Carowinds Day 2, and Heading Home

For my second day at Carowinds I got to the park a few minutes early before they opened, in time to witness the ceremony they were doing to honor the men and women of our armed forces. The park opened and the first ride I went for was the Carolina Cobra, which is new to the park this year, but actually is a roller coaster that is used in several parks.

The thing about Carolina Cobra is that if the line gets long, it will take a long time to get to ride, and that is simply because of the design of the ride. Only one car can be on the track at a time, period. After the train is loaded, it is pulled up the slope on one side before being released. After going through a cobra roll and loop it reaches the other slope, where it is pulled up a bit, before being released and sent backwards through the loop and cobra roll to the station. There's no way more than one car can be put on the track, so it does take a while to get there. I've ridden one like it before at Six Flags America as "Two-Face: The Flip Side" so I'm familiar with the design. However, if I want the coaster credit, I have to ride it as the Carolina Cobra at Carowinds or else that's just plain cheating.

I then hit Vortex, which is a standing coaster. Normally I love standing coasters, but I also forget that at times the restraints can play hell with your junk. Think about it like if you were coming over a rail fence except when you straddle it, your feet just barely stand flat on the ground, so move a centimeter downward and you're gonna hurt a bit. Perhaps there was a reason I didn't ride it again ;-) With that however, it did complete all of the coasters that I could ride at Carowinds, and now I am at 108 different coasters.

From here I started hitting some other coasters for repeat rides, such as Carolina Cyclone and Afterburn. I also went and hit the drop tower ride. It's a ride that pulls you up to the top of the tower and then drops you straight down to the near bottom. To be perfectly frank, if you want to hear me scream like a bitch, put me on that ride. It definitely taps a bit of my fear of free falling from a high place, and it's why you will probably never see me skydive, unless I'm trying to give myself a heart attack.

After about 3 hours at the park, it was starting to get hot, and I had been dealing with a headache since I woke up, so I decided to head back to the hotel and wait for it to cool off outside before going back to the park. I napped while watching Deadliest Catch since there was a marathon that weekend. Was I the only one that noticed they used a Blue Crab for the promos for the marathon? It's kind of funny they did, considering that there are no Blue Crab in the Bering Sea, it's too cold them for them.

Around 7:30 I went back to Carowinds and the first thing I ended up doing was hitting up one of their shops for more Nickelodeon merchandise, namely because the items that were 50% off yesterday, were now 75% off. Parents were definitely all over that stuff because it meant getting lots of Dora the Explorer and Spongebob Squarepants stuff for really cheap. I have taken care of some gifts for birthdays and Christmas now. I talked to the girl at the register while she was scanning my stuff, and she partially confirmed my hypothesis on why the Nick stuff was out the door. Cedar Fair wants the stuff gone because they're going to bring in their own stuff. So folks, if you're really desperate to see the kiddie area of Carowinds as the Nickelodeon version, this is your last season. I'm expecting next year it will all be Peanuts themed.

Anyway, so I got that done and then hit a few more coasters and the drop tower again before heading to the front gate for the fireworks show at 10 PM. The fireworks were great, and I saw some unique ones I have not seen in other shows, so it was definitely worth catching for me. In all the show probably lasted close to 20 minutes. I took video with my digital camera of the fireworks, which I hope to have up on YouTube in the next day or two.

Trying to get out of Carowinds was a completely different story. There is only one "official" road that can be used by the public to get out, and I knew it was going to be bottlenecked, so I basically sat in the car, rolled down the windows, put the seat back, and chilled out for about 1.5 hours before making any attempt to get out. By this time there was a second route out of the parking lot, which was to follow a back road around the park to the employee entrance, and use that to get onto Carowinds Blvd. Once I did that, it was a matter of a simple U-turn to get to my hotel.

After waking up Sunday morning, I got all packed up and checked out of the hotel before going over to Shoneys for breakfast. Their breakfast buffet was good, and the server was extremely helpful, to the point she actually packed me an extra drink for the road without me asking her, which was well above and beyond any normal service. Her tip certainly reflected the extra service she gave and she deserved every penny. So if you happen to go to the Shoneys right off of Carowinds Blvd and your server is Wendy, you will be well taken care of.

The drive home was not too bad, though I did hit traffic a few times. For whatever reason, VZ Navigator put me on 95 after a while. From what I heard later, 66 had some major issues going on, so that's what I got stuck with. Either way I did get home, though a bit later than I wanted. Got my laundry done and then was able to chill out before bed.

