Great Adventure, 10/22/10

Even though it was going to be a cold night and windy, I knew going to the park on Saturday or Sunday was out of the question since it is likely going to be jammed so I decided to go tonight instead.

Thanks to traffic on the NJ Turnpike I got to the park at 5:30 and went right to Bizarro. 2 trains were running with not too much stacking. It was a 1 train wait and just crowded enough to have to walk around each time. I got 3 rides and went to Runaway Mine Train and also got 3 rides there without leaving the station.

I was going to stop at Rolling Thunder but decided to go to Kingda Ka first before the park got more crowded. I picked the perfect time to get in line as it was testing from a breakdown and they let people in the queue about a minute later.

It seemed like a lot of people had never been to an amusement park today with the way they were acting. I'm not talking about someone saying saying some fact about a coaster and it being wrong but just not understanding things. Everyone is going to the right side of the station with only a few people on the left side. I went to the left side and got in line for the front row which was empty. There weren't enough people to fill the trains so the ops are waving at people asking them to come over to the left side. The ops then get on the microphone and ask people to walk over to the left side of the station and this is while the right side of the station had all rows with a 1 or 2 train wait. They then tell everyone that there are stairs behind them and to take them and get right on the ride. They still didn't come over and it took over 5 minutes for the trains to get full. That was just the beginning since I ran into those type of people all night.

I always forget how much your face gets pulled in the front row and went back for a 2nd ride again on the left side of the station because everyone was still going to the right side of the station which was now packed.

I went back to Rolling Thunder, just the right side was opened and 2 trains were running. Someone sits in a row of the train, decides they want to move to sit with their friend after they are buckled the belt and then asked the op how they can get out of the seat to change rows. This is with the buzz bars still not lowered. The op told her all she had to do was unbuckle her seatbelt.

The parachutes had opened, the front side had a long wait, the parachutes in the back had only a few people in line. Again, everyone goes to the right for the front parachutes and had at least a 20 minute wait while the back parachutes were just over 5 minutes.

Superman looked to be at least 30 minutes so I skipped it and went to process my 2011 pass. It took about 30 seconds and I was glad to get it over with than have to deal with a possible long line next year.

I went to Nitro next and the line was in the 1st switchback. I never expected that but since this is probably my last trip to the park this season I decided to wait. The line moved very quickly and it was just under 20 minutes including waiting an extra train for row 9. With 3 trains running, the line barely stops moving.

Skull Mountain was next, 2 train wait and I walked around for another ride. The Skyway was open but had a long line with 1 side open. I went to Blackbeard's and got 2 rides in and decided to see if Nitro had a shorter wait. This time it was just past the 60 minute sign but the line moved a little slower than last time and was 15 minutes. Batman had a line just before the garden area so I didn't wait for it today.

The Dark Knight had a 1 show wait to get into the pre-show, no re-rides today since there was at least 30 people waiting in line after the pre-show.

I went back to Skull Mountain for another 2 train wait, and when I exited the ride I saw they were just about to open the right side of the Skyway. I was the first and only person in line and while I am walking onto the ride, I see that with the right side open with no one else in line, people are still getting in line for the left side which had at least a 20 minute wait.

I figured if the line was short on the Frontier Adventures Skyway station, I would just exit and get back in line for a round trip but stopped at Runaway Mine Train for 3 more rides. Getting in line for the Skyway again, everyone was going to the left which had a short line. Everyone looked surprised at me when I went to the right side which had 2 people in line.

I went back to check Nitro's line and it was into the 1st switchback again and since it was getting very cold out (my phone said it was 42 degrees), I decided to leave.

It was a little more crowded than normal for a Friday night but still not too bad. I'm not sure if I am going to try to go to the park next Friday night or not since it is Halloween weekend and I am sure it will be even more crowded.

I'm likely to go on Halloween itself. I've been in parks on Halloween, but not GAdv, so I'm not sure what to expect, with it being Halloween AND the last day of the season.

Crowds were heavy this weekend. Saturday was a monster! Harbor lot was completely full. Was just insanity. Glad you had a fun visit though.

I can only imagine how long lines were. I remember a trip in April where the main lot wasn't even full and Kingda Ka had a 2 1/2 hour line, GASM was 45 minutes. It was so bad all I rode was Nitro with an exit pass and still had to wait 20 minutes and The Dark Knight at 25 minutes and left. If the main lot, 2nd lot near the drop off area and Hurricane Harbor's lot was full I guess lines could have been 3+ hours for the major coasters?

Mike Gallagher said:
I'm likely to go on Halloween itself. I've been in parks on Halloween, but not GAdv, so I'm not sure what to expect, with it being Halloween AND the last day of the season.

I think it will be very crowded and I am a little concerned about crowd behavior since the last time Halloween was on a Sunday and closing day was 2004 and there were supposedly riots at the park.

I was searching and found the link here:

http://www.gadv.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6706&st=30

"I certainly consider what I saw that evening a riot. Due to the ongoingbrawls from the Batman ride and in the Nitro line (due to uncheckedline cutting), some genius decided to shut down Nitro. So people whohad been waiting for 4 hours broke the airgates and rioted. Stores werelocking up for fear of being looted. Cops from 14 differentmunicipalities showed up. There were two police helicopters, one overthe parking lot, one in the park. Police in riot gear "helped" (PCterm) the park do a "hard close" (PC term for LOCK DOWN) and forcedpeople out of the park. And I beg your pardon, there WERE BRAWLS in theparking lot. Channel 10 news taped it from their news helicopter. Thevideo was up on their website for MONTHS after the incident. There werevarious news report articles that confirmed how many differentmunicipalities showed up at SFGA and eyewitness accounts of the riotand the police in riot gear."

Someone else said: "1. There was *no* riot on Halloween in 2004, it never was a riot. Itwas 2 different small fights that drew a large amount of onlookers, dueto the attendance (30,000 in the park all at once) the atmosphere wasvery charged and a police officer called in for "help"....lots of"help" came and helped clear the park but by the time they got thereboth fight situations were undercontrol and the areas were settleddown. The parking lot was jammed but no riots there either."

Yoshi,

Superman was past the parachutes and El Toro was over the bridge. Ka went to the corner market.

Wow, it takes a few minutes just to walk through Superman's line when it is empty since it is such a long queue so to have it all the way to the parachutes must have been at least a 3 - 4 hour wait. El Toro sounds almost as bad. Is the corner market the store near Temple of the Tiger or the store right near the exit of KK? Either way that sounds like it was probably a 3+ hour wait too.