For a Saturday, 9 is still definitely too early in my opinion. BGW is noon to 10pm on peak Saturdays and Carowinds should be too.
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Event WinterFest 2025
- Thread starter paintervision
- Start date
All, take it anything is better then 7PM! Plus it shows winterfest may be here for a while longer!
It’s a sign that last weekend under performed.
The change in hours really isn’t going to help because they did not put up the traditional fantastic lights they normally have
Who knows maybe they kicked it in to overdrive this week and put up some more lights! It’s not like they threw all the lights away from last year!
Just looked at webcam as in parts of NC this morning we have had freezing fog I wanted to see what it looked like at Carowinds. I would love to get this foggy credit 
I visited WinterFest tonight and noticed a significant reduction in lights compared to last year, suggesting a clear decrease in the entertainment budget. There were fewer characters throughout the park, though the overall atmosphere remained enjoyable and the decor still looked beautiful.
Crowds were noticeably light, which raises some concerns about the long-term future of the event. I truly hope the park chooses to continue hosting it, especially since it is the only Six Flags park in the Southeast offering a Christmas event and with the new headquarters located just ten minutes away, it seems like a valuable tradition to preserve.
Crowds were noticeably light, which raises some concerns about the long-term future of the event. I truly hope the park chooses to continue hosting it, especially since it is the only Six Flags park in the Southeast offering a Christmas event and with the new headquarters located just ten minutes away, it seems like a valuable tradition to preserve.
It would be entirely on brand for SFEC to cut Carowinds' event due to their own self-crippling.
I agree, they cut ice skating and entertainment and now doing the tree lighting to end the night. Why ruin what works when they know nothing about Winterfest and what it means to family tradition
The only way I can wrap my head around the baffling decisions made for the event is that they knew they weren't able to both operate the amount of rides / attractions in year's past and put on a quality Christmas event. To me, it seems they decided to go all-in on rides, not understanding that the appeal of the event is the specialized entertainment offerings.
It's wild seeing Winterfest go from a high peak in 2024, to a new low in 2025.
It's wild seeing Winterfest go from a high peak in 2024, to a new low in 2025.
Why is this happening to WinterFest at Carowinds and not Kings Island or Canada's Wonderland? If Carowinds is seen as a park with potential what has made the company shift gears with the event?
They may be using Carowinds as a test and if proves successful, move to the other parks. Similar to the upcharges at KD this fall.
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Perhaps they felt having more rides and particularly coasters available would make up for a reduction in live entertainment and lighting at the event. Since Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland are somewhat limited in terms of rides during colder weather, the fuller slate of WinterFest offerings is seen to be more important to those parks. Not saying they're correct in assuming that Carowinds guests value rides over the "soft goods" of entertainment/lights but that might be their thinking.
Maybe the real decision behind the scenes wasn’t whether to run Carowinds’ Winterfest like normal or as a watered-down rides-oriented event, but whether to run it as a watered-down event or just not have it at all.
If the reports are true that SF wanted to cut all the lower-performing winter events to show the investors a nice flashy cost savings number, then maybe Carowinds’ Winterfest just barely made the cut, and the reduced entertainment and focus on rides is how they managed to salvage it.
If that’s the case, it sucks. But you know what sucks even more? Canceling Winterfest altogether. KD being my home park, I’d take a watered-down Winterfest all day long over outright eliminating the event.
The one huge risk for Carowinds though is brand perception. If they deliver a subpar event, guests will remember that, and many might not ever come back. If SF ever stops thinking so short-term and reverts back to Cedar Fair’s long-term quality playbook, they’ll have a tougher time convincing people in the area to give Winterfest another shot. Whereas with parks KD, if they ever bring a winter event back, they have a fresh slate and even the benefit of nostalgia and longing for the old event to come back.
If the reports are true that SF wanted to cut all the lower-performing winter events to show the investors a nice flashy cost savings number, then maybe Carowinds’ Winterfest just barely made the cut, and the reduced entertainment and focus on rides is how they managed to salvage it.
If that’s the case, it sucks. But you know what sucks even more? Canceling Winterfest altogether. KD being my home park, I’d take a watered-down Winterfest all day long over outright eliminating the event.
The one huge risk for Carowinds though is brand perception. If they deliver a subpar event, guests will remember that, and many might not ever come back. If SF ever stops thinking so short-term and reverts back to Cedar Fair’s long-term quality playbook, they’ll have a tougher time convincing people in the area to give Winterfest another shot. Whereas with parks KD, if they ever bring a winter event back, they have a fresh slate and even the benefit of nostalgia and longing for the old event to come back.
Kings Island has lost WinterFest twice in its history, both the original run from 1982-1992 and then the one-off return in 2005. Both endings occurred at similar transition points right before the park was acquired by Paramount and Cedar Fair, respectively. Each run was enough to create some very strong nostalgia in the Greater Cincinnati area for experiences like skating on the Royal Fountain with the giant Eiffel Tower "tree" as a backdrop.
The hope is that guests of the most recent WinterFest iterations at Kings Dominion and Carowinds will carry similar nostalgia if/when the time is right for the event to return.
The hope is that guests of the most recent WinterFest iterations at Kings Dominion and Carowinds will carry similar nostalgia if/when the time is right for the event to return.
