- April 29th, 2019, 8:50 am
#106784
Time to talk about my terrible Carowinds trip that happened on Saturday.
This trip was by far the worst trip i've been on to an amusement park. I was there with my school band, so my performance cut my day in half. We had about seven hours in park time. First, i'll start with the minor inconveniences, then i'll proceed to the worst parts of my day.
Minor things-
-Nighthawk was down all day. I don't know why, but I didn't care.
-it was crowded, many bands/choirs/orchestras from all over the carolinas were there
Things that bugged me a little-
-the traffic to get into the park was terrible. We got there a bit late so that's probably why we had to wait.
Now, here are a few stories about what made my day terrible.
-Every coaster was running as many trains as they could. However, no coaster had a wait time under 45 minutes. This was due to how slow each coaster operated. Fury's crew was quick, so that wasn't terrible. However, I only got to ride three coasters in a span of seven hours, which was Fury, Intimidator, and Vortex.
-Intimidator had an hour wait, because they weren't filling every seat and they were stacking trains. A lot of stacking.
and lastly, we get to Vortex. Oh, Vortex.
Vortex's crew needs to get proper training as soon as possible. Their method of loading and dispatching trains was absolutely horrible. They did this as follows:
1. Dispatch previous train
2.Get people into their rows, fast lane people have first dibs on what rows they want. All regular people get their rows chosen for them.
3. wait five minutes to see which button resets the restraints, not opening gates yet.
4. Once restraints are reset, they wait another minute to see what button opens the gates.
5. people enter their rows and adjust restraints based on height. they are given 3-5 minutes to do this. then the restraints are locked.
6. they start checking rows. they do this by unlocking restraints and making sure that everyone is standing up straight, they will check if you're doing "the trick"
7. constantly lock and unlock restraints for no reason. I don't know why they did this, but it happened. every time.
8. wait two more minutes of nothing and THEN they dispatch the train. By the way, the previously dispatched train has been sitting on the brake run the whole time, basking in the scorching heat.
9. repeat the cycle.
Now, I don't think this is all the crew's fault. It was just their method of loading and dispatching that was the problem. They just need to get trained to practice a quicker method.
So that sums up my day. I didn't get to ride Copperhead Strike, which I was very disappointed about. Same thing with Afterburn, since it also had a two-hour wait time.
I will try and go back later this year, and I expect better operations than what I saw on Saturday.
This trip was by far the worst trip i've been on to an amusement park. I was there with my school band, so my performance cut my day in half. We had about seven hours in park time. First, i'll start with the minor inconveniences, then i'll proceed to the worst parts of my day.
Minor things-
-Nighthawk was down all day. I don't know why, but I didn't care.
-it was crowded, many bands/choirs/orchestras from all over the carolinas were there
Things that bugged me a little-
-the traffic to get into the park was terrible. We got there a bit late so that's probably why we had to wait.
Now, here are a few stories about what made my day terrible.
-Every coaster was running as many trains as they could. However, no coaster had a wait time under 45 minutes. This was due to how slow each coaster operated. Fury's crew was quick, so that wasn't terrible. However, I only got to ride three coasters in a span of seven hours, which was Fury, Intimidator, and Vortex.
-Intimidator had an hour wait, because they weren't filling every seat and they were stacking trains. A lot of stacking.
and lastly, we get to Vortex. Oh, Vortex.
Vortex's crew needs to get proper training as soon as possible. Their method of loading and dispatching trains was absolutely horrible. They did this as follows:
1. Dispatch previous train
2.Get people into their rows, fast lane people have first dibs on what rows they want. All regular people get their rows chosen for them.
3. wait five minutes to see which button resets the restraints, not opening gates yet.
4. Once restraints are reset, they wait another minute to see what button opens the gates.
5. people enter their rows and adjust restraints based on height. they are given 3-5 minutes to do this. then the restraints are locked.
6. they start checking rows. they do this by unlocking restraints and making sure that everyone is standing up straight, they will check if you're doing "the trick"
7. constantly lock and unlock restraints for no reason. I don't know why they did this, but it happened. every time.
8. wait two more minutes of nothing and THEN they dispatch the train. By the way, the previously dispatched train has been sitting on the brake run the whole time, basking in the scorching heat.
9. repeat the cycle.
Now, I don't think this is all the crew's fault. It was just their method of loading and dispatching that was the problem. They just need to get trained to practice a quicker method.
So that sums up my day. I didn't get to ride Copperhead Strike, which I was very disappointed about. Same thing with Afterburn, since it also had a two-hour wait time.
I will try and go back later this year, and I expect better operations than what I saw on Saturday.
Prime Young Coaster Enthusiast Of The Southeast

