- April 13th, 2013, 6:34 pm
#50809
I went to Carowinds for the first time in 2013 yesterday. I always love the first visit of the year so you can see all the changes they made in the offseason. Being an Education Day there were numerous school groups there, but they seemed to stay out of my way and provided for extremely light crowds throughout the day. I don't think I waited longer than 10 minutes for anything.
Personal note, this is the most number of rides I've been on at the park, on a "regular" (non-coaster event) day since 2005. Also I got my 100th ride on Inimidator, yay me! All around a really fun day.
First some bad stuff, mostly with Operations.
-The seatbelts on Goldrusher, Ricochet, and Woodstock Express are completely unnecessary and lengthen the wait considerably. Furthermore having to buckle the seatbelts on Thunder Road on UNUSED seats took quite a bit of time as well.
-On days where it was not busy like yesterday it seems useless to have the person at the top of the stairs 'grouping' people on rides like Intimidator, Goldrusher, Vortex, Cyclone and Afterburn. I use the term grouping very loosely as there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to where people sat. Also frequently on Intimidator the groupers were not as fast as the dispatchers meaning whole rows were sent empty.
Here is an exchange that happened on Intimidator:
(Group in front of me with 3) Alright Rows 11 and 12
(Me as a single rider, thinking I would be grouped with them)You can go up to number 3.
NO ONE SAT NEXT TO ME! There had to be a ton of empty seats going out every train.
I know the reason for this is Fast Lane but I don't think I saw a single person using it yesterday. There has to way to judge the number of Fast Lane purchases by a certain time of day, and if it's under a certain amount just put these people in other areas, and let the crowd "free for all" into the stations. Some people I saw given the front row(s) of Intimidator that did not want them, but this was more amusing than problematic.
-The traffic leaving the park is so terrible. I'm not sure what can be done about this.
-Ricochet STILL hasn't been painted. It might be the worst looking coaster in the park.
LINK.
On to more pleasant things-
-Upgrading my Platinum Pass from last year was super easy, I for sure thought I would have to go back through pass processing but I didn't. It even saved me SIX DOLLARS!
-"The Carowinds Grove" area looks great. EXCEPT for this unsightly muddy cesspool-
LINK.
Here is how the area looked in 2006 (most recent pic I could find, sorry) and yesterday. I'm looking forward to C3 in September to check them out first hand.
LINK.
LINK.
Looks like the trees have been trimmed as well, perhaps a bit too much.
LINK.
-I rode Vortex for the first time in 3 years, and LIKED it. What the hell? Unfortunately I did not come away unscathed as I had my head stuck too far out of the restraints as they lifted at exit and got quite the bad ear boxing. I've only been on Vortex 3 times since the beginning of 2006. Maybe it deserves some more rides.
Speaking of Vortex I hadn't been on it since the wheelchair elevator was added so here is a picture of that.
LINK.
-Looks like the Gliders got an actual roof instead of the mesh thing they've had since it opened. Also this was frequently the number of people I had to deal with in line for the Gliders. (Zero) To see more of my Glider related comments check out the thread HERE.
LINK.
-The vines are finally coming back! I'll be glad when it's back to fully covered and this will be a nice respite from the heat.
LINK.
-I noticed some new(?) decals on the front of Thunder Road, Hurler, and Cyclone. They look pretty nice IMO.
LINK.
LINK.
LINK.
-Speaking of Hurler I rode the front seat in both trains and couldn't tell much of a difference between them. It was certainly running better than the past few years though, since the trim brake is off.
-Thunder Road is really great now, except for those last two hops and into the tunnel. I only rode this once on the Grey side. The Blue side was closed and the ops on Grey were moving in super slow mo, which deterred me from attempting another ride later in the day.
-I noticed some new(?) wood on Cyclone and Scrambler. Exciting stuff here folks.
LINK.
LINK.
-Here is the new "mystery building."
LINK.
-Is this the new WindSeeker evacuation platform? (It's a scissor lift, if you can't tell)
LINK.
-Here is a piece of the actual evac platform, I can't even figure out how it works. Looks like it rotates around the center, and people are evacuated into the cage? Sounds terrifying.
LINK.
-Time to address the big pink dinosaur in the room; Dinosaurs Alive.
I don't think anyone has been more vocal against it than me on these forums, and for good reason. The idea is inherently stupid. 1) Upcharge 2)Lame animatronics 3) Facts you could get off Wikipedia. Add to this, that at every other park that has installed these there has been SOME ATTEMPT made to hide them. Not at Carowinds, you can see them in their entirety from Intimidator and Afterburn.
