Six Flags Great Adventure 5-21-11

Main reason for going was to ride Green Lantern since I have a season pass. Got there 15mins before the park opened and it was the running of the bulls to Lantern and Kingda Ka when the park did open. I must say walking toward the hold area before the park opened there was some 10 picture taking people. You could not go more than 5 steps without running into another one. I think 4 asked me if I wanted a picture to pick up later. Ka was shut down for most of the morning but I will get to that later. I arrived at Lantern and the quque has a huge fighter jet on the grounds. I thought it looked neat. Some of the people heading for the ride didn't realize that the ride was only open to season pass holders and were bummed out. I waited 10mins to ride in the front and it was a really great ride. Def a bit more rough than Mantis at CP (I got some ear damage from it) but other than that no complaints. Personally I wish they kept the loop green instead of yellow. Just sticks out like a sore thumb but who am I to judge.

From there walked on El Toro and picked up a missed credit from rolling thunder (only one train was running as usual) Next I finished my B&M tour. Bizarro was a walk on. Sound system was not working nor the special effect misty water sprays. Nitro was a 10 min wait and Batman was a 15 min wait. After a quick lunch went over to ride Skull Mountain (10 min wait) and took the skyride back to the other side of the park. Superman was a 40 min wait (Ka still shut down at this point) After that went over to Houdini (5 min wait for the pre show)

Finally I saw a train from Ka go up over the top hat and I I went over to the quque to check things out. HUGE line and then I hear the ride shut down again. Ka was only running one side of the station and I overheard someone say that it was a problem with the shoulder restraints not locking into place but I don't know if thats true or not.

So I decided to stick it out. Ka eventually got up and running and the line started moving. After 40 mins the sky got real dark and it I started feeling some rain drops. At this point I am pretty close to the station. Then I strap in and we taxi out to the launch area and it started to rain harder. I am thinking they are not going to launch us in this but for some reason they did. ZOOM..128 and my face is getting pelted with rain. Up and over the top and after the 30 some odd seconds a mini downpour started happening. I am getting wet since the trains are backed up and finally we get into the station. And then the ride shut down due to the passing rain. So no the rapture did not happen that day obviously but if it did, at least I was surrouned by some great roller coasters. All in all I had my little own B&M bash day and ended it with a wet ride on Ka (insert joke here).

One new thing I did notice was that most of the coasters have sports bottle holders now. Basically its a rack with cup holes in it to put souvenir bottles in. I think this is a great idea because I know some people dont like to stuff those in a locker before getting on the ride or holding onto it or trying to stuff them in their pocket. The sign says to leave the cups at your own risk. No replacements will be given if yours gets stolen or taken by mistake. All the holds have numbers that go with what row you are in on the ride. I say most because I really wans't paying too close attention but I did see them on Skull Mountain, Bizarro, Ka, El toro from what I remember. Park was clean, staff were nice (it was great to see Roger the security guy who does magic tricks for you) and got my first sunburn of the season.

Dear god, for the love of all that is holy, please use paragraphs.

I'm sorry. Once I get going I tend to type away. I hope that's better for you. Again I apologize.

I thought I heard somewhere that Kingda Ka is only running one side from now on.

That is correct.

I remember the conversation came up recently somewhere here about KK using only one station. I wondered how using less trains and reducing the loading station capacity was going to speed up processing guests through the ride.

Well, if the crew is really good, especially on the back half of the station, you could get the same theoretical capacity using 3 trains and one station.

But that's like saying, if the Medusa/Bizarro crew were really good you could keep 3 trains moving. i.e. never going to happen in practice.

Remember how Cedar Point used to be with capacity? Is Cedar Point still like that? Why can't every park be like that? It was pretty impressive how much they seemed to care about how many attractions one was able to ride in one day.

SFGAdv never seemed to care about capacity. I haven't been in about seven years, but the trip reports I read since then tells me that nothing really has changed.

I am happy to hear that Superman was only a 40 minute wait. I waited out half of a three-hour line before leaving, and renting a Q-Bot. It's also nice to hear that Houdini was open. They used to like to keep that ride closed for some reason...

Why would they not allow normal guests to ride their newly advertised coaster, limiting it to only season pass-holders? That diminishes capacity throughout the entire park, as well as disappointing most of their customers, especially the customers who can only visit their park once every year or so. The ride works, so let everyone ride it. If they must do something to make their season pass-holders feel special, they could have pulled a Kings Island and give them some ERT on the new ride. Giving your season pass-holders a perk at the expense of your regular guests is a bad business decision, in my opinion.

