Plaza Fiesta Carolinas: Shopping, Food, and the Southeast's 'Largest Playground'

Plaza Fiesta Carolinas, located adjacent to the Carowinds parking lot on the North Carolina/South Carolina state line, is a Latin American-styled shopping complex that was refurbished from the underutilized former Crossroads Mall. Plaza Fiesta Carolinas was created to mimic the “flare, style, smells, and sounds of a typical Latin American plaza” located in many Latin American countries, according to its developer.

The revitalization of the mall was done by Capital City Development — after the success of the original Plaza Fiesta Mall in Atlanta, Ga. — and the entire structure now truly recreates a faux-Latin American experience complete with fake stone walkways and street signs. Walking into Plaza Fiesta will bring back childhood memories of the Walt Disney World Resort’s recreation of the Mexico Pavilion at Epcot Center.

The mall portion of Plaza Fiesta is filled with outlet retailers like Black & Decker and Hamrick’s, along with individual “mercado” tenants who sell everything from pet supplies to lingerie. The food court is quite impressive as it has an array of Peruvian, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Chinese, Italian, Greek and Mexican foods.

The highlight for Plaza Fiesta is the two-story playground — touted as the "Southeast’s largest indoor playground." This playground is a behemoth. The cost for children to play is $4 per three-hour session during the week and $3 per 1 hour and 45-minute session.

Attached to the playground are an arcade and the birthday party center called “Happy Zone.”

The “Happy Zone” is six themed birthday rooms, which can accommodate either 25 or 45 children at a time. Each party is 2 hours and 30 minutes — which includes 1 hour and 30 minutes on the playground, and a 20-minute arcade card. The parties also include food, drinks and a party assistant to help run the party and clean up afterward. Parties are $12 per child during the week and $15 per child on the weekend.

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