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Cedar Fair Announces Investment in Carowinds

R

rtotheizzo17

Hyper Poster
In what looks like an attempt to keep pace with Dollywood (about 2 hours away), Cedar Fair thinks Carowinds is an investment opportunity:

http://cedarfair.com/ir/press_releases/ ... ory_id=388


Company announces plans for multi-year expansion at Carowinds Amusement Park

SANDUSKY, Ohio, Aug. 26, 2013 -- Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (NYSE: FUN), a leader in regional amusement parks, water parks and active entertainment, today announced a multi-year expansion project for its Carowinds amusement park located in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"The continued growth in the Charlotte market presents a unique opportunity for our Carowinds amusement park, which we believe is ready for record-breaking attractions," said Richard Zimmerman, Cedar Fair's Chief Operating Officer. "Over the next three years we intend to make several significant investments in both the amusement and water park areas, including new rides and attractions, new and upgraded food locations, and general infrastructure improvements. We plan to expand the capacity of Carowinds in all areas to appropriately serve its market and provide our guests with a 'Best Day of Summer' experience each and every time they visit our park."

The Company, which recently opened a satellite corporate office in Charlotte, expects the expanded park will draw additional tourists to the already popular Charlotte market. It will invest more than $50 million over the next three years and expects to hire an additional 15 full-time and approximately 270 seasonal jobs to support these new investments. As with many of its capital investments across the country, the Company will look to hire local companies to help with the design and construction of this multi-year expansion.
 
I think we can all agree that $50 mil over 3 years definitely suggests at least one new coaster. But what does this park need? We got a great invert. Check. Great hyper. Check. Bonus points for a flyer, although its quality is probably debatable. A good quality woodie could do. But if you went with something GCI sized that should leave plenty of money for a second coaster. Now I hate to admit it because they're less than my favorite, but a new wingrider could be coming to town here in Charlotte. Has this park gotten a Planet Snoopy treatment? Should probably expect that too if that hasn't happened.
 
bentcookie said:
Carowinds will get a Giga.
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I can see that. The two B&M mega models at CW(Behemoth and Leviathan) actually work really well at the same park, and make for really killer marketing and merch opportunities.
 
jolash said:
Has this park gotten a Planet Snoopy treatment? Should probably expect that too if that hasn't happened.
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Was done in 2010.
 
^What's wrong with two B&M inverts at one park? ;) Wouldn't that be awesome?! :D

I dunno. A giga is possible though. TBH I kind of wanna see another Intamin Giga, but a B&M Giga is probably more likely.
 
Sanchezmran said:
Caro should get a large launched coaster.
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I'd agree with this. That's definitely one coaster type the park is lacking, and would round out the park's lineup relatively well. A giga would be nice, but I honestly don't see it happening.
 
I could see a GCI as a great fit for the park.

What would I really love to see? An Intamin Blitz similar to Cheetah Hunt or Maverick.
 
I feel like Carowinds really needs a breakout attraction to level the playing field with its surrounding market area. That being said, it needs to be anything but a Wing Rider.
 
Hyde244 said:
I could see a GCI as a great fit for the park.

What would I really love to see? An Intamin Blitz similar to Cheetah Hunt or Maverick.
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A quality GCI would be nice, but I don't think it really make much marketing sense to get one. Carowinds already has 2 woodies. They might not be the highest quality, but with $50 million to invest, I would think they would shoot for something else. I definitely agree with the Intamin Blitz.
 
An Intamin blitz coaster if it doesn't break down every other hour...yes. But since that would never happen, I'm going to have to say no to that one.
 
^Good point :p

And hasn't Cedar Fair basically stopped buying Intamin recently (I swear there was a topic about that)?
 
Yes, as of recently. And I think that trend will continue. The last Intamin at a Cedar Fair park was I305 (I believe). And as of right now, it is also down with mechanical issues...shocking I know.
 
I'm ecstatic about this! Carowinds isn't a huge park and there's not that much there that's interesting minus Intimidator and Afterburn, but this should indicate that that's changing!

Dollywood (which is close enough that I would consider it a competing park) has a good GCI woodie that I honestly don't see Cedar Fair topping. They did play around with Gold Striker, yes, but I got the vibe that it was just "okay." It'd be pretty bold of them to try and outdo Thunderhead.

