My only previous visit to Carowinds was in June of 2003 on a rainy day. The park actually closed around 4 pm that day because of the weather and lack of crowds. I was hoping to finally spend a full day at the park. We ended up having a great time.
- Nighthawk dispatching every 4 or 5 minutes. Not worth the wait.
- My son scored his first looper with Carolina Cylone. I ended up riding it three times throughout the day.
- Friendliest staff I've found at a CF park in a long time. Standouts include the girl working the ring toss and the guys running the Rocket Power ride.
- Food is crap. At least Carowinds had an apologetic staff to try to make it ok.
- $2.50 refills on the $7.50 souvenir cup? Might as well just buy the $4 drinks. The break even point is 5 drinks.
- Actually got a race on Thunder Road after the riders demanded it.
- I swore in my Hershey report from last month's trip that I'd never do flip flops at a park again. I did them for a few hours today and it sucked worse than last time.
- I can't believe they're replacing Flying Super Saturator with a boomerang. I like boomerangs and wouldn't hate the addition at any park, but people were digging the FSS today. It's just a shame that the park has given up on it. Nothing was working correctly except the one button to blast water up at the cars on the front right. None of the other buttons or guns were worth crap and weren't working or capable of hitting riders.
- Speaking of these rides, I think they'd have been more popular if they scaled them down to be true kiddie rides. Get rid of the need for a bigger kid or adult and make it something the kids can do themselves and I think you have something huge.
- Really? $2.50 refills? Really?
- We won one of those gigantic prizes at the ring toss. (by 'we' I mean my wife did while we rode Thunder Road) - the catch is that it doesn't really fit in the car with all of the luggage and the four of us. Should be interesting to see how that one works out.
- Carowinds doesn't have a train ride or a ferris wheel.
- Hurler is still among my least favorite coasters. That ride is crap.
- Top Gun...err...Afterburn is quite possibly the best B&M invert in the world...right up until the corkscrew. That corkscrew is bangy and then it's just a half-hearted helix-esque turn into the brakes. What a crap ending! If it ended more like Talon does after the dip into the end, it'd be the best. Such a shame that the amazing first half (3/4ths?) ends like that.
- The kids finally got a picture with Squidward.
- There were an alarming number of shops with no employees anywhere to be found or large shops with just one employee at a register. I don't know what the deal was but on no less than 4 different occasions I wandered into a shop and could have wandered off with anything I wanted. Luckily for the park, I'm not going to steal the crap they sell. Unfortunately, not everyone shared my honesty (or lack of interest as the case may be). It really was an issue. Not sure if they're spreading the staffing too thin or if people are wandering off their post, but if just what my eyes saw today is any indication, it's costing the park.
- What's up with that random jet of water shooting like 20 feet up from the middle of the pathway (and gated off) kind of in front of Vortex? It smelled like sewer.
- Passholder lot. Nice. 
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