Great Adventure, 9/20/09

Hoping for low crowds, I decided to take another trip to Great Adventure today. I got to the park around 4:00 and with an 8:00 closing, I figured 4 hours would be enough time for most of the coasters.

Nitro was first, 3 trains running and the line on the stairs. Great ride as always and I went back for a 2nd ride.

Skull Mountain had a line about 20 feet past the turnstyle, it was around 10 minutes for the back row. There was some more light in the building today, but the props are still dark.

Blackbeard's had a long line so I skipped it and went to Frontier Adventures. The Log Flume looked to be at least 30 - 40 minutes. Runaway Mine Train was running 2 trains with the line on the stairs but the dispatches were very slow. It was around a 15 minute wait mostly because of idiots in line. One guy spent a few minutes in the station arguing with 2 of the ops about his kid being too short to ride. He walked away and said the ops were were ****** idiots. Someone with some sense yelled to him that he should be more concerned about the safety of his kid. Another parent was with 2 kids and was expecting to be able to ride together even though they were waiting for the same row.

Bizarro had the 1st set of switchbacks almost full. 25 minute wait with somewhat slow dispatches. It wasn't really the ops fault, just that with only 2 people checking a 30 seat train, it leads to stacking and at times almost double stacking.

Rolling Thunder had both sides open earlier but by the time I got to the ride, only the right side was open.

IKingda Ka had no wait into the station, and I was able to find an empty seat on the train just loading so I waited about a total of 30 seconds. Other than my first time on the ride last season, this was probably the most nervous I have been about riding, after what happened with Xcelerator a few days ago (I know in that thread I said I wouldn't ride KK anytime soon but I couldn't pass up a walk on). The launch intensity took me by surprise again since I haven't been on the ride in almost 3 months. I went back for a 2nd ride, this time it was a 5 minute wait. I saw the front row had to be around an hour wait. I know the front row is better but why would someone wait an hour for the front when you can get another row with a 5 minute wait or less.

Scream Machine was running 2 trains earlier but now was just running the red train. Not too rough today. I also saw Superman's line had died down and the line was just slightly out of the station onto the stairs. Slower than normal dispatches and having your head tilted down on the brake run is annoying.

It was 7:25 at this point and I decided to walk back to Nitro. I saw a bunch of people walking out of the entrance thinking there was a breakdown. They had just finished taking 1 train off and went to 2 trains. I was surprised by this since with around 30 minutes left in the day, why not just keep the 3rd train on. The line was on the stairs and then on the station. After 2 rides, they were dispatching the last train of the night so I was able to stay on for a re-ride. When turning out of the station, I saw some people were walking in the line and someone from the station went to them in line to tell them the ride was closed. Unless they ducked under a chained entrance, if the worker at the entrance allowed them to enter the line, they should have been allowed to ride.

I probably won't be back to the park until Frightfest so it was nice to get an extra trip to the park in, especially since I doubt I'll see Kingda Ka with such a short line again the rest of the year.

Ride Count:
Nitro, 6x
Bizarro, 1x
Runaway Mine Train, 1x
Kingda Ka, 2x
Skull Mountain, 1x
Superman, 1x
Scream Machine, 1x
Rolling Thunder Right, 1x