Philosophical Question

Let me share with you dueling strategies for conquering a park:

1) Wait to go on the best ride at night, about 2-3 hours before closing. This way, the entire day you still have the best in front of you, PLUS you still have time to go on the best ride again, PLUS you get the experience of riding the best ride at night the first time you ride (night ride on best ride not diluted by previous day ride on best ride, i.e.the law of diminishing returns)
2)Go on the best ride early--lines will probably be shorter AND it might theoretically be a better ride than had you ridden it at night because the the night ride experience would be lessened by the fact that you had already ridden other coasters during the day, and the novelty will have worn off.
I pick strategy 1.

You can't lose either way!

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~TodD~
"God help us, our lives are in the hands of engineers..."

I usually head first to the ride that will have the longest line. (Presuming that it is one that I want to ride.) I'm always there at opening and you can usually get at least one ride in with almost no time lost waiting in line. Then I can come back and ride it again just before closing. Often the difference is very interesting.

Another variation is to head straight to the back of the park when it opens since people tend to stop at the first interesting ride that they see, and it is often thin at the back when the park first opens.

These two tactics sometime coincide. At my home park, SFA, Superman and Batwing (when it opens) are the longest lines and at the back of the park.

It's always best to ride the best rides as soon as possible just in case something happens and the ride goes down later.

Then, ride them all again at night.

Yup

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Decisions determine destiny; Destiny determines decisions.

Agreed, ride the best ride while it's going. Also, I think the law of diminishing returns does not apply to coaster rides. They're all thrilling and the point is to squeeze the most thrill out of a day at a theme park. Thus, the more rides on the best coaster the better. Now weighing the thrill with the wait is another story...

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PLEASE READ: This post wasn't meant to offend or anger anyone; I apologize in advance if it does. So please don't post a reply just to rant about it. :)

Interesting. The idea is good, but I think there's something in me that says, "Man, I have to ride the best coaster now!" Although the idea is sounds good, I don't think I could ever brng myself to do it.

I say ride the best ride first, twice, because you know the line will never get lower than right away in the morning, trust me if you don't
ride it 2 or 3 times you may never have a short line to ride it again. I have discovered this with my own experiences.
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RCman4