Longest wait for a coaster. Do you have a time limit?

Well, It's almost a year since my nightmare adventure of waiting 5 1/2 hours to ride Kingda Ka. From that point up till now I swore that I would never wait more than an hour for any coaster ever again, and that plan is still going strong into this season.

So, who has their limit to how long they'll wait, and do you think it's justifyable.

For the record, NO! Waiting 5 1/2 hours for Kingda Ka was definitely not justifyable.

An hour is my limit.

But do you have a nightmare wait like my KK incident?

I will wait an hour, but anything past that it depends on the situation. For instance, if I was to hit a park that I would very likely not visit for a very long time and a roller coaster at that park had a two hour long wait, then I might wait.

The longest I have ever waited for a coaster was 3 hours for MF its first year of operation, but it was worth it. Would I do this for any ride, no but there are a select few (new coasters with fantastic reputations that I will not be able to ride again in the near future) that make that cut. Great rides (either ones I have ridden or ones that have a great reputation) when I am at a park on a crowded day (and couldnt get to it at opening) I will wait 2+ hours for, anything else has to be <1 hour, perferably <30 mins. *** Edited 4/21/2006 4:33:12 AM UTC by Touchdown***

Like a few people have said before, it all depends on the situation. I usually won't wait longer than 1 1/2 hours at my homepark though.

But do you have a nightmare wait like my KK incident?

Obviously no, since my limit is one hour.

4 hours for TTD.

It was a two day trip and my brother and I had our fill from the first 1.5 days and decided to wait in the queue for the um... queue despite being instructed that TTD may not open. By the time they started letting us through the gates, we had moved up to some of the first people in line. It was really worth it.

My longest wait was 1.5 hours for Superman at SixFlags Holland/Walibi world - we were at the park for about 8 hours and got 5 rides total, the rest was nothing but wait.
Ask me if I would do it again: No.
Seriously, it's the queueing aspect of coasters that keeps me from riding them more often - as soon as the wait gets above 15 minutes or so, I'm seriously turned down.
If I really wanted to ride something that badly like a once-in-a-lifetime chance or so, I might wait for a little longer, but generally I think that queues are the most serious design flaw of coasters in general.

The longest line I waited in was 1 hr for Mantis at CP. Was it worth it?, Kind of. I had only ridden it once before, and it was my first looping coaster. I was alone that day, and was still nervous about having my legs dangling from a ride (raptor), so Mantis was my choice for my last ride. My longest wait besides that was 45 Minutes for Flight of Fear at PKI. Pretty much all of the coasters had that kind of wait at the time. So my answer to the question is 45 minutes with a couple of exceptions. I have yet to ride TTD because of downtime my previous three visits, and would be willing to wait up to 1 1/2 hrs for it.

Worst wait for me was Mean Streak on opening day in May 1991. A full queue and one train operation equated into a three plus hour wait that day including breakdowns. Obviously, I wouldn't do it again and I was very disappointed how boring the design of the second half of the coaster was anyways.

My limit is about 90 minutes for a coaster depending on the situation and ride itself though.

5:10 for TTD on opening day. At that point, it was completely worth it, it was the only reason I was at the park that day. Also waited about 3 hours on MF's opening day.

As far as a limit, the more crowded it gets, the more tolerance for a line I have. If I'm at a park I won't be back to anytime soon, I'll wait 2 hours for a ride I really wanted to ride, but if I'm at one of the "regulars", unless it's really crowded I'll even leave the park entirely if I have to wait more than 45 minutes to an hour for the biggest rides.

If it's a park I regularly visit I'll wait 45-60 minutes.

If it's a special trip to another park I'll wait whatever it takes.

I waited 2 hrs 40 minutes for Face /off at PKI. was it worth it? NOOOOOOO.

Then I waited 2hrs 30 for X at SFMM. was it worth it? YEEESSSSSS.

I waited 2 hours for Batwing at SFA, its opening year. Definitely not worth it, but you get to a point where you tell yourself, "Well, we've already waited THIS long, we may as well suffer it through..."

Generally my limit is an hour these days, though, unless it's something I REALLY want to ride and I know I'm not likely to get back.

2.5 hours during the opening year of the Screaming Eagle at SFStL. I was 5th or 6th grade and the entire district was having it's school picnic there. At the time it was the biggest coaster I had ever seen (I think it may have briefly held a height record during it's first year) and well worth the wait.

These days I try to avoid lines over 30 minutes for rides I've already ridden. I'll make exceptions for particular rides though. Rides that I've never been on, well, I just live with it. Usually the anticipation will overide the frustration.

2 1/2 hour for Millennium opening season. It was worth it but I certainly wouldn't wait that long again. If a line is more than an hour I usually end up riding something else. On a side note my friends waited almost 2 hours for TTD Memorial Day weekend last year. In the meantime I got 10 rides in on Magnum. I win!

You stole my thunder Thrillerman, I was also in that Meanstreak line on opening day 1991. 3 hours and 15 minutes and they had ONE train running. It got better the next weekend, they had two trains. They finally had all three running on the third weekend. Was it worth it? No, not even close. I have never waited more than 1 1/2 hours for a ride since.

Tom

4 hours for Dragster on opening day. I also waited 2 hours for X, twice. I can't recall the actual length but I vividly remember waiting in Magnum's line FOREVER during its opening season. I agree with most, it depends on if you're at a park you won't be visiting again anytime soon versus relaxing at your home park.

I'm still waiting for Deja Vu... ;)

One of my pet peeves is when you're at a park with a group of people on a crowded day, and everytime you get into a line, half the people are all like, "Waaah, but there's lots of people in this line! It'll take an hour!!"

First, what did they expect, and second, what ELSE are you going to do at an amusement park? Unless you like shows, you are GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT. So deal with it and stop whinging.

Anyway, my personal record is around 4 hours on the TTD media day. Also waited about 4 hours for Steel Phantom once, and around 3 hours for PKI's FoF the first time.

The longest wait that wasn't worth it was 2 hours at SFMM for .... wait for it.... THE LOG FLUME. Yes, the log flume.