Carowinds Discussion Thread

Shout out to the Fury crew tonight. They hit 36 dispatches in the last hour (a new record)!

 

And that was with only two of the three trains available.

I was there and can attest that the last couple hours of operation they were cranking out trains lightning fast. However, for whatever reason Fury opened with only 1 train running and they didn't put the second one on until 3:00. It was the only ride in the park that had any sort of line. I don't understand why they do this but at least they made up for it with a good finish. It was nice to get a few front row rides to end Fury's operating season!

When I saw how slowly the empty test trains for Fury crawled into the brake run, it made sense why they opened with one train. I don't think they wanted to chance sending an empty until it was fully warmed up.

I was on the second to last public train in the front so we got a double ride to end the day.

Glad they ran it yesterday. We heard that it was closed all day Saturday and the park closed early due to the terrible 50 degree weather with abundant sunshine. We were laughing pretty hard from the Nitro queue when we saw that.

It definitely is nice having parks in the northeast that don't care what temperature it is when they run rides.

Except SFNE is very strict about Goliath needing it to be 50 degrees. But I consider that mercy keeping it closed.

A few pics from the last official operating day before Winterfest:

Glad they ran it yesterday. We heard that it was closed all day Saturday and the park closed early due to the terrible 50 degree weather with abundant sunshine. We were laughing pretty hard from the Nitro queue when we saw that.

I was in Charlotte all day Saturday (no Carowinds this trip). The wind was pretty high most of the day. I found a weather report that said gusts were up to 10 mph Saturday at Charlotte Douglas. I call BS. I was outside and walking a lot of the day and I would guess the gusts were more like 20-25+ mph.

I worked off of boom lift equipment for many years and we grounded all of our aerial work at 25 mph winds.

Not sure what the guidelines are for Fury, but Saturday was a blustery day in the Queen City.

I would guess the gusts were more like 20-25+ mph.

Wow, I hope nobody died.

... this park is a parody of itself sometimes.

You're talking about wind gusts that would MAYBE, POSSIBLY close a typical Sky Ride.

I know Fury is always hauling ass when it hits the trim brake, so I guess those kinds of wind would not be an issue.

Have we subpoeanaed the records from Fury's anemometer yet?

I mean, it doesn’t really matter in the end. Carowinds is gonna Carowinds. Moral of the story is that I won’t go there unless it’s summer or I’m in the area anyway. I’ll probably keep laughing at them though.

But if you go when it's a "cold" 50 degrees, you can laugh at all the people who think it's too cold to ride Fury in the front row.

Meanwhile in the Northeast...

The park's hotel by Marriott is now open.

https://www.carowinds.com/stay/springhill-suites-by-marriott-charlotte-at-carowinds?fbclid=IwAR13zpmMiGYI1t4byS5bI-3HZYEcrtc2nYkDrLFIsnyI0U0VGERnoNqr7es

A few pics from the last official operating day before Winterfest:

Fury looks so gorgeous in those photos! I hope Kings Island gets a giga coaster some day.

Fury looks so gorgeous in those photos! I hope Kings Island gets a giga coaster some day.

At least the world's tallest and fastest hyper coaster isn't a bad consolation prize.

So we’ve been informed by the bartender that the park no longer has beer jail, but ONLY on the South Carolina side of the park. Get it together, North Carolina

(Yes, this is an actual, honest-to-god, insane rule )

^ Isn't federalism great?

Is that pic allowed? Seems to be breaking park rules.

That's a strange rule for sure. Good stuff.

Excuse you, the beer never left the state . The security guy was right there laughing. He also thought that the rule was pretty funny and noted that I wasn’t the first person to take that same picture as soon as they heard about it. Security has to stand on the line now so they can let people know about the rule and ask them to finish their beer before crossing the line with it.

I’m beyond entertained that this is a thing. I kind of hope it never changes.

As you can see from that post we popped into Carowinds for a few minutes last weekend. I figured I'd write up a really abbreviated post on that since spending any actual time on this would mean that the report was more time consuming than our actual visit to the park.

Brit's family lives about 15 minutes away and we don't get to see them that often so we just popped in for about an hour as they had no interest and nothing really runs anyway. We've been there in the past and I really enjoy their lights, but on this trip we were really just there to get our first rides on Copperhead Strike and we left before it was even dark to meet everyone for dinner.

I've done enough sh*tting on Carowinds for their crazy weather policies so I'll ignore that and just talk about the few things that were actually open. Anyone with a free day in the Carolinas this time of year should put Dollywood or Six Flags over Georgia in their GPS though but if you're in the area and have a few hours to kill, the lights are nice and the two coasters that are running are both very, very good. This isn't really a Winterfest review though, just think of this as my VERY BELATED Copperhead Strike review for the six people who haven't been on it yet.

Time to get struck...

