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Bad weather ruining a park trip

Bat Fastard

Bat Fastard

Hyper Poster
We all as coaster enthusiasts have been through this at some point- bad weather such as heavy rain and lightning ruining a trip in some way. Every time I have plans for a vacation to an amusement park, I always worry really bad that it will lightning and the trip will be ruined. This especially sucks when the park you are visiting is so far away. I'm going to SFGAm later this summer for the 2nd time (yeah yeah, not a new park for me but whatever. Next year and beyond my cred count will skyrocket since I plan on visiting a lot of new parks) which is 9 hours away. Not to mention, August (when we're going) is the rainiest month in the Chicago area lol. So what's your approach on bad weather ruining trips?
 
Plan ahead as much as you can. If you are going to an area where weather might be an issue, have a B-plan in case the park does not open or you are done with it way early.

In my case, we went to the Southern Germany parks (Europa Park and Holiday Park) in March 2013, and it was freezing cold. We knew that coasters could only start operating with temperatures above 2º-4º Celsius (35º-39º Fahrenheit); at Europa Park it was alright, but at Holiday Park we really thought Expedition GeForce would not open because it required 8º Celsius (46º Fahrenheit) and it took more than half a day to eventually get there...
 
Cry.

Always try and have a back up but it's not always possible.

Luckily when weather ruined Cedar Point and Over Texas on the recent trip we could go back (even if SFOT meant a long drive), but we had to leave I305 when there was a storm there.

So, like the Boy Scouts, always be prepared, but, sometimes it just goes with the hobby.
 
Get over it? Especially when you're on a tightly packed schedule moving from one place to another there's not a lot you can do about it other than try and plan accordingly. Also, especially in the US from my experience, the weather channel is really bad at predicting the weather so a lot of the time you end up just taking it as it comes.
 
If it's light rain, I don't really mind.

If it's monsooning, I still go, but I take shelter at say a gift shop or a restaurant until it clears up. That way, all the coasters have rainy track, and you can ride right when they open.

It's still your choice. If the weather calls for 100% Rain that day, you choose if you want to go or not.
 
I was quite lucky that on my recent trip only two parks fell through due to weather: Indiana Beach and Dorney Park.

I always planned for alternatives like museums or cinemas to spend a rainy day indoors. In contrast to Europe I found out that US weather is prone to thunderstorms which can impact operations. At first I was a little squeamish about that - until I saw Wild Eagle getting multiple lightning hits. Here is Europe is mostly "only" rains - we have thunder/lightning only on very rare occasions...
 
I guess in the UK its less of a problem because parks only operate between march-november, so coasters can still operate most of the time. Probably the most annoying thing is sitting down on a wet seat, once you are actually going on a coaster the rain isn't too annoying and sometimes I quite like it. Plus, bad weather means less people, meaning more cred whoreing :D. That said possibly one of my worse theme park memories was getting off loggers leap at Thorpe soaking wet, on a cold Sunday in March, and being freezing for the rest of the morning.
 
I went to the Londen Merlin parks for my first (and only) visit in march 2013. It snowed back then. Thorpe managed to open everything (except for the indoor coaster, down for refurbishment = genius!), Lego dito, but Chessington closed everything except for the 3 indoor rides (from which Bubbleworks broke down every 5 minutes).

Instaed of staying at Chessington or the hotel, we went to Londen and acted like normal tourists in Toussauds and the Londen Eye. It was free and fun. Bad weather doesn't ruin a trip, there are far worse things. Like crappy parks who can't run a carousell when melting snow falls.
 
Luckily enough I've visited theme parks with people I enjoy spending time with, so a bit of bad of weather has never "ruined" a park trip.

I can remember four occasions where I've been at a theme park and the weather has stopped me from playing.

Twinlakes
Was it this year or last? I can't remember. It was really cold, ice, snow, frostbite. Terrible. the coasters weren't working but thankfully there were enough indoor things to do.

Cedar Point 2007
It hammered down with rain and everything shut. We amused ourselves undercover for an hour until it cleared up. Yes, it was annoying that it chewed into ride time, but messing around with the like of Taylor, Snoo, Hyde, UC, Tom etc was more memorable than any ride would have been.

Goliath SFGAm media day, 2014
I managed two rides before the sky went black and Noah's Ark sailed by. Yes, I was annoyed that I never got a third or fourth ride, but taking shelter in the restaurant drinking free coffee and watching Darren wind up a gullible goon about Thorpe Park's MTDP was great entertainment.

Lakemount Park, 2014
When Darren, Jerry and I turned up, t was pissing down. We managed to get on Leap The Dips but the other stuff was closed. This I was most annoyed about because I wanted to go on my first Chance Toboggan but hey ho, it's an excuse to return.

