[coasterbruh]

Lets get to the bottom of this paramount thing. I wanna hear what you guys really think of the paramount years. It seems some feel like paramount was the anti-christ and some feel paramount was the best thing to happen to the park. So I figure I would devote a thread to fully discuss the situation more in depth. I know there are quite a few who has been thru the taft era and the paramount era and all of us are going thru the cedar fair era. In no way am I meaning this to be a cedar fair vs' paramount thread because that wouldnt be fair to cedar fair since they havent had the parks as long as paramount had the parks to compare the time frames.

So lets discuss!

[carowindsman6654]

I personally liked the Paramount years. They added new coasters to the park every few years and kept the park running efficiently. The waterpark was great too and you don't have to pay extra to use it. I like Cedar Fair also though. They keep the park clean and are adding a new coaster to the park next year. Paramount wanted to see Carowinds succeed and prosper as does Cedar Fair now. I do think Paramount had better names for their rides though.

[Jay]

Great thread idea Jarvis.

I think we need to break this down more.

1992 - Vortex
1993 - Days of Thunder in Action Theater
1994 - Hurler, Waynes World
1995 - Animation Station expansion/retheme
1996 - Drop Zone
1997 - Waterworks expansion
1998 - Zoom Zone, James Bond in Action Theater
1999 - Top Gun
2000 - Flying Super Saturator
2001 - Pipeline Peak, Scooby Doo's Haunted Mansion, 7th Portal
2002 - Ricochet, Carolina Boardwalk
2003 - Rugrats Runaway Reptar, Nick Central Phase 1, Spongebob in Action Theater
2004 - Borg Assimilator
2005 - Flyers, Flying Dutchman, Nick Central Phase 2
2006 - Boomerang Bay waterpark expansion

The important thing to remember too is that this should not be based purely on what rides were added but what rides were lost and how the park looked and felt overall.

Also Paramount owned the park for 15 years. I would really say you can't make a 'vs Cedar Fair' judgment for 12 more years...

Unfortunately I am too young to remember any of the Taft time, but the park should be compared to that era as well.

I think I have to go and do more research then get back to this post.

[Jonathan]

^From what I understand Vortex was already planned before Paramount took over.

Hard to really say for me. Looking at their 13 years...

THUMBS UP:
-Top Gun
-Repeat waterpark expansions which have probably been a huge factor in the success of the park
-Scarowinds
-Scooby-Doo's Haunted Mansion
-Carolina Boardwalk area
-Obviously I have to mention Phantom Flyers

THUMBS DOWN:
-Wayne's World and the Hurler: The underlying factor here is what was Paramount's problem time and time again: A stunning amount of short-sightedness. A poorly themed area based around something no one will care about in a few years. Also, while I still even today enjoy the Hurler very much, it has to be one of the most uninspired wooden coaster designs of the last 20 years.
-The biggest thumbs down here does not necessarily have to do with the removal of rides, as every owner of the park has removed some classic attractions. Paramount, however, essentially raped and pillaged the park of its charm and character over the years and replaced it with half baked themes around for the most part culturally irrelevant movies and television shows. They wanted to turn an amusement park into a theme park, but had nowhere near the amount of money to do it, or the foresight.

NEUTRAL:
-Action F/X Theater: I'm going to give them a pass on this because these things were more of a hot commodity in the early 90s, and the original Days of Thunder was a pretty well designed concept and attraction.
-Children's Area: Mixed here, because Paramount kept adding onto it and really made it a pretty significant section of the park, but again, the constant juggling of names and themes. Hanna-Barbera Land lasted 20 years. Could anyone really see that with the Paramount stuff? Obviously I know next to nothing about the current Nickelodeon shows, but a lot of the things in the park outside of SpongeBob seem more like flavor of the month things that won't be around soon and won't really be remembered by kids.

I guess I'm going with poor. They certainly didn't ruin the park, and there are plenty of owners out there that could have done worse I'm sure. However, it certainly would be interesting to see what would have happened under different management. Think about what parks like Dollywood, Holiday World, Indiana Beach, etc did over that same span of time. I don't know if that is a fair comparison or not, but something to mull over for sure.

