Parking fees at parks. When is the cutoff?

I was wondering when parks stop charging people to park when the day is winding down? If a park is open until 10 PM does the park stop charging for parking at lets say 7 PM? I would like to visit SFGAm a few times this year during the week and show up about 8 PM to get a couple hours of coaster riding in, but I would refuse the $8 parking fee and not go if they were still charging at that time. Does anyone have any idea about this?

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Chitowns 6 year old daughter says "Daddy, Dippin Dots are nasty!!" I must say that I agree!!
I went to SFWOA at 5pm when the park closed at 7pm and the ******** were still there. I only wanted to pick up my seasons pass!

The ones at PKD had gone by 4pm when the park shut at 8pm. Don't know about SFGAm!

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Parks done 2001: BPB, PKI, SFWOA, CP, KW, HP, DP, Knoebels, Astroland, SFGAdv, SFNE, SFA, LC, Moreys Pier, PKD, PCW, BGW, DMP.
At SFMW you can park for free after 6 if you have a season pass, I'm not sure about the other parks.

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http://www.bolliger-mabillard.com
If you are a season pass holder for 30 bucks you can buy a parking pass,at least at sfa you can.
Soggy's avatar
At SFMM you cannot purchase a season parking pass for any price. The only thing they offer is a book of ten (maybe it was seven) parking passes for $35, not unlimited.

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"X" marks the spot in 2001!
You know what you should do when you go to a park(works if there is 2-3 of you) When you get to the booth, Just say to the person, you are dropping some people off and then you will be going and will be real quick, but instead, you actually stay and park up as normal( And you get away with Free Parking)
Hell, Me and dad could have done it at Cedar Point, My dad said he was dropping me off at the park for the day, and the girl just charged us 50cents(The Toll for using the Bridge) Although my dad still left,It would have been so easy to just find any parking space and get away with cheap parking. You could even say you were checking into the Hotel around the back, Again, you could be sneaky and park up as normal.

We could have done it at SFWOA too, Again my dad said he was dropping me off, and we got in for Free, the parking attendents still directed us to parking spaces too which was funny, Again my dad still left, and even he was saying how easy it was to get away with Free Parking, Quite Hilarious really.

I would really suggest you Americans try it, I certaintly wouldnt put up with paying for parking(I am very gald I live in England, No Parks charge for Parking, and even Parks like Alton dont charge, Hell, even their monorail to the front gate is free, something Six Flags would probably charge for, lol) You might wanna be careful though as some parks Put a Ticket on the front of your car to tell parking attendents you are dropping people off(I know they done it at Sea World, Florida) but dont know about other parks, Actually, I know for a fact, when we went to Disney Florida once, We got in for free Parking and said we were going to the Shop at the Front Gate, again, there was nothing to stop us going in the park and again getting away with free parking.
Yeah, for season pass holders at SFMW they let you park for free before 10 AM and after 6 PM. They don't have any other sort of cutoff, though.

And they'll never stop charging for parking, because we all know that those little white lines cost more than the roller coasters. ;)
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Life's too short to mind,
Just keep on with the sweet up and down
slithernoggin's avatar
PaulD, don't know about England, but in the US, that's called stealing...

Aside from that, without that ticket in the front window, any park would be within its rights to tow a car off the lot. I'd rather grumble about an $8-10 charge than risk having to find my car and pay a couple hundred bucks to get it back!

Chitown, could you have somebody drop you off and pick you up? You'd avoid the charge that way, even if you got dropped at the parking kiosks it's not too far of a walk.

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Dippin Dots- the ice cream of the future. And what does that tell us about the future? That's its expensive and tastes bad! *** This post was edited by slithernoggin on 7/2/2001. ***
Lord Gonchar's avatar
Acually, PaulD you couldn't just say you were going to the hotels at CP. In my experience with staying on property at the Point they make you pay for parking then refund you the cost when you check in to the hotel.

I thought most parks included free parking with the purchase of a season pass? Looks like Six Flags doesn't! Perhaps I'm mistaken.
parking fees Suck !!

Sometimes when I go to SFOT, We park at the subway that is behind Batman The ride, then walk just around the corner to the front gate.

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Titan Laps :10

Most parks here seem to have a guest drop off that is seperate from the parking lot, so you can't park without paying.

