mystery03

WOW! Last Saturday I drove to Carowinds from Atlanta to ride Fury and it was well worth the trip. The last time I was at Carowinds was 20 years ago so there a lot of new things for me to expirence. I purchased tickets through AAA and Fast Lane + online before arriving at the park. I'm going to review Fury and then Fast Lane + because both were equally the standouts of the road trip. FURY 325: After 15 rides on Fury, 4 in the front row, I can officially say I have a new favorite roller coaster. I went to Carowinds not knowing what to expect. Hyper coasters are not my favorite type of coaster and the only Giga I've ridden is Millennium Force. I'm a diehard B&M invert and sit down lover but just looking at this beast I knew I had to ride it. Since it was so close to Atlanta I no excuse. I've got admit was not prepared for how different this coaster was going to be from everything else I've ridden before Saturday. Fury was obviously built to showcase it's speed and it doesn't let up the entire length of the ride. The station and queue are not special and the trains look like your typical B&M hyper train but once you leave the station everything about Fury becomes special. The lift is fast and the part where it speeds up at the 200' mark adds an extra element of excitement to the feeling of being so high. The drop on Fury is obviously steep but you are at that angle for what seems like forever and then all of a sudden you are just flying at the bottom of the hill. You don't have anytime to process the drop or the speed because the over banked turn is intense and fast as well. Then you enter my favorite section of the ride. The ridiculously fast, low to the ground, twists into a beautiful airtime filled turnaround that ends with an underground tunnel. This is my favorite turnaround on any hyper / giga I've been on. It is so much fun seeing the guest stand against the glass as you dive into the tunnel. I read a complaint on a blog about the over banked hill after the tunnel messing up the pacing of the ride but whoever wrote that must not have needed a second to catch their breath and stop yelling like I did. I imagine this hill/turn is so spread out to allow the rider time to think about what all just happened to them in the previous minute or so. If they had more low turns instead of the elongated hill/turn I'm not sure Fury would be as re-ridable as it is. The final section of Fury starts with a huge floater hill that has a small break. You don't notice the break in the front but you do in the back. It is not strong enough to make the finale any less thrilling. I do wonder how fast it would go through the helix if it wasn't on. The helix is nice and offers a neat head chopper on the right side of the train. It really scares people who are not ready for it. It's probably just me but I felt like it was a nice throw back to the Morgan helixes of the 90s. I'm so glad they didn't go with an awkward helix like intimidator. The final 2 floater hills are just fun and make you smile and laugh. At this point on the ride I had been yelling so much it was a relief to make a different noise. Every single train that rolled into the station was cheering and clapping. Carowinds has a huge winner on their hands and I hope they keep up the building pace of the past few years. Hopefully Fury will make more people like myself travel to the park. Now with Fury they are a global player in the industry and they need to spend a lot of money making Carowinds a park you would want to revisit. This park needs a lot of TLC. The back half was extremely depressing. No themes, rundown looking rides, and faded paint everywhere you looked. It felt like 2 separate parks. The biggest surprise of the trip FAST LANE + I've never used used a pay system like Fast Lane before and after my expirence I will never go to a theme park without paying the extra money. The lines for Fury and Nighthak were over 2 hours and Intimidator and Afterburn were over a hour at certain points during the day. We never waited more than 5 minutes for any ride. It felt so surreal that only $75 gave me the privilege to skip lines all day long. The biggest roadblock I find when trying to get friends to travel to theme parks is that everyone over 30 seems to dread waiting in a line. Now that I know how easy and awesome these systems are it will be so easy to find travel buddies. I can just tell them that for the same price as a ticket to WDW they will not stand in a single line. I have I feeling I will be visiting a lot more parks in the coming years without having to beg friends to go with me. My only complaint with the Fast Lane system at Carowinds was the location of a few of the fast lane queues. It was somewhat uncomfortable walking past people that were irritated with waiting in line for so long. As I walked past some of the people in line they would take their frustration out by yelling at us or making rude comments as I walked past. I just had to keep reminding myself that they have the same opportunity to purchase this perk. Overall the day was perfect and I can see myself visiting again after the finish all the improvements to make it look more like a Cedar Fair park.

Hello, I;m traveling this weekend to visit Carowinds from Atlanta to ride Fury 325. I have not been to the park in 20 years and I have a few questions for the Carowinds experts. 1. We are planning on going both Saturday (4/4) and Sunday (Easter). How crowded should I expect the park to be both days? 2. We want to get as many rides as possible in on Saturday so we are considering getting Fast Lane +. Should I go ahead and purchase FL+ online or can I wait until I get to the park? I am not sure if they sell out. 3. They do not sell 2-day passes online or at the gate. I can get single day tickets from AAA for 37.99 each. Is this my best option or does anyone know where to find cheap 2-day tickets? 4. What discounts come with a season pass? I didn't know if it would be worth just getting one to get early ride times as well as the discounts. What are your thoughts? 5. Has anyone stayed at the Comfort Inn across the parking lot. We were thinking of staying there to save on parking. Does anyone have any good or bad reviews to share? If you stayed there how bad is the walk? Thanks in advance for your help. I can't wait to ride Fury 325