I have been going to Carowinds since I was a young child and have always loved it. It has been several years since my last visit and my first with my child. I have to say I was impressed with the new coasters they've added since my last visit. We decided to take a couple of days off of work and go on a weekday instead of trying to brave the weekend crowds. If that's an option, I would definitely say that's the way to go. We went on a Monday and arrived at the park at 10:30. They open at 10:00. Parking was $10 for all day. If you plan to leave the park, hold onto your receipt and you can get back in without paying again. There were very few people there, we were able to park on the 3rd row so the walk to the park was short. We walked right up to the ticket window with no waiting to purchase tickets. You have to pass through metal detectors, then on to a table where they check through any bags brought into the park. No outside food or drink is allowed. We went straight to Nickelodian Central where my daughter was able to meet Diego. They have a sign posted with the times different characters will be out so if your child wants to meet a certain character, you can head back there at the right time. We spent most of the day in the Nick section. On most rides, my child was able to ride a ride and immediately get right back on. If we did have to wait in line, it was only for one ride cycle. We went to the Marty's party show which was a cute 30 minute show. It was a nice little break and my daughter thought it was funny. Although you will get a little wet. Don't sit in the center section if you mind getting wet. There was more spray there. There were a couple of rides outside of nick that my child was able to ride as long as we rode with her. She loved the Kaliedoscope. We bought one of the large refillable souvenir cups filled for $8. Refills after that were $2.50. We were able to get one staff memeber to refill it once with free iced water because we were sick of soda by that point. Our original plan was to leave the park for lunch b/c we'd read about food prices but opted for a slice of pizza from the Nick toons Cafe which was $4 per slice. I did notice burger prices were $6 and fries were $3.50. They also had small salads for around $4. With 3 slices of pizza, 2 drinks and one refill in our souvenir cup,Our lunch was around $23. It was pretty hot, so one slice of pizza was really all any of us wanted. The pizza there was decent. Because we'd planned to leave for lunch, we'd left our water park stuff in the the car and it was a long trek to go out of the gate, (make sure you ask for a stamp to get back in-they weren't automatically stamping, we had to ask) head back to the car, pick up our stuff and walk all the way back to the water park. I wish we'd just brought our stuff in the morning and rented a locker. It felt like at least a mile walk. The water park is a great way to get rejuvenated! We had worn our suits under our clothing, rented a locker there to lock up our valuables and sat back in chairs along the water to relax and watch our child play. She loved the water gym, set on concrete with a slide and sprinklers. We also did the wave pool but tube rental was $6 for the pool so we passed on tubes. We didn't do any of the larger slides but I saw very little waiting on those-again the weekday thing. The water park closes at different times than the rest of the park so if you're using a locker in the water park, make sure you look at the sign for closing time for that day so you can get your things out. The park was very clean, restrooms were clean and we didn't have problems finding them, there always seemed one close by. The staff was very friendly, and was mostly made up of high school age kids. They interacted with the kids on the rides and were fun. We didn't take a stroller in but I did observe some strollers left in the line areas. We also saw some families pulling young children in plastic wagons and that seemed to work well. In the center of NIck central there is a baby care building. I had one interaction with guest services and they were very helpful. Overall our experience was very positive. We stayed the night at the Hyatt Place off of Tyvola Rd (8 miles from the park) which was a very nice.