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http://www.bolliger-mabillard.com

SFStl does sell season parking passes, if you buy them with your season pass during their pre season sale you can get 1 for 10 dollars, after that they are 20 dollars. Stupid not to buy 1 since it cost 8 dollars per day to park at SFStl. (the highest parking price at any park I have been to. Even SFMM in California is cheaper.)
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Just a couple of G-force junkies!
B*tching about the prices aside, I think it would be a really good idea for parks to offer reduced-rate parking after certain times, and free parking if it is only 1-2 hours before the parks close. That would encourage a lot of season pass holders to come in more evenings, and would help even more if there were more "starlight" type tickets like CP has, though I disagree with their high prices for that half-day. But it's a good idea, in theory.

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Po!nt of View: A different look at Roller Coasters.
http://www.crosswinds.net/~justmayntz/thrills/index.html
I love Dorney! Free parking when you flash them your season pass and you get a special parking lot that os next to the front gate. Just about every other park I go to regularly is free parking (Knoebles) or I am dropped off (Hersheypark). $5-10 for parking does really suck though.
Some of you didnt understand my question. If I show up at a park 2 hours before closing "IN MY CAR" because I am not a teenager who will get dropped off, will there be an attendant at the booth to park? If I wanted to do just 2 hours of coaster riding, I dont feel that I should pay to park.

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Chitowns 6 year old daughter says "Daddy, Dippin Dots are nasty!!" I must say that I agree!!
slithernoggin's avatar
When I go to Michigan's Adventure, rather than pay to park my car in their lot for the time I'm going to be there, I just have one of my parents drop me off at the corner-- they live only a few miles away. Perhaps you didn't understand my response to your question. Just because you're a man with your very own car doesn't mean someone can't drop you off and pick you up. If that's too inconvenient, it would seem that your options are to bite the bullet and pay the fee or simply not go. If you'd like to know whether there will be an attendant in the lot, why don't you call the park and find out for sure?
I’ll agree – paying full price for parking when the park is about to close is crap. However, at most parks I’ve been to when there is only an hour or two left, the parking attendants tend to just wave you through.

On a side note I have also used PaulD’s “I’m picking someone up” tactic (not exactly ethical - but hey, 10 bucks is 10 bucks…)

slithernoggin said:
Aside from that, without that ticket in the front window, any park would be within its rights to tow a car off the lot. I'd rather grumble about an $8-10 charge than risk having to find my car and pay a couple hundred bucks to get it back!


Surely thats Rubbish, do you really think Parks employ people to literally walk round all the car park just checking to see if you have that ticket on the front of your car(I dought it, and even if they did, Who would want to walk round a car park for miles just checking tickets, I know I wouldnt especially if it was at Disney) I dont even think Parks do employ people to do this, because I have never seen security guards go round checking cars(If some parks do, Please correct me if I am wrong) We have used that trick many times in America and have saved a lot of money, But most of the times, it been when my mum or dad has dropped me and my brother off at a park and they have left to pick us up later,but nearly every single time, there was definatly noting to stop us all parking up as normal.

If you read my last post, I said we once Parked up at Disney in Florida to go to the Shop near the entrace, They didnt give us no Pass or nothing and they let us in Free of Charge, we parked up as normal, went over to the park and then realised how incredibly easy it was to get away with free parking, we could have literally walked in the park, enjoyed a full day and gone home later in the day(overall we took a good 30-40 mins because of the monorail trip there and back etc) and when we got back, Our Car was fine, No Warning Sign to say we had no ticket in the front of out car and we would be fined or anything, Infact, I saw no security guards walking round, so we just happly Drove Out.

Of course if you are scared to try it, then dont bother, I am not trying to force you to do it, All I am saying is, It is quite Easy to sneak into a few parks(Dinsey included) without paying for parking, and because I know a lot of you Complain about Car Parking Charges, I am just giving you a few ideas as to how to avoid it. At least try it once in your life anyway, you will never know if you dont try.
slithernoggin's avatar
Question: do you think it would be OK to sneak into the park itself without paying? Do you sneak into movie theatres without paying? Do you do into restaurants, dine, and dash off without paying?

All I'm saying is I'd rather pay eight bucks, or whatever, and know that my car was fine, than to try to pull a fast one on a park and one day leave the park to learn my car had been towed away.
slithernoggin. Please calm down. I asked a simple question and you are getting so offensive with me and others. I live 25 miles from the park so mommy and daddy or anyone else is not going to drop me off. I just asked if the park still charges you to park your car 2 hours before they close. If they do, I wont go. If they dont, I will. Its that simple.

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Chitowns 6 year old daughter says "Daddy, Dippin Dots are nasty!!" I must say that I agree!!

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