Park Capacity

Lost, you've be surprised at the stuff that goes on at SFGADV. However, they have counts that come out every hour. A and B count. A count is total that came in total. B count is total that is currently in park. B counts have been high. I'll never forget the one FF a few years back. People making 3 row of parking and blocking cars in. We had to get skates out and roll cars out of the way. But they pack them in there. Its insane! Why you'd want to wait 2.5 hours for Batman is beyond me! You can't even move. I worked at 4 Tent's security booth and you could barely move.

Fourth of July is hit or miss, and I think it depends on the day. I've found that if it falls on, let's say, a Wednesday you can count on folks to stay home that one day for their parades and cookouts. If its attached to a weekend, though, people become more flexible with their long weekend travel plans and the parks are busier.

Interesting about Columbus Day. It's one of those holidays that not everyone gets off. (I never did and I live in Columbus!) It's also one of those holidays that doesnt include a lot of local celebrations or traditions to keep people home. But I think it's normally very busy at Cedar Point, or am I wrong? - don't they extend Halloweekend haunts and such to include that day? I know the Saturday and Sunday of that weekend are probably the busiest days of the fall season. That's when we typically hear of hour+ waits for rides like Gemini. Columbus day itself, acting more like Sunday, may not be so bad. Maybe I'll try it out this year and see.

Tekwardo said:

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.

Kennywood was packed the Saturday before Labor Day last year. Busier than I have ever seen it.

Hersheypark was pretty busy that Sunday, but it cleared out in the afternoon after the 4-hour-long drizzle that closed every ride down except for the dark ride.

From what people are saying, I really wish I would have waited until Monday to go to a park, but that was driving home day.

RCMAC, you're right about CP's hours and haunts being extended for Columbus Day weekend. The hotels also stay open on Sunday night, which they don't do on any of the other Halloweekends. I think many schools are now giving kids Columbus Day off, which I know never happened when I was a kid.

The fall events, as crazy as they can be, are probably more weather dependent than any other part of the season. At least for the northern parks. This past year Columbus weekend (and pretty much every other October weekend) was 3 straight days of rain, and the crowds seemed to never really materialize at CP the way they have in the past when the weather was good.

CP Chris said:

I think many schools are now giving kids Columbus Day off, which I know never happened when I was a kid.

Really? We always had it off and my kids have too. Columbus day is a bank/usps holiday. Schools usually have those off.

It's a regional thing.

Wow. I just assumed all schools followed the federal holiday thing.

Columbus Day in NJ where I grew up was HUGE. We had a very large Italian population, complete with bocce ball and fig trees, and large Catholic churches.

Moved 3 hours South to MD, and it wasn't a holiday at all...

I'm not aware of Columbus Day being a day off school in northeast Ohio. I have noticed that Cedar Point stays open later on that Sunday though, and always wondered who in the region had the following day off besides banks and post offices.

CoasterBuzz continues to teach me things...

...even if they are as mundane as "not all schools follow the federal holiday calendar."

I seriously had no idea. That's nuts.

I recall Columbus Day being observed on the Friday after Thanksgiving (as that was not an official holiday at the time) when I was in school but that may just be an aging memory making stuff up.

I don't think the states are required to follow federal holidays. Some states did not recognize MLK Day at the time it was a federal holiday.

The school district I went to as a kid definitely did not give us Columbus Day off, but I know that they do now. I assumed the shift was a broader thing, but perhaps it was just us. As far as I can recall, that was the only federal holiday we didn't get off.

Down here in South Florida the kids get a couple of the Jewish holidays off. To do that they sacrifice Columbus Day and one other that I found odd when I first got here. As for capacity, I'm going to a park on Saturday with a capacity of 1800. Heading to Discovery Cove (and hoping the thunderstorms get out of Orlando). There will be fewer people in that park than there will be people standing in line for Gatekeeper on opening day.

Discovery Cove is a fantastic park. Certainly the most relaxing park I've ever been to. I'm sure the "free" beers might have helped with that. :)

Well, just like cruise food, they are included in the cost.

Get right out of town! Really?

Sorry about the typo.

I don't think the typo was the cause for the feigned consternation.

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

I'll never do that again.

-Tina

Was that around 2006 or 2007? Around that time I remember hearing Columbus Day was horrible that year. There were some group events going on that day (possibly a Fall Physics Day) and it was a being a friend free day for season pass holders which caused the larger than normal crowds. Thankfully, that day usually has low crowds now and this year they are open until 10 instead of 8.

Hey RCMAC, Read my comment about the Ionia Free Fair again. Like I mentioned in my post, they no longer get the big numbers that they used to get. Ionia used to have one of the largest carnival midways in Michigan, and draw top name entertainment, with a different concert every night. Here is one of their concert line-ups for a week back in the 80's. One day. Def Leppard and Europe, 25,000 people just at the concert. Day 2. Poison and David Lee Roth. Day Three. Brooks an Dunn. Day 4. Rick Springfield. day. 5. Reba Macentire. Not, sure, but I think Styx was there that week as well.They no longer have big concerts at the Ionia free fair, and when they started charging fair admission their attendance dropped from a million down to less then 200,000, so bad the fair almost went bankrupt, until they decided to drop the admission, and make it free again. When the fair was at it's low point, all the big concerts sarted going to the Allegan fair, where I just recently saw KISS and Motley Crue. (September 2012) The concerts have been going there ever since.Being from Michigan, and living just 30 miles from the ionia fair grounds for more than 28 years, I think I should know what goes on there. If you went back to the 70's, it was even better. The only fair I have ever seen that had a Sky Diver, Cobra, and a Galaxy roller coaster at one fair. At one time, they had close to 100 rides. Now they have maybe 50, and a majority of those are rides for little kids. It's actually very depressing.
Here's some other rides from the Sky Diver days. Twister, tilt-a whirl, round up, hymalaya, flying bobs, Mini mad mouse coaster, go-coaster, super loop, spider, roll-o-plane, Swinger, Tempest, scrambler, bumper cars, enterprise, space roller, sky wheel, ferris wheel, rock-o-plane, rock and roll, swinging ship, cobra, hustler, Saturn six, toboggan, zipper, Galaxi coaster, paratrooper, the Rainbow, Casino, Scatt, Tip Top, and those crazy things that you stood up in and used your body weight to make them swing, among many other rides I probably left out. They also had cable cars one year, oh and a ferris wheel almost as big as the one at Cedar Point. $5.00 to ride it.Nothing like that there anymore.