Where the Carolinas Come Together

It is now time to blog about a place where the Carolinas meet: Carowinds. I was able to spend two full days in this park on Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2, 2015. As some of you blog readers probably know my main reason for this visit was to ride the newly built Fury 325. You can find a detailed post about Fury in my previous blog. I highly recommend it; the coaster and the blog post.

New Sign

 

North Carolina to the Right, South Carolina to the Left

 

The awesome thing about Carowinds is that it is literally built in two states: North Carolina and South Carolina. You enter the parks newly built entrance with the actual state line right down the middle. This is the only amusement park that I know of that has something unique like this. The front of the park now has a statement in the new roller coaster Fury 325. It is pretty spectacular to look at as you park your car in the newly added parking lot and then pass under the ride on your way to the newly built front entrance. Carowinds wanted to make a front entrance statement and they did a fantastic job of that.

New Entrance Plaza

 

Statement Made to Front Entrance!

 

 

On the Friday I visited the park it was open from 9:00 am until 10:00 pm. That’s right if you are calculating correctly that is 13 hours! This was one of the main reasons I wanted to go at this time of the year. Most amusement parks aren’t open that many hours this early in the season. I knew where I wanted to go as soon as I entered the park: Fury 325. There was already a line forming so I waited about 15 minutes, listened to the National Anthem play over the loudspeaker, and then followed the line towards Fury at 9:00 am.

I see you Fury!

 

I am going to give you a name/review of the coasters in the park which total 14. I rode 12 of them. The best one in the park by far is Fury 325. These reviews come in the order in which I rode them.

Fury 325: B&M Giga coaster built this year 2015. As most of you who read this blog know, Fury did not disappoint. If you want a more detailed description of the ride I have one in my previous blog. This ride is 325 feet high, reaches speeds of 95 mph, and delivers intense, smooth, fun! I say it is the best B&M coaster ever made.

Holy Lift Hill!

  

Hurler: International Coaster Inc wood coaster built in 1994. Looks nice from the outside but rides pretty dull. There is hardly any airtime whatsoever which is a surprising for a wooden coaster. I honestly think Carowinds should tear this coaster down and build a nicer one to compliment Fury which is right next to it.

Looks Nice but Does Not Ride Nice

 

Vortex: B&M stand-up coaster built in 1992. Layout is dull, and the ride is a tad rough. I rode this once and that was enough for me.

Yeah, NO!

Ricochet: Standard Mack wild mouse built in 2002. These are pretty fun for what they are but tend to have a long line due to the fact they have only four person trains. I think I waited almost 30 minutes to ride which is why I only rode once on my visit.

Wild Mouse Coaster

 

Flying Ace Ariel Chase: Vekoma suspended family coaster built in 2003. A pretty fun coaster for families. It has a nice location over a little pond. I was only able to ride this one once.

Pretty

 

Harmony Hall: This is a really nice place to grab lunch indoors with air condition. They have tons of food choices here. They have Italian, BBQ, Deli, and Grill type food. They also have many other options from fruit to dessert. You can also fill up your drink cups with their Coke Freestyle machines. At various times during the day you can eat your food and watch the stage for various entertainment throughout the season as well.

Harmony Hall meets Intimidator

 

Lots of Choices

 

Food Prices

 

 

Afterburn: B&M suspended coaster built in 1999. This ride has WIN written all over it! It is probably the most intense suspended coaster I have ever ridden. The layout is very nice with 6 inversions, 2 underground elements, 113 feet height, and 62 mph speed. All of these elements are packed into just under 3000 feet of track. I rode this six times on my trip.

LOOP!

 

Woodstock Express: Kiddie wooden coaster. It was a fun little ride great for kids and this coaster enthusiast who wanted to add another coaster to his track record (haha).

LIFT!

 

Intimidator: B&M hyper coaster built in 2010. It is 232 feet tall with a 211 foot drop and 8 airtime hills after on over 5000 feet of track. It reaches top speeds of 75 mph. This is a great coaster to ride over and over again being that it is smooth and fun. However, now with Fury on the other side of the park I could only focus my attention on 8 laps for this ride.

Start Your Coasters!

 

Thunder Road: Racing wooden coaster built in 1976. It is starting to show its age. It had a few moments of airtime but overall not a very good coaster for me. I only rode it once on Friday. I was going to ride again on Saturday but I saw a line that I didn’t want to wait in.

Double WOOD!

 

Carolina Cobra: Standard Vekoma boomerang. You go forward through three inversions and then backward through those same inversions. I told the guy that rode with me this would be a “one and done” ride for me and it was.

