This thread will be used to document all of Great Americas opening day/week going forward, discuss anything you noticed / liked / disliked.
2025: Below
How did you guys feel about opening day today? I wasn't able to go but if what I heard was true from the huge lines, closed rides, and general poor service, I'm afraid to say that I think this years opening day was a disaster. Opening days are typically rough but I had never seen so many complaints online than I did today, hopefully this isn't a sign of what's to come in our future because if this is the result of Cedar Fair management I'm worried.
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Opening day discussions
29 posts
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Some time, on way to successful, first of steps of all of the steps to being successful steps are hardest of all of the steps to successing.
I mean service wasn’t terrible. The park was just over run due to nicer weather and single train ops. If they would allow guests into the park prior to 10:30 up to the fast pass building and Mardi Gras, I feel this would have made the visit more enjoyable for guests. I arrived around 9:45 in the parking lot, got into the park at 11:15. 45 solid minutes just to get in. I don’t know if this is a Cedar Fair thing necessarily as I’m pretty sure single train ops happens all the time during opening weekend. I just feel that if they would have allowed guests into prior to 10:30 the day would have gone smoother, even for the entrance team. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'll be at the park tomorrow and will be live updating a reply on the minor updates forum based on any seasonal changes I notice.
I'll let you all know tomorrow if I have the same concerns for sure. "I've been told that some part of every wish will be heard but lately I lost sight of the truth in those words."
I should also note, I only stayed at the park for about an hour due to how crowded it was. However, I did get on 4 rides. Viper, justice league, American Eagle, and V2. Also, the times on the app were incorrect most of the rides. It stated Maxx Force at 20 minutes when the line was all the way out flowing into carousel Plaza. Joker free spin was marked like 15 minutes, easily 40.
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I almost bailed after seeing how long the line(s( were to get in. I ended up just cutting in line from the preferred parking lot as that’s as far back as that line got. From what I heard the other line to get in got as far back as Grand Ave.
I didn’t really look but were there technically 2 different lines? One by wrapped around preferred parking, the other down by grand Ave? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I had an adventure today for sure. Arrived by the Eagle vehicle gate at 10:30. From there it took me until 11 to get parked. There were 2 separate lines to get in. I decided the Superman side was shorter so I went that route. This is where it gets interesting.
Right when we got to the part where the rusty fence turns into the black laminated fence, I witnessed a guy who was in his 20s or 30s, not really sure, whip out his junk and start pissing right in front of a huge crowd. Within 30 Seconds security walked up to him and sorta started questioning him. I saw Gurnee police show up but i didn’t see him actually get arrested. His group didn’t even stay with him they went into the park! From there I didn’t get to the point where they scan your park tickets until after 12PM sometime. Now for some context, I bought a Gold 2025 Season Pass from Dorney Park in August of 2024. It made sense for me since I was heading to Cedar Point after Dorney and the pass was good for the rest of 2024 and all of 2025. Problem at Dorney was that when I bought the pass, they were out of the physical cards so I had a 2 page register receipt with the QR code on the 2nd page. That got me into Cedar Point parking and the park no problem last year. When I got to the vehicle gate today the guy didn’t really know what to do. But after I showed him on the receipt what I purchased he let me in. No such luck at the gate today. After the ticket taker rejected me she sent me to the girl on the laptop who was helping others with season passes. After she looked at my stuff she told me I had to go to the park ticket booth and get sorted there. I was livid because that meant I had to wait in line again afterwards. Long story short once I got to the ticket booth they told me I had to call Dorney Park and get a pass because what I showed them was worthless. I about lost my mind. Mind you it’s past 12:30 now so I walked back up to the ticket scanner area and talked to one of the dudes there named Nick. I asked him if I could go to guest relations and then told him my issue. Turns out he was able to figure out that all I had to do was upload my pass into the SF app. All I had to do was scan the QR code on my receipt and boom, my pass was uploaded. And from there I had a scannable pass that the ticket scanners now accepted and was able to get in finally. I asked the guy Nick how come the people after the ticket booth including their supervisors had no idea on how to do that? He had no answer of course lol. At this point it was damn near 1PM now so I figured I would get my physical pass later. So after the park closed I went into guest relations to get my physical pass. Long story short they said my pass shows up as SFOT pass. Yeah that makes no sense whatsoever. And beucase of this, they cannot issue me a physical card. If I want one she said I’ll have to call Dorney to get sorted. But she assured me what I have in the app will grant me access all season. My digital pass also shows up as a “Day” ticket. Yeah that makes no sense to me either. Anyways let’s hope that’s the end of the story! On a positive note I got to randomly meet and hang out with @coasterriderSC on Maxx Force. We got 2 rides in a row with the 2nd being last train of the night. Was great meeting and hanging out with you Steve! Hope to see you again bro!! Last edited by Tidal_Waver on April 18th, 2025, 8:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Yeah there were two different lines. The line I waited actually started near the drop off lot.
