Zand

I think there's still a noticeable price gap between the two (for now anyway). On some of the low crowd days I'm seeing rooms at Aventura and Cabana Bay for around $110 and Endless Summer for $75. Haven't seen the All Stars below $180 and those places are dumps (although to be fair I didn't play around with the dates as much for them). Annual passes for non residents still have about a $1000 gap. Day tickets and food are pretty close at both though. I'm sure the gap will close when Epic opens but there's still deals to be had at Universal that you're not getting at Disney.

I went in yesterday expecting to buy the Twilight Pass (good for the last 2 hours of the day) for the low low price of $46. But then I checked the closure list and saw Sandy's on it (which is somehow the first time I've been there with it closed) but also saw Skyline Scream is closed which I did want to get a night ride on. Wouldn't hate going back sometime in February if Sandy's is open to get an off-season fix in. And at the rate this winter is going, maybe I can bring my skis and manage a day without skiing in mud.

So I think I figured it out... As you can see in the first picture, on that sign there is a tiny little NJTP logo and a left arrow. I DID see this when I was driving through. But if you look at the second picture, the left turn lane is coned off both on Google Street View and also coned off currently in real life. So I guess I ended up taking the next left but apparently you're supposed to go straight another...half mile? Then it loops around back to the NJTP ramp that you just drove by because it's coned off. And there are NO SIGNS at all past this coned off intersection. F*cking Jersey. If anyone here has been to Boston's airport, it's the same convoluted layout where you drive around in circles 3 times before you finally get to the correct garage after having to dart across four lanes of traffic to get there because the exit ramp from the highway comes out on the left and your terminal is 300 feet ahead on the right. But at least Boston gives you clearly marked signs to get back to the highway as long as you successfully dart back across 4 lanes of traffic to get to the exit. This place? "Yeah f*ck you welcome to New Jersey we're gonna make sure you get a nice tour of beautiful downtown Rutherford before you leave." No wonder Jets fans are so miserable...you just watched your team somehow lose to Mac Jones, now we're gonna trap you in this circle from hell so you can't get away from this debacle!

Stopped by the mall this afternoon. Went into the park just to ride Shellraiser as I had never ridden it at night before. Due to technical problems they were only running one car which created a 20 minute wait. I have read in the past that the back row is smoother and I can confirm that is now my experience as well. First time riding in back and what a difference. The bottom of the big drop in front feels like it's going to jostle your brain out of your head, but in back it's just the slightest if bumps. When you get a smooth ride, this thing is truly a great coaster with awesome forces and it definitely completes with Nitro and Gale Force for best steel coaster in NJ. I also ponied up the money to ride the Ferris Wheel which is fantastic to experience once, with great views of the city, MetLife Stadium, the Turnpike, the guy getting arrested on the road underneath, etc. Mall had a good crowd but still way too many empty areas. And for the love of God, put some signs up for the exit so I don't end up in some giant parking lot for MetLife and then onto route 3 north (which is the opposite of where I needed to be) because there are ZERO signs when you're heading out telling you how to get to the Turnpike.

Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong, but I literally commented to my wife on the way in that it didn't look like they had even touched a single tree, nevermind started construction. BTW, the new bar (that I had never even heard of until yesterday) inside the Chiller observatory is legitimately one of my favorite things this park has ever come up with. Unfortunately it won't be as much of a secret next year with the new coaster going in next door, but it's really damn nice!

Happy New Year! Will this be the year that this thing gets the world's most explosive paint job? The Cedar Fair influence is starting to take hold. Is that you, Windseeker?

Lol. I guess I better enjoy the crap out of Nitro on New Year's Day this year because if this is what Cedar Fair is bringing to the Six Flags parks, then it will probably be the final time we can do that. SFNE might as well just shut down in mid October.

It's crazy. The last couple times I've been to JB's at SFNE, my wife and I ordered two meals and two drinks and they rang up to a total in the neighborhood of $70 before they scanned for the meal plans. Just insane. I also noticed last week at Great Adventure that general parking is up to $45. I'll milk these $16 per month platinum passes with dining plans as long as I can because I know change is on the horizon with the merger.

