coasterbill

I rode Scream early last year and didn't think it was bad at all. I kind of enjoyed it, though Bizarro (it's mirror image clone) is a little better. I found Batman to be smooth as glass. I'm shocked to see people complaining about it being rough.

I love both parks but slightly prefer Busch Gardens. Kings Dominion has better coasters (though BGW has some very good ones too), but the atmosphere is much better at Busch Gardens. The park is beautiful, the atmosphere is great, the food is great and the non-coaster rides are much better than the ones at KD (though KD has a nice selection with rides like Windseeker and Drop Tower). Edit: Griffon is a really fun coaster but it's not overly forceful compared to the older B&M's. I think Verbolten, Apollo's Chariot and Alpengeist are better than Griffon, but that doesn't mean I don't love Griffon because I do. Alpengeist and Apollo (in the back row) are the stars of this park when it comes to coasters. Edit again: As far as non coaster rides worth checking out, you have to ride Escape from Pompei because the theming is awesome... Dark Kastle and Mach Tower are very good rides too. The flume looks fun but it was closed when we went a few weeks ago so I'm yet to ride it.

That's a little uncalled for. I've only ridden a handful of operating coasters that are so bad I refuse to ride them ever again. I find very few coasters un rideable. The only ones I can think of are Mind Eraser at SFNE and SFA, Green Lantern (which I would ride again hoping that maybe I just got a terrible ride but if I have the same experience then screw this ride) and X2. I actually have a pretty high tolerance for crappy coasters... rides like Anaconda and Shockwave at KD, Mean Streak and the now demolished Son of Beast actually never bothered me that much. They're not good rides but they're not nearly as bad as X2. Maybe it's not that way in every seat, and maybe it's not that bad for people of different heights / body types but the 2 times I rode X (X2) back in 2002 and again in 2013 were some of the most horrendous coaster rides I've ever had. I have rides like Maverick, Kumba, El Toro and I305 in my top 10 so I'm actually a big fan of G forces, don't confuse extreme head banging for "extreme G forces".

Yeah but the Larson tower will be better anyway because it will give you ridiculous ejector air all the way down and then stop on a dime at the bottom. Like I've said before, Larson towers are the best towers I've ridden... better than S&S towers, Intamin 1st Gens, Intamin 2nd Gens, Intamin Gyro Drops, Lex Luthor... seriously, Larson towers are better than all of them. Just wait... you'll be impressed.

I love everything about the itinerary... the only thing is that you can probably do Hershey in a day if you had to, so if you're at Knoebels and all of a sudden decide that you love it and don't want to leave... just stay there. I know it's easy to think Knoebels can be a half day park and while it can, once you get there you'll get an overwhelming urge to ride every flat ride and eat everything in the park because it's the best place ever. I suggest getting the wristband with the wood coasters and just going nuts. Ride all of the flats, especially the unique ones like the Looper, Skyride, Paratrooper, Satellite, Carousel (get an outside horse and grab the rings) and of course the world's best bumper cars. Then ride the rest of them and marvel at how great they all are since they all run long cycles and great programs. I also suggest checking out the free Knoebels museum back by Black Diamond. Oh, and don't miss the Haunted Mansion and the insane drop tower. PS: As far as EZPass goes I think you need to register the car with it so you may not be able to get it except through the rental company. Most of them don't overcharge too much, it's worth the investment unless they charge a daily fee including days you don't use it. If they only charge a fee on the days you use it (I think Avis and Budget do it this way) then get it.

I can honestly say of the 230+ coasters I've ridden it's the worst coaster still in operation (besides Green Lantern First Flight, ironically in the same park though that ride may be better depending on weight distribution, we took the last hill at a very awkward angle). The first drop is great, but after that the ride is just a constant beating. There are very few coasters that I ride and all I can think about the whole time is how much I want it to end. Even the great first drop can't make up for the abuse this ride shells out. I'm a tall skinny guy, and both rides I've had have been in the back row (though you don't get a choice of seat), I'm not sure if those are factors in the roughness of the ride but I can honestly say I'd rather go for 100 rides on Mean Streak than one ride on this piece of crap. It's such a shame because it's a brilliant concept but the ride is miserable.

First of all, don't buy it at Dorney. Every ride will be a walk on. This might save you 5 minutes on the flume and the mouse but every other ride's line will be inside the stations beyond the merge points. Fastlane is useless at Dorney because there are no lines for anything ever. For Hershey in your case I would skip it. Hershey's system gives you a specific window of time where you can ride everything which is going to be really annoying if you have to stand in so many stand-by lines. You can usually ride after your window of time, but it sounds like for the amount of scheduling you'll need to do it's not worth the effort unless lines are huge. If you head to the back of the park first and work your way up you'll be able to get on everything without a problem anyway. That's just my opinion though, there are definitely arguments for getting it anyway... one of which is that you can probably use his reservations for the rides he didn't ride so you'll get 2 rides on them without any wait.

um... what?

