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Take a ride on El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure! Thoughts on this legendary coaster?

This will be a bit lengthy of a post. I spur of the moment decided to head back to Germany last weekend to kill two birds with one stone: Get back to Phantasialand to get some night rides (the park is open until 8pm for the Wintertraum!) and checkout the Christmas markets in Köln and Düsseldorf. With the temperature around 5C and cloudy, I wasn't too surprised to find Taron and FLY running a little sluggish. They both seemed to be running faster after night fall, but that could just be the dark messing with me . Rookburgh looked great with a lot of steam/fog. Minimally placed Christmas stuff was a smart choice I think to keep with the theming. There are number of cute little areas with snow scenes around the park. It was around 5C and cloudy so the snow wasn't melting much. One of few Wintertraum chalets - flame grilled salmon. It was actually pretty good, very juicy and cooked just long enough. There's nothing worse than overcooked salmon Upside tree is a nice touch outside Hotel Tartuff Gluhwein! A few visits to chalet helped keep me warm throughout the day Hard to see in the photo, but there is a santa with a sack and gifts up in the little tower in front of Black Mamba. I thought it might not be a bad idea to go on Chiapas Die Wasserbahn. It's maybe my all-time favorite flume and a water ride in the middle of a cold December day seemed adventurous... yeah, I got soaked... maybe not the best decision. But nothing more Gluhweinn can't fix! Taron looked wild at night back on Halloween and was even better this night! Oh foggy night 20211218_173855.mp4 Berlin was basically a Christmas market! Last time at the park after sunset, Rookburgh didn't have much for lighting besides the normal lanterns and white lights. This time there were a lot of red, green, and blue lights, with some alternating from the tunnels. The two night rides I got were easily the best experience I've had yet on FLY. Killer night ride. The park really came to life at night. I'm tempted to take the train back out there in January before the Wintertraum ends. And for Bonus content. The Phantasialand bus departs from Bruhl station, just outside the center of town. I had a bit of time to kill before the first bus so wandered a bit. If you are taking the bus, it isn't a bad idea to take a look around. The Augustusburg Palace is right across from the bus stop and is a UNESCO site (I didn't take photos because of construction and poor lighting, but it's a site to walk around) and the center of town is pretty. The Christmas market was small but very charming as well. Heading into the center of Bruhl Bruhl Christmas market On to Koln: A stay in Koln wouldn't be complete without visiting a few Kolsch breweries! (After all my Kolsch experiences, Reissdorf is still best!) There are a number of Christmas markets spread throughout the city. I visited 3 of them over the coarse of the weekend (I think that means I need to go back to check out the rest... ) First up is the Koln Cathedral Market: Pretty good backdrop! Maybe my favorite thing of the markets: Raclette! Stellar board of cheese from the Swiss Alps Wood fire BBQ pork and chicken! Good food was abundant. Koln Harbour market: The harbour market was pretty unique and looked fantastic (plus the place to go for seafood), though my favorite was hands-down the Heinzel's WinterMarchen in Altstadt: Buble Alpe was a great spot to stop for a half litre of lager and enjoy watching the skaters. The mini ski lift of gnomes was adorable (and it moved and everything)! Mühlen bear with a tray of Kölsch Delicious Apfelkrapfen Brass section performing Lastly I stopped in Düsseldorf Sunday afternoon for some Altbier and more Christmas markets. First stop Schumacher brewery, the first brewery to use the name Altbier for the unique local beer back in 1838. Fuchschen hosted most of the markets in Dusseldorf. It's good too! More Gluhwein in a mug I had to have. Glass blowing Uerige Brewery. Claimed to use the most 'bittering constituents' of any beer in Germany. I'm not sure if it is the most bitter, but it is certainly bitter and absolutely delicious. My favorite Altbier in Dusseldorf. A magical weekend trip. I would highly recommend anyone that can to experience Koln and Phantasialand in December!

