Carowinds Review
OK, either I am getting old and crotchety or enough is enough. My family and I went to Carowinds this weekend and I guess I am just fed up with being ripped off. First off, let me just tell you I don’t mind spending money on things I feel I get a good value out of. I am definitely a believer in buying quality products that last. Carowinds Amusement Park near Charlotte, NC is not a quality product. Don’t get me wrong, the rides are great, but how can you enjoy yourself when you are getting absolutely gouged at every time you take your wallet out of your pocket. Here is a recounting, more or less, of what it took for our family of 3 to spend the day at Carowinds:
- Parking: $10
- Tickets for 3: $120 (covers all rides, well at least the ones you can actually get on because they don’t require a 1+ hour wait)
- 2 hamburgers, 1 basket of fries, a kids meal, 2 bottles of water, and 2 desserts: $30+ Every last bit of this food was pure junk. The buns were stale and hard, the hamburger barely passed for it and the kids meal was horrendous. The desserts were old and tasteless. This meal was not even good enough to be served at McDonalds, where, by the way, it would have cost about $15. At least if I have to eat crappy food, don’t charge me so much for it.
- Various bottles of 16 oz. Dasani waters: $3+ This is highway robbery and is as bad as going to the movies. The same bottle is about a $1 at a grocery store, but heh, we are a captive audience, so stick it to us, right? And please don’t tell me to bring my own, I am not going to lug a case of water around all day.
- 1 Funnel Cake: $6.19. Yes, you read right. 1 Funnel Cake: $6.19. I repeat again: ONE Funnel Cake: $6.19. It is a piece of FRIED DOUGH people. You can buy the very same Funnel Cake at any county fair for $1.25 or so. This was not some super large funnel cake with ice cream or special toppings. It was a plain old funnel cake with cinnamon on it and it cost SIX DOLLARS AND NINETEEN CENTS!
- 1 Breyer’s single scoop ice cream on a waffle cone: $4+
- “Dinner” at the Outer Hanks: 1 BBQ Sandwich side of coleslaw, 1 shrimp and fries basket: $20+. BBQ Sandwich was served on the same crappy bun as the hamburger. Shrimp was coated in some seasoning that was unidentifiable. Dining area was out of napkins, plasticware, salt, pepper and pretty much everything else except ketchup and mustard
I’m sorry, I like amusement parks as much as the next guy, but I can’t imagine that I will ever go to Carowinds again unless they reduce their pricing and stop gouging people. Seriously, I have to pay money to park at YOUR place when I am about to spend $200 plus on your product? What a freaking joke. And how about getting some edible food that adults might actually want not just serve up the cheapest crap you can get the teenagers to eat? Oh, and here’s an idea: clean your bathrooms more often than daily or whatever it is you currently do, because they are disgusting.
May 26th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
This is unreal. You can NOT blame the park for the money you spend. Pack a cooler, go out to your car and picnic for lunch and dinner. Prices are CLEARLY posted and do NOT leave you unaware when you place an order. If you don’t wish to spend the cash find ways to save. You can even leave the park and go to a returant and then re-enter after your meal. Be mad at yourself for the cash you waste, not the park.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Yes, I can be mad. It’s called gouging. They have you as a captive audience. And, no, the prices are not clearly posted UNTIL YOU GET THERE. But you are right, I can do something about it: not go, and that is just what I intend to do.
May 28th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Buy 1 bottle of water and refill it for free all day at the water fountains (located near every bathroom). Leave the park and take a break at your car (you aren’t as captive as you portray) to eat a lunch brought from home (and reapply your sun screen). Seriously, if you have kids you should be bringing food from home and teaching them the value of doing such things. Or leave and drive out to the highway to catch some fast food. Then splurge on the funnel cake! I agree though, $6+ for a funnel cake after you pay $10 to park is pushing it. However, I also agree with “friend” above, quit wasting your money on things you DO have control over. Or boycot the place, there are plenty of other places to take the family.
May 28th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
All good ideas! Thanks. I do agree there are things one can do with a bit of work (which is what they count on) to get around the captive feeling (unlike movie theaters) but it is still pretty sad that you have to pay 3 or 4 times the going rate for “convenience”. And, like I said, I don’t intend on going back and I will stop wasting money on those things. My original comments were merely meant as a warning to others who may not know beforehand what the prices are going to be and also to let Carowinds know, I for one, was not satisfied with their price gouging.
