Carowinds Discussion Thread

[BrianGC]

Nice TR's folks! I went to the park on Saturday as well and had a fantastic time! Thank god for Fast Lane Plus; I think I got to ride Fury 20-30 times throughout the day, with several night rides . Overall I found it to be an excellent coaster. It pretty much corrects a lot of what Leviathan was missing. I'm still deciding where it ranks personally, but it's definitely top 5 material IMO. The only part of the ride that I didn't like so much was the helix; I felt like it would've worked better if it stayed close to the ground. I really, really enjoyed the rest of the coaster, though.

 

Also, for my fellow campers out there, I recommend Camp Wilderness. I stayed there Saturday night and it was pretty decent and conveniently located as well.

[grsupercity]

http://www.wcnc.com/story/news/local/2015/04/20/6-incidents-involving-rides-at-carowinds-since-beginning-of-april/26093697/

[coasterbill]

Poor Carowinds... the media is absolutely relentless with them for some reason. None of these "incidents" are newsworthy. I wouldn't even consider them incidents. We were stuck on the lift of Carolina Cyclone for 20 minutes on opening day... go put that on the news too. There was a video the other day when a local station reported on the Flying Ace Aerial Chase "incident" and then showed video of Intimidator the entire time to make it seem like a huge deal (which it still wouldn't have been). The news sensationalizes things on purpose which is nothing new, but it would be nice if people would start holding them accountable.

 

Lift stops happen every day at pretty much every park, why do they only make the news when they're at Universal or Carowinds?

[B&MIntaminGCI]

I would love to be on one of these lift stops or evacuations, so when there's a news crew waiting to interview me. I could just be like "Contrary to popular belief, these things happen all the time on roller coasters, and are actually super safe. You're twisting the situations to make it seem like the ride killed 80 people when all that happen was people had to walk down stairs."

[ThemeParkJunkie51290]

Nice TR's folks! I went to the park on Saturday as well and had a fantastic time! Thank god for Fast Lane Plus; I think I got to ride Fury 20-30 times throughout the day, with several night rides . Overall I found it to be an excellent coaster. It pretty much corrects a lot of what Leviathan was missing. I'm still deciding where it ranks personally, but it's definitely top 5 material IMO. The only part of the ride that I didn't like so much was the helix; I felt like it would've worked better if it stayed close to the ground. I really, really enjoyed the rest of the coaster, though.

 

Also, for my fellow campers out there, I recommend Camp Wilderness. I stayed there Saturday night and it was pretty decent and conveniently located as well.

OMG! Are you the one who had the TPR shirt on with sunglasses? I was trying to get your attention to let you know I'm from TPR as well, but you was far ahead on every ride I seen you at. I had a great day as well!

[GwaziBSRider1]

When I was there the day before Easter, Afterburn stopped on the lift multiple times throughout the day. I'm surprised they didn't include those "incidents."

[BrianGC]

Nice TR's folks! I went to the park on Saturday as well and had a fantastic time! Thank god for Fast Lane Plus; I think I got to ride Fury 20-30 times throughout the day, with several night rides . Overall I found it to be an excellent coaster. It pretty much corrects a lot of what Leviathan was missing. I'm still deciding where it ranks personally, but it's definitely top 5 material IMO. The only part of the ride that I didn't like so much was the helix; I felt like it would've worked better if it stayed close to the ground. I really, really enjoyed the rest of the coaster, though.

 

Also, for my fellow campers out there, I recommend Camp Wilderness. I stayed there Saturday night and it was pretty decent and conveniently located as well.

OMG! Are you the one who had the TPR shirt on with sunglasses? I was trying to get your attention to let you know I'm from TPR as well, but you was far ahead on every ride I seen you at. I had a great day as well!

Haha sorry I probably wasn't paying attention. But yeah, I had my black ClubTPR shirt on.

[beenagins87]

I would love to be on one of these lift stops or evacuations, so when there's a news crew waiting to interview me. I could just be like "Contrary to popular belief, these things happen all the time on roller coasters, and are actually super safe. You're twisting the situations to make it seem like the ride killed 80 people when all that happen was people had to walk down stairs."

 

And they would edit you completely out, and instead interview the hysterical mother of four, that was two rows behind you.

