Our day began with a Breakfast Buffet, which is the highlight of every morning at a Residence Inn. And Ruby was up early not wanting to miss any part of that buffet. I think we all actually made it down to the buffet that morning, which is surprisingly only because Magan was there with us. She is usually more of a send us a special made order that we bring back up to her in the room while she continues to get ready. There were a couple of mistakes made at the buffet that were not repeated for the remainder of our stay. The first was both Magan and Davis trying the V8 "juice" and realizing quickly it was like drinking liquid from a vegetable. Second was funny because Magan had apparently tasted the pineapple and stayed silent when Davis saw it on her plate, and said "That looks good, I will go get a bowl of that". Then when he tasted what apparently was pineapple that had sat open in the kitchen soaking up all the flavors of eggs, sausage, and various other things, he immediately spit it out with some gagging noises...which prompted Magan into bouts of hilarious laughter. We could only laugh later after Magan was finally able to tell us what happened, not making Davis happy that she never gave him a heads up.
Next up, we were ready for Carowinds. Carowinds is a premier 400-acre amusement park located on the North Carolina/South Carolina border in Charlotte, featuring over 60 rides, including 14+ world-class roller coasters like the massive Fury 325. Owned by Six Flags, it features the Carolina Harbor waterpark, themed areas like Camp Snoopy, and seasonal events like WinterFest.
At Carowinds, we were all season pass holders so that we could also come the next day, and probably sometime this summer back in Atlanta. You had to activate your pass at your first park, so our home park is Carowinds for this year. The season passes are a must, as they saved us $40 on parking both days. Also, after calling Colby and getting a peer check, I opted for the Unlimited Fast Passes on this one full day. It was the start of Spring Break for many in the area, and the park was fairly packed. I also did not want to get the cheaper fastpasses, as I did not want to figure out how to navigate this place. Instead, when we saw a line, we clicked on that ride on our phone, and a magical QR code allowed us to ride almost anything immediately. Thus, we were on about the 3rd car of Fury that morning as our first roller coaster of the day.
Fury 325 at Carowinds is the world's tallest and fastest "giga" coaster with a traditional lift hill, standing 325 feet tall with a 95 mph top speed. Opened in 2015, this Bolliger & Mabillard steel coaster features an 81-degree drop, 6,602 feet of track, and a 3.5-minute ride time, frequently winning "Best Steel Coaster". And knowing the level of coasters we would be seeing, I assumed that Ruby would be riding mainly the kiddie rides with Magan for the day. Ruby has never ridden the 200 foot tall giant coaster Goliath at Six Flags. But on this day, she jumped in line with us. Luckily there was not much waiting, so looked down and her "palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy", and I told her "Look, if you have one shot or one opportunity. To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment. Would you capture it or just let it slip". And she quickly replied "Here I go, it's my shot, feet fail me not, this may be the only opportunity that I got".
And after the biggest and baddest roller coaster in this park, she was afraid of nothing after that. So Magan became the bag holder while the four of us moved from ride to ride, passing the peasants in the lines walking to the front and demanding our seat. There is a full listing of the rides below, as I expect Colby may be interested. We did not get as many as their crew did, but we did knock out a lot of coasters on this day. I also realized that the Twin Cobras that first goes forward through a series of loops, then backwards thru them is not good for the ole vertigo. Especially when you followed it with Copperhead Strike then Afterburn. After our ride of Afterburn, which is similar to Batman where you are hanging with your legs dangling, I asked the kids if they wanted to ride again, but they looked at my face and said "I don't think you should ride again", and they were right. I had no intention of riding anything further at that point, as I was downing Dramamine and Advil. My puke meter was definitely showing some red warning signs.
We slowed up at this point and enjoyed walking through the park, seeing some characters and shopping in stores. Simple rides like the Boo Blasters where we targeted the evil Boocifer was more of my level of ride at this point. And after a quick tour of the park, we returned to the back of the park where I saw a restuarant that advertised "Southern Sides". I will always take this option at a theme park over the normal burgers and chicken fingers, but I had in my mind meatloaf, boneless mased potatoes, green beans...instead, we learned when we arrived that Southern Sides are mac and cheese, french fries, and rice. They did have some pulled BBQ when seemed good, so that is what I got. But the lady serving this asked us if we wanted mustard with it. Thinking this to be carolina bbq sauce, I was about to say Yes, but the lady looked me straight in the eyes and shook her head no. I asked "So I shouldn't get it", She again mysteriously just shook her head no and repeated "Mustard". Which became a running joke, and we still don't know what in the world was going on with that lady. Belle turned her meal into a BBQ and fries like at Peach Park. All enjoyed our $20 meals, but they were a little skimpy with the portions.
We then got some Sweet Frogs ice cream and let the kids run off to ride more rides while I sat and took at nap. I think Mom was working on her "One Second a Day" while I slept. Maybe she was talking to me, I was out. And I really needed this, as my head was finally stopping its spin. We met back up with the kids to go through Camp Snoopy, where I convinced the kids to ride the little coasters that they had loved so much in 2015. And honestly, these snoopy area coasters were pretty fun. Davis and Belle told me of a fat guy that they would not let ride Fury, and he stormed off slamming a chain on his march away from the ride. We got to see all of the characters that day, and even had fun riding all of the smaller county fair rides as well. We also found a ride that Mom would ride with us...It had a name, but we just called it the Elevator. It took you up very slowly and rotated very slowly, but was fun to see the full park, and was air conditioned, so we will take it.
Our plan was to finish the day on Fury, but the fast pass line became even longer than the normal line late in the day, so we moved over to ride the other favorite "Thunder Striker", which was Dale Earnhardt's "The Intimidator" when we were here in 2015. Perhaps not as good as the Fury, but a very close second as voted upon by all 4 Junkin riders on that day. We left with a few photo recreations from a decade ago, and stopped at Zaxby's for a late dinner before heading back to the hotel.
I thought our fun was over for the day, but when we arrived back downtown, the whole block including our hotel was blocked off by police. So allowing Waze to struggle, I made a few left turns, and came around to our hotel from the back side, where I was able to get into the back of the parking garage. Luckily all used the same entry, and I was able to navigate in the garage back over close to our hotel. We learned that the Charlotte Major League Soccer team was playing at Panther Stadium. A long day! Magan texted me the picture of Davis pumping his arms on that first ride of Fury for the day, with a message "It was worth it"! So glad Davis could be with us. He still remembered chickening out of riding Fury when he was 8, even tho he did ride many of the other coasters back then. Davis got him a Fury tshirt as a souvenir, and awesome brother, He bought Belle a little woodstock to match his little snoopy.
Ok, the ride list...Fury 325 (3 times), Rock and roller, Twin Cobras (puke), Copperhead strike (3 times), Afterburn, Boo Blasters, Thunder striker (3 times), Carolina sky Tower (The Elevator), Vortex, Carolina cyclone, Carolina Goldrusher, Do si do, Snoopys Wilderness run, Snoopys Runaway railway. The Fastpass was very nice.
