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PhotoTR: Coaster Journey to WV, NC, SC, VA, MD, PA! 9 Parks!


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LOL!!!!!

 

I didn't even notice your caption the first time through!!!

 

The photos are just a tad bit too large to easily see the whole pic and the captions too. We had the same problem in a few of our posts and have gone to a 600x450 resolution.

 

Keep an eye out for those imposters!!!!

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The ride op in your pic of Big Dipper was there a few weeks ago when I rode. COOL guy. We did some runthroughs.

 

He was super cool. I was chatting with him for a few minutes.

I'm pretty sure he was the only employee that I heard say anything the whole time I was there. Well, besides the ride op working the Whip that I asked to take my picture and he said "Ok". Seriously!

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Brian - much appreciated as we didn't have many pictures in the Park Index for Camden Park. I'll be adding many of your pictures to the index tonight.

 

While the park is small there are certainly a couple of unique flats worth riding for anyone stopping by the park.

 

The Whip - along with the one at Rye Playland, are the only ones that truly "whip" you around the turns.

 

Hot Cat - which if memory serves me correctly is a caterpillar without the canopy.

 

Haunted House - I believe this any the recently reopened Devil's Den at Conneaut are the only two gravity powered dark rides left in the US.

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It is if you want it to be.

 

Great TR so far! Keep 'em coming!

 

Thanks!

I like the way you think. Although I would most likely never count it just because it's not considered a coaster.

 

I'm really enjoying those driving shots. Getting there is usually the most fun part of the trip for me. Were any of those bridges from crossing into other states or just random bridges?

 

Thanks, and yes, some of them were crossing in to other states.

I always take photos of the state welcome signs too.

Here is one of the bridges that I posted that crosses into West Virginia. I just didn't post it cause I didn't think it was a very good photo.

 

I'm glad other people enjoy the driving shots too!

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Our second park of the trip was Carowinds.

Carowinds

Avenue Of The Carolina's

Charlotte, NC 28273

 

We visited Carowinds on Saturday, June 20th.

We got to the park just after opening and went straight to buy my Mom a Platinum Pass, which took like 10 minutes total.

 

It was a SUPER hot day. I have to push my Mom in a wheelchair when we go to parks, and I was a complete ball of sweat this day. It was terrible!

 

I was completely surprised by this park. It was a lot nicer than I had anticipated, and I have NEVER been treated so well at a Cedar Fair park.

Not only were all of the ride op's super nice (Well all but one. I'll get to that later), but randomly throughout the day Managers or whoever they were, were offering to get my Mom cups of ice water because it was so hot out. Where in the world have you seen that before? I have surely never seen that happen anywhere.

 

On to the photos and mini reports.

 

Hope you enjoy!

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I'll leave you with this photo.

For those that don't know, the park is half in North Carolina and Half in South Carolina. Kinda neat!

 

Hope you enjoyed!

 

Up next, Some Park Index love with Go-Carts Plus in Williamsburg, VA.

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This is my Mom. She is half in South Carolina & half in North Carolina.

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I used to LOVE these movies!

I was super pumped when I saw this. Took me back to my childhood.

Go bananas!

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The park entrance from the inside. I guess that would make it the park exit?

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Go figure!

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Mmmm...

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Time to head up in the air.

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The only good part of the ride. Well, besides when you get to undo your restraint and get off the damn thing.

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At least it "looks" good. There's no train in this photo, cause I didn't feel like waiting 10 minutes for them to dispatch another train.

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To make matters worse, I had to stand in the blazing hot sun the whole time.

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Up next. The longest line of the entire 9 park, 6 state trip.

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Some more nice scenery.

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Also known as a Vekoma Hang-N-Bang.

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Up next... Rugrats Runaway Reptar.

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Lazy photo. I always enjoy these little guys.

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Next coaster.

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Some nice scenery.

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Station/Store.

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That's me on the far right. The lighting was terrible, and I was trying to hurry so I didn't get yelled at for being cheap, hehe.

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Not only does this coaster look great, it rode great!

It was smooth, fast, forceful, and fun!

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Next up was Afterburn!

I waited about 3 trains for the front seat.

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This is by far one of the roughest coasters that I have ever ridden. I even suffered through both sides so I could get both credits. What in the world was I thinking!

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My next coaster of the day was Thunder (OUCH!) Road.

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Boomerang Bay: The Water Park

I'm not interested. Gimme some coasters!

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See! At least this one has a train in it though.

The new paint job looks great, and it feels very beachy boardwalk with the palm trees and landscaping that they put in.

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I'm a sucker for palm tree's!

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My next coaster was the Carolina Cobra.

I rode this back when it was at Geauga Lake, but with these new restraints that are a gazillion times more comfortable, I actually enjoyed the ride this time.

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You couldn't really see much of the ride, so this is what I ended up with.

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Some theming.

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Next up was the Carolina Goldrusher. Nothing special, but it was a fun little family mine train.

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Some theming that I thought was pretty rad at one of the restaurants.

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I took this photo for my roommate because he drag races one of these and just loves to see them.

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Here's my one bad ride op experience of the day. I was wearing an ACE shirt, and when my train entered the station, one of the ride ops made some cocky comment and kicked at my head while I was in the front seat. He was obviously not going to kick me, but the gesture was made, and I did NOT appreciate it!

