Carowinds was without a doubt, one of my most anticipated parks of the trip. I can’t really say why it had such a hold on me, maybe because I’ve heard lots of good things, or maybe it was purely Fury 325. Either way, I was hyped!
With a five-hour journey between Kings Dominion and Carowinds, we booked a motel a little north of Charlotte, giving us just an hour’s drive in the morning through North Carolina’s beautiful, most-populous city. We still had a good ten minutes left of this drive when we first saw it. The jaw-dropping scale of the world’s tallest lift hill. Fury 325 towered above everything else in sight, filling the sky with beautiful twists of blue and green.
Stepping out of the car, we were hit with the first true heat of the trip, and a sign of the way things would be for the rest of our time in the States. Honestly, is there any hotter place than a theme park car park? Sweating our way up to security, I then proceeded to get caught in the worst bag check in the world. The kid in front had brought one of those massive art sets that usually show up under the Christmas tree from an uncle or aunt and the security guard had to check each and every item in the case to make sure it wasn’t a permanent marker, whilst smug (at least I imagined them to be) already-in-the-park guests raced past on one of my most-hyped coasters. Pain.
Finally in the park, there was no question of where we’d be heading first. All thought of ride strategy simply gets thrown aside when you have a coaster as gorgeous as Fury calling your name. Though large portions of the pathways were exposed to the sun as you’d expect, the park had made an effort to provide shade where they could which was very welcome.
Arriving in the not-so-shaded Fury plaza, we caught our first look at the ride’s incredible sign. This was, for me, the first real ‘I cannot believe I’m actually seeing this for myself’ moment of the trip. I’d seen this sign so much in vlogs, on insta, just everywhere really. Seeing it for myself was special, really special. Even if the wall in front was so hot that my bum felt like it was on fire as I posed for a photo!
Like a large proportion of American theme parks, it was necessary to store our bags in lockers, with smaller items allowed on the ride provided they are in zip pockets. And here was the only major issue I had with the park. For a 2-hour rental, Carowinds charges a shocking $4. I don’t believe there was an option for an all-day rental either, although I could have made the same mistake that I made a day earlier at Kings Dominion and misunderstood the options available. As it was however, unless you’re with a non-rider, you’re looking at a compulsory $4 upcharge for both Fury 325 and Copperhead Strike. Maddening. Particularly when the park we’d visited the previous day was operated by the same company and charged half the amount.
But enough locker negativity, let’s talk about the ride. Firstly, this ride is gorgeous. The way it dominates the entrance to the park – not only flying above the entrance bridge but diving below too – simply has to be one of the most impressive introductions to a coaster out there. I can’t think of many coasters I’ve seen and thought ‘god, I need to get on that immediately’ more than I did seeing this. And when it came to the actual ride experience? Holy hell, Fury lived up to everything I’d heard about it – well ok, maybe not immediately. It seemed as though the heat kept the crowds away as we were able to walk straight into the station, and onto the second row. This first ride was delightful, with that never-ending drop completely taking my breath away, some beautiful floater airtime and twisting transitions that were just about my level of snappy (fun, but my neck wasn’t in peril). But it didn’t feel game-changing. Thankfully, the ride was still walk-on so we looped around immediately for a second try, this time in the back row – that was more like it! I felt like I spent more time out of my seat than I was in it! All of my momentary panic that it hadn’t lived up to the hype evaporated after that second ride. Whatever happened, I could quite happily place Fury 325 up amongst my favourite coasters.
But at the end of the day we returned for a few more rides on Fury, including one in the front row. That ride. Holy crap, that ride. I had never felt speed like that on a coaster before. Whilst I may have been riding front, the skin on my face felt like it was chilling somewhere in row 3. That was the first time I’d ever felt the speed of a coaster fully pull my face back and it was insaaaane. We were incredibly lucky to have crowds low enough that we were allowed to choose our seat, as preferred seating isn’t usually offered on this coaster. But lord, the front row was everything.
I cannot wrap up talking about Fury 325 without mentioning the insane ops that the team were pulling on our visit. Bearing in mind, the park was dead. There was no need to pump out the trains, but pump them out they did. Not once did I see a train take more than 1 minute to dispatch – it was rare for them to breach 50 seconds! Incredible effort from all.
