YoshiFan

I was considering going tomorrow but the high of only 48 degrees is what is stopping me from trying to get there. That might be too cold for some of the coasters to run and the 6:00 closing doesn't give a lot of time if rides are closed in the morning because of the temperature (if it got warmer in the afternoon).

I think they aren't enforcing the loose article policy because they don't have enough employees right now to staff the ride entrances and with no one stopping people from taking bags and other items in line, they are allowing items to be left in the stations.

It's really like only losing an hour of Coasters After Dark. It likely would have been on April 29th and the park is open from 10:30 to 8:00. Even if the park is open to everyone by 4 to 5 the schools will be gone and it should be empty. With the schools there I went during the day of Coasters After Dark a few years ago and waits were 10 to 15 minutes before they left for the day.

I liked Scream Machine slightly more than Green Lantern. I didn't find Scream Machine bad if you avoided the last few cars and in 2010 the red train was running the best it had in years. I would have rather seen Green Lantern built elsewhere in the park and had both rides stay.

I have ridden 2 Pinfari coasters. Python at Playland's Castaway Cove is a ZL42 and is the worst steel coaster I have ridden. The trains were very uncomfortable and other than the loop, the ride was painful. I am glad it is being replaced with Gale Force. The other Pinfari I have tried is Rollies Coaster at Morey's Piers. It's not horrible but not great either and has unnecessary OTSR's.

Great Adventure sometime within a week of opening day.

If they do move them I hope they keep some of them at an hourly price rather than just the $20 all day option since the ones by White Water Landing were $2 an hour.

That has been the policy at Skull Mountain for a few years and I think it was added right after the rider was ejected from New Texas Giant. I have seen people have to switch rows if a parent and small kid are in one of those rows.

1. Nitro 2. El Toro 3. Bizarro 4. Zumanjaro 5. Saw Mill Log Flume 6. Batman The Ride 7. Superman Ultimate Flight 8. Green Lantern 9. Skull Mountain 10. Sky Screamer

I have read enough reviews over the years to never go to Dorney on a summer weekend because during the summer I spend most of my time in WWK and the water rides on the ride side of the park and even on a weekday it can get crowded. Especially when you see a picture like there where even the Fast Lane line for Snake Pit looks like it could be 15+ minutes. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NlRM1x297N4/VbQEaX2NiII/AAAAAAAAjlk/s7X5z8qdCjQ/s1600/DP%2B72515%2BE.jpg I don't know what those people who write the bad reviews expect. Any park is going to be crowded on a summer weekend if the weather is ok.

Dorney Every coaster is usually a walk on or few train wait at the most except Wild Mouse which is usually around 15 - 20 minutes on a slower day, up to around 45 minutes on a moderate crowd day. Great Adventure Skull Mountain, The Dark Knight, Runaway Mine Train, Bizarro, Batman and Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train usually have short lines except on crowded days. Green Lantern, El Toro and Nitro have moderate waits most days (they can still be walk ons on low crowd days) Superman and Kingda Ka usually have long lines even on slower days, this year Superman had somewhat shorter lines than past years though.

Unfortunately the holographic billboards haven't been working for a while. One stopped working in 2010, the other one stopped working in 2011. The clown car horn at the end of the ride was also not working for a while but was recently fixed. They were my 2nd favorite effect after the tunnel that lights up with the writing on it. The clown mask screen in the station queue seems to be only working around half the time as well. I like The Dark Knight coaster, especially because it is good to get inside from the colder weather on some days. I just wish they would stop running the pre-show on days the ride is a walk on. It can be difficult to get multiple rides in a short amount of time when you have to wait to get into the pre-show, watch the film and then walk to the station and find empty cars cycling. You can usually get a re-ride on those days if no one is waiting in the station which does help.

Zierer Flitzer, Miler Wild Mouse and Schwarzkopf City Jet . I have ridden all 3 coaster types without any restraints back in the 90s when they didn't have any at the parks in Ocean City, NJ. After the Wild Wonder (Zamperla Mouse) accident in 1999, all the coasters had seatbelts added.

Superman Ultimate Flight at Great Adventure yesterday.

I thought today might be different with people getting there at opening and leaving earlier to go to parties.

The park is empty so far today, I guess a lot of people have other plans today. They just made an announcement that at 8:45 at the tree in the front of the park there will be a New Year's Eve celebration but I'll be gone before then to see what it is.

Skull Mountain on Sunday

I go to Atlantic City multiple times a year and am looking forward to this but I wonder how successful it will be. It seems like Ocean City has taken so much of the family entertainment business away with how crowded the boardwalk and 2 amusement piers are compared to Atlantic City. Although that's somewhat the casino's fault for closing many of the family friendly attractions that used to be there in the late 80's to 90's like the indoor amusement park Tivoli Pier in Tropicana, bowling alley in Showboat and some of the arcades in the casinos and then places like Taj Mahal having a no one under 18 policy allowed in the building except the restaurants connected to the boardwalk (this was around 10 years ago and I think they no longer have this policy). I prefer Atlantic City casinos to the casinos in the Philadelphia area because they tend to have older slot machines that are difficult to find elsewhere in the area but I know I am the exception. I have been at Golden Nugget or Caesars in the summer when it wasn't very crowded yet on a weekday in the winter Parx and Sugar House have more people at the slot machines. The parking doesn't help either. Caesars charges up to $40 in the summer and even up to $20 in the winter when the PA casinos all have free parking. Even Harrah's away from the boardwalk charges more. They comps and other perks seem to be decreasing too. Platinum status used to have separate lines at check in, player card services and at restaurants at the CET properties, now the only real benefit it free parking.

I didn't know the overflow lot wasn't paved. I have never had to park there and probably wouldn't want to be there on a day it was so crowded that they were using that lot.

Maybe they are only having Flash Pass available on days they expect larger crowds. It was open on Sunday (and not the Sunday before that) although not many people were using it (I did see 1 person using Platinum). They didn't even have the available list of rides posted.

Hydra, it rattles almost the entire ride and is almost completely forceless.

Great Adventure next week

Today was like the opposite of my trip to the park last Saturday. 30 degrees cooler and basically no one there. Nothing had more than a few minute wait except to see Santa (and that looked like it had 1/3 of the line it had last week). Superman and Sky Screamer were closed when I got there and Sky Screamer opened around 2:30 and Superman opened around 4:30 - 5:00. I wanted to keep riding but riding Nitro after when it was just above freezing really was uncomfortable and after that, I got 1 more re-ride and called it a night and I thought it was a very successful trip to the park getting 27 rides in less than 5 hours. This was also my 3rd trip in a row where they stopped Nitro on the lift while I was in line because someone had a phone out. All 3 times the person didn't get in trouble. On Sky Screamer they told someone 4 or 5 times to put their phone away and they refused. After the ride I saw a ride op go up to them to talk to them but they were able to exit the ride without being escorted out and it didn't look like security was called. In the ride stations they warn everyone if that if a phone is taken out then the person will be ejected from the park. I'd really like to see that start happening since anyone who gets caught knows they won't get in trouble.

Spring break hours have been released, they are going to be open every day from March 23rd to April 3rd from 10 to 8. That makes the offseason only 78 days. https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/plan-your-visit/park-operating-schedule

Great Bear at Hersheypark in August 2005.