Great Adventure 10/21/06

Associated parks:
None

This is going to be a pretty brief trip report, because, well, I really didn't get many rides in. I was pretty excited about this Saturday. As I've said before, none of my closest friends or my boyfriend are into going to parks with me. My youngest sister was in from college this week. Next week is her 19th birthday, so I thought I would take her to the park of her choice as a nice birthday gift. We live in Scranton, PA, so we were limiting our choices to anything under three hours away from home. We discussed Dorney, Hershey, and Great Adventure, and settled on Great Adventure being that she hadn't been there this summer. I knew it would be pretty busy, because it was the second to last weekend of operations. I had been to Fright Fest there a few years ago. The lines were long (around two-three hours), but I was totally unprepared for just how crowded the park would be this weekend.

We arrived around 11am (opening at 10) and immediately sought out the Fast Pass line. It looked to be a quarter mile long and it wasn't moving so we decided, why not try our luck with the regular lines? We walked by Kingda Ka and El Toro. Both had lines that stretched far outside their queues. We walked by and headed to Medusa. Twenty minute wait. I got made fun of by some nasty Jersey "mall punk" girls in line, which was pretty entertaining. The ride was pretty fun, but I forgot to take off my glasses, and spent the whole ride frantically holding them for dear life. My onride photo was priceless (however, I wouldn't ever waste my money on one of those).

From there we went to Nitro. The line was about 1.5 hours. In my opinion well worth it. I don't like it as much as Apollo's Chariot, but it's still a great ride. And the mean people strike again! Some guys who were with the four people in the car ahead of us hopped in alongside my sister and I. The guy next to me was saying things like "hey baby, can I hold your hand?" It made my skin crawl. And he touched my hand and I thought that I was going to throw up. I asked him to leave me alone and please don't touch me. And he continued to verbally insult me at the end of the ride and on the way down out of the station. This was not entertaining as in the first case. This was seriously gross and creepy. Linda and I booked it out of there after a highly called for hand gesture. Do I have a target on my back today? I am the kind of gal that likes to mind her own business and I guarantee that I did nothing to provoke this idiot. Weird.

Last but not least, the icing on the cake. Linda and I decided to get in line for Kingda Ka. We figured, at this point, all of the lines are several hours long, so we will get in line here and then get on El Toro to end the night. The lady handing out tickets said three hour wait, which was ok with both of us. No incidents to report about this line. There were a bunch of friendly people around us and it was ok in that regard. Oh, and we got in line at 3pm. The line is moving slowly but surely. It's getting colder and colder (likely because we are barely moving). Then it gets dark. What the heck, we're nowhere near the ride at this point. I would have given an arm or two for a coffee. We've been in line for two hours now and the pace of the line seems to quicken. At some point, we really should have gotten out of that line. That was our fault, but we decided that all the other lines we had checked out were two to three hours and we had already invested so much time waiting for Ka. Then a friendly Six Flags employee comes around with a tray of..... ice cold lemonade. My hands and feet and face are numb at this point. The last thing I want is an ice cold lemonade. We finally get to the ride. Incredible as always. Linda loved it! We decided however, that nothing was worth the amount of time we wasted waiting in line. Grand total, 5.5 hours. We got to the ride at 8:30. Oh yeah, no breakdowns at all.

I figured that there was no chance that we would get on El Toro. I'm pretty bummed, because I haven't gotten to ride it yet and that was the one thing I really wanted to do. We jogged down and checked out the line. Sure enough, it stretched all the way to the bridge. There were only two hours left to the night, and I still hadn't warmed up. I couldn't imagine that we would ever make it on with only two hours of time left. So we decide to head home and soothe our collective broken heart with some Beulah and Of Montreal on the Ipod.

So I never have called myself a Six Flags fan. I had a season pass this year, but I will not get one next year and I will not set foot in a Six Flags park (unless I do move to Louisville in which case I'll do both, I love Chang!). The rampant line cutting on Medusa and Nitro and the misinformation about that Kingda Ka line, not to mention all of the rude patrons I encountered, coupled with the horrible trip to Fiesta Texas in March, are enough to keep me away for the long term. Sorry to mislead everyone about the length of this trip report. I did turn out pretty long. *** Edited 10/23/2006 7:52:04 PM UTC by jeanineprisonjazz*** *** Edited 10/23/2006 7:52:57 PM UTC by jeanineprisonjazz*** *** Edited 10/23/2006 7:54:32 PM UTC by jeanineprisonjazz***

There is only one way to do SFGADV - be through the gates a half-hour before opening and immediately purchase a Gold Flash Pass. Seriously, it's that or don't go.

If I were you, I would have flagged down some sort of employee to report what could be best described as harassment.

There's no call for that at any time - anywhere.

Here's To Shorter Lines & Longer Trip Reports!

jeanineprisonjazz said:

I figured that there was no chance that we would get on El Toro. I'm pretty bummed, because I haven't gotten to ride it yet and that was the one thing I really wanted to do. We jogged down and checked out the line. Sure enough, it stretched all the way to the bridge. There were only two hours left to the night, and I still hadn't warmed up. I couldn't imagine that we would ever make it on with only two hours of time left. So we decide to head home and soothe our collective broken heart with some Beulah and Of Montreal on the Ipod.

If the line wasn't closed, don't they have to let you ride no matter what time it is as long as you are in line before they closed the line?

It was probably a smart decision to leave the park 2 hours before closing anyway. I heard it took up to 3 hours to leave the parking lot it was so congested at closing time.

That's horrible you ran into so many bad people in the park. *** Edited 10/24/2006 12:33:38 AM UTC by YoshiFan***

jeanineprisonjazz said:
Grand total, 5.5 hours.

Wow. Just... wow.

Welcome back, red train, how was your ride?!

I've been to parks hundreds of times during the craziest holidays and I can assure you SFGAdv. was not that crowded. This is the third similar trip report about the rediculas long lines at the same park, including one of my own. Either the lines are that long because of incompetence, or lines are intentionally made that long to boost Q-Bot sales. I'm not sure which of the two realities would be worse, but I smell another raise for Shapiro. Gonch, I await your response.

My response :)

coasterimage - lordgonchar

I was really kicking myself about not getting there for opening, but my boyfriend works the night shift sometimes and didn't get home until 7:30. Plus, I was also traveling with a teenage girl who takes forever to get anywhere. As we were driving past Dorney on the way down I was thinking to myself that we made a bad decision.
I agree that the lines are probably inflated by incompetence or something. Does anybody know why they only use one side of Kingda Ka's station? Do they ever use the other? It seemed to me that they would launch both trains and then there would be like 5-8 minutes until the next pair launched.
I really really regretted not getting the flash pass but we did eye the line for quite a while and it just didn't move. I never expected to wait 5+ hours for something. I haven't ever encountered a line that long in all of my years of coaster riding (previously the worst I've waited: three + hours to ride the Rattler at Fiesta Texas, a tremendous waste of time).
Regarding the harassment thing, the thought to say something did cross my mind. I just didn't want to get into some time consuming complaint or anything. I just wanted to get away from that creep as fast as possible.

YoshiFan said:
If the line wasn't closed, don't they have to let you ride no matter what time it is as long as you are in line before they closed the line?

That's what Linda thought. I figured that we didn't need to be there until 1am. It was so cold and miserable at 9pm. Plus I was more than happy to beat the traffic most of the traffic out of park. *** Edited 10/24/2006 10:04:19 PM UTC by jeanineprisonjazz***

You must be logged in to post