Tricks (and Treats) for SCarowinds 2023

As the calendar turns to October, it’s officially “Spooky Season,” and what better way to kick off the month than with a trip to your favorite local theme park haunt? If you’ve been reading our site with any level of regularity, you’ll know that typically, at least once a year, we venture to Carowinds to visit their annual SCarowinds Halloween Haunt. (Read our reviews by year: 2022, 2021, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015 – we missed 2019, and the event was not held in 2020 due to the pandemic.)

While the core of SCarowinds, like many other Halloween Haunts, is mostly the same year after year — a mixture of new and returning haunted mazes, scare zones, and live entertainment – each year at the park feels familiar, yet unique at the same time. Rather than run down a review of each maze and scare zone individually as we’ve done in years past, we want to take the opportunity to highlight some treats that we experienced during our visit, and some tricks (tips) that may help SCarowinds visitors enhance their experience.

Treat: Carowinds’ New “Tricks and Treats” Daytime Halloween Parade

Earlier this season, Carowinds announced two brand-new Halloween themed parades: The daytime “Tricks and Treats” and the nighttime “Procession of Nightmares.” While the parades are incredibly similar, in reality, they couldn’t be more different. Both parades feature a series of performers and ornate parade floats from New Orleans-based parade gurus Kern Studios.

Carowinds guests who have visited the park during Grand Carnivale or Winterfest are likely used to the parade format for the Tricks and Treats — the parade steps off inside of Carolina Harbor, and heads to the front of the park in a clockwise direction, making a series of upbeat “song and dance” stops throughout Carowinds in County Fair and Thrill Zone. It’s fun, adorable, and, while I wasn’t expecting to get to the park in time to see it, I’m glad I did.

Once day turns to night, Tricks and Treats takes on the Carowinds parade route in reverse – beginning in Celebration Plaza near the front gate, and heading counter clockwise towards Carolina Harbor. While the parade floats are the exact same floats used in the daytime parade, more dramatic lighting and a sinister soundtrack make the Procession of Nightmares a much “darker” experience. If you’re in the park during both parades, it’s definitely feasible to see both, but with time typically of the essence at SCarowinds (typically just a few hours to get everything done, heavy crowds, long lines for mazes and rides), we’d recommend the daytime parade.

Trick: If possible, Get to the Park Mid-Afternoon on a Weekend

This is a trick that is mainly beneficial for season passholders or those who have purchased a daytime ticket along with a SCarowinds ticket for weekend operation. If it works in your schedule, we recommend getting to the park around 3:00-3:30pm at the latest. (If you’re a daytime ticket holder and want to go from park open straight through, we’re not judging you.) By getting to the park at this time, you’ll be able to get a decent parking space (filling in the spots of guests who might have just come for the daytime “Great Pumpkin Fest”), not have to deal with long security lines as SCarowinds opens, and be in the park and able to see the daytime parade, which starts on Saturdays and Sundays at 3:30pm.

You’ll also be in the park to experience “First in Fright,” which reminds us.

Treat (and Trick!): First in Fright

For years, during SCarowinds season, Carowinds would close for daytime operation at 5:00pm, and would reopen at 7:00pm for SCarowinds. The park would clear all guests out of the park during this time, and if you left the parking lot to grab dinner, you’d be subject to the somewhat absurd levels of traffic on Carowinds Blvd. (and sometimes backing up to I-77) that have been known to affect SCarowinds. While you could stay in the parking lot, it was essentially 90 minutes of “dead” time by the time you re-entered the park for SCarowinds.

New this year, Carowinds is giving park guests (with season passes or combo daytime/SCarowinds tickets) the opportunity to stay inside of the park while it transforms to SCarowinds. As part of the (cleverly-named) “First in Fright” experience, guests who are inside of Carowinds for daytime operation can get in line near Bailey’s Barnyard (the former Dinosaurs Alive building) by 4:45pm. From there, after park close, guests will be escorted to Aeronautica Landing, where they can spend the gap in the schedule taking advantage of the offerings Carowinds’ newest themed area before SCarowinds begins promptly at 7:00pm.

During our visit, we were into Aeronautica Landing by 5:20pm, and the six signature attractions in the area – Gear Spin, Gyro Force, Windstar, Hover & Dodge, Air Race and Air Walker – were all operational, along with multiple Food & Beverage options including Terminal A, Frequent Fryers, and Leonardo’s. (Thought it wasn’t advertised, the newly refurbished Boo Blasters on Boo Hill was also open!) Entrances to the park were cut off heading towards Camp Snoopy and County Fair, and it gave a fairly large “containment area,” complete with attractions, retail, and food and beverage options.

