Obviously, the rain is outside their control. But hopefully within a couple weeks they will have the new staff trained and operating more efficiently.
Maverick was a particularly bad example. The ride usually runs 5 or 6 trains, but they only were running 4. And the person responsible for getting people into the station ready for the next trains was frequently leaving empty rows unnecessarily, further reducing capacity.
When the staff is fully trained, they can get through and keep up with 5 trains running no problem.
All the other coasters were somewhat similar. Time to get people loaded and then restraints checked seemed to be the biggest slow down. It was actually kind of cool to hear the main ride operator calling out times when they were falling behind…first counting down, and then counting up as they were going over. Trouble is…that overage adds up to rides not running efficiently.
Of course, we made do. While waiting for Maverick, which due to rain delays and then a brief mechanical issue, was almost 2 hours, my DS21 pulled out his phone and had us play this game kind of like Headbandz. We did that in line for a good 30 plus minutes of the time.
BTW, there were 7 of us total. I didn’t mention that before. Me, all my kids, and my DDIL.
Certain rides were definitely worth waiting for, but some are rides you should wait for the wait time to drop. We did Magnum with a 5 minute wait, Rougarou with a 10 minute wait (we saw it had a 5 minute wait, but by the time we got in line it was up to 10), Raptor with a 5 minute wait, Blue Streak with a 15 minute wait. Of course, Blue Streak is always worth riding. Magnum, while once super fun, has not aged well and is extremely rough. I do NOT recommend riding that one if you are bothered by roughness, and even then, try riding in the middle or front of the train. The back will beat you up something fierce.
Rougarou is another one that isn’t worth a long wait at all. It looks cool, but the actual experience of it is ho hum. It used to be a standup coaster, but was converted to a floorless. As such, the design elements just aren’t exciting. Still, if you can get on with a short wait, go ahead.
Raptor is definitely worth a shorter wait, but there are plenty of inverted coasters with similar or better experiences.
Rides that will generally ALWAYS have a long wait except at key times include Millennium Force and Steal Vengeance, which also are my top two favorite coasters in the world. We waited about 30 minutes for MF because we rope dropped it, and 75 minutes for SV.
ValRavn was 75-90 minutes pretty much all day. It is a fun ride, but ride capacity isn’t great, so wait times tend to be long. I would hold off unless you really want to ride it until wait times are 60 minutes or less.
Top Thrill Dragster was 60-105 minutes all day…when it was running. This coaster wins the most likely to be temporarily closed award. But truth is, as exciting as the launch is, it just isn’t worth more than a 30 minute wait. Only exception for me is if someone has never been on it. I am willing to wait longer in such a case because I think everyone should try it once. But in many ways Wicked Twister gives you a similar experience for a much shorter wait time (and, frankly, is more fun and longer ride).
Normally, we would also do Gatekeeper, but it was down because the chain on the lift broke a couple days earlier and still needed to be fixed.
We skipped Gemini, because it was a 30 minute wait, but usually we love that ride…as long as they are racing. Sometimes, they only run one side, which then makes it a ho hum experience. But when racing, it can be a blast (with the right mix of people). Usually wait times on this tend to be 10 minutes or less…but again, the training of staff I am sure played a significant role in the wait times.
Iron Dragon is also ho hum, although if you have young kids, they will love it. Still, wait times can creep up. It hit as high as 45 minutes, but tended to hover around 30.
) in a couple weeks as part of a church youth group road trip so this helps to know what they can expect. They’ll be there on a Thurs I think though, so hoping they’ll have a chance to get on a lot of stuff.