How Busy Is It Going To Be?

[Mark9]

Right, so instead of endless topics asking us how busy the park is going to be, instead here is a rough guide to the kind of business the park/s should be expecting this season. It's not set in stone and remember business can be effected by weather, ride reliability, mount of trains/cars on the rollercoasters, amount of staff working on things, fastrack etc etc etc!10am - 5pm Weekday. Likely to be very empty, particularly in term time. Queue time should be minimal (Unless your name is Stealth and you have a stupid system where you can only load 4 in the first, 8 in the second and then you end up rolling back anyway etc etc) 10am-5pm Weekend. Will be emptyish, however likely to be long queues for Saw, Colossus, Stealth and Nemesis Inferno.10am-6pm. Busy but not so bad. Queues for the coasters could reach 45/60 minutes, whilst the rest of the flat rides should be a max of 30 minutes. June and July are when schools start rolling in, so between 11-3 the park will be very busy.9.30am-6pm. Should be busy. Queues for the coasters could reach 60/90 minutes and the rest of the rides queues will be between 20/40 minutes. Fastrack will be in operation.9.30-7pm. Expected to be busy. Queues should be similar to 9.30-6.00 close except the last hour should be quite empty.9.30-8.00 Again should be busy. At least you have a long day to get on quite a few rides. 10.00am-10.00pm Will be busy. Last year wasn't as bad as previously however if it ever hits peak capacity, queues will be up to 2 hours for the rollercoasters and between 45/90 minutes for the flat rides.Remember guys, read this guide to help if you beat the queues without wasting money on Fastrack. Also use the park well. Head to Stealth and Inferno instead of Saw and Colossus. Do rides whilst they look empty instead of following the majority of the crowds.

[Cal]

Wasn't sure where to post this so I guessed here would be an OK place.

I am visiting on Wednesday and I know it will be super busy but annual pass holders get in 15mins early. I am getting an annual pass and am going with two friends, one has a pass but the other doesn't. For the 'early entrance' can my friend get in early with us even though he doesn't have an annual pass? Would be nice if he could to get on a ride first as it will be super busy.

 

I don't know but I could only guess that if you buy a friends and family ticket for him he'd be aloud in with you (it's the same with Alton Towers) but if he buys an ordinary ticket online or at the gate, I doubt they will let you.

[TPJames]

The thing is the last time I visited I didnt have an ap and just after 10am when we got there the lady called us through annual passes even though I didnt have one but my friend did. So I'm wondering if it applies to early access, worth a try though right?

[JoshC.]

I've found that, in my experience across the Merlin parks, some staff are okay with letting the odd one or two non-AP people through if they're in a group that's mainly AP holders.  Some might be a little stricter, some might not be.

 

As you say, no harm in asking!

[snes1000]

I'll be there september 28th (Sunday) and the day after. Anyone have an idea what the queues will be like?

Thanks!

[TPJames]

I'm not an expert but my guess is most people will be holding out till fright nights. I would expect to be an average Sunday with queues for the coasters ranging up to around 60mins. The flat rides and water rides should not peak over 30/40mins. The Monday will then be quieter as it is a school day(I think) so I think queues will definately not reach over 60mins on the Monday but should range around 15-30mins for most of the day.

Please don't rely on this and get advice from other people as I am probably wrong!

[Project LC]

Be careful on weekdays, especially mondays and fridays. What is often the case is that because everything is running on a lower capacity the queues can end up bigger than what they sometimes are on a sunday. As for the end of september I'm hot sure how busy it will be. It should'nt be packed but it wont be quiet either. Expect 30-60 minute queues for the coasters and 10-40 for the flats. That could change a lot depending on weather and a few other factors like deals and fright nights.

[pognoi]

It's the first couple weeks of school for a lot of people, so it shouldn't be busy in the weekdays like it is at the end of the school year. The best days to go during the week are Tuesdays and Thursdays. But for you, like LC said, they tend to run lower capacity on week days, and this can lead to longer queues.

Sundays are varied, but again it's the early school term so you shouldn't see too many teens and school aged kids about. I'd say the longest queues won't be 60 minutes, probably a bit under, but still prepare for long queues by working your way through the park from right to left, starting on Colossus or saw and finishing at the swarm. This way you tend to dodge the queues as the crowds pan out.

[Coaster]

Sundays in September always seem surprisingly busy from my experience.

[snes1000]

Ok, thanks for the help, hopefully it's not too bad.

Just have to wait and see

[EdH]

Any idea how busy it will be this week? Monday/Tuesday. Are schools going back this week?

