General Carowinds discussion
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By coasterbruh
#6047
I was thinking about this and since no one has started a topic like this i decided i would...............

Now since all the bugs are worked out what are your thoughts on the coaster. What do you think can be done to improve it and what can be eliminated to imporve it.

Well as for me, last night was my first time seeing the coaster at night (am I the only one 'cause i never heard anyone say so??) All I have to say is that you just have to see the sphere. And with the voice overs on the speakers the area is bound to be a hit for scarowinds. But with saying that thats probably the only thing you will see being that the rest of the coaster is pitch black, with the exception of the vertical loop. The only thing I would change about this is to add a sensor to a strobe light so that when the coaster goes thru the vertical loop it will give it an awsome effect to the riders and the spectators.

But as far as general coaster improvments I would soup up the power on whatever is controling the bubbles around the sphere because right now it just looks like a geese is cutting the cheese :D . I wanna see the water really move!! And to add some more effects to that i would place a smoke machine close to where the sphere and the raised land meet to give it a real feel of being crashed.

Personally i dont see anything wrong with the loading and unloading because most of the time is taken away from the reclining and raising of the trains. I know they cant just slam down to the ground or pop back up w/o damaging something. I would love to see the station closed in something like top gun or cyclone or hurler because when it rain, it really pours (into the station that is!!). I found that out during the b-roll shooting.

Last but not least i would do away with the assigned rows. Now that will also call to the exit of the single riders line, unless you assign a row like 3 or 4 for them.

So tell wadda ya think??
By Cephas
#6050
All the bugs are not worked out of borg, on Friday, one of the trains was broken.

I like your Idea of a strobe, it would be cool going through the loop. Unfortunately, some have cesures with strobes so I doubt they would place one right next to a pathway.
By Carowindsman
#6051
actually you if you did take away the assigned seating and leave the single rider line it would work really well kind of. If you are asking how well say you have 3 people in a row well someone from the single rider line would be able to take over that 4th seat
User avatar
By coasterbruh
#6055
All the bugs are not worked out of borg, on Friday, one of the trains was broken.


The coaster is allowed to have some down time every once and a while. But im talking about having 2 trains operating thru-out the day. As of saturday (and last sunday) the coaster ran 2 trains all day.

I like your Idea of a strobe, it would be cool going through the loop. Unfortunately, some have cesures with strobes so I doubt they would place one right next to a pathway.


If they are on the coaster im sure a strobe light giving them a ceasure would be the last thing to worry about!! lol lol :D
By Cephas
#6061
I'm not talking about the people on the ride, I talking about people walking down the pathway next to the loop.
By Trev32
#6065
who cares about assigned seating there is hardly a difference beetween rows!!

What I Think:

BUY ANOTHER TRAIN FROM VEKOMA!!!!!! lol, It sucked with one train operation, I mean when I went when It was running two trains we were probably gonna be in line for an Hour, 1 hr 15 mins at the max, but then they had to take the train off, then It was about a 1 hr 45 min wait(from where we were) and we weren't even at the back of the line!!
User avatar
By MarkD
#6067
I would like to see them utilize the "unloading" section. It may or may not speed things up but as I have been stuck there on 3 different occasions for several minutes it is quite uncomfortable and you can hear many complain about it.
User avatar
By coasterbruh
#6070
That would be nice too but that will be and extensive over haul, and probably quite expensive. That will cut down the wait time because the time you sit there waiting some times you could have been unloaded. Therefore if you were in the station waiting you wouldnt have to wait for the train to raise and if you were on the brakes you wouldnt have to wait until the train leaves the station.
By Cephas
#6071
I have been stuck on the brakes too, the most annoything thing for me is the fact that the rest of your body is above your head. The blood rushing to your head is the most uncomfortable thing. Even worse than the sun shining down on you in your eyes.
By LocoDriver
#6072
Thougts on Borg.....

When Borg was announced I had mixed feelings. I was really happy that Carowinds was getting something besides a kiddie coaster. At the same time I was a little disappointed that it was a Vekoma Flyer (and used one at that).

