Carowinds Discussion Thread

[eddie200330]

I am a Gold Season pass holder at Carowinds, and I have never seen Carowinds this empty!!

I mean, I could walk on basically everything, we got right on Drop Tower, Intimidator, Thunder Road, and The Vortex~

I'm very impressed, because usually Carowinds is crowded on Sunday due to people letting out of Church.

Anyways, who's excited for SCarowinds?!

I know I am! I'll definitely be doing a review~

 

Probably because everyone was evacuated and left town??

[drpeppuh93]

charlotte is no where near the coast... why would it have been evacuated? it may have rained a bit, but there was no hurricane in charlotte

[KDCOASTERFAN]

charlotte is no where near the coast... why would it have been evacuated? it may have rained a bit, but there was no hurricane in charlotte

 

Irene was a pretty big storm,I mean BGW,KD,SFA & SFGRADV all shut down for the duration(just to name a few parks) & KD as well as SFA are nowhere near the coast.

[cfc]

^Damage was actually worse in central Virginia than it was closer to the coast, too. So, I can understand people being cautious on the NC-SC border.

[eddie200330]

^Damage was actually worse in central Virginia than it was closer to the coast, too. So, I can understand people being cautious on the NC-SC border.

 

That is where I was going with my original comment. Not only that, but with everyone watching the storm, I doubt travelling to an amusement park was anywhere close to being on their mind. Us junkies on the other hand, this is the kind of stuff to look for and plan around that!!!! Has anyone ever went to SFA when the Redskins/Ravens had a home game together...place is dead!

[drpeppuh93]

charlotte is no where near the coast... why would it have been evacuated? it may have rained a bit, but there was no hurricane in charlotte

 

Irene was a pretty big storm,I mean BGW,KD,SFA & SFGRADV all shut down for the duration(just to name a few parks) & KD as well as SFA are nowhere near the coast.

 

yeah but irene hit land at the outerbanks, which are farther north than carowinds is. I can see why those parks would shut down but charlotte only got the outskirts of the storm. i live just south of charlotte and we were both affected by Irene about the same. Just some rain.

[T-BONDIcoasterkid]

Wow, the thread has been dead for awhile.

Edited September 18, 2011 by T-BONDIcoasterkid

[jedimaster1227]

^Was there a reason you needed to bump a dormant thread just to share that?

[coasterbill]

Windseeker construction has kind of sort of begun. Just pink ribbons at this point.

 

 

 

Pics from their Facebook.

[jedimaster1227]

Carowinds has been feeding us some great construction updates over the last month or so as preparation for Windseeker continues...

 

Clearing the area...

[KDCOASTERFAN]

^KD is pretty much at the same stage of construction,at least according tothe latest update a couple weeks ago.

[chadster]

Windseeker, the new boomarang. Everyone's gotta have one.

[thrillrideseeker]

Windseeker, the new boomarang. Everyone's gotta have one.

QFT!!

 

I could not agree more. They are everywhere now.

~Matt

[XYZ]

I found this picture to be interesting because it looks like Carolina Goldrusher is being dismantled and all the parts are in that pile in front of Nighthawk.

 

[Pufferfish]

I wonder how many lost articles they found when they drained out that pond for the construction. I'm kind of sad that the "once a lake" is now becoming even smaller, but hey another big guest drawing attraction at this park is only a good thing in my mind. Still waiting for that frisbee though.

[BaMiTsPaT]

Unfortunately I don't think the addition of a Wind Seeker will cause me to renew my season pass at Carowinds. They have so many coasters that are so mediocre. I would like to try this ride though, so maybe I will make one stop to Carowinds next season. I also was not aware of the mine train demolition. Maybe they are just temporarily disassembling it to move parts in and out of the area? Is that possible?

[Bryce232]

Still waiting for that frisbee though.

 

The field next to Intimidator is still up for grabs!

