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Worst delay getting to a park?

Sandman

Sandman

Giga Poster
Ever had your excitement for a park ruined by early morning traffic or a late friend? That sort of thing pisses me off big time, especially if I'm heading to a new park I've been looking forward to for a while. So, what's the worst delay you've ever had getting to a park and what was it down to?

I think I rocked up at Toverland 7 years ago about 3 hours late. I didn't even say a word walking into the park, I just made an aggressive beeline for Troy and hoped it'd make me feel better.
 
I don't have an interesting story, but I have certainly been delayed in getting to parks, and always because of other people being slow in getting going or because of traffic. I'm a laid back guy in general, but I do hate getting to amusement parks well after they open, and THEN spending 20 to 60 minutes waiting in massive crowds to get through the entrance. Grrrr.
 
GuyWithAStick said:
Oversleeping.

It's the worst feeling to wake up, look at the clock, and realize how much you screwed up.
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I've had a few dreams in which I've completely overslept and got to the park and it's like 20 mins from closing. Either that or a ride I'm really looking forward to is completely **** in my dream. That always makes me wake up very alert haha!
 
Last summer I flew up to DC from Orlando to spend a few days with my parents... Afterwards I rented a car from the airport to drive to Cedar Point and back. I set my alarm for 4am and made it to the Metro to catch the first train of the day to the airport where I picked up my rental to drive to Ohio. It should have been about a six hour drive...But due to a thunderstorm and a massive accident during Pittsburgh Rush Hour... It ended up taking nearly 9, not getting into the park until after 2pm.
 
Got delayed by 2 hours driving to La Ronde because of a huge delay at border control getting in to Canada.

I get to the park and it's rammed. All the creds have a line approaching 1 hour if not more. End up buying the Platinum Flash Pass which turned out to be the best decision I've made at any park ever, because it meant I could do all the important creds without queuing once and leave the park early because it was ****ing ****.
 
Somewhat forunately, looking back I can''t think of any time where I've been delayed getting to a park to the extent it's hindered me. I usually tend to stay overnight beforehand for most visits though tbf, and my European trips tend to be at least 2 days minimum so again the odd delay isn't really an issue.
 
Construction taking place on the highway next to SF Great America. Took me an hour to get off, then another half hour or so to actually step foot in the park. It usually takes me 20-25 minutes
 
Haha ugh there were a few instances on my long coaster trip in 2015 with Ben, Darren, and Tom. I already had the Hershey creds but Tom didn't and I was really looking forward to going back. We were already going to be limited on time, but I think in the end traffic caused us to be restricted to a whole two hours or something. Tom did end up getting all but one coaster though!
 
First time I went to Magic Mountain. I was staying with a friend in San Diego, and we decided to go, but drove partway and stayed with one of his friends the night before, where we all proceeded to get a bit trashed.

They had no concept of needing all the creds, so we ended up arriving at 2pm.

They also wanted to do a log flume. FML.

Luckily, and strangely for that time of year, the park was really quiet, so we managed to get everything (Superman and Batman were down), but only juts made it into the line for Goliath at the end of the night.

Awful.
 
LiveForTheLaunch said:
Haha ugh there were a few instances on my long coaster trip in 2015 with Ben, Darren, and Tom. I already had the Hershey creds but Tom didn't and I was really looking forward to going back. We were already going to be limited on time, but I think in the end traffic caused us to be restricted to a whole two hours or something. Tom did end up getting all but one coaster though!
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That was the most intense cred run I've ever done. I was already pissed off at myself for smashing my phone in Six Flags America so I was determined to do as much as possible. In about 2 hours I did Skyrush, Comet, Superdooperlooper, Great Bear, Trailblazer, Sidewinder, Storm Runner, Cocoa Cruiser, Wild Mouse, Wildcat, both sides of Lightning Racer and Laff Track before it was time to go. I was much fitter by the end of the day, that's for sure. Only missed out on Fahrenheit which I was able to go back and do a few days later. Would love to go back to Hersheypark and take a more relaxed day there now that I've got all the creds.

I really wish we had been delayed getting to Six Flags Over Georgia so we didn't have to deal with the awful people in the park when we got there. I did try to kill us all which, given what a crap evening it was may have been better than going to SFOG.
 
The only one that really jumps to mind is waiting for everyone to join before the day at heide park on the live back in about 2009. (and I don't think that was that long).. (serious cred anxiety that day, and colossos being down until the end of the day..

I dread having a flight delayed and missing out on a park day.
 
Traffic leaving DC was awful, ended up getting to Kings Dominion much later than originally planned. Only Volcano had any line, so it didn't end up being too big of a negative. Still, I loved the park and would have preferred more time there.
 
