Idk if this is the right place to put it, but I everyone should be warned from here on out that fridays and saturdays are to be reckoned with moreso than any year I have ever attended in the past.
100+ min waits across the board, and on top of that, food locations with only a single cashier, items selling out before the dinner rush, usually all but 1 freestyle machine broken at any given location, and restrooms being randomly closed without even stating if they're actually out of order or not or just being blocked off by security on the busiest night of the season so far, (Including the only notable all gender/accessibility restroom in the park, if you have any kinds of disabilities, or medications that require a more open private space, or if you just aren't comfortable in gendered restrooms).
Sorry if this comes off as a rant, but for your own sakes, unless you want a slew of operational and management issues no matter where you turn, be very weary, as even as an FFP holder who's been a few times and will go again, it was frustrating to even attempt to attend tonight, so if possible avoid them like the plague. There is simply not enough in-park resources to accommodate the guest capacity anymore, you have to either sell less tickets, or schedule and pay more staff, you can't get away with more guests and less staff.
I went this past Saturday, too -- hoo boy. I'm glad I went Sunday on opening weekend and got everything done in a matter of hours, because this Saturday was insane. Fortunately, the group I was with wasn't too concerned with getting everything done, more just all of us being together and having fun, but even then...
We didn't do early entry, but got in that HUGE line to get through security at around 6:30. Good LORD. We didn't even get IN to the park until almost 7:30 because of how slow it was moving, and then once we were through security, the line to get through ticket checks was a nightmare because the employee scanning tickets for the line we were in kept chatting away with Every. Single. Guest. It was insane. People would come through, then she'd just spin in her chair and be talking with them and pointing them in the direction of where mazes were and what they should do, all while -- in the next line over -- people are just breezing through because the girl scanning tickets for them is focused on her job.
We trucked it over to Chucky, waited about an hour, and right at the front watched Express just go in... and in... and in... and in, then three back to back RIP tour groups, then Express again... and again. I was having PTSD flashbacks to '21 and '22. We weren't done until after 9:00. Between then and 2am, the
only things we got done were Terror Tram, Jurassic World*, and Stranger Things, with two breaks for drinks/food that totaled an hour-plus with how slow those lines were, too.
I had gone in assuming the worst anyway, thankfully, and this was the first Saturday I've ever gone to the event in years because I always prefer Thursdays and Sundays, but even then, yeah, the crowd sizes were wild. And as Jerrod pointed out, there was a point where ST4, TLOU, Chucky, and I think even Exorcist had 180-minute waits posted all at the same time.
My advice to anyone trying to go on a Saturday, too: Try and be at the front gates as early as possible if you're not doing early entry. I'm not joking. The security line had an entire gated queue running up to and adjacent to the parking lot, THAT is how many people are all vying to get in. So glad I went the first Sunday and had a great time, because if this Saturday had been my first and only night going, I'd have been pissed and feeling scammed, hah.
* -- and not to mention, for Jurassic World, almost the entire ride wasn't even working right! Obviously the adult Stegosaurus being worked on wasn't operational, and that's fine, but the Mosasaurus screens were ALL frozen, the first Indominus rex head was stationary, the raptor with the wires didn't even drop, and the T-rex burst out early and was already back in its retreated position as we were going under it.