When was the worst time you had at a Theme Park?

[talfonso]

I will be the first to say that my worst park day ever was in Disney World!

It was me, my mom, my aunt and my 6 year old cousin, in July of 1997. We were at Disney MGM Studios, and the park was absolutely shoulder to shoulder...the only comparison I can make was what the Olympics looked like in Atlanta in '96! We waited two hours each for Muppet*Vision, the Backlot Tour and The Little Mermaid *PLUS* a two hour wait to get pizza at Pizza Planet! The place was swarming with Brazilian tour groups, so not only was it crowded, but the crowds were chanting and singing non-stop in a different language! Oh god, I shudder to even think about that day!

What was so funny was that no other day of that trip was even close to that crowded! And I've never even seen it even remotely that crowded since.

 

-Julie

 

 

ACK! I feel your pain, dude - with your vacay in turismo season!

 

And speaking of which, I melted down at Epcot because a thunderstorm delayed the production of its nightly show, Illuminations. That was one July 4 there in 1995. (Trust me, all the turismos I thought I saw were Brazilian tour groups, blame my fuzzy memory for being so young!) We got ourselves cooped up in the shops in the Showcase Plaza at World Showcase. That long, nerve-pureeing wait made me have a bit of a tantrum (The Autism Demon came out of my shell and showed her true colors that fateful day!) When it stopped, I became satisfied and proceeded to watch the fireworks and lasers show Epcot is so famous for.

 

The day at Epcot was peanuts compared to my worst experience in the Magic Kingdom, dead on Christmas Day 1996. (You heard me, I went to WDW on one of the most crowded days of the year - silly Muetti, Vatti, and me, the Disneyphiles!) Almost every ride had super-duper-extended queues, and we had yet to check out the new-to-us Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but there's a long queue ffor that! Same with the greeting area in Ariel's Grotto - a super-long line to meet the Little Mermaid herself up close and personal! As a result, we rode just two rides for the day: Snow White's Scary Adventures (with her "Step out to your left please; step out to your left" spiel that get on your nerves) and "it's a small world" (doesn't need a description, for many of you who have suffered through it over 9000 times). Well, the shows and the old Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parade (with Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and Brer Fox in their old seafoam green costumes and the then-extant Roger Rabbit to boot) were worth the Christmas compensation cheer, anyway!

 

Lessons learned from the mistakes of the past: avoid peak seasons - you will surely save yourself and your family some grief.

[Capitalize]

SFA in October '04

 

Batwing was running one train (the thing is designed to run THREE), S:ROS running one train, Mind Eraser running one train, Wild One running two but stacking horribly, Two Face was closed. Joker's Jinx was running two, but then the yellow one rolled back. They ran that train empty the remainder of the day. The Park was very crowded, and the ride op's and vendors almost seemed as if they were trying to make people mad by going extremely slow.

 

Looking back though, I enjoyed it much more than I would have enjoyed being in school that week.

Wild One can not be operated without stacking, the fastest the ride can possibly be dispatched still involves the second train coming to a complete stop on the brake run before returning to the station. Thats just how that ride works. Nit picky, yes, but I hate it how stacking is used as some kind of criteria for enthusiast when many times they don't actually know how the ride operates...

 

I wish they would put retractable seat belts on that ride as that would speed up dispatches in a huge way. No more reaching around guests who forgot to put on the seat belt and no more needing to tie up the belts around the lap bars.

 

 

SFGADV two summers ago was probably my worst day at a park, we arrived just after opening on a weekday in August after driving up all morning from DC through the toll roads. The park was very quiet and empty; most rides were already slated to be closed for the day according to the sign out front. I got a couple back seat rides on Nitro, a ride on Skull Mountain, lunch. Then just after noon the park closed for the day forcing everyone to leave. Most guests were mad and complaining, which led to the costumer service and employees working the exit gates to get pretty pissy and rude with people.

 

They were giving out tickets to come back another day, but that didn't do me any good since I was using my SFA pass to get in that day anyways and I would not be able to come back on another day that season since I was going back to school hours away the next day. Basically it was upsetting to drive so far, pay so many tolls and use so much gas, not to mention paying the $10 or however much to park at the park to be sent away so early and with no warning because the park had low attendance.

[Kennyweird]

 

I wish they would put retractable seat belts on that ride as that would speed up dispatches in a huge way. No more reaching around guests who forgot to put on the seat and no more needing to tie up the belts around the lap bars.

