Associated parks:
None
7/24
Six Flags Great Adventure
Well, this was supposed to be the annual family jaunt to the park, except this year, we’d be going without my father. But, instead of leaving at 6 am, we decided to see what the weather would be like, thought it would rain, overslept, and finally decided to go to the park anyway at around 1 p.m.
We arrived shortly after 4 p.m. My mother paid to enter ($25 or so with some coupon) and I used my Bring A Friend Free coupon for my brother.
We immediately headed for Batman & Robin: The Chiller, even though I was worried it’d be a long, long wait.
B&R: THE CHILLER – I was surprised to see a pleasantly short wait of about 20 minutes – for each side! Both sides of the ride were operating at the same time, and I don’t think I’ve seen that happen since the year it reliably opened. Not only were they both running, but they were /almost/ racing, too. Not quite, but almost.
We hoped in line for the Robin side, since I hadn’t gotten a ride on it with lap bars yet (rode the Batman side on 5/31, though). Again, the retrofitted trains are a huge improvement. The cobra roll is amazingly forceful throughout, with a consistent and noticeable downward force. Wow. I prefer this over the Top Hat, easily.
7 of 10, if only because it’s too short, or something. It’s still lacking a bit compared to some other coasters I love.
We only managed one ride yesterday. We decided that, rather than wait in line again, we wanted to experience as many rides as we could in the few hours we’d have at the park. Of course, later, during the evening, the Robin side valleyed. I didn’t get to see it happen, unfortunately, but I noticed it wasn’t running, and then spotted the train sitting up inside the Cobra Roll. . . . what a neat site to see. Robin has the distinction of being the second coaster I’ve seen valleyed, after Cedar Point’s Gemini.
NITRO followed, with a reasonable 25 minute wait. We hopped into the back seat, but the ride just didn’t deliver yesterday. I think it was the mild weather, but I’m not sure. The airtime was there, but it seemed tamed, somehow.
6 of 10 for yesterday, though I’d give it a 7.5/8 of 10, usually. We rode this again after dark, and it seemed about the same.
SKULL MOUNTAIN – I can’t ever pass up a ride on Skull Mountain, and I probably enjoy it more than most other rides in the park. The pop of airtime you can get in the backseat is a blast, and a great fix for a coaster that usually has short wait times.
6 of 10 for one cool moment of airtime, though the coaster seemed unusually rough for an Intamin, yesterday.
GREAT AMERICAN SCREAM MACHINE – Free frontal lobotomy! Some ouch, though it didn’t seem as bad as it has in the past. Still, the course does nothing for me. The train stopped on the midcourse break run.
4 of 10 – the MCBR should be used for emergencies only.
RODEO STAMPEDE – This is a Huss Breakdance which is usually pretty mildly run as compared to some other places. Yesterday was no exception. It could be that the weight distribution in our cow was pretty even, too, but we didn’t spin much, if at all.
4 of 10 – The weakest Huss ride I’ve been on, ever.
ROLLING THUNDER – Weep. Sob. Cry. Why has this ride been neglected so much? It seems as if it’s getting progressively worse with time, and yesterday’s ride offered no airtime at all.
3 of 10. Ouch. A little bit of grease goes a long, long way.
RUNAWAY MINETRAIN – I like this Arrow minetrain a good deal. It’s fast paced, and it has some airtime. That’s not bad, in my book.
5 of 10 – I’m too tall to comfortably fit into the trains.
HOUDINI’S GREAT ESCAPE – I’m so happy to see this operating on regular basis this season. It’s probably the most unique ride in the park, and it’s a great amount of fun. I love the sensations it provides, and it’s almost equally fun watching other people try to figure it all out. I love riding this with first-timers.
7.25 of 10 for being a unique flat ride, and for Great Adventure making an effort at theming and story.
PENDULUM – A Huss Frisbee. Though, again, they seemed to be running a really, really weak program. Yesterday was not a day for flat rides, unfortunately.
BATMAN: THE RIDE – Hooooowhee. This coaster is still intense. It makes me wonder why some other prototypes aren’t nearly as adventuresome as these rides were. I mean, seriously, look at the first Inverted coaster as compared to, say, AIR (from appearances, anyway).
8 of 10 – For being an awesome invert, maintaining great speed, and making my feet all tingly.
GREEK FESTIVAL – For dinner, we decided to peruse the Greek Festival. Somehow, I managed to get my dinner from Smokin’ Bruce’s Texas BBQ! How and why this is supposed to fit into the Greek Festival, I’ll never, ever know. The whole festival idea stunk of crass commercialism, the food was pricey, and 95% of the exhibitors weren’t even there. This made the park look hokey and carnival like, and I’d rather see them spend money on adding some lighting to the park. It looks dreary and desolate at night.
