Ever "done a Griswold"?

[caffeine_demon]

Just in case you don't get the movie tie in, doing a Griswold is when you make a trip to a theme park, only to find it closed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtyrDZG-eDo

The closest I've been is Monte Igueldo - I'd mailed the park to double check opening hours, as I'd heard they can tend to close rides until the evening - and the reply was "yes everything will be open from 11-9 (or something similar)" - arrived after a 4 hour train ride, at about 1pm - and EVERYTHING was shut except for a couple of bars - the coaster did open at about half 2, but we didn't get on any of the other cruddy looking rides there!

How about you?

 

[gavin]

Parque de Attracwhatever in Madrid had everything except the drop tower closed when I went, all because it had been raining a couple of hours earlier. I kicked up a stink and got my money back, but was still pissed off.

Jake and I took a taxi to some park in Amman, Jordan, which I can't remember the name of and can't be arsed to check, which was closed when we got there. We half expected it though.

I would've found everything closed if I'd arrived at Happy Valley a few hours later than I did a few weeks ago. A group of guys who arrived at completely the wrong time asked me if I'd managed to ride anything; they'd been on **** all despite paying full price to get in.

 

[Peter]

Me, Rach, Stone Cold and Sue turned up at Sommerland Sjælland in Denmark on a weekday in June earlier this year. We found the park whilst googling bonus credits in a pub the night before we flew out, checked the opening dates and tried to adjust our plans to fit it in. We drove an hour out of our way to get to it, only to find that the park was only open midweek in July rather than June! Much disappointment as lost credits ensued. :cry:

I also went to Happy Valley Beijing, which whilst still open, none of the rides were! We flew out to China a couple of days early to fit the park in, turned up and paid our entry fee. Only once we were in the park did we realise that they were doing some sort of winter weekend dates and only a handful of kiddie rides were open - no credits for me, so we ran off to the zoo to look at the pandas instead.

And Dan, I think you're forgetting Coney Island! After having our hire cars towed for illegal parking in New York city, we headed over to Brooklyn for the credits. Having got the metro all across New York, we found that the park was to be closed for the day due to the weather, despite the fact that it was dry and sunny for the remainder of the afternoon.

Then there was Quassy too, which we turned up to about an hour before closing to find the place dead and shut up. They had all gone home early due to the weather and lack of peeps.

 

[insanecoastervids]

Almost just last month we were going to go to Knott's on a Tuesday but everyone was tired so we went on a Friday and then I noticed that it was closed on Tuesday's.

 

[marc]

Ever "done a Griswold"?

Sort of and sort if not. When we went to the German live we got to Trips just as they shut the queue line for their new woodie we ran the whole park until we got there.

Joey myself and mark all went under the rope and pleaded with the ride op, he let us on.

We stayed on until the rest of the group had got on it, the park then started taking pictures of us on there. We managed to keep the ride open for about 30 mins extra lol.

 

[caffeine_demon]

Good grief - How could I forget coney and quassy - I was thinking of adding the toro spite buit decided not to as the rest of the place was open!

 

[Jarrett]

Just about did it when we rolled into Pigeon Forge to find it raining buckets and couldn't go to the park in that weather. Luckily it cleared up and we were able to walk on Wild Eagle.

And it's become a family tradition that every time we get to a theme park, someone has to say, "Oh, hey, the park's closed, the moose at the front should've told ya!" because of that one visit.

 

[CanobieFan]

Ugh, the first time I ever went to La Ronde......
Drove some 5+ hours and crossed the US/Canada country line, just to find the park closed. Drove all the way back home that same day.. having only spent maybe 2 hours in Canada (and then drove back AGAIN that weekend, when the park was opened)

D'oh! Went to the park on 8/29 the first day the park was closed during a summer weekday. I know, bad planning on my part. I guess I had looked at the wrong week when checking their hours online. But I took it with great amusement and a face-palm or two.
http://www.coasterwiki.org/pics/la_rond ... e00003.jpg
http://www.coasterwiki.org/pics/la_rond ... e00008.jpg

But its all good, four days later I was back in Canada at a now open La Ronde, yaayyy
http://www.coasterwiki.org/pics/la_rond ... e00003.jpg

 

[rollermonkey]

The whole park closed because I didn't check ahead?

