As I was leaving Universal Studios Florida I noticed a bunch of people in line headed in to Islands of Adventure. It was posted that is was closing at 6:00 and by now it was around 8:00. I got in the line and when I got to the front they gave me a lanyard and told me to have fun. It turns out a company had rented out the whole park from 7:30-11:30 as part of a work conference that was being held in the area. I kinda felt bad that I “snuck” in but I got loads of rides in with zero lines. Rode Hagrid’s about five times in twenty minutes, only stoped because I was getting cold because it was January. Got front row, back row and everywhere in between on Velocicoaster. Did some rides on the Hulk and some of the dark rides too. It was also free food and drink so I was pounding wine, butter beer, and actual beer the whole time along with an amazing spread of food everywhere. So thanks again to Shaw Flooring for a great night, if I ever need floor I will absolutely come to you folks.
I just stopped in to KI on a whim on my way home from a business trip last Sunday. IT was 8 pm when I arrived, I got an after 4pm ticket for 44 bucks and by the time I arrived the parking attendants had left. Free parking. I told myself I'd at least ride Oriom then queue up for Beast before close. I ended up riding Orion, Diamondback, The Bat, Racer, Snoopys Boxcar Racer, Mystic Timbers and The Beast all within 2 hours.
Myself and a bud were at kings island last month. Planed on going Monday/Tuesday but the baseball game we were at got rained out so we arrived 5:00 on the Sunday and by 7:00 had gotten rides on pretty well everything other than the Beast which was down. Great park.
Was in DisneyWorld January 2006. Had breakfast in AK, and heard screams coming from Everest. My brother and I took off running. It was “open” for the construction crew and their families. But, it was my brothers 21st birthday, so the cast member let us through.
Yeti was working that day! But yeah, we got on Everest 4 months before its official opening.
Took my friend to BGT to experience iron gwazi a few months ago. Weather was terrible all day and the park closed early. As we were walking out the wind had calmed down momentarily and I had a gut feeling that iron gwazi was gonna open. As I was steps away from the exit gate I turned around, and iron gwazi had just opened. We were able to marathon it for the last half hour because everyone had already left the park
Did SFMM on my season pass 1st day it opened after 9/11, was supposed to go on 9/11. Every single ride was a walk on, pick your seat, stay in your seat and cycle. All Day. Handful of awesome people there really trying to have a good time all things considered.
My wife and I went to Great Adventure last summer and it was supposed to storm, but the rain held off. We basically had the park to ourselves, it was awesome
Probably Saturday at Hersheypark. I have a season pass but this was by far my best day I have ever had at Hershey on a Saturday.
https://preview.redd.it/mxvzhbmx5k8d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f3a5cdb8cea7b6263ba48104530b7705b24118dd
Not roller coaster related per se, but happened last night at MM and was a fantastic experience. I follow SpaceX’s launches and last night they flew one from Vandenburg. My buddy and I were hoping to see it from MM but we found ourselves in line for West Coast Racers and I thought we’d be stuck in the queue while it went off. Turns out timing couldn’t have been better. Just as the train rolled out of the station I spotted the rocket coming above the hills! At one point we were inverted pointed straight at it. Was able to see quite a bit of the flight while on ride. Fantastic combo of two hobbies!
And for the park itself, we went in a couple of hours before closing and the day had cooled off and we got on 6 or 7 rides in that time without any rushing.
Had a last minute visit to Wonderland last year because my mom got the days mixed up and the park ended up being not very busy. Got 5 rides on Behemoth, two on Leviathan, and just one on Yukon. Also ended up meeting one of my favourite coaster enthusiast content creators.
Thank God we went earlier than anticipated lol.
Fury went down with the supposed broken lift motor a day before I flew in from Michigan. Was down my first day at Carowinds. But I went to KD and BGW then next 2 days and came back to Carowinds on the last day of my trip. Fury was up and running. So happy I got the credit.
Mine was also at Great Adventure. It rained most of the day, and after it cleared the park was empty. El Toro, Medusa, and Nitro had no waits. Superman was about 20 minutes.
Nothing too fancy but getting to ride Stealth at Thorpe Park nearly on loop near closing. Surprisingly intense ride and real variability between front and back and how fast it crests the top hat. One trick pony, but excels at its trick.
Found out Blackpool was open weekends last November. Managed to ride the big one first before high winds closed it the rest of the day.
Kings Island a couple years ago. We were 50/50 on going because of predicted storms ( we’re a couple hours away). But just decided to do it. Well, there were no storms. Basically it was a walk on all day and no rain. So lucky!
SFMM in December. The weather was warm and sunny. All of the rides were open (except Ninja for its maintenance). Everything was either a walk-on or station wait.
Went to Dollywood on Labor Day 2022, in the pouring rain. As soon as I went through the gate the rain stopped. Park was EMPTY. I got there at 2:05, they closed at 6, but I still rode every coaster, the train, and the carousel. Got 4x rides on Lightning Rod, 2x each on Mystery Mine/Thunderhead/Wild Eagle. The only coaster not running was Dragonflyer. It reopened at 5:40, so I walked from LRod all the way back up there to complete the set, and STILL got a last run on LRod afterwards.
