Six Flags Great Adventure, 6/8/08, Hot weather, Cool visit

I got out of work a little after 4:00, hit some horrible traffic on the NJ Turnpike and got to the park around 5:30.

With the temperature outside being 102 according to the car's screen, I knew it was going to be horrible walking around. Hurricane Harbor didn't look that crowded. I thought it would be packed. The parking lot for the park wasn't that full and when I was walking to the entrance, I saw Superman's line wasn't even out of the station. That right away made me think it was going to be a great day.

That's where I went first, 1 train wait for the back row. Pretzel loop felt very intense today, maybe due to the heat. It was horrible having your head tilted down for a few minutes on the brake run so I only rode once. GASM was next, 3 trains running which I couldn't belive since 1 would have been enough especially since they were stacking and sometimes double stacking. 1 train wait for the front, the station was empty so I re-rode in the front. No headbanging at all today. I could see Ka's line was into the switchbacks from GASM so I skipped it for now.

Rolling Thunder was running the right side only with 2 trains. 1 train wait for the front. Medusa was also running 3 trains, and like GASM, was stacking and double stacking. 1 train wait for the last row.

I expected the water rides to have huge lines with the extreme heat. Saw Mill Log Flume was just under 30 minutes. I didn't get wet on either of the 2 small drops and barely got wet from the big drop.

Blondie was at the park for a concert at 6:00, hardly anyone was in the Northern Star Arena, they even had the doors open after the show started. Thankfully they didn't close Medusa during the concert. Runaway Mine Train was also a walk on. I took the Skyride over to the other side of the park, 10 minute wait with 1 side running.

Skull Mountain was empty, I stayed in the back row for 4 rides and then moved up to the front for another ride. They had the strobes going a lot today and I was able to see the entire circuit lit up from them.

Congo Rapids was a 5 minute wait. The first time I barely got wet, the 2nd ride I got soaked.

I went to Nitro next, 2 trains running but they were probably running 3 earlier. 1 train wait for the back, I had to move around to empty seats but was able to stay on the same train for 6 rides.

I saw part of the Glow In The Park parade while walking to Batman. Not many people were watching. The floats looked good and it was better than I was expecting it to be. The only problem was the pathways were too narrow. Even with a few people watching the parade, it was difficult to walk through to get to the rides.

Batman was also running 2 trains. Walk on for the front and the station was completely empty so I stayed in my seat for a re-ride.

The Dark Knight was about a 15 minute total wait if you include waiting to get into the pre-show, the pre-show itself and a short line after the pre-show. I heard a kid saying they liked the ride but heard mostly negative comments yet again.

It was 9:40 at this point, I wanted to try to get to Kingda Ka. Way too hot to run so I walked at a fast pace and got to the ride at 9:50, walk on except for the front. I ran back to get in line and it was 9:57 and just made it. I heard the ops say the supervisor or whoever is in charge didn't want to close the line until 10:00 and that's why more people kept coming in. Since there was no line, I wouldn't have expected them to close the line early and thankfully they did not.

I got the last train of the night. Not bad getting 2 rides on KK in just over 10 minutes. The park was closed and despite the heat being horrible, it was a great visit and I'm glad I decided to go today.

Ride Count with 4 1/2 hours in the park:

Nitro - 6
Batman - 2
Superman - 1
Medusa - 2
Kingda Ka - 2
Skull Mountain - 5
Rolling Thunder Right - 1
Congo Rapids - 2
Runaway Mine Train - 2
The Dark Knight - 1
Saw Mill Log Flume - 1
Great American Scream Machine - 2

You think it was the heat that did it? I'm going to Great Adventure today and am wondering if it's going to be empty due to the heat and the whole weekday thing.

Hey YoshiFan, if you get a chance I sent you a PM about a question that I had. Thanks!

^^I would think it would be empty today, it's late for school trips and the heat will keep people away. I could be way off though. I thought a weekday in April would be dead, it took me 40 minutes to get into the parking lot and lines were huge even for the smaller coasters.

^ I responded