Carowinds, a Trip Report
After finding out my Six Flags season pass covered it, I spent two days at a theme park I'd never visited before.
Those following my exploits know that my passion for roller coasters reignited in a level surpassing even my youth thanks to a desire to ride AireForce One before it closed. My first encounter with roller coasters was Six Flags Over Georgia — which is my home park today — specifically, the Mindbender. However, I never sought out other parks with new rides until this past week. I learned Carowinds, a four hour drive away spanning the North and South Carolina border, would work with my Six Flags season pass! And it is home to Fury 325, often regarded as the best roller coaster in the world.
The pandemic was hard on the amusement park industry, as they were able to collect minimal revenue in 2020, and crowds have taken time to return to previous levels. As a result, Six Flags and Cedar Point, owner of a number of parks known for their roller coasters as well, merged into one company, creating a unified season pass. Only a few years ago, I would have to pay for separate admission to Carowinds.
However, despite being run by the same company, I was immediately impressed with how well run and clean Carowinds was. Operations on rides at Six Flags has gotten slow, with trains often taking several minutes to go out. However, on most rides at Carowinds, especially the more popular ones, it is as if they have it down to a science. My first day there, I was able to ride Fury 325 an astounding twenty times, all while getting in rides at a lot of the rest of the park and walking a grand total of ten miles.
Along with Fury 325, I was delighted to ride Thunder Striker a multitude of times. Both are built by the same manufacturer, B&M, with a focus on speed and intense drops over any sorts of inversions or twists. Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia, a coaster that means a ton to me, is by the same designers, built with similar goals, but it feels so much more rough these days than either of them — and the Fury and Thunder Striker trains were both flying out of their respective stations..
Another highlight was Copperhead Strike, which was down the first day we were there, but fortunately, we were able to ride it when we went back for a few hours the next day before driving home. The ride puts you through a very slow inversion going out of the station, leaving you hanging out of your seat long enough for the more primal parts of your brain to panic. Afterward, it launches you out of the station, putting you through a long and twisty set of tracks, all of which felt very smooth.
Other rides were not as smooth, like the Carolina Cyclone, an older ride that felt like it was going to kill me. The Carolina Goldrusher is even older, though at least those old mine train rides have charm. Hurler was the most intense wooden coaster I had ever experienced and tore around a banked turn way more fast than I expected, though it had the usual roughness of older wooden coasters. Maybe Rocky Mountain Construction can I-Box it someday. The only thing this park felt like it was missing was a good I-Box coaster.
They also had a lovely inverted coaster called Afterburn that apparently used to be Top Gun themed before they lost their license to it. I had a lot of experience riding Batman at Six Flags, which is a very similar ride, but, as much as I love Batman, Afterburn’s track was just a smidge better. They had an inverted coaster geared towards kids called Kiddy Hawk that used to be themed after Reptar from Rugrats that felt far more janky and, as a product, scary.
There were several kid coasters in the rather sprawling Snoopy section I did not get around to riding but may go back and snag the credit for someday. I also skipped Vortex, which, despite being manufactured by the same company as Afterburn, Fury 325, and Thunder Striker, uses a gimmick I loathe — standing. Most of these sorts of gimmicks — hanging, flying, etc. — genuinely add something to the experience, but I’m a strong believer standing just makes the ride worse. Looking at you, Georgia Scorcher.
The staff at the park seemed so much happier than at Six Flags Over Georgia, which might not matter to some, but it always makes me happier and more comfortable. They were more engaging with the riders, with workers in a couple of the stations playfully making light of the fact I was wearing a Goliath shirt — and how much better run their coasters of that style were. The morale of staff also was obviously reflected in the quality of the ride operations!
Though the park still lacks the production budget of a Disney or an Orlando park, it was truly an impressive experience — and now my favorite theme park. I may only be basing that off of a few parks in the southeast and one time I went to Disneyland in California with my parents as a kid, but the experience instilled in me a sense that it is worth it to go out of my way to ride new rides and earn new credits. I hope to go to more parks in the coming years. And go back to Carowinds!