Riding Solo

Do any of you go to parks alone? If so how often? I want to know if i'm the only one who has been to a park by myself.

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"One good thing about all this, with all this fresh air were gonna sleep like babies"

I've been to a few parks by myself. I went to Great Escape once by myself because the rest of my family felt like going to Waterslide World down the road. I didn't go to IOA alone, but because no one else wanted to go on Hulk or DD, I rode those multiple times by myself.
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"When they come for me I'll be sittin at my desk, with a gun in my hand wearing a bulletproof vest!"
-Catch 22

Many of us go alone. There is nothing wrong with it. In fact, it can reduce your wait times with the single riders queue, and often the loading ops will put up a finger if looking for one, like on Drop Zone at PKI, cut my wait time by half an hour.

I'm 37 yrs old. Last year, I flew to Columbus Ohio all by myself, rented a car, visited PKI, Kennywood, SFO, and Cedar Point, I was never bored or lonely.

2 months ago I went to IOA for a day, I had a blast.

You talk to people in line. They see your coaster shirts and start chatting it up.

Being alone lets you do whatever you want, plus it drastically reduces your costs (plane rides, tickets, food, etc.).

This year, I'm flying to SFMM, KBF in September.

When you add people, they just drag you down and complicate things, especially if they are not true coaster fans.

Yeah, go alone and enjoy yourself.

I've been to many parks all by myself: Cedar Point, Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Michigan's Adventure, Hersheypark, Dorney Park and others which escape me at the moment. I enjoy going with other people or by myself, both have their positive points.

If traveleing by myself, for instance, if I want to ride Demon Drop 10 times in a row, which I did many summers ago at Cedar Point, I can. Sorry about that run on sentence.
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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
--Groucho Marx

I don't make a habit of it, but yes I have been "solo" on several occasions. I do a lot of driving up and down the East Coast, and I'm also quite a spontaneous person. Therefore, if I'm blowing by Rye Playland, Six Flags Great Adventure, Kings Dominion or Carowinds and I have the Coaster urge (and who doesn't), I stop and hang out for awhile. Sometimes these have been some of my better experiences, opening up to new and different people. However, when trips are planned I have the good fortune to go with people who are as zealous as I am regarding roller coasters.

Only ever did it on two occasions.

October 1999 and October 2000 went to Hersheypark by myself for Hersheypark in the Dark. I have season hockey tickets at Hershey and both times, for what ever reason, I was going to the game alone when HP in the Dark was going on, so I walked over to the park before going into the Arena. It did seem kind of odd walking around the park by myself.

I don't mind going on coasters by myself. Which is a good thing. My wife likes coasters, but they don't like her. I did six rides in a row on Kraken at SeaWorld, but she had to call it quits after two (motion sickness).

So luckily riding by myself doesn't bother me. Going to parks alone is a different story though.

Like other replies say, I guess the situation dictates. Had my wife been able to go to the hockey games, i would not have gone to HP by myself before the game. If I would be travelling someplace on business by myself and there was a park near by, I would go. I was disappointed this spring. Our software vendor where I work was having their annual conference in SanDiego near Mission Bay... not too far from the Giant Dipper. However, I was not the one selected to go. :(


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"Twenty three stories tall, painted grey, and the old people said termites was eatin' it up..."
- From Bill Cosby's "Rolland and the Rollercoaster" *** This post was edited by SLFAKE on 4/12/2001. ***

I make annual trips to SoCal to ride the coasters and go to Halloween Haunt at KBF. I feel self-conscious alone at parks. You get a lot of weird looks. However, it beats the alternative (not going because your friends/family don't like thrill rides).

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I believe I can fly,
I believe I can touch the sky.

I go solo to parks most of the time. My wife likes coasters, but just not as much as I do.

I have a season pass to SFGAm and go _whenever_ I get the chance, even if for just a few hours...Hey, I consider that it is free after you go for 2 full days!

As far as getting strange looks, Chad, I am used to them...I get them all the time! (wink, wink)

I've never gone alone and never will. My wife loves coasters more than I do and I couldn't think of going without her or someone else that rides. Maybe I'm wierd but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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"I'm going off the rails on a crazy train." - Ozzie Osbourne

I've been to Cedar Point and Geauga Lake many times, often just to sneak in a few rides. I also ended up at SFGAm alone and did everything by myself in the rain (with about 1,000 guests in the park). That one wasn't intentional... I didn't plan on being there, it just happened.