Ultimately the trip to Carowinds was worth it. I got to experience a number of new coasters, a great experience at the park, and got to see completely new places in the country as well. It was a win-win situation all around. Plus with the visits to Carowinds, I have basically paid for my season pass now. I will likely go back again next summer, and hopefully with a few people in tow.

Six Flags vs Cedar Fair

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I took a trip down to Kings Dominion.  For those who are not aware, KD was owned by Paramount, but 3 years ago, Cedar Fair (CF), the parent company of the famous Cedar Point park bought KD and a number of other properties.  The next closest Cedar Fair owned park around here is Dorney Park up in Allentown, PA.

For the last two summers, I have been in touch with my love of roller coasters.  The first summer, I had a pass to Six Flags (SF) here in MD, and last summer, I had a season pass to both the Six Flags and Kings Dominion Parks, and I have to say that I am beginning to see a large difference in how each of the parks operate.  It has started to give me a preference as to which type of park I would rather go to.  Simply put, I get what I pay for.

I pay more for my pass to KD than SFA ($150 vs $95) with what looks like the same benefits on paper.  I get unlimited admission to my home park, and several other parks owned by the same company, free parking, and various discounts.  Of course, if I was at a different SF, I would actually pay more for my pass because I have seen that other SF locations charge more for their season passes.  That's not entirely the point.

I find that I get a much higher quality of a visit from visiting a Cedar Fair owned park than a Six Flags owned park.  Both of them do have plenty of roller coasters and other thrill rides and such, along with your usual restaurants and shops, so that part is pretty much the same.  However, it's a wildly different experience as to how I am treated as a patron at times.

First and foremost, there is a huge difference in attitudes among the workers at the parks.  At SF, most of the folks look like they're bored, they don't want to be there, and their work reflects it.  Hell, I felt at KD that they wanted me to be there, which is not a feeling I have gotten at any SF park.  I experienced more breakdowns of coasters at SF parks last year; not that there wasn't the occasional mishap at a CF owned park, but it seems that they moved really fast to get things going again and to keep the folks happy.  

One other thing I noticed was more often than not, it would be at an SF owned park that the coaster would run one car at a time when they have the capacity to run 2-3 cars, and the line is approaching an hour.  Very annoying.  At KD I rode Dominator, which is a very popular ride, but the most I waited was about an hour, and that was with the line being all the way back to the entrance, yet because it seems their workers understand that it's important to keep things moving, I had no issue with standing in line.  In fact, at Cedar Point, I don't remember waiting an obscene amount of time to ride their coaster, they kept the line moving. 

Also, while SF has the cheaper season pass, they make up for it by nickel and diming you with fees.  They have taken away the bins next to the rides for people to leave their stuff.  Now you have to pay for a "ride locker" before you can even get in line for a ride.  It's typically $1 for 2 hours, and it's a one-time use locker; once you open it again, it's done.  It makes bringing a backpack very inconvenient, they likely do it so that you don't carry around water bottles and such and instead buy food at the park.  Personally, I'd rather keep my Camelbak with me so I can just drink water as I stand in line and drop it in the bin when I actually ride.  One way I have been able to get around it on occasion is to rent a locker for a flat fee at an SF attached water park since those you can typically get in and out all day.  Any CF owned park I have been to does not have a ride locker, they still have their bins next to the ride itself that you drop your stuff in, and I hope they will keep it that way.  At least I can be happy to report that KD has them this year.

Hell, now that I think about it, CF owned parks don't have to utilize a "fast pass" type of system because they tend to keep their lines moving.  A few times I actually paid extra money at an SF park to be allowed the privilege to line jump using their "flash pass" system, and that was because the lines would get way too long for their own good.  Then again, if their workers actually cared about their job, they might actually move people through the line efficiently.  Of course, if that were to happen, fewer people would buy flash passes, the park wouldn't make as much money off of fees for extras like that, and those workers would probably get fired.

So ultimately, even though I pay a bit more money up front for a season pass to a CF owned park, the quality of my visits make it worth every penny of the extra fee.  Considering how many extra "fees" I would have to pay at an SF park, I probably end up paying for that pass in the end.  This is why I find if I have a choice, I'd rather go to a CF owned park.  It's only the proximity and slightly lower cost of the SF season pass that keeps me buying, but if they ever raise their rates, I wouldn't be as upset to drop buying a pass from them.  

Perhaps I am not the only one that thinks this way about the parks, and perhaps that is why Six Flags is in trouble financially while Cedar Fair is doing just fine for the most part.