There was a time when the thought of riding a roller coaster in a standing position was an intriguing idea.......but that window of time was very small. In that span, however, the "Vortex" came to Carowinds, adding to its growing number of coasters.

Today, however, the Vortex is long since past its prime and the novelty of it is far in the past. As far as stand-up coasters are concerned, it has to be among the noisiest, the slowest, and the briefest of its kind.

After battling with the seats (hopping up into it if you're short and then pressing down to get it to reach a right, comfortable level for you), you basically head up a hill and go down into a loop, maybe a corkscrew here or there, a twist and a turn.......all of which feels very slow-going......and then you're done.

Because the ride feels like it's going so slow, and because the coaster itself feels like it may have a total ride time of about 45-60 seconds, I really can't recommend it unless (1) you've never been on it before, or (2) you're there and the line is relatively short.

Otherwise, you're not missing much. It's a coaster that's long past its prime and is just wasting the space its in.