Carrowinds Amusement Park of the Carolinas Reviews

Fun for the whole family. Handicap friendly. Rides, water rides, swimming area, food places, gift shops and lots of places to sit down in the shade.

Scarowinds is a frightfully fun time!! Always makes me laugh...

It's a great amusement park. Definitely worth a visit at least once.

Had an awesome time. Wasn't that crowded. Would recommend if you like amusement parks.

scarewinds was good when i went through it once i was terrified but i went throuugh it again and i said hi

So much fun! The kids really love the water park in the summer!

Great but food and drink cost are ridiculous.... People will continue to leave to eat which reduces park profitability.

IT was a little fun but some puked and the Food was Nasty aNd WAYY todo EXSPENSIVE

Its was nice and not to busy a little slow mostly no lines for most things I loved it in on vk so I expect a lot and I exceed my expectations! I would definitely recommend this place and I would come back.

Scarowinds was awful this year, it wasn't scary at all, there were barely any people out scaring us!! The people that worked inside the mazes weren't good or scary, it was a HUGE WASTE OF MY MONEY!!! Years past it was awesome and very professionally done, and was worth the cost of going. This year even the makeup on the workers was probably done themselves at home. Nothing about scarowinds was good, it was even hard to find the mazes and the workers didn't know where the attractions were!! If I could give no stars I would...Come on Carowinds make it worth our money to go, I guess Carowinds has become money hungry and greedy like most places these days!

Was a horrible experience for me. My fault I didn't fit in most rides cause I'm fat and top heavy so it was always either my belly or my chest that kept me from being able to ride... But several employees were very mocking and humiliated me as they made jokes about me not fitting. Not fitting was embarrassing enough... The cruelness was unnecessary.

Top 3 coasters are great! Fury 325, Copperhead Strike & Afterburn

We had so much fun today! It has been over 15 years since my husband and I last visited and while a lot has changed, it was fun taking our kids. I really liked Camp Snoopy and was thrilled with Fury 325. Next time dramamine will be in my bag though!

We Came at a very busy time. Most rides were operational, park was clean. I did notice several individuals had brought in large bags/carts of their own food. Ymmv, but it does seem to be loose on the no outside food or drink rule, which Is good. Standard overpriced food/drinks but other than that it was a fun time.

It's just okay. There is almost no shade here, so be sure to wear sunscreen! The lines are very long. It's miserably hot in the summer, but they do have a water park to cool off.

Food is overpriced. You can buy an all day drink cup, but during our visit, some time in the evening all the drink machines we came across were out out ice.

I advise that you do not ride the Vortex. I felt like I was in a boxing ring.with Mike Tyson, it's very rough. Terrible headache after this ride.I have no idea why this ride is still going, It's awful! A girl who was on the ride while we were on it. broke her finger. The medic was very quick to arrive.

Honestly, I won't be going back. My children don't want to go back either.

Always a good time with family and friends with sooooo much to do!

A lot of fun. Would have been better by if more rides were open but very enjoyable.

Pretty solid local park, a bit pricey but decently well laid out

Date Night at Winterfest... lots of kids enjoying the Christmas lights... very festive with dancing lights, live Nativity scene with animals, and carolers etc. Only downside is the parking... you have to walk what feels like 2 miles to the front entrance. Can I get a sleigh ride from the farthest point in the parking lot?!?!?

I love it so much it is so amazing and a fun experience

Rides were great and lines were almost non-existent on a Wednesday. Overall a great amusement park

One of my favorite amusement parks ever! Myself and family went for Scarowinds this year and it was super cool! Also got to ride the Fury for the first time and OMG is ever one for the books at 95mph the coaster is just as smooth as it looks online no joke! Other than food prices being silly,Carowinds is worth every dime as they have a lil something for the entire family and pictures all over to buy since we can't carry our cameras on rides, ,and even if your not an adrenaline junkie there's still plenty of attractions! Live laugh and LIVE SOME MORE!

Fun for the whole family. Pricing was fair and friendly staff! We are going back!!

I honestly love carowinds. It s by far the best place to go with family and without family. The water park expands with the park. The new changes such as having two wave pools makes it so much better. And they might have long lines for the rollercoasters but the ride is well worth the wait.

Too expensive for the experience. Your bags get searched like you're a criminal and you can't even go to your car to get anything without a big huge fee. While it is fun for kids, as a parent, know you're going to feel disgruntled over the whole thing. Must spend like $100 for food. No exaggeration, my kid and husband paid $30 for FRIES and a DRINK for TWO PEOPLE. Thank God I didn't try to take the five of us. Go to the beach or something instead!

