Thursday, June 12, 2025

Carowinds opens year-round in Charlotte

Copperhead Strike is one of 14 coaster at Carowinds in Charlotte, NC. (Courtesy photo)

North Carolina’s only major theme park will begin operating year-round starting in the new year.

Carowinds — a 400-acre amusement park straddling the Charlotte, North Carolina, and Rock Hill, South Carolina, border — has been a seasonal operation since its founding in 1973. It’s primarily opened weekends in spring and daily during summer months, with special events like SCarowinds hosted during Halloween and Winter Fest throughout the holiday season.

Starting in January, February and early March 2023, the park will open during weekends. Some rides may be subject to routine maintenance and weather closures, though many will be open, as will dining and games be available.

Owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, Carowinds has over 60 rides, attractions and live stage shows. It’s also home to a 26-acre water park, Carolina Harbor, open during warm months.

In 2023, the park will celebrate 50 years, and with it will be more entertainment, enhanced food and beverage offerings, and immersive experiences, according to a press release from the theme park. It will debut Aeronautica Landing — a tribute to invention and aviation in the Carolinas, to explore the future and history of flight. As such, six newly themed attractions are set to open next year.

Adding days to the Carowinds calendar will boost local tourism, help with job creation and fuel economic support statewide, the park noted in its release. 


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Shea Carver
Shea Carver
Shea Carver is the editor in chief at Port City Daily. A UNCW alumna, Shea worked in the print media business in Wilmington for 22 years before joining the PCD team in October 2020. She specializes in arts coverage — music, film, literature, theatre — the dining scene, and can often be tapped on where to go, what to do and who to see in Wilmington. When she isn’t hanging with her pup, Shadow Wolf, tending the garden or spinning vinyl, she’s attending concerts and live theater.

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