Carowinds was founded in 1973 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 398-acre park was originally designed to be a resort, with a hotel, shopping, a golf course, and an NFL football stadium. The energy crisis that same year forced the park to change direction. Today, Carowinds is a highly popular amusement and water park.
The park currently offers 64 rides, including 13 roller coasters and 7 water rides. One area of the park is designed strictly for small children, named Planet Snoopy. The park generally operates late March through October but has tried to remain open during weekends or holidays through December. Low attendance during winter months has led to closures December – early March.
The amusement park is up for 3 awards in 2019 from USA Today, including best waterpark.
An employee who was inspecting a ride lost his hand in an accident that was being investigated by OSHA in March 2019.
Carowinds operates as a subsidiary of Cedar Fair Entertainment, who purchased the company in June of 2006. Company headquarters remain in Charlotte, North Carolina. Cedar Fair invested $50 million into renovating the park, as well as adding 4 new rides in 2016.
Carowinds was founded in 1973 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 398-acre park was originally designed to be a resort, with a hotel, shopping, a golf course, and an NFL football stadium. The energy crisis that same year forced the park to change direction. Today, Carowinds is a highly popular amusement and water park.
The park currently offers 64 rides, including 13 roller coasters and 7 water rides. One area of the park is designed strictly for small children, named Planet Snoopy. The park generally operates late March through October but has tried to remain open during weekends or holidays through December. Low attendance during winter months has led to closures December – early March.
History
The amusement park is up for 3 awards in 2019 from USA Today, including best waterpark.
An employee who was inspecting a ride lost his hand in an accident that was being investigated by OSHA in March 2019.
Carowinds operates as a subsidiary of Cedar Fair Entertainment, who purchased the company in June of 2006. Company headquarters remain in Charlotte, North Carolina. Cedar Fair invested $50 million into renovating the park, as well as adding 4 new rides in 2016.
I took my adult children and there friends to Carowinds on 4/21/22. You have an employee that should never be in a position where he is in contact with your customers. He was in charge of the ring toss game and the archery game adjacent to ring toss. My son wanted to play the archery game. The guy made him wait till he was free to leave the ring toss and let him play the archery, which my son did so patiently. My son wanted to use cash and found out that was not possible, which is fine. But then the guy sent him to Buy a card which he did. When he came back with the card the guy told him he could only use credit card. So why did he send him to get the card he could not use in the first place. This is the point where I met up with my son and found out what was going on. After 30 minutes of getting a manager we finally got refunded on the card he did not need refunded. Now we go back to the archery. I pulled the guy off of the ring toss to help my son play the archery. My son proceeded to hit three bull’s-eyes. The guy hand him an extremely dirty stuffed animal , which by the way was not the largest animal which is what three bull’s-eyes should have gotten. When my son handed it back to him and asked if he could have a clean one. This is where it gets interesting. The guy said well you can just wipe it off. I was dumbfounded that I actually heard an employee tell a customer and something like that. I intervened and told him to give him a clean one. The young man gave me a look that no employee should ever give a customer. Mind you I was being polite this whole time and never did lose my temper with this young man , but you should be embarrassed to have him under your employ. Your employee caused us to spend two frustrating hours to play a simple game so that he could win a prize for his girlfriend. This occurred on 4/21/22 around 2pm time period. His name may have been darron or dyson or something like that. I hope you take action and remove this employee from your employ.
I spent $400 on seasons passes for me and my 2 grandkids, at the beginning we were not able to get reservations due to being able to attend weekends only, after speaking with Carowinds they were gonna try and help us make reservations but would never call back, We then delt with Covid going through our family resulting in a death. We have tried a couple weekends to go to S/carowinds only to sit on I-77 for 3 hours and be turned away. I spoke to several people at the call center that were extremely rude and told me too bad, (you will no be refunded), I don’t want a refund, I just want to roll my passes to next year in hopes to be able to use something I paid for. I bought 3 passes with drink passes. They basically laughed in my face. This is so unfair to the hard working people. I am a local, I worked for Carowinds in my teen years just like all the other teens around here.
