willh51

^ACTUALLY, they just should get all their ride operators from TPR! I can see it now: "NO LOOSE ITEMS, this train is leaving the station in six seconds whether you are sitting down or not!"

Glad to hear people commenting on Great Adventure's natural scenery. I have always thought the park was actually quite beautiful in many spots (not near Superman, but maybe that'll be fixed at some point). Maybe they'll repaint Nitro and re-panel the station one day, too!

What is with this park and all the reports of bad operators? Hershey is supposed to be a happy place! Do any of the rides have "older ops" this year? Last time I went Lightning Racer was being run by this awesome group of senior citizens who were both friendly and dispatching like crazy. If they can do it, everyone else can! I'm just speculating here, but maybe Hershey needs older/more experienced/higher paid "team leaders." I noticed that Kings Dominion often has lots of young operators and then one older "leader" who was making sure they were keeping dispatches up to par/dealing with small problems, etc. Hershey may already do this, but I think it could really help and would cut down on the BS on the platform.

That pier looks great; makes me miss the Myrtle Beach Pavilion. The price seems pretty good, too, despite the non-stop bitching on the park's Facebook page.

I believe the belts on TTD are a bit shorter than Millennium Force, at least from my experience. Congrats on fitting though, I'm trying to slim down a bit myself. Rides like El Toro are probably a no-go for me at the moment.

I just spent a few minutes watching the BGW web cam focused on Verbolten's river drop. I can't believe how quickly the trains come by. Even without the yellow train, this thing has to be a capacity monster. I'd say they were coming by at least every minute. There is a noticeable gap after all four colors cycle before the first comes back again that should be nicely filled when the yellow train is put into operation. Also, what a great web cam. It's clear, fluid and has sound. Forget refreshing the page constantly! I remember Questar. I went to the park when I was probably 7 or 8 (wouldn't even ride Loch Ness) and it scared the s**t out of me. I remember standing on lights or something before the ride? Then the whole thing was shaking like hell. I've come a long way since then. My parents ribbed me for crying for years.

^No headbanging? BTW, is your avatar the sign in Great Bear's queue?

^I just hope it doesn't get so bad that ONLY flash pass people are riding. When I went to the park it was DEAD on a weekend in May, so it should be OK as mentioned except for holidays and summer weekends.

You don't even want to know the kind of crazy stuff you see inside Smurf Mountain!

It's pretty fun, but it slows it down a lot at the base of the big incline and kind of creeps around the big turn and back toward the station. They've got these movable platforms to evacuate you in the tunnel and then you walk through Smurf Mountain.

That looks amazing. The theme park is definitely better than the second movie!

The Jump2 looks so intimidating so I really hope they fix it, for sheer novelty. To those who have ridden, is it underwhelming due to its intensity? The spinning looks mediocre but the throwing looks nuts. Maybe it's not so wild in the hot seat.

^Well Kings Dominion technically just got the ride back to opening day badassness over the winter, abet with a slight modification to the first turn, but I understand your sentiment.

^Interestingly enough, I find the seats on Volcano more forgiving than the typical B&M seat in depth and accessibility. I think it's due to the hydraulic restraint instead of the ratcheting ones that B&M uses.

Great report, and I'll echo that the park is really quite good looking. They seem to have an excellent mix of rides, especially with the New Texas Giant in the mix.

1/4 of a train empty? Nah, I bet that doesn't make the line move slowly.

Oddly, Great Adventure can be packed but not have excruciating lines. Everyone heads to Ka, Toro and Superman/Green Lantern on opening. I'd suggest hitting Ka and Toro first. I'm not sure if they've remedied this, but I've been quoted HUGELY off wait times for Ka. The last time I got on front row in 45 when the woman working the end of the queue said it was 3 hours (!). Superman is always going to have a bit of a line, but it generally dies down in the afternoon. Same for the area where Nitro and Batman are. I've had numerous visits where that area went from packed to re-ride without waiting dead in the afternoon. The area of the park near Bizarro is not usually that packed, and I've never waited more than 20 minutes for the ride.

For some reason, the restraints on the new hypers seem slightly more restrictive than the older ones. Basically, I rode Apollo's Chariot, Nitro and Intimidator in one season, and Intimidator was the tighter squeeze. This could be due to (1) less "broken in" seats or (2) Cedar Fair requiring an extra click. Though...I certainly don't know if there's an ACTUAL difference.

I'm not surprised by this at all. And who can blame them for not wanting to waste a ton of money on rides that aren't that great anyway? It would certainly be nice to see Greezed Light'nin reopened along with Thunder Run, but I think the others aren't worth the huge expenditure. I know the Twins have been closed for longer, but I'm surprised T2 is in that bad of condition. I am obviously ignorant of the specific details, but are a couple of years of non-use and weather enough to kill a steel coaster like T2, or is it likely that KK's poor maintenance was the issue? Maybe it was just at the end of it's service life anyway (God knows some of the other ones seem to be ). I was in the area last summer and it was weird seeing the park just sitting there, so best of luck to the Koch family with the project!

Good for them for making some changes, it all sounds pretty cool to me. I've always been impressed with AT (which I've never visited) for trying to create solid attractions within the strict height restrictions they are saddled with.

I kind of like Looper's new trains... Cannot WAIT to ride this monster in August.

^Well that's good. I spoke too soon!

I can't believe the park would run ROS with only one train on weekends in the summer. Does Batwing even have a second functional train anymore?

I'll never forget waiting to ride the SFOG version and talking to the park manager about the ride. He said something funny about Deja Vu being "challenging" to operate consistently. The rides I got that day were amazing. That first lift is frightening. It looks like SFNE did a really nice job with it.

That looks great! I had to stop reading the comments on Hershey's YouTube POV that the ride looks "boring." People are stupid. The restraints look rather bizarre, but seem a lot roomier than El Toro/Superman, so that will be nice for larger guests. I hope to get up there in the fall and ride it since I haven't been to Hershey since Stormrunner opened.