[Jay]

That is a pretty solid breakdown Jon. Although I have to say from the time I really started going in 2001 till 2006 the park did nothing but improve on pretty much every level.

In my opinion anyway.

[RollerBee]

Vortex was planned by KECO, Carowinds was brought mid 1992. SwampFox, wasn't Scream Weaver relocated prior to the or mid 1992 season? For some reason I remember hearing or seeing that it was moved to it's current home in 92, which could imply that KECO actually planned AFX(not the film but the ride hardware). I know Flight Deck at KI was at one point going to be named Swoops or Thunder Road, it was planned by KECO. Anyways, I am all for Paramount sending Carowinds to hell in a handbasket. Yes they gave us Afterburn, but it costed us Wild Bull. They gave us Nighthawk, but refused to repair the hole in the Sternwheeler's hull. I understand that things change, Paramount sucked the charm out of Carowinds. Sadly, I imagine Cedar Fair isn't going to put it back. On a happy note, they appear to be putting some new charm in. Afterall, we have swings again, Satie is gone for good, Paramount is gone, and we are getting a new coaster for the first time since 2003.

[RRRAPIDS]

I believe paramount was ok, but they didn't do their best.
Cedar Fair however, is doing an excellent job. This is why:

2007- The Southern Star, Skytower facelift
2008- Bondi Beach & The YoYo swing ride.

2009- 1. The Carolina Cobra with it's new trains
2. Repaving of some walkway's in the park
3. Landscaping look's great.....(except around the Kalidescope & the seating area on the left side of Papa Luigi's Pizza needs some work done.)
4. The Painting of Nighthawk.
5. 2 new attractive snack stands
6. The New Haystack dryer outside the exit of WHITE WATER FALLS
7. The New WATER CANNONS at the observation area of RIP ROARING RAPIDS.
8. The New Mister Fan's that can be found in Nighthawk, Afterburn, Vortex, Cobra, and Rapid's que line's are excellent addition to the park.

[coasterbruh]

didnt borg always had the mister fans? And is k'scope still missing a roof?

I dont think I would consider regular park maintance because thats something that has always happen. The sky tower also got a face lift under paramount...as well as during the holiday season for winterfest...

[RollerBee]

didnt borg always had the mister fans? And is k'scope still missing a roof?

I dont think I would consider regular park maintance because thats something that has always happen. The sky tower also got a face lift under paramount...as well as during the holiday season for winterfest...

Skytower got seasonal decorations every year between 1983 and 2002. Anyways, here is a reason for ya'll to come to the dark side, Paramount Parks hire me as a ride operator.

[John43221]

I'll say the same thing that I posted on the KD Fansite Forums:

Paramount didn't do a bad job with the parks. Each one remained open, held sustaining attendance and stayed profitable.. just not as profitable as they are now. Paramount made some oddball decisions, like almost everyone, but at the end of the day, I think they deserve a solid "B" on their Report Card.

I have also mentioned that the large rides being built at the Former Paramount Parks with Cedar Fair behind the wheel would have Never Ever Ever been built with Paramount running the show... Except for Son of Beast (SOB was intended to cost about $20 Million - about the cost of a much shorter steel hyper... but wound up costing them over $40 Million in repairs, lawsuits and retrofitting in a few years time.)

Cedar Fair choose to run Amusement Parks.. not Theme Parks. Kinzel has stated many times that theming is very expensive to build and maintain and he would rather let Disney and Universal deal with that. Most of the time, elaborate theming can cost that of the ride system itself, and since He tries to get his "Return On Investment" (ROI) as fast as possible, heavy theming just isn't in the budgets.

[RRRAPIDS]

All the major ride que lines recieved new bigger mister fans including Nighthawk. The Skytower was painted it's patriotic colors in 07. That's what I meant by facelift.

