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Carowinds Trip Report| September 16th, 2017


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This is my first trip report ever done in this forum. Leave some feedback, so I can improve in future trip reports.

 

We planned this trip for two months, having money saved up, and two different delays. It was originally set for August 19th, but it got changed to August 30th then it got changed again to September 16th. It was just Mom and me for the entire trip.

 

It was September 16th. We woke up at 5 am and left at 5:30 am. After a 7 hour drive plus a stop at Steak and Shake in North Carolina and delays in the traffic. We have arrived at Carowinds at 12:20 pm. I got myself a Platinum pass for next year and also holding a Scarowinds ticket. We stayed at the park for the entire day until 5 pm where we have to leave the park for an hour since the park closes at 5 pm. I went to Scarowinds by myself and stayed until 8:30 pm because we have to drive back to Virginia (NOTE: I will not be doing Scarowinds review since I didn't have a lot of time). We got home at 3:25 am. Now onto the review.

 

Coaster reviews

 

Intimidator: I went on it in the front seat. The ride was fast, smooth, it has plenty of airtime on almost every hill. My biggest negative of the coaster is the anti-climatic ending, which is basically an MCBR and a helix. (4/5)

 

Afterburn: Spoiler; it's still my favorite invert. It is fast, smooth, intense and it's a good paced coaster. I like everything about it. On the back row, it pushes you through inversions. (5/5)

 

Vortex: This coaster needs to be called "Nut Crusher". This coaster is horrible. It is rough, headbanging, and worst of all in every element it crushes my nuts. It needs to be either converted to floorless or demolish it completely because I am never set foot on this coaster again. (1/5)

 

Hurler: I thought it was going to be bad as Vortex, but it's actually not bad. Sure, the coaster is still rough, bumpy, and has no airtime moment. My big plus about the coaster is that the coaster trains have the most comfortable seat I ever sat on. I did not feel pain when I got off because of the cushion seats. (2.5/5)

 

Fury 325: It's still the best coaster at Carowinds. I rode it on the second to the front row. It is fast, intense, and I did not remember Fury has many airtime moments after you came out of under the bridge. The operations are still the best I've seen on any coaster ever. It's still in my top 3 personal list.

(5/5)

 

Carolina Cyclone: It's a decent Arrow coaster with some rough spots. Kind of short as well but I'm not complaining. (3/5)

 

Ricochet: It's a wild mouse. No questions asked. I like the station design though. (2/5)

 

Carolina Goldrusher: It's a fun mine train coaster. The tunnel still surprises me at the end. (3/5)

 

Flying Cobras: I heard a lot of negative reputation about the model. It is my first time on a boomerang. It is not a bad ride with the vest restraints. Not good but a decent ride. (3/5)

 

I like the park overall, but with the exception of County Fair and the entrance, I thought the looks of the areas needs improvement with some more landscaping, but I would visit again real soon. Now onto the photos.

 

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Arriving at Charlotte

 

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This is my first trip report ever done in this forum. Leave some feedback, so I can improve in future trip reports.

I'm not sure what sort of camera you are using but I feel like picture quality suffers a little bit. The photos seem to be a bit dark and the colors are not very crisp. What your camera lacks in some quality CAN be made up a little bit in software. For example, I was able to do this in about 60 seconds using Photoshop Express, which is a free iPhone app:

 

BEFORE:

100_0015.jpg

 

AFTER:

better_photo.jpg

 

Still it's not perfect but I think it's more than the source image wasn't the best.

 

Hope that helps a little!

1021912356_betterphoto.thumb.jpg.2af1a8db595d69e721e70cfbf7f1710a.jpg

Edited by robbalvey
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Hurler: I thought it was going to be bad as Vortex, but it's actually not bad. Sure, the coaster is still rough, bumpy, and has no airtime moment. My big plus about the coaster is that the coaster trains have the most comfortable seat I ever sat on. I did not feel pain when I got off because of the cushion seats. (2.5/5)

 

Nice trip report! Hurler used to have some pretty decent floater air back in the day, but the park installed trims at the bottom of the first drop which killed that off.

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Jesus that sounds hellish. I'm all for long drives and 14 hours of driving in a day doesn't sound bad normally but getting up at 5AM, driving 7 hours, walking around in the sun all day and then driving for 7 more hours until about 3:30 in the morning is impressive.

 

Nice report, I still don't know why I'm the only one that enjoys Vortex.

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Great report! Your thoughts on the coasters pretty much mirror mine. Still assigned seating on Fury?

When I went they were extremely relaxed on it throughout the day. They would assign you a seat, but I politely asked on most of my rides to be placed in the front or back and they complied. I got 13 rides on it throughout the day (first time so hit up the other coasters as well) and 8 of them were front seat, 2 of them back seat.