If we had to estimate, there were maybe a few hundred people who took advantage of the “First in Fright” experience. We utilized it to take a spin on Gyroforce (which we hadn’t ridden yet), take a few laps on Boo Blasters, and grab a relaxed and delicious bite to eat at Terminal A. As coaster enthusiasts, this felt almost like an ERT session (but take note: no roller coasters are open during this time.)

There are two things worth noting when it comes to “First in Fright.” First, it does not mean that you have free reign access to the entire park for two hours between daytime and nighttime operation. There were countless people I overheard in line who were planning to ride Copperhead Strike, have a meal at Harmony Hall, or other plans for things at Carowinds that were not located in Aeronautica Landing. Aeronautica Landing, and the Gazebo area in front of Boo Blasters were all that was open. Second, if you participate in “First in Fright,” you will almost certainly miss the nightly SCarowinds opening, which takes place promptly at 7:00pm (aka, the same time that gates are moved that let people into the rest of the park.)

Trick: Visit on a Sunday

With years of SCarowinds experience under our belt, we can’t emphasize this tip enough. If you’re able to visit on a Sunday, you will almost certainly wait less than if you were visited on a Friday on Saturday. Given the popularity of certain mazes, and especially as we get further into October and closer to actual Halloween, crowds will certainly increase as the season progresses. You have four more Sunday opportunities to visit SCarowinds: October 8, October 15, October 22, and October 29. (If you’re buying tickets, this is also the cheapest day to visit.)

Treat: Live Entertainment Options

Whether you visit during the day or night (or both), Carowinds’ live entertainment team has a number of outstanding live shows that are certain to appeal to any audience. There are four unique shows during the day, and four unique shows during SCarowinds. While we didn’t get the chance to experience all eight, we did see the “Monster Bash” band during the day and “Conjure the Night” at SCarowinds. Both featured renditions of popular songs with “Halloween”-esque themes along with some fantastic choreography. If you’re not in the mood to be scared, at least be entertained!”

Trick: Fast & Fright Lane

In recent years, Carowinds has streamlined their Fright Lane and Fast Lane options for SCarowinds, now offering a singular upgrade option that gets you one-time front of the line access at each of SCarowinds’ five haunted mazes, along with unlimited Fast Lane access for Carowinds’ roller coasters and other attractions. If you’re like me, and can’t stand waiting in line, especially when time at SCarowinds is limited in the first place, it’s well worth the upgrade. Especially if you’re planning on visiting during a Saturday, Fast/Fright Lane feels like an absolute must. (Prices begin at $99 and vary between nights.)

Treat: Scares Aplenty

Visiting SCarowinds as much as we have in the past, the maze and their routes become familiar, you come to figure out the hiding places for scare actors and effects. That doesn’t mean that the scares “aren’t there” in SCarowinds’ five mazes as well as the park’s six scarezones. SCarowinds’ “Army of Darkness” is lurking around every corner, and there are two very distinct moments that I wanted to call out two of the best scares I’ve ever received in 8 years of visiting SCarowinds.

First, I was walking through the Blue Ridge Roadkillers scare zone with Carowinds’ Director of Live Entertainment Ryan Allen, who oversees all of SCarowinds’ entertainment, mazes, decor and lighting. If you can’t picture the scene, the classic haunt trope here is “Chainsaw Army” meets “Deep South,” shrouded in fog machines. Deep in conversation with Ryan, I let my guard down, forgot I was in a scare zone, and even if I had remembered, figured that walking through a scare zone with a SCarowinds’ “higher up” would grant me some level of immunity from the looming monsters. I was wrong. Not only did the chainsaw-wielding scare actor “get” me by running just in front of me, chainsaw whirring, he actually “got” Ryan as well (and maybe moreso than me.) Far and away the best scare zone scare I’ve ever encountered.

Second, I have to commend a scare actor inside of Depths of Darkness for a perfectly executed and well set-up scare. Entering one of the early scenes in the mazes first in front of a group of people, I was able to see the actor trigger the room’s strobe effect, which immediately disoriented me and those behind me, and he immediately ran up and got within what felt like inches of us, exaggerated further by the strobe light. I’d say he did everything but “call his shot” verbally – and it was a perfect scare job. If this happens to get back to you, job well done, sir.