Park Capacity

LostKause said:

And how in the world can one lady who works at a hotel desk know that their hotel has the last three rooms available in the entire city?

Obviously it's an inaccuracy the way it was worded and relayed, but within the same area, all the hotels communicate and have a pretty accurate idea of where the markets stands. Any decent hotel knows which hotels around it have rooms and a surprisingly accurate idea of how many and how much they're going for.

Oh, whadda you know about hotels? Pssh...

I'm living a lie...

Speaking of capacity, I am always amazed that the Oktoberfest in Munich which is 1/3 the size of CP (103 acres) gets 6.4 Million visitors in just 16 days and that fair never has to turn back visitors.

SFGADV is 55k. However, they easily go over that during Fright Fest when the weather is nice. I worked there a few times with count at 64k. Why anyone would want to go into a park that is that crowded is beyond me. They had Bus lot moved to employee parking and over flow filled and then filled all of Hurricane Harbor.

I was at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 2007 for Hallo-Scream event. They had the park shut down for capacity. They had you wind though the parking lot and then come out the exit. They had big signs up on the way to the toll booths that the park was closed. Driving by Apollo on the way in the line looked longest I've ever seen.

I'm not calling you out, Crash, but I would like to know how if a park has a capacity of 55k, it can allow almost 10k more people inside. Is this park capacity that we are talking about just a guideline, or is it required by law for safety reasons?

Clearly, they're breaking the law and going almost 20% over capacity to sell more Flashpasses.

Last October I decided to visit Busch Gardens (Tampa) to do their "Hallowscream" event. (The Platinum Pass I bought at the San Antonio Sea World two years earlier was expiring, so this was a "last hurrah" for that pass). In the daytime the park was uncrowded, I could walk on to all the rides. As soon as the sun went down things headed south, people were coming out of the woodwork! The lines for the haunted houses grew exponentially. But I had one little trick up my sleeve. They had a deal where for $25.00 you'd get dinner show in the Festhaus, then get a pass that brought you to the front of the line for the haunted houses for one hour. I was able to do all seven houses in that hour, saving me A LOT of agony. IMO if you want to do Hallowscream or whatever a park calls their Halloween event. If they have a "Meal Deal" go for it. It's a small price to pay to retain your sanity!

PS I still get E-Mails from the San Antonio Sea World. They dont realize I do not plan to visit Texas again until 2023 and 2024, when two Solar Eclipses (One Annular (2023) and one Total (2024) cross the state.

It was a serious question, Gonch. I'm not derailing the conversation into a Flashpass rant. The park brand was the last thing on my mind.

I really want to know. Do parks have a capacity limit from the Fire Marshall like enclosed building do? Or is what we call *park capacity* just a guideline. If it is a guideline, is it suggested by the Fire Marshall (or some such entity), or is it something the park makes up. And if it is something that the park makes up, could the park also make the call to extend the capacity in order to appease the incoming visitors?

You know this stuff intrigues me.

In my experience in park ops (I spent about ten years in ops management at various Six Flags parks), any park at or above the 30k mark is a park in which people aren't having a great time. The highest day I ever saw was a 46k day at SFGAdv back in 2006 (which was awful), and I know that the 2007 season pulled a 54k day, both of them being the last Saturday of operation.

As far as closing the gate goes, that's often a decision that's made on the fly by the GM or whoever happens to be the duty manager that day. In my career, the only park closing due to capacity concerns I ever witnessed was at SFO in 2000 (I think someone mentioned that above). The park was somewhere north of 45k that day.

Just my 2 cents.

I went to Great Adventure on Columbus Day a few years ago. Big mistake!

I'll never do that again.

-Tina

coasterqueenTRN said:

I went to Great Adventure on Columbus Day a few years ago. Big mistake!

I'll never do that again.

-Tina

Been there, done that, never again. :(

PS, When I visited the San Antonio Sea World during Halloween Weekend in 2010 the crowds were light, The line for Steel Eel was less than five minutes. The next day I went to Fiesta Texas, longest wait was about 20 minutes for Superman. On Sunday I went to Six Flags over Texas and encountered conditions similar to Fiesta Texas, someone told me they had to close the park on the previous day due to excessive crowds. Looks like I made the right choice for all the parks I visited. BTW Since it was Halloween I also visited two "Haunted" Historical Sites, the Alamo in San Antonio and Dealy Plaza in Dallas.

Alexatucla said:

Speaking of capacity, I am always amazed that the Oktoberfest in Munich which is 1/3 the size of CP (103 acres) gets 6.4 Million visitors in just 16 days and that fair never has to turn back visitors.

Well a small percentage of people stay there the whole day. Most of the people filter in and out within a few hours. Contrast that to an amusement park where a majority of people come in the morning and leave at dusk.

coasterqueenTRN said:

I went to Great Adventure on Columbus Day a few years ago. Big mistake!

I'll never do that again.

-Tina

I did that, I think it was two years ago. There was virtually no one there.

Went to SFGadv on Labor Day and it was heaven. No lines, light crowds. Seems as though the Saturday before Labor Day isn't terrible at bigger parks, the Sunday is usually packed, and Monday is good.

I've also had some good luck at parks on Labor Day. Back in the day, I had also been told that the day after the 4th of July (aka July 5th) is a nice surprise light crowd day at some parks. I don't know if that still holds true now, however.

Just don't visit on July 4. I went to carowinds one year and it was full.

Yeah, same deal at Cedar Point several years ago. I wanted to go to see the 4th fireworks, but it wasn't even close to being worth it.

Mike Gallagher said:

coasterqueenTRN said:

I went to Great Adventure on Columbus Day a few years ago. Big mistake!

I'll never do that again.

-Tina

I did that, I think it was two years ago. There was virtually no one there.

I've gone on Columbus Day (the actual Monday) for the last three years and it has been absolute bliss each time. Two years ago Mike and I were able to meet up and it was in the 60's with full sun and there was still nobody there. The El Toro marathon was on in full measure!

Yeah, that was glorious. Good company, good rides, beautiful weather, and we practically had the park to ourselves. Doesn't happen very often, that's for sure.