SFGADV Weekend (April 15 & 16)

I just spent two hours typing my trip report to six flags great adventure this weekend and the site went beserk and I lost everything!

I will edit this post tomorrow and give the full story because its late and im not typing all that again.

But just to give you a tease I got two rides on Kingda Ka & every rollercoaster was open (yes even chiller!)

Haven't seen a post from you in awhile. Right on. Looking forward to riding El Toro this summer, I hope the park is in good shape.

BTW, type it in Notepad first next time!

The park was amazing on Sunday morning/early afternoon. Costumed characters everywhere, clean rest rooms (attendants always seemed to be mopping the floor), sweepers picking up litter. Some ride ops were very enthusiastic but there also have many young people from Thailand working the park. It must be weird for youngsters to be working so far from home and hopefully they will at least smile more as they get used to their jobs. The only drawback was a confused girl from Thailand working in the candy shop, who for the life of her could not ring up my chocolate covered pretzel. Security was out in force but it would have been helpful to have one of them watching the Nitro line. Two teenagers did try to cut ahead of me on line to meet up with their friends and I politely told them their friends would have to wait for them. They said why and I told them "I'd feel bad having you kicked out of the park on Easter Sunday" and the rest of the people in the queue near me agreed.

Ok lets try this again shall we? Heres the full story:

Saturday, April 15th-I decided to break my season pass in so me and my roommate leave Philadelphia and head over to Jackson, NJ for a trip to six flags. Without sounding like a miserable brat, I’ll just sum this day up by saying I’ve never had such a horrible time at an amusement park in my life. Between shut down rides, park employees that didn’t know what they were doing, to queue-bot frustrations; I had a crappy day and before leaving I decided I’d pay a visit to guest relations and get my refund for a season pass. They would only give me $45 back for my season pass and $15 out of my $40 that I paid for season parking. I wanted a full refund or it was a no go. They wouldn’t refund me the whole thing so I decided to keep the pass and give the park one more shot. The woman sympathized with me and gave me a free exit pass to Kingda Ka since I had such a horrible time.

Sunday, April 16th (Easter Sunday)- Not going home for Easter left me a free open day to do whatever I wanted. The park was closed for a private event but was open to season passholders so again we decide to head over to the park. The private event that was held here today was some Jewish convention. It was complete irony to see the park with such a different crowd. Like larrygator said, I don’t know what was in the air this day but the park seemed to be abolsutely glowing. It was such a contrast to the day before that I considered myself crazy for almost refunding my pass the day before. I had an awesome day. The park employees seemed so happy to be there, smiling, asking us if we’re having a great time. The parade marched through the park and there were costumed characters everywhere and the sun was beaming. Every single coaster the park offered was open and Kingda Ka was using dual station loading and hadn’t had a breakdown the entire day as far as I could tell.

GASM – No wait. 2 rides. Front and back seats. I don’t care what anyone says I like this one. Its an oldie but goodie. Yeah, the front seat is a tad rough but sit in the back, it gives a good ride.

S:UF-1 ride. Back seat. No wait. Thank god I didn’t wait in line for this one. We went to use our season pass exit pass but the woman working the exit didn’t even check for them so we got right on. Can we say snoozefest? Anyone who waits 2 hours to ride this needs to have their heads checked. The only good part is the 1st loop. I fell asleep after that. Gimme a ride with substance, not a gimmick. I’d prolly never ride this again unless there was no line. Not to mention laying facedown is the most uncomfortable position ever.

Medusa- 1 ride. Back seat. 5 minute wait. Good solid B&M. Not great, not bad. Just a solid, good ride. The layout is so uninteresting though to me. Its just element after element. Takes hydra’s layout and give it Medusa’s forces and that would be a great ride. But medusa is fun. Great ride. Just uninteresting layout.

Kinga Ka- 2 rides. No wait. Back seat. We used our season pass exit pass and the exit pass that guest relations gave us the day before to ride the Ka. This was my first time on the Ka and wow what a ride. Intense, fast, and powerful. It’s a one trick pony but it’s a great ride. Would I wait 2 hours to ride it like some people were this day? Nah

Chiller-45 minute wait. Back seat. Red side was only open. This is a great ride. I loved the in-line twist going backwards. Its fast and intense, just a bit short.

Stuntman’s Freefall- no wait. 2 rides. I love this ride. Another oldie but goodie. My stomach drops on the fall everytime.

B:TR-30 minute wait. Back seat. One ride. Fast-paced, powerful ride. Very close in competition with Talon. An old invert that still stands tall among the new ones. Very surprising IMO.

Nitro-45 minute wait. Back seat. One ride. The most overrated ride in history goes to……..Nitro! I’m sorry but this ride is a snoozefest. Its almost too long and gets boring in the middle. The first drop is all talk and the bunny hills gave me no air. I take steel force over this anyday. At least that I can stay awake on.

Skull Mountain- back seat. 30 minute wait. 1 ride. This is a cute ride with some awesome theming. Has the potential to be a great dark ride I think but as far as being a coaster, nah. The first drop was fun but the rest is not interesting.

We even went on their skycoaster. This was my 1st time on it and everyone has to try this ride at least once in their life. We paid $50 for 2 people to ride. Gives a great rush. And the ride to the top had me shaking in my knees. Pulling that cord and letting loose was awesome. The drop down felt like we’d never stop falling.

All in all, we had a great day and can’t wait to go back. We got on every coaster at least once and some twice.

P.S. Pictures do El Toro no justice! This ride looks like its gonna be fun. That 1st drop looks amazing in person. It’s a boring layout but it looks like its gonna deliver speed and intensity; my favorite things in a ride. I just hope its not too smooth and can deliver some roughness of a wood coaster. I will be there opening day for sure! *** Edited 4/18/2006 1:51:42 PM UTC by DorneyDante*** *** Edited 4/18/2006 1:53:36 PM UTC by DorneyDante***

You must have gotten to the park later than me. Crowds were pretty light in the AM and people were still coming in when I left at noon. In about two hours I got in:

KK (25 minute wait), Medusa (5 minutes), Chiller (5 minutes), Freeall (5 minutes), BTR (5 minutes) and Nitro (20 minutes). I know the wait times only add to an hour, the other hour was spent walking around the park between rides.

Yeah, I only got there at 1pm. Seemed as the day went on, the park got more crowded.