Ok, as my first trip of 2011, it was decent but could have been better. Grand Ave. was packed all the way to the parking lots! We got to Gurnee in 40 minutes but spent another half hour just going to the park from the last right lane before Grand! It was past 11:30 and the cars were still going in like crazy!
STT Closed All wait times between 55-70 minutes (Bull, V2, Superman, Dark Knight) Shortest wait time Dipper and Wolf Heavy crowds for a weekday Not hot but warm in the direct sun with a cooler breeze past County Fair. One lady was asking a Heroes Store employee where do DK people get off and he said it does not exit through the store! A passing guest from the ride told her it did and she said the employee does not know a thing! lol
^ You probably went after August 8th last year. Read To Succeed tickets expire on the Sunday following the first full week of August (8th last year, 7th this year). So before that gets progressively busier, then as soon as the tickets expire, its dead.
The only other week that sucks in August is the bring a friend for free week which is coming up at the end of the month.
With Eagle running backwards it should bring a crowd to the park in the second week of august which is usually not crowded... smart move to start running it backwards this time of year.
last year I was there the first sunday in august and it was very nice. Now, I know summer is almost over and kids are on their last weeks of vacation but man I thought on a Wednesday it would be slower than it was.
You also have to remember the bad rain we had the other day which could have scared some people into coming. Also, it was a cooler day compared to over 90 something yesterday. For today though, about the cooler weather, it said that in Gurnee, it was 80 degrees which was the average. High of 83, so what could have happened is that the people weren't as much in the waterpark as if it was warmer. Sure, there probably were people in the waterpark, but it probably wasn't really crowded because of that temperature. 1 degree lower from 80 is in the 70s.
So, I think you got a triple whammy - Read to Succeed ending, the people that didn't want to go yesterday because of extreme heat & heavy storms forecasted, and the "cooler" weather. And if you don't know what a whammy is, type Press Your Luck in the search box.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
went 8/4. Crowds awful still. With RAP pass, had to wait an hour for Eagle because of one side. The rest were 30-40 minutes. Demon's line an hour, Eagle went to 2 hours. Wolf a small line, didn't go on Dipper, SUF or DK, BTR or V2. Bull's line was full, BTR's was quite full. It is insane how crowded it was. It wasn't scorching hot but hot enough for me. I'm going tomorrow and Saturday. Can't wait for crowds again.