Great Adventure's Greatest Columbus Day Ever!

I know, I was just here last week on a Friday, but I was in the area again for NJAA Day, and the weather was outstanding.

I saw the traffic back up, but the way to avoid all of that mess is to come in from Rt 537. Period. I called all of my favors for exit passes, since it appeared there would be over 30,000 in the park. Turned out to be true. Monday was one of Great Adventure's top 3 attendance days.

I took the drive into the safari, and I just want all New Yorkers to know that the middle lane is for 'thru' traffic, not "we have never seen a elephant before" so lets stop lane.

While its a shame that the baboons and some New Yorkers are fenced off, the giraffes were out in force, along with bears and rhinos near the cars.

Had a comp parking pass, but paid $5 for preferred parking, which left us by Superman. Again, people should not walk in traffic lanes. YOu 2 kids with the limp, deal with it.

Hit the park. Exit pass to El Toro, walk on. I loved this ride in daylight. (see Chembacca's Adventure on last TR). 10/10. El Toro is moving up my charts. Next, exit pass to Kingda Ka. WOW! Much better in daylight! 9.9/10. Love that back seat.

Off to Superman. Exit pass again, 7.5/10. I like the Vekoma models just a bit better, but the crew was moving pretty good. They shouldn't sell leather baseball Superman bats in the gift shop. What were they thinking? Skipped GASM.

Off to Nitro. Exit again, great ride. I think the operator is Australian, by the way. 9/10. Then across to Medusa, and the exit. 8.5/10. That is there best performing coaster by the way terms of capacity. Skipped the Mine Train. Nice rubber hatchets for sale in the TeePee.

Back across to Batman and up the exit. 8/10. Like a new ride with those new wheels. We did all this in 4 hours. Did the catered dinner. Left about 630, and back to El Toro. Up the exit, and saw the train at the base of the lift. Maintenence reset the cable and the ride was back up in 10 minutes. This time I had the last seat. What an airtime ride! 10/10. Baby was screamin!

Then of course, back to Kingda Ka. Back seat again in sunset. Will the excitement never end. Hate to say it, but Top Thrill Dragster is not better then this. Pretty damn close, but not better. Only heard of one roll back all day.

What can I say? Yes, the park was packed. But, food service was moving, and the items looked good. The games were flashed and staffed. Practically everything was open, and the shows were full. The decorations looked great in the daylight, and the actors were doing there jobs with enthusisam.

I am not sure why the lines grow longer with more coasters, but the fact is that there are less flats, which need to be replaced. They had some major lines for all there rides, and their kids areas were wall to wall.

You have to accept that El Toro with the seating and KIngda Ka with overheating will take some time to load, but adding a few more staff spots here and there will speed up Nitro, Batman, Superman, Medusa, etc. But, people complain about closures, so shifting to food, games, and retail, well, they were open and ready for action.

I skipped RT and the Mine Ride, but they had 2 trains moving along.

And what about GASM? Just for the record, I know Ron Toomer, and I know Fred Bollingbrook, the last CEO of Arrow, and if I ever see them again, they can be proud, GASM never broke down all day, had 2 trains running, and sounded as good as it did when it opened in 1989 as the tallest coaster in the world, even if it was only for 4 short weeks. I want to see what the B&M's are doing when they hit middle age. Ron Toomer can be proud. I hope he reads this.

Yes, I had some help with the lines, but the line for the q-bot or whatever was HUGE. And I never was on the exit with anymore than 1 party with those things. Not sure where those people were? The park was clean and happy. Overall.....9/10.

The park was PACKED, and the extremely poor operations showed everywhere. Even with a Gold Q-Bot, I waited an hour for Kingda Ka in the station with just six rides ahead of me. I got there early and only (haha) waited 45 min to get my Qbot since half the registers in the office were closed, but people I talked to later in the day mentioned waiting 2 hours to buy it. Not many of the food locatoins were anywhere near fully staffed that I saw. It took me almost a 1/2 hour to get my food from La Cucina since only one register was open and that person was also getting drinks for the massive line of people. It's a bad thing when operations on El Toro are so slow that the GP notices, complains, and even yells when a train is finally dispatched 6 minutes later. At least I have a new number one coaster and got on it 5 times! (El Toro, of course)

It sounds like a great day with good rides and an unbelievably efficent six flags staff. Its weird though that others had know where near the experience( i.e. rablat5) and called it "Columbus Day insanity -- Six Flags Great Adventure" lol

How in the world did you have such an enjoyable day?! I'm not the only one who saw their faults (see Michael19887 above). So you were one of those exit pass people who were taking away capacity for the rest of us!

Blast Six Flags for their preferential treatment of certain guests over others (excluding people who are physically handicapped). I don't like how they put people at different levels depending on how much they want to pay--basic (park admission), plus (flash pass), supreme (gold flash pass), and ultimate (VIP).

Run the park at capacity and get rid of all the legal line jumping and maybe I'll have less to complain about.

:) Thanks for the TR.

maybe you should go on a Friday like I told everyone in my last TR and walk on everything. Believe it or not, major parks have off days.

Those 'in the know don't tell', but this once I did. And for the record, those park people who visit my park get the full treatment too because they deserve it. BAM.

So how exactly did you get all these "favors" and exit passes and how can I score a few? :)

Work like 6 days a week from April to now, and pump it up to 80 hours a week June to Labor Day. Year after year.

Is anyone really surprised that 'industry folk' hook each other up? It happens in every line of work. Why would parks be any different?

Well I worked at Sesame Place as a ride op for four long summers...doesn't that count? ;)

Hey AJ -- was that you in the Kennywood shirt walking around with Shapiro all day? Look at the irony..... you work your butt of at one park for 6 months, and as soon as the season ends, you go "visit" another park for "vacation".... Sick.... *** Edited 10/17/2006 3:16:31 AM UTC by Hanging n' Banging***

It took me SEVEN Hours to ride FOUR Roller Coasters!

(Kingdom KA, El Toro, Superman:Ultamate Flight and Nitro BTW)

AFter riding those four Coasters It was 5:00, so I left the Park and headed into Philadelphia for Supper.

:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

See, you got on a lot of rides too. This rabbit-5 character said it couldn't be done.