Cold weather. Parks not even bothering to open!

Well, in the Chicago area it was upper 40's and partly cloudy. No precipitation whatsoever. My daughter and I decided to get our final amusement park run by heading to Kiddieland near Chicago since we both have season passes. We drive up to the park and low and behold, its closed. No sign of life going on. If it was extremely windy or snowing I can see them not bothering to open but it was just chilly, thats it. We were bummed but thankfully the Brookfield zoo is only about 10 miles away so that became plan "B".

Did any other parks not open just because of chilly temperatures?

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"The Peoples Elbow" or "The Spinaroonie?. Cant decide which is the most electrifying move in sports entertainment!!! LOL

No
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SFWoA did. Friday they didnt open. And yesterday, the only coaster open was SUE. Yes, only ONE coaster!

I was at SFWOA, and the cold & wind prevented all coasters that could roll back (everything but SUE) from opening.

SFA was open yesterday and boy was it chilly.We only hit 50 degrees or so for the high temperature but that sure didn't deter the crowds.The lines for most of the rides were the longest I have ever seen in quite a while.

hmm.. this post was not a good one for me to read...

I am heading out to SFDL later tonight with 4 of my friends...

KI closed in the middle of they day about two years ago. The temperature was in the 30's and there were only 157 people in the park. All turned out to be good because the workers were handing out free tickets at the park exit

BATWING FAN SFA said:
SFA was open yesterday and boy was it chilly.We only hit 50 degrees or so for the high temperature but that sure didn't deter the crowds.The lines for most of the rides were the longest I have ever seen in quite a while.

I thought the cold would chase people away. Sounds like the crowds were similar to the last 2 weekends when the park was packed.

One of the things that has to be taken into consideration is that the hydraulic systems used in a lot of rides start acting up when the temperatures start falling. They are designed to operate with a fluid of a specific viscosity, which has charecteristics that are within a certain temperature range. Over or below these limits you start having problems. Now some would say just change the fluid to one that stays flowing at lower temps. Once again todays systems are far more sophisticated than what used to be used. The pumps, valves, rams and hydraulic motors would not perform the same, not to mention the seals. In other words, when the temperature drops below the operating range, you shut down,period.

SFWoA was open today, everything was running except ST

I went to Cedar Point on Saturday and despite very cold temperatures and a rather small crowd, almost everything was open, including MF, Magnum, Raptor, Mantis, Iron Dragon, Mine Ride, Gemini, Corkscrew, etc. The water rides in the park and Power Tower were the only rides I noticed to be closed. Vertigo was also closed which I assume would be for the same reason as Power Tower was closed. I was told cold and compressed air doesn't mix to well. People in the park appeared to be prepared for the cold and dressed accordingly. I had an awesome day and it seemed like everyone else was having a good time too. Kudos to CP for getting as many things opened as possible. It's a good sign that they will not be lowering themselve's to the competition. Raptor was having problems at the end of the night and MF had a bit of downtime as well, but other than that, everything seemed to be good and Magnum was running awesome with two trains all day - I never had more than a 5 minute wait.

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

If it gets really cold, the grease along the track and in the journals and bearings of the coaster trains gets really thick, and may cause rollbacks, especially on wood coasters.

Otherwise, chilly weather doesn't seem to affect rides much. Some parks have policies about operating rides in cold or exceptionally hot weather, though.