Six Flags Great Adventure, Fall Family Fun Night, 9/26/08

I have been looking forward to Family Fall Fun Night after the awesome time I had at Coasters After Dark in May where I had basically no waits. Since the park tonight was also only open to Premium SP holders, I expected the park to not be that crowded.

The forecast for tonight was horrible all week with it saying 80 - 90% chance of rain as of yesterday. I decided to take the chance and go to the park because it wasn't raining and was only misting/drizzling on the way to the park.

I got to the park a little after 5:00 and it almost looked like the place was closed. There couldn't have been more than 20 - 25 cars in the lot and rides weren't running, because they had no one riding! By the time I got to the entrance it was a little before 5:15 and the security guard told me the park might be closing at 6:00 or 7:00 so I knew I would have to move fast to get on a lot of the coasters today.

I went to Nitro first since I wanted to power ride today and I missed it on my last trip. Unfortunately it was closed for minor technical difficulties and remained that way the entire night. Batman was closed when I first got to the park and was listed as closed on the rides board but I saw it running with people so I went there instead. 2 trains running, station was empty except for 2 people waiting for the front. I was going to go for a re-ride but they ended up taking a train off and I think it closed shortly after that for the rest of the night. The Dark Knight was empty but after I and 3 others went into the pre-show room, the op said they would start the pre-show in around 5 minutes after more people entered. I didn't want to waste close to 15 minutes (5 minutes waiting, 5 minutes pre-show, and a few minutes riding the coaster) so I left.

I went to Skull Mountain next and the ops were standing around waiting for riders, I was the only one on the train. I took the sky ride to the other side of the park. Very few cars running but I was the only one in line so it didn't matter. From the sky ride, the park looked closed, I think I saw a total of 5 non employees walking around the park.

Runaway Mine Train also had no one in the station, I got a solo ride in the front, and took a re-ride again in the front. 2 trains running. Medusa only had people waiting for the front. 2 trains running and I got 4 rides without leaving the train.

The tigers were right up to the viewing windows in the Golden Kingdom which was cool but since Kingda Ka was closed, I went to the Boardwalk. Scream Machine had just the blue train running, another solo ride. I took a re-ride in the 3rd row and this time there were actually 4 other riders.

Superman was also running 1 train but it was a 1 train wait for the front. I moved around to different seats to get 3 total rides but the train never has more than 3 - 4 rows with riders.

On the way back to check Nitro, it was 6:50 and I heard the dreaded, the park is closing at 7:30 announcement (it was supposed to be closing at 10:00). Nitro was still closed so I went back to the Dark Knight where they were still letting people in the pre-show room even though the pre-show was almost over. The room was about 1/2 filled. About 2 minutes later I was boarding the ride and by the time I got to the end of the ride, there was no one waiting to ride so I stayed on for 2 more rides.

It was 7:10 at this point and Nitro was still closed and I knew it wouldn't be opening tonight so I went back to Skull Mountain to finish the night. I got 6 more rides in only having to change seats once.

Although it was dissapointing to have the park close 2 1/2 hours early, I guess they figured it wasn't worth it to keep the park open for around 200 people at most. Still, I got more rides (23) in those 2 1/4 hours than most people get during a full day in the park so it was well worth visiting, if only to see what it feels like to almost have the entire park to yourself.

Ride Count:
Batman The Ride, 1x
Skull Mountain, 7x
Skyway, 1x
Runaway Mine Train, 2x
Medusa, 4x
Superman, 3x
Scream Machine, 2x
The Dark Knight, 3x

God love ya', 7 rides on Skull Mountain. I would find that to be some sort of punishment.

I forgot all about the Family Night but glad I didn't make the 2.5 hr. ride there for it to end early.

My original plan was to go yesterday (Sat.) but it seemed to be a total washout weather wise. Even if I did feel like braving the weather, what rides would have been open in that type of rain?

Nice TR as always Yoshi.

^^ I was there yesterday. It barely rained at all there, just some few intermittent light showers. However, the park made an announcement at around 2:45 that the park was closing at 4 due to approaching inclement weather. The park was virtually empty. I walked onto every single coaster with all of them only running one train.

Perfect! Don't tell my niece and nephew whom I've already disappointed with my decision to not go!

Did either of you notice any signage regarding SF charging for their haunted mazes this year? I noticed it on their webpage and read that SFMM is implementing this for the first time this year.

Is this the first year for this upcharge at all the FrightFests?

One person noted that it should decrease the wait times for the mazes but what will it do for the ride wait times? And what of the attitudes of all of the guests who previously didn't have to pay and now show up not knowing of this new policy.

Could be interesting.

I didn't see anything about charging for mazes but I did read about it on another site and I wouldn't put it past SF to charge for it. I believe they charged for Brutal Planet at least 1 year in the past.

