Dollywood and Carowinds PTR

[CoastersRZ]

The final weekend of my spring break just happened to be the same weekend that both Dollywood and Carowinds opened for the 2009 season. Myself and Cory made plans to head down to Pigeon Forge on Friday, March 27th and hit up the tracks at NASCAR Speed Park followed by Dollywood on Saturday, and Carowinds on Sunday. Prior to leaving, the weather forecast for Friday and Saturday was ominous. 70% and 80% chances of rain on Friday and Saturday. Nevertheless, the trip was a go especially since we both had passes to get into each park.

We departed my house shortly after 7am on Friday morning. We arrived down in Pigeon Forge shortly after 1 and checked into our hotel, the Quality Inn at Dollywood Lane. Unfortunately, it was raining so the NASCAR Speed park was not open. We sat in the hotel room for a couple hours, looking at the weather forecast and radar hoping that Saturday would be a better day and that it wouldn`t be a wash out. Finally the rain cleared around 3:30 and we decided to head south and go exploring in the Smoky Mountains National Park.

The mountains were beautiful, even though there was a light rain again. The low clouds made for some stunning visuals.

Again, the low clouds made for some impressive visuals, and the trees were just starting to show their green leaves for spring.

The numerous overlooks along the side of the road inside the national park provide some absolutely breathtaking views.

After exploring the overlooks for a while, we decided to go hiking for a little bit by the visitors center.

We actually encountered several wild turkeys on the hike, as well as several deer. (I have actually seen wild turkey on the side of the road on a couple of occasions driving home from working at Coney Island!)

The trails followed this small stream, and it was a very pleasant hike along the paths.

After exploring the national park for a couple of hours, we went to Ripley`s Davy Crockett Mini Golf in Gatlinburg. For 36 holes of mini-golf, it was $13.99. Not a bad price and the two 18 hole courses were very well done. I ended up winning both games by a few strokes.

Saturday was the day for Dollywood. Before checking out of the hotel, we checked the weather forecast, and it wasn`t good. Radar showed we would have some heavy rain, but we could possibly see a break in the afternoon. Due to the forecast, I opted not to bring my camera along to Dollywood. Both Cory and I had bought passes back in December when we went to Dollywood for a Smoky Mountain Christmas (you can view my PTR of that here). The pass does not include parking, so we paid $8 at the newly renovated entrance to the parking lot. And you can`t really complain about the parking fee, since Dollywood does offer tram service right to the front gate.

Dollywood is all about the live shows, and they had a LOT of shows for the Festival of Nations. The first show was "Kinfolks" featuring several of Dolly Parton`s relatives. From there, we saw the Kingdom Heirs in the Pines Theatre. While not exactly my type of music, the show was very good and they have been performing at the park for more than twenty years!! After the conclusion of that show, we saw the Czech Pilsen Band (a brass band) that was very good. We then moved on to the signature new show Imagine. This show by Le Grande Cirque was very well produced and featured some great audience participation by the ringmaster. We then watched the 1pm show of Wings of America featuring birds that can be found in America. We then watched Mexico Calpulli featuring a live band and authentic Mexican dancing. Next, we saw the Jennifer Roland band representing Canada. By this time it was 3:30pm and we had seen seven shows and not yet ridden any rides! It is simply amazing that from 9:30 when we saw the first show until 3:30, we were walking around the park with only fifteen or twenty minutes in between different shows! We also saw the show Keona show featuring unique percussion instruments.

The rain actually stopped by around 1pm, and the skies lightened up a little bit. At 3:30 we headed off to grab our first coaster ride of the 2009 season: Tennessee Tornado. A simply amazing ride, although way too brief. Lines for the rides were non existent. We also rode Daredevil Falls, which is a fun log flume ride. Mystery Mine has some great theming, and a great ending to the ride, but the first half of the ride is a little lackluster. Thunderhead is still an amazing ride, and we ended the day with three rides on it, with only a couple of trains wait, even for the front row. We also grabbed a ride on the Dizzy Disk, Blazing Fury, Waltzing Swinger and of course, the classic Heartsong: The movie.

