[Jwrickner]

This is just a what if forum for fun. What do you guys think Paramount never owned Carowinds, and Cedar fair bought it from the get go?

[RollerBee]

I suspect Hurler would have still happened but possibly with a different name.

[gabed]

Hmm, a very interesting thought. Here's a few ideas I can think of if that had happened.

- We'd still have Sternwheeler.
- We would have gotten a Morgan hyper sometime in the 90s.
- Carowinds probably would still have an invert, but nowhere near as good as Afterburn. Probably a standard cookie-cutter invert which would have been added in the early to mid 2000s. I say this by judging Patriot and Talon.
- We might have gotten a Top Spin.
- There would definitely be a lot more flats today.
- Rather than Hurler, we may have had a custom wooden coaster.
- Windseeker would still be here. Maybe not in its exact location, but somewhere in the park.
- I'd say there's a good chance that we would have gotten an Intamin coaster of some sort. Nothing too big, probably an impulse coaster.
- Instead of Drop Tower, Carowinds would have gotten an S&S tower ride like Power Tower at Cedar Point.
- I could be wrong, but I believe Vortex was planned before Paramount bought the park. If that's true, then we'd still see it where it stands today.
- If we had gotten a Wild Mouse, I doubt it would have been from Mack. Probably one of the Arrow ones.
- Fury may have happened, but for some reason I find it doubtful as Cedar Fair shifted a lot of attention to the ex-Paramount parks after purchasing them.

All in all, I'm glad that things worked out the way they did. Paramount, while they did destroy the theme of the park, they did add some great rides. And almost a decade after the sell of Carowinds, Cedar Fair has done almost nothing but good for the park and I'm happy to call Carowinds my home park.

[KingHippo1]

They definitely would have changed the name to "Carotids".

[tarheel1231]

Sounds like a nightmare. I mean sure, they removed some of the original charm the park had, but I can't imagine a Carowinds without Afterburn.

[RollerBee]

I also suspect the Sternwheeler would have been removed sooner, and the park would be far more ruined than what we see today. I also suspect the waterpark would be smaller.

[Capler]

Kings would have kept Dominion and Island and sold the other parks. Not sure if Carowinds would have survived, or maybe we would now be a second tier Six Flags park. It took Paramount to get us to where we are today.

[gabed]

Just the thought of Carowinds being a Six Flags park makes me shudder.

[RollerBee]

Six Flags Over Georgia has more shade than Carowinds....

[Merthecat]

I'd much rather have a Windseeker than a SkyScreamer...even if the Windseeker breaks down once in a while.

[cwgator]

Hmm, a very interesting thought. Here's a few ideas I can think of if that had happened.
- I could be wrong, but I believe Vortex was planned before Paramount bought the park. If that's true, then we'd still see it where it stands today.

Vortex was built before Paramount bought the park.

[Jwrickner]

I apologize. I just realized that I used spellcheck for the post, but not the title.

[tylerSC]

I'd much rather have a Windseeker than a SkyScreamer...even if the Windseeker breaks down once in a while.

Well I think SkyScreamer is a much scarier ride than Windseeker. It is like a supersized, super tall chain lift swing ride. And I will not ride it. Windseeker is much tamer, but it still makes me nervous because of the sustained height. I can deal with the quick height on a gigacoaster, but the ongoing height on Windseeker bothers me a bit. And I think Cedar Fair originally passed on the SkyScreamer because of the high winds on the lake at Cedar Point. And Mondial promised a more stable ride. Although it has had its share of technical malfunctions at the various parks.

[Sean978]

or maybe we would now be a second tier Six Flags park.

[mark40511]

I think there would be more trees and flats! I notice when I look at the POV's of Sky Tower - and when you look over at afterburn you see this beautiful coaster that is surrounded by trees. I LOVE that! Hopefully they put some fast growing trees in the park..I too think there would have been a Morgan hyper like Wild Thing or Mamba (had that happened, we wouldn't have the better B&M hyper.I wasn't a huge fan of Carowinds during the Paramount years. Growing up going to SFoG and Carowinds - I always preferred SFoG slightly to Carowinds, but that has changed a few years ago (for me)