Great place! Pretty cheap for all that you get to do. I loved the rollar coasters and all of the fun games around the park. It was easy to add scarowinds tickets to our full day tickets for a good price. Enjoy all the scare zones and excellently done mazes!

i love all your ride i love carowinds i hope it open up agian

Had a great visit at Carowinds. They have a great selection of rollercoasters. I spent the day riding all of them. Fury 325 is world class.

Food was good both times we ate. Chik Fil A was like you expect. The other restaurant had lots of options and home cooked sides.

We had a Fast Lane Plus pass. Made it easy to ride whatever we wanted most any time..

Visit this park. It's a really good way to spend a day.

Carowinds is such a magical place. The food and stores are just expensive.

This was the best experience of my life fun filled with everything

Great times as always! The fast pass is definitely worth the money if you are going to ride all day. You never have to wait in line!

Had lots of fun with the family. There should be healthier meal choices as well as refill drinks. My hamburger tasted aweful!

This place is 90% roller coasters. If you looking for a fun day of thrill-seeking activities, this is it.

We have a gold pass this year and have been many times. Always lots of fun and stuff to do for the kiddos and adults. We always hate leaving when we get there. The best part is you can go to the water park or the theme park with the same admission. They keep the park nice and clean, every employee will try to help you and not brush you off. Wait times for rides during the week minus days they have a special price have been little to none. Harmony grill has a great selection with food, has a.c. to cool of and normally in the evening a band on stage in there. They offer water cups through out the park to keep there visitors hydrated. If you are going to go here at least 3 times get the gold pass because it will have paid for itself and you won't have to pay for parking. This year they are doing Scarowimds and also a Winter Fest. Can't wait to go back and see these too.

Staff was amazing!! Rides, food and quality family time making memories.

Pricey, crowded and long lines......and so worth it for the roller coasters! The rides are great and the water park is awesome. It's included with the admission price. Parking is stupid expensive.

Y all fly Military flags that are balled up and jack up from floor to ceiling. I went to customer service to tell him every single flag is jacked up and I got the response I m sorry your upset about it .

If that s not how yall think of the military and the sacrifices they make for you every day you need to fix the kid with braces at your customer service desk. And hire someone who isn t lazy to work for y all.

I took my wife and (4) yesr old Son here thinking we would spend an amazing day together only to find that more than half the rides were closed, including the ONLY roller coaster for toddlers. Management could at least have the decency to post online when this many rides are shut down. Needless to say we left early pretty bummed out.

Love the rides. I do not like the fact that no one monitors the lines to prevent line breaking. We had some teenagers push my mother trying to break past us in line to get to the front with their friends. We wouldn't let them pass so the began to curse at us and then proceeded to push my mother. They didn't get past us in line but there should have been someone readily available to us to report. When your way up in the line you can't access the staff. Someone needs to be walking through the fast lane monitoring the lines. Overall though, we really enjoy the rides

Perfect day. Threat of rain that never came so mostly empty park with repeat rides on the brand new Copperhead coaster.

Best ways to go to Carowinds is that you don t get caught up in severe weather conditions.

Pretty disappointed with this park, definitely not up to par for Cedar Fair. But most of the bathrooms were pretty clean, the park was also very clean. The employees were pretty checked out and didn t seem to care much. I would recommend going at least once but there are definitely better parks out there.

Great place to go but would recommend not going on hot days cause there's a chance that it will just be miserable for you. But its great to go and ride the rides, eat the food and sometimes see young musicians go to be judge and rated there.

Great roller coasters and great times! Good place to take the family for some bonding time! Don't forget to pick up you fast pass to avoid the lines!

The park has a very exciting and energetic atmosphere. It may take a while to get on each ride because of the lines, but it's totally worth it. Especially getting on the Fury. Lol

Fury is great! Lots of rides for all ages. Food and drink is a bit expensive ( $4-5 for sodas and bottled water, $12-15 for entrees) but that's expected. You can request a complimentary cup of water from most venues, and the employees don't give you a hard time about it. We loved the Cirque Imagine show, a refreshing air-conditioned break from the summer heat.

Would highly recommend getting a fast pass if possible as the lines have started to get incredibly long. We were able to ride Fury 3 times in 30 minutes with them. It would have taken us 2 hours to ride it once without our FPs.