All in all, despite the rainy start to the day, we had a great time on opening day for Dollywood. Crowds were light, and the shows excellent. I highly recommend you visit Dollywood if you have not already. Even though the park was open until 8pm, we left at 7:15 because we still had to grab some dinner, and drive four hours to Carowinds in Charlotte, NC. Which will be part two of this PTR.

[BoddaH1994]

Lucky it happened to you and Cory and not me and Dane. Last time he and I were bored in a hotel room and had an encounter with Wild Turkey, not a lot got done for the next few days.

[CoastersRZ]

After stopping by Cici`s, battling torrential rain, blinding fog, and driving through the mountains at night, we arrived in Charlotte, shortly after midnight. Sunday morning we awoke to bright sunshine and blue skies. The high temperature was supposed to be in the upper 60s, and there were strong winds, which is something that we would eventually wish were not around.

I had last been to Carowinds back in 2003, so it had been a while since I had visited it, and many things have changed. My KI Platinum pass scanned fine at both the parking lot tolls and the main entrance to Carowinds.

Throughout the park, they have these banners hanging off of the light poles. I really liked them, and wished Kings Island had some of these, other than in just the Action Zone.

The main entrance building to Carowinds. The state line between North and South Carolina passes right through the middle of the park. Several rides, including the Goldrusher, and Thunder Road are actually located in both states!

One of the shops near the front entrance had something familiar written in its window:

Carowinds also still has a vine covered walkway near their scrambler ride, which is dubbed Kaleidoscope.

Our first ride of the day was on the Southern Star.

This ride has a new name and location from when I last visited Carowinds. This ride is your typical inverting viking ship.

The new ride for this year is the Carolina Cobra.

The ride was moved from Geauga Lake and sits in the spot that was vacated by the Flying Super Saturator.

The entrance to the Goldrusher provides a great view of the ride and station.

The ride also features brand new trains from Vekoma with a new over the shoulder vest restraint system. The vest is attached to a lap bar, which is attached to the train via two bars that are conveniently places as grab bars. We only waited about ten to fifteen minutes for this ride as crowds were light and the crew was working very efficiently. Upon completing our ride on it, the train was stopped in the wrong spot, which wouldn`t allow our lap bars to unlock. Luckily maintenance was watching the ride for any hiccups it might have, and our restraints were unlocked one car at a time by a maintenance worker with an electronic device that was attached to the car.

I mentioned the strong winds earlier. This is why we both wished they were not around:

Because of the high winds Afterburn, Vortex, Drop Tower and the Carolina Skytower were down all day! Which was too bad because Afterburn is a GREAT B&M inverted coaster.

Alas, this would be about as close as we could come to riding it!

Another feature that Carowinds has that Kings Island used to have is a water geyser fountain surrounded by the midway. Kings Island used to have one of these by the Zephyr, right where the circle of trees is across from the Obey the Net basketball game. Currently, the location of the fountain is home to a planter. Too bad this type of feature still is not around at Kings Island. One of the neat things about Dollywood is that almost everywhere inside the park you can hear the sound of running water!

Another fun ride at Carowinds is Ricochet, a wild mouse coaster. The tight turns pack quite a punch with the lateral Gs.

A ride that was not at Carowinds on my last visit is Nighhawk, formerly Stealth at Great America (CA). The ride looks absolutely stunning in its new blue and yellow paint job.

The ride is visually stunning to ride in part because you fly over areas of water.

The ride went down to one train operation when we were in line, resulting in the longest wait of the day at about twenty minutes. The trains are slightly different than Firehawks. And the ending of the ride is a little more intense than the ending on Firehawk. It was a fun ride nonetheless, even though I couldn`t see because I was required to take my glasses off (even though I had them secured with an athletic strap).

And finally, one last picture of Nighthawk. Right below the train is a new wooden fence. This used to be where the entrance to the log flume ride was. Not much is left of the log flume, although the queue building remains, and the Wild Thornberrys logo is still in plain sight above the new fence in a couple of areas. I heard many guests disappointed that the ride was gone.

By far the highlight of the day for both Cory and myself was riding Danny Phantom Flyers. This is the ride that used to be the Flying Eagles at Kings Island and opened at Coney Island in 1940.

