I made the mistake of venturing to Carowinds on a Saturday in June. I have never seen such rude behavior, foul language, inappropriate comments to young ladies and lack of self respect for oneself in my life. This was coming from the employees! Now the 1000's of wanna be rappers and gang bangers running wide like a bunch of animals is another story.

We went back on Sunday and the atmosphere and park clientele was much different and made for a little better family experience. We still won't be heading back to Carowinds anytime soon. I'll make the extra two hour ride to Dollywood anyday!

We went with my husband's company On June 8. We took our 8 month old son. He was able to ride several of the rides in Nickelodeon Central, the skytower, and the Scooby Doo ride, plus many of the attractions at the water park. It was a scorcher so we invested in a Sovenier cup that you could refill for much cheaper. Food is a bit pricey like most amusement parks are. We all had a really good time, and we enjoyed seeing our son get to meet some of the Nick toons.

I know that Cedar Fair purchased the Paramount parks this year and I was curious to see what if any differences there were. We went to Carowinds 3-4 years ago and returned last week to see... not much difference. Some of the rides are renamed and the water park has an Aussie theme, but it was pretty much the same. Either you're a fan of the park and go regularly, or you're curious and want to know what's new. In the later case, I'd say not much. You can save money by buying tickets online in advance. We also had $10 off coupons from my work. I think there are two ways to fully enjoy the park: either plan on staying for a long time in the water park (in which case you miss riding more rides), or skip the water park and just do the rides. There is no way to really do it all in one day so you have to decide what type of visit you want to have. Longest line we encountered was for the Rip Roarin' Rapids. Shortest was for the Goldrusher. Service at Outer Hanks eatery was extremely slow, perhaps getting understaffed as the season winds down. It was a fun day but we won't need to return for a long, long time.

Great park but expensive to get into and the crowds can make the lines to the rides long. Food is also expensive and the parking lot is easy to get lost in.