I also was really skeptical of the name Borg Assimilator. I really was hoping for extensive theming but expecting much less. I would say that I'm pleased with the theming. I love the sphere especially at night time. I also like the voice overs and the walk thru ques.

Having said that, the ride itself is very different from anything most non coaster enthusiest have ridden. My opinion of the ride itself is that it still needs some TLC with getting some of the rough spots out. Rear of the train especially on the wheel seats ride much rougher. I would say it's tolerable until the train enters the corkscrews.

What I would like to see done with Borg.....Enclose the station as well. I really wish we could turn it into another sphere, or even the mother Borg Cube!
By KenB
#6074
Being stuck on the brakes is the worst thing on that coaster, although it's not as bad as spending the same amount of time hanging there on a B&M flyer. The unload station would be nice, as it'd end that problem and probably boost throughput a bit. Whether it'd move the line enough to make it a worthwhile purchase, I dunno. In addition to the extra equipment, they'd have to have more operators as well, and BORG already has more ops than most anything else in the park. At least we have some covering over the brake run and station - at PGA I don't think they ever covered the station, and it was year or more before they had any covering over the brake run.

I'm not a huge fan of assigned seating, although I haven't gotten enough rides to determine if there's really that much difference. It'd be nice to be able to wait for the front if you chose to, I think it is somewhat smoother up there. Another thing is that single riders seem to always get placed on the boarding side of a row, and always on an end seat. The inner seats seem a bit smoother than the outer ones, although I've only gotten those a few times. I think I only got an exit-side seat once, during the commercial shoot.

Overall, I'm much more impressed with the coaster, it's operations, and it's uptime than I thought I would be when I heard this last year. I thought it was a mistake by Carowinds / Paramount at the time, but now I'm glad we have it. It's still nowhere near my favorite ride in the park, nor will I wait in it's usual line too often, but I'll definitely ride it when the line isn't too long.

KenB
By carowindsfreak13
#6080
I hate the Brakes it stops too fast and it hurts. They need to fix that a little.

Top gun has a bloc brake where it stops instantly but that there is funny to hear people to make a uhh.sound.
User avatar
By bgwfreak
#6095
Yeah the brakes are a bit much. But now I just grip the lap bar really tight, so that I don't go flying forward, when I get to the brakes that is.

I'd like to see more theming honestly.

I wish the sphere would have been lit up internally so that when night comes, it would look really spooky.

I really wish the station could have been themed, something along the lines of Flight of Fear with a "control deck" look to it.

That'd be awesome.
User avatar
By MarkD
#6108
coasterbruh wrote: That would be nice too but that will be and extensive over haul, and probably quite expensive. That will cut down the wait time because the time you sit there waiting some times you could have been unloaded. Therefore if you were in the station waiting you wouldnt have to wait for the train to raise and if you were on the brakes you wouldnt have to wait until the train leaves the station.

If they did it like Flight of Fear there would only be one or two ops needed.
How much more work would have to be done to make it an unloading station? I thought the design was for it to be just that. They already have steps, but I guess they would need to add a ramp or another elevator for the handicaped. Also, they would have to transfer your possesions over.
Hey, it's only money. :P
By Kestrel72
#6440
I recently started a thread on Coasterbuzz.com's forum about the assigned seating on BORG.

I've ridden over 70 roller coasters and I've never encountered a situation where I was assigned a seat except in special circumstances. The first time I rode BORG, I thought the assigned seating thing was a fluke or a special circumstance, but I've since learned it is POLICY to assign seating.

I agree that it doesn't really matter where you sit on a flyer, but I'd still like to have that choice. To not give the riders the choice of where they sit is not right. WE'RE the ticket holders, it should be our choice. It's a shame that Carowinds management doesn't understand that. They could learn a few things from a class operation like Cedar Point.

What I'd really like to know is why they assign seats to riders on BORG. No one at Carowinds or guest relations can tell me.

Pete McCole