Carowinds Construction Indicates New Wooden Coaster in 2019

Aside from a new hotel announced back in February (more here), It looks like Carowinds is seeking to expand even more for the 2019 season. Until now, its been very unclear as to what exactly that would be. Now, we know the location and size of the new expansion project—which will require the removal of another Carowinds attraction in 2018.

In 2019, Carowinds will debut not one, but two attractions! well, kinda… The first attraction is the relocation of the former Woodstock Gliders ride—where it will reopen under it’s new name The Flying Eagles, as confirmed by the park’s Disability Guide. 

Looking a little deeper, the York County planning website has revealed that the plot of land for the relocated flyers will be over an acre in size. The coordinates given indicate that the flyers will be placed in between the Plants Vs Zombies attraction and the construction site.

As for the second attraction, it’s still uncertain exactly what that will be. However, given Cedar Fair’s history as well as current construction happening within the park, one can make some very educated guesses of what the new attraction may be…

For those that are still scratching their head, lets elaborate… Carolina Harbor is the waterpark located in the Southwest section of the Carowinds. In 2017, the White Water Falls flume attraction was removed. Now, it seems that the waterpark attraction adjacent to it, Sand Dune Lagoon (indicated by the purple #5 on map below) is also being removed to free up more space.

The removal was semi-confirmed by the park, as all references of the attraction have been removed the Carowinds website. Sand Dune Lagoon no longer has a listing, a working web-page, nor a listing on the 2018 park map.

now, let’s look at some fine details. The walled-off area currently under construction is approximately 3.5 acres. However, listings on the York County Planning Veiwer lists the size as 5 acres. 1 acre is being allotted for the flyers resulting in a 4 acre construction site. Recently, survey markers were observed on both the Southwest and Northwest ends of the highlighted area. The markers were spaced approximately 5-6 feet from the adjacent markers. The distance between groups of markers, as well as the size of the construction site, indicates that Carowinds new ride will be a coaster.

The markers on site are to indicate the location of the piles used for footers for the coaster. The fact that subsequent footers are so close to each other would indicate that the new ride’s structure would be similar to the structure found on wood coasters. Considering that Carowinds only has two wood coasters, Hurler and Woodstock’s Express, it is possible that the new ride may be a wood coaster. Furthermore, Cedar Fair’s last two wood coaster projects (Mystic Timbers and Gold Striker) were done in plots of land that were smaller than the current site in question at Carowinds. Mystic Timbers at Kings Island covers 3.35 acres while Gold Striker at California’s Great America is only situated on 2.28 acres.

With all of that said, we still expect Cedar Fair’s long term plan is to convert Hurler into a hybrid coaster—just as they did to The Hurler at Kings Dominion. With this new attraction opening in 2019 or possibly even 2020, we don’t expect Hurler to be reborn until approximately 2021/2022. With Hurler currently being the only full size wood coaster in the park, that just gives us all the more reason to believe the new project is a woodie.

Although we have made some very educated guesses, this is still just that, a guess. Until Carowinds officially announces a new attraction, take it with a grain of salt..

How do you feel about new attraction? We would love to hear your thoughts — let us know on our socials! For tickets and more information, visit the official Carowinds website by clicking here.

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