General Carowinds discussion
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By MarkD
#5719
Well,
My Son's senior class came down from Virginia today to visit Carowinds from 10 to 5 then they are going to Concord Mills until it closes.
I met him at the park but I got there at 8:30 expecting tons of school kids and I was not parking in the preferred area for the simple reason they were going in the front gate. I got in the park about 8:45 and waited by the fountain until the park opened. Seeing he was no where in sight I took off to ride Borg as a single rider. I got on the first train and the front seat. Pretty sweet way to start out the day. After I got off the line was building of course and I walked back to the front gate but still no Ben so I rode Borg 2 more times rather quickly. Still not seeing my Son I walked back to the front gate and waited. Finally he arrived about 10ish.
I am overwhelmed at all the guests in the park at that time. Some were performing on stage, as one Mother told me she got there at 9am sharp and her kid had already played. The police were there with the Porche drove by the Hornet's player that crashed, Discovery channel was there along with a slew of other companies, and all I could see out of the gates were buses after buses waiting to get in. I knew it was going to be packed with grad night and education days but this is my first and last time going on a friday.
After my Son came in and they let his group go we all went straight to Borg. After a 1 hour wait and standing on the platform between steps one of the trains had a problem. After a short wait it was going again and we got on within 2 cycles just to get hung up on the final brake as Borg hiccupped again. All in all it took 2 hours for us to ride it once. Never again!!!!!!!!!
After that we were all hungry so we went to Wings and turned around because of all the guests and ended up eating at Country "Chik-Fil-A" Restraint. By this time it was almost 1 and they had to meet up with their teachers to do a head count. It was at that time I told my Son I loved him but I had to go. Granted we all had a blast for those 3 hours I was with him and his friends but to only ride one ride and eat was too much for me. He called me on my cell phone about 30 minutes later and said I did the right thing as there was at least an hour to hour and a half wait to ride anything. He told me they were just going to play some games and hang out and not waste their day waiting in line.
I invited them all to come down for the weekend sometime and I would take them on a Sunday, my treat. It was a bad feeling knowing they were there to ride and only got in one or two within several hours. While this is great attendance for the park it sucks for those, my Son's high school, that did not know any better day to come.
I took several pictures and some video so I can replay in my mind why I go on Sunday mornings and have a season pass.
With the bands that were there for a contest, the schools that were there for other reasons, can you imagine what it will be like once the grad kids from around here show up?
After leaving the park I video taped my exit from the parking lot and it looked as if Carowinds was in the used charter bus business. The overflow parking was 1/2 full of rows and rows of them.

Never more........................... :blink:
User avatar
By swampfox43
#5720
Geez, I was about to go get my coaster fix today and I'm glad I didn't now. I really hate going when it's crowded like that.

BTW, the parks daily operation schedule starts next Friday (about 2 weeks earlier than normal) so I'll be going on weekdays from here on out until they go back to weekends. I've found that Tues. & Wed. are generally slow which means plenty of coaster riding during my short visits.
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By Jonathan
#5722
Yeah, tomorrow will hopefully be my last Saturday going there for a while. I work 15 minutes away, so I plan on heading there in the late afternoon a lot during the week.
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By ThrillSeeker
#5724
Education Days I have never heard of such a stupid idea in my life. What does a park and education have to do with each other. If you ask me I think it is just so the park will make more money.
User avatar
By Jay
#5725
DING! DING! DING!

Jonny tell him what he's won!!! :P

*Everything* the park does is to get money(wheather it's charging 4 bucks for a soda, or having education days), they are a business, and businesses can not survive without capital.

On a totally serious note, coasters are one of the most basic things in physics, I know in my physics class last semester we had a whole chapters on roller coasters, the g-forces associated with the peaks and valleys, etc.

You'd be surprised what there is to learn at an amusement park. :D ;) :lol:
By coasterdude89
#5726
Back last year, my grade took a trip to Carowinds on the education day for middle and high schoolers, and it was crowded, but we got through about 10 or eleven rides (we rode the Cyclone twice.) And what was so funny, was that everybody else in my class only got to ride about four or five rides. Top Gun had the longest ride that we waited in, but we got through it in about 40 minutes even though it was all the way out the queue line. The Vortex had a shorter line, but yet it took about an hour to ride it. I didn't ride Thunder Road becuase the line was out a ways out of the quenue line and backwrads wasn't open. But, I've never riden thunder road backwards because I harldy ever get to go to Carowinds, even though when I was younger I used to go about every day in the summer and back then the backwards one looked to scary to me. Last year was the first time that I had ever riden Drop Zone too because I rode it with my friends, who had never riden it before. So, I thought that last year was crowded, but not too crowded on education day as foreseer said it was today, becuase I had plenty of rides that I rode.
User avatar
By ThrillSeeker
#5729
My point is that they try to make it sound like it has to do with education. When in fact it does not.
By BoRgAsSiMiLaToR
#5732
I wanted to go to that soooo bad. Oh well i figured a lot of schools from different states would go tho i could only imagine the lines.....I am bout to go to carowinds today for the 1st time in like a month and a half!! Its about time!
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By coasterdave
#5734
Education Days at parks have been around afew years, so welcome to 2004. Alot of the parks that do have Education Days do have stations set up so the students have a chance to learn something. I have been to afew parks during there Education Days in my vast traveling and have saw some type of learning taking place. I have even been to Carowinds and saw people learning about kinetic and Passive forces and even saw something on Newton's Law of Gravity.

Your point about is being rather stupid has no point what so ever. Have you ever been to a park during Education Days? And what is wrong with going to a park riding coasters instead of being in a classroom? I wished they had these things when I was in school many moons ago.

Have a nice day!!!
By WWFFlusher
#5735
I was working yesterday.......... There were a lot of Kids there. Not that I hate Education days, however you can tell the crowd types. I did have to talk to a lot more people about things they shouldn't do. (Sit on the Queue Rails, etc.) I was able to look out into the Parking lot and I did notice that Carowinds was getting into the Charter Bus business. Before they ever got rid of the Berm in the Parking lot, they used to Park the Buses in the Paliduim Lot, which is to the right before you pay an Arm and a Leg to park. I don’t have a problem with Education Days at the park. There is a lot you can learn. This past week I did have to come in because they had an Engineering Class come in for a tour and we operated Top Gun for them. I must say they got an awesome tour that not a lot of guests get to see. They were allowed onto the transfer Platform and saw it as they put the train back into the shed. They also saw the Maintenance area……So see it’s not just about the Revenue.
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By ThrillSeeker
#5737
I got the dates mixed up so what I thought were education days were saturdays. I guess it is a good thing but I dont like it. Why do they have to come on saturdays too though? I have yet to figure out why schools will come on saturdays that are not marked as education days.
By Cephas
#5744
My school is going on friday, May 28th. I'm just going to ride borg and then go to TR for the whole day to try to avoid 2 hour lines.