Coasters
| Route 66 | Cities | Beaches |
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Coasters |
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Lodging |
Restaurants |
| Carowinds offers a varied mix of 12 coasters. They are definitely worth a trip, but invite a curious love – hate reaction. This is the roughest coaster collection in the region. They really beat up riders. And it’s difficult to determine exactly why. Some of them are clones or very similar to other models, but these are punishing while their counterparts are smooth. However, if this park were in Ohio or Pennsylvania these coasters would receive much more acclaim. Top Gun and Saturator are the big draws. The new Borg Assimilator will probably rival them.
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Ricochet--- Paramount’s Wild Mouse. Four person cars. Heavy trims and harsh bottoming out on steep dips. The dip coming down from the station roof is especially jolting. Indiana Beach and Idlewild have set the bar so high on this type of ride it’s hard for these Ricochets to compete, but it’s still fun. |
| Saturator --- Same as the one at Hershey. A great ride. People man water cannons on the ground blasting four person gunships. Riders on the gunships have water bombs they drop on the ground corps. Fountains shoot walls of water skyward for gunships to pass through. Wear swimsuits because you’re going to get soaked. A break from summer heat. At 9 each night they cut the water off so this becomes a higher altitude Runaway Reptar. |  |
| Hurler --- This is a 90% mirror image of
Kentucky Kingdom’s Thunder Run. The 80 ft. first drop breaks right
instead of left, and the middle loop is set further under the lift hill
structure, but other than that it’s the same ride. This one is even
faster, though, thanks to a slightly higher and steeper first drop. It has
only that one steep descent, followed by a long horizontal layout with five
bunny hills. So you don’t get the thrills of multiple drops. What
you get is continual air, punishing laterals, and breathtaking speed. There
are no trims until you come roaring into the station, still smoking. CW
claims a modest 50 mph for this ride but our radar gun indicated 65 on a
hot, humid day with a full load. All this is great for woodie lovers. But Hurler really hurts. It especially hurts the lower back and neck. And this doesn’t make any sense. These trains feature high back seats and some of the best padding anywhere. The turns are highly banked. An ergonomic engineer needs to address the problem here. |
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Goldrusher --- At 2397 ft. and a 43 ft. drop, this was once our favorite Mine Train Ride. But it’s been losing ground, first to Disney and LoCoSuMo, then to PKI and CP. Paramount has slowed it down considerably. Starts out circling aimlessly around the station. The dive into the simulated mine and the helix out by Borg are great, but there’s too much dead time. The long straight along the river lost its magic when Paramount drained the river.
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| Thunder Road --- The same ride as PKI’s
Racers but 3-4 times rougher. The banging and bruising does not keep this
being worth a ride, but raises the question of what CW does or does not
do to cause the roughness. As at PKI, one train runs backward. I do not
find this appealing, but many of our group loved it. Like PKI’s this
coaster is best after dark. Worth riding for another reason. This is the only coaster anywhere running in two states. The station and first drop are in North Carolina. The other hills and turnaround are in South Carolina. |
| Vortex --- CW’s standup steeler. Four loops and a few sidewise turns. Headbanging and pounding but fast and furious. |
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Reptar --- Another clone. This is exactly the same ride
as PKI’s, right down to the theming. But PKI’s is comfortable,
while this features headbanging. The headpieces at PKI fit, while these
are too small, and far from being cushions, these are hard. Unpadded headrests
don’t help. The tracking here is fine, but they need to redo the
seats, headrests and horsecollars. |
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Log Flume --- Smothered under Wild Thornberry theming,
CW’s flume is not competitive. The middle drop is only half sized,
and the finale is not high or steep enough. Some neat cruising along the
tree tops helps. But if CW wants to compete with flumes like Kennywood’s,
the $10,000 spent on cartoon statues should be used instead on full sized
lifts and drops. This is also amazingly rough, the only log flume we’ve
seen which jars and jolts riders. |
| Top Gun --- Wow. CW’s signature experience.
This is why people drive a whole day to get here. When you first pull off
I-77, you can see and hear it in the distance. CW thinks it sounds like
a jet plane, but over at the hotels, swimming pools, and parking lot it
really sounds like an angry lion. That roar permeates the whole atmosphere
every time a train comes around. CW has packaged the ride every way possible.
They have fighter planes parked along the walkway, and they loop the ride
over, under and around walkways. Top Gun is a suspended steeler featuring
six loops and a 62 mph pace. A batwing plunges through a smoke tunnel under
the sidewalk and climbs to the highest hill in the park. Despite the seeming
resemblance to PKI’s Top Gun, the rides are nothing alike. This is
much more spectacular. Once you start down from that initial lift hill,
the intensity never lets up until you round the bend into the station. Rough?
Well, yes, but not enough to keep it from being alone worth the drive down
to Carolina. Ranks right up there with Phantom’s Revenge and steelers
at CP and BGW. The back seat of CW’s Top Gun after dark on a hot,
humid summer night is one of the great coaster experiences in America. |
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Borg Assimilator --- The hot new addition
a few years back, this is a Star Wars themed experience which lays riders
stomach down and takes them through eight inversions at about 60 mph. This
is a radical new style of coaster, very photogenic, that because of their
prone position gives riders a whole different set of sensations. But because
their entire bodies will be in contact with the base, CW’s reputation
for extreme banging and bruising could reach much greater extremes. If its
maintenance staff can avoid this, the park should have a must ride attraction
here. Nicely landscaped, with water below the tracks and a Borg sphere partially
submerged. The track wraps around it before the corkscrews. Green night
lighting gives an eerie feel. The only prone coaster in the region. |
Taxi Jam --- Standard kiddie coaster. We’ve never been big fans of this type of ride because we think it jerks little kids around too much. However, while the Taxi Jam at PKI, Lil Phantom at KW and Junior Gemini at CP are squeezed into small spaces, necessitating tught turns and sudden drops, this one at least has a lot of room to roam. This allows broad sweeping curves and deeper drops with more gradual peaks and valleys, easing our concerns. It also provides a longer ride. This Taxi Jam is therefore more like CP's Woodstock Express or Camden Park's Little Dipper.
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Ghost Coaster --- CW’s compact. Competes with Beastie, Big Dipper and Comet. Might be the best of the bunch, but much too rough, especially considering Kiddieland location. Gets rougher each year. If it were ever retracked, this would be a great compact.
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