 

Let me tell you, this fool was VERY lucky for a few reasons.

1. I was in a good mood.

2. My Mom was with me.

3. I would be super bummed if my CF Platinum Pass were cut up.

 

If it weren't for those 3 things. That kid would have been in some sh!t!

Actually, he's just lucky my Mom was there, cause I was pretty pissed.

 

Whoever you are, F*CK YOU!

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I'd say they were all wrong though. I loved this thing. It was rough, but that good wooden coaster rough, and I thought it had a decent amount of air time.

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My next coaster of the day was Hurler. I was NOT looking forward to this thing, as I have heard lot's of bad things about it.

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To me, it was just your average Arrow head banger.

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My next coaster of the day was obviously the Carolina Cyclone.

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Oh god! Just the thought of this thing gives me a headache.

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Nerdy wheel assembly shot.

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One of the cars on the transfer/storage track.

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Next coaster of the day was Ricochet. The always dreaded wild mouse. Luckily I got there early enough that I just walked up and hopped in a car and was on my way.

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These types of signs were all over this section of the park, and I was loving them!

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The first coaster that I hit was Vortex. It was better than I expected, but nothing special.

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We got in the park, and it went a little something like this.

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There was a Father's day car show at the park, so I expected it to be super crowded. (RIP Dad!)

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I think that "nice" is probably the best word to describe Carowinds. Once you get past Afterburn, the coaster selection isn't particularly special, but the park is very attractive and pleasant.

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Carolina Cyclone is actually an Arrow and it kinda holds its own history as the first coaster ever to have 4 inversions (at least that's the only reason I like it...cause you're right...it beats the sh*t outta you)

 

And WOW. I'm VERY suprised to hear you say that Thunder Road is rough. The coaster was actually down almost all of last season because it was rebuilt by GCI. If you think it's rough now, be happy you didn't visit the park in 07 or before!!

 

And last but not least, I'm a ride op in Nick Central and I'll be the first to tell you that for some reason there seem to be a lot of asshole ride ops in the Thrill Zone area of the park (Drop Zone, Hurler, Screamweaver) so I hear where you're coming from. But Cedar Fair has a zero tolerance party so he actually could've lost his job from something like that. (If you wanted to go to that extreme)

 

Glad you had fun at Carowinds and Camden and can't wait to see the rest of the trip!

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^ You are correct! I knew that as well. I have no idea why I put Vekoma.

I did not know it was the first coaster to have 4 inversions though. That's kinda neat.

 

You could definitely feel the places that were retracked on Thunder Road. They were almost bearable. Almost! They definitely didn't "rebuild" it though.

 

Thank you! I really did enjoy your park.

About the kid at Hurler. I just let it blow over. He'll get his some day.

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I just found this thread, it is awesome. It is awesome you get to go on theme park trips with your mom. My parents hate crowds and heat, but it did not stop me from pissing them off by being half an hour late for meeting them at BGE a few years ago, but hell no were they going to end a walk on marathon of apollo.

 

I am looking forward to BGE, my favorite non Disney park on earth.

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I'm glad you had a good time at Carowinds. I'm sorry you had that bad experience with that one associate. You really should have reported him to a supervisor. Also, saying that Thunder Road was rough, where exactly did you sit? When riding Thunder Road, sit in one of the middle rows in each of the cars, the ride in said rows is much, much smoother due to not sitting on wheels. Until GCI finishes with the reconstruction, they've only done about 1/4th of the ride, those are the only safe seats to ride in. Row 11 is the best!

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^ You are correct! I knew that as well. I have no idea why I put Vekoma.

I did not know it was the first coaster to have 4 inversions though. That's kinda neat.

 

You could definitely feel the places that were retracked on Thunder Road. They were almost bearable. Almost! They definitely didn't "rebuild" it though.

 

Thank you! I really did enjoy your park.

About the kid at Hurler. I just let it blow over. He'll get his some day.

 

I wish I could agree with you about Thunder Road, but trust be, when I say rebuild, I mean that GCI literally came in and rebuilt it:

 

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^ You are correct! I knew that as well. I have no idea why I put Vekoma.

I did not know it was the first coaster to have 4 inversions though. That's kinda neat.

 

You could definitely feel the places that were retracked on Thunder Road. They were almost bearable. Almost! They definitely didn't "rebuild" it though.

 

Thank you! I really did enjoy your park.

About the kid at Hurler. I just let it blow over. He'll get his some day.

 

I wish I could agree with you about Thunder Road, but trust be, when I say rebuild, I mean that GCI literally came in and rebuilt it:

 

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You could definitely feel the places that were retracked on Thunder Road. They were almost bearable. Almost! They definitely didn't "rebuild" it though.

 

Trust me, when I say rebuild, I mean that GCI literally came in and dismantled and rebuilt the over half of the structure (pics from last summer):

 

And that's just the turn around...getting pics of the rest of the layout is a bit tough. But throughout last season you would see cranes moved to all around the layout and the coaster was dismantled,rebuilt, and reopened just in time for Scarowinds 2008.

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^ Having recently ridden Thunder Road, I can tell you the only part GCI rebuilt was the turnaround (that picture above), the next drop and part of the hill after that... The rest was left alone and is still pretty rough, but not that bad.

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