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Your Credit Approach at a New Park

MestnyiGeroi

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
When it comes to new parks and their credits, which one of these would you say you are?

A. I MUST get all the credits if at all possible. I must get them first. Only when I’ve gotten all the credits can I relax and ride other rides or get re-rides.

B. I’m really only interested in getting the credits that look good. I don’t really need to bother with every crappy credit, just the good stuff.

C. I would like to get all the credits, but if that means not getting a lot of re-rides on the best coasters, forget it: If necessary I’ll sacrifice some credits to have more experience on the best coasters.


FWIW, I’m definitely an “A” at a new park. And if the park has a lot of credits and I’m there for one day, until I’ve hit all the creds I’ll probably suffer from “credit anxiety” (as DavidM correctly called it when I was describing the feeling).
 
None of the above.

I absolutely DO want all the creds, but I'll still take in other stuff (mostly dark rides) as I hit them and tend to do the park in a more natural way rather than jumping between "must do" coasters.

There are obviously exceptions, but in general I'll just do that.

The kiddy creds rarely have much, if any, of a queue, so I know they'll be picked up with minimal effort during the day.

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gavin said:
The kiddy creds rarely have much, if any, of a queue, so I know they'll be picked up with minimal effort during the day.
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Have you ever been to Alton Towers? I waited 4 years for Octonauts to get to a walk-on queue; it often exceeds an hour's queue!

As for my approach, I'd say I'm a C, personally. Although I must admit, I'm not sure if I'd go out of my way to ride a kiddie coaster unless it was extremely quiet and/or if it was conveniently placed on my way to a major ride.
 
If you know it's going to be an easy day then it's all irrelevant, so like Gavin says I'll hit other rides as I go round in a 'natural way.

If you know the park is going to be a challenge, I find it's a very fine balance between A and C.

MestnyiGeroi said:
Only when I’ve gotten all the credits can I relax
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This is true. Cred anxiety is real.

MestnyiGeroi said:
If necessary I’ll sacrifice some credits to have more experience on the best coasters.
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Yet this is also true. I know I would, but as far as I recall it's never actually been put to the test.

I think it's quite a rare situation personally, or maybe just an 'only in America' thing.
 
B if it's a new park, keeping in mind how busy things are on that day.
I don't really care for a credit if it's a crappy ride (happy to skip a SLC any day), but as others have mentioned I like to see what else the park has to offer too. Especially when being with non-goons in the group who don't have cred anxiety.
 
HeartlineCoaster said:
If you know it's going to be an easy day then it's all irrelevant, so like Gavin says I'll hit other rides as I go round in a 'natural way.
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This is true for me. If the park isn’t crowded or if there aren’t that many credits, etc., I’ll be relaxed and go about the park more naturally, and I may even save the best credit for later in the day.

But if the park is crowded and has a lot of credits (and if they have restricted Euro hours), that’s when these choices become an issue; that’s when I can get cred anxiety.
 
I want to try to ride all the coasters but try to do the park in a sensible orde rather than jump from one side of the park to another (that's what you learn from having Alton Towers as your home park). Over time you get to know how long a queue may take from the type of coaster it is so you can work out when to ride it from that. Dark rides and other ride types at a new park that i've never seen before are all high up on my list for me to ride and then the kiddie credits fit in last or at a time when i'm nearby and their empty.
 
I'd say I'm mainly a C from the options, but it varies. If I can get all the creds easily because it's a quiet day (or I'm at the park multiple days) then I'm happy to just take them as they come, but generally I will focus on getting the major creds first (just in case one of them breaks down later in the day) and then get dark rides, water rides and kiddie creds as and when we get to them in the park. I'm also less bothered about getting all the creds as I used to be when my coaster count was under 100. Now if I have to miss out on another Wacky Worm or (even worse) SBF Visa spinner then it's no biggie.

To be honest I can only think of one park visit when getting all the creds was a serious problem, which was our visit to Busch Gardens Tampa last year. We got there late due to traffic issues, spent most of the morning on an organised wildlife tour and the park was heaving, so I had to pick and choose the creds I went on, only managing 4 out of 8 (plus Falcon's Fury) but they were the best 4, and I ended the day with 3 rides on Montu rather than getting the extra cred on Cobra's Curse. The cred anxiety was real that day, but the good news is when I go back I'll have 6 new creds to get :D
 
I am A for the most part but how I approach a park is really dependent on the park. Usually I attempt to ride all coasters that I need so I just enter the park and start riding coasters. The order is kind of dependent if there's something I really want to ride first or a milestone is coming up and I want a specific coaster. Like when I went to Great America I was there for opening and went straight to Goliath because I wanted to ride it the most and didn't have a milestone coming up. Whereas when I got 300 at Animal Kingdom on Everest I needed one more coaster before that so I rode one side of Primeval Whirl then 300 on Everest then the other side of it. For example where I am at now at 342 creds the next park I plan on going to is Nick Universe so I would probably just go in and ride everything no specific order just whatever I see first really and get everything then ride non creds.
 