We finished the day with three rides, and we were able to snap the tubs just as good as you could when the ride was at Kings Island. My final ride I got a couple of severe snaps in. The ride ops running the ride were actually calling the numbers of the tubs that were "flying the highest" over the rides PA system. I`m glad to see this ride continuing to thrill people at Carowinds and that they still allow snapping. I`m just sad that this great family ride is still not at Kings Island!

Throughout the day, we also rode Thunder Road, which only had one side running with one train op which resulted in a ten minute wait. The completely rebuilt sections of the ride are extremely smooth. We got a pair of rides in on both the Carolina Cyclone (an Arrow coaster with two vertical loops and two corkscrews over the midway) and Hurler. Goldrusher was also only running one train, which resulted in a longer wait, even though we only had about a three train wait (that ride has two lifts like Adventure Express). We also grabbed a ride on the Scream Weaver (Huss entreprise) and the Yo Yo (Chance).

All in all, we had a great day at Carowinds, despite Vortex and Afterburn being down. We left around 4:10 because we had an eight hour drive back to Cincinnati ahead of us. If you have not been to Carowinds, it is a fun park. Between Danny Phantom Flyers and Afterburn alone I would recommend this park. Afterburn is a tremendous ride that I loved when I visited Carowinds back in 2001 and 2003. Carolina Cobra is a great addition to the park, and surprisingly lkely has better capacity than the Super Saturator had.

Now we are only a few weeks away from Kings Island opening, but Cory and myself were able to start our coaster riding season a little early. And now that spring break is over, I am in my last quarter of grad school at the University of Cincinnati! Thanks for reading this very lengthy PTR, and to quote Carowinds` slogan "Ride on!"

[The Interpreter]

Great trip report. The glasses policy for Nighthawk changes many times over most seasons...from you can ride with glasses with a strap to you must leave glasses in the station to you have to leave them with a non-rider. I can't blame this on Cedar Fair, either, as the same thing went on under CBS. The only other place I have encountered such absurdity is at Knott's Berry Farm....I am NOT riding any coaster without my glasses...which my ophthalmologists and optometrists advise me are necessary to protect my eyes for medical reasons. I can only imagine what would happen on Kingda Ka or Top Thrill Dragster, for example, should a large bug hit my eye. In a word, no.

[DropZone99]

I hear that behind that fence where the old log flume was is similar to Diamondback's Construction area in 2008. More evidence of the 2010 coaster. Can't wait to see Dollywood Photos!

[CoastersRZ]

Well, from the looks of things, they were still demolishing parts of the log flume.

And regarding Dollywood photos (emphasis added):

Saturday was the day for Dollywood. Before checking out of the hotel, we checked the weather forecast, and it wasn`t good. Radar showed we would have some heavy rain, but we could possibly see a break in the afternoon. Due to the forecast, I opted NOT to bring my camera along to Dollywood. Both Cory and I had bought passes back in December when we went to Dollywood for a Smoky Mountain Christmas (you can view my PTR of that here). The pass does not include parking, so we paid $8 at the newly renovated entrance to the parking lot. And you can`t really complain about the parking fee, since Dollywood does offer tram service right to the front gate.

[Ki Man]

Top Gun:TJC / Flight Deck is absolutely INCREDIBLE

[TOPGUN1993]

By far the highlight of the day for both Cory and myself was riding Danny Phantom Flyers. This is the ride that used to be the Flying Eagles at Kings Island and opened at Coney Island in 1940.

Are you sure about that?

Anyways thanks for the update, Getting a peek at what other parks do for a change it nice. Did Cory take any photos?

[CoastersRZ]

KI Man, the ride formerly known as Top Gun: The Jet Coaster at Carowinds is not known as Flight Deck. It is now known as Afterburn.

And no, Cory did not take pictures at either park.

And yes, I am certain that the Eagles opened at Coney in 1940. As my source, I cite Charle`s Jacques` book "Cincinnati`s Coney Island: America`s Finest Amusement Park."

[Gordon Bombay]

Robbie, great photographs and report. I haven't been to Carowinds since 2003 and really wish I could go again soon. TG:TJC, like KI Man and you said, is absolutely wonderful. One of my favorites, it left quite an impression on me.