 

BUT I went on a pretty dead day, Fury had a 5-10 minute line max with everything else being a station wait max. The Ops on Afterburn me and a few others sit on for 5 rides as long as our row wasn't being waited for (back row ftw)

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This is my first trip report ever done in this forum. Leave some feedback, so I can improve in future trip reports.

I'm not sure what sort of camera you are using but I feel like picture quality suffers a little bit. The photos seem to be a bit dark and the colors are not very crisp. What your camera lacks in some quality CAN be made up a little bit in software. For example, I was able to do this in about 60 seconds using Photoshop Express, which is a free iPhone app:

 

BEFORE:

100_0015.jpg

 

AFTER:

better_photo.jpg

 

Still it's not perfect but I think it's more than the source image wasn't the best.

 

Hope that helps a little!

 

Thanks for the advice, Robb. It will be better for my next trip report.

 

Hurler: I thought it was going to be bad as Vortex, but it's actually not bad. Sure, the coaster is still rough, bumpy, and has no airtime moment. My big plus about the coaster is that the coaster trains have the most comfortable seat I ever sat on. I did not feel pain when I got off because of the cushion seats. (2.5/5)

 

Nice trip report! Hurler used to have some pretty decent floater air back in the day, but the park installed trims at the bottom of the first drop which killed that off.

 

Thank you, Ryan. I can imagine it of what it will be like without the trims.

 

Jesus that sounds hellish. I'm all for long drives and 14 hours of driving in a day doesn't sound bad normally but getting up at 5AM, driving 7 hours, walking around in the sun all day and then driving for 7 more hours until about 3:30 in the morning is impressive.

 

Nice report, I still don't know why I'm the only one that enjoys Vortex.

 

Lol thanks, Bill. Idk how you did enjoy Vortex but very impressive. (claps)

 

Great report! Your thoughts on the coasters pretty much mirror mine. Still assigned seating on Fury?

 

Thank you, Canobie. Yes, they are still assigning seats for Fury.

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I made it there for the first time on the 16th also, if I had known there was someone else from the forum there I would have said hi. Overall the lines were non-existent.

 

The only thing I will add is the operations on Nighthawk seem to be terrible, or there is just something inherently wrong with the ride. Riders were sitting in the laying down position on the break run for 2-5 minutes.

After waiting in the line for the ride for almost an hour we were just about to get into the station and they shut it down for approximately 10-15 more minutes. We finally got on it, but yeah... not really worth it. The ride doesn't seem to ride smoothly on track overall, but I'm still happy I got on it.

 

My ranking of the coasters at the park on the 16th (after about 10-11 hours of driving and 1 1/2 hours of sleep) is pretty similar.

 

1. Fury 325 - 4.5 - This ride is great, the elements are really fantastic, but still not my favorite coaster mainly because I had 2 rough rides on it (second to last row furthest right seat shook my head pretty good but it may have just been 2 bad rides somehow)

2. Afterburn - 4.25 - Second best inverted coaster that I've been on, this ride was a ton of fun. Smooth and snappy.

3. Intimidateor - 4 - Ending was disappointing and overall the beautiful parking lot view wasn't the best (I guess it goes with the NASCAR theme) but my rides on this were perfectly smooth. It's no Fury, but it was a fun coaster.

4. Carolina Cyclone - 3 - This is where things take a pretty big step down. It's an Arrow looper, and falls right about in the middle of my ridden Arrow coasters, it's ok I guess.

(I'm done giving grades at this point)

5. Hurler - It was a lot better than I expected, but really wasn't great.

6. Carolina Goldrusher - I had more fun on this than I should have but it isn't a super special ride. The seats are pretty shallow.

7. Flying Cobras - It's a boomerang, not bad not great. I've ridden this exact one back in the day before it was moved from Geagua Lake.

8. Nighthawk - I did not enjoy it, but it would have been much more enjoyable if the operations were better. Overall I like rides a lot less after a long wait, but the ride still wasn't comfortable in my opinion.

9. Ricochet - It's a Wild Mouse

10. Vortex - I am sure there are people that like this ride but in my opinion this is the worst stand up coaster I've been on. Center of gravity is too high an bashes your head from side to side pretty terribly. I have to imagine this will be converted to a floorless in the next few years.

 

Overall I liked the park. It could use some additional landscaping, but I didn't expect a Busch Gardens style park, it's a Cedar Fair park and has that feel. The park isn't as large as I thought it would be but I had a very good time on the first day of my vacation before heading down to Hilton Head.

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