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Best Time To Visit Cedar Point?


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I originally was going to go for my first time on my birthday in July, but I'm afraid it'll be suuuper crowded.

So, I was thinking I wouldn't go anywhere for my birthday, and go another time when it's less crowded. Anyone know the best time to go? My cousin said during Hallo-Weekends, but I was looking at one of Giga's PTRs during Hallo-Weekends and the wait for TTD was 3 hours... I really hate lines. Reallllllyyyyy hate lines.

Is this something that is avoidable?

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You could always go when the park is closed. There will be no lines then.

More seriously, if that date in your banner is when you are planning, a Thursday in late July, it will at least be moderately busy, but I doubt it will be packed, yet there is no way of knowing. Cedar Point is largely a destination park/resort. Thus, weather does not keep people from coming, though it may keep them in their hotel rooms/doing other things. The only problem with that is for it to be that bad, it would also probably keep you from going! :) Not to mention many of the rides shut down.

Early season is iffy due to groups...what could normally be a relatively quiet day can suddenly have hundreds of school buses show up. Years ago, May weekdays were almost always nearly deserted. Not so now. Many have reported success with early June weekdays. Halloweekends can be very, very busy, but mostly on Saturdays. Fridays and Sundays during Halloweekends can be very light, and usually are. Note that not all the park is open on Friday nights during Halloweekends, or least hasn't been in the past.

I'd learn to tolerate lines, go when I could, and enjoy. Most of what we worry about turns out to be just fine...and most of what we should worry about can't be identified in advance. It's a theme park trip, not surgery.

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Assuming you have a Platinum Pass even on a crowded day you can do all the good rides, thats because during your hour of ERT you can do Maverick, MF, and get in line for TTD. You should be done those three rides by eleven at the latest, and then you can hit the back part of the park (Power Tower, Magnum, the flats on the Gemini midway, Gemini, Mean Streak, Skyhawk) and be done with those by 1 or so. Then hop on the train, and start heading towards the front of the park, you really should be able to do all the good rides and still have about 3 hours or so for night rides. However, you wont be able to do all the coasters in the park and not wait in a long line.

For crowds, May as he said is iffy on the weekdays (you could hit the jackpot, you could have a crowded day with low hours) on the weekends up to Memorial Day you can expect about 2 hour waits to be the longest, which is what they should be on your standard summer weekday as well, weekends are obviously more crowded. If you can wait that long, I went to the park on Labor Day Monday last year and had a fantastic day (TR: http://coasterbuzz.com/Forums/Thread/54753.aspx.) When it comes to Halloweekends, Fridays and Sundays (especially early on) are generally fantastic (dead) but Saturdays are the most crowded days of the whole season (even beating out the 4th of July.)

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best day to go is the first weekday its open...May 18th this year

However, read the TR's from the first weekdays of operations from the past years...busy, rides down (Maverick went the first 4 days of the 08 season open about 4 hours), operational kinks, and some crappy weather.

Last season I went on Wednesday, May 21st (for Maverick PP Night) and it was glorious....I actually got burned out of riding in the middle of the day, which is unheard of for me! Then Memorial Day weekend last year was good too.

I think the overall main idea is the 2nd half of June through the 1st half of August is the busiest...it's not rocket science, and sometimes you have to take some gambles and connect dots.

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Tue. or Wed. in May around opening of the season to early July is the best time to go. We love Wed. there is usually nobody there and the rides are a walk on. Yes when schools are still in class you will have bus trips coming , but I have never seen it make that much of a difference on a Tue. or Wed. Thur or Fri. is a different story, people take long weekends and then when the buses show up it gets very crowded.

Halloweekends gets very crowded with the park only open on the weekends, every year now we see it grow more and more.

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Opening weekend at CP last year was the best weekend of my life. Maverick had some issues, but I was still able to get some laps on it. Plus some rough rain in the morning on Sunday, but other than that it was amazing. Incredibly short lines on sunday and monday. Other than that, if you go on a weekday in may or june, or fridays near the end of the season you should be pretty good for a nice day with pretty short lines.

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Do not, do not, DO NOT go to Cedar Point on a Saturday (or Halloweekends) if you hate long lines. I can not stress that enough.. I went on a Halloweekends Saturday last year and I'm talking 1 hour wait for Corkscrew and Iron Dragon, 2 for MF, 2 for Raptor, and don't even get me started on Maverick's line.

That PTR you read was likely my massive TR from when I went for 3 days. I went to CP 7 times last year and learned something about when to go.

Sundays are the best day to go, especially when the next day is a school day, because the park starts clearing out around midday and you will be left with a light crowd. Sundays and weekdays aren't too bad no matter when you go. Avoid math and science days too, and check the calendar to make sure no huge events are going on before you plan your trip.. I learned that the hard way.

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Honestly, I went through the week on the last week of July last year and was very surprised at how busy it was. The water park was absolutely packed and I waited 1 1/2 hours for Maverick, even though I got in line during the ERT in the morning! TTD was no less than a 1 hour wait, and Raptor averaged 45 minutes. We spent four days there (Monday-Thursday) and it was pretty consistent each day.

I'd say avoid July if possible. Also definitely avoid Halloweekend Saturdays, I went on one of those and it was a big mistake. Giga is not kidding about the wait time. I spent 45 minutes in line for Gemini. The next day was much, much much better - 30 minutes got me on to Millennium Force and many other coasters were walk on.

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^Hate to say it but, that time in July is not a crowded day at CP thats a normal one. If you do not get to Maverick early in ERT it will have a full queue because that is where everyone goes first. On your average weekday in the summer the only 4 rides that should approach and go over an hour and a half wait are Raptor, TTD, MF and Maverick with the last two typically sporting the longest line. Everything else should be under an hour.