That paint job on NIghthawk looks great, I wish they'd do a similar paint job on Flight Deck at KI!

How was Carolina Cobra? I rode it at GL and it was terrible, do the new trains make it any better?

[CoastersRZ]

I agree, the paint job for Nighthawk looks nice. Those colors would look great on Flight Deck. Cory commented that they look like the Blue Angel colors.

I never rode it when it was at Geauga Lake. When I went there in 2002 (the park was Six Flags Worlds of Adventure at the time) the ride was closed the entire day I was there. So I can`t really compare it with the new trains to how it was when it was up north. However, it was a thoroughly enjoyable ride. The new trains are awesome and there is no headbanging whatsoever.

[RailRider]

Nice PTR, but I must ask while at Dollywood did you not ride Mountain SlideWinder or was it not open? Love that ride.

[dare-to-fly]

Mystery Mine has some great theming, and a great ending to the ride, but the first half of the ride is a little lackluster.

I totally agree with you! But then, that's completely expected since the first half is trimmed to death around every turn. Mystery Mine took me several rides and two visits to "get it." I'll ride it now if there is no line, but I'm not a big enough fan to wait for it. The other coasters are more interesting to me, and I'm glad to see you enjoyed Tennessee Tornado, which is my favorite looping coaster ever and one of the most under-rated coasters I know of.

Carowinds definitely has some issues with running multiple trains, and that was an annoyance on some rides when I visited last year. Hurler made up for any negativity I had about this. To me, it's a fantastic ride full of airtime (and thankfully no trims...yet), and I'm ready to go again. Thunder Road was down when I was there last year so I need to pick up that credit, and plan to at Coaster Stock.

As for Carolina Cobra, I'm sure the trains are a great improvement to the ride; I can't wait to see for myself. I have to admit though - I thought it was fun at Geauga Lake. (Not that it was my favorite by any means - that would be Big Dipper - but it was fun for me.) I've ridden several Boomerang coasters, and while all basically the same, I like them.

Thanks for the great TR, and I hope to have a TR of my own soon over my trip to Six Flags Over Georgia for Spring Fling...or rather...Rain and Lunch; The Event.

Flyer, who also was disappointed due to rain.

[CoastersRZ]

I don`t know if it was open or not. I would assume it was. We never made it to that area. I would assume it was open since even River Battle was open (despite having some mechanical difficulties at one point). We passed on riding that since it was only in the mid 60s and did not want to get completely drenched.

[Avatar]

Robbie thanks for taking the time to share your trip with us. It sounds like you and Cory had a nice little get away even though it got a little wet for you guys. I did not know Carowinds was that close to Dollywood, we keep talking about taking a trip to DollyWood and I think your idea of going to Carowinds the next day or two is a good way for us to finally get there. For a family how many days would you say we would need to take both parks in without marathoning the trip?

BTW I am happy for you in being so close to graduation, it'll be like a whole new Robbie school behind him.

[CoastersRZ]

I`d say at least three days between the two parks. We were at Dollywood from 9:30 until about 7:15, which is a long day in the park. To follow that with a four hour drive to the hotel, followed by six hours at Carowinds the next day and an eight hour drive home makes for an exhausting two days. An extra day or two would certainly make the trip more enjoyable and not feel as rushed.

I know. Only seven weeks until my final presentation, and nine weeks until DAAPWorks, the exhibit show open to the public containing the work of all the graduating students. Thins may not settle down until I find a full time job, however.

[skaterboy22101]

The ride also features brand new trains from Vekoma with a new over the shoulder vest restraint system. The vest is attached to a lap bar, which is attached to the train via two bars that are conveniently places as grab bars. We only waited about ten to fifteen minutes for this ride as crowds were light and the crew was working very efficiently. Upon completing our ride on it, the train was stopped in the wrong spot, which wouldn`t allow our lap bars to unlock. Luckily maintenance was watching the ride for any hiccups it might have, and our restraints were unlocked one car at a time by a maintenance worker with an electronic device that was attached to the car.

That happened to me last year on Vortex. The train stoped halfway into the station and it took them like 20 minutes to fix the problem. They had to manualy push the train, with my friend and I still on it (We were the only ones on it at the time), about ten feet into the station.