Great Adventure 8/24/08

Well, since I have already posted a million Great Adventure trips, I'll try and keep this one short.

Flashpass Gold: Thought about not getting one because it didn't seem that crowded earlier in the day, but I'm glad I did. With the exception of Medusa and Nitro, ride ops were sllloooowwww. I don't know if the crowds were actually that much worse than usual, as the park didn't seem that crowded, but Toro trains were dispatching approximately every 3-5 minutes.

I took my friend Tiff, who had never ever EVER been to Great Adventure. We did Superman first, and then headed straight to Ka. Tiff wanted a front seat ride, which I never have the patience to wait for, but we did the front seat. It would be the only ride on Ka we would get, so I was glad we waited. (Ka was shut down for the majority of the day). Plus, the front row seat is SO smooth. I got off the ride and laughed, "I have no spit." Tiff liked this ride better than everything else in the park, but I still like Toro better.

Did a Toro ride backseat. People got mad because we walked through to the back of the ride. Well, no one else was walking back there and leaving half the train empty. I think this station could really benefit from a little re-do so it isn't so confusing and crowded. Tiff loved Toro, but it only ranked as a number 2 for her compared to Ka. Then we waited for the front car for our second ride on Toro. I'm pretty sure there's not a bad seat on this ride. Front car was even smoother than the back, but it still felt nearly as forceful as the back. The drop is definitely better from the back though. Tiff was undecided which she liked better. Rode Toro four times total.

Tiff doesn't get unnerved by much, but the restraints on Nitro threw her for a loop. She said she felt a little unsafe. I could relate...I still remember my first ride on Nitro and asking to be stapled in until I couldn't feel my feet. Back seat was a little shaky, and for the first time, I noticed a braking on the...second hill coming down. Never heard or felt that before on Nitro. Bummer, but still an excellent ride. Love that first drop and the surprise bunny hop right before the station brakes.

Tiff agreed with me that the pre-show of TDK made no sense and was cheesy. She liked the coaster in terms of waiting for five minutes for flashpass to ride it. I said, "This is one coaster that definitely makes Flashpass worth it. How mad would you be if you waited for two hours to ride a mouse in a box?"

She also liked the Superman pretzel loop but agreed that the rest was a pretty forgettable ride. Medusa was "boring after El Toro". Locker rentals felt like an a**raping. It's great to go with someone who is pretty in sync with you for an amusement park experience.

People were really inconsiderate today. Everywhere we went, people rammed into us, swarmed us with their huge groups and separated the two of us...we were pushed, tripped, shoved, elbowed, stepped on...we'd walk calmly to our place in line for Flashpass and 10 people would just walk right past us to get in front of us. By the end of it, we were two irritable chicas. Leaving the park, people were walking in the middle of the road. Tiff was loudly muttering, "Yeah, just keep on walking down the middle of the street like there's not a car behind you." I was muttering too, but by this point, my mutterings were more like, "my car versus your legs? Car wins. Move." Unfortunately, muttering doesn't really do anything. I was tempted to roll up real slow behind a group of meanderers and honk my horn, but my luck, someone would have a heart attack. LOL Then they'd sue Six Flags for not having enough signs up stating that that part of the parking lot is the exit road.

Batman the Ride shut down just as we reached the station with our Flashpass. Tiff didn't want to re-visit later when it was up again because she was tired, and I told her that if she couldn't even remember having done Talon, Batman likely wouldn't do it for her anyway.

All in all, a pleasant day made more enjoyable with the Flashpass Gold and made less enjoyable by rude, rough people.

Well, I think that's it! :)

Bunky ---> Perhaps a significant number of college kids started thier fall migration...or took a day or two off before next week's final summer blowout.

That will certainly take its toll on the operations department!

I noticed operations were slower in the beginning of the season (April) but by mid May were much better. I hope this was just a bad day for operations and the rest of the season won't be like that.

I didn't notice a shortage of ride ops at all, but in Toro's case, there was a plethora of people who were OBVIOUSLY too big to ride, and the ride ops had to sit there and pound on the lapbars to get these people in. There was one guy who Tiff and I felt really bad for...the ride ops didn't even TRY to get him in, just took one look at him and said that he had to go. It was kinda sad. :( I liked the ride ops at Ka. One said, "This ride goes 128 mph and launches you 456 feet in the air. Don't cry." LOL

I was a little too hard on people. One thing I DID forget was that MANY times, the two of us would be standing in line and someone would say, "You can go in front of us." We also had some guys point out double seats on Medusa and Nitro, creating a walk-on situation, and the attendants at Dark Knight saw that we were a twosome and loaded us before about 10 other people. That helped a lot because even with Flashpass, we usually waited about 5-10 minutes, usually more.

Oh, and the guy at Flashpass couldn't find my driver's license and laughed when I said, "Oh, so what's the reimbursement for losing my driver's license? Do I get to keep Flashpass?" He found it then. Damnit. LOL I need to get my name changed on the license anyway, so it wouldn't have been a huge deal. Hehehehehe...

I really wish the park would add single rider lines, that would help with the number of empty seats going out on trains, especially the 4 B&M coasters.

I don't notice too much of a problem at the B&M's actually because people see an empty seat and they typically jump into it. Still, a single rider line COULD really alleviate some of the confusion on a lot of these rides.