If Im ever at the park when MF or Maverick are under an hour wait most of the day, I get excited because Im at the park when it is dead.

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No, you are at the park when you think it is dead. I have experienced Cedar Point many times when it truly was nearly empty. And some of those times were relatively recently. The advice about weekdays in early to mid-June and Halloweekends on Sunday and Friday night (though not all the park is open on Friday nights then) is good. If you truly think what you experienced was Cedar Point when it was dead, you are in for a treat.

That all being said, with the economy the way it is now, the crowd size will definitely be affected. The Kinzels of the world would have you think it will be larger, and it may. So many are unemployed or scared they may be, business is down so much, it may be the opposite. And if it is, the parks may respond with incredibly low admission prices/packages...which will bring in more people...who will mostly be riding and seeing shows, not spending...which also affects rides. And we haven't even mentioned gas prices, which could change dramatically without warning at any time. It's going to be an interesting year, and that may not or may be a good thing.

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If Im ever at the park when MF or Maverick are under an hour wait most of the day, I get excited because Im at the park when it is dead.

I'm with you on Maverick, but for MF last season it seemed the average wait was around 45 mins. Granted I was strategic about the days I went, but even on moderately busy on-peak weekdays and off-peak weekends for the first time I started noticing MF being hard to crack 1 hour (when running all three trains), which it didn't from, what?, end of July through mid-August?

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Of the times that I visited CP last year, the week in July and the Halloweekends Saturday were the busiest. The weekdays in July that I went were on par with normal Saturday crowds. I have seen CP busy and I have seen it deserted, and they were at the upper end of that spectrum. The only ride I caught as a walk-on was Blue Streak. Everything else I had to wait anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes (not counting the 1+ hour waits already mentioned). I was incredibly surprised because by everything I had been reading up until that point, the park should have been much emptier than it actually was.

The Sunday during Halloweekends that I went, I waited 15-20 minutes for night rides on MF, skipped TTD and Maverick, and walked on every other ride in the park. It wasn't completely dead, but it was very close to it. I think I made it on 10 laps around Gemini in one day, plus managed to ride Magnum, Millie (twice), Raptor (twice), Disaster Transport, Wicked Twister and all the flat rides that I enjoy.

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Terpy Ive been on dead dead days too. Last fall on a Friday I rode MF 4 times in 15 min thanks to the line being so short that they let us go through the handicap gate to get back into the station (and if you didnt care about what row you were in you could get a ride on the next train.) Still, under 30 min for Maverick and MF makes me very happy, that virtually assures you a less then 10 min wait (and more often then not a walk on) on every other ride in the park

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^ I'm assuming you went on the "bonus" weekend Friday they had last year? That day was truly fantastic. I believe they let the GP in with the Early Entry folks too it was that dead at that time of day. Maverick was about a 5-10 minute wait even an hour after Early Entry started! It did pick up (Maverick ballooned to 45 minutes) but that was a great day to be at the Point!

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^^Nope this was a Halloweekends Friday, near the end of the season. I remember also going through Cornstalkers, walking out, walking back and then going through it again in less then 5 min from exit to enterance (loved that maze.)

Closing day last year was also a blast, not quite as dead but I did close to double my summer average of rides with less time that day.

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^Says you, 55 and sunny is not what I call cold by any stretch of the imagination. It was also aided by the fact that Daylight Savings Time ended the night before, allowing the park to have one last hour of night time riding even though it closed at 8pm.

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Ok, I have no idea who is replying to who with all the ^ and ^^ and ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ here.. what is that about?

But I will confirm that was indeed very cold on CP closing day. I had to wear 2 long sleeved thermal shirts, a tshirt, a fleece hoodie, 2 pair of socks, and a pair of gloves to stay warm. My friend Bryan that worked on Skyscraper had to wear a hoodie, coat, and raincoat over his CP shirt to stay warm that day. I saw many others with scarves, knit hats, gloves, heavy coats, etc.

55 degrees in November (and in Sandusky) does not feel like springtime. With the wind off Lake Erie, it felt like it was about 20 degrees.

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I couldn't agree more. I was at Dollywood, as per usual, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It was very, very cold, and people were wearing thermal hoodies, long underwear, gloves and hats. I was nowhere near as cold at Dollywood as it was at Cedar Point closing day. I don't really give a tinker's darn what the thermometer in Sandusky said...I know bone chilling cold when I feel it. And it was.

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Im just saying that I did not have to resort to full out winter gear (parka and boots) and that the flannel lined jeans, sweatshirt and thermal underwear did not go on until a few hours before closing. Ive been in Sandusky when its bone chillingly cold (25 degrees, 10 wind chill) and its just not fun then (I ended the night wearing my thick gloves, glove liner, two hats, parka, sweatshirt, fleece, turtleneck, flannel lined jeans, thermal underwear, boots, and wool socks) I walked around during the day in just a fleece, turleneck and fleece pants. It was the same thing I wore (and about as cold as I felt) a week earlier when I was at KI. It was brisk, but not bone chilling cold. Bone chilling cold implies that I no longer want to ride coasters and start to question my decision to attend a football game.

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Kentucky Rumbler on New Year's Eve at midnight was quite a bone chilling ride. Would you like riding a coaster in...well...who knows, but it couldn't have been more than about 20 degrees - the park opened at 5 with 34 according to the car thermometer? I ended up with 30 rides total, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. Despite the cold, it was absolutely fantastic. I guess, for a coaster, I just don't care how cold it is. (Not that I won't admit when a ride is bone chilling.)

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I know what cold is. And closing day at Cedar Point last year was cold...at least for me. And that's what counts...if I was cold, I was cold! :)

I concur. Anyone who wasn't at CP on closing day can't really say anything. I thought I was going to freeze to death but I kept going because the lines were nonexistent all day.

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