Aerial Antics: Carowinds II - Before & After

Carowinds was already covered in Aerial Antics some time back, but I happened to notice that several different time periods were now available on the Bing maps and couldn't help doing a Before & After for the park since Cedar Fair took over. Let's go!

One of the first things that was changed at the park was the return of a ride that had been at Carowinds for a long time. With that this sleepy little corner of the County Fair section of the park was changed from above to this:

The return of the Southern Star inverting swing ship, formerly known as the Frenzoid.

The area behind the water park and next to Thunder Road was used as a parking lot up until the end of the 2007 season.

Because for the 2008 season the park added a second wave pool, named Bondi Beach. Also take note that Thunder Road is under some heavy reconstruction when this photo was taken.

The park's log flume was happily flowing through this landscaped section of the park...

But then it was removed in order to bring in next year's attraction, the Intimidator roller coaster. Above we see the flume in the process of being removed, with some sections still standing and others already removed.

Some changes to the park were merely cosmetic. Here we see the Carolina Skytower...

Which received a very patriotic repaint after Cedar Fair purchased the park.

Theming tied too closely to Paramount franchises had to hit the curb when Cedar Fair came in. That spelled trouble for the paint job and theme for the Borg Assimilator...

Which got a striking new blue and yellow paint job, along with the removal of the theming. Oh, and it became Nighthawk, as well.

Finally, the Flying Super Saturator, a real 'water coaster,' found itself with an eviction notice.

After which it was replaced with the Carolina Cobra boomerang coaster, moved to the park from Geauga Lake.

If you want to try to spot more differences, here's a link to Bing's aerials.