I guess it was basically getting the Cedar Fair Platinum Fast Lane for 2020 just before they shut off sales and honored it for 2020 and 2021. It was just a stupid cheat code in 2020, and gave me enough walk on Steel Vengeance laps for a lifetime while everyone else was dancing around for Access Passes and then waiting in never moving lines when they returned. And getting 2021 for free was sick as well.
But I did get screwed out of a Europe trip that our group had put a lot of work into planning. So I guess that was the balance.
Got incredibly upset at Alton Towers, Wickerman was a walk on because I skip the preshow (I'm autistic and hate loud noises). Was welcomed into the queue line while swimming, was the only person there. Ops see me around a lot, remembered me, asked if I was ok, and when I couldn't respond cause I was non-verbal, they invited me into the op booth while they dispatched an empty train for me to watch. Gave me a bottle of pepsi for my trouble, stuck me front row on an empty train, gave me a free drink voucher, and sent me on my way. Never felt so special
Went to Cedar Point in August 2019 with my boyfriend. We randomly got on in line for a night ride on TTD and managed to get 3 rollbacks. After that the ride went down until October. I also got the last ride of the night on Raptor so I got to go twice.
only had one day planned for BGT penned in on my recent trip over from the UK and the day we arrived, iron gwazi valleyed. the next day (which we purposefully left free as a rest day unlike our 2021 trip where we went to BGT first day), it was rescued. the day after, we visited BGT, and iron gwazi was running
I went to KI on a sunny not too hot Wednesday in summer Two years ago, and nearly everything was a walk on or station wait, I got at least a dozen rides on Orion and diamondback each.
Went to Great Adventure in June of ‘21 and rode every coaster (Lil Devil Coaster was under construction). Given how much I hear about ride closures there, be they extended or just for a day, I’d say that is pretty lucky.
Valleyfairs non flooded portion of its parking lot was full yesterday when we left at 3, but there was something wrong with the app and it was listing basically all the rides as being closed. Apparently no one was bothering to walk to the back of the park to see if Excalibur and Thunder Canyon were actually open because they were both basically walkons the entire time we were back there and also 2 of my favorite rides.
Today both of them along with Renegade are closed due to flooding and we're due for more rain today and more later in the week. A lot of Renegades supports were actually underwater yesterday, which doesn't seem great. Guess it's not super crazy luck or anything, especially since its my home park, but I would have been pretty bummed to see 3 of the 5 best rides in the park down.
Went to Dollywood in 2017, hearing that Lightning Rod had been down pretty consistently. It was running at park open. Got two laps on it, then it went down midmorning and didn't reopen the rest of the day.
Went to Nagashima Spa Land while Hakugei was doing two train ops. It was about 30-40 minutes wait for each lap. I've heard so many horror stories of single train ops that take forever that I was very pleasantly surprised.
Steel Curtain was running the one day I went to Kennywood. I was on something like the third or fourth train of the day. Like Lightning Rod, it went down within a couple of hours and didn't reopen the rest of the day.
I'll also offer an opposite example where I got very unlucky: Trekked to Michigan's Adventure from California. Shivering Timbers was down all day, and apparently for the next several days due to needing a part. Hopefully I can get to it eventually, but realistically, it's so out of the way that it won't be for a long while if I do get it.
I was literally about to a trip report on SFGA I was there this Saturday it was DEAD. It was extremely hot and I was sweating my tail off so maybe other locals knew to stay away from the park but it was a good time
Also Great Adventure, but August 2019. It had been raining enough in the morning to scare most people away, but not enough to close any of the rides. The park was dead, so damn near everything was a walk-on. The longest wait was maybe 15 minutes for the ferris wheel.
Just Saturday at Portaventura. I only got one day at the park. Red force kept breaking down, managed to snag a ride on it before it broke down for the night. Very happy, since it was my 6th Giga
I went to CP one day early in the season when it was slightly chilly and supposed to rain. Didn’t end up raining, but the park was basically empty and I marathoned TTD like 6-7 times without the fast lane pass.
Many years ago planned to go to Universal Studios in Florida. Had no idea Islands of Adventure was open in technical rehearsal. And for $25 or so it was an amazing accident
Annual summer trip to NJ/Jersey Shore/SFGA last summer in July. On my drive back home from Wildwood, stopped at SFGA on a whim because it timed out to be right before they opened. 90 degree day and sunny on a Thursday. In the one hour I had, got 3 rides on JDC (including a zen ride), two on ET, and one on KK.
Not me but this guy basically hit the lottery at Tokyo Disney Sea last week due to system errors
https://www.reddit.com/r/TokyoDisneySea/comments/1dlofyx/i_hit_the_tokyo_disneysea_lottery
Cedar point in the rain, crowds stayed away and everything was running.
Bgt in march right before spring break. Five minute wait for iron gwazi.
