Great Adventure 9/9/12 and 9/16/12

9/9/12

I thought crowds would be low with it being the first day of the NFL season for almost all teams and the first weekend after school started so people would have other things to deal with rather than going to a park.

I got to the park at 3:45 and went to The Dark Knight first. It was about 15 minutes and thankfully the air conditioning is working in the pre-show room. Nitro was next with a 10 minute wait and I walked around for another ride. It was nice to see the rapids open after Labor Day since the sign at the entrance says the ride is only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day and with 1 side open it was very popular with the queue house with the switchbacks full. It was probably around a 45 minute wait.

Skull Mountain was after that and I stopped to say hi to Shelby at the entrance. I picked a middle row since that had no wait and walked over to the Tea Cups which I had not ridden this year.

Green Lantern had a line almost to the 30 minute sign and was around 10 minutes using the single rider line including waiting to get to the entrance of the single rider line. Dispatches were a little faster than last week. I tried to ride Kingda Ka since it's been 3 months since I have ridden the coaster but when I got to the entrance I saw it had broken down so turned right around and walked through Safari Discoveries to Plaza Del Carnaval.

Rolling Thunder had both sides open so I took advantage of that and went to the left side and had a 1 train wait. I wish the left side was open more often since it is smoother.

Next was Runaway Mine Train with a 1 train wait. From there I saw the Log Flume had a long line so I skipped it for now and went to the Skyway.

It was very nice to see both sides of the Skyway running and it was a little over a 5 minute wait. I went back to Skull Mountain for 2 rides and then to Nitro for another 2 rides.

I then went to the Skyway again which has basically no wait and they still had both sides running. The Log Flume now had no wait and since I doubt I will see it open again this season (since I don't expect it to be open on a Friday night for Fright Fest) I stopped there. I was told to go to the front of the boat which didn't work out so well. I don't know if the boat had a leak in it but water kept going in on the sides and bottom of the boat and worse someone was at the coin operated sprayers at the end of the ride so I got soaked. I would like to see them turned off before Memorial Day and after Labor Day.

It was around 20 minutes until closing and decided to finish the trip at Bizarro. It was a 1 train wait and then I had to walk around for another ride. Unfortunately operations are still very bad at the ride with slow dispatches and I got back to the entrance 4 minutes before closing which I was afraid would be too late for a 2nd ride after a few weeks ago being turned away from Kingda Ka with the same 4 minutes before closing. I was on the 2nd of the last train and I noticed that when they had to send an empty train so our train and the last train could exit, then they started checking restraints faster so they could leave. 

9/16/12

I got to the park at 12:20, later than I would have wanted to but because I got home late the night before there was no way I was going to drive to the park tired and saw it was more crowded than last Sunday (walking past Superman in the parking lot it looked to be around 45 minutes) even though the weather was the same and both days were bring a friend free days.

I went to Frontier Adventures first and saw the Log Flume had around a 30 minute wait, Runaway Mine Train's line was out of the station and past the stairs and Bizarro had to be around 30 minutes too (accounting for the slow dispatches) so decided to take the Skyway over to the other side of the park waiting a little less than 5 minutes since both sides were open. From the Skyway it looked like Green Lantern had almost an hour wait and probably around 30 minutes for the single rider line by the time you wait in the regular line to get to the single rider line.

I thought Nitro would probably have a long line but it was just before the snack bar and was around 10 minutes. I walked around for another ride waiting a little longer and then went over to Batman waiting around 15 minutes. The rapids were still open but I am guessing this was it's final day of operation for the season since Fright Fest starts next week. When I walked past Skull Mountain, I saw it was closed.

The Skyway still had a short line so I went back to the other side of the park and saw Tango had no one in line and stopped there and then went to Rolling Thunder. Both sides were open so I went to the left side only to see that the line was almost out of the station while the right side had less than 10 people waiting so I went back to the queue and walked over to the right side. Dispatches were a little faster than normal.

I checked the Parachutes and Green Lantern and both had long lines, but the Parachutes had all 4 sides open with 8 parachutes running which I have never seen before and great to see. I also saw Twister was closed and didn't even go into the Golden Kingdom since I thought Kingda Ka would have a longer line than I would be willing to wait for it.

Even Blackbeard's had 3 switchbacks full and Skull Mountain had reopened with a line into the cave so I went back to Nitro. The line was just before the switchbacks start and the ride op at the entrance was telling people it was an hour wait. There was no way that was accurate but I saw some people not get in line and others get in line only to turn around and leave when they saw how long the line was (thinking it was more than an hour since the line was past the 60 minute sign). It ended up being just over 20 minutes.

The Dark Knight looked to be around 30 minutes since there were some switchbacks full and it had to be at least a 2 or 3 preshow wait.

I had to leave soon and went back to Skull Mountain waiting a little over 15 minutes. On the way out of the park I saw Fender Bender's queue was overflowing.

It was an ok trip to the park, not one of my better trips to the park this year but not close to being my worst either. If I go on a Sunday the rest of the year, I'm going to get there at opening so I can at least get an hour and a half of rides in with short waits.

I got to the park at 12:20, later than I would have wanted to but because I got home late the night before there was no way I was going to drive to the park tired...



This could have been prevented, if there was a hotel on site.

Just sayin'.

If Six Flags needed a hotel, they would have already built one. :)

I wanted to say the following, but my fingers automatically typed the above instead...

If Six Flags had an onsite hotel, I would assume that it would be overpriced, very crowded, and half the rooms would be closed off due to staffing issues or broken hairdryers or shower heads. Maybe that's why they wont build a hotel there. :D