Associated parks:
None
Left my house at 7:45
StarCoasters called at 9 (like I told him to, :P )
Got to the park at 9:40
As soon as I walked into Top Gun’s station I saw StarCoasters(from this point forward I will refer to him as Jonathan, since that’s his name, lol) , and Coasterdave start going out of the station, I skipped the next train, and waited till they got back. The guy beside Jonathan got up and left, so I plopped down beside him. We said "hey" to each other, despite the station being very loud. We all rode it twice, Dave got off, and Jonathan and I stayed on. By the time we got back, ERT was over, and all the queue’s were full.
We got out, where we met up with Will, Jonathan’ non-enthusiast friend and had a more formal meet and greet. We headed down to Thunder Road, but apparently it wasn’t open, because there were a bunch of people outside the queue. We said screw it, and went down to Scooby Doo’s Haunted Mansion which had an unusually short line. (Of course it was just after the park had officially opened, lol) We got on in about 5 minutes, and for some reason, I seemed to suck… bad. In the middle of the ride the cars turned off, and we sat there for a few minutes. (An e-stop I suppose?) The ride continued, and by the end, I had and awesome grand total of 90 Points! (Approximately 3 hits)
After the Haunted Mansion, we went down to Ricochet, to find another short wait. I was saddened to find most of the faces of the "Ricochet Guys" to have been severely abused. Shortly we were on, Jonathan got out his camera, to take some pics of Dave and Will in the back. Each turn of the ride Jonathan slammed into me, but it was all in good fun... what a good mouse should be IMO. After this ride, it is with out a doubt better than PKD’s Ricochet.
After that, we took a ride on Carolina Cyclone, with another very short wait. Me and Jonathan took a ride at the next to last seat, Will was behind us, and for some reason we didn’t notice Dave was missing.
After we got off, we looked for him, but couldn’t find him... It turns out he waited a tad extra to get the front seat on the next train.
Following Cyclone, we went over to Hurler, where we found yet another tiny wait. Me and Dave rode in the front, while Will and Jonathan rode a row or 2 back. That was probably one of my best rides on Hurler ever.
Since Drop Zone was right in front of Hurler’s exit, we decided to take spin. Even though I only rode PKI’s Drop Zone once, it must’ve spoiled me, because I thought this one was totally lame, even though they (drop rides in general) still scare the crap out of me.
We headed up to the front of the park, but not before stopping in front of Vortex. We all asked each other if we wanted to ride, and the general consensus was "hell no." At the front there was a large group of people in the middle of the path. There were 3 characters, Scooby-Doo, Astro (the Jetsons’ dog), and a "caveman" guy. Since the caveman guy looked the least busy, we just *had* to get an employee to take a group picture of us with it. We started walking off, but again, was missing one person. The caveman was mugging Dave! Jonathan got a quick picture, then we got him loose.
We then walked through the soon-to-be-changed Old World Marketplace to get to Animation Station. We got in line for Scooby Doo’s Ghoster Coaster. We waited about 20 minutes, and had the last 2 cars (4 seats) all to ourselves. Jonathan took more video of us, which should turn out to be a riot… 4 fully-grown guys, riding a tiny family coaster… The only thing that could have made it funnier would be if we had been riding together. (i.e. instead of 1 for each seat, taking up 4 seats, 2 to a seat, taking up 2 seats) But I think everybody agreed that they wanted to see their knees work for another day.
After our most exciting ride on SDGC, we headed to the back of the park to ride the now-opened Thunder Road. We did backwards first then forwards. It definitely needs a bit more retracking because the dip right before the turnaround absolutely killed my neck. Jonathan told us about how the DDR machine in the arcade next to Thunder Road (3rd Mix) completely sucked because the pads hardly worked and was very quiet, especially with the stupid drum "game" next to it.
We all then decided we needed some A/C, so we got in line for 7th Portal. While in line Jonathan took some video of Top Gun dropping, and we chatted about how the Flight Commander upcharge ride should be yanked out and replaced with a set of snappable (bad PKD, bad!) Flying Eagles. It would fit the theme soooo perfectly. I was not surprisingly un-amazed by 7th Portal, perhaps because I am so spoiled by Spiderman at IoA. I think I like Corkscrew Hill at BGW a little better than this simulator as well.
Everybody decided they were hungry, so we all decided to go to Wendy’s. Dave went to go get his car so he could drive there, which Will, Jonathan, and myself thought was a little odd, since there was one right outside the park. When we got there, Dave was nowhere to be found, so we decided to go in and eat anyway. We kept looking around for Dave, but never showed up. We ate, and talked, and wondered where Dave was. After about an hour of doing that, we just walked back to the park and forgot all about poor Dave.
As soon as we got in the park we headed to Top Gun, with only about a 20-minute wait only Jonathan and I rode. It was very funny while walking through the first few switchbacks some hotshots thought they would be lazy and go through the queue rails and pass us. We got the bright idea to jump over the rail back in front of them. Luckily there were no confrontations when we finally stopped.
