Urgent weather help and advice. Tomorrow or Thursday?

Hey guys, long story short, my group travelled from Florida to CP and got a two day ticket. We went today, now trying to decide whether to go to the park tomorrow or Thursday, flying back Friday. The problem is, tomorrow is no chance of rain but will probably be extremely hot and croweded, just like today was. Thursday is 40% chance of rain with isolated t-storms. We figure, if it most likely won't rain the whole day and rides will likely be open, it would be much better to go Thursday. Probably a LOT less crowded, and cooler. But if it rains all day and nothing is open we're screwed. What should we do? When they say 40% chance of rain and t-storms, will it happen? Best to avoid the park or go on that day? There is still a lot we want to do. Need advice from CP regulars!

If I were you, I would definately go on the day that they are calling for rain. Last Wednesday I woke up and it was pouring. By noon the sun was out, and almost all of the rides were walk ons.

It did sprinkle here and there, but about 15 minutes after it stopped raining all of the coasters were up and running again. When the rain stops and the coasters are still down, it is a great time to ride all of the carnival rides.

We also caught one of the last rides on Magnum, before they shut it down because of the rain. As they were sending us off they said, "Enjoy your sprinkles." At first it wasn't too bad, but then we were getting pelted. It made a pretty hilarious ride. :) You must give it a try. lol.

40% chance rain, I would say if it does rain, it will not be all day long. Plus if it is hot outside, rain is a good way to cool off without wasting your time on the water rides. It also means a lot of walk ons. :)

If it did happen to rain all day long, there are a lot of other things you can do. You can see all of the shows, or you can tour the museum.

You can also check out all of the really cool shops along frontier trail. I have always wanted to do that. But I do not get to CP a lot, so I spend my time riding the coasters.

You are right about it being packed on a hot day. Not only will the lines be long, but you will be walking around all day in the heat. If you do go on the hot day, make sure you take advantage of the free ice water. ;) The Wave Swinger is also a great way to cool off and relax. It is the "swings" ride, back by Maverick.

Have fun! :)

I checked the weather for Thursday and it says 60% chance of rain. I really don't know what you should do. The weather a CP is kind of strange to predict it could say sunny skies and it rains, or it could say rain all day and be sunny and hot! I would probably go Wednesday (Tomaorrow) which is looking to be a beautiful day! It maybe a bit hot, but you are from FLA and you should be pretty use to it :-) The crowd will most likely be moderate but it shouldn't be too bad? You can look for me there too :-)

Well you could always buy a two day pass and hit Soak City when the park gets too crowded/hot tomorrow and then come back on Thursday...

They already have a 2 day pass, and used one day up. If you traveled from Florida to visit Cedar Point, I definately would not waste a day on Soak City. But that is just my opinion.

You dont have to waste the whold day, but come 1pm when its 90+ degrees and the lines are 2+ hours long for the major rides it sure is nice to take a 2-3 hour brake and hit the water park before coming back in and riding again at night.

For those of us who get to Cedar Point once a year, 2 to 3 hours is a long time. I would rather be spending in on coasters, than in the water park. This is why I am glad that they added the new interactive fountain. No line for that to cool down. :)

I do agree with if you have more time, and it is a hot day...2 to 3 hours would be a great break at SC. Especially relaxing in the lazy river.

I dont know even when I only went 2-3 times a year, come the midday heat I was there. You are not going to get much riding in then anyways, the lines are at their longest from 1-3 in the afternoon.

Hmmm, two contradicting opinions. :(. We'd really prefer to go Thursday if possible (in the park from 9:30am-10pm today, and wiped out). Anyone else have a thought?

In Ohio, and at CP specifically, you might as well throw the weather forecast out the window. Many times it seems a forecast of rain produces a nice sunny day, while a forecast for a rain free day could produce torrential storms. I know that doesn't help answer your question, but you should have fun regardless of what day you go and what happens.

I agree! I know that I went last Wednesday and after it poured for the first hour, it really turned onto a nice day! Also in Ohio, the best way to know what the weather will be doing is to look out the window! I remember last summer my son and I went up to the point and there was no chance of rain...well when we were going up the hill of the Magnum, there was a downpour that left us soaked! So you never know, either way its fun!

Unfortunately, FLGirl, my opinion is go Wednesday!!

Crowds one day have zero bearing on the next!! Also, the weather lately has been flaky and as you know with FL humidity (like it is now in OH) the atmosphere is really unstable and storms can easily pop up and stay up!

Rides down due to weather will cancel out (potential) extra line queueing on Weds...my advice as a semi-reg, go today!!

So, just in case anyone was curious, we did decide to go yesterday and I think that was a great decision, as it did storm a lot this evening. This morning when we woke up it was sunny and we were like aw, crap... but it definitely worked out for the better. Thanks everyone for the advice!

