My only question is do they do Early Entry when the park opens at 6PM? And How busy are Fridays that open late?

They do Early Entry on HalloWeekends Fridays. The park opens tonight (and every Friday night of HalloWeekends) at 5:00pm for Cedar Fair Platinum passholders & resort guests, or at 5:30pm for Cedar Point Gold pass holders. I plan to get there around 4:00pm today to beat the traffic getting onto the peninsula.

Fridays aren't as bad as Saturdays. They're generally busier than they used to be, but it's impossible to say how crowded the park will be on any particular day.

Sweet Ill be getting there around 4:30. Thanks for easing my curiosity 

Crap, I'm headed down next weekend (20-22), is a 4:00 arrival what I'm gonna need to get a good jump on the crowd???

Well this is the first time im going during weekend operations. Ill come back here tonight after and let you know if early arrival is beneficial or not. 

That'd be great!!!

 

Went up Saturday night, got in the park at 10pm no problem...visited my daughter, and left at 11.  Leaving there on a Saturday this time of year is a free for all.  

ERT Sunday at 10am was far less crowded than it was last month at the drop.  Got my rides in on SV, Maverick, Valravn, and MF with ease before 11.  Used my free FP plus, so really didn't wait for anything the rest of the day.  

Steel Vengeance never fails to put a big grin on my face.  How they took a turd like Mean Streak and made such a great coaster out of it makes me sad for the decisions that KI made with SOB.  The structure was so bad they had no choice, but had they gotten just that part right...

Are they letting people park in the CP Shores lot now that it's done for the season??? Or is the best plan for hitting SV early to park at the front and take the boardwalk back???

 

^ The lot was closed this past weekend due to PointFest, but I don't see why it wouldn't be open for the rest of HalloWeekends.

On the subject of Early Entry, they were trying a new system at the Resorts gate last weekend, positioning the checkpoint just past turnstiles and letting guests walk back to rides immediately without waiting on a rope drop. This seemed to be a better way to manage the crowd, and it eliminated the running of the bulls.

I was there Sept 13. Got there early enough to park near GateKeeper. Walked down the boardwalk to resort entrance. I guess due to this new system I was standing at Steel Vengeance 5 minutes before 5pm and I had 3 rides on it by 5:30pm. That is where the good news ends because they had just shut down Maverick and thunderstorm started.