APE Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 I am on vacation visiting family in Charleston South Carolina. My brother and I decided to make the trip to the park for the day for the first time either of us had been there. We left at about 6am and made it to the park a little before 9:30 a.m. it was odd to me there was a line of cars just sitting parked waiting to be let in. I had failed to read they only do ERT on specific days. They didn't start letting cars into the lot until a minute or so after 9:30 a.m. We got parked and headed to the ticket window where thanks to the Platinum Pass we were able to get him a ticket for $37. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the park, some things I really enjoyed, like how compact the park is so it was easy to make rounds and explore instead of trying to plan all of our moves. Then some things I really didn't care for. I dont know if this is normal practice or what but there were four coasters running one train. This was very frustrating as short waits became annoying and much longer than they are supposed to be. I'll just give a run down of my thoughts on each ride, of which none of them are overly good and just kind of mediocre. Intimidator - front seat is boring as can be the back however was a lot of fun just like Diamondback. I did enjoy the turns on Intimidator more than Diamondback but they are pretty much the same ride. They are fun but not great. Afterburn - this was my favorite ride of the day. I like it more than I like Raptor or Montu actually. The exact reason I like it better than Raptor is it doesn't slam your head incredibly hard in a couple of spots like Raptor does. None of the inverts touch Banshee though. Southern Star - it was alright. For some reason I thought it would be more fun. Thunder Road - one train operation. Boring ride, but at least it wasn't rough until the end. Nighthawk - I liked it better than Firehawk but I'm not really a fan of Firehawk and they were only running one train which made me want to punch a Nun. Hurler - This ride was just dumb, the terrible off vibration made me never want to go near it again. Carolina Cyclone - boring and rough. Carolina Cobra - I actually liked this thing. It had me so dizzy with the forces. Ricochet - little coaster was really fun. Vortex - I expected the worst and got a halfway decent ride. I'd ride it again. We also did some of the water park including Dorsal Fin Drop. I really liked that slide and thought they had a pretty nice waterpark going on. It will take a pretty phenomenal ride to pull me back to the park again soon. We were able to get rides on everything despite all of the one train operations and a decent crowd for a Monday. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jla Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 I have never been. Thanks for the report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homestar92 Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Carowinds is my favorite Cedar Fair park. I'm sad to hear you were there when Hurler was having a bad day. It was nice and smooth when I was there, but I've heard that Hurler can be particularly... moody, and can be glass smooth some days and horribly rough on others. I agree on Nighthawk being a tad better than Firehawk, though I just wish there were a better place to hold on. I'm never 100% comfortable on flying coasters, and I like the psychological feeling of holding on. Even though in the event of catastrophe, it would probably not help much on that type of coaster... I personally loved the Carolina Cyclone. It's my third favorite Arrow looper. It's certainly no Viper or Vortex, but I really like it. Decent length, fresh paint (in 2012 at least), and a short line made it a ride that I really loved. I love the trains on the Carolina Cobra. Those Vekoma Boomerang coasters are generally seen with either Arrow looper trains or the older Vekoma looper trains (which resemble the Arrow ones a bit). The new Vekoma trains are delightful, and I think they do a better job of the vest-style restraint than B&M. Much more comfortable than Gatekeeper or Banshee's restraints in my opinion. They have also introduced a version of those restraints for their SLCs, which I'd imagine would do wonders for those rides, as the headbanging kills what would otherwise be fun, compact little inverts. Perhaps T2 will get some new trains with its upcoming refurb. I don't know what the fate of the original trains for that coaster were, but if for some reason the park no longer has them, they would be a good candidate for the new ones. Agree with you on Intimidator, almost word-for-word. I like the ride itself a bit better than Diamondback, but the splashdown pushes Diamondback above it for me. Vortex is a fun little standup coaster, though way too short. It was over as soon as it started getting good. It's definitely my second favorite coaster named Vortex. Thunder Road is pretty good, but I'd rather ride The Racer. Afterburn was my first B&M Invert, and what a way to be introduced to them. I definitely think it blows Raptor away. I like it almost as much as Banshee. I need to get back down there and see how they compare without having two years between riding them. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APE Posted July 2, 2014 Author Share Posted July 2, 2014 To be honest it's probably my least favorite park of those I have visited. i can't imagine Hurler being smooth. The ride felt like all the wheels were flat spotted or something it was bad. I could not stand all of the one train operations going on and Intimidator had two trains running but they still managed to stack them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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