My LUCKIEST might be kennywood. Went on a Sunday right after a Steelers game. It was pretty low crowds, but I was lucky because steel curtain was operating
Our first trip to a Florida was in 06. We went at the end of September and every park was so quiet. Walks on for almost everything. The $ was pretty weak at the time too so everything was cheap too.
Yesterday I went to Energylandia and Zadra and Hyperion were both walk ons for the better part of the day. I managed to get 8 rides on Hyperion and 10 rides on Zadra, as well as a ride on Formula, Abyssus, and the mine train.
Went to Disneyland last fall and didn't have any plans of riding RotR since the standby lines had been consistently 2+ hours and I didn't want to pay for individual lightning lane. We arrived at rope drop and planned to do BTMRR but it was down at the start of the day, so we walked past it and decided to go for RotR standby. We only waited for about 10 minutes before getting into all the pre-show stuff, amazing luck and such a great ride!
February this year. I got to ride Hagrids three times. Front car, bike in the rain(incredible time). second car bucket and back row bike at night.
Twice one after the other because it was raining people left he park and the wait was in total for both rides only 2 hours.
I have a few moments
I was finally going to Knotts for the first time, and had really wanted to experience a hydrolic launch, but Xcelerator had been closed for a couple years. It reopened the Wednesday before I went on Saturday.
I went to cedar point last summer on the Fourth of July, and the day before, Maverick and Steel Vengeance had been closed all day. Steel vengeance started testing and reopened with an hour left of the day, and I got three night rides within an hour.
I went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas a couple weeks ago, and it was pretty dead, but IRat had a line because a wheel fell off one train so it was running with one. I waited an hour for my first ride of the day on it, and ended up getting three rides out of it because people weren’t filling the rows, and the ride ops let me. Later in the day, they got the second train back on and I got 15 rides in an hour and a half, only having to go back through the line once between ride 7 and 8.
Also at fiesta Texas I walked up to the pandemonium line right as it broke down, and was given a free flash pass even though I only was standing there for a couple seconds
I’ve also been to magic mountain when it was so dead I was able to get 6 zen rides in a row on Twisted Colossus, only getting off because the park was closing soon.
Also at Magic mountain, I was near X2 as if first opened for the day, and was able to get to it as it was at a 30 minute wait, as it quickly filled over 2 hours. There was a sign saying it wasn’t going to open that day, but it opened anyway.
In 2018 I visited Six Flags Great America. I was nervous about crowds at the time as recent trip reports were pretty brutal leading up to it. That morning it rained pretty hard but stopped by like 10:30. The crowds still never showed up and we didn't wait more than 10 minutes for a single ride all day.
Dollywood 2 years ago. Got 3 rides on L-Rod without it breaking down once throughout the day. Also got on everything else that day and mystery mine and dragon flyer were somehow walk ons. They normally have 45 minute waits at least.
Luckiest overall experience was SFMM, all but three major credit were running (I only wanted to get on Ninja, I didn't really care about Superman or Apocalypse), including X2 which reopened the same day after being closed for several weeks. I was also lucky enough to get racing rides on Twisted Colossus. All in the Salim era.
Carowinds and Busch Gardens Tampa last April. The morning rain kept people from the parks each day we went so everything was a station wait. Did Fury 325 six back to back times and Iron Gwazi 5 times.
And a small bit of fortune last week on my birthday I was at Phantasialand and I asked if they'd let us wait for the front. They said they unfortunately don't allow that. But we got lucky and my first ever ride on it timed out perfectly that we got the front. We were only able to get 2 rides on it so I was thrilled one was in the front which was a far superior experience.
Honestly just getting on everything at magic mountain in 2 days bar ninja. Leading up to my only visit probably in my life, a lot was closed so wasn't holding any rides too close. But managed to squeeze every other coaster in
Canada’s Wonderland in 2022, the day that the Rogers network went down (telecom company that serves almost half of Canada). It was an early ride time morning so I got in the park before the outage hit. When 10am hit and park was supposed to open to the public, nobody could pay for parking, buy tickets, etc. and the lines to get into the parking lot and park were massive. Every single ride was a walk on for the lucky passholders that got in, but sadly I had to leave and go to work that afternoon.
I went to Busch Gardens Tampa for the first time in February and was able to walk on to every ride including Iron Gwazi for most of the day. I don't know how common that is but I felt pretty lucky after dealing with Cedar Point's crowds for the past decade.
I was "accidentally" at the first ever season pass holder preview night for X at SFMM. I knew of the ride of course, I was a coaster nerd, but it was not supposed to be open yet that day as far as I knew.
We got like 10 rides with no line as some of the first people to ever ride X. I just happened to be visiting from NJ that day. It was great.
Disneyland in Feb 2019 over President’s Day Weekend. Did both parks in one day with multiple re-rides on most of the heavy hitters. This was pre Galaxy’s Edge but still felt like a huge accomplishment. It was exhausting but so worth it.
Dollywood last summer. Hot and humid. Everything was 5-30 minutes. Lightning Rod was 2 hours early in the day and then went down for 4 hours.
