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Carowinds Discussion Thread

P. 417 - Fury back open now with 100% less crack!

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why can't Carowinds buy more property to build more coasters/thrill rides in the next few decades? Like Cedar Point and California's Great America is expanding with more land. Why can't Carowinds? I mean are they just going to tear down rides and replace them with new ones? They don't have space to increase their roller coaster count to compete with other theme parks?

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why can't Carowinds buy more property to build more coasters/thrill rides in the next few decades? Like Cedar Point and California's Great America is expanding with more land. Why can't Carowinds? I mean are they just going to tear down rides and replace them with new ones? They don't have space to increase their roller coaster count to compete with other theme parks?

 

 

Carowinds has room to expand. They can reclaim a large portion of the parking lot. Parts of it are rarely used. (They did this for Intimidator.) Also, They will have Dinos Alive area, RRR area to expand once those areas are cleared.

 

On top of that they have purchased land around the park recently so I am not quite sure what you are so freaked out about. They will continue adding new rides. They only rides I could forsee going in the near future are Vortex, PVZ, YOYO, and possibly Nighthawk. The GP love Nighthawk so that one is less likely.

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why can't Carowinds buy more property to build more coasters/thrill rides in the next few decades?

So, a park that has 14 coasters (2 of which are along the tallest in the world), plenty of acres to use outside the parks footprint and inside of it, a world class water park that is adding a custom mat racer (without removing anything) and still has acres inside the water park footprint to expand needs to buy more property? Have you ever been to Carowinds? Have you seen parks like indiana beach? As long as there is a place to plop a station, no park is running out of room.

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They don't have space to increase their roller coaster count to compete with other theme parks?

They're in the midst of expanding a portion of the parking lot toward the entrance road. The general thought is this will open up some of the lot to expand the park near Intimidator and where Dinos Alive was.

 

I presume you're referring to Copperhead Strike coming in to replace Thunder Road, as Intimidator and Fury were new builds in areas that didn't have a coaster before. TR was becoming too expensive to maintain, so taking it down was the best course of action and CS was a great replacement.

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Quick question for anyone in the know. I am planning on going to the park this Saturday for Scarowinds. Do you think that it will be packed this early in the Haunt season? I was planning on getting the Fright Lane pass, but I don't want to have to get Fast Lane Plus too if it is unnecessary.

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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^I haven't been this early in the season before, but my experience is that daytime crowds are pretty light during Scarowinds season and the night time crowds are awful. As always, get there and then judge if FL+ is necessary.

 

Also the park closes at 5 and reopens for Scarowinds. It is a separately ticketed event.

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^ Thanks for the heads up. I'm hoping it won't be too packed. I really only ride Fury, Intimidator, Afterburn, Drop Tower, Windseeker, and Copperhead Strike. I wouldn't mind getting on the Top Scan and the flyers but other than that I dont really ride anything else. I mainly want to do houses ride those coasters and rides mentioned.

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During my two nights at Scarowinds at 10pm the parking gates were backed up and people were still trying to get in. Waits for rides were several hours long. We waited about 10 minutes or less for each ride on Fury...

 

Hey Zach! It's Brian, the lurker from the Safari Line at Great Adventure!

 

I am considering heading down that way this weekend. How would you rate the experience? After that talk we had, I trust your opinion. Is the experience worth the 7 hour drive or would I be better served hitting Kings Dominion which is only about 2 hours from me?

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^They have a ride list up and I believe all major coasters are operating EXCEPT Vortex and Nighthawk! Most everything else in the park is open, plus whatever activities will be had for the peanuts celebration that goes on at that time as well.

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During my two nights at Scarowinds at 10pm the parking gates were backed up and people were still trying to get in. Waits for rides were several hours long. We waited about 10 minutes or less for each ride on Fury...

 

Hey Zach! It's Brian, the lurker from the Safari Line at Great Adventure!

 

I am considering heading down that way this weekend. How would you rate the experience? After that talk we had, I trust your opinion. Is the experience worth the 7 hour drive or would I be better served hitting Kings Dominion which is only about 2 hours from me?

 

Hey! I was wondering if I'd hear from you. We went a few years ago during Fury's first year and we had a blast. Carowinds is such a compact park that you don't have many dead areas that lack Halloween themeing. The Haunt lines moved pretty quick, but we only did a couple. I wouldn't go without Fast Lane Plus and the Fast Lane/Fright Lane combo seems to be the way to go. The only down side was that there were really long lines for beer and we have a tradition of drinking a lot during our annual Halloween park trips...

 

Either way, if you haven't ridden Fury it would be worth the trip. I'm sure King's Dominion has a good Halloween event too and I've heard Busch Gardens Williamsburg's Halloween event is really well done. I don't think there's a bad choice between the three of them.

 

PS: We completely pissed away $250 on our Flash Passes the day we saw you at Great Adventure. The Safari was the only time they paid off. Everything else had less than a five minute wait, as I'm sure you saw.

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So, I'll be making the most of my CF Platinum Pass and making my first ever trip to Carowinds/Scarowinds this weekend. I'll be able to go all night Friday, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday (weather dependent), and have budgeted for getting Fight Lane one night and Fast Lane Plus for one of the days. Planning on at least two rides on Fury, Copperhead Strike, Intimidator 232, and Afterburn. Of course, I have a few questions that I'm hoping the locals/employees/frequent visitors could shed some light on:

 

1. The calendar makes it look like they close the park between regular hours and Scarowinds. If this is true, do passholders need to leave in the downtime?

