Park one: Carowinds
For this next year I'm going to be doing a blog series where I share my opinions on all of the parks I travel to. To start this off I'm going to do a review on my home park and place of employment. I am of course talking about Carowinds.
For those of you who don't know, Carowinds is actually the only park in the U.S. that sits on the border of two states. Half of the park is in Fort Mill, SC, and the other half is located in Charlotte, NC. The park takes advantage of this by placing a line down the centre of the main entry showing exactly where the border lies.
The park is owned by Cedar Fair, the same company that owns Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio and Knott's Berry Farm in southern California.
The park has a decent selection of rides including 13 roller coasters, the newest of which, The Intimidator, will be opening next year. The park's other star attractions are Afterburn, a Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) Inverted Coaster, and Nighthawk, a Vekoma Flying Dutchman. Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, it's on to the meat-and-potatoes of this blog entry.
In my personal opinion, this is one of the nicest Cedar Fair parks. There is a lot of charm alongside decent landscaping and theming. Carowinds' staff is always friendly and polite, and the pathways are kept very clean and tidy. This, however, is just the icing on the cake. Carowinds also boasts some world-class roller coasters and various fun flat rides.
Afterburn is a top-notch coaster and has sat firmly in my top 10 ever since it debuted 10 years ago. It has a great layout with a couple of very intense elements. In my opinion, this is the best B&M Invert in the country, and it's only getting better with age.
Nighthawk was originally opened as Stealth, the world's first flying coaster, at California's Great America. The first half of the ride is fun and surprisingly smooth -- as for the second half, it's best if you bring along some Tylenol.
Vortex was one of B&M's very first coasters. It features a very simplistic layout, but proves to be very intense for its size. It is also normally quite smooth. I personally love this coaster and ride it every time I'm at the park.
Thunder Road is a classic PTC racing wooden coaster designed by Curt Summers. Unfortunately, the ride has a few rough spots which Great Coasters International (GCI) has taken on the task of rebuilding. It features an amazing first drop as well as a fun, airtime filled first half. After the turnaround though, most of the airtime dies. This will hopefully change thanks to the rebuilding process.
Carolina Cyclone is an Arrow looping coaster and was actually the first coaster in the world to feature four inversions. To this day, it has remained one of the smoothest and best Arrow coasters that I have ever been on.
Hurler is a wooden coaster with a layout inspired by Thunder Run at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. In the first few years of its operation, it was smooth, fast, fun and airtime filled. Over time, though, the trains slowly started taking their toll on the track. In recent years it has become a very painful experience. Thankfully, and surprisingly, the park added a trim brake to the bottom of the first drop that has made the ride much smoother.
The rest of the attractions don't warrant much attention. There's a standard Wild Mouse, an Arrow Mine Train, a Vekoma Boomerang and suspended Roller Skater, PTC junior wooden coaster and a Miller kiddie coaster.
Other than coasters, there are a few note-worthy flat rides. There's Screamweaver, one of the world's only Intamin-built enterprises; Southern Star, an Intamin Looping Starship; a Huss Rainbow; and also an Intamin drop tower. But most importantly, there are flyers. The flyers at Carowinds are normally ranked second only to Knoebels'.
Well, that's the basic rundown of my opinions on my home park. I will be following up with further entries once a month. Until then, thanks for reading!
Photo: Carowinds
