Quietest you've ever seen a theme park?
- Thread starter Matt N
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- quiet theme park
CookieCoasters
Giga Poster
Yeah, most of my entries for this topic would be for parks in the UAE. How deserted Motiongate was saddened me more than anything. Yes, it was really nice to be able to walk-on everything and easily get as many rides as you wanted, but it was at the expense of atmosphere, and the park desverves many more people to come and see how wonderful it is. Thankfully, the parks on Yas Island seemed a little more popular when I was there (including the newer Warner Bros. Park), but still very quiet.
I think Cinecittà World in its opening year was the first time I’d really seen a significant park completely dead. We went in the evening and by the end of the night, we could only see maybe one family still there with us. My sister and I were riding everything by ourselves. It was strange, though I do remember responding more positively to it at the time than I did at Motiongate this year. Nice to essentially have your own private park, I guess
You'll rarely see reports from busy periods though. Most Western enthusiasts will, obviously, plan their park trips to be outside of holiday periods and avoid weekends where possible, so it gives a semi-false impression that the parks are always dead. Some of them genuinely are, especially if they're out of the way with no easy public transport links, but a lot get very busy at weekends and public holidays.
Kw6sTheater
Hyper Poster
I'd imagine this is how Wanda & OCT manage to hold spots on the top tier of theme park operators' chain attendance list. Enthusiasts deliberately like to avoid crowded days at Eastern parks, as the parks over East unfortunately aren't known for the stellar or even good operations of their Western counterparts.
HeartlineCoaster
Theme Park Superhero
Feels like I've done tons of quiet parks, to the point where some trips I feel horrified when I get somewhere and actually have to queue because I'm just not used to it at the time. A few particularly standout moments/places come to mind:
Wiener Prater - I got here earlier in the day than most people seem to and I was pretty alone other than the various ride staff, most of whom were quite rude about having to take money off me and actually run the rides. It was rather disgusting and not a real park.
Wanda Nanchang - There were more people outside the entrance plaza trying to sell knock-off tickets than there were guests in the park. Honestly can't recall seeing more than 1 other guest couple on this day so most of the time was just us and the staff - who were all very excitable (uncharacteristically so for China) and happy to see someone walk by. Took several solo rides on the 2 major coasters and a solo ride on the drop tower - a particular highlight as the ride operator was so happy to have a customer that she took me by the hand and skipped along the queue with me. Lowlight was that they refused to run the caterpillar cred without a full train for 'safety reasons', and filling a train was impossible, so spite.
Oriental Heritage Jinan & Xiamen, Fantawild Dreamland Zhengzhou - Everything dead, max 50 guests on park, endless empty open spaces. Solo rides on Jungle Trailblazers with varying levels of friendliness shown by staff from Zhengzhou who couldn't do enough for me, to Xiamen who hated having to deal with me.
Hansa Park - First time I went here it was extremely empty with a lovely quiet and special atmosphere. Don't think I ever did a ride on a full train and I had the whole Karnan preshow, loading sequence and ride to myself on my first few laps which was equal parts terrifying and amazing.
Japan has a lot of parks that seem to be dying when you go, but most have seemingly survived for decades like this. Of the more major attractions:
Himeji - No more than 20 people on park? Never open more than the front row on their B&M.
Tobu Zoo - Only people in the park, appeared to open the Megalite specifically for us.
Universal Singapore - potentially the only one in the chain that you can ever get a truly quiet day on. There will always be people milling around in tourist fashion, but ride wise I've had it empty enough for solo rides on the Mummy, which are awesome - love sitting alone on a spectacular dark ride thinking how much money is each ride cycle costing them? Just to please one guy.
Six Flags New England can't have had more than 50 people in it on a rainy monday. 3 laps on the RMC without leaving the seat. They did however handle things in disgusting fashion after that.
Thorpe Park used to have quiet days but it seems impossible now. I remember a time when it was so quiet we were challenged by a ride host to stay sitting on any ride in the park indefinitely, every time any other member of staff asked us to.
Can't have nice things any more. Go on a September weekday morning and wait 30 mins for all the coasters cos they're stingy bastards.
Wiener Prater - I got here earlier in the day than most people seem to and I was pretty alone other than the various ride staff, most of whom were quite rude about having to take money off me and actually run the rides. It was rather disgusting and not a real park.
Wanda Nanchang - There were more people outside the entrance plaza trying to sell knock-off tickets than there were guests in the park. Honestly can't recall seeing more than 1 other guest couple on this day so most of the time was just us and the staff - who were all very excitable (uncharacteristically so for China) and happy to see someone walk by. Took several solo rides on the 2 major coasters and a solo ride on the drop tower - a particular highlight as the ride operator was so happy to have a customer that she took me by the hand and skipped along the queue with me. Lowlight was that they refused to run the caterpillar cred without a full train for 'safety reasons', and filling a train was impossible, so spite.
Oriental Heritage Jinan & Xiamen, Fantawild Dreamland Zhengzhou - Everything dead, max 50 guests on park, endless empty open spaces. Solo rides on Jungle Trailblazers with varying levels of friendliness shown by staff from Zhengzhou who couldn't do enough for me, to Xiamen who hated having to deal with me.
Hansa Park - First time I went here it was extremely empty with a lovely quiet and special atmosphere. Don't think I ever did a ride on a full train and I had the whole Karnan preshow, loading sequence and ride to myself on my first few laps which was equal parts terrifying and amazing.