With Fury under our belts, it was time to head on over to the park’s other headlining rollercoaster – Copperhead Strike. This Mack multi-launch is located in the park’s newest area, Blue Ridge Junction. This is actually the only land in the park that I have lots of photos of – oops – just because I simply could not stop taking them. This land is stunning. It’s true that Western themed lands are 10 a penny, and are often the land within a park that has the strongest theming. But, I don’t even care. Blue Ridge is so far beyond everything else in the park that, similar to Jungle X-Pedition over at Kings Dominion, it makes me incredibly excited for what the future holds for the park.
As much as I may have wanted to spend the rest of the day chilling on one of the many rocking chairs located on shady porches within the land, Copperhead Strike was calling our names. Whilst the front of the coaster is marked with an incredible ride sign, the entrance itself is a bit of a trek. To get in line, you actually need to walk past the sign, all the way around to the opposite side of the coaster. I didn’t mind this too much as the theming around this area was incredible, the best I’ve seen at a Cedar Fair park (outside of Knotts ofc). The queue too is packed full of theming elements, though I didn’t get too much time to look around as we were only waiting about 10 minutes. Which is lucky, because this line was hot! To ride Copperhead, all loose articles must be stored in a locker except items that fit into a zippered pocket. For our first ride, I stored everything except one of those tiny cheap fans which just about got me through the line. I really don’t know what I would have done had it had its usual wait!
I may have mentioned once or twice how much I adore hangtime? Well, Copperhead Strike was stacked with the stuff. Absolutely stacked. From the moment the ride began, I knew I was in for a good time. For those that have ridden Ride to Happiness, the beginning of Copperhead will feel pretty familiar, with an instant jojo roll as you leave the station. From there, you coast into a barn which is fantastically themed to a secret moonshine factory with screens providing the story elements. Honestly, I didn’t actually look at these too much because there was also a model chicken in a box which puffed feathers everywhere as you were about to launch and I loved it too much to look anywhere else. So about that launch… oh Mack. You tried. If you’ve done a Mack launch before (e.g. Icon) you know what to expect. They aren’t snappy, and this is no exception. But regardless, you launch directly into a vertical loop and take it slooooooowwwww. You’re held upside down in that loop for what feels like forever, before exiting straight onto an airtime hill with some great ejector. That about sums up what you can expect from this ride. If you don’t think of this as a launch coaster, but rather just a gentle-paced airtime and hangtime machine, I hope you’ll have just as much of a great time as I did. My only issue with the ride was that those lapbars get tight through the ride time. When I took my fan in my pocket, by the time I reached the station I was in agony from how hard it was being pressed into my leg. But it was all worthwhile for a beauty of a ride that sits firmly in my top ten.
Next up, it was time to leave the beauty of Blue Ridge Junction and walk on up into the somewhat less scenic Crossroads area. Presumably named because the park didn’t really know what to do once Afterburn was no longer themed to Top Gun. Thankfully, even with the light military theming, this coaster was the big surprise of the day! How had I never heard of Afterburn before?! This is an absolute beast of a B&M invert, flying through a massive vertical loop, ditches, tunnels and zero-g rolls with crazy intensity. It’s absolutely up there with the best of the B&M inverts for me! (Also, I loved the details on the tops of the trains. Shark train!)
Here we also rode the patently ridiculous Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare: 3Z Arena (what a name). I’ve been scouring Youtube to try to find footage of the ludicrous, over-long, over-the-top pre-show video but I can’t find it anywhere, so please just know that it was ridiculous. The ride itself was a shooter with individual moving seats facing one giant screen. I’d only ever experienced this ride type at Jardin d’Acclimatation in Paris, and in my opinion, it worked better there with a much smaller group of people. It was just so much easier to find my pointer on the screen! The motion here was very random too, in Paris the seat moved fluidly with the image, but here the seat just kinda jerked you every now and then. Regardless, it was a lot of fun and I’m sad – but not overly surprised – that it’s closing its doors very soon!
Aside from Plants vs Zombies, the park’s other dark ride is another Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. Sadly, of all the Boo Blasters this was my least favourite. Unlike Kings Dominion it didn’t allow you to see where you were shooting. It also seemed to have a few effects that weren’t working – or maybe I was just not hitting where I thought I was! It was still a cute, kitschy dark ride though which I probably would have adored had I not experienced a better version just the day before.
