Carowinds Discussion Thread

[coasterbill]

Rides have been testing and lots of credible people are openly sharing it. I believe it. It's ballsy for Cedar Fair considering the fact that North Carolina is having a rise in cases (not because going to a theme park is all that dangerous but because there's always a risk of reactionary restrictions), then again they probably planned it months ago...

We'll be in Charlotte for Christmas week anyway so we'll probably go and grab a beer while scrolling through my feed full of people riding Nitro, Raging Bull and Candymonium wondering WTF this park's problem is which is becoming a time-honored Christmas tradition.

[KIEnthusiast]

I don’t believe it. Doesn’t Carowinds only get 1 mill in attendance? I just don’t see the market during Xmas. Although I guess it’s warmer than Cincinnati lol.

[coasterbill]

They've done Winterfest for years. Anyway...

Carowinds Announces "Taste of the Season"

Happy holidays, y’all! Savor the holidays' flavors at Carowinds’ Taste of the Season: An Outdoor Holiday Food Festival. Sample tempting treats with your Tasting Card and make magical family memories —safely on select days November 21 - December 20. Limited capacity, so reserve your spots when available.  

Our Christmas event is an outdoor dining experience with a sleigh-full of family activities. Purchase a Tasting Card to choose among 30 samples of holiday sweets and savories. Sip the season with specialty drinks from Santa’s mixologists. Feast your eyes on dazzling holiday décor, enjoy seasonal shows, and wrap up your Christmas shopping. What’s more, select family rides are open to deliver the ear-to-ear smiles and belly laughs you can always count on from Carowinds.

Click here for more information

[coasterbill]

It sounds like this is a Christmas event that will run from 12-8 every day so the focus won't be lights, it won't be open for Christmas break (it ends on the 21st) and I'm assuming the food that you can sample will be made by Cedar Fair (hopefully I'm wrong on that but I doubt it).

The only coasters operating will be Copperhead Strike, Afterburn and the Wild Mouse.

... I seriously question the decision-making of this company. I also don't see why anyone who's not a passholder would pay for this. I'm sorry for being more negative than normal but Cedar Fair makes me scratch my head.

[grsupercity]

5 minutes ago, coasterbill said:

It sounds like this is a Christmas event that will run from 12-8 every day so the focus won't be lights, it won't be open for Christmas break (it ends on the 21st) and I'm assuming the food that you can sample will be made by Cedar Fair (hopefully I'm wrong on that but I doubt it).

The only coasters operating will be Copperhead Strike, Afterburn and the Wild Mouse.

... I seriously question the decision-making of this company. I also don't see why anyone who's not a passholder would pay for this. I'm sorry for being more negative than normal but Cedar Fair makes me scratch my head.

Least they are trying something. The sticking there head in the sand approach has been interesting 

[WolfBobs]

23 minutes ago, coasterbill said:

It sounds like this is a Christmas event that will run from 12-8 every day so the focus won't be lights, it won't be open for Christmas break (it ends on the 21st) and I'm assuming the food that you can sample will be made by Cedar Fair (hopefully I'm wrong on that but I doubt it).

The only coasters operating will be Copperhead Strike, Afterburn and the Wild Mouse.

... I seriously question the decision-making of this company. I also don't see why anyone who's not a passholder would pay for this. I'm sorry for being more negative than normal but Cedar Fair makes me scratch my head.

This is probably more of a "let's see if we can make some 4th quarter money" experiment more so than anything else.  I see the park being mostly staffed by the full time crews from CP, WoF, MiA, CGA, etc..  Like how they were pulled in from other parks for CP.  I doubt there is a huge investment here.  May also be more of a "what can we do to appease passholders?" type of event.  As like you said, I'm sure not many non-passholders will attend.  

With the park being closed all season, I would not be surprised if this does better than we assume.  I can easily see sell outs if the weather is reasonable depending on what the limited capacity is.  I'm sure locals are getting a little stir crazy to get back out into the park.  

[PKI Jizzman]

I know it's a limited offer of rides, and a strange trio there... 2 coasters that go upside-down down, thrill coasters and then the wildmouse. I bet it pulls a 90 minute wait each day haha.

The passholders will turn out for sure, wether it's just to get out and do something, to support the park and buy in on these events when traditionally they wouldn't, but yeah tough to pay separate admission. Seems like a gamble/attempt to bring out the millennials, not families? Are they trying to figure out which core still has jobs and cater to those with some money to spend?

[dankeykang]

I think the ride offering (at least for the coasters) is similar to what has been open in past years (see 2019 event info), but I agree that this doesn't seem very appealing to non-passholders.

[pproteinc]

Well it looks like only 3 parks are doing it. Knotts did a harvest version of it and will be doing a Christmas version as well. Of course we see Carowinds doing it and looks like Canada’s  Wonderland  maybe gearing up for it too. 

[bejackso]

I for one am excited for this event and will be driving down from Richmond. Kudos to the park for trying to do something in 2020. Mainly I'm going just to ride Copperhead Strike lol (haven't ridden it yet)

[prozach626]

On 10/21/2020 at 5:26 PM, pproteinc said:

Chickies and Petes was in the middle of construction when the park reopened in 2015, 2016 County Fair was still getting rides put together from opening weekend all the way through early June

Six Flags approved.

