When you’re headed out for a night on the town, or you’re looking to entertain the family while you’re away from home, carnivals can be good, solid fun. The food, the rides, the people watching; it’s all good stuff. Of course, of the number of traveling carnivals that criss-cross the country looking to entertain some folks, not all of them can be completely trusted. Of course, these days, you’re really taking your chances whenever you head to any amusement park.
At least, that was the hard lesson learned by some patrons of Carowinds amusement park outside Charlotte, North Carolina. At around 7:50 last night, the theme park experienced a three minute power outage. While that may not sound bad, it translated to more than two hours in which carnival-goers were stranded on the rides.
UNC-Charlotte student Josh Bryant told a local news outlet, “We have been stuck on the WindSeeker ride at Carowinds for over two hours now. We’re finally slowly making our way down at what it feels like a couple inches every 4 to 5 minutes,” Bryant wrote, adding, “It is making us mad that they’re taking this long and had a power outage to begin with. I won’t be coming back to Carowinds for a long time and recommend others shouldn’t either.”
While the people stranded on the swing-ride likely had it the worst of all, the power outage impacted two roller coasters — Afterburn and Intimidator. While the source of the outage hasn’t been confirmed, Carowinds did assure potential customers that no one was harmed.
