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Carowinds

Waited about an hour to ride Copperhead Strike today. My favorite elements of the ride were the slower upside down moments like coming out of the station and both loops. Not the most intense coaster, but fun and different. Also, while I'm not that well traveled, this ride has the most comfortable seats and restraints of any I've been on recently.
 
I'm headed up there again on May 3rd. Was planning on Cedar Point a little later in the month, but those plans fell through. Can't wait to go back and give Copperhead a try. Hopefully it'll be running more than one train by the 3rd haha.
 
Went last week. It was extremely rainy in the early morning which was a huge kick-in-the-teeth overall. Several rides didn't open: Ricochet, Kiddy Hawk, Plants vs Zombies, SEVERAL flats. Nighthawk, Dodgems and other flats did not open until late in the day... seemed to be some staffing issues. The Plants vs Zombies one especially hurt as when it was pouring it would've been perfect.

That said, once the skies cleared I was able to knock out almost all the open coasters. Fury 325 was mindblowing and intense, far more than I was expecting. It makes a great companion to Intimidator, which is the airtime fun-filled B&M hyper experience that you usually get. Copperhead Strike, of course, is a knockout in terms of pure fun and themeing. It delivers some great launches and hang-time in the front, and gives a good Maverick-esque whip parade at the end. The queue, launch barn and other themeing elements are just a joy. What a win for the park.

Afterburn I did during a rain storm... not a great idea. It is a tight, intense invert... now, inverts in general aren't my favorite rides as they're a little heavily focused on the negative-Gs for most of its layout, but I appreciated Afterburn in giving a tightly packed performance that isn't merely a Batman clone.

California Cyclone is oddly similar to Canyon Blaster from my neck of the woods. It was fun having the final helix in a trench rather than a mountain, tho.

Carolina Goldrusher is a wonderfully maintained Arrow mine-train with some fun tunnels and isn't too rough like many others that I've ridden in the past.

Flying Cobras is a Vekoma boomerang with better restraints. Next.

Hurler is better than the reputation it has... barely. I rode in the front, and did some defensive manuevering, but overall this wasn't quite the horrific rough ride I was dreading. It has some nice kick and speed, but not much else.

Nighthawk was not open until late, but I got to ride it once it did. This is my first time doing one of these Vekoma flyers and I'm not a fan. The great thing about the B&M ones is that it keeps you in the flying position for the better part of the ride. These have you lying down which is uncomfortable as hell and then you barely get to experience the sensation, instead flipping around in inversions for the bulk of the layout. Two corkscrews? Why? Why not a helix instead, which would be far preferred. Meh not a fan

Finally, I got to ride Woodstock Express and god I love these John Allen kiddie woodies. They are so fun and charming, can't enough of them.

Didn't ride Vortex, I refuse to ride stand-up coasters. They just are not fun. Look forward to its inevitable floorless conversion.

Odds and ends: Boo Blasters I rode twice during rainstorms, the first one in the morning all effects were working... the second ZERO effects were working, ouch. Copperhead Strike had a train valley in the middle of the day, was down for a surprisingly short 45 minutes considering. Amazing recovery!

The park is lovely otherwise and has some of the best themeing in any Cedar Fair park that isn't Knott's. I adored Blue Ridge Junction, the Boardwalk area and County Fair, they blew me away.

Wish there wasn't a rainstorm that exhausted me, but it is what it is. Amazing collection of coasters!
 
I am going my first time this summer. Did you get a “express pass” or did you just wait in line?
 
Oh I totally Fast Lane'd and thank god for that. Despite the rain, there were still mighty long lines. However, that may have been due to the reduced capacity of the park that day.
 
I went a couple weeks ago and had a similar experience despite it being a bright sunny day. Fury didn't open until 3 hours after the park opened, and several of their flat rides didn't open. I was looking forward to riding Windseeker, as it was closed on my previous trip, but alas that was closed... Until they decided to open conveniently as we we're driving out of the parking lot.

Normally, I'm not the type to complain about my visit to the park, but I didn't feel I got the most out of my day with them only having the coasters open. Two trips out there and I've yet to do any of the flat rides, so they offered to have me back. They were very apologetic, and blamed the closures on their staff being comprised of high schoolers.

As far as Fastlane Plus is concerned: just do it. Anyone that's considering going, just get the combo ticket with Fastlane. With tax, it's basically on par with, if not a little cheaper than, a day at most of the Orlando parks. Front row Fury 325 is worth the price alone! Haha
 
I went a couple weeks ago and had a similar experience despite it being a bright sunny day. Fury didn't open until 3 hours after the park opened, and several of their flat rides didn't open. I was looking forward to riding Windseeker, as it was closed on my previous trip, but alas that was closed... Until they decided to open conveniently as we we're driving out of the parking lot.

Was Plants vs Zombies open on your day out there? I was shocked that it never opened the entire day, as I kept checking. Windseeker never opened, but Carolina Skytower eventually did. I was stunned that two coasters just didn't open entirely. You'd think that would be a number one priority, but alas.
 
