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| - My husband and I live in central North Carolina, but traveled to Charlotte for a long weekend to explore uptown Charlotte and Carowinds. Since we're only about a 2 hours' drive we decided to get season passes, which included our admission on both Friday and Saturday, parking on both days, and 10% off on food in the park. Even if we don't return, it was slighly cheaper than paying a la carte for tickets, parking, etc.
We also bought the fast passes for Friday, because we just really don't like to stand in line. I figure it's already expensive, so you might as well pay a little more and get the most out of your time. Looking back I'm so glad we bought them because Friday was a beautiful day so the park was packed! But with our wristbands, we never waited more than 5 minutes to get on any ride. They even asked us where we would prefer to be seated on the roller coasters, which was awesome. We ended up riding every single roller coaster at least once. We rode Fury 3 times in 15-20 minutes. For lunch we split a $10 pizza and a bread stick and had a drink at the bar. If you eat before you go and as soon as you leave you can get by with sharing something small instead of paying $16pp for a hamburger and fries.
When we returned on Saturday we didn't buy the fast passes because we planned on walking around and sampling the food from the food festival. However, it was an ugly day and when we got there around noon there were absolutely no lines for any of the rides. We rode the intimidator 3 times in a row as soon as we walked in, just like we would have done if we had purchased the fast passes. After that, we just walked around and shared the tasting plates from some of the various regional food booths. I was so surprised to see that we were literally the only ones participating in the food festival. I couldn't believe that there was a line at Panda express and that the booths where you could get $4 tasting plates, beers, and wines were empty. To each his own, I guess.
Anyway, we had a great time and will definitely go back since we have the season passes. My only piece of advice is if you don't want to shell out the money for the fast passes then make sure you go on a rainy day, unless you enjoy standing in 2 hour long lines.
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