Carowinds Discussion Thread

[DoinItForTheFame]

^ Whoa!!! What a beautiful twisted mess of track!!

 

Can't wait to see how this rides!! I'm really looking forward to that launched airtime hill combo!

[CoasterAuditor]

I love how this ride is coming along.

 

Side note: I just realized this brings the total "vertical loops" Carowinds has to 8 total. Is there any park with more vertical loops?

 

EDIT: Six Flags Magic Mountain has 9. Yay research!

[grsupercity]

I love how this ride is coming along.

Mi

 

Side note: I just realized this brings the total "vertical loops" Carowinds has to 8 total. Is there any park with more vertical loops?

 

EDIT: Six Flags Magic Mountain has 9. Yay research!

 

Michigan's Adventure has zero roller coasters with a vertical loop. They also have zero flat rides with a vertical loop.

[thrillseeker4552]

I love how this ride is coming along.

 

Side note: I just realized this brings the total "vertical loops" Carowinds has to 8 total. Is there any park with more vertical loops?

 

EDIT: Six Flags Magic Mountain has 9. Yay research!

 

This didn't seem right, but I suppose it's easy to forget about Vortex, Nighthawk, and Cyclone since those coasters are kinda irrelevant to begin with.

 

Fury, Intimidator, Afterburn, and now Copperhead. That's a SOLID top 4. Rip out Vortex and Nighthawk and replace them with an awesome GCI somewhere down the line, and Carowinds will have probably have the best top 5 in the country outside of Cedar Point. I love how much this park has expanded and improved over the last 6-7 years.

[CoasterAuditor]

^I agree. I have not been since 2012 so I am dying to get back. The park used to be very "meh" to me when the highlights were Intimidator, Afterburn, and Nighthawk with virtually no flats or any major/decent flats. Since then, 2 waterpark expansions, Camp Snoopy, Fury 325, 4 flats, Harmony Hall, and now Copperhead Strike and Mountain Gliders being moved into a non-kids area.

[Afterburner]

Michigan's Adventure has zero roller coasters with a vertical loop. They also have zero flat rides with a vertical loop.

 

MiA should kill two birds with one stone and get a Larson Looper.

[pproteinc]

Here’s another angle from the Blvd.

(Photo Credit: dirkdiggler1992)

[carowindsman]

Coaster should be done Next week

[Canobie Coaster]

Wow they're building this thing up fast!

[prozach626]

I can't believe this park has gone through such a drastic transformation since 2010. It really makes you think about how quickly CF could turn around a park like WoF if they thought that it would pay off. CF's big four parks are impressive. All four of them have solid line-ups, well rounded attractions, great atmospheres, and giga coasters. Wait... (Crosses fingers)

[FaithPlus1]

Michigan's Adventure has zero roller coasters with a vertical loop. They also have zero flat rides with a vertical loop.

 

MiA should kill two birds with one stone and get a Larson Looper.

 

 

LOL!!!

[Cavan]

This post is for the Copperhead skeptics. I was once one of you, but laying eyes on this thing destroyed all my doubts. The turns are TIGHT, especially the one after the inverted top hat. It is small, but that is good. The relatively low speeds wont be problem here. The track is so twisted together it's truly exciting. This will be one of Mack's signature rides. It has the potential to be the Maverick of the south.

[Cavan]

New guy here. This post is for the copperhead skeptics. I was once one of you, but laying eyes on this thing has destroyed all doubts. The turns are TIGHT, especially after the cut back. It is small, but it is so twisted together it is truly exciting. The relatively low speeds wont be a problem here. Copperhead will be one of Mack's signature rides. This has the potential to be the Maverick of the south.

[DBru]

This looks SO good!

[VF15]

Question for any Carowinds locals, I’ll be visiting the park tomorrow for Winterfest. How busy does the park typically get on WF Saturdays? Does Afterburn or any other ride have Fast Lane and/or Single Rider lines available?

[PKI Jizzman]

Thanks for the photos! Can't wait for testing to start. Looks like a really fun ride.

[prozach626]

This post is for the Copperhead skeptics. I was once one of you, but laying eyes on this thing destroyed all my doubts.

I say this in a completely non confrontational way, but skeptical of what? It doesn't matter if it doesn't make your top ten, bro. It will still be fun. Shit, even Kentucky Kingdom's new roller coaster will be fun. We take no responsibility for neither the design, nor the construction of these rides.

