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Park Queue TimesPQT

Carowinds cheat sheet

worked out from 24 days of our own wait data38 rides

Arrive for 10:00 and ride Snoopy’s Racing Railway, Kiddy Hawk and Copperhead Strike first. Leave Carolina Goldrusher until after 3pm, when its queue drops to about 6 minutes. The park's queues peak around 16:00 at 12 minutes and are lowest around 10:00.

Before you go

When to go

The days and months this park's rides run quietest

Quietest weekday
Sunday
Busiest weekday
Friday
Quietest month
July
Busiest month
April

Each ride's own quietest and busiest day, tallied and weighted by how long its queue runs. For a dated answer use the crowd calendar, which scores every day of the year.

The shape of the day

Average queue across the park, hour by hour

  1. 10:006mquietest
  2. 11:008m
  3. 12:009m
  4. 13:0010m
  5. 14:0011m
  6. 15:0011m
  7. 16:0012mpeak
  8. 17:0012m
  9. 18:0010m

Arrive for 10:00. Queues climb to their peak around 16:00 and fall back through the afternoon; the last hour or two is the quietest the headliners get all day.

Ride these first

The headliners: longest queues, worst by late morning

  1. 1Snoopy’s Racing Railway ~27 min typical · up to 34 at peak · worst around 4pm27m
  2. 2Kiddy Hawk ~26 min typical · up to 39 at peak · worst around 4pm26m
  3. 3Copperhead Strike ~23 min typical · up to 23 at peak · worst around 6pm23m

Straight to these from the gate, in this order. Every minute before the park fills is worth three later.

Leave these until later

Rides whose queues collapse late in the day

  1. 1Carolina Goldrusher~21 min typical · about 6 min after 3pm6m
  2. 2WindSeeker~20 min typical · about 5 min after 10pm5m
  3. 3Woodstock Express~21 min typical · about 8 min after 4pm8m
  4. 4Ricochet~20 min typical · about 8 min after 3pm8m
  5. 5Flying Ace Balloon Race~16 min typical · about 5 min after 3pm5m

Save them for the last two hours, when the coach parties have gone and the queue is a fraction of the afternoon's.

Fill the gaps with

Walk-ons at any hour, and the single-rider lines

Usually under 10 minutesKite Eating Tree3mSnoopy vs. Red Baron3mCharlie Brown's Wind-up4mKaleidoscope5mGyro Force5mWoodstock Whirlybirds5mPig Pen's Mud Buggies5mCamp Bus5m

Watch-outs

Rides that spend the most of the day not running

  1. 1Charlie Brown’s River Raft Blastrunning 34% of the park's open hours34%
  2. 2WindSeekerrunning 39% of the park's open hours39%
  3. 3Snoopy’s Racing Railwayrunning 40% of the park's open hours40%
  4. 4Kiddy Hawkrunning 40% of the park's open hours40%
  5. 5Woodstock Expressrunning 40% of the park's open hours40%

If one of these is the reason you came, ride it the first time you see it running rather than saving it. The full picture is on the reliability page.

On the day

Your day-of sheet

The same park, for one date: the forecast, the hours, and your ride order

Plus members get this sheet for a date: the crowd forecast for the day, its published hours, a ride order worked out against that day's wait curve, and a printable version to take in.

PlusThe day-of sheet is part of Plus

Here, that is a ride order for your date, the forecast and the hours, printable.

  • Your rides, in order

    Sequenced against the wait curve, so the headliners land in their quiet windows.

  • quiet till 111pm · 66m

    Your date, hour by hour

    How the wait climbs on the day you picked, and the window it stays low.

£4.99for a park dayor £29.99 for a year. Paid once, never renews. Your first park day on Plus is free.

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Everything above is each ride's own recorded queue over recent weeks, sampled every few minutes through the park's opening hours - not an opinion. A ride with too little history is left out.