What is wrong with Rolling Thunder? Why cant they get both tracks to work at the same time? This ride has the potential to be a people eater, but the park will not allow it to live up to it's potential, for whatever reason.

Kinda Ka... How many of us have been to the park only to not be able to ride this? (raises hand). On the other hand, the park is probably doing all that they can to keep this ride open as much as possible.

So the recently added new attraction of special effects on Medusa, I mean Bizarro, were not working? That didn't take long.

But overall, it sounds like the park was doing a pretty good job. If they would just put forth a little more effort, they could be great.

I'm still finding it difficult to plan another visit to this park. I don't want to drive what is now ten hours to get to a park who doesn't see the importance of capacity or having everything open. I'd feel like Chevy Chase visiting Wally World.

"Sorry folks, Park's closed. The moose outside shoulda told ya." :)

haha ive been on KA in the rain before it hurts like hell.

I was at the park the 18th and 19th, and had a great experience just like last year. Wednesday was wet, but they kept sending cars in the pouring rain. Got a ride in the rain on el toro which is just as crazy as it sounds.

I feel bad for you lostkause, sounds like you had a really horrible experience there. I've gone around the same time the past two years and basically experienced the exact opposite as you. Kingda ka ran all day Thursday, and the crew was running their asses off to get trains dispatched even though the ride was a walk on. Plan a trip, and give it a chance again. I almost enjoy it more than cedar point.

I've had several bad experiences there, long ago, but some people here tell me that it has changed and it is a lot better. I'm just pretty afraid to spend the kind of money I do to get there and have the experience be the same as always. Maybe I need to get there earlier in the season. Maybe next year.

There were def a lot of disappointed people that got turned away from Lantern. I was surprised to see Houdini up and running too. I thought it was only open during fright fest time like it was last year. The flames were the only thing working on Bizarro. Did they get ride of the flames on the New England version. Wiki stated that they removed them due to some sort of safey cocern at relocated them to Texas Giant??

Hopefully next time I visit the park there won't be massive amounts of picture takers at the front of the park

Flames will be MUCH safer blasting near a wooden coaster instead of a steel coaster. lol ;) (winkie face)

As for a hotel LK check out the Princeton area when your booking. I was able to get a Hyatt for 50 bucks a night on priceline which was about 20 minutes away from the park (I later read on trip advisor that you sometimes can get it for 40 a night.) It was also really close to the NJ transit if you wanted to make a trip to NYC (hour train ride).

The official grand opening of Green Lantern is Wednesday so I guess the park could claim it's not officially open yet but I could see non passholders getting annoyed. Although I wasn't able to make it to the park to take advantage of the season pass preview, I really think it was cool of the park to open it early for passholders and be able to get some rides in without a huge wait.

ApolloAndy said:
Well, if the crew is really good, especially on the back half of the station, you could get the same theoretical capacity using 3 trains and one station.

But that's like saying, if the Medusa/Bizarro crew were really good you could keep 3 trains moving. i.e. never going to happen in practice.

The problem is they are only using the front half of the 1 station. If they unloaded at the back half of the station, it would help loading time. Otherwise I think the change is good. I hated how even on slow days, you still had to wait forever in the station since it was 1 train per loading area. With 3 trains only going to 1 station, the line moves fast and a line at the end of the station is only around 5 minutes now.

I don't even see the point of running 3 trains on Bizarro, it always stacks and usually double stacks so all it does is cause the trains to sit on the brake runs. I'd rather see them run 2 trains. They really need more than 2 people checking restraints (same for Superman).

Google says that the Hyatt in Princeton is about 30 minutes from Six Flags. Isn't there anything closer? ;)

LostKause said:
Google says that the Hyatt in Princeton is about 30 minutes from Six Flags. Isn't there anything closer? ;)

HA! Actually, there is. http://www.laurelpond.com/company/about/

I love Great Adventure so much that I'm planning a trip there right now. This coming from a guy who lives less than 90 minutes from CP.

Wait, so they're only loading on 1 out of 4 station sections? Please please please tell me they're able to keep the launch/course block full. If they're stacking 3, 18 passenger trains regularly, that's about as bad as capacity is going to get on a ride of that notoriety.

Yeah they are only loading the 1 section. The trains are always stacking and sometimes double stacking with the 1st train in the loading area, the 2nd train in the unused loading area and the 3rd train waiting outside of the station. That is with 4 people checking restraints per train. I have only seen 1 train on the launch section at a time, not like the old system where they dispatched the 2 trains at once and the 2nd train was right behind the first train watching it launch.

Seems like a huge waste for a station of that size. There's got to be something they can do that's more efficient than that.