I took my son to Carowinds this Saturday and I must say it was an adequate experience at best. The park itself was clean and tidy, but the rest rooms that we used throughout the park where very dirty and smelled very bad all of the restrooms in my opinion needed a good cleaning immediately. Another thing that I found was that the staff was less than helpful many times we had questions and the staff just told us they didn't know anything about that. I also noticed most of the staff seemed to be quite unhappy none of them were smiling that I could see and they all appeared tired and just hated to be at their post while working. Carowinds initiated a mobile food order program on their application and I tried several times to use it and even asked multiple employees in the restaurants if they could help me and none of them knew what I was talking about, and the entire day I never got the mobile ordering platform to work. I think Carowinds is a nice park to go to if you want an expensive time and not have to drive very far but if you're looking for a world-class Park experience like Disney World then Carowinds is not it.

I look forward to wearing out my season pass. I love the free pre-k season passes! What a blessing!

So much fun for the whole family. Enough stuff even for kids 3 years and younger, my 7 years old loves it! He can't wait to be 54" to ride all the rides. Water park is fantastic too.

It was a so long wait for 1 ride,Its the worst park ever,it was horrible,but I am doing a challange and I am saying the oppisite of what it was..

Amazing amusement park. Wide variety of rides for all ages, and a great water park. The food selections are numerous, and the staff their is great. You can go with the whole family, with a group of friends, or your significant other. This is a must go place if your in the Carolinas.

Winterfest was so festive! I really enjoyed myself. I plan to go again before the season is over.

Grandson saved up to help pay for his early birthday visit at Scare-o-winds, since everything is closed when his birthday rolls around ( November 29). Of course it rained and they shut it down after just 2 hours, most of the rides were closed so he rode on 2 rides (walking....), and we couldn't get rainchecks (we were informed of this, true, during ticket purchase). I was extremely disappointed, but not even a bit moreso than my grandson. Not everyone has that kind of money to waste. So, his birthday was ruined.

Getting at this amusement park with family and friends is a trip to remember. You will get various rides and they are easy to find in such a large place using maps. Food is pricey but since you cannot carry your food, you have no option but buy it here. At peak seasons, the rides have considerable wait time.

Daughter and I enjoyed opening night. Park is in good shape.

The rides were fun but several times the rides was messing up after over an hour of waiting we had to leave the ride. I am dissapointed hour a 2 minute ride with 20 seats and you have to wait 1 hour to 2 hours.

Good rides, but the park is showing it's age in some areas. Grass that has not been kept up, etc.

I didn't love this park and we love most amusement parks. I guess it didn't help that it was extremely hot the day we visited. I was surprised at how small this park is compared to the many amusement parks we've been to. This park must be famous for their rollercoasters because they did have a lot of those. I thought where we ate the food prices were reasonable. We bought the bottles where you could get free refills all day anywhere in the park. I feel like we get our money's worth with that. The water park is pretty nice, but closes really early (7 p.m.) considering the park doesn't close until 10 p.m.. Our favorite thing was the life size dinosaur exhibition...it was $5 extra, but I thought that was worthwhile. Always buy your tickets online, they usually have good deals. I would have been mad if I paid full price for this park (it's just not worth full price, in my opinion). One thing that I learned about this park is that it is in both NC & SC. I thought that was pretty cool. At least I can say we've been here, but I wouldn't visit again. I'm glad we had plans to visit other places in NC. Carowinds was kind of a bust for me.

Very underrated park and one of the best, if not the best, of Cedar Fair! I was not expecting when I entered to see so many coasters in your face (particularly Fury), so that was awesome! The Top 4 coasters are AMAZING, and the supporting cast is surprisingly strong with few duds. I found Nighthawk and Vortex kinda rough and advise people with motion sickness not to ride. Hurler was surprisingly decent. The food felt almost like eating at Disney, and not like a midway. The only thing I don't know about the place that might make this review worse is whether or not they allow you to request rows for reasons since the park assigns seating. If no, the park drops half a star for customer service issues, otherwise, very underrated, very impressed and very jealous this isn't my home park!

I went here for the 4th of July and the fireworks were amazing! I also loved the copperhead strike, best ride in the park by far! I also recommend this place called the fry shack, their chicken tenders and fries are DELICIOUS. 10/10 recommend

Love this place so compact and full of great rides!