 

 

No, you don't. The Phantom's Revenge has seat belts like that, and they're constantly jamming because coins and stuff fall down the belt slot and get caught in the tensioner.

 

It doesn't matter what type of seat belt they install, people are still going to have trouble using it.

[Capitalize]

I've never seen the ones on Phantoms Revenge, but I think belts similar to those at use Kings Dominion would be fine. Much smoother operating than the belts they currently have...

[metrock]

This is an interesting question because I can't really think of my "worst time." Even when conditions are not favorable, I do my best to make the most of it.

 

If anything, I'll just be annoyed. But in the end, I'll manage to have fun.

 

For instance, I was quite annoyed when I visited SFAW in '04. More than half of the coasters were closed, including 3 I really wanted to ride (Greezed Lightin', Batman the Escape, and Ultra Twister). I did however get on Texas Cyclone, another coaster I was looking forward to. Glad I did considering it was town down the following year along with the rest of the park. It's a bummer that I'll never have a chance to go back and ride the coasters I missed. And so far, none that I missed have been rebuilt elsewhere.

[XII]

My worst visit would be at SFMM this past August. Every ride there had at least an hour wait. And even though it was this crowded, X2 was still only running one train, so that caused me to get very frustrated. While it doesn't sound nearly as bad as what I've read from other TPR Members, I did not go home happy that day.

[bp/19]

SFGADV in 2005 was pretty bad. We got the park late in the afternoon and got in line for Kingda Ka, there was a rope that led from the rides regular entrance like a mile down the midway where there was a line greeter sitting in the middle of the midway. We missed the real "entrance" while walking through Golden Kingdom so ducked under the rope and entered under the entrance sign since the line didnt extend out. After waiting through the queue house and breakdowns, we realized they were collecting boarding passes and had an "oh crap" moment and left the line, and re-entered through the entrance where the greeter was and got boarding passes.

 

We waited through the line again and watched some lady get extremely mad that she didn't have a boarding pass but pleaded with security that she waited through the whole line (naturally we knew what hapenned and it really wasnt here fault, just ignorance to the fact the line started somewhere else). Security, not very nice people at SFGAdv at the time, had some attitude and made a big scene with her. Then we were almost to the station when the ride broke down again and was down for the night. At this point it was dark and we rode GASM, Chiller, and Nitro and that was it. Nitro was running 3 trains but the load times were so excruciatingly slow each train would literally sit in the brake run for like 10 minutes before coming back in the station. People were chanting "get us off!" etc.

 

Spent the next day at SFGAdv also and it was more of the same. We did end up getting on Kingda Ka once after waiting through another bunch of breakdowns. Got all the credits and got the hell out.

 

My next visit to GAdv was in 2008 and the park was ran much better however something pretty hysterical hapenned while waiting in line for Rolling Thunder. Only 1 side was open and it was 1 train op, we were in the station when they stopped running the ride and there were about 10 employees all up in the station and they just stopped working and started talking to eachother. The train literally sat in the station while the employees stood at the control panel and talked to eachother.

 

About 1/2 hour later they opened the gates and kept running the ride. We asked the fulltime supervisor that was up there what was up with that after we rode and she said "we were debating weather to add a train or not." (they didnt, it reopened with 1). I found that kindve sad but funny and shrugged it off but the people I was there with with made sure to stay there and give her a pretty good verbal beatdown. It did really suck waiting the station for a crappy ride like Rolling Thunder, having no idea whats going on and the employees wont even talk to any of the guests, watching El Toro zip by every few minutes and listening to "Rawhide" playing over the station speakers over and over again.

 

 

 

Another bad experience was CP in 2007. We left Geauga Lake early in the afternoon in hopes of catching a few night rides at CP and got in line for Dragster when we arrived. About 2 trains before it was our turn it started raining so the ride went down. Awhile later it stopped raining and they tried to test it but to no avail, it was down for the rest of the night. They were nice enough to walk us over to MF though and it started storming right before we got on MF, so we got a thunderstorm ride on MF which was pretty sweet.

 

The next day though the Intamin bug got us again. Had early entry because of Breakers Express and went to Maverick which wasnt open yet. It opened about 45 minutes late and we got on it then went to MF, which wasnt open yet (also was supposed to be open for early entry). Waited in the long line outside the entrance and it opened like a half hour later and we made it to the station, and it broke down again. After a bit they fixed it and we rode then got in line for Wicked Twister, and it broke down! Dragster also broke down on us again later that day.

