Pufferfish

I of course am a ride op here at Carowinds. This is my second year and I think this is the best job I could ever have asked for. My home ride this year is Afterburn, but I am also currently certified at Thunder Road, Dodgems, Southern Star, Rip Roaring Rapids, TV Road Trip, and Nick Jr. Jets.

Great TR. Sean and I were there on Friday and I think they must have just recently greased GA Cyclone's track, because I thought I was going to die in the back row. I mean last month it was okay and I gave it a 6/10, but my god on Friday I was flying up over the seat separator on almost every hill. I was seriously scared for my life. It was more airtime intensive than Goliath was. Sounds like you just missed the good rides by a couple of days.

Yeah, Sean and I are kinda wondering the same thing. I know most parks are slightly more crowded on Fridays, but it's still a weekday so, I just don't know. Maybe the Atlanta area is more active on Fridays. If it is crowded, it won't hurt to buy a flash pass, help SF out of its current economic condition.

I'll probably be working when you're there. I probably won't be there until after 2:00pm though. If you see me though, I'll be the blond headed kid in a red shirt and blue shorts with a name tag that says Andrew. Just say hi if you see me. Oh, and don't forget to stock up on Cheerwine too while you're here, and if you've never tried it, you haven't lived.

Afterburn for me, I have probably ridden it over 500 times. It wouldn't surprise me if I'm closing in on the 1000 point. I usually ride it at least 20 times every day I'm there normally as a guest. My maximum number of times on it in one day was 60. Thank you no crowds.

Okay to set everyone straight, Afterburn's first drop is 144ft. The point it reaches it's highest speed is actually around 160ft from the top of the lift. It doesn't reach the 62mph until after the loop. The 113ft is the height of the lift from the station. The station itself is set about 30-40ft off the ground. Now that I solved that argument, It's nice to hear that you have decided to come visit us. About the crowds, as long as you come on a weekday, you have nothing to fear. Everything will be walk on except for Nighthawk with an average 15 minute wait. If you go on a saturday though, it's a whole different beast. We normally have 1+ hour waits for both Nighthawk and Cobra. Vortex will normally be around an hour, and the rest will be 15-30 minutes at least. About the ticket, if you are going on a saturday, pay for full day and be there at opening. If you are going on a weekday and you don't want much in the way of re-rides get the twilight. For the best time in the park though, do full day and just enjoy riding the 34th best steel coaster in the world many times over. It's almost like all day ERT. EDIT- OOps, forgot to tell you that you can go to the Bojangles on Carowinds Blvd. and get a $10 off coupon for admission to the park.

Kumba and Alpengeist are the first rides that come to mind when I think of B&M rattle. Kumba had so much when I rode it, even leaning with the curves didn't save my head from the interlocking corkscrews of death. Alpengeist has it pretty bad in the cobra roll. Batman at SFOG has it pretty bad too and Goliath has it at the bottom of the first drop. Vortex here at Carowinds occasionally has it bad too, but for the most part it tends to stay smooth.

Wow, 11/20. I knew less about American parks than I thought I knew.

For a hotel near Carowinds, I'd suggest you stay on the SC side in Fort Mill. Charlotte has a very high hotel tax and the closer you are to Charlotte, the worse the traffic you will experience is. If you do decide to stay in Charlotte, do NOT stay in downtown. On the average day the traffic will be at a stand still on almost every road. Carowinds crowd wise for when you are going to be there shouldn't be that bad. You probably will experience waits for rides such as Nighthawk and Vortex of an hour or more, but for the most part we keep the waits down to around 30 minutes except on the busiest of days. Anyways, I'm happy you are coming to visit our park. I'll probably be working that day. When you are riding Afterburn, look for the guy in a red shirt with blond hair and Andrew written on his name tag. Please say hi. It's always cool to meet other members of the TPR community.

^ Seriously? We already have a group of 6 people going. Anymore and we could just make it an informal meet. Also, I just realized how bad my hair had gotten from wearing my hat all day in the main picture in front of the sign. Oh well, nothing tops marathoning on Thunderhead right before the park closed. Oh also, we need to go to Carowinds and get an on ride photo from Afterburn. Our still cameras are up and running now.

I just rode last week, Wednesday to be specific. It is now one of my top 5 coasters. The overall experience is amazing. The queue line is very beautiful. The operations moved very quickly, a 30 minute wait was actually only 15. The ride itself is the best flyer I've ever experienced. I almost blacked out in the back row, and I thought airtime on a flyer was impossible, but Manta proved me wrong. It's a great addition to the park and to Florida.

^^^ That guy annoys me on there so much that I can no longer watch any video that he has commented on. He is a real jerk and an idiot when it comes to coasters. ^ It's not hilarious. It used to be. Now it's just annoying. KD is not that great.

I'm so happy about this! I can't wait to ride this next week. The theming is incredible, and hearing from those of you who have ridden already, so is the ride. Next week can't come fast enough!

Just a little update, some of the parking lot is starting to be torn up where it is fenced off. I can't wait, can you?

Man looking at these pictures really makes me miss the curve we used to have here at Carowinds. I can't wait for August to get here and I will be going to Kennywood. It's such a nice park.

Those airblades are so awesome. They have started installing them in some of the bathrooms here at Carowinds. Now there's no where else I'll go to pee while in the park.

I personally love hangtime. For me it takes second place to air time. The sensation of falling against the restraint just makes a ride so much more thrilling to me. This is why one of my favorite flat rides are Intamin Looping Starships.

Very good pictures. I'm just wondering, how were the crowds? I will be there in about a week and I'm hoping for the crowds to not be too bad.

That was a hard one. I got 11/20.

That's some very cool stuff at that show this year. I really like how the animatronics are getting much more realistic now than they used to be. I also love the led lit cotton candy cones. I can definitely see that one becoming a hit at Halloween events this year. Thanks for covering this and sharing your pictures.

^ The new trains really do make a difference. The restraints are pretty much just a modified version of the restraints on B&M flyers. It is very comfortable and the front row of each car feels very open. It truely makes it seem faster and more intense than it actually is, and the key point is, it's smooth!

Very good work on this. I'd actually rank this as one of my top 5 comics. The humor is like Zits and Calvin and Hobbes combined. I love it, good luck on getting it syndicated. I'll have a reason to actually subscribe to the newspaper again.

^ The wait for Cobra early in the day was around an hour, but as the day progressed the line got much shorter and ended up being 15 minutes when I was leaving the park.

Truely, I'd expect for us to find out what this is going to be at Coaster Stock. I really doubt they'd wait all the way until the end of September just to tell a small group of acers.

Wow, this ride is amazing. Gertslauer took the classic flyer to the next level. I now have even another reason to get out to Germany.