Great Adventure, 10/21/11

Knowing this would be my last trip of the season, I made sure to get to the park at opening to get multiple rides in before the park got crowded.

There was a sign up saying to expect larger crowds and longer wait times because of how popular Frightfest is.

There were huge lines to get into the park before it opened. The Discover card line was much shorter and took a little less than 10 minutes. Rope drop was at the fountain and the guards escorted everyone to the individual rides warning that anyone who ran would be ejected from the park.

I went to Nitro first and got 4 rides so I could say I got 25 rides this season which took around 40 minutes total and stopped at Batman which had a station wait. I then went to the Boardwalk to see Green Lantern's line and it was already around an hour wait. The Parachutes had no wait so I stopped there just in case they aren't there next season and from the Parachutes saw Superman had at least a 30 minute wait. It looked like I wouldn't be riding either of those coasters so I went to add parking to my pass that took around 15 minutes.

The Log Flume was closed, not that I expected it to be open so I went to Bizarro. It was a station wait and a little less than 10 minutes. The ride op at the microphone was excellent telling the other ride ops checking restraints to move faster as the line was getting longer. It was the fastest I have ever seen the ride dispatch with a train dispatching while 1 train was in the cobra roll and the 3rd train was getting to the final brake run.

I stopped at Runaway Mine Train which had no wait and got 3 rides, by then both sides of the Skyway opened up so there was no wait and I took the Skyway back to Dream Street. Skull Mountain was next. It was a 2 train wait and I walked around for another ride.

By now the major coasters were getting very long waits. I checked Nitro's line and saw it had a full queue, something I have never seen before in person. I decided to take the Skyway back to Frontier Adventures
and rode the Runaway Mine Train again which now had a station wait and went to Plaza Del Caranval. Tango had no one in line so I went there and checked out Rolling Thunder. Only the right side was open with the line down the stairs and into the 1st switchback. That had to be around a 30 minute wait if not longer so I decided against riding.

The arcade still had the 1/2 price special on video games so I stopped there for around 20 minutes. $0.25 - $0.50 for arcade games is a great deal. I also noticed the store that used to be Six Flags Kids had everything 50% off. There were some adult shirts but the only one I saw that I liked just said Six Flags and not Great Adventure on it so I didn't want to get it since it could have been from any Six Flags park.

Blackbeard's had no wait so I got 3 rides there and went back to Skull Mountain for 2 more rides. This is the only problem I had during the entire night. Normally when there are no Flashpass users, they allow people from the regular line to board car 5 which is reserved for Flashpass. Sometimes the ride ops even ask for people to fill in that car like earlier in the night. The current ride op at that area was refusing to allow non Flashpass users to sit in that car. I went to the car like normally and tried to sit down and he told me that car is for Flashpass users only. I didn't feel like saying something but what is the point of sending out the car empty? There was a line, less than 10 minutes but still a line and he should have let people use that car if there were no Flashpass users waiting.

I checked Nitro's line, it was in the switchbacks so I didn't feel like waiting. Even The Dark Knight had around a 25 minute line. It was a little after 10:00 at this point so I went back to the Boardwalk, stopped at the Parachutes again which still had no wait and checked out Green Lantern's line. It was a little before the 60 minute sign and it took just under 30 minutes using the single rider line which had a lot more people than normal in it. It was 10:54 when I exited the ride and went back to get 1 more ride since the line was just past the 30 minute sign, with it being around 15 minutes again using the single rider line.

I didn't get to my car until 11:30 and it was the first time I was at the park from open to close (although it was only 5 1/2 hours), I just didn't want to leave knowing I won't be back until next March or April.

It was strange all night how the major coasters had longer than normal lines for a Friday night year most of the smaller coasters had little to no wait. Normally when the major coasters have an hour or longer wait, even the smaller coasters still are around 20 minutes. I also noticed the only kiddie section open was Safari kids. I guess that meant there wasn't a whole lot of rides for younger kids to choose from but considering there were signs up saying the kiddie areas close at 6 (maybe on Saturday and Sunday?), it was better than nothing. I got a lot of rides in 5 1/2 hours, more than anyone got in that amount of time on Saturday probably.