Too Fast For Comfort

I get it. Just remember that not everyone is a mind reader so when you make your posts, if you're not being serious, and it isn't obvious to the reader, consider a different approach. - Major rides at the end of the night. Flight of Passage is a great example of this. Get in line right as the park closes. My average wait on about 30 rides is maybe 40 minutes. - Consider timing of other things going on and an attractions demographic. Example: I've had great luck with super short lines on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train right as the fireworks start. It may still say 70 minutes, but I don't think I've ever waited more than 30. Why? Because 1. the fireworks are going on and people are distracted with those. 2. It caters more towards smaller kids, many of which don't end up making it through the day and that is a FP that is often not used later in the evening. So while there are still a lot of FP "out there" on people's apps that they could be using, they seem to get forfeited because when they made those FP 60 days ago, they didn't take into consideration that their 5 year old might not make it until 9:00pm. - Predicting the timing and patters of guests can be helpful. Example: at Epcot, almost EVERYONE goes to Frozen right when the park opens. I've seen the line for Frozen only be posted at 30-40 minutes about 2-3 hours after the park has opened because so many people have rushed to it first thing in the morning, they rode it, and then they moved on. A lot of attractions will get their "2nd wave" at around noon to 1pm because those are the people who just couldn't get up in the morning to make it for rope drop! So sometimes there is this small window from about 11am - 12:30pm where you can luck out and get on some rides without much wait. Those are just a few things off the top of my head... Those are all interesting points. Thank you for the ideas. I've found that Disney is a whole other animal compared to other chains and strategy is everything. So I'm always looking for new pointers and things to learn. I've found that I can feel like I have the perfect plan, and show up and still get crushed with crowds sometimes. But luckily I live close enough that I can just leave if I'm not getting on what I want.

I don't know, it takes 5-10 minutes or less to drive from an Airbnb in Sandusky to the park. If you have a Gold or Platinum Pass you get the same early entry as the hotel guests. You make rope drop as a non-hotel guest and you'll get very close parking. Walk to the hotel entrance. Not that many extra steps, and you get a much bigger and nicer placer to stay at a small fraction of the cost. and when you want to make a quick stop at the room to change your shoes, or grab a snack, or get some sunscreen? or take a nap, or use the pool/hottub? WITHOUT having to walk to your car, move your car, and deal with finding a spot when you come back? yeah. yer nuts, dude, and Elissa is correct. I've found that with my experience traveling a lot and going to parks a ton, I have it down to a science. I pack very little when I go to a park for one thing, but I also need very little. For the enormous cost savings that I get with Airbnb, I can just buy what I need at the park in an absolute "oh crap" emergency, or just pack what I need. Sunscreen is easy to pack or buy. Sunglasses are easy to wear or put in my pockets. I generally try to avoid rides that get me soaked. And oh yeah, you're also allowed to rent a locker. I never do, but if paying for a $10 locker will allow to save a ton of money and go with Airbnb, economically it makes sense. And it takes a very minimal amount of time to drive to an Airbnb and back. The one we stayed at was less than three miles away, and there was no traffic. I'd only go back when the park was very crowded, so any time you'd waste would be during junk time when you couldn't get on much anyway. If the park was dead all day long, I'd take advantage of it, and just ride all time, and maybe even call it an earlier day and hit the bars early (not that there is much of a nightlife in Sandusky). The last point brings me to another point -- I'd be a lot more likely to stay on site if there was a nightlife on the island. There's really only that TGIFrdays to my knowledge. Otherwise, you have to drive off site anywhere to get drinks, see live music, and party. If there was a "downtown Cedar Point" I'd be very tempted to stay at an on-site hotel.

For the record, not that it matters, but there are 16 RMCs that have opened to the public, not 20. Six Flags has 56.25% of the RMCs. That's majority. Again, not that it matters or anybody cares.

This is absoultely NOT TRUE at all. It is only true if you are not a smart theme park patron and you follow the sheep into every single long line without thinking or being strategic on how to maximize your FP+ options combined with the best times to get into a stand by line. I cannot tell you how many times I've stood in the Flight of Passage standby line and it only took me 25 minutes to get on the ride because I was smart about when I chose to get in that line. I can also tell you that I've been on attraction like Frozen, Toy Story Mania, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, etc, in the MIDDLE OF THE DAY without a Fast Pass and only waited 20-40 minutes because you figure out when are peak periods for rides and not peak periods. Also doing some smart second guessing as to when people are and are not booking Fast Passes comes into play as well. It annoys me when people claim that you "HAVE to get a FastPass or you're not getting on the bigger rides" because that's completely false. I would hope that the people posting to these forums would know better. I apologize, I was speaking in hyperbole. I was just emphasizing that they're very helpful. What are some of your tips for the best ways to get short standby lines? I'm always down for advice.