My family and I, total of 8 people were totally disappointed because , the park opened at 11am, but the water park opened at 12 pm , The water park closes at 5 pm , and to mention 3-4 of the water rides were closed. We’re totally aware of the Covid Pandemic, but for the amount of money we paid , surely wasn’t worth it ! We, our family were very faithful to Carowinds, we went every yr except for the yr 2020. But, we may take our business elsewhere . I apologize for this long complaint, but were very upset about our visit! Thank you and God Bless! Mrs. Colon
My wife and I have been Season Ticket Holders for the past 10 years at Carowinds, SC We are in are 70’s and found it very difficult this year to navigate your system of getting into the park. Many dates were taken and the hassle of getting to the pool which is the only place we go was exhausting. We had reservations and were still made to stand in line for a wrist band which we felt was totally unnecessary. I have diabetes and had to walk clear through the park to get to the pool. We paid for 1 year into the park and are not getting what was offered. If you could cancel this year for us and we can use the card for next year, it would be greatly appreciated and we think this is fair. Thank you for your response
Ronald Jordan
I bought tickets for me and my kids to go to Carowinds on July 17th and I’m very disappointed. We waited in line for the first ride for an hour and a half only for it to be shut down when we get to the front of the line. We tried to ride water rides and they got shut down. We tried to ride the rides in the rest of the amusement park after the water park shut down and they got shut down and we were told by three different employees that they were shutting the rides down so we left 5 minutes after we leave I look back and all the rides are up and running. I spent over $300 for this vacation day for our family and we didn’t write one single ride. We drove 2 hours to get there and haven’t been to Carowinds in years our first family vacation in years and this happened? I called customer service I have emailed and nothing being done about it. All I want is some tickets for another day. But I can’t seem to get anyone to contact me back. I mean we were there for five hours and Road not one single ride. What kind of sense is that made for me to spend my money for nothing. On top of it taking almost an hour to get through the gate. I’d like to give Carowinds another chance but it doesn’t seem to be going too well for them. Can someone please contact me back?
They put two of the same children on the other two season pass cards guest services stated. The other two kids never had a chance to use their passes . They got turned down and Somebody was already use in their passes. I am writing this again because I have some typos in the last message but this is the clarification of the last message if someone is using your courts and the other two shouldn’t have been able to use it you’re blocking down on their chance to write anything or even come visit the park then one of them was charged on a birthday visit they’re trying to get in disappointment that’s not right I would like to get a refund for those two carts those other two children are very disappointed my children and now they don’t even they don’t feel like they had a chance to evenDo you enjoy their summer the very disappointed I am very disappointed I would like to get at least two refunds at least for those two children the other three passes we already been using but these two have not had a chance to do anything because they were blocked at guest services someone need to handle the situation someone needs to contact me this is not the first message I have not been contacted yet next I’m going to go to Better Business Bureau and not going to be too happy with that
I am disappointed because I bought five season passes almost $500 or so then the other two that came later to visit to get the veggies taken was not even allowed even do either have not been able to use their cars. And that’s because Guess Services said they messed up they put to rest Saint Jude and has already had court on their cars and they couldn’t fix it they couldn’t even do anything about that I ask for a refund I haven’t heard from anyone yetI am very upset about that I still to this day have not heard from anyone yet about a refi that’s not how you treat your customers very not right this is not how you treat people
I visited carowinds on 06/22/19 sat me an my family wasn’t in the park 20 minutes an it began to rain I traveled 3 hour to visit the park I was told no refund remind you it was lighting an raining hard I wasted over $500 dollars on my travel to Charlotte including tickets an room i left more than 10 emails and 5 messages I will never visit the park again thanks for ruining my family trip
Exact same thing happened to me. I drove 10 hours from NJ and the minute we get inside and changed into water park gear it went from 94 degrees to thunder and lightning downpours in that short time frame. Made a request to come back tomorrow and was told flat out NO!