[Parker821]

On 10/28/2020 at 10:20 AM, WolfBobs said:

 I see the park being mostly staffed by the full time crews from CP, WoF, MiA, CGA, etc..  Like how they were pulled in from other parks for CP.

They are not pulling Cedar Point or MiA. Maybe from parks farther south? Also Carowinds has a large full time ride op staff so they could probably just rely on locals for the other departments.

[KIEnthusiast]

Very quiet on here today, I'm surprised. Is it an enjoyable event?

[AmyUD06]

29 minutes ago, KIEnthusiast said:

Very quiet on here today, I'm surprised. Is it an enjoyable event?

The event has been live for like not even 5 hours.  Eeesh give people some time.

[jarmor]

I don't think this is an event for "us" so you may not hear much noise about it here.

[DorneyKid14]

On 11/2/2020 at 12:11 AM, Parker821 said:

They are not pulling Cedar Point or MiA. Maybe from parks farther south? Also Carowinds has a large full time ride op staff so they could probably just rely on locals for the other departments.

There is not a Cedar Fair park that is farther south than Carowinds....

You can maybe argue that Schlitterbahn is farther south... 

Or are you referring to parks farther south of CP and MiA? 

 

I know there were a few from Dorney that were trying to go down and help at Carowinds. 

[KIEnthusiast]

How does the new paint on Intimidator look?

[michaellynn4]

It's intimidating.

[coasterbill]

So we went to Taste of Carowinds yesterday since we’re visiting the in-laws who live ten minutes away.

Before going I was confused as to why this event was even a thing and after going I’m infinitely more confused.

I’d review it in depth but there’s no point since they’re now closed for the season since why would you want your Christmas event open during the holiday week where you could do daily ops anyway? 

Here are the cliff notes:

- The food samplers were very hit or miss, mostly miss. The best thing was a chicken tender. It was bangin’ though.

- If I paid to get in I would be livid unless I was the kind of person who just went to ride Afterburn and Copperhead Strike for hours straight. If I went for the Christmas stuff or the food like a normal person then I’d be pissed.

- Cedar Fair should go to Six Flags and learn how to actually a run a theme park in the age of covid. I can’t believe I’m saying this but loading all rows on Afterburn but only in groups of two and having people sit 2 on the inside, two on the outside, two on the inside is the dumbest thing ever. Honestly most of the things that they’re doing make you scratch your head.

- The decorations were really thrown together which was to be expected.

- It was nice walking around looking at palm trees without a jacket on in December thinking about how thankful we were that Fury was closed for our safety. On the same day our friends were posting pictures of this:

- On a more positive note like a half assed compliment sandwich, Afterburn is such a fantastic ride and Copperhead Strike is too.

I ate crow on Copperhead. I had no expectations for it whatsoever but I love it. The first loop is just so great, so is the jojo and honestly the whole package is really solid.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. 

[thrillseeker4552]

Yeah, I can't help but wonder why Carowinds closed their event before Christmas! Even if they didn't do daily operations, ending it so early is just strange. Nonetheless, like you said, Afterburn and Copperhead are excellent rides. I loved both of them during my June 2019 visit.

And even before 2020, Six Flags has always crushed Cedar Fair in the Holiday/Christmastime department in my opinion (outside of Knott's). That photo of Nitro is just so awesome.

[SharkTums]

I really need parks to get their act together by next season. We're clearly still going to be operating in a very covid positive world, but many parks seem to be doing a good job...just copy those!

[coasterbill]

 

16 minutes ago, thrillseeker4552 said:

Yeah, I can't help but wonder why Carowinds closed their event before Christmas! Even if they didn't do daily operations

It’s the most nonsensical thing...

I’m not complaining about that because it impacts me in no way but if I were the shareholders watching how this chain has handled absolutely everything this season I’d be running. 

 

[KIEnthusiast]

3 hours ago, coasterbill said:

 

It’s the most nonsensical thing...

I’m not complaining about that because it impacts me in no way but if I were the shareholders watching how this chain has handled absolutely everything this season I’d be running. 

 

Orion was amazing. I would be running toward Orion and not away from Cedar Fair.

[coasterbill]

I don’t think you get what I’m saying at all. 

As a fan, I’m really glad they opened Carowinds for like a month even though this event was really stupid because I got to ride two coasters and I was down the road anyway. I don’t care that they closed before what’s normally their most profitable week of Christmas because that’s not my problem. I’m thrilled that Kings Island opened a giga coaster in a pandemic year where they opened in July and had to cap attendance so it couldn’t really move the needle or do anything it was supposed to do but all of those things are objectively stupid.

I said “If I were the shareholders”. They’re not going to go on a conference call and go “Yeah sure we suck at running a business but have you been on Orion? So much airtime!”

[Baffles]

That photo of Nitro running in the snow is hilarious and awesome. The majority of B&M rides can run in sub-zero temperatures, and as the pacing is so quick on Fury I would not expect it to be an exception.

I remember working at Alton Towers and the only reason Nemesis wasn't able to run in snowy and icy conditions was due to icicles on the track - so maintenance went around and smashed them all off to get it open.