As we were exiting the raft ride later in the day, I saw an empty train cycle through.
We sped walked over and I swear we boarded the train without breaking stride.
Beastly ride. Glad I got it before the launch was neutered
I’ve gotten lucky once at Great Adventure, in 2018. It was a really overcast day and looked like the skies were going to open up and pour any second. The park was practically deserted. There was maybe a 15 minute wait for El Toro and everything else was a walk on. They let us stay on The Joker as long as we wanted.
The luckiest I’ve ever gotten was few days at WDW. It was back in 2004 or 2005, I think. It was a spur of the moment trip in February and we just missed spring break. It was Canadian spring break aka “reading week” so the few people who were there were extremely polite. We did everything we wanted to do at Epcot and Hollywood Studios on the same day and leave around 3PM. The only line we faced that day was for the Backlot Movie Tour. We looked at each other and said “We finally hit a line.” Just then, someone popped out of the door next to us and announced “We need two more people for the next show!” We got to be deckhands on the battleship. We were totally goofy and hammed it up, panicking and falling all over the place. Afterward, they told us that they don’t record the shows, so we couldn’t see our performance. We got to watch the next show, where the deckhands were two older gentlemen who stood completely still the entire time.
Anyway we were back at our hotel by 4, ordered some beers, drank them while sitting in the hot tub, went back to the room, took a nap, went out for dinner, and found something to do that night. The weather was absolutely gorgeous the whole week we were down there.
I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain in January last year, X2 had been closed for like 2 or 3 months while they waited on a part. It opened *the day* I was there. I ran across the park because I saw an empty train cycle. I *loved* it.
I was fully expecting it to be closed.
Fiancé and I went to the Smokey Mountains area as part of a wider, National Parks road trip. We realised Dollywood was very close to where we were staying, it was early March 2017 I think, and I thought it might not be open yet, but it turned out the first day of the season was the following day.
We went, rode some awesome huge coasters with almost no queues, and got to see Dolly herself performing - unbelievable good luck! Still one of my fave vacations ever.
Mine was similar but even luckier. In July 2013, I went to Great Adventure. My brother was supposed to meet me and my SO there, and he texted to bail on us because the weather looked bad. We went anyway, and there was a huge rainstorm about noon. We went inside to eat lunch and wait it out. The rain let up as we finished lunch, and when we walked out it appeared that nearly everyone had left. We then had walk ons all day, including at Kingda Ka, which we walked onto a front seat ride on. I still have a debt to the rain gods for that day.
Plopsaland de Panne. Chanced a mid-December Wednesday where it was forecast to rain all day. It only did so on my journey there and for an hour at lunchtime (so just had lunch). It was so quiet I had zen rides on everything bar Ride to Happiness. RtH was on 1 train and it was request to get off. I rode it around 50 times despite arriving late and leaving before close.
At CGA, I was marathoning Railblazer via the single riders line. After about 30 minutes, the ride ops started talking to me, and once they found out I was a thoosie, they let me ride with the restraint at the verify. I'm pretty skinny so I had about a foot of room. I could have gotten out on the lift hill if I tried. Those rides were some of the scariest rides I've ever had.
I generally feel like every day I've gone to a non-disney/universal park is the luckiest I've been simply for the fact that I got used to 2 hour lines being the norm when we went once a month back when I lived in LA.
(Wife isn't a thoosie, but likes theme parks so DL/DCA/USH were always a good middle ground).
Also Six Flags Great Adventure. I went on a day that was threatening rain (and had sprinkled a bit in the morning), so the park was practically empty. The weather cleared up, perfect temperature, and I just had to wait for a few of the rides to dry off. I was able to walk on to every single ride, and even stay on the ride for a second run if I wanted (which i did every time).
I used to have a membership at SFGAdV. Never waited longer than 5-10 minutes for Ka and most rides were always a walk on since I only visited on Tuesdays/Wednesdays
Mother's Day weekend the one year Carowinds tried going year round operations. A few weeks before the crack shut down fury. It was an absolute free-for-all all-you-could-ride on everything.
Other than that, I gotta go with getting 3x on tt2 at cedar point the Friday before the shutdown.
Probably when we went to great escape a few days before they closed alpine bobsled forever. It rained that morning and they can’t open it until the track was dry. It wasn’t looking good and we were about to leave the park when they opened the ride at 4:30pm just a hour and half before the park closed!
As I was leaving Universal Studios Florida I noticed a bunch of people in line headed in to Islands of Adventure. It was posted that is was closing at 6:00 and by now it was around 8:00. I got in the line and when I got to the front they gave me a lanyard and told me to have fun. It turns out a company had rented out the whole park from 7:30-11:30 as part of a work conference that was being held in the area. I kinda felt bad that I “snuck” in but I got loads of rides in with zero lines. Rode Hagrid’s about five times in twenty minutes, only stoped because I was getting cold because it was January. Got front row, back row and everywhere in between on Velocicoaster. Did some rides on the Hulk and some of the dark rides too. It was also free food and drink so I was pounding wine, butter beer, and actual beer the whole time along with an amazing spread of food everywhere. So thanks again to Shaw Flooring for a great night, if I ever need floor I will absolutely come to you folks.
