Carowinds was a park I'd last visited in 2006 and since then had changed ownership from Paramount to Cedar Fair. This had led to most of the rides being rebranded and a couple of new attractions being installed. It was also a park we'd be visiting twice end-of-day riding on day 1 and a half day the following morning.
Within 30 minutes of arriving at the park we were taken on a brief tour of the new coaster Intimidator. This ride built by B&M is by far the largest coaster in the park and offers a very good ride experience with massive hills and fast drops.
The strange seating arrangement on these new hyper coasters reportedly offers a better view than the conventional 4-in-a-row. I'm not too sure if that's the case. I think it's so you don't have to sit next to a random.
Flying Ace Aerial Chase (nothing to do with soap powder) was a headbanging ride (nothing to do with rock bands) and we only rode it the once.
You go girl! Go as fast as that stressed buggy allows.
Afterburn (formerly Top Gun) is an excellent ride, which I loved the last time I was here. With us visiting at the end of the day this ride was even faster with forces strong enough to leave your dangling legs with pins and needles, which made jumping out of the trains at the end very amusing indeed. Despite the size of Intimidator this, in my opinion, is the best ride in the park.
Lucy's Crabby Cabbie is a kids-only ride that we'd been given special permission from the park to ride. A very friendly ride operator made sure we had a good time during this little mini-ERS.
The other new coaster in the park was Carolina Cobra, a boomerang (booooooo!!! merang) ride that used to exist at Googoo Lake and was relocated here when that park was closed down. This ride had been fitted with the new vest restraints that offered a less head-banging experience than most of the others. Still a ride we only rode once though, mostly on account of the poor throughput.
Within the coaster fraternity there is a small percentage who have embraced naked riding (I'm not one of them). So it's nice to see signs like this that ensure the likes of Ellis are kept decent.
For the more hardcore rider, you can ride the coasters without sitting down but there is a price, a 1 year ban from the park. A great offering to those of us who only visit the park once every few years. I didn't take the park up on their offer though, too chicken!
Carolina Cyclone is the arrow looping coaster, not a bad ride I guess.
The last time I visited this park I remember the informality in their warning signs, something that has continued under their new owners.
The Hurler was just as good as I remembered, not that good at all. The layout did perplex those that hadn't ridden it before due to it staying low after the first drop rather than going back up into a second hill as typically happens.
Nice incentive to play the games.
Vortex is the stand-up coaster and it can be summarised in a single word "ouch" and a single pun "a hole world of pain".
Formerly "Borg Assimilator", this ride had been given a yellow coat of a paint and rebranded as Nighthawk. I quite like these design of flying coaster once you accept that the jacket style restraint won't pop open no matter how much it looks like it would. Nighthawk went down just as we approached it but we decided to wait in the shaded queue line for it to restart, just as well as the wait was not too long. The ride itself was a lot of fun even if the sun-facing lift hill caused us to do the start with our eyes closed.
Carolina Goldrusher is the park's mine train ride. It's a really nice ride let down by poor ride operations. Having made it through the queue we were still kept for what felt like eternity before they'd let us board.The rides at Carowinds are just as good as I remember but the operations of the ride, in most cases, was a lot better under the new owners. The new coaster has been an excellent addition to the park and the park now has something that steals the skyline, always a good way to attract drivers to your park.
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