SFMM advice?

Im going to SFMM this summer (sometime in mid june). Anyone have any suggestions for order of rides? Were only going for one day.

Also, are the lines pretty much always packed?

Thanks!

Same as any park: Sat's are awful, Fri. and Sun. are bad, every other day is fine.

Obviously get there early and *start at the back of the park with the low capacity rides* (as with any park). The biggest mistake is to hit the first big ride you see (X) in the morning. Why? Because *everybody* else does that. Waits at the front of the park will be pushing 1 hr. while the back of the park is still full of walk ons. S:TE and Deja Vu should be the first two stops and you can probably get a few laps in on each before the crowds start showing up. This will save you a lot of time because these rides both have such terrible capacity.

For the sake of things, we'll call rides like Goliath, Riddlers, X, Deja Vu, S:TE, B:TR "big."

Psyclone, Viper, Ninja, Colossus, Flashback etc. "small."

If the day is going to be crowded, start with the smaller coasters and build your way up. The line for the big coasters will be the same the entire day, but the line for Ninja, Viper etc. will be growing all morning, so it's best to hit them before the crowds do. It is hard to pass by X or Goliath and not ride, but it is the most time efficient way. Once, crowds do start to build, move to the big rides and save any small rides for later. There's no reason to wait for Ninja for 1 hr. in the middle of the day, when it'll be a walk on later in the evening. (I made this mistake on virtually all the small coasters at MM). Once the crowds start to thin out in the evening, finish off all the small rides that you haven't done and then ride whatever you want.

Alternatively, if it's going to be a light day, start with the big coasters, as the smaller ones will have short lines all day, and you can use the peak time (when Riddler has that awful 1.5 hr. wait) to take out the smaller coasters, which will only have 15 minute waits. Then if the park is open late (midnight) the lines for the big coasters will start dying around 10:00-10:30 and you can take as many laps as you want on all the big coasters.

HTH. Remeber: Start at the back of the park!!!

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The legend lives!

yea saterdays would probley be a bad idea

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Are roller coasters my life? NO, but I certainly like them!

I went on Friday, June 15th last year and it was not that bad. Actually it was emptiest I had ever seen SFMM.

Reguardless of the situation it is possible to hit a majority of the rides since most lines move pretty well, except Deja Vu. Id suggest gettng a fastlane pass for your rides on X and Goliath.

Start out to the right since most people will head right to X. Ride Goliath, Colossus, Batman: The Ride right away. Move counterclock wise around the park. When you get hungry avoid the Movie District....even tho it seems appealing you will waste massive amounts of time. Its better to try Panda Express in Baja Ridge (ya...i know) or someplace near the front of the park. Its better to actually leave and find somewhere outside the park, but its up to you.

Nightime you should plan on riding Goldrusher, Jet Stream, Ninja, and Log Jammer as they are all really good night rides even if they are relatively tame.

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"ok everyone go ahead and pull down on your shoulder restraint so you feel nice and stuck!"

This is just my opinion, and I'll probably get slammed for it, but I say get there at opening and go straight to X. Sure, the other rides will be walk ons, but X will be a 2-3 hour wait the entire day unless you have fastlane passes. I don't know about you, but 2-3 hours will put a big hole in my day, regardless of how many other rides I get on. My friends just went last Saturday and said that X was only a 20 minute wait since they went right to it once the gates opened. Later on the day, while the other rides were 1 hour max, X inflated to 3 hours plus.

In my opinion, sprint to the big guy first followed right after by the other coasters that you want to ride the most. Then, take your time going through the others that aren't as important to you.

Just get there at opening!!!

-Adam

*** This post was edited by AdamFrank on 4/19/2002. ***

i agree with AdamFrank, i was thinking of doing what everyone else did, but i went with the crowd instead. I was one of the first to go through the SP gate, but a lot of people were still in front of me. I just ran as fast as possible and was the 3rd person in the pre-queue. If you are a fast, distance runner do that, if not just go to the fountain by Revolution and hop on the Orient Express incline, it takes you right to S:TE & Ninja, big time-saver there. I can't really give any line advice except for X, get in line as fast as possible, and stay in line no matter what, it usually doesnt take very very long. I got lucky when i went, Easter, and had no lines what so ever the whole day except for X, which was 3.5 hours, then it was 3 hours on 4.1.

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HurricaneGeauga- Just in case

Thanks all you guys! Im still scared of not being able to ride all of the rides I want (it just seems frustrating because its such a big park full of great rides!).

One more question: Since I'm going to be there open to close, should I or should I not hit X first?

Thanks!

While on the subject of SFMM advice, I'm going to SFMM May 11. I was considering using FastLane to avoid the 3.5 hour line for X. So I've got two questions. First, where do I buy the FastLane passes? And second, how is FastLane implemented on X, and where should I go to get the front row if they'll let me do so? Oh, and of course, what are the waits like for X if I use FastLane?...hopefully it's better than the 3.5 to 4hours I've been hearing about in the normal queue. Thanks for any info.
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hmmmm...that doesn't look so bad...I'll ride it!

*** This post was edited by decoy on 4/20/2002. ***

MY advice right now for tackling the park is to first hit X and then run to Deja Vu. From there, it all really depends on what day you go for what to do. On most weekdays, you could probably just enjoy the rides in the back of the park and then move foward (Viper and The Revolution never have a line after 2 pm). On weekends, and Saturdays especially, you really need to pace yourself. One lucky thing if that X is taking most of the guests in the park leaving the rest of the rides with shorter lines than normal. Once summer gets closer, you might want to reask your questions just because the new crowd patterns are being created.
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