Carowinds - July 12 and 13, 2024

Coaster Trip 2024 commenced on a balmy Friday morning at Carowinds. I was excited to finally try the much-lauded giga Fury 325 as well as Copperhead Strike. My wife and I spent about a day and a half at Carowinds, and while it's not a perfect park by any means, it was still a good time.

I'll talk rides first, and get to the rest afterwards.

Carowinds offers some good flats as well:

Carowinds was the first stop of this year's coaster extravaganza trip. The park feels relatively compact and easy to navigate, but is actually deceptively large, especially with its attached water park. The vibe of the park feels a bit... old? Outdated? Fury 325 notwithstanding, I got the vibe of walking through my home parks (SFGAdv/Hershey) 20-25 years ago, before things were renovated and modernized, but also before those old things got super crapped up. Like, the park seemed pretty well-maintained overall.

Of course, our trip began in the midst of an awful heat wave. Almost every park day on this trip was spent in sunny and humid mid-90s weather. Like other Cedar Fair parks, shade at Carowinds is inconsistent. Sections of the park, like immediately around the Mine Train area, are pretty well shaded. Others, like the area near Copperhead and the water park entrance, can get very hot. The heat and sun forced my wife and I to move quickly on both days. Thank goodness there are a ton of refill stations, and none give you trouble about refilling a plastic water bottle. I also appreciated the park's insistence on offering ice-cold water at any dining location.

Speaking of dining, we didn't get much, but we did enjoy an order of cheese fries from Fair Fries. I'm a sucker for fresh-cut fries at amusement parks, and these were pretty good.

The crowds at this park were, of all the non-Six-Flags parks on this trip, the most "Six Flaggy." By that I mean it was jam packed with rowdy kids, and fewer families. On our second ride on Carolina Goldrusher, the two cars in front of us had four kids basically having a huge slap fight during the ride and on the brake run. "IF YOU TOUCH ME AGAIN THEN YOU'RE GAY," shouted one of the 12-year-olds. I guess not much has changed in 20 years.

The locker system here is borderline criminal. They're far too expensive for lockers that you need to have for certain rides. If you're going to require them, they need to be free or so cheap as to be a nonfactor. Carowinds lockers are EXPENSIVE. It's the worst part of the park experience without a doubt.

A few travel details for those possibly interested - we stayed about 20 minutes north of the park at the Doubletree in Tyvola. I would not recommend staying there. The parking lot is full of signs about removing all valuables and locking up your cars (turns out I missed the many reviews about car break-ins), and the whole building is super humid and dank. There are surely better options. I did get to experience my first ever meals at Biscuitville, Jack in the Box, and Cookout, and hoooo mama, you southerners certainly have way better fast food than we have in New York. Finally, we stopped at the Thomasville Antique Emporium on the way up to our next stop, and it was AWESOME. If you love antiquing and are on the way up north from Carowinds, it's a damn good way to spend a couple of hours.

TL;DR:

My personal ranking of the coasters at Carowinds:

  1. Copperhead Strike
  2. Afterburn
  3. Fury 325
  4. Thunder Striker
  5. Carolina Goldrusher
  6. Hurler
  7. Flying Cobras
  8. Nighthawk
  9. Vortex
  10. Ricochet
  11. Carolina Cyclone