if you aren't gonna run the end, what's the point?

-Flight Of Fear was running great. Trim brake on the midcourse pulls the train to a complete stop. Let it run full tilt DAMN IT!!!!

-Flaming Chicken (Firehawk) had a ridiculous wait all day long. We skipped it. Already had the credit.

-Beast was the fastest I have ridden it. It was relatively smooth and bookin through the course. I enjoyed my ride. Matt rode this for the first time and said it was "AWESOME!"

-Matt was gracious enough to let the boys credit whore with him on Little Bill's Giggle Coaster.

Some irritators for me throughout the day was the constant STACKING of every ride!! Every single coaster that had a wait should not have due to the constant stacking of every coaster. Son of Beast was running two train and it took them forever to dispatch. Same with Vortex on a three train op. Beast was the same way.

We saw a ton of suits out throughout the park, which was kind of shocking. A lot of them were over in the Diamondback section.

Customer Service was ok. No real complaints, just wish they were a bit more happy since it is early in the season.

All in all we had a good day. The baby was wonderful all day long and the weather cooperated with us. We started the day at 5:30am and got in just about 11:30 that night.

Next year, we are getting a hotel. That drive is too much with two kids. LOL

Pictures can be seen here. I just uploaded a few for now, will upload more later.

Glad to meet up with Wes again, I haven't seen him since HWN 06. Glad he came up for the weekend!!

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I'll agree with what you said about stacking. It's been bad on every single ride I've been on. Diamondback is usually the best about it, but there are still times you will see all 3 trains sitting in or around the station.

And Cedar Fair is also known as the trim brake capital of the world - I don't ever expect to see Flight of Fear running without the MCBR again, unfortunately, like it was during the last years of Paramount ownership. The trim brakes on the Beast absolutely kill me. I could rant for days about the fact they run the one on the first drop.

Adventure Express's theming was working opening day. I don't know what happened to it. It was broken the following weekend.

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05.16, 05.17, 05.18, 06.05, 06.06: Cedar Point
05.25.09-06.01.09: KD, SFA, BGE, SFGAdv, Morey's & More!
06.18.09: Holiday World
2009 Diamondback laps: 41

I should really inquire about the free drinks with a season pass at KD on my next visit or is that only valid with a platinum pass? I noticed the same thing at KD that you noticed at KI Katie with regard to how many corporate types CF has roaming the parks this season so far....I must've seen just as many suits this past saturday while at the park as I did the swarms of middle schoolers on class trips.

Now I don't know why KI hasn't eased up on the MCBR of FOF because KD's wasn't set to parking brake mode for once,that's why I prefer JJ seeing as it has no MCBR but is unfortunately located in one crappy a$$ed dump of a park.

That's SFKI not SFKK? The stacking, line jumping, trims, sound bad. I anticipate my next visit to really just include Diamondback, Vortex, Beast, Flight Deck, and probably Drop Tower, Eiffel Tower as minimal must rides. I'll throw going back to FoF and Firehawk as being highly unlikely.

Batwing, I've found without the MCBR Poltergeist slightly>Joker's Jinx>either FoF.

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Thrillnetwork Moderator - Sophomore Original sn: CHILLERLC1
2008 & 2009 TN Coaster Draft Champion
You knew I wanted the other repeat too

Leo, Flight of Fear's wait wasn't as bad at all. Not even 30 minutes. They didn't have the queues inside filled.

Vortex had two trains on the brake run and one in the station. It was pathetic stacking. I mean, it's early May people get your ass in gear.

Beast did have a line, but it wasn't terrible. But, they were still stacking. I don't think the ride crews are used to Beast yet, but still not an excuse.

Park was clean and had umpteen million trash cans around. But they really needed a host in the ride stations to control crowds. People waiting for the front were heading towards the back (which means either they can't read or they just don't care anyway).

Ah well, we still had fun on the rides we did have.

I would just avoid flaming chicken...unless its a walk on. Not worth the wait if you have been on it already.

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The slow moving helix is a reminder for me of how unappealing Firehawk and Batwing are.

I agree they shouldn't be stacking this early. It's not even the middle of a humid summer.

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Thrillnetwork Moderator - Sophomore Original sn: CHILLERLC1
2008 & 2009 TN Coaster Draft Champion
You knew I wanted the other repeat too

You should have gone on the Friday before that. They decided to open the park at 10am instead of 5 so I went before work. Diamondback I walked on front seat. And as for firehawk, that rides wait always sucks. I usually opt to skip it. Ride isn't worth the wait for me.

I think these parks need to punish line jumpers like those "partiers" in Kent recently. Snipers firing rubber bullets anyone? Definitely give you second thoughts before you cut again.

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I pretty much agree with everything Katie said.

Beast though was a whole new ride to me this time up. I rode it the first time in 1999 (20th anniversary strangely enough) and back then it was my #1 wooden coaster.

Flash forward 10 years and I've ridden probably 25 more wooden coasters and my top 10 has changed a lot.

I didn't expect Beast to ever break my top 10 again, ever. But its sitting at #9 now.

I didn't have any jolts or jumping around except one time and that was only minor. I can't remember where I was, but I think I was about 2/3 back and always on the 2nd row every time I rode. The train got a bit of negative g's going on, so my car jumped up and down for a second or two, but nothing severe.

The weekend at the park really was Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde. Friday it was dead at the park, and operations were good anyway. I don't recall them stacking that much, maybe a bit on Beast.

Saturday they stacked pretty much every coaster but Diamondback.

I'm going to get my trip report done soon...maybe sooner than you think.

Oh and Katie thanks for the pic of me on Little Bill, to my eternal shame. LOL I'm not a whore! I'm not!

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Intimidator Coming in 2010 to Carowinds!

You need to ride Firehawk first thing when the park opens, this way you don't have to wait at all. I was at the park yesterday and had 7 rides on Diamondback in about a 2 hour time period. The single rider line rocks!! DB was the only ride I rode yesterday I got sick after the 7th time and headed home.