Spent 1:30-6:30 in the park today and rode nonstop. Walk ons everywhere. Even Justice League was a walk on. Felt a bit holiday in the park-ish with both Frontier Adventures and the Boardwalk closed. 60% of the B&Ms were unavailable today but the two best ones were open and they made up for it by making sure 100% of the Intamins ran pretty much flawlessly all day. Temps in the mid 30s at closing but Ka and Toro didn't care. And that's still too warm for Nitro and Batman, they need it to be colder. I don't care if you think I'm on crack, Great Adventure in the late fall/early winter is one of the most gorgeous parks in the country and you won't convince me otherwise. How much did your Intamins run today, Hershey? Sunset laps on Nitro are just the best.

Hey Cedar Fair...you know what Great Adventure needs that you have a few of and would fit in the park perfectly? One of those sports bar style Chickie's and Pete's. Make it happen.

Tonight I fell victim to forgetting to check to make sure Six Flags didn't decide to change their hours at the last minute. Stopped at the park on the way to NJ, arriving around 3:30 and expecting to have till 7 but apparently this week they cut it back to 6. My fault as it should almost be expected at this point that the hours are likely to get f*cked with any given day. Figuring I had plenty of time, I started with a tour of Gotham which took a bit longer than expected as there were actually people at the park despite temps in the 30s. Everything in the park was open (unlike a certain park in NJ that I'll be at tomorrow) except Crackaxle, but running one train on everything and a lot of the coasters had 5+ cycle waits which I didn't expect. I then took my time eating at JBs and headed for Cyclone around 5:45, figuring I'd have time to hit that and then Superman a few times. Well, joke was on me when I was in the Cyclone station to hear "the next train will be the last of the night." Fun cold wheel ride which ran fast with good airtime, but unfortunately that was the end of the night. Guess Superman will have to wait another 5 months. I'll make up for it by riding another good Intamin tomorrow. To be fair the park did post the new hours on Facebook back on Wednesday. And kudos to them for having the whole park open except the 3 Crackaxle rides. Staffing was obviously thin but they made what they could out of it. I'm sure the Cedar Fair influence will kill off the November closings and revert back to Halloween, so this may have been the end of Veterans Day rides. Hope not. See you in April SFNE (or mid May if we start getting Cedar Fair schedules).

But how many Cedar Fair parks have gotten something as extensive as a multi-year Carousel project?

I'm sure Valleyfair and Michigan's Adventure (and Dorney before this year) wish they could've had a couple penny pinched Six Flags coasters sent their way in the past 15. I understand that what Cedar Fair gives to its good parks far outweighs what Six Flags has been giving to its big parks the past 10 years. But the have-nots on their end seem to be way bigger "nots" than the Six Flags have-nots (other than SFA of course). Six Flags parks may have been 4-D'd to death but at least it's something. As great as it would be to get some gigas into places like Magic Mountain and Great Adventure, I think the bigger thing that may come of out of this is maybe the new combined chain will remember the smaller parks exist, regardless of who they choose to work with. But we'll see, could just be status quo also.

This.

Get ready for short operating seasons. RIP HITP when the Cedar Fair influence gets its way. Hope this upcoming New Year's Day at Great Adventure isn't the last one. When do they start painting Millennium Force red with blue supports?

Quick Oktoberfest/Frightfest report from Saturday: Arrived around 2:00 to a comfortable crowd...lively but not crazy. Goals today were to ride Wicked Cyclone and Superman, have lunch, and check out the Oktoberfest offerings. Anything else would be a bonus. Pretty classic October weather with gray skies and temps in the low 50s. Didn't take too long to achieve my goals. Ate at JBs on arrival with absolutely no wait and the food was ready before we even got to our seats. Wicked Cyclone had a quick 10-15 minute wait for a fun backseat ride. Skyscreamer was a short line when I was up there so I hopped on that too. Wasn't windy enough to spin the seats around, but for some reason they slow the spinning down to almost a stop when the gondola gets to the top. It's almost an unnerving feeling because it makes it feel like it's about to go all Windseeker on you and break down in mid air, but then it speeds back up and starts to descend. Weird, but still fun and it's always bizarre spinning in reverse. Made our way down to Superman passing a long Thunderbolt line and Scream running one tower (it's only a Frightfest Saturday but ok...) and found a line inside the final canopy. In 10 quick minutes we were in the station with a two train wait for the back. Surprised to see the heat lamps in use but it allowed the ride to run pretty quick and still very smooth. Superman at SFA kind of beats you up on a few of the transitions but this thing is running as smooth as it was 23 years ago. Headed up to check out the Oktoberfest scene which was pretty busy but grabbed a pretzel and some beers and listened to the band that was playing for a while. It was a fun atmosphere and pretty well done by Six Flags standards. Also watched abysmal dispatch times at Joker, Riddler, and Batman and decided I was happy to skip those today. Around 6:00 we checked out a couple of the smaller Frightfest setups but the bigger crowds were streaming in and we hit the road around 6:30. Fun afternoon! Thundercow? This maze is a much better use of Goliath's plot than Goliath was. I always thought these banners are both a cool nod to the history of the park as well as a really awkward place to mark where the trash bins are in JB's. Either that or the park thinks their best restaurant is trash. Idk. I spy 6 coasters in this shot! Heatlamp the Ride I'm not sure if this bar is new or if I've been very non-observant the past few visits, but pretty cool little spot right under Superman. Will have to check it out next time I'm there! Prost! Guess I'll need to hop a flight to LA because there's no "Riddler's Revenge" in this park lol. Goodnight SFNE Premium one tram ops on a Saturday night.