I rode Skull Mountain all those times because at that point the park was closing in 15 minutes and with Nitro and Batman closed there was nothing else to ride since by the time I would have walked back to Superman/GASM or Medusa/RMT, the park would have been closed.

I also wonder what the minimum number of people needed to keep the park open is, someone told me on a Great Adventure site there were 410 people there on Friday night which I would have thought was enough to keep the park open (for some reason I thought it was a 300 person minimum)

I didn't see any signs but as Yoshi said, I wouldn't put it past them to do it.

Good thing I called to CONFIRM they would stay open despite the weather before I drove all the way there and got there at 7:30 only to be told OTHERWISE - bastards...

I also called at 4:00 before I left and was told they were open from 5 - 10. You are not the only person to show up right before closing or after closing and wasted time and gasoline. I would be writing a nasty complaint letter to the park if I had gotten to the park to find it closed after I called, though I doubt they care. I wrote a letter earlier this year about a different issue and basically the response was that they agreed with me but the policy wasn't going to change.

It should also mentioned they closed at 4:00 on Saturday instead of 10:00 and 6:30 on Sunday instead of 8:00. That is 3 early closings in a row which is ridiculous especially because the website wasn't updated to reflect the changes.

I will now always have to question if the park will be open if they keep this up. I am planning on going Friday October 10th, now if attendance is light what's to say they won't close at 7 - 8 instead of 11?

^^Just out of curiosity, do you know if Toro was running??

^^It was running all day Saturday.

^^Do you know about Friday?? Based on the TR it seemed everything went from walk-on to ride op's waiting around for riders status!! Which would have made for some sweet ET action!

I'd love to hit ET on a day like that. We're going for the day after PPP, and expecting to need a Qbot. Honestly, there's nothing else there that interests me that much anymore, although there are still a couple of items I wax nostalgic about (e.g., mine train, flume, Yum Yum Palace).

tigellinus said:
^^Do you know about Friday?? Based on the TR it seemed everything went from walk-on to ride op's waiting around for riders status!! Which would have made for some sweet ET action!

It was running 1 train, about 40% full at the most (based on what I saw while riding RMT). Someone on another site said they rode 23 times in a row without leaving the train.

It seems the whole weekend the park was pretty dead. When it opened at 10:30 I walked onto KK and then took a slow walk over to ET and the line was non existent. Walked right onto the back seat. Then did the front. I had to get out of the front for others waiting so I moved to the middle of the train and stayed there for a good 10 or so rides.

When I went over to Nitro, they were actually taking the second train off of the track because 1 train was more than enough. I walked onto the front seat there, at B:TR, and S:UF. I also got a walk-on back seat ride on Skull Mountain, Medusa, GASM, and RMT. The ride ops were cool at every ride about letting you stay on as long as there was no one waiting for your row, and they let you stay and find a new empty seat if you wanted to stay on.

I almost didn't even mind them closing the park at 4, as I got everything in that I would have if I went on a busy summer day. The fact that I had cheap tickets didn't hurt either.

rollergator, the flume was closed all day and it didn't look to be much water in the trough so it might not be open for your visit.

^^And again...living in the Midwest results in hundreds spent on Gold Flash Passes at GAdv each summer...sigh...at least being close to Cedar Point and Diamondback semi-makes up for it. :)

The Log Flume is done for the season, they have signs up saying it operates Memorial Day to Labor Day only (along with the rapids and kiddie water play area) but thankfully they ran it past Labor Day. It was running up until September 20th when it was in the 60's out but I think either that or Sunday the 21st was the last day it was open this season.

I also called at 4:00 before I left and was told they were open from 5 - 10. You are not the only person to show up right before closing or after closing and wasted time and gasoline. I would be writing a nasty complaint letter to the park if I had gotten to the park to find it closed after I called, though I doubt they care. I wrote a letter earlier this year about a different issue and basically the response was that they agreed with me but the policy wasn't going to change.

Already done to the GM via email. If no response within a week I will forward a copy to Shapiro - this is a terrible reflection of the current top brass at SFGadv, although maybe their strings are being pulled by the corporate office to shut down the parks when employee expenses exceed the potentail revenue during low attendance. Honestly, it's no wonder their stock price has stayed in the toilet with such horrible customer service such as this

KnoebelsGrandCarousel said:rollergator, the flume was closed all day and it didn't look to be much water in the trough so it might not be open for your visit.

It's OK that it's closed, just seeing it there adds to the nostalgia factor for me. IIRC, the giant teepee (and I think Conestoga Wagon too) are supposedly gone now - vague memories from about 30 years ago when the park was still young (and so was I!)... ;)Back seat of Skull Mtn. still rocks...but my PPP trip is geared around Laser, Phoenix+Phlyers+Bumper Cars, and Toro. Hope to see ya at PPP! :)

The wagon is still there but the teepee is gone. Something about it being structurally unsafe or damaged and the cost was too high to fix it.

Yep, I'll be at PPP. Just look for the short girl who doesn't know anybody. :-)