Great Charlotte Adventure 2011 Recap (Part I): Carowinds

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I’m a big fan of the roller coasters at Kings Island. I’m sure I’d become a fan of the coasters at Holiday World if we ever visited there again. The last time I went to Holiday World was in 1990 on our 8th grade class trip. The most exciting ride at the time was the log flume and the Banshee. If I understand correctly, the Banshee isn’t even there anymore. It’s been traded in for some pretty cool rides like the Voyage and the Raven and the Legend.

Although I found myself disoriented quite a bit and stumbling into different areas of the park without realizing it, Carowinds really impressed me. There’s a ton of roller coasters and some were quite memorable. I kind of wished we’d bought the two-day pass because there were more rides than we had time for, even though we were at Carowinds all day.

I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t like spending my time at the water park sections of parks like Carowinds and Kings Island. I’d rather spend my time racing in the coasters than riding the wave pool. But the kids really like the water park. So there’s got to be a compromise somewhere, right?

Never thought Aiden would like roller coasters very much. He does. He and his thrill-seeker sister have declared the Carolina Cobra to be their favorite amusement park ride of all-time. It’s definitely one of my top five coasters (Note to self: Share a list of my top-five coasters). It impacted us so much that I even wound up preaching about it the following Sunday. (seriously!)

Now Aiden has no excuse to avoid riding The Beast with me if/when we ever go back to Kings Island.

The first few roller coasters I rode with Alyson, she wanted to hold my hand. And she held my hand the entire ride. She said it made her feel safe. By the end of the night, she was sitting in coaster cars all by herself, holding her hands up with abandon and loving every minute of it.

Here’s a few tricks for Carowinds: The souvenir cups are totally worth the price. They’ll fill the cup with ice and water for free (not every amusement park does that). Any vendor will give you a free cup of icewater, but they’re extremely small. With this cup, you can carry around a cup of cold water that will last more than 15 seconds.  That’s a great thing on days when the heat index is hovering around 100 degrees. Oh….and speaking of the heat index…that combined with the fact that we went on a weekday added up to a day with hardly any wait in any line for any ride. When our crew rode Goldrusher (the runaway railroad), everyone was able to sit right back down and ride a second time because no one was in line waiting to get in. When Alyson, Caleb, and Frank rode the Carolina Cobra the first time, the kids grabbed Aiden and me and we hopped right on as soon as we got up to the ride. The place was practically vacant.

Mihret even discovered something new while we were at the amusement park. She learned to say the word, “Again!” Christy took her on a small water slide and every time they got out of the water, she shouted “Again!” until they went back up and did it again. And again. And again.

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Matt Todd

Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"
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