[RollerBee]

If people voted with there feet, Hurler would be gone long ago. Carowinds spent 5 million on a multi hear restoration on most of Thunder Road and needed to spend more to restore the rest of Thunder Road. Racer and Rebel Yell haven't had Thunder Road style restorations.....

Sounds to me like Carowinds failed to maintain Thunder Road for so many years that it needed a restoration, did most of the restoration and then decided that the waterpark would be a better use of the restoration money. Attendance grew in 2004 and 2005 then went "relatively flat" as John Stanrock put it. Let's see if history repeats itself with 2015 and 2016; I predict it will.

[redrunner97]

[offtopic]^ Your prediction isn't reality. With all due respect, Carowinds is more popular now than ever before. The market is catching up with it's potential and fast. Fury's hype isn't gone either, add that to the overwhelming amount of new stuff being added in 2016 (a flat, a dark-game-ride, and basically an entire water park) and you've got a winner on your hands. It's not even speculation, this is a fact -especially in this particular market.

Regardless, I'm more troubled by your insinuation that the removal of Thunder Road was somehow malicious on the part of Cedar Fair. Thunder Road is a regional classic, and was arguably the most iconic roller coaster at Carowinds, but it didn't deserve being rebuilt from the ground up, lift hill and all. If it didn't go this year, it's hard to imagine it would have stayed around long.

The fact that Cedar Fair did rebuild so much of it doesn't mean they scrapped plans in favor of Carolina Harbor, it means they tried EVERYTHING to keep it in the park. We should be thanking them for not removing it almost decade ago when they realized there were significant problems that likely would end with Thunder Road being removed. Cedar Fair kept it around as long as possible until it got in the way -and there's nothing wrong with how they handled things when it did get in the way, either. Hell, Cedar Fair even spent all that money temporarily fixing Thunder Road knowing good and well that it was going to have to be torn down sooner or later anyway. We should be extremely happy they chose to put Carowinds fans and locals first over a ride that was costing more than it was returning.[/offtopic]

Anyway. I'm very excited for whatever this ends up being called (I'll reiterate Meteorite again ). Hopefully this is just a preview of things to come. Cedar Fair's commitment to Carowinds is clearer than ever. And it makes me think back to that conference call where they said they were going to transform Carowinds into "our big park". Part of me thought they just forgot to put a caveat in there somewhere; like "our big park... of the South" or "our big park... except for Cedar Point" etc. But honestly the last three years have been so unbelievably amazing, I can't wait to see what the future holds. I expect every inch of Carowinds will be transformed before all is said and done and the park might genuinely be able to stand alongside Cedar Point. Until then, I'll just keep being thankful for how good Cedar Fair has been to us. Can't wait for 2016!!

[RollerBee]

It would have took more years than Cedar Fair owned the park before the restoration started. I believe the lack of maintenance goes back to the 90s and Paramount in this case, there is nothing malicious about it. Look at Leap The Dips, it had a restoration after sitting for many years. I have based this belief on statements made by Carowinds officials.

[coasterbruh]

So what reason, if any, would some of you guys will be willing to accept regarding the removal of thunder road? Just curious . . .

[Edwardo]

Can we stop complaining in EVERY THREAD about stupid stuff? TR is gone. End of story. We know who is perpetually upset and it doesn't need to Constantly be said.

BTW, there's an unannounced flat that showed up in the park from my understanding.

[FamousAmos]

I'm not upset by Thunder Road's removal. Especially since several of us know what is coming in the near future.
Carowinds should convince Norfolk & Southern to sell that un-used land north of Hurler

[Wormy]

Several who? Do tell.

FamousAmos continues to play coy, but if that’s what he likes to do..

[coasterbruh]

I don't know . . . .

[RollerBee]

I don't want to know, it takes the fun out of being surprised.

[coasterbruh]

Ok . . . lets make it official and place our final guess where this is going!

I say in county fair but replacing something!

[theintimidator]

Surprises are good

[tarheel1231]

Ok . . . lets make it official and place our final guess where this is going!

I say in county fair but replacing something!

Yo yo?

[chknwing]

County fair is a good spot for it but also over near boardwalk behind surfer joes would be another good spot. that area is basically just a walkthrough area with a few game stalls and cobra. Also where the mini golf is another idea. Over in county fair, where the bumper cars now sit is another decent location. I imagine it may be time to renovate the bumper cars anyways. How long has it been since they got some tlc? maybe rebuild it elsewhere.

[MarkD]

Ok . . . lets make it official and place our final guess where this is going!

I say in county fair but replacing something!

Bye Bye YoYo!???

[carolinaman]

Ok . . . lets make it official and place our final guess where this is going!

I say in county fair but replacing something!

I say the basketball throw is gone.