 

Later that night we went to Maverick for our last ride. It was broken down so we walked around for a bit then went back once it re-opened. It broke down at least 3 or 4 times while we were in line and they werent announcing any of them, there was like a 20 minute gap between trains then when they would send one everyone would start cheering. There finally was one really long downtime that wasnt announced and I thought the queue house (that was full) was going to go into an all-out riot. Eventually the ride worked long enough for us to get on.

 

At SFMM sometime last summer, in line for X2 it was moving extremely slow. After waiting through the queue house we got to the split and the line didnt move for over 1/2 hour. The ride was running 2 trains the load times werent bad or anything, we couldnt figure out what was going on. Trains were still going by with frequency so I looked to see if they were trying to clear out the line in the station or post-split but they werent, both stations had groupers the whole time. I find it hard to believe they were just letting Flashpasses through the split for 1/2 hour, but thats what it looked like was going on.

 

For a comical one, it was looking like I was going to be late for work one morning in 2005 so I was sprinting through SFGAm's employee parking lot to clock in on time. Well....since breaking my foot playing football i've had kindve a funky walk which doesnt translate well into sprinting and ended up eating it on the rocks and completely gashing up my leg. Still determined not to be late, got up and kept running on a limp and got into the office leg gushing blood and everything, and swiped with 2 seconds to spare. Then took a nice painful walk to Giant Drop and told one of my co workers I was going to first aid. At first aid the guy working there had a good laugh...then soiled my entire leg in what felt like rubbing alchohaul (not pleasant) and wrapped it up. Then I went back to Giant Drop and worked my shift.

 

My visit to Indiana Beach in 2008 just sucked. We got there at opening and neither Steel Hawg or Cornball was open. The place was packed, the coasters that were open were running 1 train, LoCoSuMo broke down a bunch of times while we were frying in the sun in the long, horrible slow moving queue. Cornball didnt open until around 3pm and Steel Hawg didnt open until after that. We waited outside Steel Hawg's entrance for awhile and it vallied (literally stopped in the middle of a turn and sat there until later they went and pushed it) and opened it a few hours later. Luckily we waited outside the entrance again and got on it with a wait of only 1-1 1/2 hours, the line was full queues and extended nearly halfway down the park (Steel Hawgs capacity is TERRIBLE, has to be the lowest capacity coaster i've ever seen), felt kinda bad for the people in that line.

 

 

I stopped in Vegas while driving out to Cali and went to Stratosphere first thing in the morning. I asked if the rides were going to be open and they said yes, at 10AM, so I walked around a bit and returned at 10 and the rides did not open because of cold. Manhatten Express was down for rehab, Speed was going through its big downtime at the time and re-opened not long after my trip, the entire Adventuredome was down for rehab (found this out when I got to Circus Circus, completely my fault for not checking , but still seemed bizarre the entire park would be down), so the only ride I got on that day was Desperado which was horrible.

[coastersrule85]

^...all I can say is "wow..."

 

I'm the same as metrock, I love amusement parks so I can't say that I've had a bad day, just some that I might have been more annoyed with.

 

One was this year at Kentucky Kingdom. I'd been told that I could go pretty much on any day and not have to deal with lines. Lucky me, I happened to go on the day when they were having a Christian concert so every church in the area was there. Until the concert started we had horribly long waits all day! All in all, it was still okay. I got in all of my coaster credits and checked off another park visited.

 

Probably my most annoying park trip was also this past summer, a trip to SFGAdv. It was a long day filled with rides constantly going down which created long lines elsewhere, crazy line jumping, and, the worst annoyance, a rude employee at Carnegie Deli. I received my order and asked for my fresh strawberry to be put on my cheesecake like the sign said when I was told in the most hilariously Jersey accent that they didn't do that there. Which turned out to be good for me because I could tell and retell the story when I got home. And, with each telling, my Jersey accent got more and more exaggerated! ...although, I still want my dang strawberry, AND my sprinkling of powdered sugar that was also on the sign and of which I did not receive...

 

...I will have justice!

[viper1988]

Hey Papas remember that one time we went to La Ronde and those guys were smoking pot right next to the no smoking sign!

 

Also to add on to your Cedar Point Millennium Force in the storm story, remember how Hot Summer Lights was going on simultaneously and there was the giant dancing chicken with the fire shooting up everywhere when we were being escorted to ride Force in the rain! Good times

 

I would have to agree with many, that my short 3 hour trip to Six Flags America was terrible. It was April of 2007 and Six Flags was just rolling out their Loose Article Program, however they had not installed any locks on the lockers yet! But they were still enforcing the loose article policy! Of course I had my huge Digital SLR bag and I expected the lockers to have locks on them but boy was I fooled. I had the Supervisor of S:ROS personally hold my bag because the policy made absolutely 0 sense. You cant expect people to not bring bags in line and just leave them in open lockers in Washington DC.