Generally I like to visit with my wife to away parks but meet up with folks from the GTTP posse at the local parks.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Going alone is fun, I do it a lot.. I see no point in being held back by people, plus most of my friends do not enjoy coasters...

on occasion I fly solo to the parks I have passes for (Dorney, Hershey). Usually it's because I'm working a half hour or so from the parks and I'll take a change of clothes with me and head to the park a few hours after work.

I like not waiting for others just doing my onw thing and I can look at the girls without getting slapped upside the head. ;)

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We came, We saw, We rode, We went home! :)

I usually go with my brother and some friends, but much of the time we ride solo, especially if the park allows re-riding on coasters (SW, BG, etc.). If you ride solo, you can usually get off, wait for everyone in line to board, then get into an empty seat.

I've been to CP alone (the people I was with were in Soak City all day). It was'nt that bad, I did'nt have to argue about what to ride and stuff.

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MF Drops-15
SOB Rides-2

I've gone to a park solo one time -- SFGAm last summer. It kinda sucks because there's no one to talk to in the lines and stuff. Overall it was okay but I don't think I'd do it again. Those lines are really long when you just stand there with nothing to do.

S - You are not alone, and I dont think there is nothing wrong with going to parks alone, infact I have done quite a few times and I even seem to have a better time going alone too, When I am in the park,I can ride what I like, Go where I like and basiclly Do whatever I like. I just feel that sometimes if you are with other people, you feel restricted what you can ride in a day. If you wanna ride one coaster, but the other people in your group wanna ride another coaster or ride, they kinda force you to go around with them which means you miss out another ride on your favourite coaster, Or you are happily going around with your friend but all he wants to do in hang around in the Arcade all day or just sit down and rest for most of the day when all you wanna do it just go on as many rides as possible with little rest as possible. Dont get me wrong, I still do enjoy going round with other people, but when I want to ride as many coasters as possible in 1 day, I tend to try to go round on my own.

There are 2 trips I will never forget(both of which where I went round on my own)

Islands Of Adventure - My First ever trip there(May 22nd 1999 I think) My Mum dropped me there for the day at 10AM and said she would come back to pick me up at 6.30PM(what sweet words of joy they were) I had the best time of my entire life on that trip and even though I went round the park for 8hrs 30 mins which seemed long, I was never bored at any moment.(Managed 5 rides on Hulk, 3 each on Ice and Fire Dragon and every other major ride twice)

DisneyLand Paris(November 2000) Had to go round on my own here as it was part of a trip and I was the only one in my family who went. anyway had an excellent time, only spent 6hrs 30 mins in the park, but still squeezed in 7 rides on Space Mountain,7 rides on Indy,4 rides on Big Thunder, Pirates of the Caribean twice and every other major ride at least once. Definatly one of the best days I had spent at a theme park for most coaster riding.

I rather go alone. You don't have to spend all day riding stuff you really don't want to go on and can leave when YOU want to. I'm heading to Six Flags Great Adventure on Monday alone and I'm looking forward to it!!! (first Park this year)

Thanks, now I know I'm not the only one who does this. I usually go with one other person but usually no more then that. And if I have to go alone, so be it. I have to get my fix at least once every two weeks, once a week, or sometimes more, so I would end pissing off too many of my friends if they went with me that much. When I was in high school I went with a small group of people. It took us all day to get only one ride on all the big rides. And the park was really empty. It pissed me off so bad but I went along with what they wanted to do because I wanted to be "sociable". I was so young and stupid.

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"Nippy!! Where the hell are ya?"

I go to SFStL by myself from time to time, and I'm going to SRM alone. I really be alone though, because there are several different enthusiasts I've made plans to meet up with.

-Raven_Rider

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"Hold on tight, with all your might, and enjoy your flight on the Raven!"

When I travel on business during coaster season I will go to nearby parks alone. It sure beats stareing at the 4 walls in you hotel room all evening.