Visting big Theme Parks

[verticalzero]

When you visit a large Theme Park like Disney or Cedar Point, How do you plan your day..?

 

Do you head for the rear of the park and ride the coasterrs before anyone else or start at the front of the park..

[thrillgeek]

I'd do research first and hit the most popular attractions first before the lines get unbearable. That might just be me though. I'm sure Rob and Elissa use a different approach.

[Carnage]

That's way too broad of a question.

 

It varies greatly from park to park, and even time of the year/day,etc.

 

But generally it's a good idea to head to any low capacity rides first.

[RenegadeFan]

It varies. Most big parks have there "big" rides spread all out, so if you get there right away, you should be able to get to one or two before the lines starting racking up. Any new ride at a big park is, of course, going to be packed.

 

I agree with everyone that you should refine your question to one park, or at least one resort.

[Sasquatch]

Your best bet is to hit the lower capacity rides first, for instance Rita at Alton Towers. Then, go for the ones around it, and save the super high capacity ones till last. Then, you will probably have time for re-rides

[lizzybear]

Whichever is the most popular ride that we want to do, we'll head to first. I think the key for any theme park is to get there for opening (as in be parked up, tickets purchased and at the turnstiles/rope drop before the park is due to open) From there we'll usually do any other popular ones in that area, then head to the next area with popular rides. However, if there are Fastpasses (like at Disney parks) we might get one before doing our first ride of the day if they are available.

As an example: At Alton Towers a couple of weeks ago we headed to Rita Queen of Speed first.. (since it's the newest and seems to be the number one ride right now) The opening time was actually 10am but they let people in to park from something like 9 and the queue was already at around 15 minutes by 10am when the ride opened. From there we went straight to Nemesis and Air and had done the three most popular rides way before 11 when the crowds were pouring in!

[Dino_Martini]

For planning my trip to Disney I picked up the book the 'Unofficial Guide to Disneyland'. They have sort of like daily schedules in there. They guide you on which rides to hit when and in what order. I dont know how well they work though, as I havent actually been to Disney yet.