(Some of the stitching is rough, I apologize)
LINK to 1600x415
LINK to 2048x531
LINK to 7518x1950 Original Size
That said, it looks nice. *GASP* I even thought about doing it, but only to take pictures of Intimidator and Afterburn.
Carowinds was given a turd sandwich by Cedar Fair, and they did their best to polish it to a fine shine. It doesn't appear that any trees were removed as I had possibly feared. The build out to the Dinostore is particularly impressive. It used to be a little crappy barn and now its a respectable store. (In structure, not content
)
Here's how it looked in 2010 and yesterday.
LINK.
LINK.
A minor annoyance is that the path from behind the Gliders to Yacht Club is now no longer available for guests to walk through. Here is the dead end now at the end of Yacht Club and Crabbie Cabbie. I shouldn't be riding Yacht Club anyway so I doubt I'll be back here much.
LINK.
So ultimately, while I don't like Dinosaurs Alive, I do accept it. For a little while anyway. I look at the entire area as a giant 'Under Construction 2016/2017' site. The entire time I was walking around and taking pictures I was imagining all the cool expansions that Planet Snoopy could undergo with that amount of land. They already have paths, just take down the fences and replace the Dinosaurs with various kiddie rides.
Here are a few more of my ramblings before I wrap this up-
I wonder how much Marathon paid to have their signs be ignored by tens of thousands of people every day. What are they even selling? Oh crap am I advertising for them? Marathon did not pay me to write this Trip Report! YOUR CAR WILL LOVE GETTING GAS AT MARATHON!
LINK.
The Laser thing isn't new, but I think "The Vault" name is..
LINK.
The old ice cream building looks pretty spiffy as Rita's. I didn't see the one in Carolina Boardwalk, so no picture.
LINK.
I found the picture of the defunct Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags Great Adventure in the Education Day 'area' amusing, and confusing.
LINK.
Well, can you?
LINK.
The science stuff was really cool, even though I am about 15 years past the age they were going for. One of the exhibits you had to put a magnet through a copper pipe. Since copper isn't magnetic it looked something like this:
This isn't slowed down at all, its amazing how simple stuff can blow your mind sometimes.
These game prizes keep getting stranger and stranger.
LINK.
This area will be home to 'Spin Out,' a Zamperla Giant Discovery, next year. Right Edwardo?
LINK.
I think that's it, to see all my pictures from the day click HERE.
Thanks for reading!
Personal note, this is the most number of rides I've been on at the park, on a "regular" (non-coaster event) day since 2005. Also I got my 100th ride on Inimidator, yay me! All around a really fun day.
First some bad stuff, mostly with Operations.
-The seatbelts on Goldrusher, Ricochet, and Woodstock Express are completely unnecessary and lengthen the wait considerably. Furthermore having to buckle the seatbelts on Thunder Road on UNUSED seats took quite a bit of time as well.
-On days where it was not busy like yesterday it seems useless to have the person at the top of the stairs 'grouping' people on rides like Intimidator, Goldrusher, Vortex, Cyclone and Afterburn. I use the term grouping very loosely as there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to where people sat. Also frequently on Intimidator the groupers were not as fast as the dispatchers meaning whole rows were sent empty.
Here is an exchange that happened on Intimidator:
(Group in front of me with 3) Alright Rows 11 and 12
(Me as a single rider, thinking I would be grouped with them)You can go up to number 3.
NO ONE SAT NEXT TO ME! There had to be a ton of empty seats going out every train.
I know the reason for this is Fast Lane but I don't think I saw a single person using it yesterday. There has to way to judge the number of Fast Lane purchases by a certain time of day, and if it's under a certain amount just put these people in other areas, and let the crowd "free for all" into the stations. Some people I saw given the front row(s) of Intimidator that did not want them, but this was more amusing than problematic.
-The traffic leaving the park is so terrible. I'm not sure what can be done about this.
-Ricochet STILL hasn't been painted. It might be the worst looking coaster in the park.
LINK.
On to more pleasant things-
-Upgrading my Platinum Pass from last year was super easy, I for sure thought I would have to go back through pass processing but I didn't. It even saved me SIX DOLLARS!
-"The Carowinds Grove" area looks great. EXCEPT for this unsightly muddy cesspool-
LINK.
Here is how the area looked in 2006 (most recent pic I could find, sorry) and yesterday. I'm looking forward to C3 in September to check them out first hand.
LINK.
LINK.
Looks like the trees have been trimmed as well, perhaps a bit too much.
LINK.