May 29th, 2008 at 6:31 am
I have been to Carowinds a few times now and find it less crowded than some other places and priced at a comparable rate. I do like that at Carowinds the water park is included in the price. Head up the coast a ways and the theme parks charge an additional 30+ on top of the entry ticket to go in the water park! We always take a lunch from home and regroup around lunchtime to head to the parking lot. And we tell the kids beforehand to bring their own $ if they want to splurge on funnel cake! What theme park were you more impressed with? Our family likes Knoebels, which is a little known park in PA. It has a few bigger coasters and you buy tickets for the rides, like a carnival, instead of an entry fee. That way Grandma and Pa can walk the park too without getting hit for admission. Also, you only spend your $ on what you want to ride (priced nicely) and their food is tops and priced well too.
May 29th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Like I said, maybe I am just getting grumpy, but I don’t remember Six Flags in upstate NY being as bad.
Kneobels sounds nice, too.
The thing I find curious is why people are so quick to defend them by saying “oh, just go eat your lunch outside”, as if that excuses them from marking up a bottle of water by 3-400% above the 100% markup of convenience stores or the 6-700% markup on funnel cakes? I guess it is whatever the market will bear, and people clearly have indicated they will pay it, especially given they have a local monopoly.
Here’s an interesting thought experiment: what if a large majority of people started bringing their own stuff to eat, etc.? My guess is it is currently less than 5-10% of the guests that do based on the size of the picnic areas. So, what if that number was all of a sudden 50%? What do you think Carowind’s (or any other park’s) response would be? Would they expand the picnic area? Or would they go the movie theater way and ban all outside goods and not allow reentry?
May 31st, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Every time I go to Carowinds my group always packs our lunches. It’s easy and you don’t have to waste money on overpriced foods. It’s not that hard to exit the park, eat, then return. And if you don’t want to do that, Carowinds has the new Picnic Tic plan which is around $45 and gives you admission and a free meal. Here’s the link.
http://carowinds.com/shop/shopping_events.cfm
June 1st, 2008 at 10:12 am
OK, I get it. You can leave the park and come back in.
As I said before, I still don’t think it excuses Carowinds from putting huge markups on the stuff they sell (of course, they are free to do what they want, I realize that.) I just know that if push came to shove and more people started leaving the park to eat, etc. they would either be forced to ban reentry or lower prices. My guess is it would be the former.
June 25th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
A tip for anyone going to Carowinds: it’s not advertised, but if you ask for a cup of water at any of the food places, they will give you one for free!!
The season pass is a good deal; unlimited admissions thru the year for just a little more than one day’s admission.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:05 am
First of all, Grant Ingersoll you have no idea what you are talking about (in my opinion). I live in Charlotte and I visit Carowinds often. The fact that you are outraged by the prices seem ludacris. Who acrually spends that much money on food at a THEME PARK! You should know that they jack up the prices at any theme park you go to. All of the other people who replyed to you have given you get tips and you should use them. Don’t be mad at Carowinds because you were not smart to be aware of your money. So either don’t come back or learn how to add up your money before you spend it.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Sorry, “Carowinds” suck-up, but I call bullshit. Yes, they are nice tips, but how good are they when you’ve never been there before and you just drove 3+ hours to go there for the day looking for a Theme Park experience. As I already said multiple times, I don’t intend on going back.
The fact is, I’ve been to other theme parks (Six Flags, etc.) and I don’t recall them charging this much.
As for “Who acrually spends that much money on food at a THEME PARK! ” The answer is a lot of people do, otherwise why did I wait in line so long every time I wanted to get something to eat?
I don’t understand why you are so happy to let them off the hook and blame me for the fact that they gouge people, unless of course you work for them. Wouldn’t you like to be able to go to Carowinds and buy a funnel cake at a reasonable price?
I merely am giving my review that I think it is too expensive. Forget the fact of what I “could” do. There is something philosophically wrong with charging $6+ for a funnel cake, I don’t care who they are. Not too mention that part of the THEME PARK experience is eating things like funnel cakes. How am I supposed to pack that in my cooler? Do you have a funnel cake machine in your car? Yes, I know, I don’t have to eat funnel cakes, you are 100% right. A ripoff is still a ripoff, and in my opinion, Carowinds is a ripoff.
Charge me a reasonable price, and I will be more than happy to pay for it, but don’t gouge me just b/c you can.