Now I'm being that nerd looking at Google Maps trying to figure out where everything could fit. It looks like to the left of the park entrance there could be enough space for a B&M wing coaster station. I'm not sure if the design is copyrighted, but I always thought Wild Eagle's trains could be repurposed for a patriotic-themed coaster. Build an antebellum-style station building and use those trains on white track with a red stripe (like Patriot's but flipped) and blue supports and it would look great. Even if Dollywood has exclusive rights to that train design (which they probably do) they could do a different eagle (a silver eagle wing coaster train would be SICK!!!) or even a generic shell with an American flag on it. A patriotic theme would fit this coaster well and would compliment Skytower and seeing as CF has done it before with Patriot I could see them doing it again at Carowinds. As much as I like Carowinds's entrance, it always feels like it's missing something large, like a focal point. Skytower is so far back that it really doesn't fill this gap when you first walk in and while the state line is there and I do enjoy getting into the park and getting my picture taken in two states at once, it's not big enough. What I was thinking is that maybe they could do twin zero-g rolls like GateKeeper, but have them perpendicular to each other instead of parallel, and make a sort of X-shape over the entrance plaza. There's not enough on it to be considered a main street-style entrance and putting a large coaster element over it would definitely welcome you to this park very well. Also, I remember that when Windseeker opened that the press release said something about how it was appropriate to have there because the Wright Brothers accomplished the world's first powered flight in the Carolinas. If they believe that and want to use that thinking again, a wing coaster would be great for the park.

I think that two of these three years will be coasters, and in addition to the wing coaster, the southeast also needs a good launched coaster. I know Florida has a few, but it's so different and touristy than the region we're talking about (Caro, D-wood, SDC, SFOG, ect.) that I think a decent launcher would bring home a lot of bacon for Carowinds. I see two options they could go with. The first, which is what I got from the "Cedar Point of the south" remark, was a fast, intense Intamin rocket coaster, maybe a strata with Formula Rossa-esque trains, or even a traditional strata like KK or TTD. They haven't built one in a while so it'll be interesting to see what they do if it's a strata. They probably don't have room for it but just a really fast one like Formula Rossa that could take the record of fastest in the States would be nice also. The other option I see is a Premier or Mack multi launcher. I think Intamin COULD supply this, but Cedar Fair might have a bit of a chip on their shoulder about them ever since all the crap that's gone on with Intimidator 305 lately. Whatever it is, I noticed that Southern Star, the park's inverting ship ride, could potentially be moved elsewhere. This could leave a medium-sized gap open for a coaster station. Now what I was thinking is that maybe this launcher would have a weak launch and do a few small elements over that midway before dipping down below the ground into a tunnel between Thunder Road's queue and the parking lot. This tunnel could go below the parking lot on the Afterburn/Thunder Road side of the park, going through a HUGE launch, and messing around in that lot through large, intense elements before dipping down below the ground next to the launch (think Hades) and maybe performing a few airtime hops/barrel rolls in a line before trimming/launching (whatever is needed) to get the ride to a comfortable pace to meander back to the station. This really seems like a Premier thing and I would love to see Premier go big with that new ride system they've been using. Also, I know I said they should move Southern Star (and they might), but are they still USING the Action Theater? The only place I saw it mentioned on the park's website was on the park map. If not I think they could gut it and use it as an indoor station/queue building that would save all that midway hopping. It could just dip under the parking lot out of the station. I'm not sure if they even own that land outside the parking lot, but if they do it would look really nice from the highway. And if not, they might be able to just rip out that parking lot, or at least part of it. I feel like nobody even uses it anymore, though I could be wrong.

On the subject of that parking lot, maybe they expand into the lot behind Thunder Road? I feel like it's used that heavily (though I've never seen Carowinds crowded so correct me if I'm wrong) but if they have a big slab of tarmac that nobody's using I see nothing wrong with expanding back into it.

Just my two cents. :p
 
2012Jarrett said:
I'm ecstatic about this! Carowinds isn't a huge park and there's not that much there that's interesting minus Intimidator and Afterburn, but this should indicate that that's changing!

Dollywood (which is close enough that I would consider it a competing park) has a good GCI woodie that I honestly don't see Cedar Fair topping. They did play around with Gold Striker, yes, but I got the vibe that it was just "okay." It'd be pretty bold of them to try and outdo Thunderhead.