im a passholder brought 4 bring a friends my niece and nephews they got so upset wanted to leave 4or 5 hours before closing and i paid $over $100 to get them in and had to rent car,drive 440 miles roundtrip,gas,food and to see them upset makes me sad too,my niece especially was upset brought her weekend before on saturday the busiest day and like 4 rides was closed zombies was open 2nd time but only groups was allowed to go in so reg ticket holders get limited,and waterpark no waterslides and wave pool was extremely crowded no wonder they got so upset and we left,i email c.s. at carowinds about a week later they reply saying they dont want see the kids upset and have bad time they want them to come back we give you 4 tickets half price $35 each and few skip ques i replied no are you kidding after all this money i spent now you want me to pay again and more than i did first time,they could at least give me one or two free tickets i bring one at time if they like they let sister or brothers know maybe then i can bring all.now i guess be week before they reply again and likely want do anything,im disabled i cant ride most rides and not much point me coming if they cant or dont want too parks should be all for the kids not the money,sure money is great but god have a heart.im willing try bring one or two back if yuo give free ticket or two make it right cause i dont have a car i will have to rent acar drive 7 hours roundtrip and lots gas and food i think this is only right,i been going carowinds since i was a kid like 40 years now guest releations can do better than this,im hoping the ceo sees this and gets back to me asap. ty
On June 3 I registered my daughter for her pre-k pass. I then called carowinds to confirm that there was nothing else left me to do. I was told she would be in the system and bring her birth certificate to the park. June 7 we are currently in Charlotte I called at 10:43 to find out if the park is open today because of the weather. I was told yes it would be open and the only thing that would close anything is if it’s lighting and thunder, which it is not. I am currently at the park and her information is not in the system even the paperwork showing her info is not enough. I was told I need a barcode which never came up in my conversation to the representative when I spoke to her. I was not given a barcode option to print. I was also told by Jennifer at the window I needed a confirmation email one was never sent. Was not told that when I called to confirm. My husband purchased the military tickets & parking passes online. Which we did not get to use. So not only did we waste money, time, gas, & vacation hours My biggest problem is our daughters mini vacation is ruined! I was told Dave and busters was open from your representative at guest services.
I cannot believe that Carowinds does not give disable people a discount because after all its not like they can ride on all the rides like someone without a disability!! It seems to me they do not care what is going on they just want you to pay their price and that is not good business.
i agree carowinds does offer elderly people $19.99 admission on site but disabled people no discounts the way most places work you qualify for discounts if your elderly or disabled im disabled theres no special discounts except buy a pass
You people are ridiculous! I live in IOWA and I signed up for the Pre-K pass for my daughter, You telling me that I have to drive all the way to NC to have is activated!! Why don’t you and your tech team come up with a plan to scan it online for your website, if you only need the birth certificate. You have all the money to charge me a ridiculous amount to come and have fun, yet you cant afford to make some adjustments to scan birth certificate in for proof. That just plain stupid, but COPORATE makes all the big bucks. Ridiculous!
This weekend my family stayed at camp wilderness the 4 bedroom cabin. I paid over 1200.00 for two night stay. The place was horrible. Rat dropings on the bed, under the sink, spiders everywere. Dust so thick my sister face broke out. Carpert nasty and dirty. I complained instantly, one to be told by house keeping managers they didn’t know anyone was coming. They came to clean twice with only wet wipes. Stating they don’t get cleaning supplies. We were told that the big people at carowinds does not care, they are only focused I their new hotels. I we told by staff that when white clients complain they be their money back, but i was only told that the head lady Debbie knew about my complains but was too busy to come talk, that I would receive a email next week. Really? No manager to talk to, no other place to go due to hoilday and other events in town. I have pictures and recordings of staff. I am turning it in to the health department. I am calling the local news and releasing pictures and recordings! Maybe then I will get to talk to management.
This past Saturday, my family and i went to Winterfest, , i took a special friend also. With me being a Goldcard holder, I got the impression from your website that guest that came with a cardholder got a discount but when we arrived after driving an hour there, putting up with the traffic, they told us it would be 64.00 dollars for the guest to get in, then he told us that the discount was for only Friday and Sunday night. We was furious , especially after it wasn’t on the website. Believe me when i say i wasn’t the only one mad. This is bad business and one person could really ruin a business like this. After this trip, really don’t know if I’ll purchase another Goldpass.
