I have Gold Season and Dining passes and am planning my first trip to the park this year. Last year, when I didn't have a pass, I planned around the weather, but this year I can afford to go on days that are not necessarily warm and sunny. I'd like to visit the park weekly, but Wednesdays are typically the only day I can go.
With three days to go, this upcoming Wednesday's forecast is 86 degrees with 100% chance of thunderstorms. This got me thinking. I know that there are days when the park closes early due to weather, but are there days when the park doesn't open at all?
The park usually stays open if there's storms. If it's really bad around closing, they'd probably keep the park open, but not bother with the rides reopening.
Also, I don't trust the weather forecast. Yesterday was my brother's graduation party, and called for severe thunderstorms at 2:00, right when the party was supposed to start. Then they moved it to 6. It never rained. Not even any clouds.
Guy_With_A_Stick wrote:The park usually stays open if there's storms. If it's really bad around closing, they'd probably keep the park open, but not bother with the rides reopening.
That's a good thing to hear. I hope to see the Peking Acrobats and get three meals even if the weather turns for the worse.
I remember going and once it was sunny the entire day, then at dusk we were riding sky trek tower and could see lightning in the distance we made it up 75% of the tower the lightning strikes in the distance were AWESOME! but as soon as the op noticed them more and more we were told that due to the lightning in the area we were going to be making an emergency landing. That was awesome we were going to leave, but my friends had to pick up a caricature of their kid. It's a good thing they did the park cleared out and we were like the only ones there. We went around 4 times on great america raceway no stopping, fiddlers fling after a rain is even faster then finished out the night on crawler it was WICKED!
Then there was the time where the whole day was sunny til about 4 then the heavens decided to open up. It was like something out of the movies and let me tell you everything at Great America Floods! It was raining so bad and hard that TDK was flooding inside with water pouring down the sides of the building like you were at Skull Island and the tipping bucket went off. But again people cleared out and made for more elbow room and we finished out the night great. This was also the time I lost a flash pass but didn't have to pay because I still had the lanyard and key clip.
I've been at the park several times during bad weather. I have pictures of some of them. The worst one was a school trip and the tornado sirens went off and the sky turned pitch black. It was scary. I was standing by Columbia and all of a sudden it just downpoured. LIke it was coming down in buckets. It was crazy. Another time was I was in the Grand Music Hall and they kept us indoors because the sirens were going off again. I've had some scary moments at the park when the weather was bad.
I had the best day ever last year on a day that was supposed to be a wash-out. 6/22/15, got to the park 1/2 hour before opening and there were severe storm warnings. Started raining pretty bad by the time the park opened, we made one lap around the park going on a few covered rides then decided to go out for an early lunch vs going home. Best decision we ever made! We hung out at the mall until 2pm, came back by 2:30pm to an empty park. Walk-ups all day on everything! Looked like rain the whole rest of the day but held out until we left. Now I'm convinced if you have a pass the best days to go are the questionable ones.
At the risk of getting banned that is one F-in awesome picture would be even better with some lightning but hey this is pretty damn cool! Jackluver18 can you post some of the pics you have? Were in for some seriously wicked stuff if you have some pics like scullydu's!
UnclePennybags wrote:With three days to go, this upcoming Wednesday's forecast is 86 degrees with 100% chance of thunderstorms.
Weather ended up being a high of 85 degrees and it was sunny all day. Throughout the day, many rides were walk ons, except for Justice League. Even Batman and X Flight were walk ons around 5:00 PM. On Roaring Rapids, they opened a gate between the entry and exit ramps 25 feet from the station and people were getting off the ride, then immediately getting back into the entry line so they could be loaded on the next raft (not sure why we even had to get out of the boats). Same was happening for Yankee Clipper and Logger's Run.
On the downside, they started shutting down the restaurants before the lunch period ended due to the low park attendance. By 6:00 PM, we had to hunt to find someplace open to get dinner.
This was the best day I've ever had at SFGAm: beautiful weather and no lines.
Yeah. Dining locations are the variable, as they can make a lot of money, or loose the park money. Obviously Six Flags is in interest of flipping profits, so they will close stands and restaurants early if it costs more to run than they make. Batman & X-Flight are often walk-ons. The real way to tell if the park is dead is by Superman, Dark Knight, Goliath, or Justice League.
It seems like the other side always wins on American Eagle Also, I've ridden Goliath 23 times in one day. HBU? (Sorry in advance for unnecessary commas and parenthesis every where)
So apparently, there are going to be 2 storm systems passing through the area tomorrow. But here's the kicker- one is supposed to be at 5 AM, the other near park closing. It's going to be perfect.
2 years ago I was at the park with some friends and it ended up hailing for a few minutes then stopping and it got clear again. We were heading back into the park from our lunch break and noticed that towards Wisconsin it was very dark and we could see the rain in the distance and we knew it was heading towards. So we decided to wait between the security and ticket booth to watch it move in. So it started to hail in the parking lot first, then the front of park and finally the back. And I'm not kidding when it was hailing in front of the park it wasn't in the parking lot and when it was hailing at the back it wasn't at the front. It was fun to watch guests who were outside the park run to take shelter where ever they could. But like I said it didn't hail very long and did get sunny again shortly after the storm was out of the area. I would say it was like one of those fast moving storms Cedar Point gets.