Now I'm being that nerd looking at Google Maps trying to figure out where everything could fit. It looks like to the left of the park entrance there could be enough space for a B&M wing coaster station. I'm not sure if the design is copyrighted, but I always thought Wild Eagle's trains could be repurposed for a patriotic-themed coaster. Build an antebellum-style station building and use those trains on white track with a red stripe (like Patriot's but flipped) and blue supports and it would look great. Even if Dollywood has exclusive rights to that train design (which they probably do) they could do a different eagle (a silver eagle wing coaster train would be SICK!!!) or even a generic shell with an American flag on it. A patriotic theme would fit this coaster well and would compliment Skytower and seeing as CF has done it before with Patriot I could see them doing it again at Carowinds. As much as I like Carowinds's entrance, it always feels like it's missing something large, like a focal point. Skytower is so far back that it really doesn't fill this gap when you first walk in and while the state line is there and I do enjoy getting into the park and getting my picture taken in two states at once, it's not big enough. What I was thinking is that maybe they could do twin zero-g rolls like GateKeeper, but have them perpendicular to each other instead of parallel, and make a sort of X-shape over the entrance plaza. There's not enough on it to be considered a main street-style entrance and putting a large coaster element over it would definitely welcome you to this park very well. Also, I remember that when Windseeker opened that the press release said something about how it was appropriate to have there because the Wright Brothers accomplished the world's first powered flight in the Carolinas. If they believe that and want to use that thinking again, a wing coaster would be great for the park.

I think that two of these three years will be coasters, and in addition to the wing coaster, the southeast also needs a good launched coaster. I know Florida has a few, but it's so different and touristy than the region we're talking about (Caro, D-wood, SDC, SFOG, ect.) that I think a decent launcher would bring home a lot of bacon for Carowinds. I see two options they could go with. The first, which is what I got from the "Cedar Point of the south" remark, was a fast, intense Intamin rocket coaster, maybe a strata with Formula Rossa-esque trains, or even a traditional strata like KK or TTD. They haven't built one in a while so it'll be interesting to see what they do if it's a strata. They probably don't have room for it but just a really fast one like Formula Rossa that could take the record of fastest in the States would be nice also. The other option I see is a Premier or Mack multi launcher. I think Intamin COULD supply this, but Cedar Fair might have a bit of a chip on their shoulder about them ever since all the crap that's gone on with Intimidator 305 lately. Whatever it is, I noticed that Southern Star, the park's inverting ship ride, could potentially be moved elsewhere. This could leave a medium-sized gap open for a coaster station. Now what I was thinking is that maybe this launcher would have a weak launch and do a few small elements over that midway before dipping down below the ground into a tunnel between Thunder Road's queue and the parking lot. This tunnel could go below the parking lot on the Afterburn/Thunder Road side of the park, going through a HUGE launch, and messing around in that lot through large, intense elements before dipping down below the ground next to the launch (think Hades) and maybe performing a few airtime hops/barrel rolls in a line before trimming/launching (whatever is needed) to get the ride to a comfortable pace to meander back to the station. This really seems like a Premier thing and I would love to see Premier go big with that new ride system they've been using. Also, I know I said they should move Southern Star (and they might), but are they still USING the Action Theater? The only place I saw it mentioned on the park's website was on the park map. If not I think they could gut it and use it as an indoor station/queue building that would save all that midway hopping. It could just dip under the parking lot out of the station. I'm not sure if they even own that land outside the parking lot, but if they do it would look really nice from the highway. And if not, they might be able to just rip out that parking lot, or at least part of it. I feel like nobody even uses it anymore, though I could be wrong.

On the subject of that parking lot, maybe they expand into the lot behind Thunder Road? I feel like it's used that heavily (though I've never seen Carowinds crowded so correct me if I'm wrong) but if they have a big slab of tarmac that nobody's using I see nothing wrong with expanding back into it.

Just my two cents. :p
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Like I said...let it be anything BUT a freaking Wing Rider for heaven's sake. I find them very overrated, forceless and boring. Look at the line at Gatekeeper throughout the day. I've been to CP 8 times this season and every time I've been there, after the initial 2 hour morning wait; the queue was never over an hour long. This was true in peak summer days as well. Of the times I've been there, a lot of the GP I overheard found it very overrated as well. Now if B&M uses their Wing Rider for a 4D, that's a different story. But until that happens, I will be very disappointed if any more of these coasters are built. So, bring on a launcher, a Strata, a Giga, a Woodie...anything but a WR.
 
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