I've delayed myself, and others, on a few of occasions on CF Lives.

First one was in Denmark when I was pulled over the Police for driving too fast. They proceeded to go through the entire car, emptying our bags and checking the car thoroughly. This delayed us tremendously for ERT on Piraten at Djurs Sommarland. Thankfully they let me go and my car load managed to get to the park and nab a few minutes ride time!

The other time was on the first Italy Live. I programmed the satnav for the airport, not Rainbow Magicland. This meant I arrived about an hour late and had the entire group outside waiting for me to buy the tickets. Whoops!

Thirdly, Spanish Operations. For the joint meet-up we did with PAC a few years ago, Spanish Airport Car Hire Operations meant that I was waiting for over an hour to get my hire car. This delayed us for ages and when we arrived one of the fab PAC members started shouting at me in Spanish. I didn't understand a word but I gave a double kiss on her cheeks and then proceeded to perv on a Sexy Carrot all day. You had to be there...

So yeah, since these delays, I have always doubled checked the satnav, stuck to the speed limits and given myself an extra hour when doing anything in Spain.
 
Both my worst days involve Alton Towers...
First time was going with my wife to the Towers to ride Thirteen soon after it opened. The Towers got their school closure dates wrong, and what was expected to be a quiet day was very busy. We were told by staff after going to the monorail that there was a half hour queue to get onto the monorail, so we walked to the entrance to find queues at the ticket booths right back to the monorail, and staff advising that all the rides had queues, all the coasters had at least hour long queues, and Thirteen was playing up, with constant two hour queue, and frequent stoppages. So we gave up and drove home...six hours of my life I will never get back.
Number two, took an ex client on a camping trip, but he got so smashed the night before the Towers, his killer hangover meant we were at the Towers front gates before dawn...then we had a camping breakfast on the entrance lay by...then he proceeded to throw everything up...then came the dreaded request..."Please Rob, just take me home, I'm so ill." Three hour (rush hour) drive home, and I was tucked up in my bed at home by 11am, vowing to take him to Blackpool in future.
My fault I suppose for letting him get so pissed.
 
Well there was the time I was going to meet Ben and some of his CP ride op friends at Kings Island the day the power went out. Because CP was closed, all of Ohio decided to just go to KI instead and there was all this traffic. Just as I was pulling into the park, there was all this traffic on Kings Island Drive and all these dangerous Cincinnati drivers are making all these illegal U-turns to get away from it. When I got to the front turns out that there was another one of those infamous "wrecked car leaving Kings Island" situations in the form of a minivan with its entire front somehow ripped off in a 45 mph zone. Took them an hour to clear up and Ben and his crew were waiting on me the whole time.

Then there was the time I wanted to hop out of Hershey for a day and do Morey's Piers with my area friend John. I decided to be a cheapo and not take the 10$ in tolls for a slightly longer route. Turns out this route was through these crappy Jersey farmlands that were somehow horrendously backed up, John had already dealt with half the day before I got there. He was totally cool about it but it was still really aggravating. And I hit Phili traffic coming back, which left Emily stuck outside alone at night in the rain for a good hour before I got there, somehow she still thought I was a good boyfriend because I got her a lanyard.

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Oooh - I've just remembered one!!

It was on the day I was going to Tusenfryd, meeting up with a few fellow cfers, before the Sweden live.

I was booked on the overnight train from kristiansand to oslo, it arrived at about midnight as expected, I hopped on and nodded off for an hour or so - only to notice we were still at kristiansand! Apparently there was a problem with the overhead lines.

We finally left about 4 hours late, and had to get a replacement bus for part of the journey.

I finally arrived early afternoon, and finally managed to get in touch with sue at about 11!
 
On my long road trip of parks two years ago, I got a flat tire about halfway between Buffalo and Erie. The plan originally was to make a credit run at Waldameer for the last couple hours before they closed. Ended up making it to Erie, but well after park close. Had to meet friends at Cedar Point the next morning (after finding a new tire in town) and ended up missing Waldameer completely.
 
Not too bad, but the Bounce Below meet where we were told strictly to arrive at 10.30am. We got up and had plenty of time as our B&B was only 10 mins away. We had a chilled breakfast and chatted to the owner, only when we went to pay he told us it was cash only. WTF?! It was a tiny sleepy village with no cash point for miles, so we made him set up a PayPal account so we could transfer him the money that way. We raced over and arrived just on time. Just.

I can't actually think of any others? Phantasialand back in 2011 we arrived quite a lot later than the others but I think this was always the plan. Meant we were split for most of the day though which was a bit poo!

Usually I'm the one waiting, can think of loads of instances of that!


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