State Line Celebration at Carowinds Begins April 9

Press Release from Carowinds

Charlotte, N.C. (April 1, 2022) —Carowinds will showcase some of the best food, music, and fun from the Carolinas when it debuts the new State Line Celebration on Saturday, April 9. The limited-time event, which will
run on select days through Sunday, May 8, capitalizes on Carowinds unique distinction as the nation’s only amusement park straddling two states. Carowinds’ State Line Celebration will feature the Carolinas’ best food in a Southern food festival, complete with live music and fun activities from around North Carolina and South Carolina.


“We are so excited to welcome guests to our brand-new State Line Celebration,” Ryan Allen, director of live entertainment at Carowinds, said. “We cannot wait for guests to join us on the State Line for some of our favorite recipes and Carolina fun. With four unique shows, delicious dishes, and more local beer and wine than you can shake a stick at, this special event shows why there is no place finer than the Carolinas.”

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2019 – Year in Review

2019 is over and a new decade is upon us. It’s time for us to take a step back and review the new attractions that we covered this past year. Yes, there were indeed a lot of them! Without more introduction, here’s a brief rundown of what we got a chance to experience this past year.

Copperhead Strike at Carowinds

Copperhead Strike is a Mack launched coaster that is the first of its kind to arrive in the US, following up Time Traveler (Silver Dollar City) and Mako (Sea World San Diego). The ride is clearly influenced by Icon (Blackpool Pleasure Beach). The ride is non-stop fun starting with a roll out of the station, to a themed pre-launch building, to two launches and 5 inversions through its custom layout. The ride sets itself apart being a trendsetter for featuring a launched airtime hill. Check out more photos of Copperhead Strike here. Copperhead Strike is a Mack launched coaster that is the first of its kind to arrive in the US, following up Time Traveler (Silver Dollar City) and Mako (Sea World San Diego). The ride is clearly influenced by Icon (Blackpool Pleasure Beach). The ride is non-stop fun starting with a roll out of the station, to a themed pre-launch building, to two launches and 5 inversions through its custom layout. The ride sets itself apart being a trendsetter for featuring a launched airtime hill. Check out more photos of Copperhead Strike here.

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Top 10 Roller Coasters that drop over 200 feet

Since Cedar Point’s Magnum XL-200 roller coaster debuted in 1989 as the first roller coaster to drop from 200 feet, dozens of roller coasters have been built eclipsing that milestone.  Each hyper coaster (over 200 ft), giga coaster (over 300ft), or strata coaster (over 400ft) is typically its park’s signature ride.  Currently, Intamin and B&M are the most common manufacturers for this style of roller coaster. They build upon the legacy of Arrow Dynamics and Morgan.

These are the roller coasters that drop over 200 feet that we believe distinguish themselves from the rest:

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Top 10 Inverted Roller Coasters

Inverted roller coasters distinguish themselves by their style where you fly underneath the track.  B&M, Intamin, and Vekoma are the primary manufacturers of inverted roller coasters, each has their own distinct track and train styles.  These are the inverted roller coasters we believe distinguish themselves from the rest:


 

Honorable Mention: Batman the Ride at Six Flags Great America
In the 1990’s, this model of inverted roller coaster seemed to pop up in every (Six Flags) park.  The layout is a winner.  While short, this ride provides one of the most intense experiences on any roller coaster.  Lately Six Flags has begun to reinvigorate the ride by adding backward facing trains on the ride.  We’ve given the award to the original ride, but clones can be found in Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags over Georgia, Six Flags over Texas, Six Flags St. Louis, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World San Antonio, La Ronde, and many more parks.


10: Great Bear at Hersheypark
Great Bear is a custom layout roller coaster by B&M on which you soar over Comet Hollow.  While relatively short, Great Bear’s interaction with other rides including superdooperlooper and Coal Cracker make the ride experience special.


9 : Volcano at Kings Dominion
This Intamin inverted coaster launches you two times.  The second time vertically out of a fire-spewing volcano.  The ride is very unique and earns this recognition through its excellent use of theming as well as a thrilling ride experience.


8: Afterburn at Carowinds
This underappreciated ride at Carowinds has a very intense layout featuring one of the rare Batwing elements on a B&M roller coaster.  This ride was originally dubbed Top Gun by Paramount Parks.


7: Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park
This UK roller coaster is inspired by the classic: Nemesis at Alton Towers.  The theming on this ride and queue surpass that of almost all of the other competitors.


6: Dragon Challenge at Universal Islands of Adventure
This ride is an engineering masterpiece by B&M.  This is actually a pair of completely different inverted roller coasters themed to Harry Potter lore: Hungarian Horntail and Chinese Fireball that contain 3 near miss moments and 5 inversions.  Chinese Fireball provides the slightly more intense and better experience in our experience.  Unfortunately the ride no longer duels due to safety concerns dropping it down in the rankings.  This ride was originally known as Dueling Dragons.


5: Raptor at Cedar Point
The tallest and fastest inverted roller coaster when it opened, Raptor built upon the foundation created by Batman the Ride to create an intense ride experience with 6 inversions.  This was the first inverted coaster to feature a cobra roll.


4: Montu at Busch Gardens Tampa
Montu one ups Raptor with a 7th inversion.  This ride contains two strong ride halves, the second half taking you underground several times.  This ride is found in Busch Garden Tampa’s Egypt section.


3: Alpengeist – Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Built a year after Montu, Busch Gardens Williamsburg introduced what is still the world’s tallest complete circuit inverted roller coaster.  Themed after a ski ride gone wrong in Germany, Alpengeist swoops you in and out of the River Rhine valley.


2: Banshee – Kings Island
Opened in 2014, more than 20 years after the first inverted coaster, Banshee reimagines the inverted coaster.  Built by B&M on the site of the former Son of Beast, this roller coaster layout brings back the intense layouts the company used to design in the past.  What sets Banshee apart is its modest theming package, excellent pacing, and track length.  Banshee is the world’s longest inverted roller coaster.  It utilizes a new train style similar to that found on wing-rider coasters that contains much more open over the shoulder restraints.


1: Nemesis – Alton Towers
The title of best inverted coaster goes to the UK, and it isn’t close.  Nemesis bills itself as the world’s most extreme ride experience.  While that is probably not true, the layout of this ride is one that is literally impossible to be duplicated.  Almost the entire ride is situated below ground level where riders gets turned upside down 4 times.  All the time soaring through caverns and rushing through rock blasted quarries.  This is one ride not to miss.