Great Adventure, 10/23/09

I felt like it was last weekend all over again, the big decision of going to the park or not. Since the rain wasn't supposed to start until 7, I figured I could get a few hours of coaster riding in.

I got to the park at 5:15, and saw there were maybe 200 cars. Kingda Ka was either testing so even though it and Scream Machine (which was running with riders) were on the closed rides board I went there first. It was closed because of the weather (it was drizzling a little).

Rolling Thunder ended up being the first ride of the day. Only the right side was open with just the red train running but it was still a walk on. From Rolling Thunder I saw El Toro was running 1 train with a station wait.

I went to Bizarro next, 2 trains running and it was a 1 train wait. The fire was on today and the shield mists either weren't on as strong or it was the wind blowing it away so it wasn't that bad today especially since it would have been horrible with it cold and windy out. I got 3 rides only having to walk around once.

Runaway Mine Train was running 1 train but was another walk on. The Skyway was closed but that was to be expected.

Nitro was going to be the next ride but it was closed and the excuse was weather. They said they weren't sure when it would re-open. That didn't sound good and I was really looking forward getting a lot of rides in.

I went to Skull Mountain, 2 trains running and just enough people that you had to change seats after each ride. I got 3 rides and saw Nitro was now running with 2 trains with a station wait. When I went back for a 2nd ride, the line was a little down the stairs and when I walked past the line after that ride the line was getting close to the 60 minute sign. I guess it may not have been open at all before that so everyone went to it when it opened.

The Dark Knight had a small wait outside but I got into the next pre-show. There was a small delay with the ride so the line after the pre-show had not moved and after it ended, the line was backed up not moving at all. After a few minutes it started moving but ended up being about a 20 minute total wait (5 minute pre-show, 15 minutes in line) which was the longest wait of the night.

I stopped at Blackbeard's which now has a permanent queue with 2 switchbacks and another set of switchbacks that can be used if necssary with rope. I got 1 ride in the front and another in the last row.

Scream Machine had 2 trains running with a completely empty station so I went for the front. Not rough at all today, so I moved to the 3rd row for a re-ride.

Superman also had 2 trains running, the line was 15 minutes. They weren't using the switchbacks but when the line got longer they decided to use them and this allowed a group of 7 or 8 to cut in line right near where I was. Another group of 3 confronted them and the cutters gave the excuse that they were from the hood in Philly and not to start up with them. The group of 3 told security what happened but the cutters weren't thrown out of line or even talked to.

I saw Kingda Ka was running and expected a huge line but was shocked to find a station with some empty rows. Only the right side was open. The back train only had a 3 train wait for the front but considering how much Scream Machine was annoying with rain in the front row and knowing if the rain picked up Kingda Ka would be closed, I decided to just take an empty row. I went back for another ride again picking an empty row.

I was going to go back to Nitro but saw the line was past the 60 minute sign. With 2 trains running that had to be around 30 minutes and it didn't seem worth it since I had already been on the ride today and went back to Skull Mountain which was still a walk on and got a re-ride. I went back to check Nitro's line and it was now up to the snack bar but saw that not 2 but 3 trains were running so the line would move fast. It was only 10 minutes. By the time I exited the ride, I saw the line was a little past the stairs a few minutes later was a station wait so I went for another ride.

It was almost 10:00 and even though the park was open another hour I was getting kind of tired so decided to leave. I'm glad the rain held off for the most part and crowds were very light.

Ride Count:
Nitro, 4x
Skull Mountain, 5x
Bizarro, 3x
Runaway Mine Train, 1x
Rolling Thunder Right, 1x
Superman, 1x
Blackbeard's, 2x
Scream Machine, 2x
The Dark Knight, 1x
Kingda Ka, 2x

Yoshi, it was perfect the rain held off until just about 10:45pm. 7,500 in the park today. Not to bad. I expect Sunday to be packed though!

Yeah I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the park on Sunday. I heard one of the ride ops at Rolling Thunder say the same thing that they expect huge crowds.

Yup and a lot of idiots who think its cool to go to a family park and start trouble.

I have always never understood how people can go to a private property and cause trouble? Is the issue incompetant security, or lack of budget allowing for effecting policing of the park? That has always been my one complaint about many of the Six Flags parks.

Oh, and "from the hood" in Philly? HA... I spent many weekends in highschool "in the hood" and didn't learn what a shank was until a friend from central Jersey told me a few months ago! LOL

Scranton ain't the hood Phan. Not by a longshot.

Plus, Jersey is barely nature. You wanna see real nature, drag your butt up here to New Hampshire! I may live in thr 'burbs, but I can be in the middle of god-knows-where in less than an hour.

Hopman said:
Scranton ain't the hood Phan. Not by a longshot.

Plus, Jersey is barely nature. You wanna see real nature, drag your butt up here to New Hampshire! I may live in thr 'burbs, but I can be in the middle of god-knows-where in less than an hour.

That I realize, these days I find Scranton far more terrifying... however, I spent many weekends in Philly in my younger years while studing music with a couple of professors at Temple... yes Hopman, people from NEPA do actually leave their county as contrary to popular mythology! LOL

*However we can not spell all that great, so we must edit our posts!*

phoenixphan :-) said:
I have always never understood how people can go to a private property and cause trouble? Is the issue incompetant security, or lack of budget allowing for effecting policing of the park? That has always been my one complaint about many of the Six Flags parks.

There is plenty of security in the park, just in the wrong places. A lot of the times security is at the entrance to a ride along with a worker checking for loose articles. I also noticed they spent a lot of time in the stations.

When the line cutting incident happened, there were 2 guards in the queue talking to each other, their backs turned to the whole thing.

I really think they need to do what Dorney does and when there is a line, have a guard stay in the line looking around looking for line cutters. I know. Great Adventure used to have lifeguard type chairs in some lines where the guards sat above the line looking for line cutters but they haven't been used in a long time.

And even when the cutters were reported nothing happened to them.