 

Also, Six Flags St. Louis says STFU! (joking... kinda)

 

Thanks for the pictures, sir. Thanks for contributing so early in your TPR posts. Copperhead looks great. I'm really starting to think that Cedar Fair has a contract with Orange Paint Incorporated (OPI), but they're making it work.

[CoasterAuditor]

It is crazy how many of the recent Cedar Fair coasters have been orange or really dark red. Valravn, Rougarou, Railblazer, Yukon Striker, Copperhead Strike, Twisted Timbers, and Steel Vengeance all dark red or burnt orange. At least Hangtime was blue.

[prozach626]

The blue paint was a test product from OPI, but it was discontinued after not selling well.

[coasterbill]

We’re down in South Carolina visiting Brit’s parents for Christmas and since they live about 10 minutes from Carowinds we finally broke down and checked out our first Cedar Fair Christmas event last night. We’re used to Six Flags so it’s nice to see another chain’s take on a Christmas event and we really enjoyed ourselves.

 

The lights were excellent and objectively a slight step up from what you would find at most Six Flags parks. They also seem to have singers and holiday characters at every turn and they went through the trouble of overlaying just about everything in the park for the holidays. Their merchandise game is also on point also with tons of ornaments and ugly sweaters (some of which were Carowinds themed).

 

On the flip side, while we knew about the limited ride lineup going in it’s very glaring. The real issue is that the park was absolutely slammed as people are (understandably) flocking to the park in droves but with such a limited ride lineup the queue for every ride was the longest I’ve ever seen it (though we haven’t attended Scarowinds). We waited about 45 minutes for the back row of Afterburn and aside from that just avoided rides as every queue seemed to be overflowing. Hopefully their overwhelming success prompts them to open a few more rides in the future. With crowds like that and nowhere for them to go the midways are insane.

 

That said, we had a great time and it’s a great way to spend a few hours. Previously the big Christmas events in the area were at the speedway and Mcadenville and while both are nice, they generally take a long time to get into and neither of them are as immersive or impressive as Winterfest. I wouldn’t suggest traveling for this event (especially not when SFOG and Dollywood exist where you can actually ride things) but if you’re in the area you should absolutely stop by. It’s a lot of fun.

 

The lights are excellent

These look awesome in person. The camera makes the trees appear more visible than they really are. In reality it looks like they’re flying.

Lights for days

[Canobie Coaster]

Great report! I agree 100% that Cedar Fair beats Six Flags on the lights and shows, but Six Flags is better in the ride department.

[coasterbill]

Yeah, Six Flags is more of an all day event where this is just a place to spend a few hours. It’s very nice, but a totally different type of thing.

 

I liked Winterfest but I’d take Holiday in the Park any day, though I feel like in some aspects Six Flags could learn a lot from Cedar Fair (see: merchandise and selling those weird igloo cabana things).

[Too Fast For Comfort]

Yeah, Six Flags is more of an all day event where this is just a place to spend a few hours. It’s very nice, but a totally different type of thing.

 

I liked Winterfest but I’d take Holiday in the Park any day, though I feel like in some aspects Six Flags could learn a lot from Cedar Fair (see: merchandise and selling those weird igloo cabana things).

 

I think that the problem is that Six Flags just runs on a shoestring budget. While the sticker price for admission may be in line with Cedar Fair, they really sell some cut rate season passes. And as a result, most of the people who go to the parks are there with their season passes or part of special group rates. So many teenagers end up paying less than $10 per visit because or how cheap the passes are and how often their parents use SF as a babysitting service.

 

And it looks like Six Flags may be fine with it. They just put up some rides and coasters, put up a few posters for the "theming", understaff the park, and the financials balance themselves out.

 

Cedar Fair does charge more for admission, but the season passes are also realistic multiples of the single day tickets. So they end up making more per visitor, and can afford to spend more money to give the guest a better in-park experience.

[coasterbill]

What?

[DirkFunk]

Cedar Fair does charge more for admission, but the season passes are also realistic multiples of the single day tickets. So they end up making more per visitor, and can afford to spend more money to give the guest a better in-park experience.

 

A more realistic multiple? What, 1.75 instead of 1.5? Most people don't buy CF Platinum passes.

 

Season pass prices are based on what the market itself demands in pricing and high per capita spending isn't necessarily relevant to the guest experience. In fact, it's a totally overrated and misunderstood metric that people hype. The last management crew that pushed increasing it finished the job of driving SF into bankruptcy.