Great Adventure, 5/10/13

After not being able to get to the park the past 2 Fridays and hearing it was empty both days, I was really looking forward to this trip and hoping to get a lot of rides in.

I got to the park at 2:30 and there were a lot of buses as expected but also more cars than I was expecting. The park still wasn't crowded though.

First was Blackbeard's with no wait, they went back to the old loading setup where you don't get to wait in the station at the air gates while the train is cycling.

Skull Mountain was next with a station wait and Nitro was closed with some people waiting at the entrance. The Dark Knight looked like a 20 minute wait so I skipped it for now and went to the Skyway.

Both sides of the Skyway were open which was nice to see with the low crowds. Runaway Mine Train had an empty station so I got the front row and then moved to another row for a re-ride.

I wanted to see if Nitro was open yet so I took the Skyway back to the other side of the park. Everyone was in line at the Fort for 1 side of the Skyway while the other stairs were empty and they were cycling empty cars because no one was there. Once I got to the stairs, I went to the left side and walked past everyone on the right side and some people had a surprised look on their face that they were all standing there when they could have gone to the left side. After some people saw me go to the left stairs, others decided it was a good idea. It's amazing how everyone just follows everyone else and no one on the right side in line even realized they could go to the left side with no wait until they saw someone else go there first.

Nitro was open with 2 trains running and the line was just past the snack bar which probably would have been around a 20 minute wait. Before I got to that part of the line a kid from a school group ran in front of me and then 7 or 8 others joined them a minute later. I hate when that happens but it worked out ok. The ride kept breaking down and they decided to leave the line and a few minutes after that the ride started up again so they wasted time in line and didn't get to ride. They had to take off a train and go to 1 train after they tried running it with 2 trains and there was another breakdown. The total wait was around 40 minutes which probably wasn't worth it but I didn't want to leave the line after spending time waiting for the ride and then seeing it reopen a minute later. By the time I exited the ride, the line was almost up to the 30 minute sign and with 1 train it probably was around 30 minutes.

I went back to The Dark Knight which just had a wait to get into the pre-show, stopped at Deja Vu with no wait and then walked to the Boardwalk.

Green Lantern had a half empty station and I was able to get 2 rides. My 1st ride was my 50th lap at the ride and my 2nd ride was my worst Green Lantern ride. For some reason it gave me a really bad headache so the last coaster I felt like riding was Superman and skipped it again today.

The Parachutes had no wait with 3 sides running.

I went to the Golden Kingdom to Kingda Ka which had about a 5 minute wait to get into the station. Since the front row line wasn't much longer than the regular waits in the station (4 trains extra), I decided to wait and also to give me some more time for the headache to go away and also because it is much smoother in the front row compared to the rest of the train.

Rolling Thunder had no wait with just the right side open and 2 trains running. I got a non wheel seat and it wasn't too rough. Dispatches were a little faster than normal too.

Bizarro was running 2 trains with little to no stacking which was nice to see. I'd rather see 2 trains running with no stacking than 3 trains running and having the 3rd train always stack since it doesn't really make the line move any faster. I got 3 rides without having to leave my seat.

I went back to Runaway Mine Train again finding an empty station. I got 2 rides, took the Skyway back to the Dream Street Station which now had 1 side running with a 5 minute wait and finished the day at Nitro.

3 trains were now running at Nitro and the station was mostly empty. I was able to get 2 rides and then saw the train I was riding in was going to be the last train of the night and since no one was waiting for my row, I was able to get a 3rd ride. Some people from the previous train were waiting at the exit and asked if they could also go back to the ride since there were still empty rows and were told they weren't allowed to since they had already exited the station. I didn't see why it mattered if they had already exited but I'm sure there must have been a reason.

It was a great day at the park and it was the first time this season I got more than 20 rides in.