General Carowinds discussion
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By bgwfreak
#8718
the Scarowinds experience...

I posted this on another board, but since most of you don't post there I thought I'd post it here as well...

I got there at 5 till 7:00 or so and got my ticket and went through the metal detectors...

The plaza was about half full of people waiting at the bridge to go in. I wandered around and waited for it to open.

The line dropped and the race was off (for the crowd at least). lol

I made my way over to one of PC's vastly improved coasters in '04 (Vortex) and rode it first. Nice riding in the "dark". The whole section after the turn over the lift is pretty much in the dark. But of course there are lights all around from the front of the park and Borg, so it's not pitch black.

I've got to lose some weight! These restraints are not "large people friendly" lol. (by the way I'm working on that, we'll see how it feels next spring after I've lost some weight).

Next I rode Ricochet (with red sign no less). Wow!!!! This thing was running with almost <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>NO BRAKES </span>on!!! The thing was the wildest I've ever ridden it!! Greatest ride on Richochet evar!!!!11!!!1 (seriously though, it probably was)

Next was Goldrusher. I had already heard about *SPOILER* tunnel and the strobe light. Bascially the ride was the same as any other night ride except for the ultra cool strobe light. It made it look like the train wasn't even moving. Like man! We're slowing down and aren't going to make it up to the brake run!!!

I might have done Goldrusher before Ricochet, but can't remember.

Next I did my first "Haunted Attraction" <span style='color:green'>Alien Crypt 3-D</span>. Uh... well, not very scary. Basically it's a haunted house/maze but with aliens jumping out at you and you put on 3D glasses and the paint on the walls jumps out at you and makes it seem like the place is moving.

The funniest thing was watching people freak out ahead of me at the rotating tunnel. I just held on to the rails and I was fine. lol

Best thing about this was the people in robes painted like the walls. You didn't realize they were there half the time until they started moving.

Another cool thing was that you walked to the right of Carolina Cyclone's lift hill to get to the building. It's always cool to be able to see "behind the scenes" in any park. That's a sidebar, but I like to see stuff like that. Another plus in Scarowinds pocket.

Hmmmm... 6 out of 10 stars

I rode Dr Hurlerand Mr Hyde(what I call it) :D . The front car was smooth and filled with air time. The 4th car or so back was bone jarring and shook me silly.

My advice, ride the front car. It's a lot of fun. Maybe 4 o 5 back I was sitting over one of the wheels and that made it worse. Don't know.

Since the water park area was closed, I made my way back around to the front of the park and headed to Nightmare Manor.

This was one of the longest haunted houses I remember ever going on. It was getting pretty long by the end, and I was ready to get out of there.

People jumped out at you every now and then. The meat locker was gross and I kind of looked the other way because I don't like blood and gore. It's not that bad, but pretty realistic looking though.

This was the best haunted attraction to me. 7 out of 10 stars

That being said, I've been to old houses down in the country run by firefighters that were more excitng than anything at Scarowinds. One in particular near Locust, NC was in this old creaky house that was scary first of all because you feared falling through the old wooden floor! I think they also had the proverbial Chain Saw ending.

I rode Top Gun and Thunder Road. Nothing special, just your basic night ride on them. Thunder Road had only one backward train running and two forward. The forward train first car was broken on one of the trains. So I rode 2nd row. It was fun, but not racing is a bummer, which I'm used to after the past couple of years.

The last thing I did for the evening was Sleepy Hollow Horror.

Just your basic haunted trail (which brought me back to my Boy Scout years because I used to work at the Haunted Woods in Mint Hill). Fun times...

*bgwfreak slaps himself for rambling*

This one was not really scary. The freakiest thing was this woman behind our group kept screaming at the top of her lungs every time something would jump out at us. I thought she was part of the show until the end of the trail. lol!!!

Don't walk too fast through this one though. The tree roots about tripped me a couple of times.

Overall nothing special. 5 out of 10 stars.

I didn't bother with Escape from Alcatraz because it looked like another maze, and the line was long.

Didn't ride Dracula's Haunted Castle or whatever it's called since I heard it wasn't that good.

Didn't go into Jason's Extreme Cuts, because I can't handle blood and gore.

Overall not a bad night for free (someone gave me a ticket). I'd give the whole night 6 out of 10 stars.

The only thing Scarowinds had over BGW's Halloween was the people walking around the park were much "scarier" and would jump out at people and stuff.

It helped that the park was so dark and foggy and they could lurk in a corner then jump at the girls. lol

Will I be going back next year, I doubt it.
User avatar
By montumax
#8727
Glad you got to go. This will be the first year that I've missed going to Scarowinds. Just a few comments:

The people dressed like the wall are cool. Really nice effect there.

Nightmare Manor is usually worth the price of admission (IMHO). It just seems to go on and on and on...

Last year, Sleepy Hollow Horrow, whatever it was named last year, wasn't bad. Its just hard to be scared when you can see the log flume next to ya. Was it running during Scarowinds. I remember when they named it Camp Hachetital. There was a guy with a chainsaw at the top of the first lift. Pretty funny stuff.

That's just one prob I have with park haunts, its hard to be scared or get lost into the atmosphere when you've got a ride running next to ya. WHen they still had the island, you'd go by the Vortex and hear it going. Hard to be scared when you've got that B&M roar next to ya.

I bought the Jason boxed set so I'm pretty sure I saw "Jason's Extreme Cuts."

Looking forward to next year.
User avatar
By bgwfreak
#8730
The log flume wasn't working. And as humid as it was last night, I could have used a ride on it!!! lol