Great Adventure, 5/19/10

With the park open during the week now, it is one of my favorite times of the year to visit the park since crowds are always low if you don't go on an event day (like physics day or student council day).

I got to the park a little after 2:00, first ride was Batman. 2 trains running with no wait except for the front row. I got 4 rides and went to Nitro next. Nitro also had 2 trains running and had no wait for a middle row. There is a lot of new stuff in the junk area near the first drop. There is I think Rolling Thunder's Green Train taken apart with the buzz bar padding missing and 8 bumper cars that none of which was there 2 weeks ago. I had to switch seats once but was able to stay on the same train for 5 rides.

Skull Mountain was next, 2 trains running and a 1 train wait for the back row. It was very dark inside the building today. I walked by the Wiggles show and it said there was a 3:00 show, I wasn't going to watch it of course but the park was so empty no one was waiting for it (and it was just before 3:00) which was strange to see.

After all those Nitro and Batman rides and being tired I was starting to get a headache and wanted to take a break from the coasters but that was difficult. The Big Wheel was closed, the Skyway was closed and the Log Flume was closed. I just decided to sit down for a few minutes before going to Runaway Mine Train. 2 trains were running here as well with most trains going out with single digit riders. I waited 1 train for the front and stayed for a re-ride without moving.

Bizarro was next, 2 trains running and a 1 train wait for a middle row. Dispatches were a little faster today than normal. I walked by El Toro and saw only 1 train was running but it looked like a station wait. Rolling Thunder just had the left side open with the red train running. The only empty row was the last row of the first car and it was very rough. I should have waited an extra train for a non wheel seat. It was nice not sitting on the brake run for a couple of minutes like when 2 trains are running.

Kingda Ka had the left side of the station open with 2 trains running, the right side of the station had 1 train in between the stations with the 4th train on the transfer track.

It was the emptiest I have ever seen the station except at rope drop on a slow day. The front rows had 4 - 5 train waits but there were many empty rows and they were asking for people to fill in the rows. After 1 ride, I walked around for another ride and saw a single rider was boarding the front row and asked the ride op if I could take the other empty seat. It's always nice to get a front row ride with little to no wait since it usually has way too long of a wait. I walked around again for a 3rd ride and after that they took of the teal train and were only running the Karate Kid train.

The parachutes had less than 10 people in line so I stopped there and went to Scream Machine which has now been taken over by Axe. There are Axe banners all over the entrance, in the line and in the station. The white train also has Axe wraps all over it but thankfully they were just running the red train which doesn't have ads on it.

Even though Superman was a walk on, I skipped it as I didn't feel like having my head tilted down on the brake run while they load the other train.

I stopped at Blackbeard's, Buccaneer and decided to try the Big Wheel. I had never ridden it before and had a solo ride, not just my own car but I was the only person on the ride. They gave you 4 rotations and it was weird to be riding a ferris wheel without stopping the entire cycle to load other people on the ride.

It was 5:45 at this point and I didn't feel like riding anything else and the park was closing in 15 minutes anyway so I decided to leave. It's too bad lines won't be like this in a little over a month.

Nice report. Always good to be at that park with short wait times. Are you going to be at Nitro Blast Saturday?

No, I have to work. It's a tradeoff I guess, some weekdays off so I can take advantage of going to parks when they are empty during the week but I have to work on some weekends as well.

Oh I wish I could have been there with you.

Me too Dave!

I liked GAdv, LOVE LOVE LOVE El Toro (my current #1), and the surprise coaster of the park for me was Skull Mountain. Love it. Still need that Ka credit as it was down when I went.

I also need Ka, it reopened 3 days after we were there last year. We have a trip planned for mid July hitting SFGA on either a Friday or Sunday. I am so tempted to jump in the car Saturday night and go Sunday & Monday. Only problem is the rest of my family especially my oldest daughter would kill me as she still has school.

I will be at Nitro blast on Saturday. I think it is going to be a blast to ride Nittro at midnight. This is my first ACE event so i am really excited

Dave, It was opened the day before (unbeknownst to me, or I'd have went), and then the day after. That was when it was having problems, and going in, I knew it would be down as I didn't think it had ran in a few weeks, but it was running sporadically. Had I went on Monday I would have gotten it.

Thankfully other than the 4th train not being used so far this year, the ride seems to be running better. I have yet to be waiting for the ride and having it breakdown which happened a few times last year. Dispatches seem to be a little faster this year too. I just hope there are no major malfunctions this year.