Fair point! To be honest the Miler in Kissimmee made me kind of feel the way the Atlanta one made you feel. Biggest difference is those mouse style hairpin turns taken way too fast are about 50 feet higher in the air lol. And then that high speed low to the ground turn that is very poorly designed and seems to exert way too many forces on those janky Miler wheel assemblies.

Haven't noticed this at Great Adventure yet (although based on the stories I've heard from FightFest in the past years I'm not surprised they're doing it this time of year) but when I was at SFA in August their security were all wearing vests AND they consistently had 3 county cops parked outside the front gate. Never seen a park openly go all out on security like they do.

I mean...someone mentioned the Turkey Hill store above. That might be more entertaining than Sheetz. I've gone back to Team Wawa in the past year so looking at cornfields is firmly back ahead of Sheetz on my list. My other favorite pastime of that area is staying at the Super 8 in Danville, and around 11pm getting a knock on the door saying they have to move us to a different room because it was pouring and our room was probably about to flood. This was about two weeks after the infamous 2018 flood you see marked on the covered bridge at Knoebels. A good portion of the park was still underwater when I was there but it was still open because Knoebels.

I'm sad to see everyone hating on Hurricane at FSA. I was laughing my ass off by the end because of how janky is was. The last two airtime hills have more severe ejector than anything in AF1 and then that sudden 90 degree angle turn before the brakes was so bad that it was good. I understand that kind of jankiness isn't everyone's cup of tea but I loved the damn thing haha.

1. Visit Centralia 2. Look at Cornfields 3. Hang out at Sheetz 4. Yuengling brewery is somewhat close As said above, the park is in the middle of nowhere with nothing really of interest in the area (other than hiking...plenty of that) but it is definitely worth visiting the middle of nowhere in this case.

They could replace Steamin Demon with a Pinfari looper and Canyon Blaster with a colonoscopy tent and it would be a drastic improvement.

This is awesome for Great Escape! Love these small Gravity Groups, can't wait to check it out.

When is that Condor getting built?

I was there two weeks ago and ended up biting the bullet on the rides/waterpark combo even though I had no intention of using the waterpark half. The before 7 rides pass totally blows when the two good piers don't open until 5. I definitely got my money's worth out of the $110 wristband in comparison to single ticket prices, but still ridiculous. That said, it was mobbed so why would they charge less when suckers (including me) are paying for it? It was good to be in the Ghost Ship again even if it was only partially open. I rode Sea Serpent a ton early when just Mariners was open since there's nothing else good over there and that is the best Boomerang in all the land. And I love a good boomerang...going backwards through the loop is one of my favorite coaster sensations. And then naturally bracing for the head bashing heading into the cobra roll and then remembering you don't have to worry about it on Sea Serpent is always funny. Atmosfear is still my favorite drop tower outside of Demon Drop. I rode Zumanjaro a couple days later and even that experience is ruined by a good Larson tower although the view is worth it. Enjoyed many rides on all the usuals on Surfside and Adventure piers. Also stopped in Ocean City for a couple hours for my annual Gale Force ride plus Manco & Manco >>>>>>>Mack's.