^ Which would still be pocket change to the mega-rich of Saudi Arabia who are probably going to provide funding the park.

I do think what's meant is that you can decide how fast you want to go to a desired height

Hopefully relocating to Orlando Oh yeah, I need to ride Pantheon.

Our original 2022 travel plan, was for visiting Amsterdam and then Paris/Disney in the fall. But we're now assuming that it will most likely fall through, with continued travel restrictions etc. So at this point in time, all I really want to do is get back (locally) to Playland(PNE) in 2022.

^ Saturday was awesome. It also came together last minute which made it even better. Like 48 hours prior, my plan was to drop Brit at the airport in NYC and then brave the sea of humanity doing Christmas shopping that day in the rain. The next day, she was flying out of Philly for $300 less and I was totally-not using that as an excuse to swing by Six Flags for a ride or two if the rain held off. The next day Boldy was down, it totally wasn’t going to rain and we had some bangin’ cheesesteaks in Philly and then rode Jersey Devil and Nitro like 800 times each in an empty park. Good times. I love Holiday in the Park. We should cancel Fright Fest and start it in September every year.

Our Nitro night rides on Saturday were absolutely otherworldly. Since the park was a ghost town there wasn't even more than a train wait for the front so we rode up there a bunch too and those were some of our best laps. Hauling ass. Not only was it f*cking flying, the entire area was shrouded in this grey haze/mist so coming up that first airtime hill after the first turn we were just kind of floating up and over this moonlit cloud that had settled just above the tree line and then back down into it before being whipped through the hammerhead and back up and over the cloud on the next hill. Just simply amazing, some of the best rides we've ever gotten on it. Before Saturday, I'd only managed one single (back seat) ride on The JDC (its a thing) not long after it opened this summer. Any time I've been to the park since its been mobbed or the ride was down. I'd hoped all season that one day during HITP we'd get a weather day like that (mild, kinda rainy) where I could just sit on the the thing all day long and well... we got it. They were running two trains and filling them but we would walk around and right back on, over and over. We rode at least a dozen and a half times, probably more, all over the train. Keep in mind its my only single rail coaster, but I actually find it to be a very intense ride, the best moments being the first drop (especially in the back - ho-lee-shit), the hanging stall thing, and the turnaround right after it. They had the midcourse mostly off all day so the final bunnyhops were all providing ample air, especially the tiny straight pop right before the final brakes. I'd probably say I prefer the back over the front but I think the best rides were in the middle-back-ish part of the train. It's a very intense ride, especially to marathon. I've said it on here before, but we're spoiled AF at this park. We were just down in Orlando two weeks ago so going back to the ol' local SF felt janky as all hell, but we have some absolutely amazing rides and the fact that we're able to ride things like Wonder Woman, Nitro, JDC etc in December when people are out Christmas shopping is something I'm certainly still grateful for. In addition to the extended marathons on Nitro and JDC we managed rides on Wonder Woman, Batman, Justice League, Dark Knight, Skull Mountain, and Superman (wow the suck really shines after riding Manta last week). The Skyway is sadly closed for maintenance, Cyborg is FUBAR'd, Houdini actually had a line when we passed it and neither of us felt up for Joker. All in all one of the best days we've had at the park in quite some time. I guess this is kind of some sort of trip report now so some photos?

Yesterday was fantastic. There was a threat of rain listed for Saturday all week, yesterday every app was showing “rain” but when you opened up the hour by hour it was basically perfect for the operating hours. It did most a bit, but the forecast kept everyone away. I lost count of how many rides we got on Nitro and “The JDC” (ride ops, stop trying to make that a thing) I’ve never seen Nitro run that fast for Holiday in the Park.

Can't wait til the "El Toro is not a wood coaster even though its totally made out of wood" crew gets a hold of this one.

I'd like to formally apologize to Great Adventure for doubting their insanity. I never thought they would run this thing for Holiday in the Park but I'll happily hold their beer.