What is the Longest Queue Time in Theme Park History?

That's a tough question to ask because honestly who keeps track of how long the wait is? However, 6 hours is probably one of the longest if not the longest. The longest I've ever waited was 90 minutes max.

I don't think I could ever wait 6 hours for any ride.The longest I've ever waited was 3.5 for Splash Mountain on a new year's eve.I think the most I would wait for anything now would be like 2 hours.

> I don't know. But the longest line I've ever seen is X
> which reaches 6 hours.

> Is there any line longer?

I'm sorry, but I'm going to call you on this. X at 6 hours? I don't believe it, but please prove me wrong. Just over three hours is the longest I've heard of and that was from someone who actually stood in the line.

Line waits are too often exagerated. When Viper opened in 1990 there were reports around the park of 3-4 hour lines. It was BS. The line was never longer than 75 minutes and was closer to 45 minutes for most of the day. I was there. Same story for opening day of Superman The Escape.

Some of the longest lines I've read about were the opening days of Volcano The Blast Coaster at Paramount's Kings Dominion. That was a botched opening and the lines were terribly long by most accounts. Also, I have heard of very long waits for the S&S launched coaster in Japan.

> That's a tough question to ask because honestly who keeps
> track of how long the wait is? However, 6 hours is probably
> one of the longest if not the longest. The longest I've
> ever waited was 90 minutes max.

I've waited 2 hours for a coaster ride, but now I'd say the longest I'll wait is no more then 90 minutes (if I can control it).

I can't imagine anyone ever waiting 6 hours for a coaster ride that last under 2 minutes (on average). That's just plain silly.
But to each his own.

Joe

Jersey Joe's Coaster Pages

While technically not in line with the question, the longest line I (and others) waited to ride a coaster was ELEVEN hours to ride X-Flight at Geauga Lake (SFWoA). BUT, it was not a normal day, it was for a commercial shoot. For some reason they spent the day shooting close-ups of the "principals" even though they asked for volunteers to fill the train. They gave us ONE ride, just for fun, then sent us home to return the next day.

If you happened to see the commercial they aired, they could have done it with a hand held camera. The special effects they used negated the hours of set up time they used for the 35 MM film cameras!

I think the longest I legitmately waited to ride a coaster in a normal queue line was a little over three hours to ride CP's Magnum in the early days.

Rick

Daffy Klub- The official web site of the Darkride and Funhouse Enhusiasts

The longest I've waited was 4 hours for Dragster on opening day 2003. They only ran three of the six trains and it went down a couple of times too.

I remember reading somewhere that when MF first opened in 2000 the lines would be at least four to five hours with lines that snaked all the way down to Thunder Canyon's entrance. Can anyone confirm this?

G-Dog

I can confirm that when Millennium Force first opened (with one train), lines were ridiculous. The very first weekend had the line down close to Raptor and full queues. Then they switched to have the go back down Frontier land. Lines came close to Thunder Canyon a couple of times. I don't think 4-5 hours was out of the question considering where the lines were and the fact they were only running one train.

After seeing this, I'll never go to Cedar Point on a Saturday if I can possibly avoid it.

Kingda Ka at SFGADV had waits over 4 hours many times this year. I waited 3:50 once.

> Line waits are too often exagerated.

Eric, this fact that the GP often exaggerates wait times truly benefits us. How often have you seen people wait in line ahead of you for 20 minutes or so, then hear some grumbling rumors from the front that the wait is 2 hours, and then the people start getting frustrated and leave the queue?

It is particularly helpful when rides go down. The GP will often leave the line, complaing of hours of down time, when in fact it usually takes around 15 minutes to reset and test the ride. I can't count how many times I have gotten to move up a lot in line position thanks to exaggerations made by people in line.

Just don't lie to people in order to move up in line!

- Pat-O

> I'm sorry, but I'm going to call you on this. X at 6 hours?
> I don't believe it, but please prove me wrong. Just over
> three hours is the longest I've heard of and that was from
> someone who actually stood in the line.

Can't recall which one, but someone's coaster video had a "feature" on the X queue back from opening season on a busy day. When guests exiting the ride were asked how long they had waited to ride, most responded with either 7 or 8 hours. Basically, it sounded as if people got to ride X and maybe one or two other rides in a 10-12 hour day at the park. Fun.

> Line waits are too often exagerated. When Viper opened in
> 1990 there were reports around the park of 3-4 hour lines.

Arrow loopers are incredibly high capacity rides when running 3 trains. They have simplistic restraints making loading/unloading easy. Back when GASM was the big deal at SFGAd, the lines typically maxed at 60-75 minutes, even with the entire queue/queue house full. I've seen photos of Viper's queue from '90 taken from the Sky Tower showing it snaking out of the station and down the hill almost to the carousel. Most locals said it was a 90 min wait from the carousel.

