Shortest visit to a park? Curious.

Kiddieland, Melrose Park, IL. Long enough to catch a lap on their wooden coaster (about 20 mins).

I've been to MiA twice. First time I was by myself, in Grand Rapids on business, spent two hours there. Second time, went with a friend working there, and even then, maybe four hours, including the time spent talking to her coworkers.

Back in the days of Geauga Lake/SFWoA, which was often only a 30-minute drive from our house, my daughter and I would frequently visit for 45 minutes, and hour, two, get our quick amusement park fix in, and head home.

I once went to Geauga Lake on my lunch break, rode X-Flight (nearly a walk-on) and left. Total time in the park, less than half an hour.

I've had visits to several new-to-me parks that were about 2 hours. Lakemont, DelGrosso's, Williams Grove (all 3 in one day), Marineland (that was probably closer to 3 or 4 hours), Dollywood, Idlewild. I've also made some short trips to Six Flags America and Kings Dominion when I had seasons passes.

I think the last time I opened and closed a park was over a decade ago.

Ever since I moved to this planet called West Virginia, and have no big parks near me, I tend to spend as much time as I can when I visit a park. The exception to this is when I spent a week in Pigeon Forge a few months ago. I was at Dollywood for at least a few hours almost every day of that trip.

With all day park visits, I like to stay all day, sit on a bench when I get tired, and take it easy after I get all the "must ride" attractions done.

When I lived in Altoona, PA, I would sometimes stop at Lakemont Park after work just to feed the ducks and geese, ride Skyliner a few times, and maybe get an ice cream or something.

It's not unusual for me to be at a park at opening, and stay til closing, or at least close to it.

A couple of years ago, my friend Ellen and I did a "Jersey Shore Day"...putt-putt, Seaside Boardwalk, Windmill hot dog, etc. It was when GAdv was offering "rewards" to SP holders based on the number of visits. I had a coupon to get Ellen in free, but I didn't tell her I was planning to stop there to get "credit" for a visit. She balked when we arrived, and wouldn't even get out of the damn car at first. She was so pouty about it, I wasn't even enjoying her company at that point. She came in, but obviously did not want to be there. I took one ride on Toro, bought a pretzel, and we left. Total time in the park, less than half an hour.

Another time, I spent the day at the beach and went to GAdv around 5, solely to see Foreigner. I went on a total of one ride (Runaway Train.) Probably the most crowded I'd ever seen the park. I was was only there for a few hours, but again, only one ride..fewest I've ever had.

I think we spent less than an hour at Adventuredome in 2005. Got the credit and pix. Geeks played DDR for a half hour, and that was it. I've been to parks four hours or less but if it's a new to me park or a place I don't often get to I like to stay till I'm tired or the park closes.

robotfactory said:

I once went to Geauga Lake on my lunch break, rode X-Flight (nearly a walk-on) and left. Total time in the park, less than half an hour.

Have you forgotten the time we drove 9 hours to SFGrAdv, grabbed a painfully slow Nitro ride and found everything else closed. After 45 minutes at the park, decided to drive 5 hours to Kings Dominion and finished the day out there. Then we had to figure out how to get home.

Yeah, I think that visit marked my last SF visit for years.

~Rob

I was away with my wife for a romantic weekend in Cape May the year Ghost Ship opened at Moreys. We're both dark ride fans so I scored a 2 for 1 coupon at WaWa, we rode from Cape May to Wildwood, put 2 quarters in a meter on Schellenger avenue, went on Ghost Ship and left after about 20 minutes total.

Typicaly we will open and close a park now that the kids are older.

In 2011 when I was in NYC I plowed through Coney Island in about an hour. Rode the Cyclone twice, and then went over to Deno's and rode the Wonder Wheel and Spook-a-rama. I could have easily ridden the other coasters there, but I just didn't feel like it, and so I left.

Usually, though, I try to give a new park a full day unless I run out of things to do after a few hours.

I have done 3 parks in a day on many occasions, CP, GL, and Kennywood. SFKK, HW, and SFSTL. Lakemont, Knoebel's, Hershey. More too

Have done two parks in one day on too many occasions to list. You would be amazed at how easily you can do this and ride everything you want to ride, 3 is really pushing it unless they are small parks or you end up in a place where you are staying that night.