By the way, I know how to add up my money. I can even subtract, multiply and divide thank you very much.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:29 am
I might add, that all the people saying to bring outside food, etc. clearly agree with me that Carowinds is too expensive on that front. If it wasn’t, they would buy their food there, since who wants to do all that prep work ahead of time.
I will almost guarantee you, though, that if more people did it (> 50%), Carowinds would say “No Reentry Allowed” b/c their profits would be so negatively impacted.
June 28th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Hey Grant i’m with you on high prices ,i was just at Cedar Point and i’m heading to Carowinds in July ,i bought a 32oz pop for 4.29 and got refills for 2.12 the rest of the day ,the Funnel Cake was 4.50 which is about what i pay at most parks ,i bought a platinum pass for 150.00 which is good togo in all of Funfair parks and waterparks with FREE PARKING in Michigan ,Kings Island and Cedar point in Ohio Carowinds NC, Knotts Berry CA ECT ,Parkin Canada Well check it out on Line Alot of parks if your traveling and FREE parking at all of them,i’m still think water for 3.00 is to HIGH ,and 1.00 for water at a gas station is crazy to LOL
July 7th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I am about to head to Carowinds next week for the first time since I stopped working there–12 years ago. I worked at Carowinds for 8 years and I gotta agree with Grant on this…the markup is ridiculous. The only caveat is that EVERY theme park is like that. I took my two kids to Disney last year and it was just as bad, if not worse, on the pricing. I’ve been to other theme parks as well (Kings Island, Six Flags, Six Flags Over Texas and Kings Dominion) as well. It’s all the same–so, I don’t fault Carowinds with that. Personally, I am doing the “bring our own lunches in a cooler” thing to teach my kids about money management and I’m also bringing in a water bottle apiece that can be refilled at the water fountain. I’ll let my kids splurge on an ice cream if they want it and I’m sure I’ll get them a souvenier or two along the way; but, I’ll be reasonable. Carowinds makes their money on the markup for food, merchandise and games…not ticket admissions.
Season ticket holders find lots of ways to make inexpensive trips out to Carowinds (and other theme parks)…I will too
July 10th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I completely agree with Grant. Carowinds takes advantage of the fact that they have a captive audience inside of the park. If you get there early enough to park in a descent spot then you have to walk to the other side of the park to the gate to leave and go to a restaurant and come back to park 5 miles away then maybe it is easier to stay inside and eat. If you think the food markup is bad then you should visit the new wave pool and price the cabana rentals. I recently rented a cabana on July 5th and had to pay $107 for the same cabana that only cost me $45 just a couple of weeks earlier. Then the wave pool got shut down for more than 30 minutes with no explanation. You would think if I paid $107 for the rental the least they could do is come around and tell me why the pool is closed and for how long. Maybe offer some type of customer service!!! I think that if they are going to charge this much for food, merchandise, and cabana then I could at the very least expect some form of customer service and appreciation for my money spent.
August 8th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Well I always have a habbit of seeing both sides, and of course this is the case again. I feel that Carowinds is great place to take you family to enjoy the day. You have to obviously know before hand that it is something to budget (for most people anyway).. But for myself, budgeting the tickets itself is enough. I think that parking should be included and not just for a season pass, or at least cut the price in half. And the food is waaay overpriced. The truth is they would probably make more money off of us if they dropped their food and bev. prices even 15%. I mean I know they’ll charge more just because they can, but if they dropped even just a little bit, enough to be reasonable to us, and still favorable to them, they would surely profit simply because most would rather pay than walk a mile to to car to either eat or leave the park. But a lot of people do, just that. Especially these days with the economy. And its not that I’m lazy, quite the opposite in fact, but when I go, I have small children with me, and its quite a task just lugging them around from ride to ride usually in the hot sun, calming tantrums, or helping boo boos, going potty…wiping sweat… Im sure there are loads of mothers and fathers that feel me on this. And carowinds knows this is the typical family that comes, and knows that 9 times out of 10 the worn out parents are going to pull out that extra cash for simple convenience. And that does suck…but at the same time its business. And we as a whole have noooo idea how much it might actually cost to run that place. For all we know despite the upcharges, they could be struggling somewhat. I mean, they’re closed some months, so the extra money for parking and food could be what keeps them in business to make up for those times??? I mean I dont know, just trying to see their side…But OBVIOUSLY I would loooove to see prices drop!