[CoasterGuy06]

Carowinds is one of those places that I think is just a solid park. No, no one will claim they have the best _______ in the world, but they have a coaster collection full of good rides, have a decent sized waterpark, and a decent collection of non coaster rides. I think the WindSeeker rides are good crowd pleasers and will go over well with their crowd. I also agree that a frisbee would be a great addition to put them as one of the country's premier corporate seasonal parks.

[DiSab]

Windseeker, the new boomarang. Everyone's gotta have one.

 

At least they ride better than Boomerangs.

 

/Disclaimer - I still have yet to ride a Windseeker or a regular Boomerang (though I have been on an Invertigo), so this is solely based on hearsay.

[KDCOASTERFAN]

Windseeker, the new boomarang. Everyone's gotta have one.

 

At least they ride better than Boomerangs.

 

/Disclaimer - I still have yet to ride a Windseeker or a regular Boomerang (though I have been on an Invertigo), so this is solely based on hearsay.

 

Carowinds boomarang is actually pretty decent with the new train....now their invert is something I could ride all day long however.

[bottom_feeder_13]

Haven't been following this much but it's nice to see my home park away from home get another good ride. Now if only they had found a better spot to drop Carolina Cobra instead of ripping out FSS, and had refrained from murdering Nighthawks aesthetics, then it may qualify as one of my fav parks.

[chadster]

^^ I agree, the new trains on their boomathing make the ride almost enjoyable. After Burn is easily my #2 Invert.

[XYZ]

Carolina Cobra is the only boomerang that has good reviews, the only reason why the reviews don't show the ride as spectacular is just because it is a boomerang.

[carolinatycoon]

In my opinion, Cedar Fair needs to decide which park is going to be bigger, Carowinds or Kings Dominion? The parks are to close together to be adding the same rides. But Cedar Fair has said that Carowinds would be the "Cedar Point of the South". BUT, Carowinds is only adding Windseeker, when Kings Dominion is adding Windseeker & Dinosaurs Alive. It was the same in 2010 when the Intimidator's were built. KD got the taller coaster when the theme of the ride was inspired by a NC legend. Now, Carowinds makes Six Flags over Georgia look like a baby (with the exception of Goliath). And people are talking about how newer rides to Carowinds are on the South Carolina side of the park. It doesn't mean Cedar Fair is showing favoritism to that state, hence the park address being "14523 Carowinds Boulevard, Charlotte, NC".

[Intimidator305]

Why can't they just be equal? They apparently see a lot of potential in both parks for different reasons.

 

I feel like KD gets bigger investments (Dominator, Intimidator 305, Dinosaurs Alive) because of the fact they have lots of competition against Busch Gardens Williamsburg. They couldn't of just put in an "okay" hyper like Carowinds did with Intimidator because there was an 11 year old hyper down at BGW... Bring in a coaster exactly 100' taller than any other coaster in the state and then they got lots of attention from people across the state. I've had tons of friends within the past 2 years take a summer trip to KD instead of BGW because of "that really tall fast coaster that you lose your vision on!". Cedar Fair is trying to get guests to return to KD and visit KD over BGW which is why these "bigger" investments are being made.

 

On the otherhand down at Carowinds, they don't have such close competition and Carowinds rules the western North Carolina and northern South Carolina market. As long as they keep bring something into the park each year, guests will keep returning as they don't have any reason to travel the extra hours to either Dollywood or Six Flags Over Georgia. Carowinds seems to be more of a family park so a resort would be more likely to be built there instead of at KD. Up here in VA, BGW definitely has the edge of a "family" park over KD.

 

Let's just say this, I live exactly in the middle of KD and Carowinds (just a little more than 3 hours to both parks) and I visited KD 7 times last season and only went to Carowinds once. I visited Dollywood and BGW more than Carowinds last year and they are both 60 mins+ further... To me, KD still has the better selection of rides and is a park I can spend a 2-day trip at while Carowinds is just a park that I'm done with in a day or less. It still needs 2 more "solid" coasters. IMO, at KD they have Intimidator 305, Volcano, Dominator, and Flight of Fear that really stand out from the bunch to the general public while at Carowinds they only have Intimidator and Afterburn. NightHawk is easily one of my "most-hated" coasters.