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Have You Ever "Done a Griswald"?

Gavin

Gavin

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Inspired by Howie's post in some other topic. Sorry if I'm giving credit where it isn't due and someone has actually used this before.

In case you're a moron, in the film "National Lampoon's Vacation", the Griswald family travel across the country to a theme park, Wally World, only to find it closed.

So, have you ever done a Griswald and turned up at a closed park?

Offhand I can think of two, but there's probably more that'll come to me later.

First off was Escape Theme Park in Singapore. There was only one crappy cred there, but it was only open on certain days and I rocked up on the wrong one, having no time to go back when it was actually open. The park's gone now.

Then there's Terra Park in Bucharest. I showed up, but it was only open for groups, not individuals, on weekdays. Idiotic. That's gone as well now. Good.

I found out soon enough to not actually turn up at the parks, but I missed out on Walibi Belgium and Ratanga Junction thanks to not checking out when they were open and being in Brussels and Cape Town at the wrong time.

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During a Denmark trip, @Stone Cold decided to do an impromptu hour detour to a small park that turned out to be closed. I can't actually remember what it was, possibly Sommerland Syd.

Schloß Beck this year too. Stupid Schloß Beck.
 
I've only done it once which was when I went to Luna Park in Melbourne. My friend and I turned up to find it was closed as we'd gone on a weekday but they were only open weekends at the time I went. Luckily we were able to go back a few days later on a Saturday and it was open :)
 
Many years ago I was about to leave to Geauga Lake and something told me to check the park hours before we left. The park hours were like, 1-6pm, so good thing I checked or we would have shown up to a closed park and done a Griswold. We ended up going the next week, but as a kid I was pretty bummed out because I was looking forward to it for so long.

Kings Dominion in 2015 was shut, as was expected because of a severe thunderstorm. So, we sat in the parking lot watching it for a while, as Ben accepted his fate that he was not going to get the collection of giga coasters.

Six Flags Over Texas on the same trip was shut because of tropical storm Bill. We really had awful luck with weather throughout the entirety of that trip! We were hopeful, and we ended up getting one cred before getting kicked out of the park.
 
Well, I've seen Schloss Beck from the outside, but I knew it was closed on the day I visited (I just had too much time to kill before MPG opened).
There were also a couple of Alpine Coasters that were closed for a longer period of time, but haven't had their websites updated properly (Naturlandia in Andorra and the Slovenian one in Maribor).

Btw, we already had such a topic, only that you (or Howie) misspelled Griswold. :)
http://forums.coasterforce.com/threads/ever-done-a-griswold.37178/
 
Missed out on Movie Park Germany late last year as I went in December and it was closed (which I was aware of, I spent 2 days at Phantasialand instead).

Booked up another trip to Cologne for April 2018. Checked the website for Movie Park Germany and saw it opens in March.

Found some good flights + hotel and booked them. Discovered a few days later that it doesn't open on weekdays until May.

Sigh, the next NEXT time then.
 
We drove an hour to Hamburger Dom for the Easter fair only to remember it was Easter friday, and so everything would be closed. Whoops.
 
Once, a couple of years back. Drove to Lake Compounce for their Haunted Graveyard event but it was really cold so they closed, but I'd forgotten to check social media before I left. Drove all the way there, no lights, no staff, nothing. Returned the following day though.
 
DelPiero said:
Once, a couple of years back. Drove to Lake Compounce for their Haunted Graveyard event but it was really cold so they closed, but I'd forgotten to check social media before I left. Drove all the way there, no lights, no staff, nothing. Returned the following day though.
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Ahh yes - Back on the US live we drove there and it was closed because of the rain!! finally got there a couple of years ago - nice little place!

And Way back when I was at Uni, I went to a local fair with a couple of friends, only to find it was closed on Sundays!
 
Biggest Griswald was driving back to Columbus from DC by way of Altoona, PA for Lakemont Park. The diversion cost us around 4 hours, and the heavens opened in a total downpour as we arrived, closing the park for the rest of the day.
 
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