Thinking of you. You should absolutely be a princess for the day and not wait in line.
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@Nikkipoooo are you going this weekend?
I know Fast Lane “can” sell out, but I want to hold off in case of weather since we have both Friday and Saturday and could do Fast Lane either day. Do you think buying on Tuesday, for use on Thursday, is safe or I need to buy sooner?
We’re here! Short answer: I’d hold off to A. see what the weather is like, and B. see if you even need it. Here’s what we’ve done so far:
We’re staying at Express hotel and we had the offer for free Thursday Fright Lane, but we got a bit of a later start than planned and Mia’s scared of the indoor haunts anyway so we went straight to the park and arrived around 6:30. It was kind of windy, but everything was open. We rode Raptor, Gatekeeper, Wild Mouse all twice by 8pm
That was the sunset from Wild Mouse.
Then we did Blue Streak 3 times without getting out, because there was nobody in line. We did Valravn next, and that had about 15 minutes wait.
We headed back and did Power Town Blue (the drop side) and then Magnum twice. By this point the wind on the Lake Erie side of the peninsula had stated to pick up, and those rides on Magnum were ridiculousky windy! Then we did Pipe Scream and Gemini, which are in a rock and roll themed scare zone. The Butchers of Rock were just starting their show (which I believe is the only show going on Thursday) as we exited, so we got some fries and watched that. Miss commented that the screamsters (that’s what they call scare actors here) were all too normally dressed, so she could barely even tell them apart from regular people… they got both of us good a couple of times.
Then we went to the back and walked through the Frontier Town scare zone to get to Maverick, which had about 20 minutes wait. After that we did Skyhawk twice, but as we got off the second time Mia’s stomach started bothering her, so we got a drink and just sat and watched people get scared for awhile until she decided it wasn’t getting better.
She wanted to walk through the Rock scare zone again, so we walked the long way back to the front. We also stopped to play the balloon pop game in the midway across from Power Tower… she only popped one, but the staffer there was super sweet and gave her a capybara (the 2 pop prize) anyway. We just the park around 10:15, with 18 rides under our belt.
We didn’t ride Steel Vengeance, Millennium, Rougarou, Mine Ride, or Iron Dragon but they were all open (which is kind of big, because having all of the coasters open on the first night of the weekend has never been a thing before). If we’d stayed until midnight we would have easily done all of those, probably more than once. I’d say that the evening was actually slightly busier than a typical Thursday, probably because everyone knew today was not going to go well.
We knew the weather was predicted to be pretty crappy today, and just get worse as the day progressed so we went for early entry this morning. We arrived right at 10am, and didn’t even use my preferred parking perk, because there was only one line of cars parked!
It was windy! The signs at the gate were warning that due to the weather, some rides may not open today. Gatekeeper, Wild Mouse, and Valravn were not open, which just left Millennium for early entry. That made our choice for us, and it took about 10 minutes. After that we headed back to Steel Vengeance. On our way we saw that Maverick had formed a decent little pre-opening line, and so did SteVe.
Just as we got our stuff in the locker they opened, and we hopped in line… we were the second train of the day. Then we went again, and a 3rd time with zero wait. When we got our stuff out of the locker it was about 11:30. Maverick had about a 30 minute line at that point, and Mia wanted a cheese on a stick (it’s like a corn dog, but instead of a hotdog it has cheese inside), which opens at noon so we went and got drinks, and sat by the stand to wait.
While we waited I checked the app and saw that pretty much all major rides except Millie, SteVe, Maverick, and Iron Dragon were closed due to weather. We got our cheese, and just as we were finishing the train pulled in, so we jumped on that and rode it up to the middle (there are 2 stations, one in the musket of the park, near Millennium, Iron Dragon and Rougarou and then one that’s back in Frontier Town, near Maverick and SteVe… just like at Disney you can stay on the whole way, but the ride leaving Frontier station has fun stuff to see).
We did Iron Dragon twice (10 minute wait each time) and then decided to play some arcade games and do the kids’ activities. I spent $50 on an arcade card with 200 credits, and hour of unlimited no-ticket games, and some bonus tickets… we stopped after 40 minutes, with 2200 tickets and 70 credits left to play later.
The kids stuff is for 12 and under, and the kids midway games were easily the best $25 I’ve ever spent… she got 8 tokens for $30 ($25 with my prestige pass), and each game costs anywhere from 1-4 tokens, with a guaranteed prize at each. They were very flexible, letting her choose whatever prozes she liked best at all of them except the one where your prize is determined by how many tokens you spend.
Then we had lunch at the Grand Pavilion and came back to the hotel at about 3:30. This is what Lake Erie looked like at 2:45pm…
We needed a break from the wind, and it’s supposed to be rainy for a few hours. Having so many rides down for weather is a double-edged sword… on one hand the park was totally dead until about 3pm, but on the other hand all of the people who were there were in line for heat a handful of rides, so the lines were longer than they would have been otherwise.
As we were leaving the after school/work crowds were starting to show up, so I’ll let you know how busy it ended up getting when we go back later to catch the shows and finish our arcade card.