So yeah, bad weather has never ruined a day at a park. It can be irritating but it depends who you're with.

There is a fundamental difference and mentality between European and American theme parks on the subject of weather. Some American parks won't open if there is a bit of drizzle mainly because American guests don't visit in bad weather. Europeans tend to go regardless and all you get from the park is a warning that the bad weather might make the ride experience slightly uncomfortable.

I guess my attitude might be different if I were visiting a park that I was unlikely to return to - say somewhere in Australia for example. But I realise I can't change the weather and plan around it accordingly.
 
There was a heavy thunderstorm at SFNE on my trip this year - last from about 4- just before 5, but they didn't reopen the coasters afterwards - GRRRRRR!
 
Ian said:
Twinlakes
Was it this year or last? I can't remember. It was really cold, ice, snow, frostbite. Terrible. the coasters weren't working but thankfully there were enough indoor things to do.
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It was this year :p yeah that was annoying, still it's a fab park especially with CFers so I'm sure we'll return.

Don't think weather has ever flat out ruined a day at a park for me. In Florida last summer the odd thunderstorm may have stopped a couple of coasters for a couple of hours but that was an excuse to see some indoor stuff or shows.
 
As mentioned in the other thread, Six Flags Fiesta Texas last new years eve. It was freezing and the only coaster which was working was the Boomerang and the kiddie coaster. All other coasters were closed. At 4pm they decided to close the park and didn't even get to see it at night.

I was, as they say, gutted.
 
Twinlakes, this year, was the only time I'd been affected by bad weather. The creds were closed but some boat things were open. I still had a really good day with Cfers, riding the Moser drop tower.

Other that, I have experienced my fair share of Floridian storms. The storms never ruin a them park day though.
 
It happens. Most times when I've been to Cedar Point there has been some kind of storm. In fact, many of the days on the recent three week trip I did with Darren, Ben, and Tom were plagued by crappy weather. The only time it ever truly upset me was when we were driving away from SFOT with only one cred (that wasn't New Texas Giant) during Tropical Storm Bill. We went back though, so all is well.
 
Perhaps an odd one, but has anyone been in the situation where too good weather has spoiled a trip?

I'm not a huge fan of very hot weather, and when I visited Toverland a couple of weeks ago, temperatures were hitting 34-35 degrees. Most rides were walk on during the day, so fortunately standing in queues wasn't a problem, but the heat just really got to me. I was drinking plenty and we were in the indoors part for quite a while too, but after about half 3, I just couldn't deal with being outside so stayed indoors. Only missed out on rerides really, so it didn't exactly ruin the trip, but did spoil it a little.


Wet / cold / windy weather doesn't bother me so much. If it ever seriously affected a trip I was on, I would just accept it and move on. In all likelihood, I'd be with some good company so would be able to laugh it off anyways.
 
Almost - It took me a few visits to Scandinavia before I realised that scandinavian summers are actually really warm - I was really feeling the heat on the finland live - particularly at Särkänniemi
 
I've never had a trip or even an individual park visit ruined by weather. I got rained out of Knott's Berry Farm after only a few hours, but because the park was dead, I got all the creds (including 4 rides on Xcelerator without getting off), plus the log flume and the rapids before it became an issue.

The best time is obviously when the weather is predicted to be not-so-great, but then it turns out to be lovely. Particularly in the US because the weather stations will always slap a 'hurricane warning' on their website, thus putting loads of people off and then out of luck, you may end up with a dead park on a beautiful day. Ohhh, how this made Lake Compounce's **** operations so much easier to deal with <3 If only Boulder Dash was my favourite coaster :p
 
I was quite lucky with my weather, but when I went to Parc Asterix for the first time, there was a massive, MASSIVE rainstorm (no lightning or thunder, though) for about ten minutes. It instantly went to sun after that. That is all I have to say.

To be honest, I am really lucky with the weather at theme parks since I live in the UK.
 
Ben said:
So, like the Boy Scouts, always be prepared, but, sometimes it just goes with the hobby.
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Well said Ben!


Helmuth Von Moltke, Chief of Staff for the Prussian Army, was once quoted as saying, "no plan survives contact with the enemy."

Sometimes despite your best planning, there is no way around the fact that a park is going to shut down in inclement weather. Whenever bad weather is heading our way, I will simply circle around weather reports and radar from NOAA and Weather.com like a hawk. If it's possible to get a sense of timing for when bad weather is going to hit, you can sometimes create a game plan for attacking the park. However, like my last trip to carowinds, rain can come without warning and remain through the end of the day.
 
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