WinterFest

I give it 3 stars. The lights are pretty, some rides are open. That's about it. We had a good time. Took some pictures, enjoyed the visual stimulation. We're one and done. I can't say we'd return, but we're happy to have experienced this. However, customer service is a pathetic joke.

Nov 16, 2024

We went to The WinterFest at Carowinds Amusement Park, and it was so fun. The detail that they put into the Lights, decorations, and the workers were amazing! The entire park was decorated like a winter wonderland and was something you definitely want to see if you have never, especially if you are a sucker for Christmas and the lights! Every shop was changed into Christmas themed stores and seemed straight out of a movie! They had elves, gingerbread houses, and people dressed in all types of Christmas costumes! The lights were in almost every tree and throughout the entire park with different color lights in different parts of the park. The food and drinks are pretty pricey, and it was pretty busy being the first weekend the winterfest but is worth the time and money. They did have rides open, but only some of the rides and coasters were, not all of them. But the fury was open, and if you catch it when it first opens. You can get on it in about a half hour, once more busy, it will take about an hr in line, though. Overall, it was a fun experience, and I definitely recommend checking it out and bringing your family!

Nov 21, 2023

It's an amusement park, during the winter, dressed up with a bunch of lights. Really love that they have some fireplaces and fire pits along with plenty of seating. The parade is pretty cool for what it is. And because it's winter you should expect some issues with rides given the cold weather that's possible. But overall we enjoyed and went multiple times

Jan 02, 2025

Carowinds WinterFest with the kids over Thanksgiving break. If you stay @ the Springhill Suites next door you can either walk over or the front desk offers a FREE parking pass if you decide to drive over.

Nov 25, 2024

Absolutely miserable experience for the parents. Do not spend your money here. My family arrived at Carowinds at 6pm and did not enter the park for TWO HOURS. It took TWO HOURS to get through the parking line and stand in the entrance line just to *enter* the park. I’ve never experienced anything so inefficient at an amusement park in my life. We had season passes and were told at purchasing the season passes that we could use buddy passes for this event. When we went to use them, customer service said you had to jump through multiple hoops to validate them and that we didn’t “qualify” for the buddy passes. We ended up having to pay, even though Season Pass advertisements incentivized there would be buddy passes. The cost to get in the park at $50 is robbery. Once we got inside lines were at minimum an hour for every single ride. Even the kiddy rides. Other rides were two hours long or more. For an event that lasts only a couple of hours, there is no value in this. We arrived at 6pm and rode two rides, both being kiddy park rides, the older kids got to ride nothing. To compare: we went to Winterfest one of the first years the event was open and it was only $30. Carowinds had the ticket box lines open, so the lines went smoothly. We were inside the park in about 15 minutes. They also had more of the park open and more events, so lines were reasonable. The whole family commented on how great of a time we had and had much value we thought we got. We were excited to go back this year because of our previous experience, But, Carowinds ( no surprise) apparently decided to get greedy and screw the customer, raise prices and plummet the quality, because this year they closed the ticket office lines so everyone is crammed into one line to get into the park ( it took 50 minutes to stand in entrance line) and close a larger portion of the park so everyone is crammed closer together and has to experience longer lines. All of this is obviously to have to pay less employees ( even though they hire teenagers and pay them minimum wage) and make more profit at the cost of the customer value. So once again, Corporate America prices their product as high as they can possibly get away with and gives the lowest value quality. Hoping this review saves people their hard earned money and spend it somewhere else more deserved. Carowinds: shame on you.

Dec 31, 2024