CP neophyte, asking a bunch of stupid questions

Hi all! I'm new to the forums and gearing up for my first CP visit. I've been digging through the forums and have found the answers to most of my questions, but I do have a few that I'm hoping you can give me some insight on.

We're visiting the park June 19-21, staying offsite. I've purchased our AP's online and plan on buying Fastlane+ for at least 2 of the 3 days we'll have in-park (using the AP discount in-park for Fastlane).

I'm hoping to park at Shores because we'll be using the waterpark in the afternoon and we'll leave our swimsuits in the car. We'd be arriving in the 8-8:30 am range for 9 am early entry (both parks have 10 am regular opening). Reading here it looks like that parking lot may or may not be open early enough for park early entry, is this correct?

Second question, if Shores parking is open early enough can we park there and then walk to the main entrance using the new Boardwalk pathway? We need to turn our e-tickets into passes and when I emailed CP they said you have to do that at the Main Gate/Season Pass Center.

Last question, I'm wondering if Brew and BBQ is a good deal for a light lunch for a couple of days, but I can't find any info on if those 15 tickets are good for more than one day or if you have to use them all on the same day. Also, how big are the food samples you get with each ticket?

Thanks in advance for your help! (and I can't wait to ride SV!!!)

We just returned from our trip and we had an AWESOME time! Thanks so much for all your help and suggestions.

We ended up just parking in the main parking lot and not doing any waterpark time since the weather was blessedly cool. The Season Pass Center opened at 8:45, I asked them if we could have processed the passes at any other gate and they said we would have been able to enter the park one time with our online receipt but still would have had to visit the Season Pass Center at some point to actually receive our AP card or before using our unlimited drink benefits, so either the Center is unaware of the fact that the Magnum gate can do this, or they were testing something new when Goofy213 was able to actually get an AP card at that gate.

We ended up skipping Brew and BBQ, although it was very tempting neither of us felt like eating or drinking a ton before riding rides - we also didn't want to take time away from the rides! If we lived closer and were planning more trips to the park this summer, we definitely would have done it since the food looked and smelled excellent and the beer selection was really broad.

Anyway, thanks again for all your help!

Season pass center opens plenty early before gates for early entry. Get there and walk back to resort gate along the boardwalk, you cannot park in Shore lot until half hour before it opens.

FYI if you have platinum passes you can upgrade your fastlane to fastlane plus for free, however that may be limited to one time only (it changes how they do it, season pass center will be able to answer over a phone call. )

Also, DO NOT ride SV as your first ride, you will ruin the awesomeness that the other coasters are. Millenium Force must ride is Front Seat left side, it’s quite terrifying your first time.

You'll probably want to park in the front on day one because I think you need to get your passes processed at the season pass center. In fact, you might want to do it that way all three days to get in as early as possible for early entry. The waterpark lot doesn't open until 9:30 so your best bet on days two and three is to park up front and use the boardwalk to get to the back entrance before 9 AM (assuming you want to ride Steel Vengeance). I am not sure if the season pass center will open much before 9 so you might lose a bit of your hour on that first day. Maybe plan to hit Millennium Force and Maverick the first day in the morning and do SV as your last ride. Just hop in the queue right before closing time. Then on days two and three, you can park up front, walk the boardwalk, and get to the back gate before 9 to get to Steel Vengeance the quickest.

As for Brew and BBQ, I don't believe the tickets are good over multiple days, but you can split them among multiple people on the same day. One 15 pack of tickets would probably be a "light" lunch for 5 people. This is especially easy if you don't plan to drink as they won't hassle you about having a wristband to get food. Also, in the past, there has been a cheaper rate (with a free beer from Brew Kettle thrown in) for passholders that buy ahead online. I've been pretty happy with Brew and BBQ and we're making a trip that we might not have otherwise to hit it up.

Now that SV is back on the Fastlane+ list, making it there in our first hour isn't as important (and it sounds like MF/Maverick should be our first rides on our first day). Our main reason for wanting to park at the waterpark is so we'd have our swimsuits nearby rather than the mile-long walk from the front parking lot to the waterpark and back. But from what you're saying, my best option is probably parking in the front lot in the morning then driving the car back to the waterpark in the afternoon when we're ready for a swim break and leaving it there until we leave that evening.

I didn't know they might only allow one Fastlane upgrade per season pass. I'll call tomorrow and see what they say. Hopefully CP phone people are better than stupid Disney World phone people and I get a correct answer!

Thanks for the info on Brew and BBQ, it'll only be two of us so would splitting 15 tickets be enough for lunch and dinner for us, or would that be a crazy amount of food? If it's hot I'm not really into major BBQ gut bomb! Still, at $22 even if we didn't use all the tickets it would still be cheaper than 4 regular meals in the park. I'll check out the online passholder deal too. Free beer is always a good thing!