[bgwfreak]

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

RFD is a good point but they never use the name anywhere. If you don't look at a map, you wouldn't know it existed. Same goes for most of the areas of the park.

But who really cares about what section of the park you are in, as long as there is a B&M hyper there.

[super7]

Paramount at Carowinds is one of the worst examples of ruining a theme park next to closing it down. Although it runs neck and neck with what they did at Great America.

I always thought it was funny Paramount tried to market themselves as family parks, while removing true family rides. All they did at Carowinds was install mediocre coasters (exception Top Gun), and kiddie rides. What theming they did was VERY poor to short-lasting cheesy movie themes.

Big Thumbs Down
removal of the FAMILY Sternwheeler (absolutely the worst thing they did)
removal of the FAMILY monorail
removal of the Whirling Dervish
placement of the FX Theater in County Fair
removal of Pirate Island and the water around it (Carolina Boardwalk is a very poor replacement)
retheming of Frontier Outpost into Carolina Boardwalk (how do you have a boardwalk with no water?!)
the ugliness that is now an unpainted Thunder Road
removal of the antebellum buildings in Plantation Square as they converted it to Generic Plaza
retheming Queens Colony into Nick Central
removal of the FAMILY speedway cars
the addition of the meaningless Wayne's World (waste of good space on a non-themed section
removal of Wild Bull
"theming" of rides to meaningless Paramount movies with no concern to the overall section theming of the park

Like bgwfreak said, if Paramount would have created one area themed to their movies, that would have been ok. But what they did was systematically rip out the theming of each section by sticking their movie themed stuff all over the park.



KECO blew it on a few things and started the removal of good rides
their worst error -removal of White Lightnin' (it may have been short, but the Schwarzkopf shuttle is one of the greatest loopers ever)
placement of Frenzoid in County Fair when they had a Pirate Island section!
removal of the jalopies, wagon wheel, flying dutchman and black widow
renaming of Country Crossroads, Queens Colony, Frontier Outpost & Pirate Island

the cable skyway removal was a shame, but it was a trend at all parks.

Cedar Fair has not started off too greatly. The addition of a couple of used C-Class rides from Geauga Lake and the removal of the great log flume......

By the way, I am very bitter about Carowinds. It was once my favorite park. Now, I have no plans to ever go back. It will take more much more than the addition of one big coaster to get me back ever.

[Davidtmp]

Did I miss something??? Wasn't Pirate Island a LONG time ago? I remember Smurf Island, and the Frenzoid came along after that. Or did Smurf Island become some Pirate Island? I really don't remember Pirate Island.
I really don't see the monorail as a big loss unless they were going to go with the plans to build a resort out there. It was a good idea to have a "Disney" type vision, but it never came to be. Just riding out thru the parking lot wasn't a really great time for me. But you do make some good points.

[super7]

Pirate Island was where the Carolina Cobra is located. It was still intact in '88, even after the waterpark was initially built behind White Lightnin'.

www.carowindsearlyyears.com has some great pics of what Pirate Island was like.

[Davidtmp]

The theming is fuzzy, I do remember Blackbeirds revenge. But yeah, the Frenzoid would have been better over there than where it was placed originally. I personally think the County Fair area sucks.
I went to Faith, NC for the 4th of July(fireworks sucked). They had some good rides that would go well in that area. Just make the area "feel" like a fair type atmosphere(you can leave out the livestock). Even the bumper cars suck now.

[BoociferPatch]

I do agree that the unpainted Thunder Road looks ugly. My grandmother actually worked at the company that orginally painted it, not the ugly brown it is today. However they are taking a step in the right direction with the refurbishment for it, and hope they paint it when they are all done.

I do miss the huge mass of water where Borg is today. I vaguely remember going a year before Borg opened and being amazed by the water there and I thought the park was absolutely beautiful. I remember the Sternwheeler was stationary at the time, however I did see it. My parents told me I went as a baby and went to smurf island. However I do not remember that.

Do I think the rides we got from Cedar Fair are C class? No. I am really glad we have swings back. I am not the biggest fan of boomerangs, but Carolina Cobra's restraint system makes it smooth and actually enjoyable. Do I approve of the additions? Eh. Personally I did not like 2007 really. I think we could have gotten some better things, I did not think, and I still don't think we need two wavepools. Even though I like the new better than the original However I am ok with what we got.

I wish I could have expierenced the magic Carowinds of old that you did. It looked so much better and different than it does today. I love looking at those pictures on early years, I really do. It's a shame that it's so different.

[DaveVan]

Funny story on Blackbeards ride. My kids had been to Disneyworld twice when it opened. We went to Carowinds, making sure we hit Blackbreads early. In my opinion it was a awful ride....very poorly done. And to prove my point......we get on the ride. At the end of the ride there was about a 10 second dark period before the house lights came on. After what we felt like was a disappointing ride my 7 year old, who has never met a stranger and always speaks his mind, said very loudly at the end of the ride during the dark pause....' IS THAT ALL?!?!?!?!' Almost everyone else applauded and came over to him and said they agreed! One of our best theme park family moments!

[super7]

This survey says it all, 73% at this time think they did a poor to very poor job managing the park.

I do believe that a great part of that poor management came from the Carowinds park mgmt and their lack of concern of overall park theming and atmosphere. Paramount overall mgmt was pushing their awful movies through their theme parks, but it seems like the parks made their own decisions in what to ruin. Kings Dominion and Canada's Wonderland came out of the dark Paramount years much better than the other 3 parks. KD and CW have their big errors, but those 2 parks still have the most left of the Taft days and overall theming of the parks than they other 3.

I consider myself lucky to have visited in 1980, the first year of the Carolina Cylone. Everything that was really special was still intact except the C & C Railroad at that point. It was a very unique park at that time. This was before the waterpark. While everyone loves a water park, the placement of the waterpark there really encroached upon the themed sections, Piriate Island (there used to be a nice berm behind White Lightnin') and the trees at the back of the park.


Another visit in '88 was disappointing. At that time KECO was managing it, and it was obvious they were having financial troubles. Wagon Wheel, Flying Dutchman, Black Widow & Hillbilly Jalopies had been removed as well as the Cable Skyway. The jalopy cars were operating on the Speedway track in Carolina Midway. Paint was peeling and what was newly painted was painted an awful shade of green/gray (Scooby Doo I remember being this color). The end of a great park had begun......

By the time Paramount finished, there wasn't much special left. Cedar Fair just really drove it in farther by removing the flume (yes a big coaster is coming, but removal of the flume was not really necessary).

[Jonathan]

I agree with that first part. Kings Dominion to me still retains a great deal of its charm, and that is why it has always been my favorite of the former Paramount parks.