Great Adventure, 9/3/13

When I found out that the park was staying open during the week after Labor Day, I had hoped to get a trip to the park in since I figured with some schools already in session and others not knowing the park is open since the days were added so late in the season that not many people would be there. I expected at the worst lines would be 15 - 20 minutes, Crowds were even less than that with everything having a station wait or less. Getting to the park at 3:45, I had 4 1/4 hours to get in as many rides as I could.

I went to The Dark Knight first since I saw the pre-show door was open. Even though it was only 81 out, it was really hot in that room and I'm glad I missed half the pre-show because it was uncomfortable just standing there for a few minutes. Since there was no one waiting, I was able to get a re-ride. At the end of the ride, there is a light that projects green, red and blue lights onto the wall which I think is new/

Nitro had 2 trains running and was a 2 train wait for the last row. I walked around for another ride and walked onto the last row. Dispatches were a little slower than normal because I think a new ride op was being trained.

Skull Mountain was next with no wait. I got 2 rides in the last row and then moved to the 6th car which didn't have nearly as much airtime as the last row.

Blackbeard's had no wait and they are back to giving only 1 lap per cycle.

I wanted to get to Rolling Thunder so I went there next and saw the longest line of the day with a half full station. It was a 2 train wait and then I walked around and went for the front row. It ended up taking around 15 minutes even though it was only a 4 train wait. This was my first ride in a non wheel seat this year and it wasn't much worse than a non wheel seat. I decided to go to some other rides and then go back to Rolling Thunder later in the day.

Since I missed Kingda Ka my last few trips to the park because of the line (no way was I waiting 90 minutes for that coaster or any other coaster at a local park). This time, it was a 2 train wait and I walked around for another ride. At the entrance, the greeter had the height check stick over the queue bars and was asking people to do the limbo to get into the queue.

Green Lantern was only running 1 train but had no wait unless you wanted the front. It was the same with Superman.

I was going to skip Runaway Mine Train to save time but when I saw the Log Flume was closed I took the time to stop for a ride. Like most rides today, there was no wait. I was surprised to see the Log Flume closed especially since the Congo Rapids were open but I guess they might have not had a lot of employees able to work today since I saw people running rides in dress shirts and some coasters like Green Lantern and Kingda Ka only had 2 people checking restraints instead of the usual 4 people they have.

Bizarro was running 1 train with no wait. They moved the entrance to where it used to be as Medusa and I noticed the test seat was also removed.

It was 7:30 and with a half hour left until closing I went back to Rolling Thunder and got 3 more rides. Like my final ride on Scream Machine in June 2010, it was a little strange knowing that it was the last time I was ever going to ride the coaster. I will miss the ride but not as much as I miss Scream Machine.

It was nice to get an extra trip to the park in and I hope next year they also stay open for the weekdays right after Labor Day.