October 30th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
First off you went on the WEEKEND its PACKED on weekend’s, thats the first mistake you made. If you go M-Thurs, the crowds are not as bad. The longest we waited the day we went (Wednesday) was 90 minutes on Nighthawk, but it had one train going…but its a long wait either way, the rest I rode multiple times in about 20 minutes. I agree with the other posts about packing a lunch and exiting the park and then re-entering it. You can buy a refillable jug and only pay $2 for a pop, I believe water is free. They filled our’s up with ice and we just let it melt. I had mine filled with water this summer and didn’t have to pay a penny, I paid $6.50 for the all-day jug.
Sorry you thought it was a rip-off but we chose wisely, we ate one big meal for lunch and ate something on our way out. We were worried about eatting, sorry I never am at an amusement park.
Oh if you think Carowinds is bad, Kings Island in Ohio was worse with the prices, and its owned by the same company.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Hey all. I am actually a wholesaler, so I’m the cheapest of the cheap when it comes to spending retail dollars on something. One thing to remember when going to these places: Take the advice of spendthrifts. It is not going to be “cheap”. Convenience costs money, be it a convenience store, amusement park, or even the local zoo. If you buy your own water, you can get it for about $.20 a bottle at your local grocer in packs of 24, Pre-make your lunch for pennies on the dollar and heck, with the money you save, go buy yourself a new deluxe cooler. Plan on parking costs (Most any large entertainment place charges for parking, just figure it into the budget ahead of time). Why the mark-up on items? The parks have hundreds of millions of dollars in overhead. Heck, without the food sales, water sales, parking charges, there would be NO PARK to attend! Just look to save some bucks by being smart and thrifty if the high prices bother you and enjoy yourself. Seriously, if it costs you $300 – $400 and you count it as your vacation for the summer, just do it and figure that the enjoyment of the kids and the quality time spent with them was worth it. If it’s not worth it, go do something else. Granted, it would be nice if places posted their prices on everything somewhere, but if they did that…..everyone would pack a cooler! LOL. Have a great day all….
April 10th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Headed to Carowinds tomorrow for their Easter day….$40 gets admission and buffet lunch. Buying seasons pass for me for $80 and $60 for a Wow for daughter. So $140 gets us unlimited admission, free parking (saves $10 each time) and 10% off purchases. Plus we are buying the refillable cup. I always carry extra cups in my purse because I’m always drinking something it seems.
Responding because I’m also headed for Disney this August. Free admission for military, $100 nightly for on site military resort….but the food will be outrageous. Carowinds is much cheaper than Disney when it comes to prices. So I don’t complain a bit!
July 4th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Just went to Carowinds yesterday with the family, haven’t been there in 15 years or so. The price to get in was great, 4 tickets online for $99, can’t really beat that anywhere. The food was outrageous, as it is at most parks. We beat the system by packing a cooler full of ice and drinks and arriving early enough to get a killer parking spot right at the front gate. I thought it was crazy to have to pay $10 to park but you really have no choice unless you stay at one of the hotels across the street and walk in. I was very disappointed that three of the main attraction roller coasters were being worked on and the Whitewater Falls was completely shut down. Some of the employees there were very nice and the people that take your photo as you enter the park were having a fabulous sale, packages were half price. We got over 15 photos, keychains, and viewers for only $20.
June 12th, 2010 at 8:25 am
I think if they are charging 10.00 to park they should have a shuttle, little train, or some way to transport you from you car to the entrance.
July 5th, 2010 at 10:12 am
We are going to carowinds at the end of July . i purchased our tickets in advance and saved 20%. We also decided to camp at camp wilderness . That way wew have more time to enjoy both the rides and water park .You can get a next day pass for just 20.00. We can leave and go back to the campground so we save money by not eating there. Do some research and you will save. Our total for 4 days of camping(no parking to be paid)And two days of the park plus a buffet for one day was less than 400.00 for a family of 5. Try going to Myrtle beach or somewhere else for 4 days and paying this little.
June 7th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
I feel sorry for the kids who had to endure your pissy attitude about everything all day. It reminds me of when I went out with my wife and our kids and my brother in law and his family. He complained about pricing all day. I made a comment to my wife later in the day of how cheap he was. She disagreed that he was cheap. She instead told me he’s broke !! moral of the story dont play if you can’t pay !!
June 9th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Thanks for the information, Grant. Relating your experience has helped me prepare for my trip on Sunday.