Labor day crowds?

Just curious how crowded labor day weekend tends to be at the park. Last year we went to Soak City and we couldn't even find parking, but it was also 90 degrees and the perfect day for a water park. I'm entertaining the idea of heading up there this weekend for Passholder Appreciation, but if it's nuts like 4th of July I might pass... trying to figure out a strategy :) (Sat vs, Monday, etc).

Thanks!

I think you can expect pretty big crowds. In general holiday weekends are probably busier than most regular weekends. This weekend is my last chance to go for the season. I already have Fast Lane passes for Saturday and I'm planning to arrive early because I'm expecting it to be very busy. I don't think I would want to go without Fast Lane.

I've never been to the park on Labor Day weekend though, so maybe someone else has better input.

And everything I've read says the opposite... It tends to be slow to moderately busy. Guess we will find out, heading to Sandusky Friday-Monday. Of course I'm sure it's nothing like Columbus Day Weekend (which I usually go to CP for as well)!

Interesting. We will find out soon enough. I certainly hope your estimate is better than mine.

I've been to the park on Labor Day before and crowds weren't too bad. I don't think I waited any more than 30 minutes for any major ride.

We went the Sunday of Labor Day weekend last year and it was very busy. Trying Monday this year. The fact that the park is only open until 8 on Monday should tell you something about the expected crowd.

Glad this question was asked. I am coming up from Virginia (roughly 6 1/2 hours), and have been debating between Saturday and Monday. problem with Monday is the next day is a school day, so even if I get their for early entry (which requires leaving at 2:30am), would probably only get 5 hours at the park before I would need to leave. 13 hours on the road vs 5 hours at the park is not a good ratio....but it's last chance to get up there, and I probably won't be back until 2018, but then again if Saturday is crowded, I'd rather ride everything in a shorter period Monday than get the same amount of rides over an 8-9 hour period on Saturday. I guess shoot for Monday for the lighter crowds?

Although my son is advocating the slightly shorter 6 hour ride to Carrowinds as we've never been there, and they might get rained out this weekend cause of that tropical storm hitting Florida on Thursday. No interest in KD, been there enough this year.

In my opinion Saturday and Sunday are generally very busy. They are also offering passholder bring a friend tickets for those days, which usually increases crowd level quite a bit. Labor Day Monday is usually moderate to tolerable crowds.

Jwig, with a short time frame to be in the park, if Fastlane Plus is in our budget I would do it. Especially if you wont be back until 2018 at the earliest.

Sunday's generally aren't too bad. That's the day I typically go on many of my visits. With the exception of holiday weekends and peak season, the worst lines are about an hour on Sunday's for TTD, Valravn and Maverick.

thanks wolf bob. Fast lane plus may be an option. And since the latest weather report seems as if Caro winds might now be a complete washout, may Monday with a fast past for one last hurrah might be the way to go. Sundays are out, although I guess I could drive up Sunday afternoon, get some late night ride time, then Monday AM and then roll out.

Then I'll be back in 2018 to stay at the new breakers tower, check the beach, and ride whatever becomes of

Thabto, I would agree Sundays are usually the day to go. We usually end up going almost exclusively on Sundays unless we are there for an entire weekend. With the holiday though, Labor Day Sunday is just like a Saturday. Last year it was the single busiest day I was at the park for, and that included a Saturday in late October. It was one of those days where even Mean Streak had over an hour wait.

If you're spending a full day, Sunday is where it's at, but Friday nights can't be beat, either. Especially once the weather gets chilly. Oh, I'm getting excited for fall fridays :)

So sounds like Labor Day WEEKEND is on the busier side of the spectrum but Labor DAY is more tolerable. Add gorgeous weather and this could be interesting...

To summarize, Saturday, and Sunday will be busy for obvious reasons. Three day weekend, last chance before school, etc. Monday of Labor Day weekend is typically a good day simply because everyone has work AND school the next day.

I'll be there tomorrow 9am through some time Sunday. My wife and I will be staying at a Lighthouse Point cabin. (Birthday gift from wife as today is my Birthday.)

I expect tomorrow morning to be light until some time after 5pm. Saturday will be target of opportunities. Sunday will be until I have had my fill.

Happy birthday! The Cabins rock and are a great place to stay. There are shuttle call stations by the pool and the registration desk, it can be a long walk after a long day in the park. The 'private' bathrooms by the laundromat/pool are great as well and cleaned often.

Went last year on Labor Day weekend. Can't remember sat or sun. It was extremely crowded. I used my renewal FL+ which made it tolerable.

Anybody have a report yet from this weekend?

One of my friends was there Saturday said it wasn't bad no lines over an hour. I was there today and holy crap...waited an hour on the chausee to get in, people were parked on the grass. We did manage to find a spot at SC when someone pulled out. On the way around Perimeter Rd we could see Blue Streak had what was probably an hour wait and it never looked any better before we left. The line for Mean Streak was solid through the structure until at least the turn. Rumor has it that it made it close to the 2 hour mark at one point but I can't confirm that. I would have left a lot earlier if we didn't have my son's friend with us after he invited himself but we were able to ditch him with other family members of his that had come to the park separately so we could work our way out before close. It took over half an hour to get out of the lot and through the line on the chausee turning onto 6 and the lot was nowhere near cleared out when we left I'm guessing it only got worse. Glad we didn't wait until close. At least we got our last SC trip in but other than that it was one of our least successful trips. It would have been easier to make the best of it without someone elses kid in tow.

I survived my three days in a row. As expected I got most of my riding in on Friday due to the lighter crowd. But did not get on Gatekeeper. It was down all day (until very late in the day) due to a lift hill mechanical issue. I was so wiped out by Friday night that I forgot about the season pass appreciation ERT from 10 - 11. I left for the Lighthouse Point cabin at 9:30pm.

Saturday was very crowded. Around mid day my daughter and I went back to the cabin and spent a couple hours in the pool. We went back into the park in the 5pm hour and lines were still long. So, we went to Famous Dave's for dinner. After dinner we rode non coaster rides since lines were still long. For season pass appreciation ERT we parked ourselves on Raptor. We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 rides during this time!!!!

Sunday, WOW!!!! The crowds were immense! The only coasters (rides period) I rode were from 9am - 10:30am. The consisted of Valravn, Millennium Force, standing in line for Maverick before exiting due to its usual wake up issue after having actually worked at first), Skyhawk at 10am (they were allowing two cycles in a row until a line appeared-which happened quickly), and finally Magnum.

Lighthouse point check-out is at 11am. Thus, headed back to cabin to pack the cars and check out. So, shortly after 11am I parked in the Soak City lot and was about 4 rows back already!

I finally left the park at 1:30. The only thing I road in those 2.5 hours between 11 and 1:30 were benches! The sea of people coming in was amazing. When I left at 1:30 the inbound traffic was at a standstill as the main lot was already full and the bay side lot was 3/4th full. Traffic was backed up in all toll booth lanes back to the last curve before the booths.

From the report my bro-in-law gave me last evening when he arrived LATE in the day, it sounds like the crowds never left.

I checked the webcam at 10:45 last night and it appeared that Valravn's regular line was still being 'processed' while the ERT line had formed out on the midway.

I bet today will be busy but not like Saturday or yesterday.