Great Pumpkins, Dolphins, and Bats! 10/13/08

Tis the season. Arrived at Great Adventure about 11am. Beeline to thenew Dark Night coaster. Very nice Q and pre show. Line was moving fastwith the 'moving station' like HersheyPark's Mouse. The coaster itselfdoesn't spin or go nuts or anything. The inside scenery is great.

Dark Night isn't as intense as Exterminator, but its more agressivethan Skull Mountain, and can run in all weather. But, Six Flags, nomore indoor girly rides please. 7/10.

Burgers at Johnny Rockets. $32 for 2 platters. Ouch. 7/10. Needs to behotter when served. Nitro, 3 train wait for front. 3 trains running.9.5/10. Skull Mt, 2 train wait. 7/10. Some suprises inside. See foryourself.

Now the huge hot of the day. Skyride was open! Video'd the whole rideinto Frontier Town. What a suprise treat. 9/10. Shame on you parks whoremove yours. Minetrain was a 2 train wait. 6/10. So cramped.

Hit the 2:30 Dolphin Show. Saw the new 1 yr old sea lion fromCalifornia. Very cute. This show was all sea lion. Those dolphins aresomewhat lazy in this Pirate show. I sure miss Sea World Ohio. 7/10.

GASM, walk on, with 3 trains running. 8/10. Kingda Ka, 3 trainsrunning, 20 minute wait. They were throwing those trains out one afterthe other. I jumped at a single rider call, and it was for the frontseat. Nothing but wow-time. 9.5/10.

Catering started promptly at 5pm. Wings, fried chicken, beans, rice,salad was good. Steak was okay, but the ice cream cups saw better days.Flat coca cola. Not good. 6/10.

Can you believe they rent cabanas to park guests? Nice concept. Ohyeah, having to walk all the way around past the old Chiller buildingto get to the catering area, we will talk about that at IAAPA in myspeech.

Took a sunset ride on Nitro at 7pm. 10 minute wait for 2nd row. 9/10.How about in park spending? $12.99 souvenir bottles, $10.99 popcorn,etc. After my own heart. GM Mark Kane is not shy about agressiveprices. This is the flagship park, which meads me to believe that SFhas some dud GM's at the others that need to pick up the slack. Manygames were closed, but almost all of the f/b locations were open.That was positve. $5 for a walk through? I didn't stay, but they lookedpretty strong.

The park was clean, staffed, well decorated, and employees werebehaving. One observation. How many guests with 'bad limps' can climbthe exit steps at Nitro? Does 8 in a party seem excessive? Most seem tohave NY Yankees / Giants hats or shirts on. I see a pattern of abusehere. SF should also begin placing control points at exits to keeppeople in check.

Overall. 8.5/10.

I'm surprised to hear how empty it was, I thought it would be packed since NYC schools had off. Now I regret not going.