Never that I can recall.

The whole park closed despite the website indicating it should be open?
Absolutely.
Rakutenchi was supposed to be open the day I visited. Nope.
Wild Zone Adventures was open the day I visited. But not until 5PM, which was 4 hours after I got there.
A couple others too, but I can't recall which ones.

Rides closed despite the park being ostensibly open?
Fuji-Q takes that prize. They shut rides for: fog, rain, cold, wind, snow, hangnail, hiccups, whatever.

 

[Edward M]

I was at my Aunt's House in North Carolina. My cousins knew I loved roller coasters so they suggested I go to a place called Ghost Town in the Sky. So, my dad and I drove about 45 minutes to Ghost Town in the Sky only to find out that the place was closed. However, I did get a magnet at the gift shop that was open, for some reason :?

 

[gavin]

I forgot about Seoul Dreamland.

I'd been there before with a couple of friends, pre-CF, and managed to ride everything. Well, what little there was anyway. Even then it was crap, we were done after an hour and headed over to Lotte World instead.

I went back a couple of years later to take some pictures and create a park guide. The park was open, but none of the rides were operating except some crappy spinning flat ride thing, and one of the coasters had since been ripped down with only the station and footers remaining.

I did a trip report on it, but I can't be arsed to troll through and find it. I think most of the image links will be broken by now anyway.

It closed down for good shortly afterwards.

 

[Ian]

I once went down to Clarence Pier one Sunday in Novemeber thinking it would be open. It wasn't. Interesting story.

 

[Mike]

Some pizza restaurant in Las Vegas was supposed to have a cred still in operation according to RCDB, but when we drove past it was just a derelict building.

Never for an actual theme park though.

 

[TilenB]

This February (or was it already March) I was in Lisbon. I went to visit Centro Colombo where FEC called Funcenter was said to be located. I walked around the whole complex and found nothing that would even hint where the thing should be located. Then I asked some locals who confirmed that the park has closed some 2 months before my visit.

I still found it quite weird that none of the enthusiast webpages nor rcdb knew about the closure...

 

[gavin]

^They only know if someone goes to these places and tells them.

 

[TilenB]

^ I know, I was just surprised that I was the first to find out about it...
After all, it's still the capital of an EU member that we're talking about, not some quirky Asian place that very few people travel too...

 

[gavin]

Re: Ever "done a Griswold"?

True, but Portugal isn't really on the coaster map. Most enthusiasts would never go near Lisbon because they're cultureless morons who won't go anywhere without "creds".

There's probably a market for a decent park near the Algarve actually.

 

[10WaTT]

The only 2 times I can think of are Wicksteed Park and Megasteelsplat (sp?).
Wicksteed said it was open, but when I arrived just the grounds were open. Not a big failure really as it was only an hour from home.

Megasteelsplat was open but the woman on the desk wanted to close and wouldn't let us in real quick to have a go on the coasters.

 

[Howie]

Just been looking for some old topics to dredge up and found this one.
The answer is a resounding yes.
Except it wasn't Wally World it was Walibi World.
Trekked halfway across Holland - 3 trains and a taxi ride from Amsterdam to Biddinghuisen, got as far as the car park before we realised. If there'd been a moose statue at the gate, I'd have punched it. Had to get the taxi man to take us back into to town to that nearby Fishlife centre thing. Gutted.
It was a Monday.
Park was only open weekends that time of year.
Well, we kinda lost track of time on that holiday. Amsterdam does that you ;-)

Luckily, second time around I laid off the weed a bit and was compos mentis enough to check the calendar beforehand, hence why Goliath still resides in my top 10

 

[Pink Cadillac]

^ This is so weird. I decided to choose Amsterdam as I wanted to do two parks near(ish) by. As my last trip abroad was an absolute disaster I was determined to go somewhere close to home and not **** it up. I swear I looked at the calendar but being the stupidest person of all time has meant that I found out only yesterday that Walibi only open at weekends in September. I might work out better in the end as they are building a Mack coaster next year which has the potential of being great, so it may be wiser to go after it's built instead of making two trips. Also, I can spend two days at Efteling instead of rushing to everything in one day. It's one of the 4 non-Disney parks that I'd happily spend two days at.
BUT STILL! NOT ACCEPTABLE!