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Ope, just saw your other post. I’m so sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but I do think a weekend here is a great way to do it up before your treatments start.
I still think you could hold off on FastLane and just buy it if/when it’s actually useful, especially on a Friday… I think most don’t buy it for Friday unless they’re going to be here most of the day, and there just aren’t very many people here at all before 3-4pm. I don’t think there’s much chance of it selling out in advance, at any rate.
Efit: Looking at the weather next weekend it looks like an absolutely beautiful weekend (if Iwant headed to Seattle for an Alaska cruise I’d totally be here)… that will make it busier starting Friday afternoon. Thursday night & Friday morning should still be good, though, so FastLane for Friday evening would be a good plan.
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Oh, and if you want to see the Wake the Dead show (is a “murder mystery musical”) then get there 30 minutes before for a good seat. It’s worth the wait, easily the best show, though it’s a touch risque at times.
We caught the beginning of The Shrieks, and it seemed really good but they cut it off because the storm rolled in hard.
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Wow! Thank you so much for all this info, I’m gonna have to re-read it a few times. I guess I’m super optimistic about Thursday night and it might be OK to see how Friday morning goes before dropping the $$$ for express lane. If we do a ton on Thursday and Friday before midafternoon, it’ll be no big deal when the crowds pick up Friday afternoon.
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It’s a safe opyimism. Based on last year, Thursday nights never really get much busier, even as the weekends do. The one Saturday that they hit capacity last year the Thursday was still very very light… that’s what makes Thursday so great!
I’m so happy you get to have this great fun weekend before your treatments, and since you’re one of us here I know I don’t need to tell you how much it helps to have a “When it’s over…” trip waiting on the back burner!
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What do you recommend as far as bag/fanny pack for the park? I know some of the rides that restrict items have lockers nearby, and that you can also rent a locker that’s “moveable” throughout the park.
If I do a fanny pack only, which rides do I have to locker it?
I’ve got a lululemon 1L that I liberated from one of the girls…
Especially this time of year I’m not going to need to carry sunblock or anything like that, the drink plan is a paper cup every 15 minutes so I don’t need a water bottle when it’s not stupid hot either. The hotel is right there so there’s no need to carry extra clothes or anything.
It can go on every ride except Steel Vengeance… that one allows absolutely no bags of any size at all, and there are metal detectors. The lockers there are $3, or it’s $12 for an all day locker you can use at any of the rides that restrict larger bags (right off the top of my head Millennium, Magnum, Valravn, Gatekeeper, and Rougarou don’t allow anything bigger than a fannypack/crossbody… even if they have bins they’re for shoes and maybe glasses only). Maverick, Blue Streak, and I think maybe Gemini have larger bins. Skyhawk and Maxair have places to put small things, but no large bags.
I’m going to take this chance to mention that I got to ride Millennium for the first time since 2021 on Friday… it’s the first time I fit since then, though I might have fit earlier this season if I’d let them try to squeeze me into the seatbelt.
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Perfect thanks! Yeah I don’t need to carry much this time of year.
I will warn DH about Millenium - I did read it has very short seatbelts. There’s a good chance he won’t fit on that one.
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If the test seat seatbelt is within about 1.5" and he’s got any squish or jiggle at all then I think it’s worth going up to the platform anyway. I only did it because the entrance person looked at me and was like “Just go, you’ll be fine” and my niece gave me the puppy dog face! Then they did still have to help a little, but the seatbelt on the actual train was way closer.
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Well @Nikkipoooo you’re essentially my CP travel agent now.
As of now some rain predicted for Friday so I may stash ponchos in my Fanny pack (are we calling them belt bags now?!?). Good news, we can just walk back to Breakers if it rains and head back when it stops! If it’s anything like Six Flags Great America it clears out with rain.
Any coasters that won’t run if they’re wet? We’re at liner level now but if I know it’s going to rain I could prioritize those before it rains 
Just rain doesn’t usually stop Millennium, SteVe, Maverick, Gatekeeper, Wild Mouse or Valravn. Gemini, Magnum, Raptor, and Rougarou will run in light rain. Blue Streak and Mine Ride are iffy with weather. Add in wind and you’ll drop Raptor, Rougarou, and Gatekeeper completely, because they’ve all valleyed 
Magnum can be susceptible to wind, but it has to be pretty high winds and from the lake side.
Heavy rain really will clear things out, especially during the evening… go see the indoor shows if it’s really coming down after 6pm. That said, forecasts can be really, really off since it’s a peninsula in a big lake. The weather in town is often totally different than what’s happening on point. I remember leaving the apartments at the end of the causeway to go to work, with super blue skies and no clouds one day and when I got to the parking lot it was dark like twilight, with seagulls circling overhead, and then when I got inside the park I watched a seagull try to fly against the wind and just get blown backward.
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Safe travels tomorrow! The weather looks excellent for rides tomorrow night, so I can’t wait to hear what you do!
Thank you! We are on our way and I’m so excited!!!
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