Californias Great America
vs
Lake Compounce

On a typical day Lake Compounce queues less: about 16 minutes a ride against 28 at Californias Great America, a difference of roughly 12 minutes on every queue you join.

See both right now

01 · On a typical day

What you would normally queue.

Averages across recent weeks, so one broken ride or one wet Tuesday cannot decide it. This is the comparison to plan a trip on; the live figures below are the one to act on today.

Californias Great America and Lake Compounce compared on their typical recorded queue times
Typically	Californias Great AmericaUnited States	Lake CompounceUnited States
Average wait per ride	28 min	16 min (best of the two)
Rides with recorded waits	13	25 (best of the two)
Longest typical queue	Tiki Twirl59 min	Boulder Dash37 min
Shortest typical queue	Whitewater Falls4 min	Rainbow Riders5 min
Average ride uptime Share of opening hours a ride is running	Not recorded	67%

Averaged across every ride at each park with recorded waits. A ride that never opened is left out, so a park is not flattered by counting a shut ride as a queue of zero.

02 · Right now

Both parks, this minute.

Live queue times at both parks. These fill in as soon as the page loads, and keep updating while you are here.

Californias Great America and Lake Compounce compared on live queue times
Right now	Californias Great AmericaUnited States	Lake CompounceUnited States
Average wait right now	-	-
Rides open	-	-
Opening hours today	-	-
Longest queue	-	-
Shortest queue	-	-

These keep refreshing while this page is open. A closed park posts no waits, so its rows read as dashes rather than zeroes.

Verdict, on a typical day On a typical day Lake Compounce queues less: about 16 minutes a ride against 28 at Californias Great America, a difference of roughly 12 minutes on every queue you join.

03 · Choosing

Which one is your day out.

Every line here is earned by one of the figures above - nothing is a generic sentence with a park name dropped into it.

Pick Californias Great America if…

You will accept a longer queue - 28 minutes a ride here against 16 at Lake Compounce - for what Californias Great America has that Lake Compounce does not
Tiki Twirl is on your list - it is Californias Great America's longest typical queue at about 59 minutes, so it is the one to do first
You want Californias Great America's own character - the rides, theming and atmosphere described below

Pick Lake Compounce if…

You want shorter queues: Lake Compounce averages 16 minutes a ride against 28 at Californias Great America
You want more to do: 25 rides here have recorded wait data against 13 at Californias Great America
Boulder Dash is on your list - it is Lake Compounce's longest typical queue at about 37 minutes, so it is the one to do first
You want Lake Compounce's own character - the rides, theming and atmosphere described below

04 · The parks

What each one is.

Californias Great America

California's Great America sits in Santa Clara, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. It's a mid-sized park with a solid coaster line-up: Gold Striker (a highly-rated GCI wooden coaster), RailBlazer (a single-rail raptor coaster), Flight Deck inverted coaster, and The Demon. A Boomerang Bay water park operates on the same site in the summer.

Bay Area locals keep Great America steady year-round, with US school holidays and the WinterFest event driving the biggest crowds. Weekdays in April, May and September are dramatically quieter. Check live wait times for Gold Striker and RailBlazer on arrival, and use our crowd calendar to pick a quieter day - the park has been undergoing ownership and site changes that can affect operating patterns.

Californias Great America live queue times

Lake Compounce

Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut, opened in 1846 and is the oldest continuously operating amusement park in North America. Boulder Dash is the standout, a wooden coaster that runs along the side of the mountain, alongside the 1927 Wildcat, the triple-launch Phobia Phear and Thunder N Lightning. The park also has the Crocodile Cove water park, and in the autumn it adds Halloween haunts on select dates.

Summer weekends and the July holiday week are the busiest. Weekdays in June and the autumn weekends before the haunts open are quieter. Check the live queue times before you go and use the crowd calendar to choose a day.

Lake Compounce live queue times

05 · Questions

Californias Great America or Lake Compounce?

Which is better, Californias Great America or Lake Compounce?

If you are judging on queues, Lake Compounce: it averages about 16 minutes a ride on a typical day against 28 at Californias Great America, roughly 12 minutes back on every queue you join. Californias Great America has 13 rides with recorded waits against 25 at Lake Compounce.

Which has shorter queues, Californias Great America or Lake Compounce?

Lake Compounce, by about 12 minutes a ride. On a typical day Lake Compounce averages 16 minutes against 28 at Californias Great America. Queues still move hour by hour, and a midweek day outside school holidays beats the gap at either park. See Californias Great America best time to visit and Lake Compounce best time to visit to pick a quiet day.

Can I visit Californias Great America and Lake Compounce in the same trip?

Yes - both parks are in United States, so a two-park trip is realistic over a long weekend. Split the days so you start at whichever opens earliest and drive to the other in the evening.

How many rides does each park have?

See the tables above for ride counts - or jump to Californias Great America and Lake Compounce for the full ride lists.

Is Californias Great America bigger than Lake Compounce?

By rides we track waits for, Lake Compounce is the bigger day out: 25 rides against 13. Acreage matters less than how many you can actually get on, which comes down to queues and opening hours - and on those Lake Compounce is the quicker park.

Then pick
the quiet day.

Both parks have a crowd calendar with six weeks of forecast and the best day left to go.

Californias Great America calendar