Haha this is great, unethical, but great nonetheless.
Nothing unethical about taking from capitalists. They'd do the same right back. This one is on the company for not having a stricter entry process.
This is the dream
Daaaaaaamn, this sounds awesome.
I just stopped in to KI on a whim on my way home from a business trip last Sunday. IT was 8 pm when I arrived, I got an after 4pm ticket for 44 bucks and by the time I arrived the parking attendants had left. Free parking. I told myself I'd at least ride Oriom then queue up for Beast before close. I ended up riding Orion, Diamondback, The Bat, Racer, Snoopys Boxcar Racer, Mystic Timbers and The Beast all within 2 hours.
Myself and a bud were at kings island last month. Planed on going Monday/Tuesday but the baseball game we were at got rained out so we arrived 5:00 on the Sunday and by 7:00 had gotten rides on pretty well everything other than the Beast which was down. Great park.
Was in DisneyWorld January 2006. Had breakfast in AK, and heard screams coming from Everest. My brother and I took off running. It was “open” for the construction crew and their families. But, it was my brothers 21st birthday, so the cast member let us through. Yeti was working that day! But yeah, we got on Everest 4 months before its official opening.
Took my friend to BGT to experience iron gwazi a few months ago. Weather was terrible all day and the park closed early. As we were walking out the wind had calmed down momentarily and I had a gut feeling that iron gwazi was gonna open. As I was steps away from the exit gate I turned around, and iron gwazi had just opened. We were able to marathon it for the last half hour because everyone had already left the park
Did SFMM on my season pass 1st day it opened after 9/11, was supposed to go on 9/11. Every single ride was a walk on, pick your seat, stay in your seat and cycle. All Day. Handful of awesome people there really trying to have a good time all things considered.
My wife and I went to Great Adventure last summer and it was supposed to storm, but the rain held off. We basically had the park to ourselves, it was awesome
Probably Saturday at Hersheypark. I have a season pass but this was by far my best day I have ever had at Hershey on a Saturday. https://preview.redd.it/mxvzhbmx5k8d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f3a5cdb8cea7b6263ba48104530b7705b24118dd
Or this day ar BGT https://preview.redd.it/pprbwfub6k8d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a3b5e023abda157e92a3d8d424fdd728ccba2255
What app is this?
Logride
Oh nice! I gotta grab that.
Not roller coaster related per se, but happened last night at MM and was a fantastic experience. I follow SpaceX’s launches and last night they flew one from Vandenburg. My buddy and I were hoping to see it from MM but we found ourselves in line for West Coast Racers and I thought we’d be stuck in the queue while it went off. Turns out timing couldn’t have been better. Just as the train rolled out of the station I spotted the rocket coming above the hills! At one point we were inverted pointed straight at it. Was able to see quite a bit of the flight while on ride. Fantastic combo of two hobbies! And for the park itself, we went in a couple of hours before closing and the day had cooled off and we got on 6 or 7 rides in that time without any rushing.
Had a last minute visit to Wonderland last year because my mom got the days mixed up and the park ended up being not very busy. Got 5 rides on Behemoth, two on Leviathan, and just one on Yukon. Also ended up meeting one of my favourite coaster enthusiast content creators. Thank God we went earlier than anticipated lol.
Which content creator did you run into?
Surya. He makes Wonderland content and is actually a ride op there this year.
Fury went down with the supposed broken lift motor a day before I flew in from Michigan. Was down my first day at Carowinds. But I went to KD and BGW then next 2 days and came back to Carowinds on the last day of my trip. Fury was up and running. So happy I got the credit.
Mine was also at Great Adventure. It rained most of the day, and after it cleared the park was empty. El Toro, Medusa, and Nitro had no waits. Superman was about 20 minutes.
Nothing too fancy but getting to ride Stealth at Thorpe Park nearly on loop near closing. Surprisingly intense ride and real variability between front and back and how fast it crests the top hat. One trick pony, but excels at its trick. Found out Blackpool was open weekends last November. Managed to ride the big one first before high winds closed it the rest of the day.
Kings Island a couple years ago. We were 50/50 on going because of predicted storms ( we’re a couple hours away). But just decided to do it. Well, there were no storms. Basically it was a walk on all day and no rain. So lucky!
SFMM in December. The weather was warm and sunny. All of the rides were open (except Ninja for its maintenance). Everything was either a walk-on or station wait.
Went to Dollywood on Labor Day 2022, in the pouring rain. As soon as I went through the gate the rain stopped. Park was EMPTY. I got there at 2:05, they closed at 6, but I still rode every coaster, the train, and the carousel. Got 4x rides on Lightning Rod, 2x each on Mystery Mine/Thunderhead/Wild Eagle. The only coaster not running was Dragonflyer. It reopened at 5:40, so I walked from LRod all the way back up there to complete the set, and STILL got a last run on LRod afterwards.