I remember the first coasterbuzz con where nearly all of us left PKI and went to Lesourdsville Lake midday.

The best was our first trip to MIA where we rode all 4 coasters plus the kiddie coaster in about an hour, this included 4 laps on timbers. Left and went to SFGAM where we spent the rest of the day.

Quassy, Knoebel's, Lakemont

Treated each like a rest stop on a drive from Rhode Island to Pittsburgh. Spent about 20 minutes at Quassy (enough to pee and get 2 rides on Wooden Warrior), spent about an hour at Knoebel's (Phoenix twice, Twister once, food, pee break), and maybe half an hour at Lakemont (Leap the Dips, Skyliner, pee break).

Of course, what makes this possible is that each place is small, with free or cheap parking, and no entrance fee / pay per ride options. It's awesome though, and beats the hell out of breaking up a road trip with stops in trucker-stained bathrooms and rest stop Tim Horton's.

Just last month I went to HersheyPark for the "Twilight" period, on my family's way back from vacationing in NJ. I'd already been there before, 8 years ago, but wanted to ride SkyRush and Fahrenheit since they were new since then. I went with my much younger sister, and my 8 year old son, who hadn't ridden any coasters (other than kiddie coasters, mad mice, and a scream filled run on Big Thunder Mountain Railway) before, and we got there later than intended. We ended up spending about 2.5 hours in the park before it closed, and my sister and I got in rides on SkyRush, Fahrenheit, and Storm Runner, in addition to my son joining us on Comet and Lightning Racer, for his first major coaster "credits"! My son was terrified on the way up both coasters, but ended up enjoying himself both times, and is starting to become a little "enthusiast" like his dad now! ;) I considered the trip a great one, despite not riding much or being there long.

I too have found, like OhioStater mentioned above, that the births of my kids (I now have 3), and the advancement of my age (mid thirties as opposed to mid twenties) has really tempered my coaster "enthusiasm" from 8-10 years ago. Last year, my wife and I went to Cedar Point, which is a yearly destination for me, along with my sister-in-law and her husband, and we only rode a handful of coasters, spent a lot of time sitting down relaxing, and left the park early. The "crazy" thing is: it was one of my favorite times I've had going to CP! Go figure... ;)

I wonder what the record number of amusement parks visited in one day is?

Mine would be Disney Hollywood Studios for roughly 1 hr last summer, enough time to get round the Tower of Terror twice (walk on) and then use of the single rider line for Rock n Roller. This was part of a fairly mad day where we used the magic hours to visit Epcot in the morning, the Animal Kingdom over lunchtime, then the studios, finishing with the Magic Kingdom till 3:00am!

Ensign Smith said:

I wonder what the record number of amusement parks visited in one day is?

No idea, but it brought to mind the 75 coasters in 24 hours story from a decade or so ago.

Ensign, I don't know, but...

I once flew down to Florida to see my dad, and after no sleep for over 24 hours and a 3 hour flight to Tampa, I hopped in my rental car and went to BGT straight from the airport. THEN I drove to Bradenton, which is at LEAST 45 minutes away. That was pretty much my most insane trip because then I drove to Universal studios the next day (and then back), and then Sea World the day after THAT, and then BGT immediately before my flight home.

Visited KD and SFA in one day since SFA was on the way home.

Just realized I only spent about 2.5 hours at Geauga Lake Sunday. I would have floated in the lazy river all day if the water wasn't luke warm and there were enough tubes to use.

Back in 2007 I was with a group of guys from Denver's Front Range Bears. Thanks to one of the bears having connections to Denver's KOOL 105 radio we had received free passes to Elitch Gardens. Due to the fact that many of the guys were either, well large and couldn't ride many of the rides and the fact that many of them weren't coaster fans at all many within the group got bored rather quickly so the "Bears Day at Elitches" lasted no more than an hour tops.

Now this goes way way back. The LONG defunct Seaside Amusement Park on the boardwalk in Virginia Beach. My parents took us there one summer afternoon only to leave within 5 minutes. Since I was only 8 years old at the time ( this would be 1976 ) not sure what happened but I remember my parents saying "..this place f**king sucks !!", then all of us headed back into car and we went to Shakeys Pizza. Too bad we didn't hit Ocean View instead as that park was still opened at the time.