I don't know, it takes 5-10 minutes or less to drive from an Airbnb in Sandusky to the park. If you have a Gold or Platinum Pass you get the same early entry as the hotel guests. You make rope drop as a non-hotel guest and you'll get very close parking. Walk to the hotel entrance. Not that many extra steps, and you get a much bigger and nicer placer to stay at a small fraction of the cost. But that being said, I certainly support anyone staying on site and supporting the park. I'm not a cheapskate myself, but I appreciate a good deal. If anyone wants to full CP experience I fully support it, and I support people supporting my #1 park in the world.

There's another factor at play here: Disney Cast Members are told to use between a 1:1 ratio and a 4:1 ratio favoring the FP+ line over the stand-by line at their discretion. But the higher the wait time, the more likely they are to go to a complete 4:1 ratio to make sure that they drain the FP+ line ASAP. So consider that your stand-by line is being throttled by about 5x compared to if FP+ didn't exist. This actually only refers to WDW so I can't speak to how the FP+ works at other Disney parks outside of Orlando. I'd assume that the different variations of Fast Pass most likely also use the 4:1 ratio. The takeaway is that Disney these days lives and dies by those Fast Passes. If you can get good ones, you can get on some rides. If you miss out on them, expect to wait a lot longer in the stand-by.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with the park's history, but for year's SFA had the Typhoon Sea Coaster -- in fact it was built by Adventure World before SF purchased the park. It was later renamed to Skull Mountain. It was basically an Intamin log flume that had turntables that would turn the boat around, and you could experience going forwards and backwards. Believe it or not, the ride had immersive theming too. The tunnels had animatronics and props, and on the outside, they set up entrances to fake shops and warehouses as eye candy to look at when you were floating around. You would drop out of the skull that the Wild One passed under. The ride was plagued by technical issues. It was always down, breaking down, or were having to evacuate the riders. The staffing level was pretty high too, as there had to be an employee at every turntable. It was a good ride, but I think that the popularity took a hit because of his unreliable it was, and how almost every regular at the point either had been evacuated at one point or knew somebody who had been evacuated from it. So it was inevitable that it would be taken out, and SFA hasn't really added a true dark ride since.

Damn, I've never seen waits like that at Fun Spot. Usually the park is so dead that there will be empty seats on every train... and sometimes I'm the only person on the train. Busch gets very crowded very frequently. Cheetah Hunt and Cobra's Curse easily get to two hours. But Monday-Thursday isn't too bad if its not in the summer or around the holidays. Unfortunately it closes so early that its hard for me to get to directly coming from work (I'm not going to waste PTO on my home park). Universal just doesn't get crazy crowds in general. And yeah, I don't know why people ignore the single rider lines so much... I think they're awesome! I wish every ride had one.

Well, I think that the complication of BGT is that two of its most premier rides: Kumba and Montu -- never really get a line (they may, but only when the park is absolutely jammed, like during the holidays) but some rides that you may want to ride, but may not be extremely excited about WILL get lines. And if you don't get right on Cheetah Hunt, the line will be as long as it will be midday. So that's why I was saying that some strategy helps. You just have to know that Kumba and Montu will be near walk-ons most of the day, and that certain rides that you wouldn't think will be problems will get the longest lines. Oh yeah, also the shows in the Moroccan Palace are the best in the park -- and probably some of the best shows I've seen at any park. They usually show Turn it Up throughout much of the year, and have a more Christmas themed show during Christmas.

OK, probably true. I only really go on weekends or after work on Friday. I never really use vacation time to go there, and any holiday would be worse than a weekend. But one thing to remember about BGT is that it has very short operating hours M-Th outside of the summer.

No wonder you hate Six Flags so much. I don't know man, I've been to about 2/3 of the parks in the chain, and they all more or less have the same yuckiness to them. I love the coasters at Six Flags parks... I think that they more or less stack up to Cedar Fair as a whole. And most of the RMCs are are at SF parks, so that's a huge leg up. But the advantages and/or similarities end there. Other than the quality of the coasters, nothing about Six Flags is first rate. But by the same token, other parks are 1st class all the way, but just don't have great rides and cater to kids. So what's the point of taking the time to go to a great park just won't give you great rieds? So not to say that I hate SF parks, but they just generally have a "yuckiness" to them that's hard to describe in words.