[TPJames]

A lot of schools are going back tomorrow however some schools are back later on in the week. The hours are till 6pm so don't expect it to be empty however not super packed. If it turns out to be much busier than expected the park may open for an extra half hour or so like they do sometimes.

My guess is the Tuesday would be emptier than the Monday however not by much. Expect queues for the coasters to get over an hour and flat rides to be around 30mins. However, a lot of people may have the idea that it will be empty and will turn out busy. I think it is quite am unpredictable day to be honest however I would expect coaster around 60mins.' If you are planning on visiting get there at 9:15-9:30am as they have been opening early at 9:30(9:15 for AP holders) all of this summer.

[Mark9]

Any idea how busy it will be this week? Monday/Tuesday. Are schools going back this week?

 

I think it will be very busy. I'd go the week after to guarantee a quieter trip.

[JoshC.]

I'd expect most secondary schools start this Wednesday or Thursday and colleges to start between Thursday and Monday (especially in the local area). So next week will probably still be quite busy and there'll be a fair few people trying to get in that last quick visit before going back to school.

[Mitchada04]

Monday and Tuesday will probably be the busiest days of September. Summer Holidays don't actually end till Wednesday down here in Surrey with most Runnymede schools also having Wednesday off. Local colleges don't start till the following Monday so this week will still be pretty busy (a few years ago they had to extend opening on the first Monday and Tuesday to 6 due to the number of schools still off and they've extended previously on 6 close as well to 6:30).

[Coaster]

Thorpe was absoloutely packed today!  The overflow car park was full!

[darkadder312]

How busy is it going to be Friday 5th September (Tomorrow)? As some schools are back in school now.

[Project LC]

A large majority of schools are back now. In theory it shouldn't be that busy but you never know.

[darkadder312]

Okay I am hoping that I won't get queues above 30 mins for coasters ill be happy with 10-20 mins queue all day tomorrow though.

[Merry-go-girl]

I know this question doesn't go here but I thought it would be even worse to create an entire thread for something so trivial:
Thorpe has lots of games but does it, like Chessington, have prize every time games like the hook-a-duck? Thanks in advance. 

[Chessiekid]

Anyone know what midweeks in september are like? I'm trying to organise a trip for a weekday this week, I'm sure it wont be too busy but on the other hand I'm expecing a lot of the coasters to be running at a low capacity.

[Cal]

I know this question doesn't go here but I thought it would be even worse to create an entire thread for something so trivial:

Thorpe has lots of games but does it, like Chessington, have prize every time games like the hook-a-duck? Thanks in advance.

Indeed it does, opposite Mr Monkeys Banana ride.

Sent from my iPhone 5S using Tapatalk

[OldFarmerDean]

I'm visiting this wednesday... I'm expecting it to be quite busy do to free sun tickets, and people not back at uni yet.

[TPJames]

Does anyone think the first sunday(11th October) or the second sunday(19th October) of fright nights will be busier? When I visited on the 2nd Sunday last year, it poured all day meaning rides were walk on all day and mazes reached a maximum of around 30mins(we waited 60 for asylum due to someone loosing their personal items).

Does anyone have a rough idea of what it will be like this year, may even be visiting both weekends but would be appreciated if anyone knew which is likely to be emptier as I need to book my early bird AP ticket. Thanks to all

[Cal]

Does anyone think the first sunday(11th October) or the second sunday(19th October) of fright nights will be busier? When I visited on the 2nd Sunday last year, it poured all day meaning rides were walk on all day and mazes reached a maximum of around 30mins(we waited 60 for asylum due to someone loosing their personal items).

Does anyone have a rough idea of what it will be like this year, may even be visiting both weekends but would be appreciated if anyone knew which is likely to be emptier as I need to book my early bird AP ticket. Thanks to all

 

Was thinking the same as you, I visited the same day as you last year the 13th of October and it was great, pretty much walk on queues for the rides all day and no queue above 30 minutes for all the mazes. I'm not sure if this was purely because of the weather though?

 

I'm thinking the first weekend might be a bit busier because it's the first weekend it's on so I might go on the 19th of October. I'm not expecting it to be like last year but I think it won't be as busy.

[JoshC.]

In my experience, Fright Nights usually just gets busier as time goes on, so I'd expect the first weekend to be quieter than the second.

 

Of course, things like weather, word of mouth, what day you go on, etc. all effect how busy it'll be - so it's pretty difficult to even guestimate how busy it'll be for Fright Nights.