Opening Day Question

by **RagingFanatic** on January 13th, 2011, 10:10 pm

Hi Everyone!

So, me and my friends were planning on going to SFGAm on opening day this year, and we are contradicting each other. Would we be better off getting a flash pass or just standing out the wait? I said that since it will be the beginning of the summer seasons that it is going to be busy and we should get one. However, my friends dont want to bring the extra money. Should we be concerned about the line lengths, or should we just wait it out?

Thanks!

-RaGiNgFaNaTiC

by **FParker185** on January 13th, 2011, 10:21 pm

This question broken down to the basics translates to: How crowded will it be on x day. I must refer this to the crowd graph...

by **FParker185** on January 13th, 2011, 10:22 pm

The real answer is upon arrival at the park, see how many people you see, make your decision and go from there. Opening day crowds depends upon advertising and weather.

by **Cole** on January 13th, 2011, 10:53 pm

Last year Saturday and Sunday was empty. Walk on for every ride. I rode Am. Eagle backseat 8 straight times. I dont think it will be that empty because of the later date OD is, but expect low crowds.

by **monsterfan99** on January 13th, 2011, 10:56 pm

Hope for cold and rain if you want low crowds.

by **Goku1910** on January 13th, 2011, 11:42 pm

^people, lets not forget last years opening was 2 weeks earlier....That two weeks can make all the difference when it comes to crowds.

by **6Flags4Evr** on January 14th, 2011, 5:48 pm

^ That is very true. Since opening weekend has always usually been in April, it caused for low crowds due do the colder temps and rainy weather. Usually the first weekend in May is when the crowds start to come in. If I recall correctly, in 2007 (opening weekend in May) the crowds were not that bad and I remember it was a nice sunny day.

by **tp41190** on January 14th, 2011, 6:45 pm

2007 was still pretty busy for an opening day.

But I say worry about it a day or two before, not now. It is only January.

by **Goku1910** on January 14th, 2011, 7:33 pm

^it's never to early to plan, I got plans for St. Louis in May. I would guess that this years opening day will be Moderate at most.

by **monsterfan99** on January 14th, 2011, 8:11 pm

^It's never to early to plan a road trip (except when parks wait to release their park hours but I digress,), but a simple visit to the local park this early is a bit much.

by **RagingFanatic** on January 14th, 2011, 11:50 pm

Well, this still has not really answered my question. Oh and by the way I am planning now because driving is always a fight, parking is always a fight, which rides is always a fight. Last year I planned 13 trips and each of them everyone wanted to do something different. IN ANY CASE, 2 days before is not good enough. My friends like everything planned months before so we can get down to the tiny little widgets on the week of. I know it is early, but the earlier you plan, the faster everyone can get everything in their datebooks and start figuring out what and when you are going to ride

by **Goku1910** on January 14th, 2011, 11:55 pm

yeah, but monsterfan did make a point, this is a LOCAL park, you guys can visit anytime.

by **monsterfan99** on January 15th, 2011, 1:23 am

RagingFanatic wrote:Well, this still has not really answered my question. Oh and by the way I am planning now because driving is always a fight, parking is always a fight, which rides is always a fight. Last year I planned 13 trips and each of them everyone wanted to do something different. IN ANY CASE, 2 days before is not good enough. My friends like everything planned months before so we can get down to the tiny little widgets on the week of. I know it is early, but the earlier you plan, the faster everyone can get everything in their datebooks and start figuring out what and when you are going to ride

As a wise man once said "plan for the worst and expect the best." Plan for a summer crowd and work from there. If it's dead in the park it's a bonus, if it's packed you are ready.

by **Necropolis** on January 16th, 2011, 2:25 am

From what I can deduce here, opening day is on a Saturday so everyone is off from school and I'm sure a good majority of people are off from work. Also, since it's a Saturday, most kids can stay out till late or go out on Saturday since it's not a school night and they have Sunday so they don't have to worry about leaving early Saturday night. As most have said here, weather does play a big factor in this. If it looks like its gonna rain or is raining, the crowds will be pretty small. Last year's opening day was great. A good way to start it. Everything was pretty much a 20-30 min wait at most. Bull was a good 20 min wait. Very good I shall say. May also does tend to have chilly days certain years, but you can just easily dress appropriately.

