Vortex at Carowinds is a small but notable Bolliger & Mabillard stand-up coaster.
Not only was it one of the B&M’s first stand-ups, but it’s the oldest one that still operates as a
stand-up. This ride gets a lot of hate, but what if I told you this is actually a solid ride?
Let me explain why in this review. Bolliger & Mabillard got their start at Giovanola
manufacturing coasters for Intamin, including a few stand-ups. So when the duo formed their own
company, it’s no surprise their first few coasters were all stand-ups as well. First was Iron Wolf at
Six Flags Great America in 1990. Second was Vortex at California’s Great America back in 1991.
As an aside, the park was called just Great America back then, but it would be
far too confusing to not add the California’s part considering the other park I just talked about was
also a Great America. The California Great America was owned by Kings Entertainment back in 1991.
Kings Entertainment was one of the earliest adopters of stand-up coasters,
adding versions from Togo at Kings Island, Kings Dominion, and Canada’s Wonderland.
The chain’s last park without a stand-up in North America was Carowinds,
so unsurprisingly, Carowinds received one for the 1992 season.
This one would also be a B&M named Vortex, and it would have similar stats to the California one.
This was also the same year B&M debuted the inverted coaster at Six Flags Great America,
and the popularity of this model is one of the initial reasons why sales of the stand-up
coasters started to decrease. B&M wouldn’t build another stand-up coaster until 1996
and the next three they built would all become the tallest and fastest of the genre. But B&M built
their last traditional stand-up coaster in 1999. All three of B&M’s early stand-ups were some of
the company’s smallest coasters. Two of them have since been converted to floorless coasters.
Iron Wolf, which was later relocated to Six Flags America as Apocalypse, was transformed
into Firebird in 2019. Then California’s Vortex was transformed into Patriot for the 2017 season.
This leaves Vortex as the oldest B&M stand-up still operating as a stand-up coaster. I know some
would like to see the Carowinds Vortex transformed into a floorless coaster like the California
Vortex, but I am opposed to that. I may be in the minority, but I genuinely enjoy B&M stand-ups.
Call me crazy, but I have a method to ride these coasters without pain.
I have a video on this technique, but here’s a short recap.
You want the top of the over-the-shoulder restraint jammed into the top of your shoulders.
So you sort of want to slouch until the restraints lock.
Once they do, stand-up straight. The restraint will be firmly pressed against your shoulder. This
may be a dealbreaker for some, but this allows you to avoid two types of pain that are worse for me.
One, the bike seat will be a few inches below your groin. This is especially important for us guys.
If the bike seat is too high, it will hit your groin on every transition and the high G moments
will jam the seat into your you-know-where. Two, your ears will clear the top of the harness.
This will lessen the chance of headbanging. This is unfortunately possible to get on
the stand-ups because of how close the over-the-shoulder restraint gets to your ears.
There is one other type of discomfort you need to prepare yourself for. That’s the
positive forces. On most coasters when you experience positive Gs, it feels like you’re
being shoved further into your seat. Most people don’t find any discomfort in this.
But on a stand-up coaster, the ride tries to push you through the floor and all that weight is
transferred to your legs. I love the brutality of this sensation. It makes my legs feel like jelly
like a good workout. The only way to avoid this pain is to sit-down,
which you should not do. It’s not only against the policy of the parks with these stand-up coasters,
but it will probably cause you more pain. That little bike seat was not designed to
comfortably support you during positive Gs. You also will be further down the harness
and much more likely to get headbanging. I’m guessing most people don’t use these
techniques to ride stand-ups comfortably because Vortex typically has one of the shortest lines
of the coasters at Carowinds. Usually it’s a station wait for me. However, when this
coaster does have a line, it moves very slowly. Like most B&M stand-ups, Vortex suffers from slow
dispatches. Not only are the trains awkward to enter and exit- you need to squeeze down each
row and then hop into and out of your seat- but each harness needs to be individually adjusted
before being locked. If someone accidentally locks their harness at the wrong height, the operator at
the control panel needs to unlock the row and the platform attendant needs to recheck it.
This is also paired with the fact these are some of the smallest B&M trains.
They seat the usual 4 across, but you only have 6 rows, so each train seats just 24
riders. Carowinds does usually run two trains, but that second train is usually parked on the
brake run for a few minutes in between runs. As for which row I like best, I recommend the
front. It’s usually just an extra train wait because of the cramped station, and you get the
unobstructed view plus a smoother ride experience. The back rows have more of a rattle to them.
Once dispatched, you head up the 90 foot or 27 meter tall lift. At the top,
you twist 180 degrees downwards. It’s a pretty forgettable drop, but it allows the coaster
to reach its max speed of 50 mph or 80 kph. You then glide through a forceful vertical loop.
This is where you’re treated to your first dose of positive Gs. I love how the forces
push you towards the outside of the loop as you fully invert. It’s a fun sensation.
You then twist over the lift hill. This element doesn’t offer any airtime nor laterals.
It serves as a transition to get you to the back half of the ride.
You then enter a fantastic upwards helix. You get very strong and sustained positives as you spiral
up. This will make everyone’s legs feel numb. You then drop downwards into the second and final
inversion, a corkscrew. It’s not as snappy as a B&M invert corkscrew, but it has solid whip
to it as it throws you sideways. This element is the one that is most likely to cause headbanging,
particularly towards the back rows, so brace yourself if you didn’t get the harness down low.
Vortex then navigates a figure 8 finale. The initial raised turn is pretty weak,
but the final low turn piles on the positives one last time.
You then jump into the brake run, ending this 2040 foot or 620 meter long coaster.
You may be there for a while, so feel free to now sit on the bike seat to give your legs a rest.
So what would I rate Vortex? I would give this stand-up a 6 out of 10. This is a solid ride.
The method I use grants me a comfortable ride.
That allows me to appreciate the power of the inversions and turns. This isn’t the
most ambitious layout out there, especially compared to B&M’s newer designs, but stand-up
coasters are so rare nowadays that I like the unique experience they bring to a park lineup.
Do I personally wish Vortex gets converted to a floorless coaster? No. Do I think it’s smart for
the park to convert it to a floorless coaster? Yes. I know most people aren’t going to set the
harness like me. And even if they do, they may find those positive forces too much on their legs.
I can’t deny this ride would have both higher throughput and popularity with a train change.
So we’ll see what happens with this coaster. I think it still looks pretty good with its red
paint scheme and it has a nice location adjacent to one of the front midways.
So those are my thoughts on Vortex at Carowinds. What are your thoughts on the oldest remaining B&M
stand-up? Do you enjoy this coaster like me or would you like to see it changed to a floorless?
Let me know your thoughts down below. If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it if you
gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a lot
more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!