- June 8th, 2009, 11:40 am
#28435
For taking a rather boring repetitive marketing class at my school, I got to go on a discounted trip to Carowinds! It's been five years since I last went and still didn't have the credits for Reptar, and Vortex. I also wanted Cobras credit 
. I got to the park about an hour after it opened and we planned to ride Reptar first to get it out of the way (and for some reason my friends wanted to ride a "warm-up" coaster). I noticed how obnoxious the ride op was being (do we always have to make noise to ride a coaster?) and it didn't help that it was one-train op (I assume Reptar is always like that?) we waited about 25 minutes for it. After some massive credit whoring by me we decided to ride a real ride and headed to Carolina Cobra because I suggested it and everyone seemed inclined to listen to me 
. Cobra had a pretty decent wait probably about 30 minutes but the dispatch times were really good I'll give the ride ops that. This is the 2nd vekoma boomerang I've ridden and the trains are much better than SFFT's boomerang. Me and my friend were lucky and got the very front seat which is what I was hoping for because I rode SFFT's boomerang in the back. I have yet to experience a "bad vekoma boomerang" so I can't really talk about how good it is compared to the other 50 or so boomerangs in the world. Good addition to the park though IMO I liked it more than FSS, probably because I'm a teenager with a strong desire for adrenaline. After Cobra we rode Haunted Mansion which my gun wouldn't work on as I only got 60 points when I was shooting at a target an inch from my gun most of the time. We headed to Afterburn which also had an obnoxious wait (only other time I rode afterburn was back in 2004 in October it had pretty much no line at all on that day). We waited for the front because I can't stand anywhere else on B&M Inverts. I love Afterburn it's still the best ride in the park after five years IMO. After that me and one of my friends rode Southern Star. I've never been on an inverting swinging ship before so it was neat even though two of my friends wussed out of it. After that we decided to go to Action Theater (which for some reason is showing the same film it showed FIVE YEARS ago). I haven't been on one of these before but seeing that Ive been to USF, IoA, and BGE it obviously didn't amaze me, but I set my expectations according. It was really whatever to me, but I can't see why people scream when they're moved around a little bit on those seats. After that we went to the pavillion for our free meal. It was all you can eat which was nice. The food wasn't anything special but I'm nit-picking now. We left the picnic area around 2ish and I decided I wanted my Vortex credit. We walked across the park (which is not a long walk by any means) to Vortex and got in line. Vortex's queue seemed to be exactly where the sun was shining like Cobras was earlier that day. This thing took forever to load and the line moved accordingly with that. We finally got up there and rode in the front. This is my second stand-up coaster ever and its definitely better than the other one I rode (Shockwave) but it is a stand up coaster and stand up coasters suck for men. That was probably the last time I'll ride Vortex unless I go on an incredibly DEAD day, nothing has lines and I've ridden Afterburn 50 times. After Vortex we were thirsty so we went to an ICEE stand. Nothing like waiting in a long line, at a slow stand, with incredibly rude and disgusting people cutting in line. After this we headed to Nighthawk which had the longest line all day. We waited an hour for it which is not worth it to me cause I've ridden it and a clone of it before. After riding Batwing last year, I like Batwings twists and bonus helix a little bit better than Nighthawks corkscrews, so Batwing gets an edge on layout, but Nighthawk definitely has some good landscaping over Batwing. Nighthawks new paintjob is pretty nice but really does not match the name or the trains. The trains are still gun metal gray which looks like crap on the incredibly bright yellow track. They should paint them soon and make them match. After Nighthawk we walked on to Skytower which was nice I haven't ridden Skytower in ten years. While on skytower we notices the Rapids had no line so we got a last minute ride on that. Like KDs I was unimpressed with it but I've ridden some really good rapids rides so it's whatever but I wound up the most wet after that. It was time to leave the park and we had to meet our teacher at the front.
Overall a really fun day but could of been better if the park wasn't so busy but what to expect on a day that invites a bunch of schools to it?
. I got to the park about an hour after it opened and we planned to ride Reptar first to get it out of the way (and for some reason my friends wanted to ride a "warm-up" coaster). I noticed how obnoxious the ride op was being (do we always have to make noise to ride a coaster?) and it didn't help that it was one-train op (I assume Reptar is always like that?) we waited about 25 minutes for it. After some massive credit whoring by me we decided to ride a real ride and headed to Carolina Cobra because I suggested it and everyone seemed inclined to listen to me . Cobra had a pretty decent wait probably about 30 minutes but the dispatch times were really good I'll give the ride ops that. This is the 2nd vekoma boomerang I've ridden and the trains are much better than SFFT's boomerang. Me and my friend were lucky and got the very front seat which is what I was hoping for because I rode SFFT's boomerang in the back. I have yet to experience a "bad vekoma boomerang" so I can't really talk about how good it is compared to the other 50 or so boomerangs in the world. Good addition to the park though IMO I liked it more than FSS, probably because I'm a teenager with a strong desire for adrenaline. After Cobra we rode Haunted Mansion which my gun wouldn't work on as I only got 60 points when I was shooting at a target an inch from my gun most of the time. We headed to Afterburn which also had an obnoxious wait (only other time I rode afterburn was back in 2004 in October it had pretty much no line at all on that day). We waited for the front because I can't stand anywhere else on B&M Inverts. I love Afterburn it's still the best ride in the park after five years IMO. After that me and one of my friends rode Southern Star. I've never been on an inverting swinging ship before so it was neat even though two of my friends wussed out of it. After that we decided to go to Action Theater (which for some reason is showing the same film it showed FIVE YEARS ago). I haven't been on one of these before but seeing that Ive been to USF, IoA, and BGE it obviously didn't amaze me, but I set my expectations according. It was really whatever to me, but I can't see why people scream when they're moved around a little bit on those seats. After that we went to the pavillion for our free meal. It was all you can eat which was nice. The food wasn't anything special but I'm nit-picking now. We left the picnic area around 2ish and I decided I wanted my Vortex credit. We walked across the park (which is not a long walk by any means) to Vortex and got in line. Vortex's queue seemed to be exactly where the sun was shining like Cobras was earlier that day. This thing took forever to load and the line moved accordingly with that. We finally got up there and rode in the front. This is my second stand-up coaster ever and its definitely better than the other one I rode (Shockwave) but it is a stand up coaster and stand up coasters suck for men. That was probably the last time I'll ride Vortex unless I go on an incredibly DEAD day, nothing has lines and I've ridden Afterburn 50 times. After Vortex we were thirsty so we went to an ICEE stand. Nothing like waiting in a long line, at a slow stand, with incredibly rude and disgusting people cutting in line. After this we headed to Nighthawk which had the longest line all day. We waited an hour for it which is not worth it to me cause I've ridden it and a clone of it before. After riding Batwing last year, I like Batwings twists and bonus helix a little bit better than Nighthawks corkscrews, so Batwing gets an edge on layout, but Nighthawk definitely has some good landscaping over Batwing. Nighthawks new paintjob is pretty nice but really does not match the name or the trains. The trains are still gun metal gray which looks like crap on the incredibly bright yellow track. They should paint them soon and make them match. After Nighthawk we walked on to Skytower which was nice I haven't ridden Skytower in ten years. While on skytower we notices the Rapids had no line so we got a last minute ride on that. Like KDs I was unimpressed with it but I've ridden some really good rapids rides so it's whatever but I wound up the most wet after that. It was time to leave the park and we had to meet our teacher at the front. Overall a really fun day but could of been better if the park wasn't so busy but what to expect on a day that invites a bunch of schools to it?
COASTER COUNT: 68
