Oh What Fun It Is To Ride: Carowinds’ Winterfest 2025

We are deep in the Holiday season, and for the Carolinas, that means one thing – the return of Winterfest at Carowinds. Returning to the park for the eighth time in the past nine years – remember Taste of the Season during 2020? Wild times. – Winterfest at Carowinds encourages guests to “Step into a World of Holiday Fun.” That said, dependent on your definition of “Holiday Fun,” your overall Winterfest experience may slightly differ from previous years.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. This year is different than previous years of the event. The hours of Winterfest have shifted significantly compared to the past. What was once traditionally a 5:00pm-10:00pm event on most nights of operation – New Years Eve an obvious exception – now has a majority of its hours before the sun sets. The hours on Saturdays are Noon-9:00pm, and Noon-8:00pm on all other days of operation. (Worth noting, the original schedule had pushed the schedule to 11:00am-7:00pm across the board, and in listening to guest feedback following the first weekend, Carowinds did shift the hours back by an hour – a solid move by the park to listen to their fans.)

That said, if you’re coming to Winterfest primarily to look at Christmas lights – your experience will be different than it has been in years past, because instead of five full hours of dusk into darkness – when the lights shine the brightest, if you will – you’re looking at around 2-3 hours of dusk/darkness on most nights. However, if Christmas Lights aren’t necessarily your “thing,” the park is actually open longer during the day – which is more time for riding the wide array of Carowinds’ attractions that are scheduled to open during Winterfest – 29 this year, including 10 of the park’s 14 roller coasters – which I believe to be the most the park has ever operated during Winterfest in both cases. (Many of these rides’ operations are weather-dependent, so if you get to WinterFest and it’s unreasonably cold and/or raining/sleeting/snowing/other adverse weather that the USPS claims they operate through – don’t blame us when all 29 rides are not operational.)

The live holiday entertainment is still a big part of WinterFest – with eight live shows popping up throughout the park, including the new-for-2025 “Tipsy Reindeer Bar,” located in the Thrill Zone next to Fury 325. However, the entertainment schedule does not include the Winterfest Wonderland parade as it has in years past. The parade also was not part of the WinterFest lineup in 2017 or 2018. (before people complain that it’s always been part of WinterFest.) There are also a wide array of seasonal holiday treats found on menus throughout the park, both savory and sweet. Though, I will present a bit of bad news/good news for you – if you’re looking for the fan favorite “Gobbler” sandwich this year at Juke Box Diner, unfortunately, it did not make its way to the Winterfest menu this year. But the good news is that there is a smoked turkey sandwich on focaccia bread at Harmony Hall this season that is almost as good.

For an event that is largely built on establishing family traditions that continue year-after-year, many WinterFest favorites are still present, including the nightly tree-lighting ceremony – which has moved to the seasonal event space between Thunder Striker and Harmony Hall – along with shows like the Holly Jolly Trolley and Tinker’s Toy Factory. For those who primarily visit Carowinds for the rides – we highly recommend experiencing at least one show during your visit to WinterFest – the performers are incredibly talented, and you can tell take their holiday roles very seriously. Even outside of the shows, Midway Merriment characters can be found all over the park, spreading holiday cheer.

However, if your visit to WinterFest is about establishing new traditions, additions like the Tipsy Reindeer bar – along with a musical performance from “Cinnamon The Elf” should be added to your park itinerary. The vibe inside of the Tipsy Reindeer – a converted retail shop turned “lounge” during this year’s SCarowinds (and given a scary to merry transformation between Halloween and Winterfest) – is festive and bright. Upside down Christmas trees and tinsel hang from the ceiling. The cocktail menu – wine-based cocktails rather than liquor, because of some North Carolina vs. South Carolina law, if I’m not mistaken – was delicious and interesting. And Cinnamon the Elf put her own “lounge singer-y” twist on some holiday favorites – quickly becoming one of my favorite-ever WinterFest shows (but not my all-time favorite, as that’s reserved for “Four Drummers Drumming” from several years ago.)

We also had the opportunity to sample some of the holiday-themed tastes throughout the park – there are 14 unique savory options, along with 10 options for those with a sweet tooth. I already mentioned the Smoked Turkey sandwich at Harmony Hall as one of my favorites- but I also feel like I need to share a little love for the Pulled Pork Mac Bowl at the temporarily-named Cozy Mac Bowl (Fair Fries) in County Fair and Cinnamon Pull Apart bread found at a special event tent near Harmony Hall. As is traditionally the case with special events, the Carowinds culinary team does a fantastic job crafting limited time menu offerings – like, have you ever had a tamale at a theme park? You can at Carowinds’ Winterfest – inside Burrito Cafe!

However, at its core for many guests – Carowinds is a park where roller coasters reign supreme, and if you’re willing to brave the colder temperatures, it’s a great opportunity to ride several of the park’s top roller coasters with a wait time that (at least during our visit on a Saturday in December) is significantly less than a traditional summer weekend. During our visit, I rode Copperhead Strike once, and Fury 325 twice. If you were to put a “Top 4” list of Carowinds’ roller coasters together, you’d probably have some combination of Fury 325, Copperhead Strike and Thunder Striker on that list – all open during WinterFest. (The fourth on that list is probably Afterburn – but if you told me Afterburn, Hurler, Vortex, and Carolina Goldrusher would be closed, and I had the chance to ride everything else – I’d personally be okay with that park visit.) Walking through the park, the Camp Snoopy attractions all had a pretty good crowd for most of the day – further proving that WinterFest’s target demographic is still families looking for a little holiday cheer.

As for an overall review of the event, you might be wondering how 2025’s version of WinterFest compares to previous editions of WinterFest, especially if you’ve been visiting for multiple years like we have. My overall review is that this year, WinterFest is different. That’s not a bad thing, or a good thing. It’s just different.

I honestly feel like it’s difficult to compare to previous years. Previous versions of WinterFest were predominantly nighttime events where everything is combined into a five hour window, making it nearly impossible to get everything done in one night – who do you think you are? Santa Claus? – However, the new noon-8/9 schedule does seem focus more on Carowinds rides and attractions than WinterFests of the past, where I felt like rides were secondary to the lights and entertainment. If you’re looking for Christmas Lights, ice skating and musicians who will inevitably play “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” in one way or another, this might not be your favorite WinterFest of all time. If you’re visiting Carowinds for rides, food and less for holiday cheer, you’ll likely enjoy this “new,” shifted schedule a lot more. Especially at a regional park, holiday events are never “one size fits all.” Some people come for the holidays, and some people are mad when all of the roller coasters are closed, because “if Carowinds is open, I should be able to ride everything.” Personally, I think Carowinds has a decent enough (albeit maybe not perfect) balance of rides and attractions with the Christmas cheer.

Honestly, I’m just glad the Carowinds calendar continues into early 2026 – it makes the offseason that much easier to handle as a fan of (and someone who lives in the vicinity of) regional parks.

Carowinds is open for WinterFest on select nights through January 3. For more information, be sure to visit the park’s website, and follow the park on social media: Facebook | Twitter/X | Instagram.