Amusement Park websites
Do amusement park websites give enough information or are people just to lazy to check them? I constantly see post about directions to this park or what is the water park like at that park or the inevitable question what should I ride or what will cool me off? It's one thing to ask about atmosphere and what to ride first but couldn't a lot of the information that is asked for be gleaned by just visiting the parks website?
*** This post was edited by coasterguts 6/20/2003 9:00:51 AM ***
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Lets go Drag racing.
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I like roller coasters.
Guess some people like the personal touch.
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A day is a drop of water in the ocean of eternity. A week is seven drops.
Frankly, I think some of the same old posts about what to ride first, etc., are unnecessary. The same advice can be given for just about any park--head for the back of the park first and work your way forward, hitting the most popular rides as early as possible. I don't think it's too hard to figure out which rides generate the longest queue times.
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-Mike B.
Son of Hulk
Or, here is another one, how about picking up the phone and calling the park. I did that for someone that had questions about SFA. Picked the phone up called, SFA and asked where I could get coupons at. SFA has several she said, CVS, Burger Kings, Wendy's. It took them a few rings to answer the phone but I spoke to a live operator when I pressed 0. The same for SFFT, they even picked up the phone on the first ring and told me I could get coupons at Dairy Queen.
As far as other pieces of info, I found it to be hit or miss with park web sites... example... some have park maps, some don't, some have them but are very difficult to read. Some have a full list of rides, some don't. Some give a description of the ride, other's do not.
The old "Head for the back and work your way foward" does not always work. Take Hersheypark for example. The coaster that qualifies as being "in the back" would be Lightning Racer. The coaster "in the front" would be Comet. When there are even moderate crowds in the park, Comet can have a 15 minute line... on busy days, it can have a 45 minute line... all day... right up till closing. Lightning racer however I have never seen with more than a 10 minute wait, no matter how full the park is. The little quirks like these can not be gotten from the official web sites.
What may be "obvious" to a person about their homepark, may not be to people who are visiting for the first time.
While some posts like, "Will [what ever park] be busy on July 29th at 1:38pm," are a bit useless and even impossible to answer... a question about general crowd flow at a park is something that the "locals" would know, but new visitors would not.
An afterthought... The questions like "how long should I expect to set aside for [park x] on a week day?" To me... a very ligitimate question. I have found that what the "guide books" and web sites say can be WAY off base. One that I have suggested a full day for Waldamere park in Erie PA. Well, if you have little kids and want to ride everything, eat there, and spend the afternoon in the water park... okay. But if you want to just go there for a ride or two on the Comet, the dark attractions, and the flume, then 2 hrs is enough. Guide books and web sites tend to give the most extreme if you want to hit everything. After all, why would a web site say "two hours is enough"... they want you to stay as long as possible. This is an area where those who have visited the park can give a better answer than any website or book.
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Kind of hard to take a post as objective if a park or coaster name is part of the "user name"
*** This post was edited by SLFAKE 6/20/2003 10:26:51 AM ***
*** This post was edited by SLFAKE 6/20/2003 10:28:03 AM ***
Kind of like rain on a wedding day or something.
SLFAKE says: 'What may be "obvious" to a person about their homepark, may not be to people who are visiting for the first time.'
Bingo! This is why I have no problem asking people 'How far is it from park x to park y?,' etc. A local who is familiar with the country highways of Western PA will be able to give me a better idea how long it will take me to get to Dorney Park from Knoebel's than Mapquest will.
There is a finite amount of information available from rcdb, Mapquest, and park sites. Sometimes you really need to just ask.
SLFAKE said:
As far as other pieces of info, I found it to be hit or miss with park web sites... example... some have park maps, some don't, some have them but are very difficult to read. Some have a full list of rides, some don't. Some give a description of the ride, other's do not.
Good point, but are you going to find park maps by posting a message on Coaster Buzz?
*** This post was edited by coasterguts 6/20/2003 10:45:30 AM ***
chris said:
There is a finite amount of information available from rcdb, Mapquest, and park sites. Sometimes you really need to just ask.
I don't know about that, SFA website says it is 120 miles from Harrisburg, PA. Assuming you cruise the interstates at 60 mph you could be at the park in 2 hours more or less depending on the heavy metal in your foot and traffic conditions. Trip Reports will give you an idea of queue line and ride information for the park, what other information would you need that you couldn't get from RCDB and a trip report? I also think Mapquest does a pretty good job of giving you a rough idea of how long it will take you to get between parks. Of course, it can't take into account things like traffic patterns at certain times of the day, but if you had 30 minutes to a hour to your trip with that time period in mind, you should be able to get to a certain park with time to spare.
The basic thoughts behind my previous rant...
Hours and Pricing: Check Websites
Directions: Check Mapquest or actual maps
Coater Selection: check RCDB
Anything else: Good luck... some sites will have other info, some will not. Some do not even contain a list of rides. Sometimes the "locals" who visit that park may have more informative information than other sources... and this forum is one way to access that source of info.
As for Trip Reports: Some are good... some are not. Some are very informative about the park, some do not.... "Got up at 6:30 am, had breakfast, drove to the park, rode [coaster x] 25 times, it was great, rode [coaster y] 3 times, it was okay, rode [coaster z] 1 time it was boring, the rest of the park stinks, ate lunch, went home, the end."
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Kind of hard to take a post as objective if a park or coaster name is part of the "user name"
*** This post was edited by SLFAKE 6/20/2003 10:54:10 AM ***
Irony is when what happens is exactly what you'd expect not to happen. A lazy person taking the extra effort to post here and check responses = irony.
Besides, ur teh sux0rs0rs0rs!!!!11112
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A day is a drop of water in the ocean of eternity. A week is seven drops.
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I like roller coasters.
jdancisin said:
Here is something you cant find on the park sites: suggestions about what foods to try, and what rides not to miss.------------------
I like roller coasters.
Okay, well food is one thing, no park is going to come out and say that our Hot Dogs taste like Slim Jims. But what not to miss is another thing. Can't you take a look at a amusement park website and see that Drop Zone is something I'm going to definetly ride or I don't want to miss Delirium. Aren't we all intelligent enough to decide whether I want to ride the Tea Cups or Iron Eagle?
*** This post was edited by coasterguts 6/20/2003 12:33:52 PM ***
I recently checked Hersheypark's website to see what concerts were taking place at Star Pavilion (I like to avoid the park and the town in general on those days), as well as any other events in the area that may affect park attendance. There was nothing listed for the park, Star Pavilion, the entire town in general for this week, so my wife and I decided to head up there last night after work. When we turned onto Hersheypark Drive from Rt 743, we saw that the entire area, as far as the eye could see, on the opposite side of HP drive was one huge camp site with hundreds (thousands?) of tents. The park itself was packed. We decided we did not want to fight the crowds, so we continued driving past the entrance and on toward Rt322. The "camp" ran almost continuously from Rt 743 to the RR bridge that crosses HP drive right before it merges into Rt322. We later heard on the radio that from today until Saturday is soemthing called Creation 2003 (christian music etc etc etc).
As far as HP's web site is concerned... nothing is going on at the park or in the general area of Hershey this week. Just thought I would pass that along to those who always say "check the website".
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Kind of hard to take a post as objective if a park or coaster name is part of the "user name"
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