Was Plants vs Zombies open on your day out there? I was shocked that it never opened the entire day, as I kept checking. Windseeker never opened, but Carolina Skytower eventually did. I was stunned that two coasters just didn't open entirely. You'd think that would be a number one priority, but alas.
PvZ never opened. Fortunately, all of the coasters were open, with the exception of Fury being sent through constant loops with employees on it for hours. Would've been nice to have something else open other than coasters, as one of my buddies got a gforce headache about halfway through the day and we basically just sat in the rocking chairs by Copperhead until he was ready for more.
 
Heh yeah the rain wiped me and had me pretty loopy by day's end. The coasters are a surprising intense lot and with a good dousing you can get winded real quick.

I was almost thankful for the wait for Copperhead to get back up, it was really peaceful and I loved exploring that new area.
 
The bluegrass covers of 90s alternative playing in the area is a nice touch. I wanted to try the new restaurant in blue ridge junction, but we ended up at Harmony Hall instead. The BBQ there was pretty good, the quesadillas were abysmal.
 
Yeah Will probably do fast pass considering we are only going for one day and want to hit everything. Just curious if a lot of people but it making it “useless”
 
If you go on a weekday that isn't a holiday, you might not need Fast Lane Plus at all to be honest. Carowinds is my old home park. More than half of the crowd is usually in the water park due to the heat. I usually go in the first weeks of June (since I don't live there anymore) and never waited more than 10 minutes for anything on a weekday. Of course with Copperhead Strike being new and not having a huge capacity, that one will have longer lines no matter what. You can always buy it at the park if you see the wait times longer than you like to wait for. I've seen many people waste $ on it when the place was pretty dead on the dry side. If it's a weekend day...yeah, you'd likely need it (more-so Saturday as Sundays start off real slow usually and pick up in the afternoon).
 
If you go on a weekday that isn't a holiday, you might not need Fast Lane Plus at all to be honest. Carowinds is my old home park. More than half of the crowd is usually in the water park due to the heat. I usually go in the first weeks of June (since I don't live there anymore) and never waited more than 10 minutes for anything on a weekday. Of course with Copperhead Strike being new and not having a huge capacity, that one will have longer lines no matter what. You can always buy it at the park if you see the wait times longer than you like to wait for. I've seen many people waste $ on it when the place was pretty dead on the dry side. If it's a weekend day...yeah, you'd likely need it (more-so Saturday as Sundays start off real slow usually and pick up in the afternoon).
That could be what the issue was when I went. I went on Friday a few weeks ago and it was slammed, but the waterpark wasn't open. I will say that Copperhead was running all three trains at a blistering pace. Pleasantly surprised at how fast operations were for it. Wish the same could be said for Goldrusher. 40 minutes even with Fastlane.
 
Bumping this for anyone interested:

Carowinds took a spin with having year round operations for the first time this year. Wifey and I finally made it the first weekend of March. Couple of thoughts...
1. The park was not full for a Saturday at the beginning of March -mid-70's weather. I'd say the parking lot was 25% full by time we left (arrived around 11am - left around 5).
2. Fury, Intimidator, Copperhead, and Afterburn were the only 4 (of 12) roller coasters running with about 10 other flat rides in operation. What would have been a quiet day turned into a fuster-cluck of wait times.
3. All roller coasters were running one train operations.
4. Most restaurants had been closed - only ones open were Harmony Hall, Starbucks, and some small walk up stops
5. We bought the fast pass to try and skip ridiculous wait times (90-120 min waits for coasters). Still ended up waiting around 20-30 min per coaster. Not awful but unexpected for sure.
6. End of March trip with the parents during a weekday saw a return to form for 9 of the 12 coasters and all flat rides seemed to be back in operation. Still running one train operations but it was a weekday. Restaurants still operating the same.

I have yet to make it to Aeronautica Landing but I've heard rave reviews with the 5 additional and unique flat rides with the additional retheme of their bumper cars. Themeing looks top notch for a Cedar Fair park. Terminal A restaraunt and bar getting great reviews for food selection, quality, and their brewery. This looks like a major win for Carowinds and Cedar Fair - turning what was once a dead spot outside of Afterburn into a beautiful breath of life. Carowinds is on a major roll these last few years (Copperhead, AL, and their various year round events etc.)

Gripe with the year round operations experiment: Had I known what kind of affect the ride closures would have, I would have waited a month to go and buy our passes. The one train operations with only about 15 rides (of 50+) was rough. I get they were experimenting and it could change next year. It's a tough process with varying weather patterns for NC/SC. We will see what adjustments they make.

I've been going to Carowinds for almost 10 years now and have never been more excited about the park than this year. They're really turning this small park into a must-visit. Still a ways away from being a true full day experience, but we're getting there.
 
Well, it looks like Fury 325 is gonna' be down for an undetermined amount of time. One of the supports snapped, full separation from the track. (The video I saw which confirmed the full separation as a train passed through is on telegram, so I can't post it here. But the track is most certainly NOT attached to the support anymore.)



From the sounds of things, no one was hurt and that's the most important thing. But yeah, Fury's gonna' be down for a while.
 
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It's probably down for the season. After watching where that is in the ride I think some of those supports might need to be re-inspected. That crack is right around the weld lines for the tubing. If I was Carowinds I'd hire a 3rd party NDE company to come in and test all the support welds and go back to B&M and get a new design that handles the forces better.
 
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