[Skycoastin Steve]

This past April I brought a friend along to SFoG on "Bring a friend for $10" day, which happened to be a Saturday. Not only was it hotter than Eva Mendes in a thong bikini out, every single line was at least 90 minutes by 1:00. My friend had never been to SFoG, and was only able to get 4 credits before we finally threw our hands up in disgust and just left. It was just bad timing, but it was the only day we could go. Either way, that was probably the worst experience I've had.

[FeelTheFORCE]

Honestly, I don't have bad times when I go to parks. I only get to go to a few each summer, so when I do go, I thoroughly enjoy my time spent there.

[Mike Austin]

Kings Dominion during the 2008 East Coast trip.

 

What an absolutely abysmal and depressing day [for me] that day was.

My least favourite park I've ever been to, on a day in my life I hope to never re-live. =\

[Steelinwood]

My worst experience was at sfne. It's my home park and it's gotten better, but my mothers camera was stolen and my dad was sick so he didn't want to go on superman, that was a few years ago.

[freestylenut]

I'd say my worst to date was just this September when I was at World Disney World for 3 days...my sandwich day was at Disney Hollywood Studios and it was indeed my worst theme park day on record...

 

After a magical, fun-filled (& exhausting) day at Magic Kingdom the day before, we visit Disney Hollywood on a Sunday...I think my 5-year old was still exhausted from the previous day's "fun" because she not only had 1, but TWO massive temper tantrums! She hadn't had a tantrum in almost 2 years...and we thought she was over that phase, but I reckon not. She had one in the morning & one in the evening...so as to prevent us from actually getting in a good mood. On top of that it rained on & off all day (when it DID rain, it was heavy).

 

Despite getting there at gate opening, the show schedules were made so that is IMPOSSIBLE to see ALL the shows in one day (kudos Disney, MAKE us buy those multi-day passes), further on top of that, besides a few exceptions, most attractions at Disney Hollywood (formerly Disney MGM) need a MAJOR rehab...Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, Star Tours, & ESPECIALLY the Great Movie Ride are indeed showing their age (the latter not even working correctly most of the time)...the shows they DID add were a PAIN for me to sit through (High School Musical 3 and American Idol?!?! Kill me now, please!)...to add insult to injury the final American Idol showing we went to ran too long & we were late to Fantasmic...standing room only by the time we got there...it was humid already, but try having a 5-year old on your shoulders & a 8 year old held up in your arms for a good chunk of the show! It capped off a stressful, humid, rainy and even MORE exhausting day!....The mood the whole day was just "pissy" & somber...not quite what you have in mind when visiting a Disney park. Animal Kingdom the next day more then made up for it!

 

I hadn't visited Disney MGM/Hollywood Studios in well over 10 years...but I can honestly say I don't care to visit Disney Hollywood for another 20 unless its totally FREE!

[Zingoman]

Hands down, probably the worste time I've had at a park was King's Island 2009 opening day. Not a whole lot went well for me that day.

 

Anytime I have a dream about being at a park, I never get to ride anything becaus something always happens to prevent it. This was very much my day at KI. Of course I was there for Diamond Back. We got to the park barely in time, had a hundred delays getting parked, meeting up with friends, and getting through the front gate. By the time we were anywhere near getting in line for DB it was pure chaos. Every ride we went to was down or went down after waiting in line. Firehawk, the Beast, Crypt, Son of Beast, and Flight of Fear all broke down or were down when we tried to get it line. Yes, I know it was opening day and the rides aren't broken in yet for the season. I don't blame the park. To top it off the whole day was an endless side track nightmare. Every five second we would see someone we knew and had to stop for ten minutes and chat. I was goin nuts! I love the coasters at KI and I just wanted to get my ride on! lol. Worst park day ever.

[thrillrideseeker]

The worst time I have ever had at a theme park was when I went to Cedar Point for Halloweekends with my sister. We spent the entire day doing what she wanted, we rode stupid ass rides like Monster, and Witches Wheel, but when it came time to do the only thing I wanted to do (the haunted maze thing in Thunder Canyon) after waiting in line for an hour she decided she was ready to go home, so we had to leave. I was livid. We spent the entire day doing for her, and she wouldnt do anything we wanted to do.