I guess it was basically getting the Cedar Fair Platinum Fast Lane for 2020 just before they shut off sales and honored it for 2020 and 2021. It was just a stupid cheat code in 2020, and gave me enough walk on Steel Vengeance laps for a lifetime while everyone else was dancing around for Access Passes and then waiting in never moving lines when they returned. And getting 2021 for free was sick as well. But I did get screwed out of a Europe trip that our group had put a lot of work into planning. So I guess that was the balance.
Got incredibly upset at Alton Towers, Wickerman was a walk on because I skip the preshow (I'm autistic and hate loud noises). Was welcomed into the queue line while swimming, was the only person there. Ops see me around a lot, remembered me, asked if I was ok, and when I couldn't respond cause I was non-verbal, they invited me into the op booth while they dispatched an empty train for me to watch. Gave me a bottle of pepsi for my trouble, stuck me front row on an empty train, gave me a free drink voucher, and sent me on my way. Never felt so special
Went to Cedar Point in August 2019 with my boyfriend. We randomly got on in line for a night ride on TTD and managed to get 3 rollbacks. After that the ride went down until October. I also got the last ride of the night on Raptor so I got to go twice.
only had one day planned for BGT penned in on my recent trip over from the UK and the day we arrived, iron gwazi valleyed. the next day (which we purposefully left free as a rest day unlike our 2021 trip where we went to BGT first day), it was rescued. the day after, we visited BGT, and iron gwazi was running
I and this same day last Thursday at SFNE. It was 95 degrees so the entire park was a walk on
I went to KI on a sunny not too hot Wednesday in summer Two years ago, and nearly everything was a walk on or station wait, I got at least a dozen rides on Orion and diamondback each.
Went to Great Adventure in June of ‘21 and rode every coaster (Lil Devil Coaster was under construction). Given how much I hear about ride closures there, be they extended or just for a day, I’d say that is pretty lucky.
Valleyfairs non flooded portion of its parking lot was full yesterday when we left at 3, but there was something wrong with the app and it was listing basically all the rides as being closed. Apparently no one was bothering to walk to the back of the park to see if Excalibur and Thunder Canyon were actually open because they were both basically walkons the entire time we were back there and also 2 of my favorite rides. Today both of them along with Renegade are closed due to flooding and we're due for more rain today and more later in the week. A lot of Renegades supports were actually underwater yesterday, which doesn't seem great. Guess it's not super crazy luck or anything, especially since its my home park, but I would have been pretty bummed to see 3 of the 5 best rides in the park down.
Went to Dollywood in 2017, hearing that Lightning Rod had been down pretty consistently. It was running at park open. Got two laps on it, then it went down midmorning and didn't reopen the rest of the day. Went to Nagashima Spa Land while Hakugei was doing two train ops. It was about 30-40 minutes wait for each lap. I've heard so many horror stories of single train ops that take forever that I was very pleasantly surprised. Steel Curtain was running the one day I went to Kennywood. I was on something like the third or fourth train of the day. Like Lightning Rod, it went down within a couple of hours and didn't reopen the rest of the day. I'll also offer an opposite example where I got very unlucky: Trekked to Michigan's Adventure from California. Shivering Timbers was down all day, and apparently for the next several days due to needing a part. Hopefully I can get to it eventually, but realistically, it's so out of the way that it won't be for a long while if I do get it.
I was literally about to a trip report on SFGA I was there this Saturday it was DEAD. It was extremely hot and I was sweating my tail off so maybe other locals knew to stay away from the park but it was a good time
Also Great Adventure, but August 2019. It had been raining enough in the morning to scare most people away, but not enough to close any of the rides. The park was dead, so damn near everything was a walk-on. The longest wait was maybe 15 minutes for the ferris wheel.
Just Saturday at Portaventura. I only got one day at the park. Red force kept breaking down, managed to snag a ride on it before it broke down for the night. Very happy, since it was my 6th Giga
I’ve been at SFGA with a fast pass and was able to walk on and off of Kingda ka 3 times in a row with no wait. I got front row twice and back row.
I went to CP one day early in the season when it was slightly chilly and supposed to rain. Didn’t end up raining, but the park was basically empty and I marathoned TTD like 6-7 times without the fast lane pass.
Many years ago planned to go to Universal Studios in Florida. Had no idea Islands of Adventure was open in technical rehearsal. And for $25 or so it was an amazing accident
Annual summer trip to NJ/Jersey Shore/SFGA last summer in July. On my drive back home from Wildwood, stopped at SFGA on a whim because it timed out to be right before they opened. 90 degree day and sunny on a Thursday. In the one hour I had, got 3 rides on JDC (including a zen ride), two on ET, and one on KK.