We got there right at opening and made our way straight back to Copperhead Strike. My first impression was that the ride area looks really nice and the queue features some of the best theming you could really expect from Cedar Fair. The ride was a complete walk-on as the park had just opened so we hopped in the front row.

I haven't actually been on a Mack looper before and for whatever reason my expectations were pretty low but I need to eat some crow on Copperhead Strike. This is a really f*cking good ride.

The jojo roll out of the station is awesome. It sort of reminds me of the barrel roll on Impulse at Knoebels which I consider to be the best part of that ride but it's even slower and even better. The restraints serve to make this thing completely awesome.

The shed is cute. It's not amazing theming but it's really good for Cedar Fair and while the launch itself is notably unimpressive the loop that follows it is one of the best parts of the ride. The hang time is great and (once again) the restraints make it ten times better as you pretty much fall out of your seat in a super-fun way.

The hill that immediately follows the loop is an honest-to-god ejector hill that might be the best part of the ride. I don't know why, but I never expected that from this thing. It's crazy and wouldn't be out of place on a ride like Maverick. OMG!

The jojo roll, loop and following hill are the best parts of the ride and after that it does go into some tamer (but still fun) elements for a bit. The corkscrew, second launch and second loop are all fun but definitely dial it back a little. Following the second loop though the ride dives to the right and picks up the pace again with a bunch of fun laterals and some nice pops of air. That entire section is a blur but it goes on for awhile and it's a lot of fun. Don't expect Intamin-intensity here but don't expect a B&M floorless either... it's sort of a middle-ground between those two where it's crazy and aggressive but doesn't feel like it's actively trying to kill you either.

Following our first ride, we scored two more rides in the back row without having to get up. I actually prefer it back there as the hang-time is better in the loop and you can see the cute little show elements in the launch shed a little bit better but you should try both if you can.

I definitely underestimated this ride. While I'm not telling anyone to book a plane ticket to come and ride it (unless you want an excuse to ride Fury in which case book it immediately) but I'd be thrilled to see more of these things pop up. It's a pretty unique (at least in the US) ride with some super-fun elements and tremendous hang-time.

After we got our fill of Copperhead Strike we decided that we couldn't leave without taking a few spins on our favorite fighter jet so we made our way over to Afterburn.

Brit got distracted on the way...

Eventually we finally got over to the coaster and I can 100% confirm that it's still one of the best inverts in America and possibly the world. We rode in the front because the park was empty and we could, but immediately (without having to leave the station) jumped in the back for two more rides.

Afterburn is basically Montu-lite with a super forceful batwing and a bunch of other snappy, fast-paced and awesome elements throughout. Copperhead is great but this is the star of Winterfest and probably the best thing in the park not named Fury.

The star of Winterfest

Somehow that was pretty much the end of our quick trip but we did hit Harmony Hall on the way out where I grabbed a Copperhead Strike IPA which was quite tasty. I really like this Cedar Fair trend of having special brews for this coasters and I hope it continues. I also ALMOST hope that their insane beer jail policy continues because it's hilarious

Our brief visit had come to a close but we really enjoyed Copperhead Strike and it's always nice to ride Afterburn. See you soon, Carowinds... preferably when Fury is open.

Glad you enjoyed Copperhead Strike. It really does a little of everything.

How negligent of you to wear shorts and a t-shirt in such frigid conditions. You could get frostbite. It'd be guaranteed on Fury.

just think of this as my VERY BELATED Copperhead Strike review for the six people who haven't been on it yet.

You coastal elite.

Woodstock Express is getting some much needed love this off season. Carowinds may close for awkward reasons for some like high winds, staffing or low attendance but they definitely seem to take care of their rides.

Photo Credit: Carowinds Fans Only

That is some work going on! Holy cow.

God, at that point just RMC it.

^That is some pretty significant work! Nice to see the park investing in such a way!

Excuse you, the beer never left the state . The security guy was right there laughing. He also thought that the rule was pretty funny and noted that I wasn’t the first person to take that same picture as soon as they heard about it. Security has to stand on the line now so they can let people know about the rule and ask them to finish their beer before crossing the line with it.

 

I’m beyond entertained that this is a thing. I kind of hope it never changes.

Way late to the post, but the policy is pretty funny and they (politely) don't play around with it. The last time I visited Carowinds we made it about ten paces past the sign before we were stopped by someone who came out of nowhere.

The people who stopped us from drinking our parking lot beers were not as friendly.

When do they usually open for the new season?

^

Usually the third or fourth weekend in March.

I'd bet the house that they'll be open on the 28th. The 21st is also a possibility. Note that their temperature limits are higher than most parks (especially for Intimidator) so if you're traveling from any distance, give them some time and maybe go in April or have flexible plans if you want to go earlier. If it's supposed to be over 50 degrees then you're fine.