Some things for the next couple years that the new Management should try to do that could restore the park a bit and also push it into the future:
2015:
• Carolina Cyclone is turning 35! As a birthday present I wish they'd replace the trains with the new Vekoma vest style ones (like on Cobra). It would definitely make the ride more enjoyable which could make it more popular. (I LOVE the Cyclone but even I know its a little rough, and needs to make its reputation better).
• Woodstock Express is also having a birthday, its going to be 40! and I'd love to see the lift hill get a touch up, its a litte blah and could use some more color, imo.
This ride is stellar and still gets great airtime, especially in the back!
2016:
• Thunder Road is turning 40 in 2016! Hopefully they've retracked a litte more by then, but they could be through with the rehab already? Regardess, the Thunder Road sign when entering the queue still has one of the coasters backwards, it'd be cool to get a new sign (and a new one over the drop) that brings back it's southern charm and possibly even a bit of it's moonshine theme. If they really wanted to shock people, they could get new trains that look more like the original ones. BTW I've been preaching this for a while now. It needs to be repainted white. I mean it would literally restore the ride to its former glory, and bring back Carowind's history. It looks so amazing in old photographs and I'd just die if they took the time to give it a little TLC and expose an entire new generation to Thunder Road in the way their grandparents/parents possibly saw it!
... And Beyond:
• Further retracking of Hurler. That heffer needs it.
• If Wildwater Kingdom closes down in Ohio, then we could expect more slides in the future. Hopefully they are placed on the other side of Thunder Road. It'd be so cool to walk under an icon and have the expanded water park be located there!
• Boomerang Bay could use a facelift. Paint some of the slides and shuffle around some of the kiosks and shacks. The changing rooms are sooo gross most of the time and they are in such an awkward location IMO. This could all be improved upon.
• More flats. Very obvious, although I have heard rumors that we may be getting one or more in addition to the 2015 coaster, but it wasn't exactly "credible".
• A personal thing, but I'd like to see the old litte red school house that now a t-shirt shop or something be repainted red and made up like a school house again, maybe sell kids stuff there?
• Transportation. A chairlift, something. Maybe to the waterpark from the area between Skytower, Nighthawk, and Vortex? And have riders get off in the back corner next to the Cobra bathrooms?
• Paint the Ripcord. Its so rusty and in a prime real estate area, it needs to look better, frankly.
• Water Park Entrance. Everyone on facebook seems a little too hopeful of this. It's not an awful idea, I just hope if/when we get one the waterpark doesn't become seperate admission. I could see the North gate being rerouted to the area along Thunder Roads parking lot to meet up with any expansion of Boomerang Bay on that side, after its grown a lot. But who knows how far in the future that would be?
These are just Far-fetched (very, very, Far-Fetched) general improvements I'd like to see, not really anything I expect.
