12/12/15

[Yoshi]

This trip to the park was going to be different. I'm still getting used to them being open in December and you don't expect 70 degree weather this time of year and being able to wear shorts and a t-shirt knowing you are going to be spending hours outside walking around a park. This was also my 25th trip to the park this year, breaking my old record of 24 from 2013.

 

The lot wasn't very crowded at opening and I expected that to change. First was Green Lantern with a 2 train wait for a middle row and then Superman with the same wait for the last row.

 

Sky Screamer had a 1 cycle wait and although it's more fun to ride at night to see all the lights, I thought it would probably have too long of a line later which turned out to be correct as I heard it was an hour wait around 5:30.

 

Batman was next again with a 2 train wait and then it was time for a lot of Nitro rides. I knew I had to ride the coaster at least 6 times so I could get my 500th total Nitro ride. Wait times varied from a few minutes to 10 minutes even with the line past that covered part of the queue that goes under the track. They were dispatching trains so fast that they often had to wait until the other train was far enough along the track to dispatch the other train.

 

In 2007 when I first rode Nitro, I didn't know at the time I would be getting a season pass the next year and getting the park so often and I'm glad to say that such a great ride is my most ridden coaster. After that I rode Nitro once more.

 

Going up the lift hill on my final Nitro ride of the day, I looked at the parking lot and saw not only was there a lot of cars waiting to get to the parking booths, there was also all the cars trying to merge into a few lanes after the parking booths to get into the lot and that line was barely moving. In the lot, it looked like the preferred parking entrance had a long line of cars waiting to get in as well.

By now lines were starting to pick up. Nitro's line was up to the 60 minute sign and I went to Skull Mountain with about a 20 minute wait for the last row. With El Toro closed, that first drop in the last row is probably the best air time in the park right now.

On the way to The Dark Knight I looked around at the some of the other rides. The Big Wheel had a half full queue, Sky Screamer was almost to the final switchback section and Deja Vu had a full queue. The Dark Knight was only around 15 minutes including the wait to get into the pre-show.

 

After The Dark Knight I knew it was probably going to be too crowded to ride anything else. Lines had even gotten worse in that short amount of time. The Big Wheel now had about a 2/3 full queue, Deja Vu's line was into a temporary overflow queue and Sky Screamer had almost a full queue. Even Air Jumbo that I have never seen with any kind of wait had almost a full queue.

 

I was going to try to use my dining pass to get dinner except the lines were probably going to be an hour long so I decided it wasn't worth waiting. It was the same with the lines to use the dining pass for a snack. Most places I walked by appeared to be out of items like the popcorn bag and soft pretzels and lines were very long, even the snack stand by Houdini had a temporary rope queue setup.
Leaving the park there were a lot of people still waiting to buy tickets and go through security. Walking through the parking lot there were more people going towards the entrance than I have ever seen before. Anyone trying to get out of the preferred parking lot was going to have trouble because there were just so many people walking in that area.

 

When I was walking to the car, I looked at Green Lantern's line from the parking lot and it appeared to be around 30 minutes which didn't seem that bad with how crowded the park was and with 1 train running.

 

Even with the crowds at the end of the trip, it was still a very nice day at the park.

 

Just a second or two too late

 

 

Someone had a phone out on the lift hill so the ride was stopped for a few minutes

 

When was the last time Air Jumbo had a line like this?

 

I just realized park maps near the water fountains were updated for HITP.

 

Almost to the switchbacks

 

[Mrpq]

Wow that is interesting they stopped Nitro on the lift due to a cell phone being out. I am going to admit when I was at the park I had my phone out on Nitro to get a time laps video, no one said anything to me. Yes I know I shouldnt have had my phone out but I have been wanting to try and do a time laps on the coaster for a while now and I got it down. From the bottom of the lift to the ending brake run the video is about 8 seconds. A little too fast of a time laps for me but oh well.

 

Deff seems that if you want to get laps in on the coasters that earlier in the day is better. Night time is seeming to get very crowded.

 

Weather is deff helping them with the first year of the event in the park. Im sure if it was colder out crowded would be way different

[The Master]

Yeah the park is very lucky to have pretty mild weather for its first year for a holiday event. I went to the park in the evening and it was jammed, you could not even walk around, it was the most crowded I have seen it this year. It was also the furthest in the back of the lot I had to park ever. The crowds did go down pretty fast and I was able to ride Nitro once with a 10 min wait, Darknight once, Skull Mt 3 times with no wait, Skyscreamer once with a two cycle wait, and saw the Jack Frost show. Both Sumerman and Green Lantern were only operating single trains and had huge lines, even the tea cups had a full queue, just very crowded and I barely got a seat for the show. The only reason Skull and Nitro didn't have bad lines was because they were running two trains which makes a big difference. Mostly I just looked at the lights and the park has done a much better job decorating for Christmas than for Halloween. I won't be surprised if the park futher downgrades FF decorating for a quicker shift torwards Holiday in the Park, much like how they close water parks early for a quick shift to Halloween.

[Mrpq]

im deff planning on going back next year. Id even skip the summer trip and just do the holiday in the park. I prefer it to be a bit chilly vs standing in like in 100% humidity on a 95 degree day