Share thoughts, photos, and reviews from visits to Carowinds or any other amusement park
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By pproteinc
#93984
So I spent the day at California Great America and got a chance to ride Patriot. Yea my opinion? Of course according to my friends there was a bit of head banging through the corkscrew of course I knew to stick my head out pass the OTSR to avoid such trauma. I feel the ride is definitely extremely short for such a remake however after asking a few locals they do say that the ride experience is better and it looks to be that ridership has gone up.

Operation wise, they are still learning the process as it took almost 10 mins to dispatch us, however that was the entire park. Operations were just horrid. Employees were basically taking their time with no sense of urgency to check belts and lap bars. So the lines were at least an hour each.

Got to do Mass Effects. I think my expectation were way too high as it was somewhat underwhelming for me. I figured it would be a long line, it wasn't at all straightvwalk on actually which was a red flag for me. The themeing out side was underwhelming. Plants vs Zombie is much better. The themeing inside was cool basically a space ship. It's a 4d interactive ride where the seats move and at certain points the flats under the cusion on each side that taps smack your butt and a flap on the back cushion that slaps your back lightly. Air blows from the armrest and when the alien attacks it spits in your face where you get sprayed with water along with air that is infused with a stink odor to simulate its breath. Almost thought somebody farted lol. The actor or 'captain' did a great job with his role through tout the ride. He really knew his lines well and they were dressed for the part.


I don't think I could compare the two rides as Mass Effects is more universal-ish and PvZ is more video game-ish. So they are good within their own rights. I'm headed to Knotts next week so maybe I can compare PvZ and Iron Reef at a later time.

I FOUND WILD BULL!!! lol. To bad it was closed. Good to see that style ride still exists somewhere.

Parent swap anyone? She was over it lol.

Overall the park is gorgeous. Most lines are tree covered, which is always a plus in my book, others are out in the open with no shades covers at all. Patriots station has no roof either. The park is pretty much a circle. All the big boy rides are on the right side of the park to the back counterclockwise then you got Planet snoopy and then boomerang bay all run together.

Boomerang Bay has to be the smallest water park I have ever seen in the chain this far. Literally took 2 mins to walk through before I walked up to Flight Deck.

I'm please to see they still have a sky ride or chairlift in use and looks refurbished and I love the fact the log flume utilizes a turn table loading station to keeps boats moving without stopping.

They seem to be testing a pre order system at the food courts where you have to order your food first similar to the self serve stations at Chickies N Pete's then take your reciept to the corresponding window to get your order. The scanning of your season pass was greatly difficult and I had to end up paying for my food by credit card then taking my receipts to guest services to get a refund and transfer payment to my meal plan for the two times I used it. Hopefully hey can fix this glitch as it catches the scan for some but not for most. Needless to say they were a lot of frustrated people and in small space and the line was incredibly long as that is the ONLY way to get from from the food court. In the plus side the sushi I order was everything. I would get carowinds got a sushi bar.


I see why CF is willing to do the 'Carowinds treatment' because this park has so much potential even with six flags up the street.

Parking was a bit funky to navigate especially sharing with the 49ers stadium literally next door holding an event.


This started as a review for Patriot but I guess I turned it into my experience so this I placed it in this thread.

Good park with great potential. Can't wait to see what's in store for the future.