Carowinds Announces Intimidator

::throws something at Moosh::

What Recession? says Cedar Fair. That's good for coaster lovers.

ridemcoaster said: ::throws something at Moosh::

LOL. Actually danlinden emailed me the blueprints of the ride months ago. Shame I can't keep a secret...oh well, hope he didn't get in trouble! ;)

For shame on some people.. I could never give away Busch information...

Oh, by the way.. Did you hear.....

Both of the Intimidators look great.
However, they both lack the same thing: a set of checkered flags along the final brake run.

Imagine 2 rows of these (checkered of course) flying past you down that long final brake run.

http://rcdb.com/582.htm?p=1635

At least these coasters will be more reliable than the Intaminidators Cedar Fair was originally planning.....

Ensign Smith said:
At least these coasters will be more reliable than the Intaminidators Cedar Fair was originally planning.....

Sarcasm or a brief, uncommon insight into a possibly disastrous decision? You decide fellow boardies...

HeyIsntThatRob? said:
Like Goliath and Goliath? ;)

Seriously, who cares? They could call it the Giant Pink Bunny of Doom, as long as I enjoy the ride I don't care what they call it, and it looks like it'll be fun whether its KD's or CW's Intimidator.

Although I think CW got the better end of the deal IMO.

~Rob

Yeah but would you ride it if they named a ride something stupid like Flight Deck? ;)

So I:KD is taller but shorter and shorter, and I:Cw is shorter but longer and longer. Interesting.

Right now, my nod goes to I:Cw based on looks (how shallow), but of course the only way to find out will be to ride them both. It's a rough job, but someone will have to do it.

I honestly wonder if the R.O.I. on these mega-coasters is really really high despite which park they place them in. Do they really see a huge sustained attendance increase, or is this more of the "it worked for Cedar Point, it has to work here" attitude.

Don't get me wrong. Cedar Fair is building some great rides. Both Behemoth and Diamond Back are great. Despite how good the rides are you can't tell me it will cause CW & KI to be any bigger cash cows then they already were. I'm sure that they will see a minor bump in attendance the first year and I'm sure the second, but eventually this will level out.

A company that wants to bring Cedar Point culture to the table of every park they own should know by now, bigger, faster and longer does not always translate to bigger gate numbers. Look at the year Wicked Twister and Top Thrill Dragster were built for example.

Minor bump?

Have you visited KI this season?

Audioslaved said:
Yeah but would you ride it if they named a ride something stupid like Flight Deck? ;)

Ride, yes. Buy merch, not likely.

I'm all about the per caps and the ROI, hehe.... :)

Cypr3ss187 said:
I honestly wonder if the R.O.I. on these mega-coasters is really really high despite which park they place them in. Do they really see a huge sustained attendance increase, or is this more of the "it worked for Cedar Point, it has to work here" attitude.

Don't get me wrong. Cedar Fair is building some great rides. Both Behemoth and Diamond Back are great. Despite how good the rides are you can't tell me it will cause CW & KI to be any bigger cash cows then they already were. I'm sure that they will see a minor bump in attendance the first year and I'm sure the second, but eventually this will level out.

A company that wants to bring Cedar Point culture to the table of every park they own should know by now, bigger, faster and longer does not always translate to bigger gate numbers. Look at the year Wicked Twister and Top Thrill Dragster were built for example.

Its only significant pay-off if you dont do it year-after-year-after-year causing the public to become "numb" to the coaster hype...which is what we experienced in the late 90's/early 00's.

To be perfectly honest I have been to KI only once this season towards the end of July. It was no busier then it has been on any of my 20+ past visits. Wonderland I have been to 30+ times since Behemoth was constructed and it actually seems to be less busy. I'm sure that you can attribute this to the bad taste Cedar Fair left in the mouth of past season pass holders in their inaugural year of ownership.

I suppose I may have made a premature assumption that KI was in the same boat. I would still be willing to bet that any attendance increase at KI trended near what it has when ANY new attraction was built.

I love the curve-tastic second drop and the head-chopperriffic turnaround. What a good looking coaster!

If only it had a splashdown ending like DB. Oh well, it still looks amazing!

Thing is, it didn't just work for Cedar Point.

The model to look at is Magnum, and it worked for Cedar Point, Valleyfair!, Dorney Park, Worlds of Fun and Kings Island. I'm guessing it worked for Wonderland, too. It's not all about the bigger/faster/steeper, it is all about the hyper. It's been the most completely successful 'genre' of coasters since the out-and-back woodie, which is why it has also been successful for Sea World, Busch Gardens, Darien Lake, SFA, SFNE, SFGAm, SFGAdv, and SFOG.

To take the discussion back to Cedar Point, from a strictly ROI perspective (and realizing that I am not privy to the numbers) I'd say their best performing coaster investments are probably, in order, Millennium Force, Magnum, and Raptor. Cumulatively, switch the first two and maybe add Gemini or Corkscrew in 4th place, but those never generated quite the buzz that Magnum and Millennium Force got.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

^"It's been the most completely successful 'genre' of coasters since the out-and-back woodie".

Well said, Dave... :)

Cypr3ss187 said:
I honestly wonder if the R.O.I. on these mega-coasters is really really high despite which park they place them in. Do they really see a huge sustained attendance increase, or is this more of the "it worked for Cedar Point, it has to work here" attitude.

Don't get me wrong. Cedar Fair is building some great rides. Both Behemoth and Diamond Back are great. Despite how good the rides are you can't tell me it will cause CW & KI to be any bigger cash cows then they already were. I'm sure that they will see a minor bump in attendance the first year and I'm sure the second, but eventually this will level out.

.

But it levels out at a HIGHER BASE. Thus they do pay off.

In a sense, this new coaster "genre" is just a steel O&B woodie.

Am I the only one who immediately looked to see how long the drive is from KD to Carowinds? I'm thinking I need to check both of these Intimidators out next summer.