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Thanks for reminding me of that. We used to go there all the time when I was growing good. If it's still as good as it was 25+ years ago, I second that recommendation. On to my current home park, if you drive up 77 about 15-20 minutes north of Carowinds, you'll be in downtown Charlotte. There they have a city block that is EPICENTRE. One of my favorite restaurants is there with good fresh American food, BlackFinn American Saloon. EPICENTRE also has numerous other restaurants including Whisky River which is owned by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. I've heard reviews that the food is good although I've not personally eaten there. EPICENTRE has its own parking garage but they seem to charge more than double what the public parking garages are in the area. Another favorite of mine is Ri Ra Irish Pub. It's an easy walk about 1-2 blocks away from EPICENTRE.

I like to call that 'textured wood' and not dust.

You have to look at the slideshow, too. It almost seems like 'misinformation' to me. Based on descriptions from the slideshow, though, it sounds more like an inverted coaster. If this is true, it looks like the Paladium ampitheater may be taken out. The area in red in the third picture also goes where the sky coaster and the go karts are.

I was most excited when I saw the $7 mil in restaurant improvements since the food at the park is average at best. A 30 Million 302ish' coaster will be a nice addition. Only time will tell how good it is. I do have a suspicion that this coaster will interact with the front gate in some way. It would be cool to have it go under the bridge at the entrance plaza.

That sounds like a great addition. That will the first of its kind in the U.S. assuming that it will be B&M.

^There are all kinds of rumors but there is currently no real indication of what it's going to be. I won't even begin to speculate right now because Ouimet is just starting to show us what he is bringing to Cedar Fair and we don't have a lot of history on his choices, yet. I am certainly keeping an eye out for any clues but right now I think it's still too early. Even where it's going to be located is full of speculation all over the place. You can have fun speculating, though, if you want. I personally need more clues before I can begin speculating.

^^They have a good Haunt event. I went opening night and I have never seen it so busy in September.

Yeah, I still need that credit too so I hope it hangs around for some time. It was popular enough when I was there a few years ago that I wasn't able to get the credit due to the line.

According to the website, it sounds like the funding for the park comes from a community trust fund setup by the Bonfante family. I bet there are a lot of restrictions on the park since it was never originally intended to be an amusement park.

Great report, Chuck.

I followed the directions and used this tonight. It worked flawlessly and saved me a ton of time.

Page 2 Pride rocks in the queue line. How did they know? We finally made it. This ride goes high when it's working. Since the building permit is still on the building, do they have their certificate of occupancy? We'll find out tonight. Photos are not permitted inside the mazes but we got permission from park officials tonight. Welcome to Zombie High School. Kids, this is what happens when you don't do your homework. I see they accurately recreated my high school chemistry lab. Why didn't they let us dissect bodies? Why? The hiding cheerleader caught me off guard. I caught her off guard and expertly got this shot in sync with the strobe light. Ok, so it was luck... So how do you sit in those desks? Oh, there's a zombie here too, by the way. Translator? Not sure why this is in here. I remember cafeteria food exactly like this in High School. Hmm. Apple, or arm. I think I'll have the pudding instead. Spoiler alert. While trying to figure out who is real and who is not you might want to watch your back. Ok, so some of them are real, too. Hmm, I have no leftover brains. I'm using all 10% of mine. Ok, 8%. Yeah, I was jacking my jaw and didn't see him. My friend found it quite hilarious that I could jump that high. There goes my man card. Dinner was great! I could go for more of the Tilapia right now. Hey, this wasn't on the menu! No caption needed. She talked his head off and then wasted away waiting for him to listen. Heading back to London Terror, here's what it looks like at night. It's hard to tell but supposedly this tower is 35' tall. He's just hanging around. Smoke on the water... Sorry, 80s flash back after being in 1980s Zombie High. Although not officially part of the preview, everything was nearly ready at the new Scary Tales Scare Zone where all of your childhood fairy tales have gone wrong. You can't tell from the bad picture but all of those trees are upside down. Raggedy Ann and Andy would like to invite you to dinner. This little pig's house was blown down. Don't worry, the wood one is also blown down right beside it. I bet you can't guess which one is still standing... Rapunzel got tired of waiting and hung herself. With such a nice dress, you'd think she could find some coordinating pumps. My child took your child's brains at Zombie High. Good night. Thanks, Carowinds! Here's the similar post on my blog if you're so inclined. The jokes don't get better. www.tarheelcamper.com/2013/09/scarowinds-vip-preview.html These three new areas are great additions to SCarowinds. They have also updated the music sound tracks and they are an improvement over previous haunts.