2 of 10. Ick. I want Greek people serving me my Texas BBQ, dangit!!
MEDUSA – Fun as always. Again, all the rides seemed weak today. I blame the weather. This was our longest wait of the day, by far, at about 45 minutes. They were only running two trains. Barring mechanical difficulty, this seem like an obtuse decision when the ride’s got the longest wait in the park and you just lost Batman & Robin: The Chiller for the night, and the next several days.
7 of 10 yesterday. Weak for some reason. I like the ride, though.
All in all, it was a nice few hours spent at the park, but the place just doesn’t grab me the way it used to as a child. I’ve been here far too much, and I crave some things that this park can’t offer me, like outstanding wooden coasters, amazing attention to detail, or even unique rides (that are open!!)
Grr. Jump was not operating, again. I looked around for the mystical, magical, "A Flyer is coming" flags, too. The only thing I could see were two sticks and tree, each with a pink ribbon tied around them. That area, I'd bet, is also way too small for a Flyer.
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~~~ Maddy ~~~
*** This post was edited by Chernabog on 7/25/2002. ***
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Sean
Well, I, too, went to SFGAdv yesterday. Instead of making my own topic, I'll just add to this one. The weather in the morning wasn't as good as it was later in the afternoon, but we still got to ride all the major coasters, including BOTH sides of the Chiller and BOTH sides of Rolling Thunder! Even Viper was open! Anyway, on to some random notes...
--Medusa started out with ONE train operation! Since when have I seen this! And on a not-so-crowded day, too!
--Viper was its usual lousy self, and it, too, only ran ONE train.
--I actually had a cool ride on Rolling Thunder yesterday! The left side was open first, and that's when I got the good ride. Take seat 1.2 on the left side of RT. I actually experienced airtime, and on the first camelback after the turnaround, there was nice air to be had! If you ever get the chance to ride this seat, do so. Perhaps the rain added to the performance. The left side didn't seem to squeal as much on the first turn after the station as the right side does. Now, get this. They started out with the left side with one-train operation. Then, later on, they opened up the right side with two-train operation. Well, they closed off the left side, but there were still people waiting to get on. So, for every other train on the right side, they would have people FROM THE LEFT SIDE step through the train (on the left side) and board the train on the right side! People going between and/or over the bars in the middle of the station! What kind of operations are these!?!
--Chiler actually ran both sides today. When was the last time I've seen that? Perhaps it was July 16, 1999, but I could be wrong. I finally rode the Robin side with the lap bars. The Cobra Roll was pretty smooth, at least on the forward run. I still like the Batman side's tophat. It's more unique than a cobra roll. How many cobra rolls are out there, as compared to the 3 (excluding Xcellerator) tophats that exist. I didn't catch the Robin side valleying, though. The Robin side sounded like it was scrapping something while on the incline, though perhaps I heard Batman do it, too, but possibly not. Maybe it was the fins scraping the LIMs?
--Nitro was the only coaster that ran 3 trains yesterday that I know of.
--It's a good idea of them to put those water things near the log flume so guests can get other guests wet, and they're only a quarter.
--I don't like the Lo-Q Fast Lane. It is basically a way for guests to pay to cut the line. And it didn't work like the old Fast Lane. They didn't have an entire car on the coasters set aside just for Fast Laners. I'm not sure if there was any order or method to where riders rode with this new system, though. Perhaps the ops just told them where to go, or maybe they asked them? And the ops didn't always (if they did at all) let the people waiting in that queue know what was going on--or maybe I just missed something. Can someone else confirm this?
--They stopped letting me use my SFA parking pass there. $10 is a lot to pay to park at a theme park.
--They actually had more rides operating than they did on one or more of my previous visits, but it could have been more crowded, too. At least I FINALLY got to get food at Best of the West.
--The festival area didn't look that good from what I saw of it, though the arches were ok looking.
--The parachute ride was actually open, as well as the Poland Springs Plunge (formerly Riptide). Also, the Log Flume actually opened at the beginning of the operating day, or at least closer than I had seen it earlier this season.
--SFGAdv has one of the higher or highest capacity skyrides that I've ever seen. So, do they ever run boths sides? I actually saw the back side operating yesterday. Perhaps I usually see the front side operating.
Anyway, thanks for reading. As long as parks like Hershey and Busch Gardens stay as good as they are, we'll at least have somewhere to go that's higher quality.
Ben
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"So ya want thrills? Get God and your life will NEVER be the same!"--Ben Ashley
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