At 11ish, the end of the line for the Superman side was at the intersection of Cedar and Six Flags drive. The water park line stretched all the way past the water park, and then across the entire length of the parking lot, at where the drop off lot was at. The Superman side looked shorter to me even though it still took over an hour. What a nut roll.
I always treat Opening Weekend like they're preview days. No amount of preseason training without guests can prepare people for an opening day with a crowded park. I know food and bev gets a trial run, but the rest of the park doesn't. I know that the B&Ms are behind maintenance schedule because of the extra attention needed for Wrath. Despite the slow operations and one train ops, it wasn't bad for the first few hours. After that, however, it was a wash. I left, as there was no point in waiting an hour for a ride I can get on hundreds of times throughout the season.
Also, did anyone notice that EVERY games employee was engaging with there crowds, trying to get people to play? I'm sure they were told to be extra happy-go-lucky, but it got a bit annoying. Nonetheless, it was nice to not see the employees acting as if they hated being there. Everyone was very pleasant today! The aforementioned Dorney pass story is frustrating. I hope that next year legacy CF / SF will combine into a more fluid pass system. It should appear the same. SF uses barcodes and CF uses QR codes. Make it the same. Next year, there is no excuse not to have uniformity in the pass system.
TidalWaver - It was great meeting you as well! That is unbelievable about your ticket/pass fiasco!
I had similar situation where ticket taker at gate couldn't give me physical plastic card because "I got one last year". It turns out the nice woman at the tickets sales (outside the park) was able to issue me the card! The system just needed my age for some reason! Very odd since I've been a passholder since 2013. I concur with all the comments about the time to enter the park! They didn't start passing us through security till after 1030 I believe and then we had to go through ticket takers. I am hoping the new system (kind of like checking out at TJ Maxx) where they call the next person up will make things go faster for entry! We shall see. I headed first to Batman to achieve my 15 ride marathon! It didn't open till 11:15 AM. The line was fairly short for the most part during my stay there. I skipped all my other faves due to long lines. Triple Play was a short line as was Rue Le Dodge so I scored some quick credits on those. Single Day Ride Count Record
50 rides 8/17/2018 (Without Flash Pass - Coasters After Dark) ---- "Here we go, kids!! Here we go!!"
FYI legacy Cedar Fair Parks no longer issue physical cards. You have to use your phone or the QR code they print out.
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I just checked the app and I had to rescan my QR code for it to show up. So it will disappear every day. This is really dumb. The QR code is on paper that fades in sunlight or if it touches anything else. It’s a typical register receipt that you would get from any market. Great America should be able to issue me a physical pass if they still have them. 
That's insane you didn't get a physical pass Old Great America was better, however I hope just a bit of that charm comes back
Anyone at the park today? App has multiple rides at 0 minutes wait… has to be wrong lol
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Definitely not as bad as yesterday from pictures I've seen.
It was still an issue getting into the park but they did at least let us in a few minutes before 10:30. I haven't paid much attention to queues but Goliath's was going to the queue house and that's about it. V2 is having a bad day. Keeps going down. At Batman right now and line is going to the park with no queues open. Tunnel full. Edit 1: at TDK now. Line is no further than the tunnel to the pre-show. Not even to the monitors. Last edited by Goku1910 on April 19th, 2025, 1:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Not bad at all today. Walked on Batman, Flash, Eagle, Goliath
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Just a more comprehensive report on the park yesterday.
Like I said in the past post, park was not that crowded. I thought that the food service was fine. Much improved from opening weekend last year. Ops were really not much different than last year. I thought crews on eagle, viper, Goliath, and maxx force were doing fine (also because they were the only rides running 2 trains) Whizzer was closed all day but was testing and had crews there. I’m assuming training? I was able to get on flash right when the park opened but then it was closed the rest of the day. I did notice it made a lot more of a screeching noise when parking in the station compared to before. Not sure if this has anything to do with it closing. Batman was as smooth as ever and I’m happy with the return of many thematic elements. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Did anyone get a paper map for this year? Are they gone for good? I didn’t see any opening day.
I didn’t see any out front Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Whizzer opened briefly at the start of the day. I was one of the first in line for Maxx at opening; it had a delayed opening and opened some time around 11:25. While I was standing there waiting for it to open, I saw Whizzer run a few trains with people. Right after I got off Maxx, Whizzer had already closed for rain, and then it didn't reopen for the rest of the day.
guest services next to flash pass building has them.
I did see some with Sky Striker on the front behind the counter in Guest Services, but those were most likely from last year. Did you grab one and did it have Wrath of R in it?
Sunday was.... something
Old Great America was better, however I hope just a bit of that charm comes back
I can cut the slack the park for some of the issues like one train ops and slow operations. What annoyed me more was the amount of line jumping I encountered.
29 posts
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