By this point, it was definitely time for lunch. With temperatures well over 30 degrees, I was extremely grateful that this was another park with a huge, air-conditioned food hall. (I am once again asking for one in every park!) Harmony Hall had a fantastic selection of food, featuring normal park fare such as fried chicken and pizza, but to my delight, they also had a counter offering salads and poke bowls! The pre-boxed salads admittedly looked a little sad, but my poke bowl was truly incredible. I forgot to take a photo because I am a terrible blogger, but you choose your own protein and vegetables Subway-style and mine was absolutely packed with tofu and fresh, crisp vegetables and covered in a soy dressing! I cannot overstate enough how happy it makes me when I can actually grab something nutritious in a theme park!
Staying on the subject of food for a moment, Carowinds actually offered a themed snack! (!!!) Across the park, you can find their own unique flavour of Dippin’ Dots – Fury Freeze! They tasted a little odd – blue raspberry, lemon and lime? – but were an absolute must purchase. Even if trying to get to Fury for a photo before they all melted in the crazy heat was the most stressful moment of the day – you can just about see the melted ones at the top!
It’s safe to say I was pretty anxious about our next ride, Intimidator. Only the day before, its Virginian cousin had absolutely destroyed me after all. But it was pretty clear from the moment we approached the coaster that I wouldn’t be having the same experience here. The layout was just… completely different. Instead of a series of ground-hugging curves, there were airtime hills as far as the eye could see. This was just so weird to me. Two coasters with the same name, theme and colour, opened around the same time but with utterly different ride experiences. I guess it’s no weirder than comparing Paris’ Space Mountain to its American counterparts. But anyway, I couldn’t have been more grateful for this alternative style of Intimidator and had a fantastic time floating through it’s far milder layout.
I can’t actually remember the last time I did an observation tower – Seaworld 2015 maybe – but the Carolina Skytower was the perfect reminder of how great they are. The views over the park from here were absolutely stunning – they almost made me sad that Nighthawk was closed! It was even air-conditioned, making it without a doubt the most beautiful way to take a break in the park.
The skytower also gave us a good idea of where to head in order to mop up our last few coasters. Carolina Goldrusher, Ricochet and Flying Cobras were all perfectly fine, but not particularly memorable in any way. But honestly, between a mine train, a wild mouse and a boomerang I’m just happy to walk away unscathed!
Another Cedar Fair staple to make an appearance in this park was Camp Snoopy, which once again was shade-filled, gorgeously landscaped and packed with places to kick back and relax. Sadly, with Woodstock Express down and Wilderness Run accepting no solo adults (even with a completely empty station) we didn’t actually experience any of the attractions here, apart from its true E-ticket, the numerous shaded benches.
For anyone keeping count of the coasters, you may notice there are quite a lot missing from this post. That’s because Carowinds spited us bad. Thankfully, Carowinds also had one of the largest numbers of coasters on my ‘so rough it’s not even worth trying’ list (thanks to everyone who contributed to that!) and it was mostly those that were out of action. Carolina Cyclone, Hurler, Nighthawk, Kiddy Hawk, Woodstock Express and Vortex were all down for at least the majority of the day. Vortex did open late afternoon and wasn’t as god-awful as some say according to my friends who rode, but I was more than happy to take their word for it to be honest.
Like all Cedar Fair parks, Carowinds had a fantastic range of merch with items for practically every coaster (particularly Fury 325 and Copperhead Strike, unsurprisingly), but what made their offering special in my eyes was the staff. In every shop we visited, they went above and beyond to make sure we got what we wanted. When I couldn’t find a shirt in my size, they called every shop in the park and even took the shirts off of every mannequin trying to find one for me. When my friend wished to buy a Fury 325 basketball, but wouldn’t have been able to fit one in his case, they went to the storeroom and fetched a deflated one. This was true too in food and beverage, with the drink stand in Carolina Boardwalk being staffed by quite possibly the friendliest server I’ve ever met. Across the park, every member of staff was an absolute delight and a real asset to the park.
All in all, Carowinds was a wonderful park. Headlined by one of my favourite coaster duos at any park and supported by rides that any park would be proud to have, this is somewhere I’d go out of my way to include on any future visits to the area. And with a new themed area on its way, it’s only going to get better!
And yes, I took the obligatory state line photo.
Speak again soon,
Claire
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coasterclaire.co.uk 