CoasterCon Sidetrip 2: Six Flags Great Adventure -
Associated parks:
None
With the official activities at the Con coming to an end with the Friday AM ERT at Dorney and the PTC factory tour, we’d decided ahead of time that Friday afternoon/evening would be spent making the trek over to New Jersey to hit Nitro. After our bad experience at SFA on Tuesday, we weren’t sure anymore if we wanted to do it, but decided to go ahead anyway.
Wow. What a difference 3 days and a different park can make. We were expecting all sorts of problems with long lines, line jumpers, smoking, and general bad attitudes among operators and patrons. While the day wasn’t perfect, it was MUCH better than we’d expected. The crew in Nitro was the best Six Flags crew I’ve EVER seen – these guys could have been dropped into Cedar Point and fit right in. Several times, whichever operator was at the controls even called down to people who were trying to linejump to "get back to the end of the line or I’ll call security", and at least once even DID (which was funny – a kid with blue spiked hair was running away from Nitro afterwards. We were like "yeah, HE’LL be able to blend back into the crowd…" :) ) In spite of some roughness around the edges, this may have been the best day I’ve ever had at a Six Flags property.
The rides:
Batman: The Ride (1 lap) – We hopped on this at the end of the day, actually, to remind ourselves of what an intense B&M Inverted feels like. The line on this ride was slow in spite of a short line and 2 train operation, but there were only 3 ops (1 at the controls, 2 checking restraints), AND there was something wrong with the releases – the operators had to manually unlock all the odd rows. This layout is still a very intense little ride, and is one of those designs I DON’T mind being cloned from here to infinity and back.
Medusa (1 lap) – The crew on this ride was almost as attentive as the guys on Nitro. Impressive. This floorless is still a great ride, but it wasn’t the main reason we were at this park…
Nitro (6 laps) – WOW. Easily the best coaster of the trip. Front seat, back seat, 2nd seat, they’re all worthwhile. I haven’t ridden Raging Bull, so I can’t compare those two, but this ride picks up Apollo’s Chariot, crumples it into a little ball of steel, and kicks it in what’s left of Apollo’s behind. See my comments above about the crew. Worth the trip all by itself, especially if you can catch them on a day when the crew is as attentive as they were for us…
Roadrunner’s Railway (1 lap) – Credit racking with the best of them… Ding.
Runaway Train (1 lap) – I’d ridden this before, but one of our group hadn’t, so Ding.
Skull Mountain (1 lap) – Ditto. The back seat is actually a pretty intense first drop.
Souvineers – 1 Nitro Magnet. 1 Nitro mug. 1 Nitro shirt. Think I liked that ride? :)
I did a 2-part dinner. Every time I’m in NYC I HAVE to get myself a Sabrett’s hot dog, so when I spotted stands in the park, I could NOT resist. While I was eating that, we walked over to the Nathan’s sitdown dinner, where I had another hot dog (with cheese and chili) and an order of onion rings. I like the Sabrett’s dogs better, but both are excellent in my opinion :)
Overall, this was a GREAT day at Great Adventure, much much better than I’d expected.
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 6/26/2001. ***
Wow. What a difference 3 days and a different park can make. We were expecting all sorts of problems with long lines, line jumpers, smoking, and general bad attitudes among operators and patrons. While the day wasn’t perfect, it was MUCH better than we’d expected. The crew in Nitro was the best Six Flags crew I’ve EVER seen – these guys could have been dropped into Cedar Point and fit right in. Several times, whichever operator was at the controls even called down to people who were trying to linejump to "get back to the end of the line or I’ll call security", and at least once even DID (which was funny – a kid with blue spiked hair was running away from Nitro afterwards. We were like "yeah, HE’LL be able to blend back into the crowd…" :) ) In spite of some roughness around the edges, this may have been the best day I’ve ever had at a Six Flags property.
The rides:
Batman: The Ride (1 lap) – We hopped on this at the end of the day, actually, to remind ourselves of what an intense B&M Inverted feels like. The line on this ride was slow in spite of a short line and 2 train operation, but there were only 3 ops (1 at the controls, 2 checking restraints), AND there was something wrong with the releases – the operators had to manually unlock all the odd rows. This layout is still a very intense little ride, and is one of those designs I DON’T mind being cloned from here to infinity and back.
Medusa (1 lap) – The crew on this ride was almost as attentive as the guys on Nitro. Impressive. This floorless is still a great ride, but it wasn’t the main reason we were at this park…
Nitro (6 laps) – WOW. Easily the best coaster of the trip. Front seat, back seat, 2nd seat, they’re all worthwhile. I haven’t ridden Raging Bull, so I can’t compare those two, but this ride picks up Apollo’s Chariot, crumples it into a little ball of steel, and kicks it in what’s left of Apollo’s behind. See my comments above about the crew. Worth the trip all by itself, especially if you can catch them on a day when the crew is as attentive as they were for us…
Roadrunner’s Railway (1 lap) – Credit racking with the best of them… Ding.
Runaway Train (1 lap) – I’d ridden this before, but one of our group hadn’t, so Ding.
Skull Mountain (1 lap) – Ditto. The back seat is actually a pretty intense first drop.
