It's way too hot! Amusement park nightmare!

If I can help it, I will plan trips to Southern states in the spring. Kids are in school, and althought the parks are not open as long usually, the weather is hot but bearable. However, around here (PA), it doesn't usually start getting to me until it gets above 95 because it usually isn't too humid.

I convinced my wife to buy Platinum passes so we could ride Intimidator, Diamondback, Behemoth, and Leviathan (smaller coasters are definitely a trend since Maverick) and due to an unusual lack of vacation days this year we are "forced" to go in the summer and on weekends. Wish us luck...

The problem with our parks staying open late (we closed Universal last nite @ 10pm) is that the temperatures don't really drop at night. I always noticed during trips "up North" that even the 95-100* days typically end up around 75-80* by midnight. Here, it's usually around 90* at 10pm during the summer, getting down to 85* frequently...and then it starts heating up again at dawn...

due to an unusual lack of vacation days this year we are "forced" to go in the summer and on weekends. 

We're going to hit KD on a summer Friday on our way to our Beach Week. I'm pretty sure we'll get fast lane wristbands for that day.

I hate the heat, but amusement parks are a summer activity. Spring and fall at the park feel a little too weird sometimes.

Theme parks tend to retain heat, especially the Florida variety. I remember being at Magic Kingdom one night, and I swear it was 10 degrees cooler once I got back to the (reasonably isolated Pop Century) hotel.

Brian Noble said:

We're going to hit KD on a summer Friday on our way to our Beach Week. I'm pretty sure we'll get fast lane wristbands for that day.

We went a few weeks ago on a Saturday on our way to the beach. I had full intentions of getting Fastlane, but it wasn't very crowded at all. Did Volcano first thing and waited 15 minutes. Avalanche had a short line, but literally everything else we rode was either a walk-on or one cycle wait. YMMV, of course.

Lord Gonchar said:

Spring and fall at the park feel a little too weird sometimes.

Duh. Judging from this thread, that's when most enthusiasts are at the park.

Eightdotthree, good luck! I feel your pain! Plus, my husband and I got married July 14, 2007, so we wanted to celebrate our anniversary with a vacation. He is the definite bigger Harry Potter freak, so we gotta do Orlando! :)

Gonch, spring and fall DO feel a little weird for thrill ride partaking. I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds it strange.

I remember a couple years ago riding Titan for Holiday in the Park and it was 40*. We were wearing hats, gloves, scarves and full jackets (which is unusual anywhere and anytime down here). 245' then 85 MPH in 40* weather is pretty chilly.

Yeah, they actually open some of the rides for CandyLane at Hershey, and it is usually below freezing around that time of year. I've had to take some of my nieces and nephews home because they could t take the COLD!

Great posts everyone.

To Coasterhound36. It was 86 degrees in Toronto on the day that I got sick at Canada's Wonderland. But, what a lot of people don't know is that areas away from the lake get the excessive heat and humidity, so when one temp reads 86 it can be up to 106 with the heat index, and even hotter. We had 100 plus degree temps for several days here in michigan, while the immediate lakeshore communities stayed in the 80's with the lake breeze.

Cedar Point lucks out on this, because it sits out in the lake, and gets a decent breeze from whatever direction the wind is blowing. I can't imagine what the park would be like if it were inland. Probably absolutely horrible. This last weekends temps were in the hundreds, and we were under an excessive heat warning the 5th of July- the 8th with heat index readings 110+ I couldn't imagine that Cedar Point would ever get that hot, but it does get pretty hot there.

On july 4th the temp at our house was 101 degree at 9.pm. and it was still 96 at midnight. By noon on the 5th it was 103. Lucky for me I planned to go to the lakeshore for a few days, where it was only in the 80's and beautiful. At one point it was even chili. But go just 10 miles away from the lake and it was in the upper 90's. But, that's Michigan.

ApolloAndy said:

I remember a couple years ago riding Titan for Holiday in the Park and it was 40*. We were wearing hats, gloves, scarves and full jackets (which is unusual anywhere and anytime down here). 245' then 85 MPH in 40* weather is pretty chilly.

456' at 128mph in 32 degree weather with snow forecast, as I did a couple years ago, wasn't exactly a sauna.

On the very cold side, my brother Dennis and I went to Great America one year in late June, never got up to 50 the first day that we were there, with Fog so thick, you could only see a few hundred feet, and nothing else. They are pretty close to lake Michigan as well, and depending on which way the breeze is going, it can be very foggy. Especially in Chicago. Not to mention the all day drizzle to make it worse...and huge crowds. We guessed that a majority of the people there assumed it would be dead due to the rain and fog, but it was packed. And, not much fun.

Luckily we went back the next day to bright sunny weather, light crowds, and temps in the low 70's. It could also be that the crowds the day before were just more centralised, as there were a lot of places in the park where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. But, I'll tell you what. If you want a mega thrilling ride on Batman, ride it in the fog, you can't see where you are going at all. Raging Bull was awesome too!

^^Mike, you hit 128 mph at the 456' point on Kingda Ka? Epic Airtime for the win!

;)

Seriously, though, I bet Kingda Ka in freezing temperatures is a whole new kind of cold.

Timber-Rider said:

since I am not Canadian...

Well there's your problem. When they said the high would be 68, they meant in Celsius. Silly American.

At this point on time I could care less about the heat, but man we sure could user some rain. Where I live on the West coast of Michigan we haven't had any rain in darn near a month. This coming Saturday will make it 28 days since we have had anything but a sprinkle.

Yeah, no matter how much I water at this point, my lawn looks awful. I'm hopeful that it will spring back from its brown/yellow dry mess. I'm going to have to use lots of pelletized lime once that happens, so I can have the greenest lawn ever again.

I'm thinking about just using paint.

Or Maverick, I mean Syn-Lawn.