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Hard Rock Park

Hard Rock Park: Planning 1st time visit

From Ben Sutton
Posted June 23, 2008 at 9:46 PM
I'm planning a trip to the Hard Rock Park this weekend. Has anybody been there yet? what can you recommend as far as rides go? Is their any places close to the park I can park for free?


Comments in chronological order. Most recent at the bottom. Scroll down to respond.

From Chris Greene
Posted June 24, 2008 at 5:10 PM
You dont really need to plan. The park is empty every day. The rides are ussually walk-ons. Great park but low attendance

From Chris Greene
Posted June 24, 2008 at 5:09 PM
You dont really need to plan. The park is empty every day. The rides are ussually walk-ons. Great park but low attendance.

From steve lee
Posted June 25, 2008 at 6:48 PM
You're pretty much going to have to park at the park. There's not really anything close enough to be able to sneak over.

As was previously stated, the crowds just haven't seemed to arrive at Hard Rock. The only thing you should rush to hit as early as possible is Maximum RPM. Their through-put there isn't great, so hit it before going to Zeppelin (assuming the ride opens with the park. I don't know what the official status is. On Saturday, the ride opened up around 1pm and had a posted 120 minute wait by 1:20).

Also, be sure to check the show schedules on the back of your map. All three shows are worth checking out.

From Troy Colvard
Posted June 26, 2008 at 10:19 AM
I went to hard rock park last night. I was so pumped about it all day to be let down. The park is really decorative and does go along with the theme. But if you are a family that loves thrill rides, I would not reccomend this park. The Led Zeplin ride was awesome! The rest of the rides are either kitty rides, and the rest of the roller coasters have a 150 min wait. The rides that had such a long wait weren't that special anyway. It wouldn't be so bad if you didn't have to pay 40-50 dollars plus parking. If you are used to parks like six flags, busch gardens, carowinds, etc., this park is NOT for you.

From steve lee
Posted June 26, 2008 at 2:35 PM
Are you seriously stating that every other coaster had a 150 minute wait? That's to be expected for Maximum RPM, but I have an extremely hard time believing that the Eagles coaster was rocking a wait of that magnitude.

From tom hess
Posted July 10, 2008 at 8:12 PM
in my opinion dont waste your time, money, or gas to get there. we went
yesterday (7/6) and we were gone with in 30 minutes. first, parking is $10. ok,
fine, usually parks are more like 5 or so. the way that the entrance is laid
out, you drive around the park before you enter, so you start to realize how
small this place really is. upon entering all the employess are giving the rock
n roll devil fingers and yelling 'rock on dude, have a rockin good time!'
between there enthusiasm and the advertisements that talk this place up, we cant
wait to get in there. we pay our $39 ticket fee (south carolina
resident...normally $50). we start walking around and realize you can throw a
rock to the other side of the park. we get to the led zeppelin roller coaster
(their premier ride) and its closed for maintainance. the guy blocking the
entrance barely spoke english and could not explain why the ride was closed.
alright, so we walk to the second biggest roller coaster. guess what...its
closed too. they had a cherry picker up working on something. the next few rides were small and slow, more for
kids than anything. we walked through a few of the shops and realized each shop
was just like the other. now, im a huge hard rock cafe fan, but you can only
see so many of the same pins hats and shirts before it gets old. we went to
guest services to inquire about a refund and there was a line of people for the
same thing! they were cool about the refund but wouldnt do the same for the
parking. the reason given was that when the park was still under construction,
people paid $20 to park to come see it. what does that have to do with me not
being happy with a park that was finished being built? they also gave us a
brochure that said this park was not a 'ride park' but more of a 'theme'. yes i
guess thats true, but it would have been nice it they didnt have advertisements
that proclaimed all the rides and would have given us that brochure before we
paid for anything! also, they have so many songs playing at the same time around the park, all you hear is a mish-mash of multiple stations and for me, that
got old real quick. if all the rides were operating and the park was around
half capacity, you could ride every ride and visit every store inside of 2 hours
tops. oh, and there was very little memorabilia like there is in the
restaurants which was disappointing.

seriously, dont waste your time or money.

From James Rao
Posted July 10, 2008 at 9:29 PM
There is something to be said for waiting a year or so for them to work out all "The Kinks" (bad pun intended).

From Chris Greene
Posted July 10, 2008 at 10:05 PM
Hard Rock Park is something you should deffinetly check out IMO. It doesnt have that many rides but IMHO the themeing and memorobilia is extensive. We spent about 5 hours seeing all the shows, going into shops and riding everything, and I thought it was on a level of Disney or Universal. The shows are great and make sure to see the fireworks at night! Have fun and dont go with an attitude to be dissapointed.
P.S. This is a really chill park so enjoy yourself anf relax!

From J Whetzel
Posted July 16, 2008 at 5:32 PM
This is too late for you to benefit from, but it's mainly for everyone else out there who's going to go.

In my opinion, the park was great. I loved it. It just needs to be given time. I agree, it is small now, but then again it's the first year it's been open for business so it's way too early to call this place 'awful' and 'gone in 2 years' as many reviews I have read have said. I loved the rides too. There are more rides there for adults than what others make it out to seem. Maximum RPM definately had the longest wait when it opened at 12. After going to check out a show and come back, the line had shortened. What was a 45 minute wait did not seem that long due to the entertainment from the karaoke. Also, while many people complain about the price, it's really not too bad considering most parks are at about the same. $10 for parking is also average among the parks that I have been to (to the guy above me, where are you finding $5 parking?)

Overall, the park is really nice. It is worth going to check out. I really hope it succeeds and grows as I'm sure it will.

From steve lee
Posted July 16, 2008 at 7:36 PM
Opinions are opinions, but I'm flabbergasted by the idea that all the shops are the same. This is patently false information. Each shop in the park is specifically themed to the Rock Environ in which it is located. The Cloud 9 shop specialized in Zeppelin and reggae wear, the Underground shop has British band merchandise, the shop in the 70s area (Kings Head? I don't recall) is very kitschy, the Born in the USA shop is surfwear, and the shop in Cool Country is country/southern rock. The All Access shop is a catch all, but there's not nearly as much "duplicate" merchandise in there as you'd find in many other parks.

But it should come as no surprise that someone who was in and out in 30 minutes didn't notice that.

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