Are weekends always to be avoided?

I think this should be an interesting topic, and one we've never seen before.

Of course, we all try to avoid parks on the weekends when we can to avoid the crowds and such, but is there ever a time when going to a park on the weekend is ever prefered? Example:

I go to Lake Compounce on the weekends, now. Its more crowded, and lines for other rides are longer, but they never get insane, except for ghost hunt. The key is that they put the second train on Boulder Dash. Even with the bigger crowd, you'll end up waiting about half as much on your average weekend day as your average weekday. It alows me to get a really good number of rides in a short amount of time.

Hence, are there other parks that you prefer to visit on the weekends? For that reason, or another? Are there other parks that you go to then because of higher capacity on the rides? Are there other benefits that you can think of?

I think this could be interesting, because usually the golden rule of coastering is that you should avoid the weekends when possible. I just wonder if I'm missing something by not going to some of them on Saturday or Sunday, potentially.

While there are very few parks I'll set foot in, on any day of the week, during July or August, I generally prefer to visit a park on a weekend with moderate crowds. There's something sad about an empty park. :(

yeah, riiigghhttt dawn! ;)

Personally, I love seeing a park *empty* (like at events), but it IS kind of sad to see it that way when it SHOULD be busy.....I've found Sundays to be generally OK as far as crowds, if only because the parks are *prepared* for crowds.....Sunday can often be crowded, but it's NOTHING like a Saturday, and generally you can get in some quality riding time early AND late....:)

I went on all Saturdays and Sundays except for two or three exceptions (out of 27 visits) this summer and I found no problems. Saturdays take a bit longer, but you just have to be strategic about it. Plan to go on rainy Saturdays, those keep people away. Hit the smaller parks with fewer rides on Saturday, that way the longer lines don't keep you from doing everything, they just prevent an insane amount of re-rides. Sundays are usually dead, although there are exceptions.

Best examples: Cedar Point Halloweekend Sundays can be as busy as a Saturday mid-day, but they're dead by the end of the night. I went to CP on a Saturday a few weeks ago, and every major ride in the park had at least an hour and a half wait (2 hours on Mantis, MF and TTD). Did Dorney Park on a rainy Saturday with no problem - from 3pm to 8pm did 3 Talons, 2 SF, and 1 of the other three. Did SFGAdv on a rainy Sunday and got on all 10 major coasters and a flat ride or two, plus re-rides on my 5 favorite major ones! All between 10am and 5pm. You just have to think like the typical family of four thinks, then go with the opposite - even if it does mean going on a weekend.

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Brett
Resident Launch Whore

I only get a couple of park visits a season so when I go I avoid weekends at all costs. If I must hit a park on the weekend it's Sunday. Going to SFMM has become a Superbowl Sunday tradition for me since I moved to SoCal. It's dead.

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paul ruben
ran lube up

Halloweekends at CP. They're not opening during the week. ;) And actually Friday nights kick more ass than Carson Daly in a public flogging.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
Blogs, photo albums - CampusFish
What time does the water show start?

I think it really depends on what you're looking for. I used to be all about empty parks and power riding, but I can just easily enjoy myself these days when I'm standing in line for an hour or so on a busy Saturday in August.

Who you're standing in line with can make all the difference. :)

Spring and fall weekends can be the best times to visit parks. Crowds are generally light except for Halloween weekend and the weather is mild. July and August weekends are another story.

Either of the San Antonio parks in October or November. It might as well be your own personal ERT.

Although I'd gladly trade those for the Thursday I spent at PKI in late May. I actually exhausted myself getting re-ride after re-ride, walking around those endless queue lines...

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Ask about my references

I'm with Dawn on this one. A dead park is depressing and lifeless... it sucks the energy out of you. Adding to that at Indiana Beach is the fact that they hold Cornball and HH until the cars are mostly full, so on a dead day you can still sit there for 20 minutes waiting for someone to get on the ride. Bleh.

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Touchè, teacher, touchè.

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chris said:

Who you're standing in line with can make all the difference. :)

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But think of poor Maggie, chris...;)

I definitely prefer weekdays and empty parks, but that doesn't mean I power-ride. It just means I do want I want to do sooner, and I leave earlier.

