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Bank holiday rush - parks hit capacity

Nic

Nic

Strata Poster
According to their Facebook pages, both Legoland Windsor and Drayton Manor hit capacity this afternoon and were forced to turn guests away. Legoland also mentioned that Chessington were also full today, but I can't see confirmation of this.

Do you know of any others?

I assume the rush today was due to the forecast saying today would have the best weather of the long weekend. Several of us popped into adventure island this morning, and it was also heaving. I also wonder what kind of impact this will have on the reputations of the parks. There's bound to be a lot of disgruntled guests, both those that didn't get in, and those that did. Lets see if tomorrow is as busy
 
It most defeintly will be busy tommorow. I don't know about Chessington but this wouldn't be the first bank holiday that it's hit full capacitation.
 
Chessington was insane, I can confirm that much. Capacity though? Don't think so...? Probably the busiest I've ever seen it though.

Apparently Saturday was quiet. So depending on weather, wouldn't surprise me if tomorrow is no where near as busy as today. But I wouldn't want to place any bets.

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I went there about two years ago and they were stopping people from going into the main grass car park because it was full. And the concrete car park was pretty much full when we drove past.
 
If anyone goes to a park on a bank holiday weekend and has the audacity to moan about crowds, they deserve to be shot in the face.
 
We ended up at adventure island at 6pm today and it was rammed. We queued over 30 mins for wrist bands and all queues were up to the entrance signs.

Was great to see the park busy with a really good atmosphere.
 
gavin said:
If anyone goes to a park on a bank holiday weekend and has the audacity to moan about crowds, they deserve to be shot in the face.
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And there ends the thread.
 
On the flip side, I went to Fantasy Island yesterday because of it being the bank holiday weekend - I knew it would be busy and wanted to make sure I got on everything which I did.

I didn't mind the crowds on this occasion and enjoyed my day :)
 
I think queues are only half the problem. Lack of path space is frustrating for a lot of people who aren't too fused about the queues. Then there's whether or not a park can cope with its capacity in terms of staffing, path and attraction design. Most can't. A busy BG Williamsburg is horrid, despite the rides coping really well and never getting big queues, the pathways and loop layout means there is literally no restbite from... Well, people.

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^This.

You have places like Thorpe which is just "crowded" even when it's not necessarily busy - then when it genuinely is, it's horrid. Then you have a park like Alton, which even when busy can seem dead with the few notable exceptions of main street and around the Towers (because of the tight layout).

It's an interesting theory that I didn't think anyone else pondered xD
 
Joey said:
I think queues are only half the problem. Lack of path space is frustrating for a lot of people who aren't too fused about the queues. Then there's whether it bot a park can cope with its capacity in terms of staffing, path and attraction design. Most can't. A busy BG Williamsburg is horrid, despite the rides coping really well and never getting big queues, the pathways and loop layout means there is literally no restbite from... Well, people.

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That pathway at Chessie past Tiny Truckers in busy days still gives me nightmares...
 
Busy places just make me anxious anyway, there should be some sort of 'keep left' rule or something. And a special lane for people with buggies, so they can all get in each other's way and out of mine.

Seriously though, going to parks on bank holidays is just asking for trouble, I don't know why people don't do what my parents did and pull us out of school on a 'sick' day ;]

It's funny though, the American parks I've been to never seem to have the problem with crowds that I've always found in UK parks? Like, Thorpe on a busy day, EVERYTHING had a queue. Everything. Even the crap. Whereas in a Six Flags park you can always count on a few coasters being walk on. Strange.
 
I think the parks are exceptionally busy this August Bank Holiday because of the crap weather we had earlier in the year. People who want to visit will visit at some point, but they might hold off when it's wet and go when it's nice. A nice bank holiday after a wet couple of months is a recipe for high crowds at theme parks!

Adventure Island was very very busy yesterday but it was busier last Saturday.
 
nadroJ said:
It's funny though, the American parks I've been to never seem to have the problem with crowds that I've always found in UK parks? Like, Thorpe on a busy day, EVERYTHING had a queue. Everything. Even the crap. Whereas in a Six Flags park you can always count on a few coasters being walk on. Strange.
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I noticed that as well with SFNE. Bizarro, Cyclone, Thunderbolt all had queue's and what not and then there was The Dark Knight that was Walk-on. Nitro as well was pretty dead on both day I went there.
 
Since when was a couple of parks being busy on a bank holiday weekend in the summer holidays news worthy?
 
American's genuinely don't know the meaning of busy.

I think the long YEAR ROUND ARE YOU LISTENING MERLIN? opening hours at US parks is the main reason their parks never get insane.

Except the proper resort parks, of course.

I guess you could argue most of the UK parks that get busy ARE major resort parks?

But if they opened for long enough hours, it wouldn't matter.

Jake, you do not realise just how busy it was.

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We shouldn't ignore the culture difference though, Joey. Obviously it would be lovely for the parks to be open later and for more of the year, but there's already a mass exodus effect that happens between 3 and 4 when parks close at 5. So it's not insane that they close at those times and don't open in the winter, it's in fact somewhat the opposite. They're not going to spend money where there's no market to give back.

Eg - last year Thorpe opened until 8pm during the summer for the first time; this year they've cut back to 7. It shows that they're testing the waters, but there's nothing there for them.
 
nealbie said:
We shouldn't ignore the culture difference though, Joey. Obviously it would be lovely for the parks to be open later and for more of the year, but there's already a mass exodus effect that happens between 3 and 4 when parks close at 5. So it's not insane that they close at those times and don't open in the winter, it's in fact somewhat the opposite. They're not going to spend money where there's no market to give back.
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However to counter that, my experience is that the mass-exodus occurs an hour or two before the park closes. Regardless of what time it closes. It happened at many of the US parks (Kings Island and Cedar Point spring to mind) and Port Aventura are examples that I've experienced. These parks were open to 10pm, yet the crowds only seemed to drop around 8-9pm. So it's not a time of the day thing - I think it's more to do with people leaving earlier to 'beat the queues'. What's one lost hour if it saves you queuing to exit? (The fact that that doesn't quite work if everyone has that idea is besides the point :p ).

I think what's more likely is the weather in the UK. At the parks with the later opening hours it's still warm (verging on hot) at 8-9-10pm, so it's OK for the parks to stay open. We don't get many days in the UK where it's still considered hot that late, so people wouldn't want to stay. I think year round opening might be a bit much, but during the summer they should be able to push it back a bit.

I'm with Joey, UK parks close faaaar to early in the summer months.
 
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