[Jarsh]

^I'm not at all surprised with the winter we had.

I don't buy this at all. Other parks can build HUGE coasters in far worse weather (Banshee, Leviathan, etc) and they open months before a water park does. Bottom line - if you want something to open on a certain day (opening day) you have to properly plan everything out so that you can start at the right time.

I see all to often parks that don't start major construction projects until after they close for the season and I just don't understand the reasoning behind it. If I owned a park, I'd much rather have people see my "New For ????" attraction under construction at the close of the previous season rather than under construction at the opening of the new season. In a way, it's false advertising. The park builds excitement for the new attraction so they can sell more tickets/season passes and then they don't deliver said attraction until the new season is half over? Ridiculous. I'm not speaking directly about Carowinds in regards to the slides as much as I am about a lot of parks' way of handling new attractions. I make exceptions for rides that are complete but have issues (Falcon's Fury), but overall it just makes the park look bad if they're still "turning dirt" on opening day.

[chknwing]

I dunno, if the slides arn't done by the time the water park opens, what are the chances that the single ticket buyers will buy another ticket or upgrade to a pass in order to ride it later? I would say the chances are decent.

[Capler]

I feel situations like this has more to do with management and internal disorganization. A good contractor will take everything into consideration and deliver the goods when promised because they want to get paid. Carowinds management seemed to have dropped the ball this season for some reason. I hope they do better with next year's attraction but I'm getting worried because the Ohio B&M plant is not showing us much. They seem to be working on another project.

[Edwardo]

There's no way to know what they're working on in Ohio. There are at least two tracks that are painted and various that aren't.

Kinda hard to say we aren't seeing much when we don't know what we're looking at, and it's not unusual to see track show up there painted just before it's shipped out.

[RollerBee]

I still think they are spread too thin with so many different projects going on. Almost feels like a year round park, which I wouldnt mind seeing Carowinds do if at all possible.

[Jay]

Whatever the reason for the slides opening late this year, I'm willing to give Carowinds the benefit of the doubt. Since I've been regularly going to the park (14 years) they've never had anything open late (to my knowledge, maybe RollerBee will correct me ) . All the main park attractions opened opening day and all the waterpark stuff was open by Memorial Day. Just hope it's this one time, and doesn't become "a thing" like Six Flags is prone to do these days.


And are people really fretting about next year? Don't know if you've noticed, but between the slides, the parking tollbooths, Harmony Hall, Chickie & Pete's etc. they have a ton of stuff they need to get open this year. The Go-Kart track is still fully intact. There is no need to worry about what the "B&M Plant" is doing based on photos that could be several weeks old. I don't know if anyone remembers my little update from the "B&M Plant" in 2009, it was early July and only a few pieces of the station, break run and lift were present. And it still didn't arrive at the park until over a month later. To even expect anything this early, is just foolish.

It really sucks all that info leaked last year pretty much taking all the fun out of this process. I remember with Intimidator we really didn't have any information other than footers until July with the CoasterStock video teaser, and my sneak photos from Ohio. Then in August we had the Intimidator name leak, track showing up, and finally the announcement in late August. People are are used to information coming in a short two month span, but this time it's being dragged out over a year.

The reality is, there is no (new) information to be had, nor should there be. It's a slow process.

TL;DR - It's still April, settle down folks.

[RollerBee]

Jay, wikipedia and Carowinds Zone both listed Hurler as opening in June 1994. However I do not remember where that information came from. Unsurely I didnt just follow what Wikipedia says. Hurler is the only attraction I know of opening late.

[Jonathan]

Hurler did in fact open significantly late. I don't remember when exactly but June sounds about right. I remember because 9 year old me was still scared of the "big" coasters, but when Hurler finally opened my parents threatened to not buy season passes for the next year if I didn't start riding them. Needless to say I rode and 414 roller coasters later they are probably still regretting ever unleashing that monster.

[Wormy]

Jacking the speed way up on these and cutting out enough to keep it interesting. No one has the attention span to watch a vid over 3 minutes long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlZ8fsjwqAY

[gabed]

I remember because 9 year old me was still scared of the "big" coasters, but when Hurler finally opened my parents threatened to not buy season passes for the next year if I didn't start riding them. Needless to say I rode and 414 roller coasters later they are probably still regretting ever unleashing that monster.

Funny, that's exactly how I ended up becoming an enthusiast.

[pproteinc]

I think that's how most of us became enthusiasts. Only with me I made myself ride a "big" coaster and then my beast was unleashed and 518 coaster later I'm still at it. lol......Question. Am I the only one who is not crazy about the yellow siding that going on harmony hall? I was hoping for some elborate brick or something with theme to it. That building is to huge to be just vinyl siding IMO...or maybe I'm jumping to conclusions to fast.

[Jonathan]

I was waiting until it was closer to complete to say something, but based on the very limited perspective given by the webcam, that's kind of an ugly looking building. We'll see how the view up close is, though.

[intaminboy]

Why is there a bunch of cars in the parking lot?

https://www.carowinds.com/online-fun/webcams

[Jonathan]

Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament. They always use the Carowinds parking lot to operate a park and ride shuttle.

[Bigcoasterguy]

For those intrested (because it's my favorite place to eat In the park) carowinds has announced Chick fila will open tomorow