[Davidtmp]

I really didn't go too much during the Paramount years. I did go to KD and seen alot more theme stuff from movies and such there. Stuff like the bench from Forest Gump, etc.. Just didn't see that type of stuff here. But I won't totally dog them out either.
The thing that really bothers me is when people say that Paramount added 8 coasters, ya ya ya....... EVERYONE added coasters starting in around 1997 or 1998 till 2003 or so....That was the boom years for coasters at nearly EVERY park in the country. So either Paramount added coasters or go out of business, they really had no choice.
And they did take out our SWINGS! IDIOTS!! For that alone I'd give them a C.

[swampfox43]

SwampFox, wasn't Scream Weaver relocated prior to the or mid 1992 season?

You rang? According to the 1991 map, Scream Weaver (known as Meteorite then) was still located in County Fair, just to the left of the Thunder Road entrance. The area where it is now wasn't developed until 1994.

Seems we've been down this pro/con Paramount path before. But with a number of new posters since then, I suppose the time is ripe to bring it up again.

My opinions on Paramount are mediocre. While Jonathan pretty much hit on the highlights (and lowlights), I give them accolades for bringing in Top Gun. Thanks for an outstanding, non-cloned inverter.

I am not typically a "half glass empty" type guy. Usually, the extreme opposite. My opinion of Paramount, unfortunately, is based on 3 things Paramount did WRONG. The bad they did, outweighed the good.

#1-Removing the monorail in 1995. There was no legitimate reason for doing this. According to maintenance people I have known during that time, the ride was not maintenance prone. Another family attraction gone.

#2-Giving us a cloned woodie in 1995 (Hurler) was such a short-sighted, cheap shop and a slap in the face for Carowinds. Heck, even a mirror image of KD's would have been a little more acceptable. I'm all for historic wooden coaster preservation but I wouldn't be the least upset to see the Hurler replaced with a nice Gravity Group woodie.

#3-And last but not least, the Sternwheeler removal. IMO, the absolute worst thing that has happened to Carowinds in it's 37 years, hence my boycott of the park for the past 4 years. This almost outweighs any positive done by Paramount. Yes, I have already ranted over this in past threads here on CC, and do not intend to rehash those ill feelings. What's done is done. And while many of you don't appreciate the park's history like I do (give yourself 20 years, and you'll know how I feel), removing this beautiful boat for a used Vekoma piece of garbage was literally the straw that broke the camels back for me.

That's why I was glad to see Paramount go.

I haven't visited the park since CF took over and I live 4 miles from the front gate. But, my 5 year boycott conveniently ends just in time for 2010.

That's it. Paramount got a C+

[bgwfreak]

Jonathan has pretty much covered everything I would probably say, but I do reiterate the fact that Paramount stripped the park almost completely of its Carolinas identity.

Honestly I think what would have been better would have been to do a "movie world" section *cough*Wayne's World*cough* and that way you can do the movie themed rides and what not.

I hate that except for the Carolina Boardwalk, all the Carolina we have left is in the name of the 3 coasters, and Carolina plastered on half the shops in the place.

Top Gun, The Flyers, and Hurler were the highlights to me (no surprise), but the way they let the woodies go is a shame.

I don't know if Hurler can ever be fixed, but at least Cedar Fair is trying in more ways than I saw Paramount do.

One of my other gripes with Paramount was that they started off with Star Trek and other such characters as greeters and mingling around the place and made it really feel like a movie park. And then at some point, all that went out the window.

My grade C-. Which is a mediocre grade, for what was a pretty mediocre experience over the years that Carowinds was owned by Paramount. I can point to KD and KI as having pretty much the same experience IMHO. KI was far and away a much better park (still with some operational issues) but overall a much better experience back in May when I went up than my last trip in 2005 when the park just felt like it was falling apart.

[coasterbruh]

I hate that except for the Carolina Boardwalk, all the Carolina we have left is in the name of the 3 coasters, and Carolina plastered on half the shops in the place.

Carolina showplace
Carolina RFD