Spent some time at Carrowinds....Wow!

Did some traveling and spent two trips to Carrowinds in the past week. We were headed to southern part of South Carolina and decided to check it out. Stopped on the way down and also on the way back.

First, CP has few things to learn from the folks art Carrowinds. This park is clean! the whole park looks fresh and inviting. The Fury 325 looks and rides great, smooth and fast. I think MF is a better ride all together but F325 is very close. Supposedly faster than MF but felt slower. I am thinking it may be artificially slowed. the brakes kept hitting on my rides. Next, the food was spectacular! Harmony Hall was a hit in my group. The food sections were right what the doctor ordered. BBQ beef, pork, ribs, turkey and chicken wings were all top notch. Also, the salad station was nothing like I had ever seen at a park. All were available on the food plan.

The rest of the park was quite a sight. also clean and nicly laid out. We rode Thunder Road quite a few times as it was being shut down for good in a week, being replaced my more water park slides. WE did not use the water park, but it looked clean and inviting also. The water park was included in admission, no separate charge. Even though my platinum pass includes soak city CP might want to include that with regular admission.

I would go again if in the area.

I agree that Carowinds is a great park. As for Fury 325, that brake you mentioned is there to intentionally slow the train down to provide airtime on that hill. And it is amazing. After that hill, the rest of the ride is slower and provides excellent negative g-forces.

^I don't think you understand how airtime works.

Fury is a great ride. I wouldn't say that Carowinds is significantly cleaner than Cedar Point, though. During my trip to CP in June, I can't recall a single dirty area in the three days I was at the park, and I'm a supervisor at a 180-acre city park. My eyes are magnetically drawn to trash ;) I'd venture to say that the park was cleaner than it ever was in my 5 years working there.

codeGR said:
...that brake you mentioned is there to intentionally slow the train down to provide airtime on that hill. And it is amazing. After that hill, the rest of the ride is slower and provides excellent negative g-forces.

That cracked me up.

Cedar Point is an extremely clean park.

RCMAC said:

codeGR said:
...that brake you mentioned is there to intentionally slow the train down to provide airtime on that hill. And it is amazing. After that hill, the rest of the ride is slower and provides excellent negative g-forces.

That cracked me up.

Cedar Point is an extremely clean park.

I guess I should be a little more specific. At no time did I see spider webs and dead bugs on the rafters in the ride stations. This includes all of the old wooden coasters i rode there. When I go to CP and look the stations of TTD and MF, I see lots of areas needing a good cleaning.

It makes me mad that most, probably all of, the waterparks at other cedar fair parks are INCLUDED in admission, EXCEPT CP's soak city. Yes, it's part of the platinum pass deal, but still. why can't CP just be like the others and include it?

And the perpetually offended crowd chimes in...

Carowinds was very clean when I was there in 2011, I am very much looking forward to going there later this year and see the changes. From what I've heard about Harmony Hall it sounds like one would be a great addition to CP.

CP is different from all the other CF parks because of the resort hotels, cabins and marinas. It makes sense to me to have Soak City as a separate gate to encourage longer hotel stays and give guests the option of only buying a Soak City ticket, which is of course less expensive than buying a park ticket at the parks that include the water park with admission. The other CF parks consider the water park an attraction of the amusement park. CP considers Soak City as a separate gate and draw to expand the offerings on the penninsula.

Carowinds is a great park, but the layout is terrible. Unless you went to a different Carowinds.

^ Yes, indeed. They went to Carrowinds.

Millie seems faster due to the close proximity to the trees and tunnels. Its the same I'm a car. Drive 70 on the open road with nothing around you then try it again in a metro area. Big difference.

I can't believe I'm saying this but I went to Carowinds yesterday and did all the coasters and Fury nine times. I think it blows Millie out of the water and that is saying something because its my number 1 coaster. Every time I rode my shirt about flew off and I needed that straight section of track before the first camelback hill because I was flat out of breath. The first drop absolutely kicks butt and I loved the airtime on all the hills. For me it was an absolutely out of control experience, glass smooth, and the best color scheme I have ever seen on a coaster. Even better than Banshee's. Add all that to its crazy good capacity (they were dispatching trains every 30 seconds) and I think the park jacked a grand slam out of the city. Millie still has its location going for it and I'm fairly certain that it will keep its golden ticket status, but for me, I just don't know if it even compares.

