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Paramount's Carowinds Charlotte, North Carolina Event: ACE Carolina Coaster Celebration Weather: Overcast, Scattered Thunderstorms Crowds: Heavy Our weekend excursion started at 3am Saturday morning. With a four hour drive, we knew better than to make it a day trip, but we were too cheap to spring for 2 nights at a hotel. We were on the road by 3:30, and with a couple stops we were at the park by 7:30am. We checked in, and proceeded to the morning ERT session, BORG Assimilator (Vekoma Flyer, new for ’04 at Carowinds, formerly Stealth at PGA) and Vortex, (1992 B&M Stand-up). I was a little wary about BORG, my one Vekoma Flyer experience was X-Flight at Geauga Lake, and it impressed the hell out of me in un-Vekoma-like fashion. This, however, was the prototype, and I hope they worked out the bugs during the cross-country relocation. They hadn’t. Not even close. We could tell as soon as the seats began to lay back that we were in for a bumpy ride. We were up front for the second train of the ERT session, and even up there the roughness was quite unpleasant. Carowinds did a great job placing and themeing this ride. There are some cool props, great music and sound effects. The ride is placed half over a pond and half over a midway, and the queue snakes underneath it. Unfortunately, those are the only positive things about the ride. There is a great first drop above the water, but it all goes downhill from there. The transitions were abrupt, there is constant rattling/shuffling, and the elements are way too rough to enjoy. We gave this one 3 rides, in various places, for benefit of the doubt, but nothing helped. We would not ride this again. Very disappointing. Vortex is a standing monument of how much B&M has improved since its beginnings. Once considered one of the greatest coasters on the planet, Vortex has only shades of its former self. Great drop, great loop. The helices are extremely forceful (awesome pre-trim Mantis-esque pain in the legs). However the ride features consistent ear-smacking. This one was worth 3 rides as well, and no more. That would be it for Vortex for the visit. This was the first time I have ever gotten off ERT coasters before the session ended. We were about 45 minutes into it when we gave up. We headed over to Scooby Doo’s Ghost Chase (Sally Interactive Dark Ride) for the event’s shoot-out contest. It’s a fun ride, definitely worth a stop, but as usual, I did quite poorly. We got a couple rides in before the park opened. To start off the regular operating park hours, we went to Flying Super Saturator, a Setpoint interactive suspended coaster. This ride is a hoot. Water, water everywhere, dropping water bombs on unsuspected onlookers. We got 6 rides in before a line formed, and we were off. Working our way clockwise around the park, Carolina Goldrusher was up first, as a walk on. Pretty fun Arrow mine train (1973), but nothing too special. Next was Ricochet, a Mack 2002 Wild Mouse. Not too much braking, good airtime, definitely fun, and worth the 10 minute wait. Carolina Cyclone also had a short wait, only 5 minutes with 2 trains, so we hopped on this 1980 Arrow double loop, double corkscrew model. Very smooth, great inversions, and a terrific helix. I really like this one, easily the best of the Arrow cookie cutters. We headed over towards the Wayne’s World section, skipping Drop Zone because of a long line, as the crowds were picking up. We hopped on Hurler which still only had a 10 minute wait. They apparently skipped the off season track work this year, because it was amazingly rough. It still had great airtime and good laterals, but it was hard to enjoy with all the vibration. We had a great time on this one last year during ERT and were quite disappointed by its regression. We went towards the back of the park again, skipping a number of rides because of lengthy lines. Spongebob Squarepants 3D wasn’t more than a 15 minute wait, so we hopped in the queue. I really liked this one. The motion simulation was fun, without being too much. The 3D was pretty good, and the film itself was great, provided you like SBSP, which I do. Bumper cars were also about 15 minutes, so we decided not to pass. The group photo was in front of BORG, you can take a look here. We enjoyed our modest buffet lunch, and skipped out on the scavenger hunt and prizes in lieu of a siesta back at the hotel. We checked in about 3pm, and were awake and out the door again by 7. Upon our arising, we saw the sky had darkened, and drizzle had started. We figured it would open up soon. Fortunately, we were able to get back into the park and onto Scooby Doo’s Ghoster Coaster (1975, PTC, Family Woodie) twice (10 minute wait each time), before it started coming down. We huddled underneath the Carousel pavilion before braving a drizzle to get back to the boardwalk. We sat in a couple rocking chairs while enjoying our beers and watching all the GP flock out of the park. By the time it ended, around 9pm, the park was empty; we got re-rides on Drop Zone (Intamin 2nd generation freefall) and Hurler. Hurler was *flying* and had lost all of its earlier roughness. It’s amazing what a downpour will do to a wooden coaster. The night ERT was about to start, and Thunder Road (1976, PTC, Out and Back Racer) opened first. I got one backwards ride before Top Gun opened, and that was plenty. We would spend the final hour of ERT on Top Gun (1999, B&M, Inverted), getting about 14 rides in. I clocked 11 in the back row, and 3 up front to finish the night. It was running amazingly, the G’s were often overwhelming and completely sustained through the entire Batwing. It’s such a great coaster, and it really has the complete package, really like a Montu-light. We were out of the park and back to the hotel just before midnight, and I was out before my head hit the pillow. It was a long day, and overall very worth it. Carowinds is a fun park, but on a crazy summer Saturday it needed the night session on Top Gun to go out with a bang. Back to Trip Reports
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