TPS Report
Carowinds - Intimidator Media Day
(March 26, 2010)
Friday, March 26, 2010. 4 am. My alarm goes off.
I hit the snooze button like it owes me money.
Friday, March 26, 2010. 4:04 am. My alarm goes off.
Fine. Whatever.
By 4:30 I'm on the road to Carowinds for the Media Preview of
Intimidator (well,
technically the Media Preview isn't until 11 am. The park needed riders on
the coaster
for the early morning media. As a result, I had to be there at 6 am).
This will be a day of great moments and really, really shitty ones.
I amazingly arrive at the park a bit early. We're
escorted in to the
freshly finished entrance area of Intimidator. It's quite dark and we're
all still quite tired.
We were just in the park for a tour two weeks ago, and NONE OF
THIS was there.
It's amazing what the crews at Carowinds managed to pull out of their hats so
quickly.
Directly across from the entrance you'll find this replica of
Dale Earnhardt's
car, along with the signage indicating (I guess) all the races he was in.
The entrance is very sharp.
The front of each of the three trains is decked out
to look like Earnhardt's car. Very slick looking.
Dawn is breaking as they start cycling trains.
That first drop is 211 feet at a 74 degree angle.
By the time you're at the bottom, you're hitting around 75 mph.
After topping off the second hill, the train takes
this funky little twist as it dives. It looks tight.
How's it ride? HellifIknow. The new style B&M
trains aren't as welcoming
for folks of my size (mom says I'm husky). The restraint comes down on
your upper
calves, and apparently my upper calves are a bit too thick. Oddly, a
person with
skinny legs and a MONSTER beer gut would have no problem. Go figure.
I should be bitter, but shit happens.
At least I wasn't one of those fatties who tries EVERY damn
seat
on the coaster trying to find that one that has an extra half inch of slack.
Those folks are in denial.
Everyone else had plenty of time to get as many laps on the
ride as they needed.
By 9:45, most folks were burned out so we actually left the park to make a
Circle K
run (John wanted milk. I don't get it either). Here's a view from up
front.
Here's the turnaround section from quite a far ways off.
We got back in the park around 10:40, and they had convenient
signs set up (in case you couldn't find the 232 foot tall coaster by,
y'know, looking UP).
The Peanuts characters were on hand to goof around while we
waited.
Linus wasn't used to walking in his oversized footies, so he almost
went down a few times. That would have been awkward. And hilarious.
Carowinds Director of Marketing John Taylor acted as the
Master of Ceremonies for the opening event.
Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina Andre Bauer was on hand
as well.
This would be an obvious place to make a joke about the Governor of South
Carolina, but I'm not going to stoop to that level.
Instead, I'll point out how 75mph is kinda slow for Bauer.
Finally, folks representing the Earnhardt estate were on hand.