Carowinds...How could it be better?

[Suicide Seats]

Since Fury 325 came on the scene in 2015, suddenly a lot of people are paying attention to what is going on there. If you are like me, you see the potential is there, but there are also a few problems as well.

From a coaster perspective, the dismantling of Thunder Road gave a lot more space for water park expansion, but it left a huge void of wooden roller coasters. I realize its longer, but I don't find Hurler to be much better than Woodstock Express. I think the space currently occupied by Vortex (which has no ridership at all) would be a great location for a mid-size GCI woodie somewhere between InvadR and Mystic Timbers. Perhaps a few years down the road, you can RMC the Hurler and you have a nice wooden collection. The benefit of wooden coasters is they are less intimidating to the average park visitor and brings in a different audience that you may not have attracted otherwise.

The most glaring issue with Carowinds is the lack of interesting things to do other than rides. The selection of shows during the year is pretty limited and the landscaping could be improved a lot. There are a lot of food options, but most of the options are franchises you could get anywhere outside the park. I guess my real issue with Carowinds is it is more of an amusement park on steroids than an actual theme park.

So what are your thoughts? What do you think Carowinds does really well and where could they make improvements?

 

[Jarrett]

As someone who's been to Carowinds as far back as 2005, I can safely say it's improved astronomically from what it used to be. Personally I think it's pretty in some spots but they do need a lot of things to do bar a mostly average coaster collection. Fury 325 is amazing and I really enjoy Afterburn and Intimidator but the rest is just kind of eh to amusing at best.

My strategy for them would focus heavily on rebranding and retheming areas. They've been making an effort to do so, but a lot of it feels like dead stuff from the Paramount era, shadows of themes that are no longer active. Carolina Boardwalk could actually be amazing if they put some effort into fixing it up. I know they do have some pretty standard shows, so maybe expanding upon that a bit would be good. They have this "Where the Carolinas come together" brand they're trying to do but they need to really bite the bullet and go with it.

 

[Suicide Seats]

...but a lot of it feels like dead stuff from the Paramount era, shadows of themes that are no longer active.

 

[gavin]

Carowinds could be better if the small handful of decent coasters were relocated and the rest of the place had a wrecking ball taken to it.

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[Snoo]

Carowinds could be better if the small handful of decent coasters were relocated and the rest of the place had a wrecking ball taken to it.

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This guy. After Fury and Afterburn, the park is worthless. It has no atmosphere, it severely lacks good rides, it has the same problems of ALL other Paramount parks. Somehow, it's not the worst tho in that category as Canadas Wonderland has great 2 coasters but 3000 mediocre-horrific ones to counter it.

 

[DelPiero]

I went last year and had a good time. However, I went during the Taste of the Carolinas event, where they had a bunch of local food and beers with a token system, so food wise, it was one of my best park visits. I had looked at the other offerings and realised they were a bit naff, but typical Cedar Fair options.
Atmosphere was decent in and around that event area as they had some extra shows on throughout the day, but the rest of the park was a bit Thorpey.

For such a large park with a huge volume of rides it sucks though. Yes, Fury is utterly incredible and Afterburn is pretty good then it starts to fall down a bit, Intimidator is rubbish in all but the front car and the only other reasonably decent coaster is Hurler, which isn't exactly great. Their flats aren't much better, in fact, only the Intamin drop tower comes to mind as good, and it's dark ride Boo Blaster thing is worth a ride but it's hardly Spiderman.

There's also huge amounts of land being used up by crap, Dinosaurs Alive and their entrance plaza could easily house some good additions.

Basically what @gavin said. There's too much crap at the park currently. It desperately needs a few good themed flats and a dark ride up to 2017 standards. A 2nd woodie to replace one of the absolute crap creds like Vortex or ****ehawk preferably. A launch coaster would also work well, could theme similarly to Maverick to tie in with Goldrusher's theme maybe.