This is very good tip. We drove down for Boston on Saturday August 4th and we got to the park around 3:00pm. The entire park was packed and it didn't help that there was a concert that day. For example we were in the park from 3:00PM to 9:00PM and we only managed to do four coasters: Kingda Ka, El Toro, Bizzarro and Nitro. I spoke to a few park regulars during my visit at the park on Saturday. They basically told me that lines for rides were heavy even towards 10:00PM.
We forked out the extra cash gold flash pass for Sunday and it made our day at the park much more enjoyable. Sure the lines were about 30 minutes for most of the day, but with the gold pass we didn't have to wait at all. It was basically select a ride and go. We didn't have to wait for a single ride the entire day.
Coasters:
All the rides lived up to the hype. I won't say too much about that since they, were coved extensively on this thread.
My favorite ride: El Toro. I think it might be my favorite roller coaster of all time. It was everything I hoped for and more. It also makes this really cool noise when it's over the first and second hill.
Wife's favorite ride: Nitro. She loved everything about the roller coaster.
Least favorite ride: Rolling thunder just was just plain terrible.
Wife's least favorite ride: Green lantern. It was headache inducing roller coaster.
Biggest surprise: The last seat on the runaway mine train. The thing has pretty rough ejector air time.
Things I learned:
Avoid the park at all cost on Saturdays.
Gold Flash pass or go home.
Maybe book in the future book the hotel a little closer the time you want to travel. The weather worked out to our advantage, but it wasn't fun watching the weather channel all weekend and praying that the rain would stay away.
There was infestation of line cutters at the park on Saturday, more reason to get the flash pass.
Travel
On the drive down to NJ from Boston I ended up taking some of the tips offered on this thread. We took 90 to 91 to 15 to 287 to Jersey Parkway to 95. It took about six hours since we hit traffic towards end of the Jersey Parkway. I would suggest avoiding JPW on Saturday afternoons. Travel tip: hit the Tappen Zee bridge before 11AM on a Saturday. The traffic was heavy but it was getting really bad behind us.
On the drive home we did everything in reverse. We left the NJ around 9:00am to avoid rush hour traffic and the morning thunderstorms. We got the Tappen Zee Bridge with moderate traffic around 10AM. It took five and half hours on the way home because of a random traffic jam on the mass pike. The signs on the highway mentioned a traffic accident but we didn't see anything.
Lodging
We tried the Hampton inn in east Windsor I would recommend to anyone.
Last words
I was more afraid of star screamer then kingda ka, since I don't' like vertical rides. I'm glad I went on it thought, it was a lot of fun! Thanks for all the help I got on this thread guys!