Empty Park

I'd have to say last year for the filming of Batwing for the Discovery Channel....at the most, there were 20 of us in the entire park not including ride ops, we each got at least 15 rides on it that day, and that was less than half of a full day.

-----------------
"On the East Coast we ride until we die!"
-Good Charlotte, East Coast Anthem

I went to DW the from 1/3 through 1/8 and it was incredibly empty. SF Great Adventure was completely empty on April 30 2001. I didnt even have to get of Nitro!

-----------------
Treat others as you would want them to treat you.

well, needless to say, september last year, EVERYTHING was deserted.

Mine was a rainy sunday at BGT... I rode kumba 12 times without getting off.. they ops just locked me in and I kept going...

-----------------
Texas Coasters... wow I'm lucky... IM me if you feel like talking about coasters.

I also have been working at a empty park through out the winter season ;). Just wait till July 4th our park is pretty busy ;). The only time I remember going to a empty park was at Knoebles during the morning last year.

-----------------
Wild Thing: 75Laps! Power Tower: 73 Rides. Valleyair Security 2002! 8Years Working at Valleyfair :)!

---

James K said:
I have been to Cedar Point a couple of times when almost all the rides were walkons.

For some reason, people fear rain....

---

You know what? You're right. Plus a good majority of the GP don't realize that many coasters keep right on going. I used to think that no coasters ran in the rain not ALL that long ago.

What's everyones consensus on going to parks the first Monday of the year they're open? I'm headed to SFoG the first monday that S:UF is supposed to be open (7th of April). I wonder what kind of crowds I can expect with the new coaster being open and all.

-----------------
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like bananas.

My wife and I were visiting IOA fall of 2000. There was a hurricane watch first day we were there. Park was almost empty. The second day the watches changed to warnings east of there, and parts of the park were going to be shut-down later that day, but that day was like we had bought IOA-out for 50-100 people. We had actually gotten tired of riding DD due to basically picking whatever seat we wanted between the 2. Same went for the other coasters.

Now, driving back to Tampa that night and finding a flight-out was a different story.

Carpedium, was that Hurricane Gordon? I came in on the first flight into Tampa after the hurricane hit the bay area. We actually flew through the corner of the hurricane to get into Tampa. Talk about a rough flight. You get some serious airtime when you are on a plane that drops 3000 feet at one shot.

-----------------
Bob Hansen

Bolliger/Mabillard for President/VP 2004

Disneyland; February 2000 on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It was a very gloomy day, but hell, thats the best time to go to Disneyland. A majority of the rides are inside, so the rain wouldnt effect the outcome of your entertainment. Just buy a mickey poncho, or have an umbrella at hand. Having 8 consecutive front row rides on Indiana Jones is pretty awesome!

SFMM on Friday, June 15, 2001....

Last day of or senior trip and the park was empty...very strange for a friday in June. Most rides were walkons. Goliath was easily a 10 minute wait and Superman a walk on!

I got spoiled last summer, since I took the clan up to some Northeastern parks when school got out in mid-June down in Florida and hit the parks on weekdays.

First up was Lake Compounce, two days after the tragic Boulderdash accident (and one day after the Boomerang got stuck). It was an Education Day and ESPN was filming X-Games trials right by the park entrance. I figured it'd be wall-to-wall, but the skaters stayed outside and every time the park's PA would call a school back to the bus there'd be that much more breathing room. From 3pm on, Boulderdash and Wildcat were walk-ons -- even Ghost Hunt was a walk-on.

Next park? Knoebel's. It was a weekend (Father's Day) so it wasn't a POP day. I guess that led to a lot of people at the park but not too many on the rides. Everything was practically a walk-on, despite a tonnage of bodies.

Conneaut Lake Park? I know it's never all that busy there, but it must've been about 40-50 guests at the entire park. Either way, kudos to Conneaut Lake for turning an operating profit -- I'm glad to have been a part of it.

Kennywood. Went over to Phantom's Revenge shortly after the park open and got right on. Did so a few more times. The ride op was saying how lucky we were that the wait ran as long as three hours the day before. I thought he was being sarcastic, but I later found out that the one-train operation really did cause massive lines at peak times. The park did begin to fill-up later in the day but Racer was a walk-on all day long and Jack Rabbit was all of five minutes and Exterminator was the longest wait -- 20 minutes, but it was down for most of the morning.

Also hit Idlewild and Cedar Point, but Idlewide was surprisingly full (stunning park, not a lot of attractions) and Cedar Point, well, I'm envious of anyone who has been there when it's empty. We time our Cedar trips for the weekdays and it's still a madhouse. A wonderful madhouse at that.

This last Septmeber I rode every large coaster at CP at least 10 times a piece.

-----------------
"Ruba dub dub, thanks for the grub...yay god!"

The best time I ever had at a park came when SFGAm was empty during a Heat Wave in 2000 I think it was. It had a heat index of somewhere around 110. Raging Bull was walk on pretty much and I rode in everysingle seat on the train that day. The longest lines I waited for all day, was the line for the drinking fountain. Everyone was having WaterFights at the fountains.

-----------------
My Top 5 Coasters:
1. Raging Bull(SFGAm) 2.Millenium Force(CP) 3. Deja Vu(SFGAm) 4.V2(SFGAm) 5.Cornball Express(IB)A HREF=http://coasterworld.cjb.netCOASTERWORLD/***

*** This post was edited by CoasterDude316 on 3/28/2002. ***

When I went to sfmm about ten years ago it was empt. At the time physclone was brand new and it was a walk-on along with everything else. You would look out on the midway and see no one it was great.

Alton Towers 2nd April 2000 - I was expecting some big crowds, because this was the opening weekend on a sunday, but I got the complete oppostie(I think it was because it rained really rained hard for 1hr before park opening which must have put people off visiting the park) and me and my friend arrived to a pretty much deserted park. Pretty much every single Ride was a walk on, and the only queues we encounted were HEX which reached 40 mins(This was only because the ride was new at this time) Black Hole which peaked at 20 mins, and Nemesis Once which peaked at 10 mins, but apart from that, we kept walking round the park walking on anything. We managed 5 Rides each on Nemesis and Oblivion, and once on everything else. We actually got bored with riding everything so quick, so left 1hr before the park shut.

DisneyLand Paris, 14th November 2000 - I actually knew the park would be quiet on this day, but never this quiet, the Park was complety dead that it was absolutly amazing. Longest Queue times were Space Mountain which peaked at 15 mins or walk on, also Big Thunder peaked at 15 mins or walk on,all other rides were 5 mins or walk on. Also if the ride was walk on, Disney let you stay on if no one was queueing(Even for all the RollerCoasters, Nice one Disney;) )

Basiclly in 6hrs 30 mins at the park, I managed 7 rides on Space Mountain,7 Rides on Indy, 4 Rides on Big Thunder, 2 Rides on Pirates, and All other major rides at least once, A Truely amazing day.

Went to SFMM on a tuesday in summer 2001, it was not totally empty, but Goliath, was walk on, Riddler's 5 min wait for front, so on. That is the least crowded I have ever seen it. Tuesdays in the summer is the best day to go to SFMM.