The park does have a very bad layout. It's lile a maze.

Glad to hear Carowinds is doing well. I'm excited to go next year and ride Fury. Having said that, the last time I was there (during the Bart years), the place couldn't hold a stick to Cedar Point. It was not that clean, employees didn't know policies, and operations were a train wreck. Glad to hear it's changing as I think that park is an area of potential growth for CF.

I am hoping CP builds something like Harmony Hall in the big empty area that is in the middle of the park right now (in addition to the coaster of course. I think that location would be convenient for an air conditioned food hub offering 4-5 different entrees within and that it would make a killing. At Kings Island, we bought an all day meal plan and were excited about what we could sample next. At CP, it's more like, "well, we have a meal to use - what can I get that will be edible?"

Miss_Maverick07 said:

It makes me mad that most, probably all of, the waterparks at other cedar fair parks are INCLUDED in admission, EXCEPT CP's soak city. Yes, it's part of the platinum pass deal, but still. why can't CP just be like the others and include it?

Unlike other Cedar Fair parks that combine a ride and a water park, these two parks are separated by a road and Challenge Park, which creates several issues.

In order to combine Cedar Point and Soak City, the two parks would have to be enclosed together, which would cut Challenge Park in two. Challenge Park could also be wrapped into a Cedar Point/Soak City mash-up, of course. But I believe either option (full disclosure: being not a fan of water parks or go karts or miniature golf, and too cheap to stay on the Point, I rarely venture into this area of the peninsula) would create access issues for guests of Lighthouse Point.

Access to a combined Cedar Point/Soak City could be managed by wristbands; but why spend money season after season on wristbands when you can make a tidy profit selling separate tickets to the ride park and the water park?

Considering how much each park costs separately do we really want to be forced to pay for both each visit? There's no way we'll get both parks for the current CP admission. If Cedar Point were a smaller park maybe it would make sense but it's hard for the average guest to do everything in one day as it is. I think they make more sense staying separate.

I agree. I have been to Soak City once, and that was because access to Soak City was included in ACE's 2012 Spring Conference at Cedar Point.

I also visited Carowinds last week for two days and I loved it! Super clean park with really friendly staff. Harmony Hall is amazing, we can only hope CP gets one soon. Fury 325 is an awesome ride, I wouldnt say as good as Millie, but almost. Im not a huge fan on how it slows through the ride but no biggy, still excellent. I also must agree with Jeff in that the park is hard to navigate and lots of ride entrances are hidden. I also visited KD last week and im surprised on how much of the old Paramount feel it still has. That park was also fun but lacked the excitement of Carowinds. Volcano the blast coaster was probably the best, and I liked Dominator more than Rougarou personally.

Carowinds was part of ACE's 2012 Coaster Con, which I had the pleasure of attending, I had a great time at Carowinds and enjoyed all the coasters. But I agree, it's not the easiest park to navigate.

I visited Carowinds a few years ago and I agree with everyone else, a super friendly and clean park. It has a lot of potential and the land that is available has endless opportunities. I expect Cedar Fair to invest heavily in the park during the next decade.

Redwolf said:

At no time did I see spider webs and dead bugs on the rafters in the ride stations. This includes all of the old wooden coasters i rode there. When I go to CP and look the stations of TTD and MF, I see lots of areas needing a good cleaning.

Car(r)owinds doesn't have the 13th largest lake in the world surrounding it, a breeding ground for spiders and bugs that would completely inundate the peninsula over time. CP maintenance is out every morning in May and June when the muffleheads/mayflies arrive to just clean and fog the park to make the bugs as little of a nuisance as possible. Certain areas high up in the rafters are not easily accessible to be cleaned each night and whatever they do clean is coated again with cobwebs and mayflies within a night or two. As for restroom cleanliness or trash removal CP is generally just as good, if not better, than any other park in the chain (definitely better than Six Flags parks) and I feel like I see more sweeps roaming the park every time I visit.