When I was about to leave on Saturday, Kumba was pretty close to a walk-on BUT Montu was 45 minutes. Hit-or-miss, really. Yeah, Kumba will never have a longer line than Montu -- Kumba is tucked away in the back of the park, and hard to see if you're not looking for it, while Montu is the first thing you see when you're coming in from the parking lot. But they're both 32 person 2-3 train coasters, so if the crowds are manageable it doesn't take much for them both to be walk-ons. But if Montu is a near walk-on or walk-on, you can guarantee that Kumba will be too -- and there's a chance that the front will be a walk-on for Kumba too. So that's why I suggest that you don't do Kumba or Montu until you've exhausted all of the other rides that might get lines that day if you made rope drop. Once Tigris opens, the strategy will get pretty interesting. You'll need to hit Tigris at rope drop, but you'll have to figure out how to get to Cheetah Hunt at some point too. Then once RMC Gwazi opens, the game theory will get even more complex.

Wow, you know you're a coaster enthusiast when you spend a whole week in Florida, and go to every park there BUT Disney. I go to Disney a lot, but I also live in Florida. SeaWorld is certainly a hidden gem. Good rides and a fun atmosphere and its always dead. Funspot is always dead too. You can get 10x rides in on Mine Blower without getting off 99% of the time. Busch is my home park and I live very close to it, but it can get pretty crowded. Probably the only park on your list that will actually get lines. There's no shame in credit whoring. I think its part of the fun of a park of getting on as many coasters as you can. You pay admission for as many rides as you can get on, so you might as well take advantage of it. You get on every coaster, and then you can decide for yourself which one you want to focus on. An interesting strategy that I stumbled into at BGT: at rope drop, instead of beeling to Cheetah Hunt like everyone else, head over to Shiekra while its a walk-on. You can get in 5-10 rides on it at rope drop (its awesome BTW, probably the best vertical drop coaster out there). Then eventually you can pick-up Cheetah Hunt and Cobra's Curse... unfortunately they'll always have lines and you'll have to live with that. Or you could do the traditional strategy and hope that you can do a good job at rope drop and get one no wait lap on Cheetah Hunt, and do what you can to get on Cobra's Curse before the line builds up before circulating around the park. Scorpion gets long lines too due to the single train ops, so get to that early. Its not really mind blowing, but its worth getting on at least once. Every other coaster rarely has big lines. If you see 30 minute lines for Kumba or Montu, you know that its a very crowded day. Usually in my experience Kumba is an absolute walk-on 90% of the day, and the Montu line moves very fast if there even is one.

I've never once given the little a critter a thought. Travel a ton for work and pleasure. Never had an issue to my knowledge. Maybe they're having a party on my backside and I don't know it. Its just easier not to think about it and move on if its never been an issue.

I went through and gave them my clicks for the entertainment value. Just wanted to post here and mention how hilarious it was when they mentioned Nickelodeon Universe as a disappointment. They're talking about Disney, Universal, SeaWorld, and other major parks, and they're disappointed that a little kiddie park in a mall isn't the great park on Earth. Hilarious.

I meant to say "ride" not coaster. Always guaranteed to see some ride closures, if not including a coaster or two in there as well. I've been to about 2/3 of the SF parks in the chain, will probably get to the rest within a few years. Its the same everywhere. In contrast, CF is usually one at most, but most days they run everything. Don't think I've ever been to a SF park where everything was operating all at once -- and SFA used to be my home park as a kid and I'd go 5-10 times a year.

Where is this a thing? I've only seen this at parks where it was necessary because the queue was split by a midway and they were just there to pulse the line because they had to be because it was either a stupid or abnormally massive queue. I've never seen a park pay someone to walk around a queue and answer questions. That sounds totally pointless. I've been going to Disney a lot lately and Universal some. Its expensive to fully staff your parks, but it does help. Plus, remember that at the theme parks, the line is almost a part of the ride, so in many ways, you need some staff to make sure that the guests are going through at the right times. Sure, the amusement parks where there's little to no theming and/or the lines are always very manageable, parks can feel free to remove staff as needed. Or, as you were saying, not even consider having staff in certain areas at all. But even at the amusement parks, you'll see a lot of staff on certain rides that are excessive and not realize it. Think about the log flume-ish rides and their derivatives. You'll see employees chilling at the top of the drops reading books to kill the time.

