50 Years of Family Fun at Carowinds - Part 3: The Cedar Fair Years (2006 - 2024)

In celebrating "50 years of Family Fun at Carowinds,” we wanted to take a deep dive down the rabbit hole of the park’s kids-centric land, which has varied in size and scope over the years. For the sake of a timeline, we’re going to break this deep dive into three parts over the next few weeks: The Taft Broadcasting years, The Paramount Parks years, and The Cedar Fair years. 

In part one, we took a look at the park's Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera under Taft Broadcasting's ownership of the park, while part two transitioned into a new Nickelodeon era from 2003-2005. If you're familiar with the history of Carowinds, you're likely aware that shortly after Nickelodeon Central absorbed the entirety of Carowinds' kids’ area, the park was sold by Paramount.

Without further ado, it's time for Part 3: The Cedar Fair years.

The End of Nickelodeon Central

In the spring of 2006, the Paramount Parks - Carowinds, along with Kings Dominion, Kings Island, Canada's Wonderland, and California's Great America - were sold to Cedar Fair. As part of the $1.24 billion deal, Cedar Fair had the rights to a ten-year license to use the Paramount Parks names and themes, along with a four-year license to use Nickelodeon's IP and attraction names. 

While Cedar Fair somewhat quickly got rid of all of the Paramount-inspired names and themes by the end of their first full season in control of the former Paramount parks in 2007, they kept the Nickelodeon names and themes until after the 2009 season. However, Nickelodeon was indeed quietly on its way out before the full. Carowinds removed the Nickelodeon Flying Super Saturator in August of 2008, and the Wild Thornberry's River Adventure was fully removed at the end of the 2009 season to make way for Intimidator (now Thunder Striker) which opened the following spring.

Planet Snoopy

While Intimidator was certainly a major addition for 2010, that season, Carowinds guests were also greeted by a familiar beagle who had taken up residency in the park's kids’ area with the addition of Planet Snoopy. That first season, there were no major additions, just a series of new attraction names, as all traces of Nickelodeon were officially removed. The Fairly OddCoaster became Woodstock Express, Hey Arnold's Taxi Chase became Lucy's Crabby Cabbie. The TV Road Trip attraction became Joe Cool's Driving School, while the Nick-O-Round became the Character Carousel, and the list continues.

The first true "addition" to Planet Snoopy would come in the form of Snoopy's Starlight Spectacular, which began during the summer of 2011. Beginning on June 27 that year, Snoopy and his Peanuts pals were able to stay up late in a light-and-sound experience that featured Lucy and her dreams, Schroeder and his music, Woodstock and Snoopy and their wanderings - and, of course, everyone's favorite "blockhead," Charlie Brown.

Over the next few years, there were no major additions to Planet Snoopy as the park focused on additions in other areas of the park. Joe Cool's Driving School was removed following the 2012 season to make way for Dinosaurs Alive, and the rest of area stayed largely unchanged between 2010 and the end of the 2017, when Woodstock's Whirlybirds (helicopters), Snoopy's Space Race, Snoopy's Yacht Club and Woodstock Gliders were all removed from the park - Woodstock Gliders only temporarily as it became Mountain Gliders in 2019. 

The Carowinds kids’ area was changing once again.

Camp Snoopy

On August 16, 2017, it was announced that six new attractions would be coming to the area as it transformed from Planet Snoopy to Camp Snoopy in 2018. Of these new attractions, five were kid-sized flat rides manufactured by Zamperla - Camp Bus (a Crazy Bus Model), Peanuts Trailblazers (Whip), the Kite Eating Tree (Zamperla Frog Hopper), Pig Pen's Mud Buggies (Zamperla Jump Around), and Woodstock's Whirlybirds (Teacups) were all coming to Carowinds.

In addition, the park unveiled Beagle Scout Acres - an 8,000 square foot "climb and play" area that featured three distinct play areas for a wide array of ages. The youngest adventurers would be able to gather in a fenced-in toddler area with lots of hands-on activities. A new play hill would be an open area for guests to enjoy slides and climb on a turf covered mound, and finally playground wood structures would have hands-on interactive features, slides and plenty of things to climb. 

In 2018, Carowinds also offered a Pre-K pass for the first time, so the park's youngest guests (3-5 years old) could have a season pass of their own and experience all that Camp Snoopy had to offer.

“The expansion of our kids’ area along with the introduction of the Pre-K Pass puts Carowinds as a top destination for families,” said Pat Jones, then-Carowinds vice president and general manager. “The new Camp Snoopy area joins our world-class attractions such as the record-breaking Fury 325 giga coaster and the massive Carolina Harbor water park in offering features that meet the needs of guests ranging from three to 23 to 93, providing unique opportunities for creating family memories.”

As part of the expansion, a new Camp Snoopy statue was erected on the site of the former Character Carousel, which crossed state lines to its new home in Carousel Park. There were also several improvements to the Camp Snoopy area as a whole, including a more natural looking midway that celebrated the beauty of the Carolina wilderness, and improvements to the Snack Shack Restaurant and Camp Snoopy Child Care facility.

The park's internal boundaries were once again changed, as the former Joe Cool Cafe became home to Panda Express, and Flying Ace Aerial Chase was no longer part of the footprint of Camp Snoopy, going by its new moniker, the cleverly named Kiddy Hawk, paying homage to the flying history of the Carolinas.

A New Era

As Carowinds enters its next "era" following the merger of Six Flags and Cedar Fair, theme park fans obviously have a lot of questions that will be answered in the coming weeks, months, and years. However, one thing is for certain, and that's that Carowinds' kids’ area has an exciting 50-year history.

We can't wait for 2025, when Carowinds will add two “Bigger. Better. Snoopy-er.” family-friendly attractions, including Snoopy’s Racing Railway, the park’s 15th roller coaster, and, Charlie Brown’s River Raft Blast, the first water ride to operate at Carowinds since the closure of Rip Roarin’ Rapids in 2018.

These additions to Camp Snoopy will build upon the 50-year history of Carowinds’ “children’s area,” which has been home to the characters from Hanna-Barbera (1975-2004), Nickelodeon (2005-2009) and Peanuts (2010-Present). The two new attractions give the footprint a total of 13 rides and promises endless adventure for guests of all ages, making Camp Snoopy a must-visit destination for family fun in 2025.