Negative-G - Carowinds Theme Park -2026

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Carowinds Theme Park, Charlotte North & South Carolina

It is hard not getting insanely excited with a view like this greeting you as you pull into a theme parks parking lot. Carowinds, you certainly have my attention. Now, I want to ride.

The reason we are at Carowinds on this day was due to Travis. He has tried several times to visit Carowinds for years and for various reasons all of his previous trips fell through. After our Columbus Zoo, Six Flags America, and Kennywood trip last year I asked Bond and Travis where they wanted to go next. Eventually, Travis brought up his need to get to Carowinds and Dollywood. After some texting back and forth it was decided the three of us would take four days to visit Kentucky Kingdom, Carowinds, Dollywood, and then hit Holiday World on the way back home. Day #1 of our trip at Kentucky Kingdom was wonderful so we were all psyched to head to Charlotte for a day of fun at Carowinds.

The state line between North and South Carolina goes down the middle of Celebration Plaza so it is easy to step back and forth between states.

Carowinds as a park dates back to the 1970's and since opening in 1973 it has bounced around between owners starting with the Carowinds Corporation, Taft Broadcasting, Kings Entertainment Corporation, Paramount Parks, Cedar Fair, and it is currently part of the Six Flags chain. Each owner made their mark on the park but if you look around carefully you can see a few little remaining touches from the Carowinds Corporation from the 1970's.

Another sign that a park might have been built in the the 1970's theme park boom is if it has a vine covered walkway. Parks like Astroworld, Six Flags St. Louis (soon to be Mid-America Park), and both of the Marriott's Great America parks all had these wonderful spots where guests could get out of the sun, maybe have a seat, and cool off under a giant growing roof. As effective as they are as a shade structure it would be nice if parks started adding these to their layouts again.