Zack44

Here's my trip report for opening day: Bad news: There was on and off rain and many of the rides were down at various points of the day. Good News: The rain scared most of the crowds away and I was able to get on pretty much everything I wanted to. The longest wait of the day for me was actually getting my season pass processed at the beginning of the day because the computers were malfunctioning. After that debacle, I was able to score two consecutive rides on both Superman and Green Lantern. The main problem at the start of the day was that many of the coasters, such as Kingda Ka, El Toro, and Superman, started off with only one train, but those that had two trains were all practically walk ons. After a brief ride on the Parachutes, my mother and I had lunch outside the park and caught a glimpse of the pieces for El Diablo. It's located in the parking lot of the Exploration Station and can be seen more clearly from the Zumanjaro line. It looks like they'll be re-using Rolling Thunder's old queue for the new ride. When we got back in the park, I was able to get four consecutive rides on Bizarro, running with two trains and no lines (aside from the front), plus another ride later in the day with my mother. She spent most of the rest of the day napping in the car while I scored a ride on KIngda Ka, which would've been two but I was interrupted with the worst period of rain of the entire day. Since the rain didn't let up for a while, I took the Skyway over to Skull Mountain (twice), Nitro (three times), and the Dark Knight. TDK was clearly not ready at all for opening day: the pre-show lighting went off early and a portion of the ride was actually lit up from the roof. After that, I reunited with my mother and we rode SkyScreamer, Deja Vu, and Zumanjaro twice in a row (my first times, actually). My mother was totally finished after that, but I was in the mood for El Toro since they added a second train and was able to get three consecutive rides. I contemplated going on Batman but ultimately decided to wait until it goes backwards and finished the day with Blackbeard and Swashbuckler instead. Overall Rating: 5.5 out of 6 Flags. The weather overall was pretty bad with on and off rain, but I was still able to get on everything I wanted to, even multiple times on some occasions. I'll post my pictures soon...

My personal favorite tunnel would have to be Loch Ness Monster from BGW. For me, it single-handedly raised my 3 star grade up to 4. I originally assumed that the interlocking loops would be the only enjoyable part of the 30+ year old ride, but I was very, very wrong.

I'm honestly surprised to find out that the Sorcerer's Hat had so much hate in the first place. I still remember going to the Disney MGM Studios (the new name never stuck with me) when I was 10 and taking multiple photos of the big ol' hat, even they all looked identical because I took them around the same exact spot. I always thought it was it was more appropriate to have something big and eye-catching like that to serve as the park's main symbol than the original water tower used to be. Also, even though plenty are people are gonna be happy to see the Chinese Theater from a distance again, II have a hunch that it won't be long until the next big thing will be that'll inevitably occupy that big spot in the middle of the park will be. O giant hat, I bid you a fond farewell.

I live Yaphank, NY which is only half-an-hour (tops) from Adventureland. I've only been to it once before, and I chose the absolute worst day to go. It was April Fool's Day and what I didn't know at first was that it was also the middle of Passover, so the park was unexpectedly filled up to maximum capacity with a huge amount of Jewish schoolchildren that must've been on a field trip or something. I just wanted to get credits for the two coasters in the park, but we ended up staying for hours. I just found out right now that the Hurricane coaster is being removed, so if I have some extra time this Monday I might make a visit and ride it one more time just for the hell of it. Hopefully they'll get some brand new yet compact coaster to take its place in the future. Edit: Nevermind, it's getting replaced with a spinning coaster. I can rest easy at night now.

You might be a coaster nerd if you have/had the colors of the elastic bands of your braces match the color scheme of your favorite coasters.

B&M's with a 200+ ft. height. What's better than that feeling of stretching after driving for hours to any theme park?

Rip-off

Diet Coke

Thank goodness that only that small chunk was all that went and that it didn't spread out even farther. Hopefully this won't end up being too big of a road bump in construction in the long run. I'm just gonna pray that any little accidents like this won't happen to the construction team of Twisted Cyclone in Massachusetts.