I was just at carowinds not even 1 hour into my visit they closed down all the rides , I went to guest services me along with all the other people that were in there , were there for a refund , all the employees at guest services were being very unprofessional,
I was employed by Carowinds and this was my very 1st job. I enjoyed it and planned on working for Carowinds for many seasons as I progressed through college. However, I was terminated due to “walking off the job”. However, 3 employees worked together to get me terminated and they treated me terribly when I was reinstated to come back after I put in a 2 weeks notice. They kept trying to find ways to make me feel unwelcome and tried getting me fired by getting me to be set off by gossip spilled by one of the employees. I enjoyed working for Carowinds until Joshua Williams refused to leave me alone and kept treating me terribly and I was reinstated to work at Rapids and my very first day I was disrespected by one of the team leads there. They all rolled their eyes at me when they realized I was working at their ride and kept gossiping regarding myself and other associates. My record was clean until I was peer pressured by a lead that demoted near the beginning of the school year into moving over to Plants vs. Zombies where gossip spread out regarding me on numerous occasions and I was not tolerating it. Even 2 male team leads at PVZ gossiped about me in numerous situations. On the last day I worked after the Rapids lead made me upset over the gossip that he knew would upset me, he proceeded to laugh with 2 associates that had previously gossiped about me my very 1st day back. Now that same associate (Joshua) told numerous associates that he was glad that he helped get rid of me? Is the company serious right now? Then, he told an associate before his last day that he hoped I committed suicide. After harassing me, putting his hands on me when it was not welcome or wanted, gossiping about me to the Afterburn crew about me and trashing my name. Causing me to blow up because he would not stop disrespecting me. I’m sorry but just going to HR or a manager was not going to help because Oscar Huitron and Joshua Williams ruined my experience. I kept trying to move locations because Josh Williams continuously moved into my areas. And once he was demoted, he chose to be in my area and purposely tried to choose Rapids (my ride location) but they would not let them because they knew of the trouble that stirred between he and I. Carowinds employment is not a playground or high school, you are there to work and you are there to make money and of course with the amazing benefits they have to offer, you can have a wonderful job experience. I am just expressing how I will do anything to return to Carowinds next season because I was done terribly wrong through my experience there and I would love the opportunity to return (regardless of department, hopefully could remain in Rides) next season and I understand termination stands out on my work history but then again, there were some things that went unnoticed that HR never saw in person or on paper. I was a fairly decent worker from what many people did and I did my job to the best of my ability so that the company could keep up to its great name. And might I add that I kept trying to put in 2 week notices because the associate continued to ruin my job experience by harassing me and touching me inappropriately. Thank you so much for allowing me to write this. If you need to view my work history, there are some verbal warnings (one of which was when I was “late” because the associate (that was a team lead at the time) told me to take an hour break while another said 30 and it turned all unprofessional. My employee ID # was 2002630. Thank you so much!
I thought you should be made aware of my recent experience with your Camp Wilderness reservation personnel, specifically Shari Caswell. I made a reservation for one night, 9/9/2017. My credit card was charged $50.39. I live in Florida and called on Wednesday to cancel my reservation due to the impending hurricane threat. Shari was considerate and said she’d cancel my reservation and due to the cirXXXXstance, refund my deposit. She gave me a confirmation number for my cancellation which was the original reservation confirmation number 2199986. Later in the day I got an email appraising me of my reservation and welcoming me. Obviously the reservation had not been cancelled. I called back and got Shari I spent a long time on the phone with her. I won’t bore you with all the details but she eventually gave me a cancellation confirmation number of 2202174. Now the bad part. She said she called “Corporate” and the computers are slow. She said she’d email me the cancellation later. Later that day I got what looks like a “SCREEN SHOT” with “ALL MY CREDIT CARD INFORMATION” in an email which we all know is not secure. I will now have to request a new card before I get hacked. And, on top of everything else, it looks like she changed my deposit to $0 but I have not received a refund on my credit card. Please see that no one sends out personal data in the future and that my refund is processed.
Thank You,
Neil Weber