Great Adventure 5/10/12

Today was Student Council Day at the park. The website said over 4000 students and advisors there today and that didn't sound too bad to me because I thought not many other people would be at the park beside the school groups but I still remember trip reports from a few years ago that said to avoid the day because it gets very crowded with 1 - 2 hour lines. Since this is the only day this week I could get to the park, I decided to take a chance and go hoping for lines that weren't too bad. I got to the park at 2:00 thinking schools would be leaving by 4:00 - 5:00 so the worst would be that I would go on the smaller coasters first and go on a few of the major coasters later in the day.

From the lot I saw Green Lantern was about 30 minutes and Superman was a little less than that so the park wasn't too crowded. I went to Nitro first which had broken down but started running again after I was in line for a few minutes. The end of the line was where the snack bar is and it would have been just over 10 minutes normally with 3 trains running but because of the breakdown and the first few trains being dispatched a little slow (possibly because of the breakdown), it took almost 20 minutes. I saw the line was past the 60 minute sign when I exited the ride and though I would go back to the ride later so I skipped Batman and TDK figuring I would go back to those rides when I went back for more Nitro rides.

Skull Mountain was next, 1 train wait for the last row and then I walked around for 3 more rides just having to change seats. One of those rides were in the front row and the ride was a lot different there compared to the last row that I normally take. There was no airtime and you could see most of the track ahead of you with the little amount of light in the building.

I checked out the progress on Adventure Alley and then it started to drizzle. Blackbeard's was next just having to wait for the next cycle and by the time I exited the ride, the rain had stopped. I walked over to Frontier Adventures waiting a little less than 5 minutes for the Log Flume and then going to Runaway Mine Train waiting 1 train and then getting 2 rerides. From the coaster I saw Bizarro had a line so I skipped it.

Rolling Thunder was a 1 train wait with 2 trains running on the right side with the left side closed, dispatches were still slow but the ride wasn't too bad in a non wheel seat.

I went to Kingda Ka with the line just before the Flashpass merge point but it had broken down and after waiting a few minutes and seeing that they were taking the train on the launch track back into the station, I got out of line not wanting to spend a lot of time in line for possibly nothing since I had less than 90 minutes left before the park closed.

Green Lantern now had no line into the station and was a 2 train wait. That is the shortest I have ever seen the line except at the beginning of Fall Family Fun Night last year. From Green Lantern, I saw Superman had a station wait and went there waiting 2 trains. I was going to walk around for another ride but after being stuck on the brake run for a few minutes, I had enough of my head tilted down and went back to Green Lantern for 2 more rides having to walk around since the station was just crowded enough for no re-rides. It amazes me how almost everyone insists on climbing over or through the railings of the switchbacks at the beginning and end of the station. It is almost as fast to walk through the switchbacks, especially at the end of the queue before the station. The 3rd train is still not put together.

Kingda Ka was running again and I wasn't sure if I should go there and hope it didn't break down again and then ride Bizarro or go back to the other side of the park and ride Batman, Nitro and TDK. I decided on Kingda Ka and had just over a 5 minute wait, I walked around for another ride waiting 2 trains but we didn't advance to the launch track after the previous train had launched. I thought the ride had broken down again but after around 2 minutes the train launched. Rather than go for more Kingda Ka rides, I went Bizarro.

Bizarro had 2 trains running with no wait, I'm not sure if 3 trains were running earlier in the day but I'd rather have 2 trains especially with low crowds since there was little to no stacking with the 2 trains and with 3 trains, there is always stacking and usually some double stacking. I got 3 rides without leaving my seat and had enough since I was starting to get a headache.

It was 5:51 and I was either going to Runaway Mine Train that was cycling empty trains or the Log Flume. I went to the Log Flume and I had a solo ride, I don't mean just my own log but there was no one else on the ride. After I boarded the log, I saw they closed the line even though it was 5:56. After I exited the ride, it was 6:01 so nothing was open so there was no where else to go rather than the exit.

I'm glad I took the chance and went today since the low crowds, especially after 4:00 when many schools left was a great opportunity to get a lot of rides in with short waits, especially some rides that always have longer waits.