Boomerang!

 

Carolina Gold Rusher: Standard Arrow mine train built in 1973. This was the first and only roller coaster when Carowinds opened in 1973. It really wasn’t that great of a ride to me. I didn’t really care for the layout and it never seemed to have much speed throughout the course. There are some mine train rides that I like but this wasn’t one of them sadly.

Helix!

 

Carolina Cyclone: Arrow steel corkscrew coaster built in 1980. It goes upside down 4 times but that’s only good enough to get me to ride once. These coasters are rough and just aren’t very good overall. I rode this ride my only time on Saturday. 

PAIN!

  

Nighthawk: Vekoma flying coaster built in 2000 and moved to Carowinds in 2004. This was one of only 2 Carowinds coasters that I did not ride. I could have on Saturday but chose not to. I am not the biggest fan of these type of coasters so I passed.

Flying Coaster

 

Lucy's Crabbie Cabbie: Kiddie coaster that I did not ride because you have to have a child with you to ride. It’s a cute little ride for kiddies.

Park Bench: The Ride

 

Not surprisingly enough I only managed to ride roller coasters during my Carowinds trip. I mean I love roller coasters! In all honesty though Carowinds doesn’t really have a huge thrilling flat ride lineup. They have the Southern Star, Drop Tower, Windseeker, and Scream Weaver. They have two water rides in White Water Falls and Rip Roarin Rapids. Then they have some classic rides like the Scrambler, Yo Yo swing ride, Dodgem bumper cars, Boo Blasters dark ride, and skytower. They also have an additional 13 rides located in Planet Snoopy the kids area. Carowinds does have a waterpark attached to the park but it was not opened during my visit.

Southern Star

Drop Tower

Windseeker Seeking Wind

Wheel of Death I mean Scream Weaver

 

I enjoyed my Carowinds visit very much. It was nice to be able to add seven new to me coasters to my overall track record that I missed during my visit in 2013. The operations seemed to be ok overall. The employees seemed to genuinely care about their jobs and always smiled and said “have a nice day” when approached. I spent a few minutes talking to one older employee the first day I arrived. It was nice of him to take a few moments giving me advice on what to do during my visit. I was also impressed with the overall scenery of the park as shown with some of these pictures below. 

 

The food was pretty good. The only meals I ate at the park were during lunch at Harmony Hall. I had the beef brisket and mac n cheese on Friday which was very good. On Saturday I had the Italian hoagie and pasta salad which was great and plentiful. The food prices really aren’t that bad either at around $11 without drink.

Beef Brisket Sandwich and Mac N Cheese

Italian Hoagie and Pasta Salad

 

With all of that being said Carowinds really only has three good roller coasters. After Fury, Afterburn, and Intimidator the rest of their coasters aren’t very good unfortunately (at least in my opinion). The addition of Fury 325 however makes this park a must visit even if Fury is the only ride you ride. Fury 325 is seriously that good. I hope to try and visit this park one more time this season with my family. 

Soar!

Hills!

FURY!

  

Two-day Stats:

76x Fury (OMG Amazing Ride and my #2 overall Roller Coaster)

8x Intimidator (Fun B&M Hyper Coaster #27 overall)

6x Afterburn (Possibly the most intense B&M inverted coaster #33 overall)

3x Hurler (Wood but next to no airtime = blah)

1x Vortex (Old B&M standup coaster that needs to be retired)

1x Ricochet (Typical mouse coaster with bad capacity)

1x Flying Ace Aerial Chase (Kids suspended coaster)

1x Woodstock Express (Kids wooden coaster)

1x Thunder Road (Racing wooden coaster with some airtime just ok)

1x Carolina Cobra (Vekoma boomerang is all you need to know)

1x Carolina Gold Rusher (Boring mine train ride)

1x Carolina Cyclone (Arrow looper = brace yourself for pain)

= 101x Total Rides Ridden (Fury was worth riding 76 times)

I had a Blast

 

Time Spent in Park: 26 total hours

Meals: Lunch on Friday and Saturday at Harmony Hall

Drink Cup Refills: 5x

Longest Wait of the Trip: 30 minutes on Ricochet  

Would have been Longest Wait of the Trip: 1 hour 40 minutes (if I had not of purchased Fast Lane, their skip the line system, on Saturday)

Fast Lane Price: $70 (worth every penny on a busy Saturday)

Overall Park Grade: B-

Park Rank: 12th out of 28 parks visited

See the State Line?