After our most excellent Top Gun ride, we headed to the arcade with the good DDR machine. (USA mix) I had previously never known this arcade had ever existed, as I don’t really pay attention to them that much.. Jonathan and I played a game that he had set on the "Difficult" setting. That was not really what I wanted, since I had only played once before in my entire life. I quickly found out that it was going way too fast for me to do anything at all. At one point I just comepletely stopped while on the pads and watched Jonathan pull his fancy footwork. After a few more free games with him, I played against Will who was a beginner himself. We set it on that setting and I found to have a far easier time.
After wasting nearly all my money on DDR, we went over and played around Super Saturator. Jonathan got some video of me shooting one of the cannons at an overhead car. We then went over to Hurler so Will could get some footage for Jonathan of us on it. He ended up doing it wrong, so we had to ride again. The second time turned out much better. Jonathan had to call his mom to see what time he had to be home for his family reunion thing he had to go to. It was just enough time for one last Top Gun ride, which was again, a 20-minute wait. After that I walked Jonathan and Will to their car, and we said our goodbyes.. even though I knew I would ‘see’ him later on in the day at the chat room we frequent.
Edit - Added the rest...
As soon as Jonathan and Will got back in the car, I headed back up towards the gate. Since we had met my parents going in as we were coming out, I knew they would be at the Country Kitchen restaurant to cool down. I went in and saw that my dad was overheated, luckily he was drinking lots of water. While they were there I went for a quick spin on Thunder Road - Backwards... still brutal right before the turnaround.
I then went and got a big cup of ice water, then returned to Country Kitchen to give it to my dad. After sitting with them for a few more minutes, I told them I was going to go ride Hurler while they went to their lockers in WaterWorks to retrieve their stuff. I once again took a minute and played around Super Saturator to cool off a little. Within a few minutes, I was on Hurler. As normal, it had no wait, whatsoever. I ripped off 5 rides in about 15 minutes, so I could get past 50 rides total on it.
After my mini-Hurler marathon, I met back up with my parents at Scream Weaver. Was on in about 10 minutes, and noticed Travis (PCarowinds) who had an R.R.C. button, working the ride today. We then walked back up into the middle of Carolina Boardwalk so I could show my parents the newly installed "shower." (At least I think it was newly installed, I had never noticed it in my previous visits) I doused my dad, then myself, and we headed back up to the front of the park. I pointed to the Powderkeg Flume and The Gauntlet while saying "goodbye" even though I knew they would still be here next year after a severe re-theme. About that time we noticed that neither of them were even running. It was like a power outage just on that side of the park. Walking back up towards the South Gate, I showed my parents where Jonathan said Rugrats Runaway Reptar would be. We checked the line for Top Gun, but it was unusually long, I don't think any of us felt like waiting anymore, so we left.
*** This post was edited by JamminJ on 8/26/2002. ***
http://www.starcoasters.com/webmaster/P8240017.JPG
(From left to right: Jay, Dave, Caveman Guy, Myself, Will the non-enthusiast)
And then what happened after:
http://www.starcoasters.com/webmaster/P8240018.JPG
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Jonathan Hawkins
Starcoasters.com
"The internet is a great way to get on the net." -Bob Dole
*** This post was edited by StarCoasters on 8/25/2002. ***
*** This post was edited by StarCoasters on 8/25/2002. ***
Sounds like you had a good trip.
(By the way, if anybody cares, The park has confirmed that the Carolina Stearnwheeler will be removed after this year. I thought some of you Carowinds Hey Day Buffs might like to know)
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"The fish are eating the guest, sir"
*** This post was edited by Dukeis#1 on 8/25/2002. ***
WHAT!? WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT!? AND WHERE DID CAROWINDS SAY THAT?!
update: I heard they may put the Rugrats ride on the island! arg, Im a little mad now! The keep removing things!:(
*** This post was edited by GhettoCoaster on 8/25/2002. ***
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Jonathan Hawkins
Starcoasters.com
"The internet is a great way to get on the net." -Bob Dole
As for the Sternwheeler, I don't want to believe anything until a press release. It hasn't been running consistantly, this year was the first that I actually ever noticed that it was running, and even then it's down a lot. I wouldn't be suprised if it went to permanent e-stop.
I doubt they would put RRR on the island, because, well.. it just wouldn't make any sense. They would have a tiny little space with RRR, then the whole rest of the island currently as is. There are so many good possible uses for it.. why waste it?
The only thing I'm wondering right now is what character The Gauntlet will be rethemed to, and if we'll get a "Green Slime Zone" similar to the ones at PKD and PKI. PGA did just remove theirs...
*** This post was edited by JamminJ on 8/26/2002. ***
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i am emo
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Jonathan Hawkins
Starcoasters.com
"The internet is a great way to get on the net." -Bob Dole
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