[molemaster43]

Hey guys. I was hoping I could get some advice for a potential Carowinds trip this July (weekday, maybe a Monday).

 

I am going with my parents who are generally fine with heights, but not really with inversions (they want to ride right away instead of me doing rides they wouldn't ride first (ala Nighthawk) while they wait). So...no Nighthawk first. I was thinking most likely Fury 325 first, then Ricochet and clear out the rest of the area and make a big loop around the park to Intimidator.

 

Would this be smart at all, or is there a better idea or strategy for hitting the park and getting Nighthawk and other lower capacity rides in with a minimal line?

 

Thanks to anyone who can help!

[cwgator]

^^Unless you get a Fastlane Plus, it would be your best bet to ride Nighthawk first thing as it has the worst capacity and line only builds as the day progresses. Since it's at the front of the park, the line will most likely still be lengthy even near closing time (unless it's raining and everyone scattered home). The rest of the park however could be done counterclockwise as you stated.

[coasterbill]

Would this be smart at all

 

Sorry but not really because Nighthawk's capacity is just a special kind of terrible. With Fastlane Plus it doesn't matter but otherwise not riding this first will mean you'll probably end up waiting over an hour even on a Monday.

[beenagins87]

Hey guys. I was hoping I could get some advice for a potential Carowinds trip this July (weekday, maybe a Monday).

 

I am going with my parents who are generally fine with heights, but not really with inversions (they want to ride right away instead of me doing rides they wouldn't ride first (ala Nighthawk) while they wait). So...no Nighthawk first. I was thinking most likely Fury 325 first, then Ricochet and clear out the rest of the area and make a big loop around the park to Intimidator.

 

Would this be smart at all, or is there a better idea or strategy for hitting the park and getting Nighthawk and other lower capacity rides in with a minimal line?

 

Thanks to anyone who can help!

 

I went on a Monday before, where every ride was a 10 min wait or less, and Nighthawk was at least 50 mins.. I imagine with Fury being as popular as it is, the waits could be longer in general.

[CpBluestreakCp]

I went to Carowinds on Thursday April 9th. It was a nice day, only spent about 5 hours there in order to get on all the main coasters. I'm hoping to go back one day to enjoy the overall park more. But here are my reviews.

 

Vortex: Not a bad stand-up. Doesn't hurt me as much as Mantis did, but overall fun. (7/10)

Thunder Road: Fun racing coaster, kinda rough but nothing special. (6/10)

Ricochet: Standard mouse type. Fun besides me barely fitting since I'm 6'4. (5/10)

Nighthawk: I really don't like these types of coasters at all. Neither this one or at KI. (5/10)

Hurler: An interesting wooden coaster. Not your standard layout. Fun but not that great. (6/10)

Carolina Goldrusher: A really cool mine ride coaster. (6.5/10)

Carolina Cyclone: I didn't even know what was happening on this coaster honestly. (5/10)

Carolina Cobra: I always like these boomerang coasters, find them very fun and intense. (7/10)

Afterburn: I love inverts and I LOVED this one. I'm still not sure where to place it with Banshee and Raptor but it sure is up there. Very intense, maybe a bit short. But still a very good ride. (9.5/10)

Intimidator: I really like hyper coasters and this one was no exception. Very fun and smooth with nice airtime. (8/10)

Fury 325: Probably the main reason I went here. This coaster was VERY fun and packed an intensity I didn't expect. Just enough of a balance of airtime and fast, close to the ground turns. I loved the turnaround before the tunnel, cool element. Overall, a very quality coaster this park needed. Very rideable and something the GP loved. I heard many positive remarks. Now they kinda have a big 3 for their park; Afterburn, Intimidator, Fury. (9.5/10)

 

Overall I liked Carowinds and I think it's filling in the gaps of its coaster lineup well. I feel like a wing coaster or some type of launched coaster would be nice in it as well.

[ImNotOneOfYou]

I would love to be on one of these lift stops or evacuations, so when there's a news crew waiting to interview me. I could just be like "Contrary to popular belief, these things happen all the time on roller coasters, and are actually super safe. You're twisting the situations to make it seem like the ride killed 80 people when all that happen was people had to walk down stairs."

