Carowinds Reviews

by Dub 2020

First, let me begin by saying that my family really enjoys visiting this app! However, I am reviewing Carowinds (and not the theme park) which I believe fails to deliver on basic information that are essential while visiting a theme park during a global pandemic. We are at the park today and there is a sign at the entrance that reads “limited attractions available today”. Yet Carowinds does not accurately display which rides and attractions are closed! This is our 5th trip this summer and each time, many of the attractions are closed without accurate communication to the guests as to which ones are closed and which ones are open. So basically this results in walking extra and then enjoying the disappointment on my kids faces when they discover that the ride is closed. You can sense my sarcasm, but seems like a simple communication fix between this app and their guests that will allow guests to better enjoy and plan out their day at the park during a worker shortage and a global pandemic. Wait times on Carowinds seem to be off as well and not in accurate live time. We will continue to support this app and enjoy the awesome memories that it helps facilitate, however, I expect better communication.

by Amarie926

Our family enjoys our trips to this app, but Carowinds is essentially useless as anything other than a map! So many other theme parks are able to keep their wait times accurate! Twice we’ve gotten in lines that Carowinds said were “10 mins,” and proceeded to wait 30-45 minutes. We could tell from looking at the line that it would be longer waits than stated, but it would be nice to have accurate information. So many people have commented on this. Please fix! And make our trip even more enjoyable!

by Nadams76

We went for Winterfest and tried to use Carowinds on a busy day to gauge which rides to go to. The ride wait times were almost always way off. One ride said a 15 minute wait time but when we walked all the way across the park to get to it, the wait was 90 minutes. Other rides would say wait times of nearly an hour that really had very short lines. Carowinds was supposed to help make our experience better but actually caused us to waste a lot of time. Very frustrating.

by Arpierson

The rude wait times and open/closed status are so wholly inaccurate and unreliable that the only explanation is that they’re just generated by a computer script that just inserts random values.

Was in line for the Copperhead coaster yesterday with five full rows of people in line behind the sign saying it was a 1-hour wait from that spot. I looked at the wait time on Carowinds . It said a 15-minute wait.

Why even try if that’s the best you can do? Just don’t offer wait times in Carowinds .

by Samfano1976

If you download Carowinds expecting to see the wait times for rides — which would be an incredibly helpful service to customers — first you will have to sign up for an account, and then the wait times it provides are drastically incorrect. For example, it will show a ride as a 10-minute wait but the reality is a 2-hour wait. That literally affects the enjoyment of your day. If you’re going to offer this as a feature in Carowinds , get it right. Otherwise remove it altogether so it doesn’t detract from the experience of your park visitors.

by My-thoughts-as-stars

Carowinds will demand Constant location services, creating an account and use of park WiFi to see wait times. After waiting in a line or two you’ll realise you went through all the hassle for nothing because the wait times aren’t even close to accurate and some rides are even listed as closed when you know they’re open. Overall- useless.

by Kassiespalr

Like others have said, it is completely inaccurate. Says rides are closed when they are not. Unsure how accurate wait times are and on most you can’t even see the wait times because it says closed. Doesn’t say if a restaurant is closed AND isn’t accurate about what is even in the restaurants. For example. We walked to burrito place… closed. Walked to Harmony Hall for quesadilla listed on Carowinds … no more south of the border area or quesadillas. Also terrible gps, no reference points. I would rather use a paper map. Come on… do better please!

by J-incredible

There is no point of having “ride wait times” if they aren’t accurate. It says some rides are open and when we walk over, the sign says they are closed for the day. Others say 20 minute wait and there’s no wait at all. And then there’s some that say 20 minute wait and it takes an hour. It would be better not to even have the feature. As for the park, half of the rides are closed. This would have been nice to know before purchasing tickets online. We wouldn’t have come today and our the price for admission if we knew everything was going to be closed.

by Bass__clarinet__

We enjoyed our trip to this app but every time we tried to use Carowinds it was wrong. The wait times were completely off. It told us that some rides were closed when they were clearly up and running. When trying to use the navigation feature it would tell us to go in really long and odd paths. It also wouldn’t update enough to know if you were continuing in the right direction. It would often tell us we were going to right way then suddenly tell us it was wrong and change path. It was much easier to just look at the maps and signs along the park to find our way around.

by Robin The Rich

Somehow after buying passes my entire account was deleted? Having had an account for several months and previously ordering passes just fine as well as logging in via my laptop with that account I’m not sure what happened here... Made it impossible to retrieve my etickets from Carowinds . Thankfully I got the invoice email and had screenshoted the qr codes for the tickets during the session I purchase them. Also the event and the park map features aren’t connecting well and some locations remain unclear, it’s a pain point and a detriment to the overall experience to be wondering around trying to navigate to something like the dinosaur experience which wasn’t labeled whatsoever on Carowinds map for example.

by HAXD1

The wait times are consistently and significantly inaccurate. Half the time rides said they were closed when they were actually open… Use of Carowinds for navigation around the park was almost useless, and you can’t lock the orientation of the map to your phone. Directions from point A to B are almost useless, and unclear. I consider my self a power user, and it was very irritating. As a point of reference, I use the Cedar Point and Kings Island apps frequently, and they aren’t much better, but at least they keep the ride open/close status up to date. This was my first trip to this app, and probably my last. It was also stupid that they kicked everyone out of the park for an two hours for no reason.

by Skai D.

