SFGADV Fright Fest 10/13

Arrived at GADV with my brother and his roommate around 11:45 (park opened at 12). Unfortunately, we arrived to see a TON of school buses and many rows of cars. We weren’t too disappointed though, because we had planned on buying a Q-Bot. They didn’t let people past the front gates until 12, which was unusual, and it ruined my chance of getting on the first Nitro train.

We bought our Q-Bot, which was on sale for $7 a person plus a $7 initial charge. It ended up being $28 for 3 people. We first went to Chiller and waited in line because it was only a 5-10 minute wait. They were only running Batman, but I was just happy that it was open at all. It was my brother’s and his roommate’s first ride on Chiller and they both loved it, though they complained about being jerked around a bit. Next, we reserved Batman: The Ride and then Nitro. While waiting, we rode Stuntman’s Freefall, which was running nicely.

Then it was time for Batman: The Ride. It was a great intense ride, one inversion right after another. Then we had about 30 minutes until our reserved Nitro ride, so we stood in line for Nitro. We rode it and then got off and right back on with our reserved time. Then we reserved Nitro again and walked over to Skull Mt. We rode Skull Mt. after about a 10 minute wait, which was a great ride with many unexpected twists and turns.

Then it was time for our reserved Nitro ride. Each Nitro ride got better and better as the day progressed.We reserved Nitro and walked over to Frontier Adventures. While there, we rode Rolling Thunder, which was rough and hurtful. Then we reserved Medusa and went back to Gotham City to ride Nitro. We reserved Chiller and walked back to ride Medusa (front row), it was my best ride ever on it, and it was smooth and thrilling.

Then we went to Viper, but the wait was too long, and having been on it twice, I really didn’t feel like riding it again anyway.We walked over to Great American Scream Machine and waited less than 5 minutes with a 2 train operation. We piled into the 3 car of the white (Liberty) train and ascended the lift hill, only to come back down and go through 7 inversions extremely rough and hurtful. Unless it’s just the white train that’s bad, I have vowed to never ride GASM again.

Then we went back to ride Chiller and Nitro a few more times. Robin still hadn’t opened and I was getting worried that it wouldn’t open all day. As it got darker, the fog machines started to pour out fog constantly, and all of the “monsters” and costumed workers began coming out. Compared to last years Fright Fest which included: no fog machines, no costumed workers walking around, and no hurses (to my memory), this year’s rocked. There were at least 20 guys walking around with chainsaws chasing and scaring little kids. The decorations were great and the fog and music provided some great thrills. Good job this year on FF GADV!

Then we headed back to Gotham City to ride BTR and Chiller again. Both provided great rides, with even greater thrills because of the darkness and fog. Then we began our rides on Nitro to end the night. We kept using Q-Bot and standing in line to get a bunch more rides on it. We only got one front row ride, and it was amazing. It was about 7:30 (plenty dark enough, and I had sunglasses on to increase the thrills), also there was a bunch of fog gathered around the bottom of the first drop which made it amazing. There is so much airtime on Nitro, it’s not even funny.

However a couple of my rides were cut short of airtime because of a certain ride-op who will go unnamed… cough cough… Dorian … cough … cough. This guy stapled the hell out of me over and over and over. Somebody tell this guy what airtime is so he’ll stop stapling us coaster enthusiasts. Please fire Dorian.

I got 11 total rides on Nitro and each one was amazing. I also got the very last train of the night on Nitro with my lapbar only clicked down a couple of times, in the back row. It was AMAZING. The airtime was nonstop and I thought that I was gonna fall out a few times.All in all, it was a great day, and I can’t wait to go back next year, preferably on a day when Dorian isn’t working.

Although I didn’t get the first ride on Nitro, I did get the last and the fog and darkness made all the difference. Great FF this year!

Rating of the coasters:

GASM- 5/10 head banging anyone?

Medusa – 9/10 B&M, what more can I say?

Batman: Chiller – 8/10 Lapbars Lapbars Lapbars!

B:TR – 8/10 A little rough after 9 years of operation but still great!

Rolling Thunder – 4/10 Nothing special here.

Skull Mt. – 7/10 Nothing wrong with this ride.

Nitro – 11/10 Absolutely amazing, plenty of air, great drop and speed

*** This post was edited by SFGAdv lover on 10/16/2002. ***

Its probably going to be better next year with the flyer and all.

Quote:

"Unless it’s just the white train that’s bad, I have vowed to never ride GASM again."

Only ride the blue train. It is by far the best. The red train is the worst and is usually only used for 3 train operation. The white train is tolerable when full but can be torture if you are riding empty. Glad you liked the FF upgrades this year :) Its nice to see them do something right for a change!

RT, "nothing special". HOW can you say that? RT is the East-Coast, out-n-back version of Psyclone....are you giving it a 4 because you're an easy grader, or did you get an exceptionally good ride? Even the real hard-core SFGAdv fans just crinkle their noses when that PoS woodie is mentioned....it really was once a good coaster, but in its present form (as of last year, anyway) an *abomination*....maybe they did WORK on the ride to get it up to liveable or something!

ha dorian i know that guy. I am at great adventure a lot so i know most of the rideops. You can't beet Matt at medusa and josh at freefall both extremely cool people. Meaghan at Nitro is cool too and does not ruin airtime on purpose all evil like and bad like dorian.

Can you get the front seat if you use a Q-Bot?

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-Sean

Rolling Thunder is better in the front than the back

They need an asprin dispenser on the exit path :)

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Rock on arlok2.... and by the way... Dorian outta there... you don't have to worry about him ... as he says "SFGAdv just isn't treatin me right" that's because he's mostly at Sea Port. Nice TR by the way.. I'm glad you loved my ride so much. :-D