McDonald's buying Five Guys... What would be worse than The Simpsons being cancelled?

I"ll vote for Twisted Colossus. Regular Colossus could still pack a pretty mean punch after over 30 years of operation, so I'd imagine that this new transformation could make the old version seem like a flat ride. Not to mention, two side for twice the fun! If they were crazy enough to have one side on this new version to run backwards, I'd probably have to buy my plane tickets now!

Griffon- Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Grow 3 stories (then go climb the Empire State Building) Would you rather have a pet eagle or a pet platypus?

David

It's been about an entire year since the park announced that they were removing their beloved, 30+ year old Rolling Thunder. Since then, I've been hoping since then that they would have enough common sense to eventually let us have a new wooden coaster to fill in the gap (metaphorically AND literally) left by Rolling Thunder. Maybe just a compact GCI-esque thing that could appeal to children and adults alike, that's all. Instead, sitting in RT's old spot next year is something that isn't even widely considered as a legit roller coaster at all. I suppose I shouldn't be TOO picky, however. I find it interesting that the ride we're getting is a very unique not usually seen outside of carnivals. The fact that people are debating whether or not this is a real coaster certainly shows how unique it is. I'll still be willing to ride this when it does open, which by the way, has absolutely no reason NOT to be running by opening day. If the same park could get a hyper coaster like Nitro running in time for an April opening, there's no excuse why this little carnival ride shouldn't be.

Side

Joker's Jinx- Six Flags America

God lord, what a tragedy. I'm relieved to see that everyone on the ride is okay, especially after seeing that Reddit picture of the impact that the train left on that tree. It's rather obvious that Ninja is about to have a long period of downtime to get everything cleaned up, but I'd really hate to see it being forcibly removed altogether just to satisfy any concerned members of the general public. I live 3000 miles away and I've had the privilege of riding this coaster once, as well as the now-defunct Big Bad Wolf, and it would be such a shame if another popular suspended coaster would have to be removed so suddenly because of an unpredictable accident.

England...

I haven't been on this site in a long, long time. I'm glad to see that it's still as busy as ever since my last visit God knows how long ago. Now I'm back and I plan to re-kindle my coaster know-how, visit a ton of parks this summer, and post my new pictures here once again!

Batman & Robin (1997) makes Catwoman (2004) look like Citizen friggin' Kane. What's worse than walking barefoot on a large pile of Lego bricks?

I've actually been away from TPR for a while now, but I keep posting photo trip reports of Great Adventure on gadv.com very often. My latest one was from June 21, which was pretty busy since it was the first day of summer, and Zumanjaro was only testing periodically during the day while Kingda Ka didn't open until a few hours after the park opened. If you'd like to see my full report and photos from that day, you can click RIGHT HERE.

Putting shoulder restraints on Raging Bull. What's worse than seeing your favorite coaster slapped with a barrage of advertisements everywhere?

RIDE ROLLING THUNDER AS MANY TIMES AS YOU CAN BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!! But if it is too late by then, I suggest going on the Safari Off-Road Adventure first because the lines for that were absolutely crazy when I went to the park last week. Afterwards, go to Bizarro and Kingda Ka because they're generally close to one another. El Toro is most likely still going to be down for a while, so don't bother with it.

Photos: My my, I wonder what these are for.... Dang! I missed a photo op with a princess. The line for the Safari Off Road Adventure... A dance party as seen from above. The preparations have begun! There's a new thing this year called "Total Darkness", which I'm guessing is probably a terror trail. My poor baby's down for the day. The only GOOD marketing tie-in with a roller coaster that I've seen. A "live and local" 80's cover band called Max Headroom also performed. I've never seen these before and I thought they were cool. The backs even list the original 1974 candy prices! More props, YAY! He looks like the mascot for the 80's band. Artsy pic: Check Nerdy shot: Check Thanks for reading!