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks X2 is a terrible ride. Whenever I see this near the top of people's top 10 lists (which happens quite often) I'm really confused. Then after seeing people talk about how great it is over and over again I decide I must be missing something and maybe I just caught it on a bad day and I ride it again and get reminded of how crappy it is. And this is the cycle of X2...

This sounds like a great trip! I just have 2 tips to save you some time. When you get your rental car, ask them if they have EZ Pass available. If so... get it. It's usually an upsell at the rental car place when you go to get the car. You probably don't need to do anything ahead of time. Most rental car companies offer it (they usually have a dumb name like Auto Toll but it's just an EZ Pass). This will save you a ton of time on your trip since you'll be using the New Jersey turnpike, the Ohio turnpike and I-95 in the Washington DC area. In many cases you can stay to the left side of the road and travel through toll plazas at 55-65 MPH. Also, when you're leaving Washington DC and heading South on I-95 they have reversible lanes in the middle of the highway. If you see a sign that says "Restricted Lanes Open to All Traffic" get in those lanes... it can save you an hour or more on some days.

I hope they ordered a lot of XXXL shirts then.

Next time you see someone bitching about SeaWorld's huge state-of-the-art, temperature controlled habitats for their Oracas where they have hundreds of vets on staff and have training programs consisting 100% of positive reinforcement... just show them this thread. Personally I think Monkeys riding dogs is the greatest thing ever... but if these idiots want to complain about something, here you go. Then again they won't get as much attention if they start going after this ghetto fair and that's really all they want anyway.

I really don't agree with this at all (and I usually agree with your posts). The parks usually have a similar feel to them, but the coaster and ride collections vary greatly. If you compare a park like Great Adventure to a park like Great Escape or Six Flags DIscovery Kingdom you can't tell me there isn't an enormous difference in the quality of the coasters. Oh... and it's not fair to lump the other Six Flags parks in with Six Flags America. Six Flags America is a terrible park. Good, don't ride it then. It seems like you're in the minority since it got voted best wood coaster in the world again. Personally I (and pretty much everyone else) thinks the ending is awesome.

Volcano is one of, if not the most popular ride in the park. Smurf Mountain was much less popular and probably required them to shell out a lot of money for the IP rights. It was also an IP that was losing popularity each year. While Smurf Mountain looks like it was very cool, Volcano is a huge draw and has been for well over a decade.

Hearing how insane Larson/ARM drop towers are and reading about all these great things about them, I wonder why S&S towers are everywhere but Larson/ARM drop towers are relatively rare even compare with Intamin towers. Are they more expensive than the drop towers of their competitors? They're actually very inexpensive compared to their competitors and there are a lot of them. The only downside (that I know of) is that they have is a very low capacity (as was mentioned above), so a major corporate park probably wouldn't build one.

I'd agree with this normally but not on opening day. Last year the lines actually got worse as they day progressed.

This looks like it's going to be absolutely insane. I love how they're calling it the "Best Coaster in the World" already.

It's a combination of both really. Six Flags is incredibly inefficient and there are a lot of people getting passes processed. On closing weekend last year there was a 3 hour wait for 2014 pass processing stretching from the building near Superman, past the parachute drop, past the slingshot and finally ending near the game booths.

I got it a few weeks ago, I couldn't believe they really sent that survey out.

According to Great Adventure's website This will be the first time we've used it in 2014 but according to Six Flags it will work from year to year and never need to be processed as long as we keep the account active.

I wish I could deliver some good news here but you should expect to wait an insanely long time to get your pass processed. It's possible that they've sped this up this year but we've been passholders since 2001 and every year pass processing lines are around 2-3 hours. My advice would be to get there before the park opens and run to the processing area (or walk at a brisk pace, don't break any park rules). They have 2 processing areas unless they moved them. One of them is in the ugly white tent near Superman, to get to the other one make a left when you get in the park, when you pass the teacups go into the arcade near them, cut through the arcade and once you exit the building is right on your left. Generally that's the main one so go there first, but what I'd do is get there like 30 minutes early (at least) and ask someone who works there where you need to go to process the path so you're ready once the park opens. I don't know if processing opens with the park, but go there first regardless. You enter with the printed voucher and you can process the pass later in the day but don't do this. I can't stress this enough. Do it immediately. As far as parking, you can show them your printed vouchers and they'll let you park for free. I STRONGLY suggest getting a membership, I have one just so I don't have to wait in that hellish pass processing line ever again.

I think you're forgetting Safari Off Road Adventure which has 3+ hour waits on a regular basis and seems to be the most popular ride at Great Adventure.

This is the sign for the new area? PS: Zydeco Zinger looks nice though.

So employees that aren't helpful, inefficient operations, horrible lines for season pass processing, line jumpers, lazy security, 1 train on everything, closed rides including rides that have been there for years but it's considered a "decent opening day". It's nice to see people have such low expectations for this park that this is considered decent.

El Toro has seatbelts and it has more airtime than any B&M ride can ever dream of having. Seatbelts aren't really a concern for me, even if they are added which I doubt they will be all it will impact will be the dispatch times.