4th of July

I've always planned my trips to the point either early, or

late in the year, when the crowds are lighter. This year,

time off work is limited and we may have to come 4th of

July weekend. Of course, I expect it to be much more crowded.

Could someone fill me in? Is that weekend ungodly packed?

What kind of wait times can I expect for some of bigger 

coasters? I appreciate any help. Thank you.

They're typically open until midnight on 7/4, so you can draw your conclusions from that.

As most people on here point out, it is impossible to predict how crowded the park will be on any given day. I have been there on 4th of July weekend and I can tell you from experience that it is usually very crowded. Wait times for almost everything will be a lot longer than what you are used to earlier in the season. The fireworks display makes it worthwhile to visit on the 4th!!!

This is just a "how it seems" impression (i.e., no numbers to back it up), but it always seems like the weekends immediately before and after the 4th are packed, but the 4th itself isn't so ridiculously busy. If I had to guess, I'd say that midnight closing is designed to stagger the departures from the parking lot. Many locals will pay the parking fee but not enter the park to view the fireworks, so leaving the peninsula on the 4th will take a long time.

With the 4th being a Friday this year it's also harder to say. People will have a long weekend and maybe stay the whole weekend. They may go for a Friday-Saturday combo leaving Sunday less busy than normal. Or they may just go Saturday-Sunday. Who knows. Either way July 1 is my day off so maybe I'll venture my way to the Point then.

Thanks for the input. It's appreciated as always. I have one

more question. Early June is still a possibility for our 

trip. A couple people in our group wanted to spend a little

time at soak city while the rest of us coaster it up. How are

the water temps in early June. I know down here in southern

Indiana all the pools and such are warmed up by then but 

I didn't know about northern Ohio. Is the water still freezing

at that time?

Well, at least half of Soak City is heated...

Half?

I had been told part of it was (east or west, not sure which) heated but the other wasn't.

I went on the forth in 2006 and the place was packed. Three hour lines for MF and Dragster were bad but what killed me was that all the rides in Kiddie Kingdom and Peanuts were packed (my kids were both under 48" that year). Almost no one left the entire night because they waited for the fireworks show (which was spectacular) but it took over an hour just to get off the peninsula. We didn't get back to Brunswick until after 2am and I had to work the next day. Not saying it wasn't worth it, but just plan ahead if you are going to go on the forth, make sure you get a hotel and don't have to work the next day and don't expect to get on a lot of rides.

Yes, it will be busy. We went last year and the lines were long. The kiddy kingdom area wasn't to bad compared to most weekends. Be sure to head down to the beach a little bit early to watch the fireworks, the locals along the chausee(sp?) start setting them off about an hour before the park and they continued for an hour or so after. Leaving was a pain in the arse. it took 2 hoursto get from the soak city lot to the turnpike.

It depends on what day of the week it falls, so Friday and Saturday will be packed. Last year, the 4th was on wednesday, and it wasn't too busy. Actually Monday, (July 2nd) in 2007 was the busiest day around the 4th of July holiday, even busier than the 4th itself.

4th? If the weather is good, then it will be packed.

The 4th is on a Friday this year. It'll definitely be pretty busy. If the weather is nice, expect it to be even more ridiculous.

If I remember correctly, it was the 2nd that was packed last year. Corkscrew's queue was flooding out into the midway, but that could have been partly blamed on the ride's awesome additions back in 2005. ;)

I was there on the 2nd. I don't recall it being that packed. Sure it wasn't a Tuesday in May, but I could imagine worse.

im going for 10 days around the forth of july so that i get to enjoy all of the rides and everything else cp has to offer.

Ten days, good God thats a little overkill if you are only going to CP. You need 2, three days tops. With your extra time may I suggest hitting another park, I see you are from Westerville, so Im assuming you've been to KI before, so Ill suggest you going in a different direction: PA. Kennywood in Pittsburgh is fantastic, and close, Knobles and Hersheypark are a bit further but are equally worth a trip.

ive been to all of those cause im a huge roller coaster fan but i keep goin back to cp because they have the best rides, best atmosphere, but everytime i go for just two days i only hit the roller coasters and i want to hit all of the rides and catch some of their shows that i hear are pretty good.

Still 10 days? I did that once at Disney World, and even with four parks and two waterparks, I felt that I "did" those parks fully and was "done" with them at the end of that vacation. Ive gotten that same feeling at CP, after 3 days, 10 days was the amount of days I spent at the park all season last year. I cant imagine doing 10 days back to back.

Why not break it up, and come back in October for Halloweekends?