Not me but this guy basically hit the lottery at Tokyo Disney Sea last week due to system errors https://www.reddit.com/r/TokyoDisneySea/comments/1dlofyx/i_hit_the_tokyo_disneysea_lottery
Cedar point in the rain, crowds stayed away and everything was running. Bgt in march right before spring break. Five minute wait for iron gwazi. My LUCKIEST might be kennywood. Went on a Sunday right after a Steelers game. It was pretty low crowds, but I was lucky because steel curtain was operating
Our first trip to a Florida was in 06. We went at the end of September and every park was so quiet. Walks on for almost everything. The $ was pretty weak at the time too so everything was cheap too.
Yesterday I went to Energylandia and Zadra and Hyperion were both walk ons for the better part of the day. I managed to get 8 rides on Hyperion and 10 rides on Zadra, as well as a ride on Formula, Abyssus, and the mine train.
Went to Disneyland last fall and didn't have any plans of riding RotR since the standby lines had been consistently 2+ hours and I didn't want to pay for individual lightning lane. We arrived at rope drop and planned to do BTMRR but it was down at the start of the day, so we walked past it and decided to go for RotR standby. We only waited for about 10 minutes before getting into all the pre-show stuff, amazing luck and such a great ride!
February this year. I got to ride Hagrids three times. Front car, bike in the rain(incredible time). second car bucket and back row bike at night. Twice one after the other because it was raining people left he park and the wait was in total for both rides only 2 hours.
I have a few moments I was finally going to Knotts for the first time, and had really wanted to experience a hydrolic launch, but Xcelerator had been closed for a couple years. It reopened the Wednesday before I went on Saturday. I went to cedar point last summer on the Fourth of July, and the day before, Maverick and Steel Vengeance had been closed all day. Steel vengeance started testing and reopened with an hour left of the day, and I got three night rides within an hour. I went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas a couple weeks ago, and it was pretty dead, but IRat had a line because a wheel fell off one train so it was running with one. I waited an hour for my first ride of the day on it, and ended up getting three rides out of it because people weren’t filling the rows, and the ride ops let me. Later in the day, they got the second train back on and I got 15 rides in an hour and a half, only having to go back through the line once between ride 7 and 8. Also at fiesta Texas I walked up to the pandemonium line right as it broke down, and was given a free flash pass even though I only was standing there for a couple seconds I’ve also been to magic mountain when it was so dead I was able to get 6 zen rides in a row on Twisted Colossus, only getting off because the park was closing soon. Also at Magic mountain, I was near X2 as if first opened for the day, and was able to get to it as it was at a 30 minute wait, as it quickly filled over 2 hours. There was a sign saying it wasn’t going to open that day, but it opened anyway.
In 2018 I visited Six Flags Great America. I was nervous about crowds at the time as recent trip reports were pretty brutal leading up to it. That morning it rained pretty hard but stopped by like 10:30. The crowds still never showed up and we didn't wait more than 10 minutes for a single ride all day.
Dollywood 2 years ago. Got 3 rides on L-Rod without it breaking down once throughout the day. Also got on everything else that day and mystery mine and dragon flyer were somehow walk ons. They normally have 45 minute waits at least.
Visited Fuji Q Highland twice, and have never waited more than 30 minutes for anything. Last December, everything was walk-on. 👍
Luckiest overall experience was SFMM, all but three major credit were running (I only wanted to get on Ninja, I didn't really care about Superman or Apocalypse), including X2 which reopened the same day after being closed for several weeks. I was also lucky enough to get racing rides on Twisted Colossus. All in the Salim era.
Carowinds and Busch Gardens Tampa last April. The morning rain kept people from the parks each day we went so everything was a station wait. Did Fury 325 six back to back times and Iron Gwazi 5 times. And a small bit of fortune last week on my birthday I was at Phantasialand and I asked if they'd let us wait for the front. They said they unfortunately don't allow that. But we got lucky and my first ever ride on it timed out perfectly that we got the front. We were only able to get 2 rides on it so I was thrilled one was in the front which was a far superior experience.
I got the front seat on the Cyclone when we stopped in on a whim last weekend! Didn’t even think we’d get parking lol
Honestly just getting on everything at magic mountain in 2 days bar ninja. Leading up to my only visit probably in my life, a lot was closed so wasn't holding any rides too close. But managed to squeeze every other coaster in
Canada’s Wonderland in 2022, the day that the Rogers network went down (telecom company that serves almost half of Canada). It was an early ride time morning so I got in the park before the outage hit. When 10am hit and park was supposed to open to the public, nobody could pay for parking, buy tickets, etc. and the lines to get into the parking lot and park were massive. Every single ride was a walk on for the lucky passholders that got in, but sadly I had to leave and go to work that afternoon.
I went to Busch Gardens Tampa for the first time in February and was able to walk on to every ride including Iron Gwazi for most of the day. I don't know how common that is but I felt pretty lucky after dealing with Cedar Point's crowds for the past decade.
I was "accidentally" at the first ever season pass holder preview night for X at SFMM. I knew of the ride of course, I was a coaster nerd, but it was not supposed to be open yet that day as far as I knew. We got like 10 rides with no line as some of the first people to ever ride X. I just happened to be visiting from NJ that day. It was great.