> I was there.
> Same story for opening day of Superman The Escape.

With lower capacity (even when both tracks ran together), I can imagine this one having over 2 hour lines. Didn't the park used to have temporary queues set up all the way down the hill leading down towards Jet Stream?

> Some of the longest lines I've read about were the opening
> days of Volcano The Blast Coaster at Paramount's Kings
> Dominion. That was a botched opening and the lines were
> terribly long by most accounts.

One person told me that he got through nearly half of a 200 page book while waiting for Volcano in '98. With the trains only half the length, you were looking at only 8 riders per train.

It should be noted that personally (and I think many would agree), it isn't neccessarily the queue *length* that is as big a deal as is the capacity of the attraction. In other words, I would much rather wait 2 hours in a line that moves at a good clip than a 90 minute line that crawls.

It seems most rides have a short shelf life as far as having long wait times. There are a few exceptions such as rides like Millennium Force, X, and Nitro. Reasons may be the ride being *that* good, or just never having high capacity, or still having maintanance issues.

On another note, is there a coaster that has kept 60-90 minute wait times longer than any of the Space Mountains? Even though fastpass has inflated the stand by wait time, even without fastpass the wait time would still be in the 45-60 minute range on most days.

-Mark

Be a Pig

Opening day (Season passholders first rides) For Outer Limits Flight of Fear saw a wait of over 8hrs with only one train running, I arrived about 4pm after work and was told the line was closed. The line at that time was at the Skee Ball near the end of Coney Mall.

That night they worked hard on the programing to be able to run two trains and the next day the wait was almost five hours with me and my brother riding twice in 10.5 hours that saw at least three breakdowns each wait.

Yes, I was blown away. even with the OTSRs, I've always loved this ride.

> I'm sorry, but I'm going to call you on this. X at 6 hours?
> I don't believe it, but please prove me wrong. Just over
> three hours is the longest I've heard of and that was from
> someone who actually stood in the line.

> Can't recall which one, but someone's coaster video had a
> "feature" on the X queue back from opening season
> on a busy day. When guests exiting the ride were asked how
> long they had waited to ride, most responded with either 7
> or 8 hours. Basically, it sounded as if people got to ride
> X and maybe one or two other rides in a 10-12 hour day at
> the park. Fun.

Actually, I'm going to have to side with Eric on this one. The longest waits that I heard of for X were around the 4-5 hour mark. Even with visting the park quite often after it opened and hanging around it a bit (I wasn't going to wait in those silly lines), I never heard anyone say they waited anything close to 6-8 hours. Most often it was around 3.

> Line waits are too often exagerated. When Viper opened in
> 1990 there were reports around the park of 3-4 hour lines.

> Arrow loopers are incredibly high capacity rides when
> running 3 trains. They have simplistic restraints making
> loading/unloading easy. Back when GASM was the big deal at
> SFGAd, the lines typically maxed at 60-75 minutes, even
> with the entire queue/queue house full. I've seen photos of
> Viper's queue from '90 taken from the Sky Tower showing it
> snaking out of the station and down the hill almost to the
> carousel. Most locals said it was a 90 min wait from the
> carousel.

That would be about what I waited for it. I don't think we were down quite as far as the carousel, but I distinctly remember waiting past the entire "World's Greatest Coasters" wall, and it was a 90 minute wait to get on. About the longest I've ever waited for a ride, and at the time I would have told you that it was more than worth it. Now I'll wait about 30 for it. :)

> I was there.
> Same story for opening day of Superman The Escape.

> With lower capacity (even when both tracks ran together), I
> can imagine this one having over 2 hour lines. Didn't the
> park used to have temporary queues set up all the way down
> the hill leading down towards Jet Stream?

Yes, it did, though as I recall it rarely went that far. I know that they covered much of the top of the moutain, and I saw it once starting down the moutain- a bit past that first bend in the path. But I agree- I think a lot of that was due to low capacity.

As for the overall record for longest wait time, Top Thrill might have that with the extended waits that people had during it's breakdowns when they first opened it. I heard of enthusiasts waiting 9-10 hours for that, but as for how accurate that is, I don't really know.

> I don't know. But the longest line I've ever seen is X
> which reaches 6 hours.

> Is there any line longer?

I know at SFMM, I saw lines posted for X that said 5 hours. We got in line any way and the wait was less than 3 hours.

Between X and 2.5 to 3 for TTD, that's the longest I've ever waited. I have been in MF's line when it went all the way to the tunnel in frontier land, but I don't recall how long we waited. It wasn't more than 2.5 hours though.

I waited 4 hours for MF on the first Wednesday that it was open in 2000 ? Whatever year it opened, lol.

The line did snake into Frontier Land....