This is a kid friendly place and a afult place there are point were you can drink alcohol and there is a point were you need to stop the golden passes cost a lot but... they are worth it

This place is HUGE!!! I really enjoyed it. I hate that it started lightening while I was there, because I had to leave early. I got there at 12:30 noon and left at 6:45pm and still had not rode everything. There is sooooo much to do. Great entertainment and great food. I'll be going back!

Awesome place to have loads of fun. There's something for everyone to enjoy

Great place to bring your family and enjoy the life! Also commemorate our Soldier's on the Memorial Day and the 4 of July. Thanks to our greatest Army we enjoy those days.

You are gonna have too much fun here! Ride all the rollercoasters!!! My advice: get the vip pass and don t wait in line!

Not overly impressed with the rides for under 6 age group. Took upwards of 4 minutes to cycle kiddie coasters making for long wait times. The park itself wassnt crowded, but we waited 30+ minutes for most rides. Ride times as listed in the app were off by nearly 50% with significant under estimations. Had a lot more fun with my little ones at Bush Gardens. Park seems more geared towards large coasters 10+ age group but marketing tactics this season point otherwise. I doubt I would take my kids back until they are a few years older.

Very clean amusement park!!! There were better food options and most of the rides were in functioning order. This was our first visit and my children loved being able to walk from one state to the next within the park!! Two big THUMBS UP Carolinas!!

Today was an amazing day at Carowinds. No crowds at all, road everything and workers very friendly

My children had so much fun! They won giant stuffed animals. They rode all kinds of crazy rides. I only watched because I don't like heights. Watching my children and seeing all the excitement in their eyes made me wanna cry. I Bless GOD I was able to make my children happy by letting them do something they LOVED. We definitely would reccomend this Amusement park to anyone. We plan to go back during Spring break.

I'm a Charlotte native, so I have been to the park many times over the last 30 years. I was very diasappointed this year to find out that they closed Rip Roarin' Rapids. It was ok, but not what I remembered. I will be looking forward to when the water park opens next month however. I hope that redeems the experience for me because I bought a season pass.

Horrible traffic patterns made for a nightmare! Nothing was clearly marked and the employees directing traffic were clueless! Coming in and leaving were both so awful! Several of the kids running the rides clearly didn't care and were slow and lax with safety. Not impressed with the quality of food OR the price. For the price you pay to get in, not sure it's worth it.

Great for adults & older kids. Not as much stuff available for younger kids that are not yet 48 inches tall or who don't care for roller coasters.

Really fun great rides this place deserves a 5 star rating

Bought season passes for rhis first time since I was a kid. I now have kids of my own and it was the best summer investment I could have thought. Weekday trips are usually when we go. There are usually no lines and very tolerable. Definitely can say ove gotten my money's worth with the 1st couple of visits and our Gold passes include Scarowinds access as well as Winter Fest.

Very hot and crowded. Went on first day of water park opening and multiple events. Would suggest going in the evening or on a Sunday morning. Fun place.

Worth it for Fury and The Intimidator alone. Good place for young kids as well with the dedicated park.

We have a season pass and it is definitely worth it. The gold pass includes parking (saves $20 each visit), and you also get to do the dinosaur exhibit for free. The dinosaurs were really neat even as an adult, and my two boys loved them. They are interactive and there is a sand box near the end for the kiddos to play. We bought the dining pass and we were a little disappointed with the quality of food at the first place we visited (Harmony Hall maybe?). Hopefully it will eventually pay off too. Most meals are around $13ish dollars before drink and tax if purchased individually. They are not very large portions so sharing might not work out well.

I tried using the app a few times. The car finder was pretty useless. The ride times seemed accurate and we're helpful. The walking directions in the map weren't the greatest, but it was pretty easy to use to find nearby restaurants and rides.

My biggest complaint of the day is how confusing the rider height requirements are. They have them posted at every ride and on the map, however they chose the most confusing language possible to describe when your child was tall enough to ride accompanied or not.

What fun! I rode fury during my lunch break because my coworkers bet us we couldnt drive to Carowinds, ride fury, and drive back in less than an hour. We won that bet. The crazy part is that I'm not a season pass holder, so I was able to pay the 24$ guest past within that time .

Fun place for the family! They have a lot of rides to chose from & expect for the brand new ride, the lines weren't terribly long.

Fun place for the kids. As expected, super long rides. Making Memories!!

Plenty of rides and long rides compared to other amusement parks. You can cover max 5-6 rides from 10-5, so prefer fast lane if you are travelling from a far. Variety of food options available. Water park and amusement park doesn't seem to be connected or closed during the visit, but you won't have enough time for it.