Great Adventure, 4/18/10

Another week, another trip to the park. I got there around 1:15 and thelot wasn't crowded but I saw Superman had about a 30 minute waitbecause 1 train was running.

First ride of the day was Nitro, 2 trains running and a 1 train wait.Just crowded enough that you had to walk around. The Dark Knight hadthe pre-show room open so I walked right in and waited only a minuteafter the pre-show room to ride. After that I went to Skull Mountain, 1train wait for the front, I forgot how little leg room there is in thefront seat of each car. I got a re-ride and went to Buccaneer since itwas loading and had no wait.

The Skyway was closed again this trip (it was on the closed ridesboard), unless it has something wrong with it, it is really a shame tosee it closed on 4 out of 5 trips to the park this season. The Teacupshad no wait so I stopped there next.

Blackbeard's was also loading but was having problems so I went toFrontier Adventures. I was expecting the Log Flume to have a very shortwait but was closed even though it wasn't listed as closed on theboard. It was in the mid 50's out and if they ran it opening weekend inthe 30's on Saturday and in the 40's on Sunday, I thought it would berunning today.

Runaway Mine Train was a walk on, one op refuses to dispatch the trainunless everyone on the train yells choo choo (they made 1 train yellchoo choo 3 times because they weren't loud enough), this is the 2ndtime this season I saw them do it. I might get some disagreement onthis but I kind of wish they would dispatch the train after asking oncebecause some people don't want to participate and it was causingunnecessary stacking. The other train was sitting on the brake runwhile this was going on.

Bizarro had 2 trains running, 1 train wait but no re-rides because eachrow had people waiting. I went back for 2 more rides and went back toRMT for 3 more rides thankfully with another op that wasn't askingpeople to yell choo choo.

Rolling Thunder had the left side open with 2 trains running, the rightside is having some track work done after the turn around.

Kingda Ka had 3 trains running and was the only real line of the day.It was a station wait which was 5 to a little under 15 minutes eachtime. I got 4 rides in a little under an hour.

Scream Machine had 1 train running, and was 1 train wait for the front.The op at the microphone was saying to check out Viper and The Chiller.I moved to the 3rd car for a re-ride.

Superman now had 2 trains running with no wait but I wish they stillhad 1 train running. Dispatches were very slow, worse than RollingThunder and I hate being on the brake run with your head tilted down soeven though I could have gotten re-rides I didn't take advantage of it.

I went back to Blackbeard's and Skull Mountain both walk ons and walkedback to Batman and Nitro. Batman had 1 train running but was a 1 trainwait for the last row. Forceful as always. Nitro still had 2 trainsrunning and also had a 1 train wait for the last row. I was gettingkind of tired and decided to leave after Nitro even though I hadoriginally planned to try to get another 5 or more laps on Nitro, plusI was almost there for 6 hours so it was getting late.

It was another great trip to the park with low crowds and I know in acouple of months the park will be jammed even on weekdays so it wasnice to get another trip in without dealing with lines.

Ride Count:
Nitro - 3
Batman - 1
Dark Knight - 1
Blackbeard's - 1
Skull Mountain - 3
Tea Cups - 1
Buccaneer - 1
Runaway Mine Train - 4
Bizarro - 3
Rolling Thunder Left - 1
Scream Machine - 2
Superman - 1
Kingda Ka - 4

No el toro?

Nice TR as always. I noticed on Nitro that the ride is pretty shaky in the back of one of the trains. Has that always been the case? Also, have you heard anything about the Nitro Blast coaster event on May 22?

I coulden't imagine going to that park and not riding El Toro.

The op at the microphone was saying to check out Viper and The Chiller.

And be sure to ride the Sarajevo Bobsled and Shockwave!

That's hysterical...

Mike

Gary Dowdell said:
Nice TR as always. I noticed on Nitro that the ride is pretty shaky in the back of one of the trains. Has that always been the case? Also, have you heard anything about the Nitro Blast coaster event on May 22?

Hey Gary,

Nitro is REALLY rough and shaky in the back this year. I'm hoping it's just an early-season anomaly, because Nitro as a whole has always been one of the smoothest coasters around. I've got a flyer/order form with all the details of the May 22 event. Drop me a message if you want the poop...I'll be glad to share. I'm not sure if I'll go, but I'm thinking about it.

Mike

crazy horse said:
I coulden't imagine going to that park and not riding El Toro.

Judging from the number of YoshiFan's TR's, he's already been (at least) 4 times in 3 weeks. I'd imagine skipping El Toro every once in a while isn't such a big deal...

Vater said:

crazy horse said:
I coulden't imagine going to that park and not riding El Toro.

Judging from the number of YoshiFan's TR's, he's already been (at least) 4 times in 3 weeks. I'd imagine skipping El Toro every once in a while isn't such a big deal...

I've never met the man but he has responded to previous TR's questions about not riding ET (that includes a query from me). His size at present is preventing a lap on ET but he has declared he his working on it. I wish him success. I've been off work for 4 mos. with surgeries to each wrist and I've put on an uncomfortable 20 lbs.

I have also noticed that the back of one of the trains is unusally rough on Nitro this year. It was much more pronounced when it was cold opening weekend than on easter when it was much warmer. So I believe it just needed to get warmed up.