Souvineers – 1 Nitro Magnet. 1 Nitro mug. 1 Nitro shirt. Think I liked that ride? :)
I did a 2-part dinner. Every time I’m in NYC I HAVE to get myself a Sabrett’s hot dog, so when I spotted stands in the park, I could NOT resist. While I was eating that, we walked over to the Nathan’s sitdown dinner, where I had another hot dog (with cheese and chili) and an order of onion rings. I like the Sabrett’s dogs better, but both are excellent in my opinion :)
Overall, this was a GREAT day at Great Adventure, much much better than I’d expected.
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 6/26/2001. ***
I have been anticipating your trip report and,i am so glad you had a decent time :)Were the rough edges the coasters you didn't mention riding or did you have to skip them due to a lack of time???
I am going tomorrow myself :)
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~*Rickyswmn*~
*** This post was edited by Rickyswmn on 6/26/2001. ***
I am going tomorrow myself :)
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~*Rickyswmn*~
*** This post was edited by Rickyswmn on 6/26/2001. ***
Coasters I didn't mention, were skipped since we'd all ridden them in the past and wanted to concentrate on Nitro. :)
Well, except for Viper, and the Robin side of Chiller; I've never ridden either of these, but they were both down, as they have been EVERY time I go to Great Adventure. Maybe I should warn people who want to ride those when I'm going to be there so they know to not go ;)
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 6/26/2001. ***
Well, except for Viper, and the Robin side of Chiller; I've never ridden either of these, but they were both down, as they have been EVERY time I go to Great Adventure. Maybe I should warn people who want to ride those when I'm going to be there so they know to not go ;)
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 6/26/2001. ***
GregLeg said:
Well, except for Viper, and the Robin side of Chiller; I've never ridden either of these, but they were both down, as they have been EVERY time I go to Great Adventure. Maybe I should warn people who want to ride those when I'm going to be there so they know to not go ;)
Bummer but,i am so glad you enjoyed your day anyway! Maybe someday they will completely cooperate with you.I am praying to the coaster Gods that tomorrow will be a good day for me :)
~*Rickyswmn*~
*** This post was edited by Rickyswmn on 6/26/2001. ***
Well, except for Viper, and the Robin side of Chiller; I've never ridden either of these, but they were both down, as they have been EVERY time I go to Great Adventure. Maybe I should warn people who want to ride those when I'm going to be there so they know to not go ;)
Bummer but,i am so glad you enjoyed your day anyway! Maybe someday they will completely cooperate with you.I am praying to the coaster Gods that tomorrow will be a good day for me :)
~*Rickyswmn*~
*** This post was edited by Rickyswmn on 6/26/2001. ***
GregLeg, sounds like you had a good time. I hope you liked NITRO as much as I did when I went Wednesday (after Morning ERT at Hershey).
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Let the bears pay the Bear Tax, I pay the Homer Tax.
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Let the bears pay the Bear Tax, I pay the Homer Tax.
We'd all ridden Rolling Blunder in the past, and didn't feel like putting ourselves through it again.
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
Rolling Thunder could potentially be a nice little woodie, if Great Adventure would invest in any form of maintenance on it. As it stands right now, it's noisy, dilapidated, and painful, and wasn't worth the effort when we were trying to max out on Nitro.
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
I'm surprised you had a good time at this park. I've had several verbal arguments with people at this park. The ride ops are cool but the agressive people from New Jersey/New York can be a bit much to handle. Not to mention the excruiating long lines most days.
It probably doesn't hurt that I'm originally FROM New Jersey, and used to travel to NYC quite frequently. So I'm used to the pace and the attitude.
As for the lines, I hear you, but the lines were surprisingly very short on Friday. We got REALLY lucky, I'll admit.
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/ *** This post was edited by GregLeg on 6/26/2001. ***
As for the lines, I hear you, but the lines were surprisingly very short on Friday. We got REALLY lucky, I'll admit.
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/ *** This post was edited by GregLeg on 6/26/2001. ***
Intamin Fan said:
The ride ops are cool but the agressive people from New Jersey/New York can be a bit much to handle.
I live in NJ and i don't think i'm that bad ;) but,living here,i know what your getting at.It is possible to have a good time at this park so long as you don't go on the weekend.
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~*Rickyswmn*~
The ride ops are cool but the agressive people from New Jersey/New York can be a bit much to handle.
I live in NJ and i don't think i'm that bad ;) but,living here,i know what your getting at.It is possible to have a good time at this park so long as you don't go on the weekend.
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~*Rickyswmn*~
What a difference you had. I was at SFGAdv on Thursday of the Con. I found Nitro to have a good first half and a dead finish. To give the ride the benefit of the doubt, I'm blaming it on a bad train. Medusa, which had crews that totally kicked in '99, was painful in the station. The crew on my day was obviously confused on how to work the Fast Lane system by opening both the queue gates and virtual queue gate at the same time. Who gets priority over seats in this case. We were also denied rides on Roadrunner, even though we were the only ones in line. Not to mention outrageously priced parking and food added to a very bad day.
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Scott W. Short
scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com
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Scott W. Short
scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com
Yeah, Sean was telling us ALL about your day at Great Adventure ;) Funny how things swapped -- you guys had a good day at SFA, and we had a good day at SFGAdv.
I'll agree with you on the prices of the parking and food, although we borrowed a SFGAdv parking pass from a friend who wasn't going that day.
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
I'll agree with you on the prices of the parking and food, although we borrowed a SFGAdv parking pass from a friend who wasn't going that day.
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
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