Pre Planning
Although most people won't want to plan there whole day in advance it's worth putting a little thought into your day out in advance. At least so you have a rough idea what your doing, and don't miss anything important.

Look For Vouchers and Deals
If you want to save a bit of money it's worth looking out for a deal in advance. Lots of parks do money off vouchers in some form or another. A good place to look is the local tourist information office, as lots of parks have pamphlets with money off vouchers in them. For the larger parks this will include most large tourist information offices. For mid sized and small parks you'll need to use a more local office. Last time I went to Great Yarmouth I saved a few quid just by popping into the tourist information office for a few minutes on the way to the park.
Other good places, especially for the larger parks are newspapers and magazines, that often have promotions for various parks.
Another place is on the web  itself. Buy A Gift has various theme park tickets and sometimes does special deals, and some parks do offer discounts if you book on-line in advance.

Familiarise Yourself with the Park Layout
It will help if you find out a bit about the park in advance. The most important things to do is find out what rides you want to go on, it will help if you can read some reviews, as well as the parks web site so you don't miss any rides you might want to try.
Another thing to look for is places to eat. Most parks have a variety of places selling standard fast food, but if you want a slightly more substantial meal a lot of parks will only have one or two places to try, so you may want to know where those places are in advance.

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Queues
Loath them or hate them, chances are you'll have to queue for at least some of the rides. Remember though less queue time = more ride time. So the less time you spend in queues the better.

Choose the Right Date
There are definitely dates that will be less crowded than others. if you avoid weekends that's great, if not a Sunday is usually less busy than a Saturday.  School holidays are always significantly busier than term time, and bank holidays are will be the worst time during these.
Of course this applies more to theme parks than amusement parks. For amusement parks I recommend a moderately busy times (try to check opening hours before you go) otherwise you'll find that not all the rides are opened, and the time you get at the park is very limited.

The Best use of Times
If you do go on a busy day try to arrive early. Ideally half an hour before the rides open, this will hopefully mean you're one of the first in, and at some parks they let you in early before the rides open.
Look out for parks with late night openings too. There are usually less queues on late nights, there also recommended as rides are more exciting in the dark, and there's a great atmosphere  on late nights as well.
The worst queues are at peak times from 12.00 to 16.00. This is the best time to try quieter attractions such as zoos and farms, or even the less busy rides. Try to avoid the big attractions at these times.

Don't Follow Crowds
Something I learnt on a trip to Chessington quite a while ago now, the only time we all had time off was a bank holiday. Everyone knows to head for the big new attraction first (in this case it was the Samurai, I said it was a while ago). This works very well if your first in. However in this case a couple of thousand of people where in before us and they where all heading for the big new attraction first. We decided to rethink our strategy and headed for Transylvania. There was no queue for the Bubbleworks, and the Queue for the Vampire was very short. By using this strategy we avoided two big queues. O.K. we still had a big queue for the Samurai, but the only way we were ever going to avoid that on a bank holiday was by arriving an hour or two early.

Techno Queuing
If a park has techno queuing try to plan your day that will take you on a logical route to get on as many rides as possible. Most times they allow you to arrive slightly later than the time allocated, so you can fit lots in. 30-40 minutes per ride is adequate time (remember the queues are shorter, not non existent).  Do allow time however for eating, shopping, and getting from ride to ride, it helps if you plan to do all the rides in the same area at once.

Join the ECC
If  you go to www.coasterclub.org you can join the European Coaster Club. Not only does this give you access to regular theme parking magazines, exclusive mailing lists, and theme park merchandise, you can also go on organized trips with exclusive ride sessions (ERS). This means only club members on the trip have access to the ride for a limited time. A definite must for anyone enthusiastic about theme parks.

What to Take
O.K. so you know how to avoid the worst of queues, but what can also effect your day is what you take with you. Your could well be spending a lot of the day in hot and crowded areas, and the last thing you want to do is struggle with half a ton of stuff.

Wear Sensible Clothes
This is something I noticed at Hershey Park in America. Hershey is a world class park and people visit from all across the world. It was east to pick out a lot of people from Britain in the crowd. Why? Well you look for the people in tight designer clothes, and uncomfortable shoes, (and that was just the men). To put it simply, Theme parks are not a pub or club, it's not a place to show off the latest designer gear to your mates. Choose shoes and clothes that will be comfortable to do lots of walking in, and will dry off when Wet (Those ponchos are well worth the money for really wet rides). Don't wear uncomfortable clothes, just to be fashionable.

Limit your Luggage
Luggage should be kept to a minimum. All I usually take is my keys, my wallet, my camera, and a bottle of water. Try to keep all your belongings to an essential minimum, and keep them in an easy to carry bag (a back pack or shoulder bag is good).
My absolute no-no is a picnic. No fizzy drinks, yes it's a good idea to take bottles of water, but carrying about a load of food, that will probably get squashed in the crowds anyway is an awful lot of hassle.

Souvenirs
Do consider very carefully before buying anything that you will probably have to carry them about for the rest of the day. Some parks let you leave items with them to pick up at the entrance, don't be afraid to ask for this.
If it is a large or breakable item, that you can't leave with the park, try not to buy it until the end of the day. Most shops stay open later than the rides do, and a lot of them do sell the same items.
My advice is start a collection of items from parks (and other places you visit) of items that are widely available such as car stickers, key rings, stationary, or my own personal collection, patches and pins. That way you have something to remember the park by, and not something that will get forgotten about once you get home.

The Giant Cuddly Toys
One last thing on the subject of souvenirs. You must have seen those giant cuddly toys you can win from various stalls. This is probably something else not done to early in the day. O.K. chances are you won't win anyway, but if you do you'll be carrying around a 4 foot cuddly crocodile for the rest of the day. If you do want to try to win one, it's a good activity to fill some time in the time on the later half of the peak times (i.e. from 2pm onwards) as then you won't have to carry it around for too long.

Avoid Overheating
Theme parks will get very crowded and hot, your body will be exposed to G forces it's not used to, and chances are you'll be outside most of the day. It can be easily overlooked that you do risk getting ill. You can end up with headaches and feeling groggy, and it can lead to even worse. It's a good idea to take precautions to stop this happening.

Take Regular Drinks
Even in mild weather if you don't get enough to drink it can leave you feeling groggy. It can be easy to forget to take regular drinks when you want to get on as many rides as possible. It helps if you take along bottles of water which you can refill if needed at Drinking fountains, or even at the taps in the toilets. Don't forget to buy drinks from stalls around the park as well as they'll be chilled, and more refreshing.

Be Prepared to Take a Break
If your at the park all day you may find spending all day in the crowds can be too much. If you feel it will be too much take a break at some point (after lunch is good) to see a show, or look around the quieter attractions such as a zoo, farm or gardens.

Keep Covered Up
On hot days it's best to were a hat to cover your head, and to were sun cream to prevent sunburn. Also choose cloths that are light, so you won't overheat, but will keep you protected from the sun. These are all pretty simple precautions, but can make all the difference between an enjoyable day, and one where you end up feeling ill.

Act Sensibly
Finally just a warning to act sensibly on your day out. It may seem like an obvious thing to say, but you won't believe some of the stupid things people have tried at Theme Parks. Remember the majority of incidents at theme parks are due to visitors doing something stupid. Don't try to get out of restraints before your meant to, don't try to stand up when your not meant to, and follow any other safety warnings as well. They are up there to ensure your own personal safety, it's not just the parks being awkward.
Please also refrain from queue jumping, vandalism or anything else that can ruin the day out for other visitors. We all want to have a good time when we go to theme parks, please don't spoil it for other people.

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