~Matthew

[B&Mmmmm]

Worst day I've ever had at a theme park? Only one time stands out at-all.

 

Thorpe Park, september 2009.

I was there with my little brother, whom happens to be annoying and a little hyperactive, a standard annoying 11 year old I guess. So I spent most the day avoiding him (I'm so cool...) Pretty early on I qued 45minutes for Saw with him. All he did for the entire que was try to punch me/go out of his own way to be irritating. In the end Saw: The Ride provided the whole torture experience for me. The mental anguish of the que line plus the physical agony of the headbanging all in the same ride.

 

I had a sore throat all day and was drinking loads, meaning that in every big que by the end of it I was either dehydrated or needing the toilet (So skillful). In another 40minute que for Colossus I was stuck in a que with a bunch of Polish people. It's not that which annoyed me about them, it's the fact they kept obnoxiously bumping into me and pulling their trousers down. BRILLIANT. A 40 minute que whilst dehydrated, needing the toilet, surrounded by wasps and some Polish people practically sexually harrasing eachother. -.O . Colossus may be excellent but it's still but not worth that imo

 

But overall, how was my day? Great! It had a few downsides but I still enjoyed it. The rides were great, the ques weren't bad (only 30min + was colossus and Saw), and I got a decent amount of rides on everything. I honestly can't say I've had any bad days at theme parks, only a few bad experiences.

[Crazy_Behemoth_Lady_Jess]

Haven't really had that many terrible experiances but if I had to say I guess it would be either of these two.

 

- When I got my very first "first aid room credit" at SFOT in March for some "ill effects" from Titan. Mom threw a big fit at me about it and was like "You should never go on such crazy rollercoasters ever again." But hey, it's not really my fault my health isn't good, and neither was it my fault that I was sick on that week we were going to Texas. I've had another first aid room credit too but that wasn't as bad. It was just for motion sickness.

 

- SFDK in July. So disappointed that I had missed out on 3 whole credits. Tony Hawk's Big Spin due to motion sickness, Roar because it was broken and didn't open at all, and Roadrunner Express because I didn't even know it existed. Not to mention I dropped my camera so many times that the outer casing cracked open. It still works fine but it's looks really beat up.

[phantomfan93]

Mine is probably at Kennywood when I was stuck in the first aid room for 1 1/2 hours. After we went on Thunderbolt my ridemate slammed into me and I had a terrible pain in my side for about an hour before I went to the first aid. I ended up cutting about five hours because I went to first aid for 1 1/2 hours and 3 1/2 hours at the hospital all for 2 broken ribs. So I went back, but I couldn't ride anything.

[Oberthewhat]

Pretty much any time i went to Six Flags America.

[matteocrepaldi]

This year when I went to Gardaland. The only reason I decided to go was because I had some free admissions, I needed the park map for my collection and I wanted to try the new Vekoma trains.

The good thing was that the park was pretty much dead and there was no line.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy any of the rides of the day. Even the free fall tower wich used to be my favourit one didn't give me any special feeling.

 

Mirabilandia is so much better!

[jray21]

One word, Knott's.

 

We went during the slow season, and everything was either closed, or a delayed one train dispatch. They would wait for about five minutes to dispatch, after you were already buckled in, and even with people in line. Lot's of people yelling and threatening each other, including a few cast members. It was a few years ago.

[Badgergrrrl]

Going to Great America and being sick to begin with. We had season passes and it was the last day of the season, so we wanted to use them one last time. Unfortuantely I had that 24 hour flu--even the carousel made me puke!

[Crazy_Behemoth_Lady_Jess]

Going to Great America and being sick to begin with. We had season passes and it was the last day of the season, so we wanted to use them one last time. Unfortuantely I had that 24 hour flu--even the carousel made me puke!

 

Ugh riding while sick. I know definately how that feels. Canada's Wonderland 2007 Flight Deck (or Top Gun as it was known as). My cousins wanted to try riding it for the first time and I thought I was going to give it a go. I had a really bad cold already that week that I went to Ontario and it didn't get better much. Long story short, rode Flight Deck/Top Gun and ended up going home wrapped in a picnic blanket.

 

Seems like most of my bad experiances at parks occur when I'm sick beforehand.

[themeparkologist]

In '07 at Magic Kingdom, a guy from Germany would not shut up! He told us his whole life story in the Space Mountain line! I was so irritated. I got a headache for the rest of the day! It's hard to ride coasters when 8 year olds behind us screamed their heads off.

 

No offense to any annoying Germans.