2. I see there's only 5 haunted walkthroughs, thankfully only one of which is duplicated at KD, my home park. How bad do lines get for the walkthroughs? Would Fright Lane be a necessity? Note that my tolerance for lines is only about 30 minutes these days.

3. Does the Passholder early-entry mornings stop due to Scarowinds? I know it makes no sense, but KD doesn't do Early Entry during Halloween season for some reason.

4. Any places in the park that serve mixed drinks? I'll drink a beer or seven if I have to, but I much prefer some Jack & Coke.

5. Any good places to eat that are on the dining plan? I'm considering getting the All-day dining for like $30 on each of the full days I'll be there, but if the selection is limited or horrible I won't bother. I'm not expecting gourmet food, but at least things that are edible.

6. Guessing the calendar for the water park is accurate, and that it'll be closed despite the 90 degree forecast for this weekend, right? A longshot but I gotta ask.

7. Any of the shows worth seeing? Might be nice to get in some AC for a while during the day.

 

Thanks in advance.

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So, I'll be making the most of my CF Platinum Pass and making my first ever trip to Carowinds/Scarowinds this weekend. I'll be able to go all night Friday, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday (weather dependent), and have budgeted for getting Fight Lane one night and Fast Lane Plus for one of the days. Planning on at least two rides on Fury, Copperhead Strike, Intimidator 232, and Afterburn. Of course, I have a few questions that I'm hoping the locals/employees/frequent visitors could shed some light on:

 

1. The calendar makes it look like they close the park between regular hours and Scarowinds. If this is true, do passholders need to leave in the downtime?

2. I see there's only 5 haunted walkthroughs, thankfully only one of which is duplicated at KD, my home park. How bad do lines get for the walkthroughs? Would Fright Lane be a necessity? Note that my tolerance for lines is only about 30 minutes these days.

3. Does the Passholder early-entry mornings stop due to Scarowinds? I know it makes no sense, but KD doesn't do Early Entry during Halloween season for some reason.

4. Any places in the park that serve mixed drinks? I'll drink a beer or seven if I have to, but I much prefer some Jack & Coke.

5. Any good places to eat that are on the dining plan? I'm considering getting the All-day dining for like $30 on each of the full days I'll be there, but if the selection is limited or horrible I won't bother. I'm not expecting gourmet food, but at least things that are edible.

6. Guessing the calendar for the water park is accurate, and that it'll be closed despite the 90 degree forecast for this weekend, right? A longshot but I gotta ask.

7. Any of the shows worth seeing? Might be nice to get in some AC for a while during the day.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

1. As I remember it, yes.

 

2. Don't know. Never did one.

 

3. Early Entry has ended for the year.

 

4. I don't think so. I generally don't drink at parks. And if I do, it's beer.

 

5. I pretty much only eat at Harmony Hall (food court with several options, I go for brisket, wings, or turkey legs) or the new country kitchen near Copperhead Strike. There is a bar at the country kitchen. Not sure if it will be staffed.

 

6. Water park is done for the season.

 

7. Not sure. I pretty much just do coasters. I have seen a few shows in Harmony Hall while eating. It's a big open room with a stage. Meh.

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Well I went to Scarowinds last Saturday and man was I disappointed. I cannot believe how many people were at the park. It was an absolute madhouse. I have personally never seen it like that. I figured going in September it wouldn't be to terribly busy even with it being a Saturday. I was WRONG!

 

First - my initial impression this year is that they really didn't give a fuc* putting this together. We only got 5 houses and they were the same from last year. Due to it being so busy...they had a continuous line of people going through every house. I had at least 20 people in front and behind me in every house. What a huge disappointment. I can't say i got spooked once.

 

With that said Fury is still amazing and Copperhead was great too!

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Nice update on Scarowinds. How were the ride lines at night? And what were wait times on mazes without fast pass? From pics I saw the park looked crowded for sure.

 

I had Fright Lane so I didn't actually wait in the lines but they lines for the houses were huge. Silver Scream went all the way out to the lockers at Fury's exit. Slaughterhouse was pouring onto the midway near Carolina Cyclone and they had a ton of switchbacks for that one. (I spoke to the guy letting people in Slaughterhouse and he said they were doing 700 people per 30 minutes. Urgent Scare was onto the Midway underneath Nighthawk. Depths of Darkness had three separate lines that were kinda confusing. They were staggering people into three sections. Once you got through one section of the line you would go to the next section. It also had a huge line.

 

As for rides Fury had a full queue the entire time I was there. Copperhead looked like it was about half full. I rode Do-Si-Do and Electro Spin and they both had queues almost onto the midway. I didn't really look into the other rides because I only had time to do all 5 houses and 4 rides. We left as the closed.

 

I will say it took an hour and a half just to get into the park so I would definitely recommend being in the area and getting in line early. Do not wait until 6:30 it will be a mistake. We waited, like I said, 1.5 hours to travel 2 exits leaving at 6:30 to finally get into the park. On top of that the entire parking lot was full. They had to have been at capacity because we parked next to the South Gate and they were no spaces left from the front of the parking lot to the end at the South Gate when we left.

 

I probably will never go again on a Saturday because I was really disappointed. If you don't like thousands of teenagers all around you at all times then go on a Sunday for sure.

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