On behalf of my travel blog, I was invited to the VIP/Media preview of SCarowinds that opens tonight, 9/14. This is the fourteenth annual SCarowinds Haunt and they were previewing two of their three new attractions, London Terror, a new scare zone, and Zombie High School, a new maze. Are the gates really closed? Oh look, over here. We must be at the right place. He withered away waiting to walk the rope. What SCarowinds report is complete without the obligatory SCarowinds plaza sign. Bart Kinzel, VP and GM gave his opening remarks. Julie Whitted the PR Manager welcomed us. Chris Kirby, the director of marketing also gave some remarks and he is pictured in the background. We're heading over to the new for 2013 London Terror scare zone. There may be someone in this picture that you know or don't know you know. This is what London Terror looks like with a crowd of people. In case you forgot, we're in London Terror. A local film crew was on hand. I hope they edit out shots they got of me. There is no getting out of this shot. That's one way to wear a GoPro. I photo bombed his walk through. Some of the best detail that I have seen them do to date. They are really starting to step up their game. More detail. I wonder if this is a converted still. That is a form of elixir to some... Even more detail. There are lots of places for the SCharacters to hide. Beer anyone? I think he's in my family blood line. New Carowinds policy for unauthorized on-ride photos on Intimidator. Which one is the B&M fan and which one is the Intamin fan? This would look great in my front yard. I wonder if it works? Some of the SCharacters were on hand. She and I were married for about 3 minutes, then divorced when the clown took away our marriage SCarowinds map. She insisted on getting half of the bodies under my house. Why didn't I sign that darn prenup??? Yeah, he was kind of creepy. You're lucky I didn't include a fully body shot. Looks like a distant relative, twice removed. He was the quite one of the bunch. I need an outfit like this. Well, maybe not. Hope you're not afraid of clowns. She walks like this all the time. Here's a back shot of London Terror. Next we move on to the new maze, Zombie High School. Trivia time: Pat Hall was the founder of Carowinds in 1973 and this pays homage to him. More Pat Hall homage and a nice addition to the queue line. Sorry, I don't know how this normal high school bus picture got stuck in here.

It looks like the $50 Mil expansion is going to include a roller coaster. It also includes some attendance numbers that I have previously not seen. They have asked Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (where Charlotte is located) for over $900,000 in tax incentives. Source: www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/outside_the_loop/2013/09/carowinds-could-get-city-county.html

Although I've never been to HHN, my experience with other haunts is exactly what PCW_Nut wrote. They have all been the least busy when they first open for the season and get increasingly busier as the weeks go on. The closer to Halloween, the busier they are and you need an express pass if you want to experience everything in one visit.

^^From what I've heard, most structural fires only burn around 900 - 1000 degrees F. Steel (which is primarily an alloy of processed iron and carbon) generally melts around 2500 degrees F. With that being said, it does start loosing its structural integrity around 1000 degrees F. (My dad is a retired steel worker.) I would guess that it will be torn down during the clean up and rebuilding process. Yes, I have been nicknamed Cliff Claven before. Once I've met the Title Fairy's requirements, perhaps I should request 'TPR's resident Cliff Claven' as my title. I apologize in advance for sharing my useless tidbits of knowledge.

Beer always makes bowling better but not necessarily better bowling.

LOL! That is awesome!

Camping and hiking. My neighbors say I don't know how to 'camp.'

Thank you, DoubleOKevin and Gnome. You have helped narrow down my list so we can decide from there. We are staying at a campground offsite so will be classified as 'general public' and not resort guests but it's good to know we can eat anywhere. Since it will be a few days after Christmas, we'll make reservations regardless. Yeah, I saw the menus online but thank you for the link. That is why I started this post after seeing a few pages of options. Now I have a much smaller number to research.

I like the direction that Cedar Fair seems to be heading with their parks; dressing them up, and bringing back some of their character.

That is awful. Thankfully nobody appears to be seriously injured. I hope this doesn't prevent any long term recovery in that area.

Sorry I broke form so I'll answer. Import cars. They tend to be more reliable and hold their value longer. Mac or PC?

I like to try to do my homework before asking questions. However I'm overwhelmed by what I'm finding on the Disneyland site. I know some of you experts can help me out. I previously posted that we'll be doing a west coast trip over Christmas. My daughter's 15th birthday falls when we will be in Anaheim. I have already promised her that I would make sure we'll be in Disneyland that day. (In my book, DCA also qualifies since we'll be getting multi-day park hopper passes.) Looking at the birthday information on their site, I see that I can also order a custom cake and have it delivered to the restaurant of our choice. Now my question, does anybody have some restaurant suggestions for me for a teenage girl's birthday? I see they have numerous choices. Cost is not really a factor and we're not particular about a specific cuisine. She's also not big into princesses. We have never been to California so their parks are completely new to us. Any advice is appreciated before I call Disneyland to make reservations. I know it's really up to us on what we want to eat and spend. I'm curious as to what restaurants are more 'teen friendly.'