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| - I have been a season pass holder for the past 33 years. This year Scarowinds was, by far, the WORST experience I've ever had a Carowinds, EVER.
I checked online and called the park to make certain toddlers were welcome for Scarowinds, and was told repeatedly that they are. My grandson turned 3 last week. When we got to the gate at 7:15, after waiting in line for 90 minutes to get in, they asked his age and I told them he turned 3 years old three days ago. They promptly sent us back to pay for him to get in, which we did. After we entered the park, with all its magical, scary, FUN characters, my grandson was thrilled with the scary-ness of it all. He ran up to several characters and they were mostly kind to him. However, we had multiple people in costume SCREAM IN MY FACE AND HIS that "kids ain't welcome here". They seemed pretty welcome when staff was collecting my money for his entry. In my telephone calls and chats with several gate attendants and the person who sold us the ticket for him, not a single one said children weren't welcome, nor did they say Snoopyland was closed.
As we walked around the park we noticed that the largest number of preteens and teens were there unaccompanied by any adults at all. The park had way more guests in it than I've seen in all the years I've spent there. There were no visible security guards, no supervision, no nothing. It was like 10,000 out of control, ill mannered prosti-tots and their prepubescent thug boyfriends had descended on a family park.
There was no toilet paper in four of the six restrooms we visited. None of the vendors had lids for paper cups so we opted for plastic cups. After being forced to buy the Peanuts cups - because we could not find a vendor with the regular refillable purple plastic cups - all the cups had holes in the plastic. The vendor we were at tried to refuse a refund, then wanted to give me cash refund rather than putting it back onto the credit card I paid with.
We watched multiple teens, very obviously under age, buying beer on tap. Again, no security, no oversight and no parents in sight.
As we left the park at 10:15 we could see traffic was slow exiting the park. We waited THREE HOURS AND THIRTY FOUR MINUTES to get out of the park. It took two and a half hours for them to get two security personnel out there to direct traffic. While waiting to exit we watched not, one, not two, not three, not for, but FIVE violent fist fights break out, with security watching and doing NOTHING. The security people weren't weren't directing traffic, weren't breaking up fights, they were out there trying to chat up underage girls. Grown men. That work for Carowinds.
I realize they are going through growth and that they are a minimum wage, seasonal employer. However, what went on there last night was a safety concern and there were some serious laws being broken.
Sadly, the six to ten season tickets I've purchased every single year for 33 years will not be purchased next year. Nor will we visit the park again next year, and probably never again. When I feel the need to take my gun out of the trunk and lay it on the seat beside me because of the violence and chaos, it's time for me and my family to find other entertainment.
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