Since BGT is a year round park, they usually always have their maintenance schedule posted on their website. It’s always worth a look before planning a trip there, especially in the off-season. Yeah, that's definitely pretty awesome that Busch does this. For one -- they actually do awesome maintenance, but keeping people in the loop is great too. Six Flags doesn't care. They don't do a bad job on maintenance, but I don't see them going out of their way to keep guests in the loop. I think that what kills Six Flags is that the employees will often not know how to respond to an issue or will struggle to get a train out when the system starts acting up. Better training and having the money to hire A players could let them hire ride ops who were more mechanically savvy and better able to adapt to different scenarios. Also probably don't have enough mechanics on staff to respond to issues. Cedar fair and six flags are basically the same when listing ride closures. I actually found ride closures slightly easier to find at six flags parks. Typically they have a board at the parks entrance, and listed on the website. Its just a rite of passage at a Six Flags park to look at the board, and see 2-4 rides that they're not even attempting to open for the day. Then you get the rides that break down on top of that throughout the day. And of course the worst is when its a coaster that you need the credit for.

It may be a wild card in 2019, unlike the Steelers. Maybe it'll be a 2020 top 10 draft pick then.

The only way Copperhead would be off would be if for some reason it was only at one train operations early on in the season.

I'm pretty loyal to Airbnb. Its awesome if you want just a private room, or an entire house for you and your friends and/or family. I've even been cheap enough where I've just rented a couch or private space in a room -- haven't done that in a while, but I'll do the hostels every now and then. When my friends and I went to Sandusky last May, we got an Airbnb for that portion of the road trip. We got an entire house for a very, very low price that was still incredibly close to the park with free driveway parking. We went to Cedar Point two whole days and the rope drop and morning of the third day. Having the entire place was great for the second day, we did the first few hours at the park, went back to the Airbnb in the middle of the day and killed time, made lunch and watched a movie and watched some news, and went back to CP for the evening.

Since BGT is a year round park, they usually always have their maintenance schedule posted on their website. It’s always worth a look before planning a trip there, especially in the off-season. Yeah, that's definitely pretty awesome that Busch does this. For one -- they actually do awesome maintenance, but keeping people in the loop is great too. Six Flags doesn't care. They don't do a bad job on maintenance, but I don't see them going out of their way to keep guests in the loop. I think that what kills Six Flags is that the employees will often not know how to respond to an issue or will struggle to get a train out when the system starts acting up. Better training and having the money to hire A players could let them hire ride ops who were more mechanically savvy and better able to adapt to different scenarios. Also probably don't have enough mechanics on staff to respond to issues.

That's unfortunate news about ShieKra. I just went to BGT a week ago, and for the first time ever I saw it running four trains with both loading stations operating. It made the line move extremely quickly for once. I was hoping that they'd keep the four loading station mojo up.

I would try to make my rides European style, but emphasize the park to gear more towards adults and young professionals and families with older kids rather than focusing on kids. I say European style in the sense that I would want big time thrilling coasters with quality theming and landscaping as well. But, most of those parks generally have 2-3 thrill coasters with the rest being kiddie rides. I'd want almost everything to be a signature, big time ride. Maybe offer a babysitting service for the kiddie so that the parents can have fun, and give their existing kids more siblings.

As I say, the only GP question is the question not asked. You're probably talking about the ride operator. A high functioning coaster has the following positions: Greeter: First person or persons you see when you enter the queue line. They answer some questions for the guests, stare them down to make sure they'll be able to get on the ride, and not have to get a locker for their loose items, take care of the first round of priority queue obligations or watch the single rider line, and do other duties as necessary. Crowd Control: Person or persons that you see that separate the queue line from the station. They stop people from entering and have them wait periodically and make sure that the station doesn't get too crowded. They manage the flow between the priority queue and the main queue. They're the last line of defense to make sure that the guests can ride and that their loose articles are taken care of in adherence with the park policy. Restraint Checkers: The man the station, and ensure that the restraints are properly in place and that all guests are safe. Ride Operator: He/she sits in the control booth, look for signals from the restraint checkers, and dispatch the train when its ready. This is usually the highest level of employee stationed in the a ride -- considered to be "operating heavy machinery." Even higher functioning parks will also have employees roving around the queue line, monitoring, answering questions, and managing the flow of guests. Lower functioning parks or parks operating at partial capacity will sacrificing the rovers, the greeters, and the crowd control. Its generally difficult to properly allow a priority queue with only restraint checkers and a ride op, but when crowds are light enough, full capacity may not be needed. So what you were referring to probably describes the ride operator. Some people casually call all employees on a ride a "ride operator" or "ride op" but technically that just refers to the employee at the control panel.