On Sunday, March 25th, 2018, I visited Carowinds for the first time. The park was built in 1973 and is unique in the way that the border of North Carolina and South Carolina runs through the middle of the park. The north end is in Charlotte, North Carolina, while the south end is in Fort Mill, South Carolina. The park is also owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company.
My grandfather and I arrived at the park at about 9:35. When we got there, we heard the unfortunate news that some rides may be opening late or not at all due to low temperatures, including Fury 325 and Intimidator, the largest rides in the park.
We were planning on going on those coasters right away, but instead changed our plans.
To start the day, we rode Ricochet, the park’s wild mouse type coaster, Carolina Cyclone, the park’s looping roller coaster, and Hurler, the park’s major wooden roller coaster.
We then continued to some more roller coasters to see which were open, and when we got to another we were on the other side of the park. We hopped on Afterburn, which is the park’s suspended looping roller coaster, which was a lot of fun. This ride is quite possibly one of my favoring suspended loopers.
We proceeded to ride Woodstock Express, the kiddie wooden roller coaster in the park, before grabbing a quick bite to eat at the Harmony Hall Marketplace. This food court has a vast selection of different culinary options to choose from. Personally, I had the chicken tenders with sidewinder fries, which was very good. Some other options included hamburgers, pizza, and bbq.
One thing about Cedar Fair parks is that they offer an all season drink pass that allows you to simply scan your pass and get a cup for soft drinks all season long. I have used this route, and it’s extremely convenient. If you visit a Cedar Fair park multiple times in a year, I definitely recommend investing $30 in this pass.
After we ate, we made our way to the Carolina Skytower to get a view of the park and surrounding area. From there, we headed towards Vortex, the park’s standup coaster, followed by Boo Blasters on Boo Hill, the park’s interactive dark ride, and Flying Cobras, the park’s boomerang style roller coaster.
As the day was progressing, it was becoming more and more clear that some of the rides closed may not be opening. We were constantly going up to each of the rides closed to see when they were going to open, but most had no answer.
At this point, it was about 2:30pm, and my grandpa and I were getting very impatient. After a ride on the park’s carousel, we decided we were going to stick around until 3:15, then leave if there was no luck.
3:15 rolled around and we still had no luck. We were on our way out, but I quickly diverted over to Fury 325 to see if there was a chance it could open. When we got over to the ride, it began to test for the day. Fury was one of the main rides we visited the park for, and we were just about to ride it.
We got in line and were on the first public train of the day. The ride was absolutely FANTASTIC, offering an long, intense ride that never lets up. If you have the opportunity to visit the park, definitely get on this thing. We actually wanted to ride again, but the line was already out the entrance and it was only operating one train. We also had another four hour drive ahead of us, so we decided to call it a day at the park.
All in all, we were able to ride all the coasters we could in the park (8), except for Intimidator, Carolina Goldrusher, Nighthawk, and Kiddy Hawk due to weather. I definitely plan to visit this park again to ride those coasters, and most importantly, ride Fury 325 some more.