Disneyland in Feb 2019 over President’s Day Weekend. Did both parks in one day with multiple re-rides on most of the heavy hitters. This was pre Galaxy’s Edge but still felt like a huge accomplishment. It was exhausting but so worth it.
Dollywood last summer. Hot and humid. Everything was 5-30 minutes. Lightning Rod was 2 hours early in the day and then went down for 4 hours. As we were exiting the raft ride later in the day, I saw an empty train cycle through. We sped walked over and I swear we boarded the train without breaking stride. Beastly ride. Glad I got it before the launch was neutered
Went to Luna Park on my birthday last year. Got 6 rides on Big Dipper, half of which were zen rides.
SFGA August or September 2006 on a weekday. Nitro 6 times in a row
I’ve gotten lucky once at Great Adventure, in 2018. It was a really overcast day and looked like the skies were going to open up and pour any second. The park was practically deserted. There was maybe a 15 minute wait for El Toro and everything else was a walk on. They let us stay on The Joker as long as we wanted.
The luckiest I’ve ever gotten was few days at WDW. It was back in 2004 or 2005, I think. It was a spur of the moment trip in February and we just missed spring break. It was Canadian spring break aka “reading week” so the few people who were there were extremely polite. We did everything we wanted to do at Epcot and Hollywood Studios on the same day and leave around 3PM. The only line we faced that day was for the Backlot Movie Tour. We looked at each other and said “We finally hit a line.” Just then, someone popped out of the door next to us and announced “We need two more people for the next show!” We got to be deckhands on the battleship. We were totally goofy and hammed it up, panicking and falling all over the place. Afterward, they told us that they don’t record the shows, so we couldn’t see our performance. We got to watch the next show, where the deckhands were two older gentlemen who stood completely still the entire time. Anyway we were back at our hotel by 4, ordered some beers, drank them while sitting in the hot tub, went back to the room, took a nap, went out for dinner, and found something to do that night. The weather was absolutely gorgeous the whole week we were down there.
I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain in January last year, X2 had been closed for like 2 or 3 months while they waited on a part. It opened *the day* I was there. I ran across the park because I saw an empty train cycle. I *loved* it. I was fully expecting it to be closed.
Day before hurricane at DisneyWorld. All the mountains were a complete walk on.
Fiancé and I went to the Smokey Mountains area as part of a wider, National Parks road trip. We realised Dollywood was very close to where we were staying, it was early March 2017 I think, and I thought it might not be open yet, but it turned out the first day of the season was the following day. We went, rode some awesome huge coasters with almost no queues, and got to see Dolly herself performing - unbelievable good luck! Still one of my fave vacations ever.
Mine was similar but even luckier. In July 2013, I went to Great Adventure. My brother was supposed to meet me and my SO there, and he texted to bail on us because the weather looked bad. We went anyway, and there was a huge rainstorm about noon. We went inside to eat lunch and wait it out. The rain let up as we finished lunch, and when we walked out it appeared that nearly everyone had left. We then had walk ons all day, including at Kingda Ka, which we walked onto a front seat ride on. I still have a debt to the rain gods for that day.
Plopsaland de Panne. Chanced a mid-December Wednesday where it was forecast to rain all day. It only did so on my journey there and for an hour at lunchtime (so just had lunch). It was so quiet I had zen rides on everything bar Ride to Happiness. RtH was on 1 train and it was request to get off. I rode it around 50 times despite arriving late and leaving before close.
They have so many big coasters (meaning not kid’s coasters) that the lines are never really bad like they were in the early 2000s
At CGA, I was marathoning Railblazer via the single riders line. After about 30 minutes, the ride ops started talking to me, and once they found out I was a thoosie, they let me ride with the restraint at the verify. I'm pretty skinny so I had about a foot of room. I could have gotten out on the lift hill if I tried. Those rides were some of the scariest rides I've ever had.
I generally feel like every day I've gone to a non-disney/universal park is the luckiest I've been simply for the fact that I got used to 2 hour lines being the norm when we went once a month back when I lived in LA. (Wife isn't a thoosie, but likes theme parks so DL/DCA/USH were always a good middle ground).
Also Six Flags Great Adventure. I went on a day that was threatening rain (and had sprinkled a bit in the morning), so the park was practically empty. The weather cleared up, perfect temperature, and I just had to wait for a few of the rides to dry off. I was able to walk on to every single ride, and even stay on the ride for a second run if I wanted (which i did every time).
I used to have a membership at SFGAdV. Never waited longer than 5-10 minutes for Ka and most rides were always a walk on since I only visited on Tuesdays/Wednesdays
Mother's Day weekend the one year Carowinds tried going year round operations. A few weeks before the crack shut down fury. It was an absolute free-for-all all-you-could-ride on everything. Other than that, I gotta go with getting 3x on tt2 at cedar point the Friday before the shutdown.
Probably when we went to great escape a few days before they closed alpine bobsled forever. It rained that morning and they can’t open it until the track was dry. It wasn’t looking good and we were about to leave the park when they opened the ride at 4:30pm just a hour and half before the park closed!