Although when you're an adult, it's quite hard to schedule an amusement park trip with people your age on a weekday, unless you plan it months in advance so people can ask off work. That's why I usually end up going on Sundays.

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A day is a drop of water in the ocean of eternity. A week is seven drops.

I never visit corporate parks on saturday, Never WILL AGAIN!

I do however plan my vacations to hit one,two or maybe even three small parks on saturdays and it's worked out VERY WELL!

There are some small parks that are hit and miss on saturday, While you can have a great time at HW on a saturday, It is also very busy in the summer. I try to hit it early in the week but that negates dark rides on the coasters.

Chuck

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Charles Nungester.
It's official Lesourdsville Lake is closed for 2003

I've only gone on a saturday once and that was last years coaster solace and only because it was a special event. It wasn't nearly as crowded as you would think it would be. Longest wait was about 30 minutes for ghostrider and that was just once. Sundays I find are generally not that bad and would go on a Sunday.

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I hope they kill that iron yuppie. Thinks he's so big. The great homer simspon

well this one will blow you guys away but i visited dollywood on saturday, july 5th and it was not crowded at all...i know, unbelievable dollywood is in the middle of "tourist heaven"...pigeon forge, TN and the park was extremely low in attendance especially on july 4th weekend. to give you an idea...we rode tennessee tornado 10 times that day. our first several rides we didn't even have to get off of the train. just goes to show you.....Saturdays are not ALWAYS that bad.

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seek first to understand
then to be understood

Weekends are sometimes not that bad when visiting parks. Sadly I work monday to Friday so have to visit most parks on weekends nowdays. The best trick when visiting on a weekend is to simply visit on a sunday, I find sundays a superb day when visiting parks and they can be a lot quieter than people think. Went to alton on a sunday in late July last year and the park was pretty much dead, Many rides were walk ons and even Nemesis and Air only had 30 mins max queues between them, Oblivion was only 15 mins max each time for a ride. Also visited Thorpe on some sundays in October last year and on both days, there was only 5000 people on parks so it resulted in a lot of walk on rides.
Granted most weekend days can be crowded but they really are not that bad most of the time, and also if you plan your day well around a busy weekend day, then you can fit in quite a lot during the day than you may think ;)

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.....Saturdays are not ALWAYS that bad.

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I feel thats true in a way, but Saturdays are definatly the busiest day of the week for any park still. However like you say, saturdays are not always that bad, I went on the ECC America trip last year and we went to DCA on a Saturday(I was expecting it to be packed) but it was so quiet that I was stunned. I dont think I actually saw a ride or attraction that had a bigger queue than 30 mins all day(Very impressive). Now I went into Disney the day before and it was super crowded(2hrs for Indy,1 hr for both sides of the Matterhorn,1hr for Space Mountain,1hr for Big thunder,30 mins for Pirates etc, Thanks heavens for single Rider Queues and Fasttrack otherwise it would have been a truely horrible day) so I dont even want to know how crowded it was in Disney that Saturday as well.

I'm going to backup Dawn as well.

*fade into story*

Many moons ago I took my first trip to The Point. I hitched up the girlfriend, kissed the parents good bye, and set off. The first evening at the park was DEAD. I had been reading up on it all summer about how great it was, and it was DEAD. I then made the stupidest move ever and left the park after a couple hours. I could have stayed and enjoyed the night there, but I left and scarfed down some Dominos. It would have really be a good time to enjoy the park for all its worth, but a pizza and a woman sounded better. I'm betting if there were more people there I would have drug here around all night, but it just felt like the place was worthless. *sigh* Now I go back with my little brother and sit on the asphalt for 6 hours just for a 15 second ride.

I would now kill for that night again...

Heck no weekends aren't always to be avoided summer of 2002 we hit CP the fri and sat after july 4th and it was so dead, MF was about a 30 minute wait on fri and about the same on sat, its all luck man, I've been to CP about 20 plus times this season and think the busiest I have ever seen it was on a monday in late June. and with CLP the busiest I have seen it this year was a wednesday in August, its all luck anything can happen on any given day.

I can't stand crowded parks on Sat. Especially when ops are apathetic and fast lane has a separate load cycle.

Of course I am spoiled by early season and the like making it really easy to get rapid re-rides.

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
"Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." -Jeff

Saturdays are the best for CP!....g