Friday, October 19th a bust

Thought we would try testing out a Friday during Halloweekends. We usually go on Sunday but last year my son (who is 12) was too old for a lot of the kid activities during the day. He's at that weird in between age so we thought why not try a Friday as the myth is that it's less busy- NOT the case for this particular Friday.

Entered through the chaussee and traffic was backed up at 5:15. I thought that was a bad sign but my husband reminded me that everyone is entering at the same time so that will happen. Got in line for Steel Vengeance, really wanted one more ride this season. The wait was 45 min and after 20 minutes in line the ride broke down for mechanical reasons :( Waited another 15 min and bailed. Headed over to the Mine Ride and waited 25 min even though the wait time said 5 min. My son and friend rode the swings and then there was literally nothing to do in that area until 8pm. By this time, Maverick had a 120 min wait, and the haunts didn't open until 8. We got in line for the Freakshow haunted house and just stood there until the attraction opened. After that, we had fun walking through frontiertown, but waits for most rides were super long.

Headed to Gatekeeper which said 45 min wait and I knew that wasn't the case based on the way the line looked. Waited about 20 min and got a good ride in. Son went on Max Air and someone got sick so they waited about 45 min for that.

Hoping to get one more trip in as it wasn't the best experience for our last trip of the season. My question is I'm wondering why all of the wait times are off. I can understand that the app isn't updated, but even the line queue signs were incorrect. For some of the haunts it said 0 minute wait but you could tell it was 45 min. Maybe they want people to go to haunts vs rides?

After 6 hours we got in 2 haunted houses (freakshow and bayou), and 5 rides: Mine Ride, Swings, Max Air, Gatekeeper and Magnum.

I think I'll stick to Sundays from now on during halloweekends, and much prefer using our passes during the early season. Going to miss CP during the off season!

Ride times on Saturday seemed all correct - CLOSED. 😜

Friday was the first time I ever used the app for ride times (just got a new phone) and it had GateKeeper marked as 5 minutes for quite some time after we had waited probably15 minutes and then a bit more while they added the third train by the time we got off there were multiple queues filled but half an hour later the app still said 5 minutes. I don't really understand why they waited instead of adding the third train earlier. Surely someone in management had to be aware of the causeway being completely full with all toll lanes open and could have taken that as a hint to go for all three trains from the get go but whatever...the evening was a bust in some ways but wasn't horrible. We were supposed to have the four of us plus my mom and brother using our free friend tickets from renewing but the night before son #1 tells me at parent teacher conferences he thinks he's coming down with something 5am Friday my husband texts me that he's looking for coverage to come home early because he's tossing his cookies. Son #1 says his head hurts when he moves it when I wake him Friday up so I just leave him in bed. As we're leaving for school son #2 asks to take something for a headache but wants to go to school because he has two tests. At this point I'm questioning how many of us will be fit enough o go to the park by the end of the school day. Luckily two of us were still OK so I had enough passes being used to get mom and bro in for free which is good because we didn't get to ride much of anything either or even go through any of the houses. Blood on the Bayou seemed strangely empty when we walked through it. There was practically nobody ahead of us and it seemed like there were more security personnel than screamsters. The witch doctor was off the path talking to another employee instead of doing his thing which was kind of disappointing because I know my mom would have found him really amusing. We also hit Cut Throat Cove. We only got in Maxair, GateKeeper, Blue Streak, and Pipe Scream for rides but my brother is limited in what he can ride because of his back and my mom found that up and down now bothers her as much as round and round so she was one ride and done anyway. At least we weren't wet like the week before. Son #2 was pointing out the low water pressure in some places and some water fountains not working so I was a bit concerned we might not even get an entire night at one point but then after we ate out funnel cakes and walked back up front it was midnight already. I'm really hoping for next weekend to be decent so we can get one more good family trip in it just feels like it's going to be a long off season. I'm planning to be there for closing day fingers crossed...