I tend to lean towards A, and I typically plan to blitz through the low capacity creds first thing, although that doesn't always happen. I'll also try and nab the more exciting flat rides and such, but as many have mentioned thus far, plans usually need to adapt to all sorts of different variables. If I show up and it's crowded or raining or there is some other factor that will limit time, I'll prioritize the better rides over the +1s.
 
I'd say I'm between a B and C, I usually try to get on most thrill and family coasters, however I will never bother with a kiddie coaster or smaller family coasters unless someone else in my party wants to ride it. Also I will ride smaller coasters if I'm close to a milestone and I want to hit a milestone on a specific coaster.
 
I recently visited Energylandia. Spent my day going back and forth between Hyperion and Zadra (grand opening- opened in the afternoon), with one courtesy lap each on Speed and Mayan (I had been hearing it was exceptional for an SLC) when their waits looked tolerable. Didn't for a second even consider the other 45 coasters in the park. That's pretty much my approach.

Energylandia is filled with family/kids coasters, though. At a typical Six Flags or Cedar Fair park, I'll always make an effort to make it on rides many would skip- B&M Stand-Ups, Arrow Loopers, Vekoma coasters... I just don't see any appeal in family/kids coasters.
 
For financial and location reasons I don’t get to go to theme parks very often and when I do I’m usually with friends or family who aren’t enthusiasts. So it would be sort of odd (/impolite) if I was more focused on getting creds than enjoying the day with them. Usually I just have a good time and don’t bother counting credits until afterwards. Not to sound “maybe the real credit was the friends we made along the way!” but for me the experience always comes first. Similarly if I don’t think I’m going to enjoy a ride (or if there’s nobody around who will enjoy the ride with me), I won’t ride it. Unless it’s a walk-on kiddie coaster or something.
 
B. I ain't no ho.
Best creds first. Then, in a sensible order that doesn't involve lots of to-ing and fro-ing, the remaining big-ish creds. Then any other good stuff - flat rides, dark rides, water rides, shows, anything else that the park in question is noted for.
Then lunch. ;)
Then rerides on the best creds.
Then and only then will I even think about 'mopping up' the crappy kiddy creds.

But come on, every park is different, every day is different and even the best laid plans can get thrown into chaos by weather, ride breakdowns, unexpected crowd levels etc... so I generally find the best approach is to have a fixed starting point in mind, make sure you get there on time and then go with the flow from there.
If you've planned your trip properly you'll have allowed enough time at each park to not have to worry about it, right?
In an emergency, buy a fast pass. Simples.
 
B kinda
best example I can think of is Liseberg - went there, didnt bother with the kiddie creds or a lot of the flats just because they do not interest me at all - but also rather goofily waited until the end of the day for my most anticipated new cred just so it could've 'warmed up'.

That's pretty much how i do parks - not fussed for certain clones or flats, but if I'm REALLY looking forward to a ride I'll leave until I've done everything else or fairly near the end of the day when it should typically be at its very bestest.
 
When I go to a new park I try getting all the credits in a row, maybe some major water or flat ride in between, in geographical order so I don't have to run long distances just to get to the next coaster. I also try to order them so that I start my run with a big coaster (usually the one I'm most excited about) and end with another big coaster.

For example, my first visit to Europa went like this IIRC:
  1. Monorail all the way to the back of the park at rope drop, begin with Blue Fire.
  2. Wodan
  3. Atlantica SuperSplash
  4. Tiroler Log Flume
  5. Alpenexpress
  6. Arthur
  7. Euro-Mir
  8. Pegasus
  9. Poseidon
  10. Matterhorn
  11. Schweizer Bobbahn
  12. Euro-Sat
  13. Silver Star
Once the order is completed it's pretty much whatever I feel like during the rest of the day.

Of course, this hasn't always worked, especially in parks with staggered openings or high crowds, one example being Phantasialand — My strategy was Black Mamba (since it opened a half-hour before everything else) -> Chiapas -> Taron -> Raik etc., but once I got to Taron it was already a 95 minute wait with Single Rider closed, and no matter how much I wanted to ride Taron I wasn't going to wait that long for it so I moved on and came back later.

If I get to a new park on a quiet day, I do a warm-up coaster before I tackle the big guns, like how my visit to Kolmården started with the Vekoma rollerskater before I tackled Wildfire.
 
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Definitely A for me. I will ride all coasters as a priority and then relax and explore any interesting looking flat/water/dark rides. Order tends to be Coasters -> Water -> Dark -> Interesting looking Flats.
 
B/C

Eg Walibi Holland, swerved the crap Vekomas in favour of multiple Untamed rides.

Hersheypark missed Laff Trak and the Boomerang because I couldn't stay away from Skyrush.
 
Generally start with a warm up coaster (using Liseberg as an example, like Lisebergbanan) then head to something good (like Helix/Valkyria). Hit up all the good creds/water/flat rides in a logical order geographically around the park then re-ride all the biggies.
 
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