> I've waited 2 hours for a coaster ride, but now I'd say the
> longest I'll wait is no more then 90 minutes (if I can
> control it).

Joe: I'm with you. I've pulled right out of the parking lot at SFGAdv just based on the number of cars. On those heavy days, Nitro could be 2 hours easily.

Anyway, the longest I've heard of was 8 hours for Indana Jones at DL when it first opened. I personnally didn't wait, so I'm sure it was exagerated, but the line snaked through the park with various monitored crossing areas.

You would have to be nuts to blow your entire day on line.

Frank

> Opening day (Season passholders first rides) For Outer
> Limits Flight of Fear saw a wait of over 8hrs with only one
> train running, I arrived about 4pm after work and was told
> the line was closed. The line at that time was at the Skee
> Ball near the end of Coney Mall.

> That night they worked hard on the programing to be able to
> run two trains and the next day the wait was almost five
> hours with me and my brother riding twice in 10.5 hours
> that saw at least three breakdowns each wait.

I remember its opening year (not even opening day) riders exiting OL/FOF reported a three hour wait. We didn't even bother riding it until the next year.

Longest wait I've personally experienced was SOB's re-opening day. After waiting I think four hours total on opening day (you were there a couple trains ahead of me, Chuck) ... as I recall it was an hour waiting for the park to open, two hours for the ride to open then another hour waiting for my ride on the eighth train out, single trian operation.

The next morning they shut it down for a month, then when it re-opened the following month I waited six hours for them to actually start running trains. It finally opened around 3PM.

Never again!

> I don't know. But the longest line I've ever seen is X
> which reaches 6 hours.

> Is there any line longer?

I rode Top Thrill Dragster twice on opening day. The first was the second train out, front row, as one of the Red Cross riders.
I immediately ran around and had a two hour wait for my second ride. When I got off I saw a huge line.

I heard a radio announcer, broadcasting live, who said: "Top Thrill Dragster is the world's tallest coaster and the world's fastest coaster, and it has the world's longest line for a roller coaster, now estimated to be six and a half hours!"

" Is that 6 1/2 hours right?" I asked Robin Innes, who was standing nearby? "Yup" he said.

My longest wait for a coaster was 3 hours on opening day for Son of Beast. Had another wait of 3 hours the following AM, 2 hours in line for it to open and 1 hour to get on. 15 minutes after I got off the ride went down for several weeks!

Roz

Chuck, how long are the waits now for SOB??

Now as for waits, I'm like most, two hours is my max! The longest I've ever waited was probably Raptor on the third year of operation(1996) and as it was around 6 in the evening, the line was close to 1 and a half, not long for some, but it was for me(that was my first ride on it.)

When I was at Da Point last month, Millie's queue had snaked right out onto the midway, as well as MaXair's.

Tim.

I personally have waited on line for X for a little under four hours, but that was right around holiday break. The longest I have seen was Kindga Ka, where on the second to last day the park was open this season, the line was about eight hours. For anyone who is familiar with the park, the line was so long it went past the tiger exhibit and was about 50 feet from the enterance of The Great American Scream Machine. I still can't see how someone would wait eight hours for a 50 second ride...

> I don't know. But the longest line I've ever seen is X
> which reaches 6 hours.

> Is there any line longer?

When Disneylamd opened Indiana Jones in 1995, I timed my wait in line at just over 4 hours. The line stretched all the way to Coke Corner on Main St! Disney had cast members dressed up in Adventure Land garb attempting to entertain folks in line by telling jokes and poking fun at people. I was there that day with a mentally handicapped friend who was told by a cast member that only 4 of 5 people who ride Indiana Jones survive to tell the tale...Scared her to death!!!

I don't really believe a line could get six hours long, but i guess it's possible. The very first day we went to Cedar Point Park, at about 10:00 in the morning, the line for TTDragster was close to 2 hours already and later in the day, it was much longer. We rarely ever saw the wait time for Millenium Force below 1 1/2 hours. The average was about 2 - 3 hours each day we went and we didn't even go on a weekend. i can't imagine what it would be like on a saturday. wow!

> I don't really believe a line could get six hours long, but
> i guess it's possible. The very first day we went to Cedar
> Point Park, at about 10:00 in the morning, the line for
> TTDragster was close to 2 hours already and later in the
> day, it was much longer. We rarely ever saw the wait time
> for Millenium Force below 1 1/2 hours. The average was
> about 2 - 3 hours each day we went and we didn't even go on
> a weekend. i can't imagine what it would be like on a
> saturday. wow!

Please,

for the sanity of all on this board,

for crying out loud,

for pete's sake,

for the love of god,

Quit calling the place Cedar Point Park ! ! !

Its just Cedar Point]/b] ! ! ! ! ! !

-Gary

Thank you very much....

;)