Charlotte was one of the nicest places we visited in North Carolina. I wouldn’t say that there is a tremendous number of activities in the Charlotte area, but it’s a nice, clean city and the activities that we did, we enjoyed tremendously.
One of those was Carowinds, which consists of 100 acres and is geared for family type entertainment. They have well over 50 rides as well as a Nickelodeon kid’s park and a Waterworks Water Park. The water park is only open in summer, though. There really is something here for everyone. Those of us in our family who happen to like thrill type rides were not disappointed in the least and there were also several smaller roller coaster and numerous kiddie type rides. They have a free fall tower, although none of us did that. My husband enjoyed the two classic wooden roller coasters, one of which is called Thunder Road and has apparently been a part of the park since it opened in the 1970’s. I really enjoyed the shows and concerts they put on at the palladium.
They also have several arcade games as well as a few carnival or mid-way types of games. We didn’t spend a lot of time on these, because they can really eat up the budget. The kids wanted to bring something home for a souvenir so we stopped at one of the souvenir shops located inside the park and let them each pick one item.
As far as food goes; that pretty much runs the gamut here as well. They have several restaurants that offer traditional sit down meals as well as a few that do simple snacks and sandwich type fair. Like just about any other amusement or theme park, the food is overpriced for the most part and not the best in the world. We decided to eat a hearty breakfast, snack for lunch and eat outside the park for dinner. There are several restaurants located just before you enter the park. Because the parking fee is good for the entire day and you can get your hand stamped and re-enter the gates, we could have left and had lunch outside the park and then come back in but we opted to enjoy our day to the full extent and just snack instead. That wasn’t too bad on the budget.
If you decide to go, be aware that the only time when they are open every day is during summer. From about September until January they are only open on the weekends and they apparently close from January until March, when they re-open for the new season.
