- September 12th, 2010, 10:40 am
#42873
The day started with a good breakfast at Cracker Barrel with Alan, Doug (Wormy), and Eric (Chargercrazy). I was fashionably late, as usual, and Jay joined us extremely late. From here we headed across the street to Carowinds.
We didn't see the big ACE banner on the ticket booth since we parked over in season pass parking, so got rejected as we tried to enter the park. Then they were missing Eric's packet, so he had no wristband or nametag. They did give him a lanyard though, so we got to make fun of his empty lanyard for the rest of the day.
Got escorted over to the morning ERT, where we headed immediately to the Flyers. Anthony (PhantomCat) was doing a great job as usual, and the snapping was reaching some insane levels at times. The only negative was this damn pirate (ARGHHHH) song that was being looped continuously on the PA system that was driving everyone nuts, including Anthony. He called someone to get that changed, and gave us 2 rides in a row to make up for the time lost to the call. Awesome!
The group then headed to Top Gun. As I had never managed to ride Taxi Jam before, I headed down there for some credit whoring. Took 2 laps in the front row, and found the little thing not bad at all. Headed up to Top...dammit, Afterburn and added to my ridiculous number of rides on this thing. We then headed down to Thunder Road and got some really good rides on it. The highlight of these was some impressive airtime on the first hill after the drop that had us all wondering were we really on T-Road? Some other nice pops elsewhere.
We were having so much fun we missed the 10 AM meeting at the Planet Snoopy sign, so we headed towards Cyclone and got there as the rest of the ACEers were arriving. We decided since we were there, why not ride Cyclone. It was quite smooth and a lot of fun, which is quite amazing for a 30-year-old Arrow coaster. I think the only Arrow ride standing I'd rate above it would be Tenn. Tornado, which is much newer and sadly the last standard looper they built, right when they figured out how to do it right!. BBW would be number one in this category by far, but alas, it's no longer with us.
Then over to Hurler, with a ride in row 2. Ugh, this ride saddens me. Yes, it's a bit rough and shaky and has often been this way. In years past, though, it would give some good, great, or spectacular airtime on several of the hills, and it was my 2nd-favorite ride in the park to Top Gun most of the time. With that #$#@$@ trim brake it's been Mean Streaked, and the airtime just isn't there. It didn't help to smooth anything, mind you, so it's pointless. I know what this ride can do, so I hate seeing it run like this. Hopefully some TLC like T-Road is getting is coming in the future. If not, taer it down and put in a GCI. Mind you I'd rather have a GCI / Gravity Group AND a well-running Hurler.
Next up was Drop Z...er, Tower, and we were all thankful to have survived an Intamin ride with all of our original body parts intact. This being an ACE event, our thoughts turned to food and we headed over to the lunch. Noted along the way was the fact that everything in the park was running one train and some lines were getting pretty excessive.
Lunch was good, although they've had better meals at prior events to be sure. Nothing earth-shattering was heard during the Q&A, although we're still scratching our heads at Bart's love of cutting down foliage to show off coaster stations. Vortex didn't have low ridership due to it being hidden in a forest, nor is it's station some beautiful architecture that begs to be seen. One interesting note was that the pavers the park is installing reduce the temperatures by about 5 degrees over the asphalt. Which is good, but would be even better if there are some trees left standing for shade.
The rest of the afternoon included some laps on Intimidator, since it was running 2 trains and the line was moving pretty well, an extended visit to the fudge shop where we waited out the small rain shower, and a very nice early dinner at Tilted Kilt with some really nice views of...TVs and football games. You pervs probably thought we were looking at the girls in kilts and revealing tops. We grabbed another Flyer ride before Alan needed to grab his announcer uniform for the Match Game. After he got his awesome suit and tie, we hung out for a bit and then headed into the theater to get prepared. After a bit of a snafu with the audio was sorted out, and after I almost did a faceplant when bringing extra chairs to the stage the Match Game started. Alan did a great job, as did the panelists which included our very own Max and Wormy. There were some real laughs to be had here. Oh, and of course the Magical Bag of Skittles.
What all this was building up to, of course, was Intimidator ERT. We all headed to the back of the 2nd train, and were able to camp on the ride for the entire ERT without getting off unless we wanted. Most of my rides were in row 12, which was pretty fun. I switched sides about halfway through, and I'm not sure which I liked more. The left side was better on hill #2, as it felt like you were being launched into the parking lot, but the right side was a bit better on the finishing section of the ride. The ride was FLYING, and felt much more aggressive than usual in the turnaround and the curve from hill #2 into hill #3. The airtime on the first drop and hill #3 was just insane. The 2nd trim was on, alas, but wasn't grabbing that hard and didn't kill the ending airtime hills like it sometimes does, but you still noticed it. Somewhere in here Wes was able to join us after getting off work.
I headed up to row #4 at some point to do something a bit different, and with the less-than-full train I greatly preferred the back part of the train to up here. The airtime is a bit better on hill #3 as you start getting it a bit earlier and it's not so much of a "yank" as in the back, but the first drop and the finish are much better the further back you go. So back to my row I went. We lost some riders around this time, and we hit the magical weight that turned off trim #2. Awesome. Got 3-4 rides with the trim off to finish the night, with the last 2 coming in row 13 with Alan after Jay graciously moved up to the front row so the dude up there wouldn't be "lonely". Awesome finish to the event.
Even though looking back we didn't get much riding at all during the non-ERT times, it was a great day. The rides we did get were usually very good, and many were great. The rain held off for the most part and the clouds kept temperatures to a reasonable level, and it wasn't that humid. There were a ton of funny moments with a great group to hang out with as always. Thanks go to Alan, Doug, Eric, Jay, Max, and Carowinds for a wonderful day!