[loop-de-loop]

I'd love to walk down from 300ft on Fury for an evac.

Do they make the guests wear harnesses when they have to do that?

[Paradox]

I'd love to walk down from 300ft on Fury for an evac.

Do they make the guests wear harnesses when they have to do that?

I would rather slide down the rails.

[JJLehto]

Have to admit, never paid this park much attention (good or bad) but it seems like a fun park.

TPR needs to make a trip to this place so I can have an excuse to go

 

All the fury pics posted in here are amazing, and I wonder how quickly the "looks lame" "yawn nothing but turns" "bet theres 0 airtime" comments will flip and the people will deny ever having made them ha

[Khat26]

I'll be at the park on May 2nd (evening) and all day on the 3rd. Curious if any TPR members will be there those days. It would be cool to meet some of you guys.

[coasterbill]

Oh for f**k's sake...

 

Fury stopped for 5 minutes on the transfer track, it re-started, someone tweeted WSOC that they were running empty trains and they sent a F**king helicopter.

[I305forever]

Are you f*cking serious... I'm am for once without words. It is really that bad.

Edited April 24, 2015 by I305forever

[glouthan]

Oh for f**k's sake...

 

Fury stopped for 5 minutes on the transfer track, it re-started, someone tweeted WSOC that they were running empty trains and they sent a F**king helicopter.

 

That's what you call a slow news day!

[linearinduction]

Perhaps there is a semi organized group of people that could start sending these "tips" in day, after day, after day? Maybe then the local media will Ignore them.

[GCI Wooden]

Well, here's an actually good article from Bloomberg.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-designing-fury-325-roller-coaster/

[nannerdw]

I visited Carowinds for the first time on Friday. I didn't realize I was going on school music day, so it was pretty crowded. When I first saw the school kids filing into the park, I thought everyone was carrying selfie sticks, but they were actually violin bows. People were lugging giant cellos and upright basses through the park in the morning, which was pretty funny. Almost all the kids left at 6:00 pm, leaving 4 hours of really short lines. All the coasters were open at some point during the day, just not all at once, and I finally managed to snag the last ride on my list, the right side of Thunder Road, about an hour before park closing. (No, I did not ride the small kiddie coaster, but I probably would have if I had been under 60" tall. So apparently if you're a tiny adult, you can ride without a child, and if you're a tall adult, then you need a kid to ride... Really? What'chu got against tall people, Carowinds? )

 

I got to the park about 20 minutes before opening, got on the first train of the day for Fury, and rode it 4 more times at night.

 

What I liked:

• - It's very forceful. The airtime going through the banked dive and the following camelback were the best moments of the ride, IMO.
  - The ride ops were doing an amazing job of keeping people moving and preventing the trains from stacking. I've never seen a line move like that before. What looked like a 40 minute wait only took 15 minutes for me to reach the station.
  - There's a groove in the back of the seat for your spine. (It's the little things that count.)

Didn't like:

• - It was a little bit rough when I rode in the middle rows, but I guess that's to be expected from a B&M giga. I haven't ridden Leviathan for comparison, though. Back seat rides were smoother in my experience, but still nowhere near as smooth as Intimidator.
  - Assigned seat rows, boo! In fact, they had assigned rows for most rides in the park, even when the lines were fairly short. I never ended up with a front seat ride on Fury, though I was able to request the back row once. I wish they'd just implement proper single rider lines, or let people skip the last section of a queue if they choose to be assigned a seat.

 

Final impressions of the whole park:

• best ride: Afterburn
  worst rides: Vortex and Carolina Cyclone
  worst queue wait: Nighthawk with one train operation.
  biggest anticipointment: Oreo Churros. Really, I was not impressed.
  best wooden coaster: Woodstock Express (Yes I'm serious. This ride is actually pretty awesome)

Edited April 29, 2015 by nannerdw

[cwgator]

(No, I did not ride the small kiddie coaster, but I probably would have if I had been under 60" tall. So apparently if you're a tiny adult, you can ride without a child, and if you're a tall adult, then you need a kid to ride... Really? What'chu got against tall people, Carowinds? )

 

I was able to ride it when the park was still owned by Paramount without a child....lol