Paramount's Carowinds

Located just outside beautiful Charlotte, NC, Paramount's Carowinds theme park is a great family destination. It has TV and movie based theme rides and attractions. It is one of the premiere parks along the eastern seaboard. If you and your family are searching for the perfect family vacation, come to Charlotte and visit the Carowinds today.

Paramount's Carowinds is a 105 acre theme park, located on the borderline between North and South Carolina, in Charlotte and Fort Mill, respectively. It opened on March 31, 1973 at a cost of $30 million, after a 4 year planning period spearheaded by Charlotte businessman Earl Patterson Hall, who was inspired to build the park by a trip to Disneyland in 1966, and a dream of bringing the two aforementioned states closer together. The park was purchased by Paramount Communications in 1993 and joined the Paramount Parks family, after ownership bounced from Taft Broadcast Company to Family Leisure Centers (a joint between Taft and Top Value Enterprises), to King Entertainment Company which was the last owner before Paramount's accqisition.

The name "Carowinds" was derived from the park's original theme. Since the park was built around the history and culture of the Carolinas, the name is a combination of "Carolina" and "winds", representing the winds that have blown across the two states. As the park changed ownership over the years, most of the Carolina themes were dropped in favor of more generic television and movie themes.

Paramount's Carowinds opens in late March each year and closes in early November, after the park's Halloween event, Scarowinds. A portion of the park reopens during December for the Winterfest Christmas festival.

Paramount's Carowinds is home to The Borg Assimilator, a flying roller coaster. The ride was originally installed at Paramount's Great America in Santa Clara, California in 2000 under the name Stealth and was considered to be the world's first flying Roller Coaster. The coaster was moved to Carowinds in 2004 and was given a Star Trek theme based on the Borg.

The Borg Assimilator is the only roller coaster in the world with Star Trek theming and the only amusement ride with Star Trek theming outside of Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas, Nevada.

• * Borg Assimilator, formerly Stealth at Paramount's Great America
• * Carolina Cyclone
• * Carolina Goldrusher
• * Fairly Odd Coaster, formerly Scooby Doo's Ghoster Coaster
• * Flying Super Saturator
• * Hey Arnold's Taxi Chase, formerly Taxi Jam
• * Hurler
• * Ricochet
• * Rugrats Runaway Reptar
• * Thunder Road: Twin wooden roller coaster that crosses the NC/SC border.
• * Top Gun: The Jet Coaster
• * Vortex