Japan has a lot of parks that seem to be dying when you go, but most have seemingly survived for decades like this. Of the more major attractions:
Himeji - No more than 20 people on park? Never open more than the front row on their B&M.
Tobu Zoo - Only people in the park, appeared to open the Megalite specifically for us.
Universal Singapore - potentially the only one in the chain that you can ever get a truly quiet day on. There will always be people milling around in tourist fashion, but ride wise I've had it empty enough for solo rides on the Mummy, which are awesome - love sitting alone on a spectacular dark ride thinking how much money is each ride cycle costing them? Just to please one guy.
Six Flags New England can't have had more than 50 people in it on a rainy monday. 3 laps on the RMC without leaving the seat. They did however handle things in disgusting fashion after that.
Thorpe Park used to have quiet days but it seems impossible now. I remember a time when it was so quiet we were challenged by a ride host to stay sitting on any ride in the park indefinitely, every time any other member of staff asked us to.
Can't have nice things any more. Go on a September weekday morning and wait 30 mins for all the coasters cos they're stingy bastards.
Bluegamesful
Roller Poster
I went to Movieland Studios a few years ago and they had a fun little opening show every morning, however I was literally the only guest there, it felt so awkward. Eventually a few more guests arrived, but for the entire day there was no wait and I went on most rides by myself.
Similarly I went to Schwaben Park two weeks ago to try Wilde Hilde, we went there first thing in the morning, the paeking lot wasn’t empty so we assumed a few people would be around. We rode Wilde Hilde, then went through the entire park and got back to do a re ride in the afternoon, the ride op told us we were the only ones that have ridden it so far.
Both of those are smaller parks, but I also went to Phantasialand two years ago during Wintertraum and Taron was walk on all day, rode it 30ish times back to back.
Similarly I went to Schwaben Park two weeks ago to try Wilde Hilde, we went there first thing in the morning, the paeking lot wasn’t empty so we assumed a few people would be around. We rode Wilde Hilde, then went through the entire park and got back to do a re ride in the afternoon, the ride op told us we were the only ones that have ridden it so far.
Both of those are smaller parks, but I also went to Phantasialand two years ago during Wintertraum and Taron was walk on all day, rode it 30ish times back to back.
TilenB
Strata Poster
Jel. Though I guess that often seems to be the case with Phantasialand during Wintertraum. I can also remember everything being a walk on when I went in 2015 (sadly that was a year before Taron opened, so I'm still waiting for those yummy night rides).
C
Coaster Cinema
Guest
Magic Mountain on a winter weekday. No lines at all.
Tulum
Mega Poster
Etnaland last year Pentecost. It was us two, a school class and about 20 other visitors. The staff was so bored they took pictures with us and basically begged us to go on their ride. I guess there were more employees than visitors there this days. It really made me worry about the park because it is actually pretty neat and has some nice rides.
JJLehto
Hyper Poster
Waldameer, Thursday in early June, was there at park opening.
I rolled into the parking lot and my car was the first there. No joke, the only car. As I was walking to the gate 1 school bus did pull up.
So I am not kidding when I say I was the first person to enter the park and for a bit it was me and one group of kids. I rode Comet and Steel Dragon alone, RFII there was one person with me. Some more people did trickle in but after 1 hour I did all the coasters twice, RFII thrice, hopped on a couple of the rides. I was done. I even grabbed an ice cream and sat a few mins/took pics literally everything I could need was done within the hour and as mentioned before I had a pretty bad time with RFII so was ready to go.
That was the emptiest, as for "big parks" I had days at Dorney when on a weekend we would be done by noon.
Geauga Lake I went to last year of its operation and it was also pretty dead, I think was done by noon again.
Kentucky Kingdom last year I went on a weekday and again was pretty much open just for us. Only waited (5 mins at max) for Lightning Run bc of 1 train ops and I recall Storm Chaser being a literal walk on every time. Deff did at least 10 rides of each. Did all the rides we wanted even some water park all in a few hours.
Going to parks weekdays before Coastermania has proven to be a superb way to dominate a park for me lol
I rolled into the parking lot and my car was the first there. No joke, the only car. As I was walking to the gate 1 school bus did pull up.
So I am not kidding when I say I was the first person to enter the park and for a bit it was me and one group of kids. I rode Comet and Steel Dragon alone, RFII there was one person with me. Some more people did trickle in but after 1 hour I did all the coasters twice, RFII thrice, hopped on a couple of the rides. I was done. I even grabbed an ice cream and sat a few mins/took pics literally everything I could need was done within the hour and as mentioned before I had a pretty bad time with RFII so was ready to go.
That was the emptiest, as for "big parks" I had days at Dorney when on a weekend we would be done by noon.
Geauga Lake I went to last year of its operation and it was also pretty dead, I think was done by noon again.
Kentucky Kingdom last year I went on a weekday and again was pretty much open just for us. Only waited (5 mins at max) for Lightning Run bc of 1 train ops and I recall Storm Chaser being a literal walk on every time. Deff did at least 10 rides of each. Did all the rides we wanted even some water park all in a few hours.
Going to parks weekdays before Coastermania has proven to be a superb way to dominate a park for me lol
Aaron Smith
Mega Poster
Maybe 12 or so years ago I went to Cedar Point on a Sunday during Halloweekends. Very overcast day and with a 90% chance of rain. NO ONE WAS IN THE PARK. When Millie is walk on you know it's a slow day. Never rained and I got in so many rides on Millie it was obscene.
That’s the one for me. Got there at opening and rode Mine Blower maybe four times by my lonesome. Bought a pretty funny ride photo though