We didn't see the big ACE banner on the ticket booth since we parked over in season pass parking, so got rejected as we tried to enter the park. Then they were missing Eric's packet, so he had no wristband or nametag. They did give him a lanyard though, so we got to make fun of his empty lanyard for the rest of the day.
Got escorted over to the morning ERT, where we headed immediately to the Flyers. Anthony (PhantomCat) was doing a great job as usual, and the snapping was reaching some insane levels at times. The only negative was this damn pirate (ARGHHHH) song that was being looped continuously on the PA system that was driving everyone nuts, including Anthony. He called someone to get that changed, and gave us 2 rides in a row to make up for the time lost to the call. Awesome!
The group then headed to Top Gun. As I had never managed to ride Taxi Jam before, I headed down there for some credit whoring. Took 2 laps in the front row, and found the little thing not bad at all. Headed up to Top...dammit, Afterburn and added to my ridiculous number of rides on this thing. We then headed down to Thunder Road and got some really good rides on it. The highlight of these was some impressive airtime on the first hill after the drop that had us all wondering were we really on T-Road? Some other nice pops elsewhere.
We were having so much fun we missed the 10 AM meeting at the Planet Snoopy sign, so we headed towards Cyclone and got there as the rest of the ACEers were arriving. We decided since we were there, why not ride Cyclone. It was quite smooth and a lot of fun, which is quite amazing for a 30-year-old Arrow coaster. I think the only Arrow ride standing I'd rate above it would be Tenn. Tornado, which is much newer and sadly the last standard looper they built, right when they figured out how to do it right!. BBW would be number one in this category by far, but alas, it's no longer with us.
Then over to Hurler, with a ride in row 2. Ugh, this ride saddens me. Yes, it's a bit rough and shaky and has often been this way. In years past, though, it would give some good, great, or spectacular airtime on several of the hills, and it was my 2nd-favorite ride in the park to Top Gun most of the time. With that #$#@$@ trim brake it's been Mean Streaked, and the airtime just isn't there. It didn't help to smooth anything, mind you, so it's pointless. I know what this ride can do, so I hate seeing it run like this. Hopefully some TLC like T-Road is getting is coming in the future. If not, taer it down and put in a GCI. Mind you I'd rather have a GCI / Gravity Group AND a well-running Hurler.
Next up was Drop Z...er, Tower, and we were all thankful to have survived an Intamin ride with all of our original body parts intact. This being an ACE event, our thoughts turned to food and we headed over to the lunch. Noted along the way was the fact that everything in the park was running one train and some lines were getting pretty excessive.
Lunch was good, although they've had better meals at prior events to be sure. Nothing earth-shattering was heard during the Q&A, although we're still scratching our heads at Bart's love of cutting down foliage to show off coaster stations. Vortex didn't have low ridership due to it being hidden in a forest, nor is it's station some beautiful architecture that begs to be seen. One interesting note was that the pavers the park is installing reduce the temperatures by about 5 degrees over the asphalt. Which is good, but would be even better if there are some trees left standing for shade.
The rest of the afternoon included some laps on Intimidator, since it was running 2 trains and the line was moving pretty well, an extended visit to the fudge shop where we waited out the small rain shower, and a very nice early dinner at Tilted Kilt with some really nice views of...TVs and football games. You pervs probably thought we were looking at the girls in kilts and revealing tops. We grabbed another Flyer ride before Alan needed to grab his announcer uniform for the Match Game. After he got his awesome suit and tie, we hung out for a bit and then headed into the theater to get prepared. After a bit of a snafu with the audio was sorted out, and after I almost did a faceplant when bringing extra chairs to the stage the Match Game started. Alan did a great job, as did the panelists which included our very own Max and Wormy. There were some real laughs to be had here. Oh, and of course the Magical Bag of Skittles.
What all this was building up to, of course, was Intimidator ERT. We all headed to the back of the 2nd train, and were able to camp on the ride for the entire ERT without getting off unless we wanted. Most of my rides were in row 12, which was pretty fun. I switched sides about halfway through, and I'm not sure which I liked more. The left side was better on hill #2, as it felt like you were being launched into the parking lot, but the right side was a bit better on the finishing section of the ride. The ride was FLYING, and felt much more aggressive than usual in the turnaround and the curve from hill #2 into hill #3. The airtime on the first drop and hill #3 was just insane. The 2nd trim was on, alas, but wasn't grabbing that hard and didn't kill the ending airtime hills like it sometimes does, but you still noticed it. Somewhere in here Wes was able to join us after getting off work.
I headed up to row #4 at some point to do something a bit different, and with the less-than-full train I greatly preferred the back part of the train to up here. The airtime is a bit better on hill #3 as you start getting it a bit earlier and it's not so much of a "yank" as in the back, but the first drop and the finish are much better the further back you go. So back to my row I went. We lost some riders around this time, and we hit the magical weight that turned off trim #2. Awesome. Got 3-4 rides with the trim off to finish the night, with the last 2 coming in row 13 with Alan after Jay graciously moved up to the front row so the dude up there wouldn't be "lonely". Awesome finish to the event.
Even though looking back we didn't get much riding at all during the non-ERT times, it was a great day. The rides we did get were usually very good, and many were great. The rain held off for the most part and the clouds kept temperatures to a reasonable level, and it wasn't that humid. There were a ton of funny moments with a great group to hang out with as always. Thanks go to Alan, Doug, Eric, Jay, Max, and Carowinds for a wonderful day!
