Trip Report: Carowinds

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The weather was going to be perfect on Saturday April 5, and I had a great deal on tickets from LivingSocial, so I decided I would make the two hour drive west to Carowinds. For those of you who don’t immediately recognize the name, Carowinds opened in March 1973 on the border of North Carolina and South Carolina (In Charlotte, NC and Fort Mill, SC). The park was purchased from Taft Broadcasting by Paramount in 1993, and again from Paramount by Cedar Fair as part of the Paramount Parks acquisition in 2006.

Despite it being my “home park,” I hadn’t been to Carowinds in almost five years. Not a lot has changed at the park since then,  the addition of a Cedar Fair staple, Windseeker, in 2012, as well as the up-charge Dinosaurs Alive attraction in 2013, were the only “new” attractions that had been added since I had last been to Carowinds.

I drove to Carowinds with a friend of mine from college, whose home park just happens to be Cedar Point. He had never been to Carowinds before, and was eager to experience what the “Thrill Capital of the Southeast” had to offer. We got to the park just as it was opening, and proceeded through the front gates into the “Carowinds Plaza” section of the park. Compared to Kings Dominion, another Cedar Fair-owned former Paramount Park, there is not much of a grand entrance with fountains and the like, just a few simple shops, and the word “CAROWINDS” in big Gold Letters, straddling the park’s center line of the North Carolina/South Carolina border.

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As you enter, you are immediately faced with the choice of riding Nighthawk, the Vekoma Flying Coaster (and this week’s Coaster101.com A-Z Coaster of the Week), or Intimidator, the Dale Earnhardt-themed B&M hyper coaster, which are the park’s two most popular roller coasters, and are both located near the park entrance.  We chose Nighthawk, partly because my friend had never been on a “flying/lay-down” coaster before.

As you wind through Nighthawk’s narrow queue, you actually pass through both North and South Carolina. The coaster had a bit of a delayed start that morning, but there was no point in leaving the line when we were near the front, as we would only have to start over in the line later in the day. After about a 40 minute wait in line,  we were finally able to ride Nighthawk, and continue on through the rest of the park. It was a great way to start the day.

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Nighthawk’s slow start had allowed the line to balloon for Intimidator during the early park hours. I wasn’t looking forward to another long wait, but Carowinds had the solution for that.

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Nestled right between Nighthawk’s exit and Intimidator’s entrance is everyone’s favorite Price is Right Game, Plinko. However, instead of winning cash, you’re competing to win the top prize of “Fast Lane” privileges for two on Nighthawk or Intimidator. For just $2 for one turn, (compared to $70 pricetag for one “Fast Lane” wristband) the price was right. I lined my puck up directly over the center “Fast Lane” prize, dropped the puck, and watched it go on a perfect line, and fall right into the correct slot.

We grabbed our temporary “Fast Lane” card, passed through the entire (estimated) 45 minute line, right up to the station. As it turns out, row 11 was empty, and they got us right on. A literal front of the line pass for $2. However, it was not meant to be, at least for me.

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I’ve ridden a B&M hypercoaster (Apollo’s Chariot, Busch Gardens Williamsburg) before with similar trains – “clamshell” lapbars instead of the traditional over the shoulder restraints. I’ve never had any problems with riding. Just like any other ride, I got in, pulled the restraint down, and it seemingly locked in place. I felt secure, and ready to ride. I was then approached by a Carowinds ride operator, who said I wasn’t in properly, and I needed to take my phone and my camera out of my pocket. I did. When I got back to my seat, there were two ride ops there who were going to attempt to squeeze me into the seat, but no dice. It wasn’t my stomach/chest at all, it was that my thighs were apparently too big to get the clamshell to the mandated “locked in” point on the ride. I quickly made my “walk of shame” out of the station, and waited for my friend to finish his ride. I wasn’t mad. It happens.

Next to Intimidator, Carowinds is constructing a new dining facility as part of their multi-year expansion, and work is well underway.

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From Intimidator, we walked through the “Planet Snoopy” area to Boo Blasters on Boo Hill, a Sally Dark Ride Shooter, that used to be themed to Scooby Doo. Maybe it was the car we were in, but neither of our guns worked very well, and half of the targets weren’t lit anyway. It’s definitely not Men In Black: Alien Attack or Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, but it was good in its own unique way.

Afterburn, Carowinds’ B&M inverted coaster (a coaster that will always be known as Top Gun to me) was next. It was actually a better coaster than I remembered it being. I can definitely see why it was ranked #35 in the Golden Ticket Awards “Best Steel Roller Coaster” category in 2013. For some reason, I was a big fan of the Top Gun reference that I caught above the ride’s station.

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Two summers ago, I visited Kings Dominion, and rode their Windseeker after a thunderstorm. I told myself I’d never ride that kind of ride again. I didn’t like the actual “seeking” of the wind. Last summer. I visited Cedar Point, and rode their Windseeker because it overlooked Lake Erie, and it was scenic, but after that, I was definitely never going to ride a Windseeker again. As I strapped myself into the Carowinds’ Windseeker, I just shook my head as the ride went skyward. It’s actually in a very good central location at the park, and allows you to see everything, including the nearby Charlotte skyline.

While wooden roller coasters aren’t necessarily my favorite thing, we proceeded to ride Thunder Road and Hurler back to back. Before Cedar Fair purchased the parks, Thunder Road used to feature a forward track and a backwards track that raced back and forth over the North Carolina/South Carolina state line. Many people, myself included, agree that backwards was the way to go. For several years now, both trains on the 1976 Philadelphia Toboggan Coaster have faced forward as they leave the station. Thunder Road has undergone had some portions of its track re-tracked during the last several off-seasons, which resulted in a very pleasant ride. In the parking lot to the side of Thunder Road, you could see the pieces for Surfer’s Swell and Dorsal Fin Drop, the new water slides Carowinds is adding to its Boomerang Bay Water Park this season.

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One of the rides I was most looking forward to riding was Hurler, an International Coasters Inc. wooden coaster that originally opened in 1994. (and was themed after “Wayne’s World”) The last time I rode Hurler, it was so rough, that I had no desire to ever ride it again. But after hearing about the retracking of Hurler’s initial drop and banked turn by Great Coasters International this past off-season, I knew I had to give it another chance. The difference in the newly re-tracked turn and the rest of the coaster was staggering, and I hope that Cedar Fair and Carowinds will work with GCI on future Hurler renovations.

After a quick late lunch, we rode the Arrow Dynamics’ Carolina Cyclone and the Mack Wild Mouse Coaster, Ricochet. Carolina Cyclone was the first roller coaster in the world to feature four inversions when it opened in 1980, and will celebrate its 35th anniversary next year.

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After a final ride on the Carolina SkyTower, which also provided some great panoramic views, we were on our way home. There were a few rides we skipped due to longer lines – Vortex, the B&M Stand-Up, Carolina Cobra, a Vekoma Boomerang relocated from Geauga Lake, and the Carolina Goldrusher Mine Train Coaster, which is one of three of the park’s remaining original attractions.

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My final thoughts on Carowinds is that it’s a great park for a day trip. The park looked amazing. Not a blade of grass out of place. Even with Saturday crowds on a middle school chorus/band day, we were able to accomplish most of the major attractions that we had planned on riding in a relatively quick amount of time. If you’re ever in the area, Carowinds is a perfect way to fill your theme park fix.

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It was  a perfect place to serve as the unofficial starting location for the Coaster101.com “Summer Roadtrip Contest.”

Have you ever been to Carowinds? What was your favorite attraction? Let us know in the comments below!

 

 

 

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