-I rode Vortex for the first time in 3 years, and LIKED it. What the hell? Unfortunately I did not come away unscathed as I had my head stuck too far out of the restraints as they lifted at exit and got quite the bad ear boxing. I've only been on Vortex 3 times since the beginning of 2006. Maybe it deserves some more rides.
Speaking of Vortex I hadn't been on it since the wheelchair elevator was added so here is a picture of that.
LINK.
-Looks like the Gliders got an actual roof instead of the mesh thing they've had since it opened. Also this was frequently the number of people I had to deal with in line for the Gliders. (Zero) To see more of my Glider related comments check out the thread HERE.
LINK.
-The vines are finally coming back! I'll be glad when it's back to fully covered and this will be a nice respite from the heat.
LINK.
-I noticed some new(?) decals on the front of Thunder Road, Hurler, and Cyclone. They look pretty nice IMO.
LINK.
LINK.
LINK.
-Speaking of Hurler I rode the front seat in both trains and couldn't tell much of a difference between them. It was certainly running better than the past few years though, since the trim brake is off.
-Thunder Road is really great now, except for those last two hops and into the tunnel. I only rode this once on the Grey side. The Blue side was closed and the ops on Grey were moving in super slow mo, which deterred me from attempting another ride later in the day.
-I noticed some new(?) wood on Cyclone and Scrambler. Exciting stuff here folks.
LINK.
LINK.
-Here is the new "mystery building."
LINK.
-Is this the new WindSeeker evacuation platform? (It's a scissor lift, if you can't tell)
LINK.
-Here is a piece of the actual evac platform, I can't even figure out how it works. Looks like it rotates around the center, and people are evacuated into the cage? Sounds terrifying.
LINK.
-Time to address the big pink dinosaur in the room; Dinosaurs Alive.
I don't think anyone has been more vocal against it than me on these forums, and for good reason. The idea is inherently stupid. 1) Upcharge 2)Lame animatronics 3) Facts you could get off Wikipedia. Add to this, that at every other park that has installed these there has been SOME ATTEMPT made to hide them. Not at Carowinds, you can see them in their entirety from Intimidator and Afterburn.
(Some of the stitching is rough, I apologize)
LINK to 1600x415
LINK to 2048x531
LINK to 7518x1950 Original Size
That said, it looks nice. *GASP* I even thought about doing it, but only to take pictures of Intimidator and Afterburn.
Carowinds was given a turd sandwich by Cedar Fair, and they did their best to polish it to a fine shine. It doesn't appear that any trees were removed as I had possibly feared. The build out to the Dinostore is particularly impressive. It used to be a little crappy barn and now its a respectable store. (In structure, not content
)Here's how it looked in 2010 and yesterday.
LINK.
LINK.
A minor annoyance is that the path from behind the Gliders to Yacht Club is now no longer available for guests to walk through. Here is the dead end now at the end of Yacht Club and Crabbie Cabbie. I shouldn't be riding Yacht Club anyway so I doubt I'll be back here much.
LINK.
So ultimately, while I don't like Dinosaurs Alive, I do accept it. For a little while anyway. I look at the entire area as a giant 'Under Construction 2016/2017' site. The entire time I was walking around and taking pictures I was imagining all the cool expansions that Planet Snoopy could undergo with that amount of land. They already have paths, just take down the fences and replace the Dinosaurs with various kiddie rides.
Here are a few more of my ramblings before I wrap this up-
I wonder how much Marathon paid to have their signs be ignored by tens of thousands of people every day. What are they even selling? Oh crap am I advertising for them? Marathon did not pay me to write this Trip Report! YOUR CAR WILL LOVE GETTING GAS AT MARATHON!
LINK.
The Laser thing isn't new, but I think "The Vault" name is..
LINK.
The old ice cream building looks pretty spiffy as Rita's. I didn't see the one in Carolina Boardwalk, so no picture.
LINK.
I found the picture of the defunct Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags Great Adventure in the Education Day 'area' amusing, and confusing.
LINK.
Well, can you?
LINK.
The science stuff was really cool, even though I am about 15 years past the age they were going for. One of the exhibits you had to put a magnet through a copper pipe. Since copper isn't magnetic it looked something like this:
This isn't slowed down at all, its amazing how simple stuff can blow your mind sometimes.
These game prizes keep getting stranger and stranger.
LINK.
This area will be home to 'Spin Out,' a Zamperla Giant Discovery, next year. Right Edwardo?
LINK.
I think that's it, to see all my pictures from the day click HERE.
Thanks for reading!