I fear this will end the event run for Carowinds. I grew that Six Flags is horrible about not using a long term playbook. It is so obvious they only care about the right now and never what is in the future. There is a reason they consistently fail and even go into bankruptcy.
I hope to make it to the park this weekend, but don’t have very high expectations at all.
I hope to make it to the park this weekend, but don’t have very high expectations at all.
I'm standing by my prediction that this is the last year for Carowinds' Winterfest and seeing others say the same thing is a sign of its possibility. the original hour change was completely uncalled for especially after so many years of leaving it alone other than 2020 for obvious reasons. if people want rides, there is literally 7 months (apr-oct, if you want to count the two weekends in march depending when they set opening date then 8 months) for that opportunity. personally I didn't mind that only afterburn and ricochet were the only coasters opened at first and copperhead was an added bonus. the flat rides that were opened felt like something from a Christmas carnival which gave it a great atmosphere at night, keyword "night". now its just a soulless gimmick that tried to cut corners and cheap out while screwing over their customers they say they care about.
and still my biggest question is HOW, how is cedar fair becoming six flags when most of the higher ups are from cedar fair? it should've been six flags becoming cedar fair quality.
Couldn’t agree more. I still wonder if things would be even slightly different if they had chosen to use the Cedar Fair name for the combined company instead of Six Flags. Might sound silly to think that would have an impact, but little things like that can shape a company culture. I wonder if the decision-makers are sort of subconsciously guided by the notion that they’re working for Six Flags now, not Cedar Fair — and how if the opposite had been the case, if there would be any sort of subconscious bias toward following Cedar Fair’s old strategy.
(In fact, the more I think about it, I wonder if the same could be said for the investment community. The legacy Six Flags parks falling under the Cedar Fair banner would have offered a clear story to investors about the company’s path forward — that the SF parks would be brought up to the CF standard. The whole “The company will be operated like Cedar Fair but named Six Flags” line was always a messier message, and sort of worthless now that it seems the company is really being operated like Six Flags. It almost feels like a self fulfilling prophecy.)
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The event has operated for years with great success, and offerings only increasing year after year. I have trouble believing this event wasn't turning a profit, or unsuccessful.
I'm wondering if the money they would put up front in year's past to get a quality event together was just too steep for the park / corporate. Which is baffling considering the competition Winterfest has, as well as Carowinds being seen as Six Flags' "corporate" park due to its proximity to the SFEC headquarters.
We can only hope there is course correcting in 2026 under John Reilly's tenure.
I'm wondering if the money they would put up front in year's past to get a quality event together was just too steep for the park / corporate. Which is baffling considering the competition Winterfest has, as well as Carowinds being seen as Six Flags' "corporate" park due to its proximity to the SFEC headquarters.
We can only hope there is course correcting in 2026 under John Reilly's tenure.
When they made the decision to switch the hours for Carowinds Winterfest and absolutely reduce the holiday aspects of the event, they ignored two facts.
1. Carowinds tried daytime winter operations a couple years ago and it failed.
2. The majority of the crowd for past Winterfests came after dark.
So it doesn’t surprise me. The crowds are low this year since they were coming for the nighttime activities in the past. And they did not show up for the rides in the daytime in the past.
It was absolutely an idiotic decision to move this event to the daytime and reduce the lighting and live entertainment that made the event unique from the rest of the year. They absolutely destroyed one of the most beautiful amusement park Christmas events.
However, remember, they eliminated all the individual park presidents this year who knew the history and aspects of the parks. So these are the kind of stupid decisions we can expect with Six Flags new corporate structure, making individual part decision decisions.
I think another problem is how shortsighted corporate is.
This may have changed but in the past, they used to count season pass revenue over the first five visits. That means if somebody visited 5 times before Winterfest, they counted it as zero revenue for Winterfest. So when their eyes Winterfest may not have been turning a profit because they already counted the season pass revenue in full for these people.
Which again is stupid because if somebody has half their visits during Winterfest half their revenue should count during Winterfest
1. Carowinds tried daytime winter operations a couple years ago and it failed.
2. The majority of the crowd for past Winterfests came after dark.
So it doesn’t surprise me. The crowds are low this year since they were coming for the nighttime activities in the past. And they did not show up for the rides in the daytime in the past.
It was absolutely an idiotic decision to move this event to the daytime and reduce the lighting and live entertainment that made the event unique from the rest of the year. They absolutely destroyed one of the most beautiful amusement park Christmas events.
However, remember, they eliminated all the individual park presidents this year who knew the history and aspects of the parks. So these are the kind of stupid decisions we can expect with Six Flags new corporate structure, making individual part decision decisions.
I think another problem is how shortsighted corporate is.
This may have changed but in the past, they used to count season pass revenue over the first five visits. That means if somebody visited 5 times before Winterfest, they counted it as zero revenue for Winterfest. So when their eyes Winterfest may not have been turning a profit because they already counted the season pass revenue in full for these people.
Which again is stupid because if somebody has half their visits during Winterfest half their revenue should count during Winterfest
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and this is what I absolutely predict will be their excuse to cancel Winterfest. low attendance. I would love to eat my words if I'm wrong but the reality is forming more and more.