Photo: Carowinds

Today, Carowinds held their much anticipated media day for Fury 325, the park’s new B&M gigacoater which boasts the tallest roller coaster lift hill in the world. New Park President and General Manager Mike Fehnel gave and energetic welcome to the extensive local and national media showing. Following a welcome and “FaceTime call” from North Carolina governor Pat McCory and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the ribbon was cut on the largest B&M roller coaster ever built complemented by fireworks, smoke effects, and teal and purple confetti, certainly a nod to the nearby Charlotte Hornets. Media and guests then had their opportunity to ride. The seats of first 3 public trains out of the station were auctioned off to benefit the Cam Newton Foundation.

Photo: Carowinds Connection member, Axel

Reviews from first riders have been stellar, with most praising the rides speed and forces through the first half and floater airtime through the second. Additionally, many mention the unique “sideways airtime” effect that can be experienced during the turnaround prior to the drop under the bridge. In general, many say that the ride is on par with Millennium Force, but the two rides are very different experiences. Others call Fury a “more comfortable Intimidator 305.”

A few great reviews:

• Theme Park Insider (Enthusiast)
• Rock Hill Herald (General Public/Media)

Check out a few videos of the ride below, both a forward POV and a reverse POV with some members of Coasterforce.com:

This was also the welcome ceremony for the brand new park entrance plaza and up-charge “Slingshot” ride. It’s easy to see Cedar Fair’s commitment to making Carowinds a premier thrill destination in the United States taking shape all around the park. At the end of the Fury opening ceremony Rob Decker, Carowinds’ Senior VP of Design said “our park will make a big splash” in August. Even more big things may be in the pipeline for Carowinds.

New park entrance. Photo: Park Journey

Photo: WSOCTV

Want to take Fury for a spin? Carowinds opens to the public this Saturday, March 28th.

What are your thoughts on Fury 325? Leave your comments and Park Thoughts below!

Holiday World has announced that they have relocated their Zamperla Vertical swing ride over to the surrounding area of the new Thunderbird B&M launched wing coaster. The ride, currently called “Sparkler” in the 4th of July themed area of the park, will be renamed and rethemed to “Crow’s Nest” in its new home alongside Thunderbird in the Thanksgiving area. Sparkler originally opened in 2012. This should certainly bring some additional life to the new midway while providing outstanding views of the park’s shiny new B&M flying around it. The ride has already been moved to its new home and the park has a video of the transformation.

This is one of the surprises that Holiday World has thrown in with the new coaster, and they are still teasing some near-miss ride elements that will be added to Thunderbird prior to its opening.

Track work on Thunderbird itself was actually completed last week. This, along with the installation of the Crow’s Nest ride are certainly making the new area of the park take shape. The 2015 season is fast approaching!

Whether you like it or not, Windseekers are taking over the Cedar Fair chain; Six of out of the twelve theme parks currently operate or are building one. Cedar Fair is hooked on these 300 (excuse me, 301) foot swing sets, and it’s understandable why; simply put, it’s a gimmick, and the general public eats them up. I can already hear “Dude, did you hear some guy fell out of that thing?” “No way! Lets go ride it!” on the midways of Carowinds.

Anyway, the two Windseekers currently under construction are making decent progress. Both just hit the milestone of their first piece of tower being installed and have “gone vertical.” With the theme park season just around the corner, it’ll be fun to watch these things fly up. Hopefully they’ve worked out the kinks from the last set and these two will have a smooth season.

So, here are some pictures of the “30 or so feet of OMGs”:

Carowinds (via Carowinds Amusement Park on Facebook)

Kings Dominion (via @KingsDominionVA on Twitter)

Dollywood’s Wild Eagle is one of the most anticipated attractions for the 2012 season. The B&M Wingrider has been quietly, andcertainly quickly chugging along with construction and, what may come as a surprise to some, track work was recently completed. The final piece was lowered into place last week. These B&M’s seem to fly up in no time!

Photo: Dollywood

Along with the milestone, the park has also released some beautiful new animation of Wild Eagle:

Leave your Park Thoughts below!

Cedar Fair has announced the purchase of 61 acres adjacent to Carowinds parking lot, which will “enable the Company to achieve future development and expansion of the facility.” For anyone familiar with the Carowinds area, according to the Charlotte Observer, the land is located between the season pass parking lot and I-77.

There are a long list of possibilities for the land, from the obvious, park expansion, to hotels, additional campgrounds, or parking. Due to the lands location, largely cut off from the park by the parking lot, it seems like a resort hotel would be the most realistic. But, its a definitely possibility the land could be used to relocate the parking lot to allow for new rides and other park expansion. Anything is rumors at this point, but this is certainly exciting news for any fan.

In other Carowinds news, the park has begun teasing for the 2012 season. Posting QR codes throughout their website, when scanned give an image. Fans have put all of these images together creating this:

The obvious answer to this Riddle is another Windseeker, a giant swing ride which have been popping up all over the Cedar Fair chain, despite the markings which have been seen in the park labeled “HUSS GF” which of course points to a giant frisbee. Anything is possible and we definitely can’t wait for the announcement on August 24th!

What do you think about the large land purchase? What could it be used for? What about the 2012? Windseeker? Giant Frisbee? Leave your comments and Park Thoughts below!

Dollywood’s upcoming S&S Screamin’ Swing, “Barnstormer” is already well into construction. It appears that most of the rides structure is now up, and work of the surrounding “barn” is now underway. At this rate, there’s pretty much no question that the ride will be ready for the park’s opening day. You can see more photos on the Barstormer website.

Are you excited for Barnstormer? Leave your comments and Park Thoughts below!

The first 2 Cedar Fair parks out of the gate with their announcements today, Knott’s Berry Farm and Canada’s Wonderland have both announced “Windseeker”. The two $5 million rides are pretty much exactly the same, both 301 feet tall, spinning its 32, 2-seat swing arms at 8 rotations per minute. They even share the same blue/gray/yellow pain scheme.

Windseeker will be the 68th ride at Canada’s Wonderland, it will be located next to the Vortex roller coaster near the park’s entrance.

Windseeker at Canada's Wonderland

At Knott’s Berry Farm, Windseeker will be located next to Xcellerator in the Boardwalk area of the park, it will be replacing their Sky Cabin ride which originally opened in 1976. Another note, this Windseeker will also sport the Knott’s “K” at its top, similar to the current Sky Cabin ride.

Windseeker at Knott's Berry Farm

So what do you think about the two Windseeker additions? Leave your comments and Park Thoughts below!