Carowinds — Attraction in Charlotte

TL;DR: Great if you just want to marathon coasters with no lines, disappointing if you expect a polished theme park experience

The Highlights • Coaster marathons: Lines were almost nonexistent. We had ridden every coaster at least twice within 4 hours of arriving. Buying a Fast Lane pass would’ve been a waste. • Parking convenience: Low crowds meant close parking near the entrance. • Clean grounds: No visible trash around the park. Though the pavement sure needs a good power wash. • Kid satisfaction: My girls (almost 14) loved the rides and had a great time.

The Disappointments • Food & drinks: The refill system is frustrating. At Hersheypark you just walk up to the soda machine, scan your bottle and fill. Here every refill meant waiting in line behind customers paying for other stuff and then refilling. And so many were closed, we spent more time in line for free refills than in line for coasters - no exaggeration. Many games & ride photos were also shut down, and the outdoor seating at closed spots was filthy — leaves, branches, dried ketchup. Some tables looked like they hadn’t been cleaned all season. • Heat relief: On a day with 92° in the shade and a 102° heat index, fans and spritzers were mostly off. Most shops had no A/C, and the ones that did weren’t strong enough to feel like a break. • Smell & upkeep: More than half the park stunk like a restaurant dumpster, you know that sweet/sour smell of food trash and grease. :gag: Handrails were dirty and grimy and the paint was worn off, and the brick walkways badly need a power wash. • Technology & photos: The app quit halfway through the day (rides disappeared, then even my location). Ride photos were a mess — kiosks didn’t work, some rides had no photos, and the ones we did see were low quality. • Lockers & security: Rides like Fury 325 require bags to go in lockers — $4 for two hours even if you only need 15 minutes. Parking was $35. Security has a metal detector but no bag checks. • Staff & atmosphere: Most employees seemed disengaged, with dread and avoidance on their faces. Ride operators were slightly more energetic, but overall, no one seemed happy to be there. No shows were running, shade was limited, and most shops weren’t air conditioned.

Final Thoughts Carowinds is great if your priority is riding coasters with virtually no wait (as long as they are taking better care of the coasters than they are the rest of the park 🤷‍♀️) — the kids will love it. But I think Hersheypark has set a pretty high bar.

We used live about midway between Kings Dominion and Hershey Park. Growing up both my husband and I frequented Kings Dominion. So that’s where we went together in our early 20s , then we tried Hersheypark once, and rarely hit KD. Kings Dominion and Carowinds are both Cedar Fair parks - and Carowinds gave me KD vibes - dirty, neglected and barebones. Hershey gives free ride lockers, easy drink refills, and more shaded rest areas — all for just $5 more at full price (up north, where everything’s more expensive).

For $33 a ticket, Carowinds was worth it to keep the girls happy for a day. But at $50 full price (plus $35 parking and paid lockers), I’d feel shortchanged. Go for the rides, but lower your expectations for...

Waterpark rides' operational efficiency and throughput is badly managed. So slow, poor. They are so slow in cranking people thru the slides. For example, on one slide, only 1 of 4 slide tubes running (poor), and another only 1 of 3! Another slide was closed altogether. Overall they just don't have enough staff hired/scheduled, i guess? And they manage to put people thru the slides soooo slowly. overly 'safety' perhaps? unnecessary.

Extra/excessive waterslide "rules" were crazy. Regarding a tiny metal piece on swimsuits or wearing a necklace, earring, etc. Nuts. At least put a big sign at the entrance (not wait until you have climbed a million steps and wait eternity in their slow line), gotta communicate that stuff or just relax a bit. safety overkill for sure.

So the waterpark experience was poor overall unfortunately.

Also, not a lot of meal options in waterpark area, so especially if you have the all-day dining pass (recommended) it stinks, because all the food options are a long way aways in the main park areas. Long walk.

Rest of the park itself was ok. Rides are great overall. Issue was several of the rides, shops, and restaurants were not in operation the last 2+ hours of our visit (there was some rain late afternoon). I suspect they didn't have enough staff and purposely chose to keep some things shut down. Stinks for us, we paid our admission, doesn't matter that the park was low attendance due to earlier storms. unfair decisions/cost-cutting by the park i guess. :(

food was ok. quality is so-so. crazy expensive, of course. highly recommend the all-day dining passes if you are going to be there all-day (which i recommend). or at least the all-day soda option, which is very good, convenient and good value (probably the only thing in the whole experience that is a 'good value').

Does Carowinds/CedarFair care? Nope. Just...

I would give this 4.5 stars, but I’ll round it up. Almost everything was great! The ride queues were short, and there were plenty of fun rides to discover. Two things, however: Firstly, some rides were temporarily closed for some reason, like Electro-Spin, and Wind Seeker. This is okay, as it’s expected in a theme park, but I just wish that the app of something would provide a reason for why it’s down, or at least if it is likely that it will open again that day or near in the the future, etc. The second problem, however, was quite infuriating. We bought the all day dining plan premium, which is a great deal by the way. The thing is, unlike Cedar Point or Kings Dominion, (the two other Cedar Fair parks we’ve visited) they didn’t have the option to buy them at the guest services area. They said that they sell them at the food booths. So, we went to an Auntie Anne’s but they didn’t have them. So we went to a coca-cola stand, and the employee who was running the stand was barely moving, looked like he wanted to fall asleep. When it was our turn to scan our code to get a wristband, he acted so slow, and grab the wrong band. When we tried to tell him that it was a premium plan, or a red band, he said “yeah, I know” and gave us the regular plan, of the green band. We were pissed, because after that, he said “oh, oops.” Enraged, we asked what you could do, and he says, “Ah, you’ll have to go to guest services and ask them for them to switch it over, sorry”. So, we marched into guest services, just for them to tell us to go to a different food stand and try again. Frustrating, but since everything else was so fun, I’ll still give...