My friend and I were ecstatic to go to this app today. I downloaded Carowinds to be able to see wait times for lines so we could optimize our time at the park. Regrettably, Carowinds was no help at all. It said that multiple rides were closed and that lines were longer or shorter than they actually were. For example, it stated that the afterburn and nighthawk were closed yet my friend and I were waiting in line when it said that. This caused issues for not just myself and friend but I imagine it could cause problems for other people who are unable to walk very far and cause even more inconveniences. I understand that it is a busy time of year and longer wait times may be expected, but it’s very disappointing that Carowinds does not work. Why even have it if it gives you false information?

by CharleenH

They did an update last year 2017. Now in 2018 the activity and event tab doesn’t actually show dates and times for events! This pisses me off!
I should be able to see events dates and times at all times so I can plan for what day I want to come and what I want to do. There special events like the characters breakfast that they don’t post in Carowinds . You only find info and registration on there web site! The direction part in the map needs to be updated big time. It is very confusing and hard to fallow.

by RossClan79

My family loves going to this app. But Carowinds experience is terrible. Wait times are completely unreliable. Some attractions are listed as closed that are actually open, and vice versa. The map itself is helpful for using gps to locate yourself within the park. But there’s no display option that actually labels all the features in the park, so sometimes it can be really hard to figure out what building you’re next to. this app is great, but Carowinds needs major improvements.

by 8matthew6

Carowinds has great features and could be a great tool and make the this app Experience better and seamless.

But the execution is horrible. The PayPal Payment integration doesn’t work. The checkout function resets you back at the MyCart page. The MyCart function duplicates your order. You can’t view your cart without “signing and consenting” which means through all of these resets, you sign and consent about 12 times just not come out with buying anything.

by Drummer1$2

Carowinds works with some restrictions. It is great to get specific directions to rides, and works to locate bathrooms. But the wait times are majorly off. For example, it said the Intimidator would be a 5 minute wait, but ended up being about 45 minutes. Overall Carowinds is good in some ways but the wait times really needs to be monitored more to create a more accurate picture for people with limited time in the park.

by Fire1113

The park map is good and having tickets and passes stored in Carowinds is convenient. However the ride wait times are nowhere close to reality. Most say just a few minutes wait time when in reality waits can be over an hour. With some updates and accurate wait times this would be a great app.

by DaveMac01

Used Carowinds today for the first time. Good for orienting to the park, finding bathrooms, and checking out food options but wait times for rollercoasters were way off. Would say 40 min on app but wait was actually more like 2 hours.

by Celestiela

While it was useful in telling us what rides were open, the ride times were highly inaccurate. Also, if you don’t turn on location services when you download Carowinds , you can’t turn it on, instead you have to uninstall Carowinds and then reinstall it.

by About To Move On

Would be great if my party of 6 could see each other’s location n the park map.
this app experience in my opinion is best when partnered in twos.
This gives more opportunities for all party members to ride their choice rides. By splitting it would be great to look and see who is where. Thanks!

by Scarfog H.

Just installed Carowinds end it shows e.g. 10 minutes wait time for the intimidator when it was actually 40 minutes
It shows the Fury325 is closed when it is running

What is Carowinds then good for if you can't trust the information. Should not be so complicated to update open and close status in a timely fashion. Wait times might be a little bit more tricky to be accurate but by a factor of 400% is unacceptable.

by Bonjubuemos

App said the wait time for Copperhead Strike was 10 mins. It took 1 hour for me to get to ride it. I checked Carowinds midway through the line to see if there was just a sudden amount of people who got in line and Carowinds didn’t update times in time. But, alas the line was even longer than when I got on it and Carowinds said the wait time was 5 mins.

Carowinds is bs. Don’t download an app from this corrupt company.

by Kornchild82

I download Carowinds every time me come and 90% of the time the wait times say 0 then you get there and boom hour and a half lines. I visit lots of parks and most have a decent app but Carowinds is only good if you are trying to locate a ride. We have season passes so we are here every weekend it would be nice to be able to actually see how long ride times are!

by Mike9429

With so many bad reviews about the wait times, it’s clear the developers aren’t even bothering to consider feedback. Absolutely useless...rides showing a 5 minute wait are over an hour. Why not remove this feature until you can get it even somewhat accurate?

by Zig1022

Basic features (map, ride info, food, etc) work fine. I wish the ride wait time feature actually worked. Both times at Park this year wait times were always 0 min in Carowinds . Unfortunately that was not accurate.

by LindZ03

Overall app is bad. It’s hard to find information. Park hours tab is terrible. What was wrong with the old color-coded view? At least give me the option to view the entire month and not by the day.

by Carriehilllock

I haven’t explored completely but the map could be way better. You can’t zoom in very far and the kid’s area isn’t even correct. Any plans to update Carowinds per the changes they made to that section of the park?

by ❤️⚾️SOFTBALLFOREVER⚾️❤️

I have season passes so I don't need to buy tix. I defs. prefer their map over the paper one (saves trees). It shows the their shows so I know when I need to get there (I loved Cirque Imagine, btw). And I love this app!