^I think I might have been in the MF station when you were there. The ride op was asking where everyone was from and she said someone was from Florida.

FLGirl, glad to know Weds worked out!!

Of course, just a little bit further south the weather was a lot better yesterday unexpectedly, but I hope your CP trips were great and you definitely seem like a pretty cool park goer to boot!!

I know you mentioned SFOG before, but have you or will you ever go to any other non-South parks?? Great Adventure is sweet if you've never been on El Toro, and X2 at Magic Mountain is awesome as well!

I was @ the park yesterday and they evacuated Soak City @ about 5:20pm due to the yellow skies and jet black clouds rolling in. Within a good 10/15 minutes, it was POURING DOWN rain non stop.

I was safe inside the Good Time Theater, and I could hear the rain pounding on the roof. Security was moving people along nicely. Even by 7pm, it was still raining when I went to the Centennial Theater.

By 8pm, the park had emptied. I was on the Causeway and had to pull over because the hail was so intense. As I drove down Rte 250 and all through downtown Sandusky, there were tree branches everywhere. The wind picked up and it got pretty chilly at night.

Dvo said:
^I think I might have been in the MF station when you were there. The ride op was asking where everyone was from and she said someone was from Florida.

Oh, maybe! That did happen a couple times, can't remember which rides though. It's pretty cool how friendly the ride ops at CP are...

Ryan Mahaffey said:
I was @ the park yesterday and they evacuated Soak City @ about 5:20pm due to the yellow skies and jet black clouds rolling in. Within a good 10/15 minutes, it was POURING DOWN rain non stop.

I was safe inside the Good Time Theater, and I could hear the rain pounding on the roof. Security was moving people along nicely. Even by 7pm, it was still raining when I went to the Centennial Theater.

By 8pm, the park had emptied. I was on the Causeway and had to pull over because the hail was so intense. As I drove down Rte 250 and all through downtown Sandusky, there were tree branches everywhere. The wind picked up and it got pretty chilly at night.

Wow.... thanks for the confirmation that we did the right thing. I'm so glad we weren't there then! We kinda thought the park had emptied because we tried to eat at the Friday's on the corner around 8, and it was PACKED. We figured everybody left the park and went to eat...

tigellinus said:
FLGirl, glad to know Weds worked out!!

Of course, just a little bit further south the weather was a lot better yesterday unexpectedly, but I hope your CP trips were great and you definitely seem like a pretty cool park goer to boot!!

I know you mentioned SFOG before, but have you or will you ever go to any other non-South parks?? Great Adventure is sweet if you've never been on El Toro, and X2 at Magic Mountain is awesome as well!

:)

Hmm... we ended up driving east a ways and it seemed like the storm was worse out towards Cleveland, more so than Sandusky, but we still saw a lot of lightning. We never went south though. Where in Ohio are you from?

Heheh... I am a major theme park addict, there's no place I don't want to go to. CP is the furthest I've traveled thus far (it was sort of like my dream vacation destination ever since I heard of it, so it was first on my list... I know it's going to be hard to top though!) I've been to all the Florida parks, SFOG, and the Busch Gardens in Williamsburg (but that was when I was a kid). Great Adventure is probably my next choice. As good as CP? I'm curious to see how Kingda Ka compares to TTD. El Toro looks very cool... I think I'd like a wooden coaster with the steel tracks better than I like "real" wooden coasters... I want to go to MM someday although I haven't heard many favorable things about it. Not sure if it would be worth it...

Have you ever been to the Fl parks? I hate to admit that they somewhat pale in comparision to CP in terms of rides, but they have their good points...

I technically "live" in Indianapolis, but for my job I spend extended periods of time in Cincinnati and Los Angeles. In fact, my Cincy office is right across the interstate from Kings Island and my LA office is very close to Knott's Berry Farm!

I've only really started traveling to parks and going to parks a lot starting in 06 when my apartment in Cincy overlooked KI's skyline and I started going there a ton! But for the past two winters now I've gone down to Florida for week around MLK to go to Busch Gardens Africa and Universal and SeaWorld...since you're from Tampa, my mom and step dad and sister live in Bradenton, so I can make a fam visit out of it too! Haha :) I'm just waiting for the Rockit coaster to open at USF to go back down there.

I've been to MM a lot since 07 and with the exception of only a couple small things (that could happen at any park) each visit has been great with no problems!! Once Shapiro took over SF he cleaned up the parks, and I heard it was bad before then, but not now. Also, TTD is vastly superior to KK, but it's still something to experience. I hear what you're saying about wood coasters (not too big on them myself), but I think your opinion would change some if you got on some Gravity Group ones (The Voyage) or newer GCI's (Thunderhead)...they're a far cry from Mean Streak!

Anyway, I hope you post your CP TR soon!