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Photo TR: Carowinds 4/9/05


DerekRx

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Ok, so by early April living back here in Pennsylvania had gotten pretty boring, and I was needing a coaster ride (well, not really, but let's pretend I did). Seeing how Six Flags Great Adventure was the only thing opened this early in the season up here, I decided to take a weekend trip to Charlotte with fellow coaster A-lister, Tim Melago. I hadn't been to Carowinds in 3 years, him in the last 5, so we were both due. The weather for the weekend was calling for "mostly cloudy with highs near 60". As you will tell from the pictures, apparently in the Carolinas, clouds are invisible, and "near 60" means 75 degrees F. In short, it was a perfect Spring weekend. Onto the day....

 

We arrived at opening, and after using my free ticket from Eastcoaster, we were inside the park. First stop, Borg Assimilator. But it was closed, so we moved on to Reptar's whatever coaster. It had no wait, so we weren't waiting too long to have the crap beat out of us. Honestly, if I was a little kid and this was my first suspended coaster, I'd take up knitting instead. It delivered whacks to the head much like Mr. Miagi or David Carradine from Death Race 2000. After our eyes stopped bleeding, we noticed Borg had finally run with people so we swung by there for the credit.

 

The wait was about 30 minutes, had boring theming, and poor loading procedures, but it was an ok ride. Had the wait been 15 minutes, I may have wanted to ride again. At least they installed a canopy in the brake run, and the home boys we rode with were entertaining. Afterwards we made our way around the park, riding pretty much everything. In short, Carowinds is one of the best Paramount Parks. Its clean, has friendly staff, a decent amount of rides and coasters, and yet still manages to have scenery and sections not too overthemed like PKD or PKI. Here's a rundown on everything else we did:

 

Vortex: now just an average B&M. Line wasn't too long, still more intense than the newer B&Ms

 

Hurler: still a great woodie, but the retracting seatbelts hinder it greatly. Airtime actually hurts now.

 

Ricochet: Rico was running good, not as good as Hershey's mouse though. Still brake-free on the top. Chet was just average.

 

Carolina Cyclone: Its a fairly ok Arrow. Its got pain, but what Arrow doesn't (thank you very much Ron Toomer)

 

ThunderRoad: Forward was more sluggish than backward. The crew on this ride was dismal.

 

Flying Super Saturator: didn't ride for fear of making some kid's cast wet and ruining his whole life. The same water effects were on as my last visit 3 years ago. Later in the day all water effects were on for spectators, none for the riders.

 

Drop Zone: We went up really really high (like 100 feet) and then we dropped (like 100 feet). None of Elissa's people were on the ride, so no one fell out. We were happy.

 

Goldrusher: Not as much fun as before. The lack of "the train is leaving the station" playing every 4 seconds, plus Borg there instead of scenic lagoon makes the ride more blah. Still one of the less awful transitioning Arrows. All it needs is the new trains and all is well again.

 

Fairly Odd Coaster: (Formerly Scooby Doo's Ghoster Coaster). Its a wooden kiddie coaster. It was thrilling (if I was a kiddie).

 

Top Gun: Still the best ride in the park. Its B&M, its got forces, a cool layout, and a Vertical loop. Derek was a happy camper. (and I didn't even do any camping!)

 

Now for some pictures (because, after all, you've read this much hoping for pictures and everyone likes pictures better than words (at least Robb does):

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Here's the entrance. Notice the super evil clouds disguised as blue sky and sun.

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The "Borgball" is pretty large. No Borg were home when we visited though. They must have all been at Heritage USA.

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Here's Borg from the Sky Tower. Isn't it just so.....Vekoma?!

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Tim does his Borg dance hoping to get the trains to cycle faster. Tim lost weight, but the trains didn't cycle any faster.

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New for '05 was PKI's old flying scooters

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Haha, PKI fans can't do this anymore. Go ride Beast instead

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Also new this year was Scooby Doo selling his coaster to the Fairly Odd Parents (is this a new credit for Jeff Johnson?)

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Cool guys in leather know where to eat

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Yup, they know the way, oooh look a coaster too.

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Tim's girlfriend was really hot once, but she said something bad about Pitt sports, and Tim had to put her in her place. Now she has no face.

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Sharktums' relative didn't have such a good day at Carowinds

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A trainful of riders enjoy Top Gun

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Derek's obligatory vertical loop photo

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Top Gun is still the parks signature ride

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Even though its got lots of rides, Carowinds still has room for scenery

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OK, forget for a second the rest of your awesome TR (I was laughing the whole time!!!) How the hell do you know about Death Race 2000!?!??! It is quite possibly the best movie ever and to see you quote it, well, it made my night!

 

BTW, My other favorite park was in the horribly mean picture of Sharktums' relatives I could see the bench that I was laying on (near death) last summer for 6 hours!

 

Elissa "70 points for the old people" Alvey

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I want to do an audio TR for Carowinds. Want to know what it'll be? Nothing but the sound of people bouncing friggin' basketballs. I was amazed that this wasn't the case at PKD - they have the same skill games there, but I guess the folks in Virginia realize that bouncing a Spongebob Squarepants basketball around everywhere you go impresses no one.

 

Don't get me started on Borg. I put my bag in the lockers. I asked the line attendant if there would be any problem with me wearing my glasses (they were on a tight strap - the only way I was going to lose the glasses was if I lost my head). The line attendant said no problem. I made it to the front of the line (of course, folks in the Carolinas are too stupid to understand single rider lines, so that was gone already) and asked the fellow there if there was any problems with the glasses. He said no. I got onto the ride and go strapped in. Then someone told me I couldn't wear my glasses. They wanted me to put them into the bin with everyone else's hats, shades, flipflops, etc. I actually need my glasses to, y'know, SEE, so I was less than enthused about having my glasses bouncing around in there with everyone else's stuff (because, you know, they'll BREAK). I asked the ride op why no one else seemed to think it was a problem. He replied that everyone else I had talked to was new.

 

Needless to say, I got off the coaster and headed straight to customer relations. They got a manager up who was completely dumbfounded that the ride ops couldn't understand that that strap was on tight. She offered to walk me right back up to the platform to ride the coaster, but I passed. I had already ridden it once (that's how I learned that glasses in the bin get broken), and didn't even like the ride that much. I just wanted to voice a concern regarding the training of the ride ops. She was totally cool about it, so I didn't leave angry or anything.

 

But I know that I'll have the exact same problem next time I try to ride Borg Assimilator. That's why I have little intentions of riding it (since it pales miserably in comparison to Top Gun anyways).

 

Jeez. How did I get up on the soap box?

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That area of the park used to be themed to Wayne's World (the Hurler, the Scream Weaver, Stan Mikitas). I have to imagine the speed limit sign is a throw back to that film (though I haven't seen Wayne's World in so long, I have no clue what the actual reference there is).

 

-or-

 

People in the Carolinas are stupid

 

Both answers are equally valid.

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Hey Derek,

Good trip report, I enjoyed reading all about it and viewing the photos... sounded like you had alot of fun there. I got to visit the park last year around the time the hurricanes came through here, and we got in free parking and free admission, it was cool... although it was so crowded the only thing I really got to ride was Top Gun and a few other coasters..

 

Those new designs on the flyers are neat, though I'm not really the biggest fan of those rides... because there nothing special to me?

 

-Justin "P.S. - nice icon, it matches the picture on your phone lol"

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