Six Flags Great Adventure, 8/26/08, Horrible Then Better

It was against by better judgement to go to the park today with it being the last week of August but with Dorney closing at 7:30, that would have left me with less than 2 1/2 hours so I took the chance and went to the park and got there at 5:00.

I would estimate that the lot was 80% - 85% full. It was the most crowded I have seen it all season. Walking from the parking lot, I saw that Kingda Ka was closed with the station empty and Superman had both switchback areas full, it looked to be at least an hour.

There were signs up saying Flashpass had limited amounts available today. That sign and Kingda Ka on the closed rides board meant it was going to be bad.

I went into Movietown first, Batman was into the garden, Nitro was into the switchbacks, Skull Mountain looked to be around 30 minutes, even Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train looked to be around 15 minutes. I stopped at Jolly Roger since it was only a 1 cycle wait. The actual ride cycle was way too short and not worth it.

I thought Scream Machine would have a short line. It was almost up to the 60 minute sign but 3 trains were running. The flashpass return line was almost entirely down the exit ramp and at some points went further than the entire exit ramp. The problem with that was since flashpass only gets car 6, they were taking some trains and letting almost an entire train worth of flashpass people on them to keep that line moving which made the regular line move slower than normal. It ended up being 30 minutes. When the train gets to the brakerun, I notice the red train is stuck on the lift. After about 10 minutes they unload the blue train in the station with the people waiting to ride. All they said was there was technical difficulites and they didn't know how long the ride would be closed for.

After around 30 minutes of sitting on the brakerun, they got the lift started and the red train went through the course but stopped on the 2nd set of brakes behind our train. They told us they were going to evacuate us from the brake run. What was scary was that on the right side of the tracks, there was nothing to step on even though you are supposed to go to the left. What if someone was nervous or tripped off the right side? We got into the station and I was expecting to get an exit pass for the trouble but they asked us to write down our name, address and phone number and that was it. It was annoying since I saw quite a few people with exit passes I guess from something else and I remember hearing that if you are stuck on a ride for 30 minutes or more, you get one. I was a little tense since it was uncomfortable sitting in the train that long without much leg room

I went back to check on Batman and Nitro, neither had gotten any shorter of a line, I decided to wait for Nitro. The line was at the 120 minute sign and was a 40 minute wait with 3 trains running. Great ride as always and tons of air time in the back row.

Skull Mountain was at the 30 minute sign, 15 minute wait. Way too much light in the building as you could see the entire layout of the ride easily.

Blackbeard's was down to a 10 minute wait, fun to slide around in the back row on the turns without a seat divider

It was close to 8:30 at this point and lines were starting to get shorter. Runaway Mine Train was a 3 train wait. Saw Mill Log Flume was 10 minute wait and then a 5 minute wait. On the drop I caught a hat from a guy who was in the front of the boat. He was very grateful I had the hat since he thought he lost it. Those water cannons are very annoying since it was cool out and one of the cannons is like a shower head that goes directly over the boat getting you soaked. On the 2nd ride, I saw people were at the cannon booth so I moved to the left to avoid it.

Medusa was a 3 train wait, 3 trains running. Superman was down to a 15 minute wait. I have really had it with the locker policy and I still argue that it slows down loading. Someone left a stuffed animal to the side of the station, an op brought it back to the people who were on the train and told them it couldn't be left in the station. They talked for about a minute while the other train was on the brake run. The op ended up throwing out the stuffed animal. Yeah, that really makes me want to play a game to try to win a prize.

I went back to Scream Machine. Walk on, and I stayed on for 2 rides and went back to Superman where it was a 1 train wait and I was able to stay on for 3 rides including the last train of the day.

The trip started out very bad but got better as the night went on and I actually got on more rides than I expected to.

Urgh, sounds just awful. You know, when I went to Great Adventure, Ka shut down when we were waiting for another ride later in the day, and it had been up and down all day (no pun intended). However, it shut down for good at about 4:30 or so, and I'm wondering if it has not been up since. Have you heard anything? This ride seems to almost be more trouble than it was worth. If you can't RUN the tallest and fastest coaster in the world, why build it? I know TTD had a lot of trouble for a while there as well, but Ka seems to be supremely troublesome.

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bunky666 said:
I know TTD had a lot of trouble for a while there as well, but Ka seems to be supremely troublesome.

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"had"....HAD?!?! Trying asking anyone at CP this past Saturday how much trouble TTD "had" when it was down for over 5 hours and most of the day!!!

Good thing I actually wasn't there that day, and am just givin' ya crap now like I always do!! ;)

tigellinus, I know you're givin' me crap. LOL Seriously, though, what is up with these rides? Is it, as we spoke about in another forum, that these rides are overengineered and the safety precautions taken are creating a consistently high breakdown factor? Could it be that Intamin just doesn't know how to build a safe AND reliable ride? LOL Frequently I think about my favorite rides and how Intamin has built approximately three quarters of them, and all of these rides have significant downtime. What, if anything, is being done to fix the problems. It seems ridiculous.