We got a season pass for all the Cedar Fair parks, but you can buy one for just Carowinds for the price of two days discounted admission - around $60 bucks. Pretty good deal! It's one of the three closest theme parks, among Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. My favorite for classiness would have to be Busch, and for just excitement and thrills, definitely, Kings Dominion. But this is a nice if overlooked amusement park. They have a new roller coaster Carolina Cobra that just opened this year which I rode, thinking it wouldn't be that much of a thrill but I underestimated it. It was pretty intense and very fun. My favorite has to be the former Top Gun roller coaster, now called AfterBurn, and the scariest and longest line was for Nighthawk, which is the former Borg/Star Trek coaster. That one you lie down on and basically fly suspended from your back facing the ground. It's amazing too, feel like you're going to fall out the entire time!
They have a water park built into the park, not huge, but should be fun to do that some when it gets warm later in the season.
It was very clean, staff was very friendly. They didn't all know answers to some of my questions because I went on what was the 3rd weekend they were even open, so staff is still learning the ropes too.
Brought my dog and they kept her in the kennel, which was pretty steep relative to Kings Dominion price, but still cheaper than paying someone to board her while I was gone to ride the rides. It's a smaller park than Kings Dominion (100 acres compared to 400 acres). Fewer roller coasters (11 vs 14). 2 wave pools at each, 4 sets of slides at Carowinds vs. 6-8 at Kings Dominion
There are a lot of kiddie-themed areas decorated to children's network such as Nickelodeon and Boomerang, so you see things like the "fairly oddparents coaster" and the "scooby doo haunted mansion" Lot of fun for people of all ages.
Carowinds is a good size to be able to split up a group that attends together and still be able to reconnect a few hours later in case everyone doesn't want to ride the same things. Something for everyone. They are in the process of ripping out the old log flume to create a VERY large piece of real estate right at the front of the park, and the rumors I've heard are it's for a new mega-coaster for 2010 season. We'll see, but whatever it is, it looks like it is HUGE and will go out into the parking lot even.
Looking forward to going back.
TripAdvisor has free and easy resources to help you enhance your listing and promote your property.
- Start Here - Visit Your Owners' Center
- Add Photo
- Add Video