Also remember, not every ride takes the flash pass. Only the major coasters take em, and some smaller rides/flats use em too so hence you must wait for some rides anyway. But honestly from what last year tells us, a flash pass will not be necessary. But then again, the park opened 2 weeks earlier last year than this year so it CAN make a difference. I would just play it by ear then. haha. Personally, I look at Iron Wolfs line. If that line is crowded then the park will be crowded. And, last time we heard, V2 was down/closed the last 2-3 weeks of last season due to some electrical problem, so I would take into consideration that V2 may not be open on opening day. Maybe for a while? IDK.

If you don't like waiting to get out of the parking lot like myself, then leave a good hour before the park closes. People tend to leave about 30 min before the park closes so they think they can avoid the parking lot clutter jams, but it ends up getting crowded in the lot anyway so a good hour would be your best bet.
Hope this helps! This is my 200th post!

by **Viper 88** on January 18th, 2011, 6:24 pm

Generally Speaking you should be ok people are still involved in school activities so they are busy and the crowds should be minimal. But Opening days have been earlier than what it is this year so it is a toss up of 50/50 it is hard to say. Another contributing factor is the weather it might be in the 40's or the low 80's you never know. You may want to bring the extra money anyways and lock it in your glove box or stash it in a locker with some jackets.

by **wishman35** on January 19th, 2011, 9:32 am

Generally the spring gives you the best chance at a day full of walk ons...but the spring is also the biggest crap shoot sometimes because as soon as you roll into the lot you will see the never ending sea of school busses which spells a day full of rowdy kids, basketballs bouncing all over the place and potential long lines.

IF you don't care about the water park...sometimes weekdays in the summer with a decent chance of rain are the best days to hit the theme park. School groups lessen as the summer goes on.

by **w00dland** on January 19th, 2011, 11:44 pm

It's a well known fact that if you wait 24 hours from opening day you can ride whatever you want however many times.

Sunday is your day. Most people can't wait one extra day after waiting the 150 or however many beforehand. Up to you though.

by **Necropolis** on January 20th, 2011, 3:19 pm

^Wow thats really really smart. I'll definitely take that into consideration. Hmm..maybe I'll go the day AFTER opening day. Wow. Thanks for that post. One of the best posts I've seen in a long long time.

by **Jcoaster95** on January 23rd, 2011, 11:38 pm

Last year I didn't notice a difference between saturday and sunday.... but that's probably because I was too excited the park was open again!

by **RagingFanatic** on January 24th, 2011, 12:26 am

Hey, I have another question...why doesn't SFGAm have parking trams? The lot is big enough and it's about a 5 minute walk from the second lot. It seems like the others (some) do...

by **FParker185** on January 24th, 2011, 12:30 am

The Park has parking lot trams, way back in the day they used to use them. Now they are just used for fright fest themeing, usually in area 51. They burn fuel and therefor cost money to run, SF deemed them to costly to run and mothballed them.

by **6Flags4Evr** on January 24th, 2011, 6:43 pm

Another reason why we dont have the trams is because are parkng lot is right in front of the main entrance gates of the park so in reality it is not really that far. Take a park like SFMM their parking lots are no were near the main entrance gates. SFMM parking lot is near Collosus and Scream! and the Entrance to get into the park is all the way near the former Flashback site.

by **Luxornv** on January 24th, 2011, 10:29 pm

Crowds still shouldn't be too bad this opening day even though it's later than last year. Yes, it's a Saturday and kids are off of school that day, but most have not let out for the summer just yet. I don't think you'll need a Flash pass. I'd only consider it if it's a really crowded day like 4th of July or some time during FF.

by **RagingBullFrontRow** on February 3rd, 2011, 1:54 pm

Theres probably a 90 percent chance it will be empty, then again its opening later this year so i would have to say wait out the lines, heck there might not even be lines if ur lucky

See you on opening day!

by **Necropolis** on February 4th, 2011, 3:51 am

Judging from this weeks storm, spring may come a little late this year.

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