I too was there today and yes, it was dead. The car park was quiet. The shops were quiet. The rides were walk on! Smiler did have a max 20min queue a couple of times throughout the day but both times I went on it, it was virtually walk-on.
Longest queue by far was for the Runaway Train, which was about 20mins shortly after lunch.
Oh, unless you count the Burger Kitchen near Hex, that had a massive queue at lunchtime.
Seriously though, nearly all of the ride queues today were empty - even Rita was a one train wait! I managed two full laps of the park, a 10:30 start, a leisurely lunch and a 4pm leave. I even considered doing the Fish Life Centre because it was so quiet. It was quieter than this time last year.
What I did notice is the amenities such as the cable cars, food outlets and merch shops now have longer queues. I guess where's there is a reduction in available rides, restaurants and rides are walk-on, people find something else to do!
It will be interesting to see if business picks up next week when the Air rebrand is open and Easter hits.
Regarding Smiler, I did feel slightly strange riding front row left centre first thing but I enjoyed my ride. Second ride, I sat middle row and it was terrible - rough, juddery and unpleasant. It's very much a marmite coaster for me but, judging by its whopping 15min or so queue today, the goons queuing for it yesterday and the number of Twitter interactions CF had, it's popular with the punters and 99.9% of people are glad it's open.
Longest queue by far was for the Runaway Train, which was about 20mins shortly after lunch.
Oh, unless you count the Burger Kitchen near Hex, that had a massive queue at lunchtime.
Seriously though, nearly all of the ride queues today were empty - even Rita was a one train wait! I managed two full laps of the park, a 10:30 start, a leisurely lunch and a 4pm leave. I even considered doing the Fish Life Centre because it was so quiet. It was quieter than this time last year.
What I did notice is the amenities such as the cable cars, food outlets and merch shops now have longer queues. I guess where's there is a reduction in available rides, restaurants and rides are walk-on, people find something else to do!
It will be interesting to see if business picks up next week when the Air rebrand is open and Easter hits.
Regarding Smiler, I did feel slightly strange riding front row left centre first thing but I enjoyed my ride. Second ride, I sat middle row and it was terrible - rough, juddery and unpleasant. It's very much a marmite coaster for me but, judging by its whopping 15min or so queue today, the goons queuing for it yesterday and the number of Twitter interactions CF had, it's popular with the punters and 99.9% of people are glad it's open.