Gatekeeper ERT

Someone explain to me how these platinum ERTs are actually perks. My son and I decided to do the Gatekeeper one (our first) on Friday and when we got to the line, there were at least 300 people in line. It was nearly as bad as it was on opening day. I was under the impression that there would be a chance to ride it at least a few times, but holy crap no such luck of that.

Since we were there for Sat also, we simply bailed and rode it during the early time the next morning.

So my question, were we just unlucky, or are they all like this?

What does it matter? You got a chance to ride after the park closed, with a much shorter wait than you would have during the day.

Besides, if there were 300 people, and the ride moves even 1200-1500 people per hour, that gives you at least 3 or 4 rides, should you choose to do so.

The line for the platinum pass ride nights usually looks long at first before the ride session. Once they open it for the hour the line isn't bad and goes fast. We were there for the Gatekeeper ride night on Friday and rode it 4 times in the hour.

We got 3 rides in on Friday night even though it was only running 2 trains. I'd say that is a pretty nice perk.

We had two rides on Gatekeeper, that after not getting there until 9:45 or so because we had spent most of the ERT in Maverick's line. It seems it's never really a half hour and over anytime posted.

Earlier we had checked Millennium and it was down, then went to Magnum, which had no queue line at all and as we were next on the platform, it went down with the people on the lift hill.

We got 4 rides in during the ERT hour and 1 right before.

e x i t english said:
What does it matter? You got a chance to ride after the park closed, with a much shorter wait than you would have during the day.

Seems like an obvious question. It matters because he wants to know if they are all like this so he can decide to go or not go to future Platinum ERT. Granted, getting to ride after close is definitely a perk, as you pointed out.

A better question is probably: was the line really longer during the day? Because often the line has been less than 20 minutes at around 6PM on a lot of days this summer.

I was at CP on Wednesday and went on GK at around 430 PM and it was nearly a walk on. I walked right up to the station and had only one person in line ahead of me. I could easily have gotten 5-6 rides in an hour. I don't know what the line was like prior to closing Friday, but according to the webcam, the parking lot was not that full and just a little more than it was Wednesday. So I can imagine that the line may have been pretty short toward the end of the day.

The ERT's that I attended ended up being as crowded or more crowded than just being in the park during normal hours. One year in May (2012 I think) we went up for MF ERT. We headed to the ride about an hour before close and there was a 5 minute wait (or less) and the gate was open at times. We rode 7x in a row prior to the ERT session and 1x during ERT. The line went from near nothing before the park closed to a 10-15 minute wait shortly after the ERT started, i.e. the line was much longer during ERT than when the park was open so we decided to call it a day and headed home. I don't know how long the line was after we left. We don't bother with the ERT's anymore except for the session in May.

Anyone else have experiences with midsummer platinum ERT's?

We did Maverick and Dragster once each last summer. Pretty much just like GK was on Friday, crowded at the start and not crowded towards the end. I think most people are there to get 1-2 rides and then they head home. Basically it's hit and miss on the crowd but like has already been said, it's still an extra hour to ride when the park is closed to everyone that's not a platinum pass holder.

Thanks Bret! Maybe I'll hit the summer ERT's next year.

Lol I had a feeling the line would get long so we went and rode it before ERT at 8:40 or so... Waited about ten minutes for front row. After, we went to Raptor, rode front and came back at about 9:10 roughly... The line was not open yet and stretched somewhere down by Wicked Twister. We just left. We figured it would not even be worth it, considering the line was shorter before.

BTW, the bugs were terrible Friday night in the front... Oy. Every low zone you practically had to cover your face. Not that enjoyable lol