It's good that you are going at opening. That is in your favor. It's still early in the month so it may or may not be mobbed for Frightfest. The closer you get to Halloween it's more of a sure thing it is. If you're itching for Ka or SUF I suggest doing them first. I would think Toro would be next. Being a local I'm usually on the other side of the park to start and never use Flashpass. Other people on this side could provide that insight. The great thing is that the rides in between, the B&M's, have good capacity.

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Thrillnetwork Moderator - Rookie Year CHILLERLC1
Philadelphia Phillies - the 2008 World Champions!!!
Happy SFStL Mr. Freeze will be all blue again.

I know a forum similar to this was posted a while ago, but I'll give you some tips to the place though. You are going on Columbus Day weekend, aka a holiday, one of SFGAdv most crowded days so lines will be working against you. The first thing you need to ride is Kingda Ka and then head straight to S:UF. If you don't ride these early in the morning, you can pretty much forget about riding them at all since you are leaving the park so early. Will it be possible for you to get there sooner than 10:30? Because SFGAdv forms a HUGE line at opening time on weekends, and especially on holidays. Once the gates are open, the majority of the crowd runs towards KK and ET. Kinda like a running of the bulls per se. But if you can't get there earlier, then go to KK, S:UF, and then El Toro. After that avoid everything else on that side of the park and head towards Batman (yes, both of them). Ride those and then head towards Nitro, the line is always short for it. Then you head back to the other side of the park (yes, I know a lot of back and forth but trust me on this). Ride Medusa and any other coaster that peaks your interest there. You have a really small window to work with, so you will probably not get to ride something. With SFGAdv being my homepark, if I don't get to ride it one day, I'll just come back another day. No biggie to me. Unfortunately, you won't be able to do that, so I say try to make the most of your day there and have a good time.

As far as flash pass, I never been a big fan of it, but you may need to use it. Expensive, but if this is your only chance there, then go for it. The ride ops usually seat you in a particular row. It changes day to day, but usually row 4 is where you will go for most of the rides. Me personally, I am a first 2 cars fan. Pretty much every ride there, I'll get in the first 2 cars if possible. KK, front row is obviously the best. Nitro first row and row 4 and last row. Batman, row 1, 5, and 7. Superman, just pray you can ride it, period.lol El Toro, second car and 5th car. Medusa, row 1 mainly for the effect. Rough 4 is a bit rough, IMO. Row 3 is good too. The ride ops for dispatch are pretty quick, even KK has sped up. El Toro is sometimes a hit or miss. Hope like two trains are running. S: UF..... well I think everyone is in agreeance, probably the worst dispatch time out of ALL coasters ever built ever.lol Anyways, I think all of this should help you out a lot. Good luck.

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Never argue with an idiot. They bring you down to their level..... and beat you with experience.

I went on a Sunday in May, and even then the lines were about 1-2hr waits except Nitro it was about a 30min wait and Skull mountain was about a 15min wait . Since you dont have long I would definatly get the flash pass gold. Thats what I did, and it is VERY expensive but so WORTH the money. The longest wait I had was 15mins for Dark knight and 14mins for KK. The Gold flash pass cuts your wait down by 75%. It was $71 for a gold pass and $33 for a regular flash pass and I went this past MAy(2008). So the prices should still be the same. You have to ride everything SFGRadv was a awesome park with a GREAT collection of coasters with El toro and SUF being my favorite.
As far as seating, you get to pick where you sit except for rolling thunder, Great american scream machine, and skull mountain. The rest they merge you into the station.

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Depression sets in-its the off season!!

I used a Gold Flash Pass at SFGadv this past Saturday. It was kinda expensive, but completely worth it in the end. You can reserve rides wherever you are in the park and can reserve a new one right when the Flash Pass staffer scans your entrance into a ride. Meaning that your Kingda Ka ride reservation may be ready right after you ride El Toro.

For all the rides, you can enter whichever row you please. Most of them (Flash Pass queue) send you into the station where the guests who waited in the regular line are.

I had about the same time frame as you and I got on all the rides I wanted including four times on El Toro and three on Kingda Ka.

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"I go out and see a kid grabbing his crotch. Ain't nobody telling them that. Where do they get it from? They watch MTV. I say, 'If you wash up more often, you won't have to grab your crotch.' I'm telling these guys, 'Why you gotta grab your crotch?' Then you see Michael Jackson grabbing his crotch 50 times. What's with him?" - Mr. T

^^^We are actually arriving at the park at 10:00 AM - 30 minutes before the park opens on that day. We have from 10:30 AM until 4:00 PM - that is when we have our dinner. At 5:00 PM the marching band will head home, and be back home at 11:00 PM. Yeah. We live a good 5-6 hours north of SFGADV.

I believe I went on Columbus Day before. I'm more apt to say it was crowded for what I remember.

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Thrillnetwork Moderator - Rookie Year CHILLERLC1
Philadelphia Phillies - the 2008 World Champions!!!
Happy SFStL Mr. Freeze will be all blue again.

I tell you what though, NEVER go there the last day it is open for the season. That place was so crowded, that cars were being parked in the overflow parking spaces. 20 years of going to SFGAdv and I never even knew they had an overflow parking area. Give you a perspective of how crowded it was: Nitro line was backed up to within 50 feet of the entrance to Batman. I wont even begin to describe the line for Kingda Ka. I think the last person in line for that was by Fort Dix.lol

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Never argue with an idiot. They bring you down to their level..... and beat you with experience.

LOL - great local humor. I've done the very last day of the season at least twice. What I believe you call the overflow lot - the lot between the entry road and that same road when it wraps around to the tolls and leads to the main parking lot - I've been there once. To top that, last year cars were sent to Hurricane Harbor even. I was parked there. The lines spit out like Nitro said. The draw of Halloween/Fright Fest as good or as bad as it may be jam packs the place. I could see my breath in the Medusa line the one year. It was easily all the way out to the cobra roll.

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Thrillnetwork Moderator - Rookie Year CHILLERLC1
Philadelphia Phillies - the 2008 World Champions!!!
Happy SFStL Mr. Freeze will be all blue again.

Yeah that's the parking area I was talking about. I never even noticed that parking lot before until I went there the last day of the season. I usually park right next to Superman and walk around. It's easier to find my car in that area too. Medusa was only extended to the cobra roll? Shoot I would of been happy with that. Last year the line for Medusa was extended to that stadium close to Runaway train that is hardly ever used. But man was it cold out that day too. I think I only rode about 4 coasters that day before me and my brother just couldnt bear the cold any longer. But I at least got to ride KK and well for obvious reasons I wasn't leaving that park without riding Nitro too. But I had a good time because it was fright fest, so it made it worth it. But if you going to SFGAdv for the rides only, last day of the season is definitely not for you. On that day, you can't even ride the ferris wheel without waiting a good 2 hours. Yes, I said the ferris wheel.lol

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Never argue with an idiot. They bring you down to their level..... and beat you with experience.