2023 Early Entry

Pretty sure we're just going to sleep in.

Yikes… yeah that’s a pretty sad lineup. I understand that the Boardwalk is the new thing, but it kind of defeats the purpose of knocking out some of the big headliners with a short(er) wait.

Wow. That is a pretty sad line up.

They sell early entry as a benefit to staying on the property, I would guess a lot of people staying at Breakers will probably be extremely disappointed. I am usually at the gate at 9:00. Only ride I would be interested in is Gatekeeper. You can usually ride that later in the day with minimal waiting. Losing early entry on the Gold Pass isn't a big deal now....you are not missing out on much.

Not that it matters to me this year (gold pass). But I wonder if cutting back this much means these rides will always be ready for early riders, or if they'll still be 'maybe it'll open on time', like past years.

Also wonder how 'subject to change' it'll actually be. I got a lot more use out of early halloweekends last year than I did the beginning of the season.

You've got to be kidding. Wow.

How often was Vengeance, or any of the other big ticket rides, actually open for ERT? I've only been to the park a handful of times in '21 and '22 and never had a good ERT experience.

Better to set the bar low and deliver than to set the bar HIGH and not be able to deliver.

To your point, this is about as pathetic as you could set the bar.

The optimist in me says that perhaps this is the list for the beginning of the season, when crowds are light and the hotel rooms are not sold out. As the season progresses, so to will the early entry offerings.

That said, if this is what remains of early entry I'm not even sure why they would even offer it.

As of late I havent really taken advantage of Early Entry, but wow this is just sad. I get they want people to go to the new boardwalk but still.

I'm most disappointed to not see Magnum on the list. On those mornings when the Intamins wouldn't cooperate and the morning wind/cold would delay Gatekeeper and Valravn, Magnum was reliably ready to go at 9am/10am on the dot.

I do agree that showing up at the start of Early Entry and actually having everything ready was a crapshoot at best. But this is a noticeable downgrade. Now - if this is what's officially advertised but they get other (good) stuff open around 9:15-9:30 as an unadvertised bonus, cool! But when rides advertised for a 9am Early Entry wouldn't open until 9:30-9:45 at best, I hope this doesn't now translate to rides not being ready for the 10am general admission open.

Kevinj:

I rarely had a bad early entry experience.

1. That’s what he said.
2. Giggity.

Nothing else to add. There’s not much of a reason to do early ride time. Typically I’d grab a few rides on MF and then head to the World’s Greatest Hyper Coaster for a mini marathon.

"Let's force everyone to the coldest and most windy area of the park first thing in the morning."

This is pathetic.

I understand having some of Planet Snoopy and Iron Dragon on the list for the younger crowd, but have a least 3-4 good rides on early entry. Even if it's Maverick and Steel Vengeance during May / June, Millennium Force during July, and Valravn during August / September. I will still check what the early entry rides will be at Dorney Park and Carowinds are going to be (I've never been to either of these two parks). - Lisa

Smiley5129:

I understand having some of Planet Snoopy and Iron Dragon on the list for the younger crowd, but have a least 3-4 good rides on early entry.

Honestly I was expecting this thread to be a bit more chaotic. Question is, didn't they have kiddy kingdom and/or the Cadillac Cars along with some of the bigger roller coasters during earlier years? I think at one point they even had camp Like somewhere around the range of 2017-2019?

What’s with the panic? This could be nothing but a place holder.
It makes sense to me that these are the rides that are guaranteed to be open and they know this because it includes or involves the “newest” attractions. Anything else is TBD.
And maybe it’s just a little premature to post a complete list. After all, they’re not even sure who’s gonna show up for work yet.

Getting increasingly difficult to keep my hopes up. All the placeholders are things getting cut. (Dragster, restaurants, events, forbidden frontier, early entry) Maybe they fix that with upcoming announcements, maybe they don't. I'm getting worried about what they have to say about live E.

Some random thoughts; During the period of the operating season that these are the sole Early rides I imagine they will have the guests enter only at the Front Gate and have access to other areas blocked off, flash your pass or ticket to the person near Johnny Rockets to access the open rides. Everyone else gather on the Main Midway until 10:00am National Anthem.

These decisions aren't made willy-nilly, usually financial based. Perhaps since hiring adequate numbers of employees and the wages required to keep them is one factor. Having random rides and park entrance points open requires a lot of logistics, easier to concentrate on the one area early. Also, you hear stories from employees speaking of long long work days and the conditions. This gives them an extra hour of rest in the morning.

Many of y'all have clamored for more "Family Friendly" stuff, here you go. Of course the crazed "coaster only" bunch is upset. Gives them extra time to shower.

There is a resort and a campground to consider- not everyone drives in in the morning. So they’d likely have those guests enter at the Windseeker gate which would allow them easy access to the Boardwalk and the listed rides.
And that’s if this truly is the extent of the early rides.

Conspiracy Theory:

Relating this to Kings Island who has an early entry in "zones" or "areas" of the park, it makes sense (financially) tp only open one area of the park due to security issues.

Last year CP Police dept. was defunded and the Sandusky Police dept. is now in charge of the policing of the point. (please correct me if I am not correct). My theory would be that the Sandusky police are working on a budget as well and do not have the resources to police the entire park for early and late night events. They can handle one small snippit of the park, but not all midways before and after. This would explain the "No rider late nights" and the new early entry list and location.

I wonder if this is true how it will affect Coastermania, even though after last years mess at that event, I dought I would ever attend again.