4th of July Weekend Celebration / July 3rd

[Dan The Coaster Man]

Personally, I've never really been to SFGAm on a packed day. I've been to an empty park, I've been to a mediocre attended park, but I've never been to SFGAm where majority of the lines are 1 hour plus. I've never seen Raging Bull's line over 40 minutes. I don't even know if SFGAm is overly packed at all to be honest. But I am going to SFGAm July 3rd, the first day of the 4th of July celebration. And I'm going to speculate it'll be packed. Will it? There's ERT for not just pass holders but to the general public and fireworks, that will attract people. The weather is perfect as of now, 0% chance of rain, 76 degrees. Not too hot, not too cold. People don't have to get up early the next day. But the biggest factor affecting the crowds Friday will be that majority of the country is not working. A lot of people don't have to work Friday, and I think all of those reasons will make it the busiest day of the year. Who else agrees? Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the 4th will be busier. But I would think that more people would like to stay home for the holiday than go out. What better day to go out than the 3rd?

Just some thoughts, but feel free to talk about anything relating to the weekend celebration. Are the fireworks any good anyways?

[Guy_With_A_Stick]

Expect large crowds. If you can, get a Flash Pass.

Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk

[Foltzy]

Idk if you've been to Disney or seen this,
But imagine the fireworks at Magic Kingdom letting out, so 30,000 people barely moving and its literally hell.
Put that all day and change the crowds to rowdy teenagers who have absolutely manners and that's your crowd

I'm kidding- it's bad, but not that bad. Last Year ERT worked well and I was able to get Goliath and a bull out of the way.
So use morning time wisely and then enjoy the evening. It's really fun, waits will be pretty bad, so think about investing in one. And flash pass or not, remember to have fun!

[mroberge]

We are also going tomorrow and I'm so excited. I'm anticipating the crowds to be crazy so we went ahead and bought a platinum flash pass. Here's hoping it pays off!

[mroberge]

Also I think that Six Flags expects it to be packed because they jacked up all their prices for the Flash Pass on Friday and Saturday.

[w00dland]

For all the reasons stated above (ERT, weather, fireworks) PLUS the fact that July 3rd is an observed holiday for the 4th of July this year (meaning everyone and their mom has off of work anyway) I'd predict that Friday might be one (or the) of the busiest days of the summer.

If its your only trip and you want to ride all the coasters, definitely go for the flash pass (gold or above) otherwise aim to walk around a lot, chill in the water park for awhile and see some shows to enjoy the day.

[onyxhotel08]

It is going to be kind of cool this weekend. Not exactly perfect water park temperatures.

[CoasterCale]

I went to Harbor on it's Opening Day. It wasn't perfect but at least it wasn't crowded.

[RollerCoasterFavRide]

I was wondering also how bad it will be. I remember going 4th of July and it was a pretty low crowd day. We had to wait for Raging Bull (granted it was 1999 and brand new), but most rides were walk on at some point!

I never know how the holidays will sway. While everyone has off there are so many activities between parades, cookouts, and fireworks that may keep people from going to the park.

[CoasterCale]

Exactly. For those reasons, I can only go on Sunday.

[DejaVu2001]

I was wondering also how bad it will be. I remember going 4th of July and it was a pretty low crowd day. We had to wait for Raging Bull (granted it was 1999 and brand new), but most rides were walk on at some point!

That was before SFGAm really did stuff for July 4th. Ever since they started July 4th Fest, it's been packed every year.

[RollerCoasterFavRide]

I was wondering also how bad it will be. I remember going 4th of July and it was a pretty low crowd day. We had to wait for Raging Bull (granted it was 1999 and brand new), but most rides were walk on at some point!

That was before SFGAm really did stuff for July 4th. Ever since they started July 4th Fest, it's been packed every year.

I think we may stay away. I have plenty of things that need to get done around the house, but the kid hates lines and I hate crowds. I think it's best to keep it easy.

[ilrider]

It is going to be kind of cool this weekend. Not exactly perfect water park temperatures.

80s Saturday and Sunday.

[mroberge]

Any thoughts on what the lines will look like during ERT? We are hoping to hit Goliath during that time (maybe twice if we are really lucky!)

[CoasterCale]

As per usual during anytime, Goliath will be longest. I only hit it once last year because of downtime and general long lines.

[mroberge]

One last question.... Do they check ID at the discover card entrance? My parents have a discover card that they said we could use, but obviously the names won't match.

[anewman35]

One last question.... Do they check ID at the discover card entrance? My parents have a discover card that they said we could use, but obviously the names won't match.

In my experience, they barely even check if you have a Discover Card. As long as you're holding a card in your hand, I think you'll be fine.

[CoasterCale]

I'm aware this is getting off topic, but my followup question is bouncing off of the one about Discover Card Entrance. Besides the obvious benefits to having a Gold Pass, what is the difference physically or when it's scanned at the entrance. I don't drive to the park, so I've never needed parking and all my friends do, so they enter early. Would it be possible for me to go through with them as well?

[RollerCoasterFavRide]

Did anyone else go this weekend? We went on Friday evening (arrived around 5:15pm) and the entire back lot was full! It was really hard to find a parking spot. We stayed until 10:30ish and it was terrible getting out of the park. I would have expected them to have the back entrance/exit open, but they were filtering everyone through the main entrance.

I didn't expect it to be that busy in the evening and I thought the crowds would have diminished the later it got. Apparently, everyone else thought the same!

[CoasterCale]

I understand the reasoning on a normal operating day. However this was a Friday in which everybody had off, right before a weekend. People will be there.

[RollerCoasterFavRide]

I understand the reasoning on a normal operating day. However this was a Friday in which everybody had off, right before a weekend. People will be there.

Except, in the evenings people naturally leave the park. There were lots of small kids running around, strollers, etc after 10pm. That is not normal even for a holiday weekend. When we left after 10:30pm the parking lots were still pretty full!

We didn't go back either of the other days since we were busy, but we got a few rides in, saw the fireworks, etc. It was fine, but my kid doesn't like waiting in lines so we mainly went on the smaller rides with shorter waits. I always figure that if it's crazy busy that is why we have the season pass. We can go back at any point to hit up a few rides if we choose to.