tndank

2nd trip of the year to Carowinds on Saturday. Wife's brother is joining us which means I'm free to ride as much as I want. FL+ from prez day.

Nice pics and write up. Can't wait to visit myself beginning of August.

I was at SFOG over the 4th weekend a couple times. Oddly enough, walking over to Superman we passed by a maint. guy driving in the Splashwater Falls area. He parked next to the station, got out of his truck and went over to the lift hill. Started looking at the electronics. Seemed a bit weird. Probably pulling parts for something else?

As I kid I loved that section of Dollywood. Flooded Mine and Blazing Fury next to each other was the place to be. Great video there. Brought back lots of memories. On Blazing Fury I love that they added a little nod to the old Flooded Mine years ago. You can see one of the miners trying to escape off to the right near the beginning.

Yep. For some reason I just skipped right over that.

Can you buy multiple $7 vip line passes? I might not have a ton of time and paying $7 a few times to skip ahead might be helpful.

Cheapest place / time typically to do this ride?

Breakers Express is a 3 minute drive from the CP parking lot. Not 4* nice but very adequate. So, if you want to save a few bucks over Breakers and still get early entry, that is another option. No trams or shuttles unfortunately. I did my first trip in 20+ years earlier this summer. It's a bit larger than I was expecting. You'll do some walking. Showed 100% chance of rain one of the days. Rained for an hour around 11. That was probably the best day I had out of the 4. Crowd was light. I rode MF about 6 times in the rain with the exit gate open before they ultimately closed it for a bit due to the storm. Then it never rained again. So, don't get discouraged by the weather reports leading up to your trip.

Nice info. I'm hoping to take advantage of the preview night in early August when I visit.

It'll show in the park. Or use queue-times.com which is grabbing the same info.

Is DDD the only thing running down there now days? Acrophobia closed. TC closed. Superman closed. I feel for the folks in that heat today. This weekend was pretty brutal in the SE. I really hope they get things sorted out. I'll be dropping by here and there next week while I'm in town.

A little hotel discussion a few pages. There's a Comfort Inn almost directly across the parking lot from the front gates. Save on parking and have a spot to escape to during those hot days. It'll prob be very hot. Crowds shouldn't be too bad. If you buy FL+ you can pretty much ride anything you want at any time. I think all FL lines are merged at the station entrance and quick. Otherwise, waits 15 min or less most of the time.

We are looking at probably 10-14 days. My brother lives in London so we'll visit him and hit Alton/Thorpe/Blackpool if possible, then hit Netherlands, Germany, Poland, etc. Still trying to narrow down the parks and figure out time needed each place. I've been looking through old TRs here, previous planning threads, and watching youtube vlogs on the parks. Seems a bit daunting to put this together but I think whatever we end up doing will be a blast. The way you described Taron is pretty much my Maverick experience. I heard it was good, didn't watch any POV really, and then was blown away by how fun it was.

Wife has agreed to a Europe trip next year. Can't wait for Taron. Those are bold words. I like it.

I have to imagine seat choice is way more dependent on the op at the gate than anything else. I've had pretty good luck the few times I've requested a seat this year at Carowinds, KI and CP. What I see way more often are ones that appear to be on a power trip and end up sending out empty rows because they are too slow at letting them in.

I heard it was going 40mph!!!!

This looks cool. I ordered one. Nice post.

Thrills in the HIlls schedule was posted. Friday, July 12 8 p.m. | Check-in begins 9 p.m. | Snack (cinnamon bread!) 9:30 - 10:30 p.m. | Exclusive Ride Time after the park closes (Lightning Rod) Saturday, July 13 8 - 9 a.m. | Check-in and breakfast 9 - 10 a.m. | Exlusive Tour of the Thunderhead lift hill (appropriate footwear required) 10 - Noon | Free time in Dollywood Noon - 1 p.m. | Lunch 1 - 3 p.m. | Free time in Dollywood 3 p.m. | Reserved show seating for Summer Feels... 4:30 - 9:30 p.m. | Free time in Dollywood 9:30 - 10:30 p.m. | Exclusive Ride Time after the park closes (all of Wildwood Grove)

The Comfort Inn next to the park is about a 5 minute walk and the only one without crossing a multi-lane busy road. It's not a bad hotel either. Save yourself parking and have an escape close by if you book there. Wendy's next door, too.

I can understand that reasoning. Makes sense. We did the water park for a couple hours. First water park in prob 25 years. We enjoyed it. We did Wildebeast, Mammoth, and the big cone/funnel looking thing. They were all pretty neat. I doubt I'd ever do more than a couple hours at a water park but I did enjoy doing something different for awhile. The magnetic lifts are fun.

Why didn't you hop back to another row? I was actually supposed to sit in the seat where the kid threw up. He was directly in front of me. I had a CP shirt on as well. Once they got it running again they just let us ride the last trains without getting off. I can't imagine hurling on Voyage at night during that crazy ride. Also, I discussed the same thing with a couple next to me. Why not just move the vomit train off immediately and run the last half hour with just 1? Instead it looked like they wasted 15 minutes goofing around. No worries though. Had a great day. I'll be back. And I really hope to make 'Nights next year.

I prob liked Legend more than Raven. I really like the bell they ring as they send the train. Wife was beat up after a day of riding those woodies. (Edit: From the coasters...)

Howler at Holiday World. No kids required.

Holiday World rocks. That one train hour on Voyage was annoying but they made up for it. Got the 4 last trains of the night without having to get up. Voyage is amazing!

Love the park. Hate that they have put Voyage back to 1 train tonight. Beautiful skies, 75 degrees, and it's 7-10 minutes to get a train dispatched. Station waits turn into 30 min waits.