ThrillNetwork member Sclisso concludes his review of Intimidator and his visit to Carowinds.

Afterburn

Once we rode the Carolina Skytower, I quickly headed on over to Afterburn. I think Afterburn and Intimidator are tied as my favorites. They’re both so awesome that I can’t decide which I like best. Afterburn was a walk on all day and it’s been a long time since I have seen Afterburn with a long line. By the end of the day I had 3 rides, twice in the back and once in the front. The back is by far the best row on the ride. The way it slings you around the inversions makes the ride much more thrilling. The only thing I have to complain about is the paint. I don’t understand why it has not been painted yet. The rails are looking quite rusty; I would like to see some new colors on it. A new paint job would definitely make it look a whole lot nicer.

Afterburn

After a quick ride on White Water Falls to cool us down we went for lunch at Bojangles. The nearest one to me is like an hour and a half away in Blacksburg, VA so if there’s one close when I’m traveling, you bet I’ll be there. They didn’t get my order right though. I paid for a chicken biscuit but got a chicken strip meal with extra fries which was a little more expensive so it actually turned out great. I wasn’t about to go asking them for the biscuit instead of the meal. But besides getting my order wrong, everyone working there was super nice and they got everyone’s order really quick. I would strongly recommend Bonjangles when you’re in the area.

Anyway, back to the park. After reentering the park, I grabbed a quick ride on Intimidator and headed on over to Rip Roarin’ Rapids. Due to the long wait, we decided to just do it later on. I think the main reason why it was so crowded was because the ride opens at 12:00 which I thought was odd.

Ricochet

Next up was the Thrill Zone. The first ride we took was on Ricochet. It’s a pretty good mouse coaster. It hurts though; my legs were too long for the car so I ended up pulling a muscle or something while I was riding. Another thing I have to note is the cover over a piece of track that is supposed to keep you from touching the rails as you are going up the lift. I saw this and, being the rebel that I am, I had to touch it. I think it’s still pretty dangerous that you can touch part of a ride even if it has a cover on it. Your hands shouldn’t be able to get that close. Mack probably should have addressed this issue before any of these were built.

Carolina Cyclone

Next up was the most painful ride of the day, Carolina Cyclone. I made two mistakes when I rode this ride: the first was that I sat in the back part of the car which has no leg room at all for a 6′4″ guy. The second was that I rode near the middle of the train so it wasn’t a pleasant ride at all. The only good thing I can say about it is that I like the new color scheme even though it is kind of odd. I guess what they were trying to do was emphasize the two loops and corkscrews with the yellow because it was the first coaster ever to have four inversions. I would like to see some the new Carolina Cobra-type trains put on it and have tunnels or other effects added to breathe new life into the aging coaster.

Drop Tower

Drop Zo…Tower didn’t have a line at all and I decided to give it some love and give it a ride. Intamin drop towers are amazing. It is possibly the only ride in the park that scares me over and over. It always gives me that “holy crap, I could die” feeling every time I ride it. I could ride coasters all day and I would get bored with them because they wouldn’t scare me much anymore but Drop Tower would scare me over and over.

After taking a little break, we headed on over to the wave pool. I’m not a big fan of water parks myself because I think they’re unsanitary and going topless is not my thing but that’s what everyone else wanted to do so I just stuck my feet in the wave pool until they were done. I have to admit, it did cool me down and I’m glad I did go. I went to Carolina Cobra next and took a quick ride. It was a walk on and I actually like the ride quite well, probably my 3rd or 4th favorite in the park.

Thunder Road

It didn’t take long and we were hot again and decided to go on over to the Action Theater. We didn’t care if they were playing SpongeBob, we just wanted air conditioning, but of course, they decided to close it down when we got there. I don’t know if it broke down or why they closed it. So since that wasn’t going to happen, Thunder Road had no one in line so why not? I have to say, the ride has really gotten a whole lot better, mainly the parts farthest away from the station. I expected a really rough ride but I was really surprised after it was over. There are still some rough spots but the places where they have replaced the track have made the ride much more enjoyable.

Intimidator

The rest of the day was mainly repeat rides. We rode Afterburn one more time and Intimidator two more times. The only thing new we did for the rest of the day was Rip Roarin’ Rapids. We went back and there was no line at all so we rodeit twice. The water felt awesome in that heat. I like it much better than the Smoky Mountain River Rampage at Dollywood (which was the only other of its kind I have been on). You get pretty soaked on it, especially if you are hit by that waterfall near the end of the ride.

We left Carowinds about 6:30. I would’ve liked to have stayed longer but we had a long trip back and I think everyone was pretty tired. After I got confused and went down a road I thought was the entrance ramp to I-77, we finally made it back on the road.

I was a little sad on the way out because I love Charlotte. I hate living in a rural area, so Charlotte seems like Heaven to me. We stopped in Mooresville on the way back at a Golden Corral for dinner. It’s a pretty good place to eat. It’s like a Ryan’s only really freaking awesome. The service that day left a lot to be desired though, we waited 10 minutes for someone to show up at the counter to get us drinks. The waiter was pretty nice however, but he had a heavy country accent that I couldn’t understand so when he said something I just laughed or said yes.

When were done eating, I stopped for gas and we made our way home. There wasn’t much to see because it was so dark, so the ride was pretty boring and a little scary. I’m not used to driving long distances at night so I was a little nervous but we made it home safe and earlier than I had expected. I have to say, the trip was pretty good even though it was quite short. If there’s anyone reading this that hasn’t been to Carowinds, or even Charlotte yet, I highly recommend going for a visit. It’s a great amusement park in an awesome city.

And that’s all for my Carowinds trip report. I hope you all enjoyed it. Feel free to add me on Facebook or Myspace (Facebook preferred). The link is located on my About Me tab. Thanks!

Thanks to Sclisso for sharing his thoughts on Intimidator and Carowinds and we encourage our ThrillNetwork members to do the same!

For more information on Carowinds and Intimidator visit Carowinds.  If you missed the first part click here to read it.

Tags: carowinds, Intimidator