After what was probably the shortest construction of a coaster of this magnitude, Intimidator, Carowinds’ 13th roller coaster, was finished today around 2:00. Lucky for the Charlotte area, barely missing the huge snowstorms that has hit the east coast over the last week, which allowed for a great, dry sunny day today to get the final few pieces in place and wrap up track work on the park’s tallest roller coaster. What a great early Christmas present for the fans of the park!

Photo by: Carowinds Connection member, Wormy. See more photos here.

What do you think about Intimidator? Leave your comments and Park Thoughts!

Alton Tower’s has finally released more information about their Secret Weapon 6 (SW6) project and it really shows how fun and unique this ride is going to be

First off, the biggest news is that “Thirteen” has been announced as the ride’s name. In my opinion doesn’t sound like a roller coaster name, but it’s certainly better than the rumored “Surrender” name.

Thirteen's logo

Lot’s of information about the ride’s mysterious themeing was also reveled. The ride is clearly based around different fears and bad luck, from the name to the fact that the ride is built on an old cemetery/crypt. According to the park, the ride will be the first roller coaster to combine both physical and psychological fear.

The main piece of the ride’s themeing, a giant 46 ft. (14 m) tree trunk that will be placed on the wall of the ride’s building, has arrived. An interesting fact, the tree trunk was partially made of steel from Corkscrew, the roller coaster that used to occupy Thirteen’s site. This is a very creative way to keep a little bit of a lost ride in the park, hopefully they’ll somehow note this interesting fact around the piece so that all of that extra effort doesn’t go to waste.

Photo by: Alton Towers

Another note, the unique Intamin ride type being used for Thirteen has now been named a ‘psychoaster,’ obviously based on the fact that the ride will have features that produce psychological fear.

For more information visit the Thirteen website or the park’s Facebook page.

What do you think about this new information about Thirteen? Do you plan to ride it next year? Leave your comments and Park Thoughts!

World’s of Fun launched their new website recently, it takes on the same design that originated on Cedar Point’s website and was implemented for Knott’s Berry Farm several months ago. It’s overall a good redesign as the old site was becoming out-dated and was pretty hard to navigate.

Back in August, Justice posted about Knott’s Berry Farm’s website switch to this current design, he wondered if this will become a chain wide change, and well, it looks like it might! It does seem Cedar Fair has their focus in the wrong place as far as websites go though, the Paramount-park’s websites are nothing short of horrible and could have used a face-lift long before World’s of Fun.

Another note, it looks like the park will be receiving a permanent webcam! It’s great to see other parks, besides Cedar Point, adding these to their websites.

Worlds of Fun's new website

What do you think of this redesign? Leave your comments and Park Thoughts!

Last week’s poll was a battle of the manufacturers where we put two, top notch Wooden Coaster Designers, the Gravity Group and Great Coasters International, head to head in the battle for this week’s crown! GCI has been around for almost 14 years, while Gravity Group introduced their first creation, Hades in 2005.

Both companies have received their fair share of...

Well this is a turn of events, it looks like Demon Drop, Cedar Point’s 1st-generation Freefall ride, that many of us believed would be heading to Knott’s Berry Farm for 2010, has now mysteriously arrived in Dorney Park’s parking lot.

Copyright: NewsPlusNotes. View all of the photos here.

While there’s no confirmation that this is indeed Demon Drop, it certainly looks like it. It...

Premier Rides finally revealed the layout for Kennywood’s upcoming Premier LSM launch coaster at the Euro Attractions Show in Amsterdam. I was actually really surprised when I saw the layout, not only is it much longer than I expected, but also contains some really unique elements.

Copyright: coastersandmore.de

The ride begins with an 50 mph launch up a hill to the ride’s highest...

Christmas events are quickly gaining popularity throughout the amusement industry, these events show parks in a whole new form, lit up and decorated for the holidays, and if done properly, can be one of the best times to visit a park, despite the cold weather.

So, in this week’s poll we asked you if you were planning on attending a Christmas or Holiday...