CoasterMania worth it?

May and early June weekdays and mediocre weather Halloweekend Sundays are good enough ERT for me each year. I guess I have seen the stereotype of entitled enthusiasts in action a few times, and really have no desire to wake up at 4am and be at the park until midnight with a bunch of people I don't know and deal with the stereotypical enthusiast entitlement I have witnessed enough during regular operating hours.

I know there are some great people too and I'm sure I would hit it off with them at park events, but I guess for me the hassle of the early morning and late night hours combined with a group of folks rioting because they aren't pleased with the free stuff the park is giving out isn't worth a few laps on coasters I have already ridden countless times and will ride countless more.

Oh, I used to be one of those people obsessed with getting every last second of ERT...

...no longer. These days I check out the schedule and plan accordingly. I'm all about using ACE events to my advantage: ERT, at reasonable hours; enjoy some free food (and enjoy local diner, drive-ins or dives as well); politely say thank you for any free items the park disperses; enjoy talking to people I know.

So very glad they are charging something, and limiting capacity this year.

I was ashamed to call myself an enthusiast last year (as well as at the 2014 HW Kickoff event which might have been even worse). It's too bad that adults have to act like petulant children when free events don't meet their high standard of expectations.

One rule I live by: when someone offers you free food, say, yes please! Not, gosh, I don't like your offer of free pizza, can't you buy me a chicken salad sandwich instead?

I've never understood the "what you're giving me for free is not good enough" attitude, whether at enthusiast events or elsewhere. My mother used to own a restaurant, so we'd go to food shows (bunch of vendors in a convention hall offering samples of their products) and there would be people complaining about the free samples they were being offered.

I personally like the fact that the park is moving towards more fee based events rather than offering all the free events. Clearly the events that the park offered for free had grown in attendance to where they were taking away from the overall guest experience and became a headache for staff because of a few bad apples. Charging a fee and limiting participation creates a better experience and becomes more manageable.

Having a select few that were chosen to attend the Rougarou media preview made for a great event. The media got their story (primary objective) and were able to interview a some of the enthusiasts to get their point of view. The whole event went well and I didn't personally see any issues that Tony, Brian or the rest of the staff were dealing with. You can say the same thing with the Valravn announcement. They had a very controlled environment at the Jack Aldrich Theatre and the media got to speak with the staff and a few select enthusiasts.

Im curious if the Valravn media event will be structured similar to Rougarou's and they will draw 100 people from Winter Chill Out to attend.