YoshiFan

Gwazi, it was so rough that I wouldn't have ridden the other side had it been open.

Runaway Mine Train at Great Adventure

The closing rides early seems to be worse when the park closes at midnight. Last year I was there and all the rides shut their lines at 11:30 even with no waits. I saw people complaining to a security guard at the closed Kingda Ka entrance that the park was supposed to be open until 12:00 and a security guard said "The park is open until 12, the rides aren't." If they are going to close rides early, they should post it ahead of time like Dorney used to on their website when the rides closed at 11 but the park and Haunt attractions were open until 12 (I think they stopped closing the rides early).

Absolutely: Great Adventure Dorney Hershey Knoebels Probably: Playland's Castaway Cove Gillian's Wonderland Pier Possibly: Six Flags New England Lake Compounce

I just hope Holiday In The Park is successful enough for it to not be a 1 year event. It would be very nice every year knowing the offseason is less than 3 months.

My 2015 season turned out a lot different than I expected. I got to Dorney 7 times and Great Adventure 19 times (with still a few trips left until January) and for all the other parks listed I only got to Playland's Castaway Cove twice. I did get to a lot more parks than I ever expected this year getting to all 4 Disney World parks in Feburary/March, Fun Spot Orlando in March, Cedar Point and Kings Island in June and Canobie Lake Park over Labor Day weekend. I went raised my coaster count from 96 coasters before this year to 127. Getting to Cedar Point has been something I wanted for 10 years and was happy to finally get the chance.

This is great, now there is only 1 closed weekend between the last operating day of the regular season and when Holidaying the Park starts. I wonder how crowded Friday will be, I thought it would be empty but schools in NJ are closed.

That would work with regular or gold but not with Platinum. Everyone using Platinum gets a wristband and if someone goes to a Flash Pass entrance with a Platinum Flash Pass and not the wristband, depending on the employee, they may not let the person enter the Flash Pass line. With the prices, I know a Great Adventure got rid of the discount for extra users on 1 Flash Pass and lowered the price. Platinum used to be $120 for 1 person and less after that, now it is $110 for person no matter how many people are using the Flash Pass

Here is a good report with crowd pictures from closing day on Sunday last year: http://www.greatadventurehistory.com/GATrips_Autumn_2014_11_02.htm

I'll have to try that next time I am at the park (or next year since I may not be back again until Holiday In The Park). 3 weeks ago I tried the 2nd row and even that was horrible.

Kingda Ka, I used to like the ride but since last season it has gotten so rough that it is almost unrideable for me. I normally don't mind rides that have a reputation for being rough like Scream Machine but Kingda Ka practically gives me a headache so I have only ridden it 4 times this season.

My sister knows some of the different coaster companies like B&M and Intamin from going to parks with me. I also got her to try major coasters. Before she would only try tamer coasters like mine trains and now I convinced her to try coasters like Nitro and Talon.

I consider both Dorney and Great Adventure my local parks. I go to Dorney around 12 times a year and Great Adventure around 20 times a year. My record is 24 trips to Great Adventure in 2013.

Some B&M coasters seem to have that rattle and Hydra has it worse than some other coasters I have ridden. 1 train seems to be worse than the other. I think it's the one with the new restraints (black restraints and seats) that has less rattle.

I started going to the park in the late 80's although only went on the kiddie rides back then. The removal of the older rare rides like the rockets and water skooters was disappointing but at the same time I really like the additions a smaller individually owned park probably wouldn't add like Talon.

Great pictures and report, I would have thought coaster lines would be worse. I agree about Bizarro being loud, they even shut it down when there are certain events in the Northern Star Arena because of the noise. I rarely ride Thunder Creek Mountain unless I am going to the Wildwater Kingdom the same day because of how soaked you get. I usually will go ride Thunder Canyon and White Water Landing and then walk down to Thunder Creek Mountain right after that. It's one of my favorite log flumes.

I'm not saying you are wrong because obviously you work there and all but according to the website Thunder Creek Mountain's status is "Fall Operating Hours: Saturdays & Sundays during daytime operation only. Weather permitting. " I know it was open during the day when we were there for Haunt last year but that was earlier in the season, in late September. Speaking of which, did Dorney shorten their Haunt this year by a couple of weeks? We went the last weekend in September last year but according to their operating calender Haunt is only 3 weekends this year? The calendar automatically removes operating days to only show upcoming dates. If you look at the operating calendar next Monday, it is only going to show the final 2 weekends. Haunt started on Friday September 18th this year.

I think it will be extremely crowded tomorrow. The park is open until midnight compared to every other Sunday where they are open until 10 which likely means the park thinks there will be enough people there to justify being open 2 hours later. There is the NJ Fall Key Club Rally and a AAA event that had discounted tickets and a catered meal which will also add to crowds.

Friday nights are generally less crowded. The only downside is that if its your only trip for a while, you only have 6 1/2 hours from open to close. I went to the park almost every Friday night last year during Fright Fest and other than the first week, waits were mostly low. Surprisingly Halloween night was the least crowded with waits 5 to 10 minutes.

I decided at the last minute to go to the park today and I also thought it was my best trip of the season. I never expected it to be as empty as it was and it was a lot of fun to just pick a ride and walk right on rather than skipping rides or coming back to them later hoping to find a shorter line. It was also nice to see many coasters running 2 trains even though they probably could have gotten away with running 1 train on almost everything.

I haven't had a smooth ride on Hydra in a few years. One train is worse than the other and both rattle after the first drop for almost the rest of the ride. It's not enought to stop me from riding the coaster but it's usually a once a trip ride for me.

I have also been happy with what has been added to the park and in addition to the rides they reopened the closed rides Red Zone left SBNO like Tango and Houdini and some a bunch of kiddie rides. Holiday in the Park is something I have wanted for years. Normally it would be just a month to go until the off-season and now if the park opens in March (with Easter early next year) the only month they won't have an operating day is February. Not related to that but I was very surprised to see such low crowds on Sunday. I was there from 1 to 6:30 and other than Superman at 20 minutes and Kingda Ka (didn't ride since it broke down when I was near the ride), I didn't wait more than 10 minutes for anything. Even the Fright Fest attractions looked like they had hardly any people in line. It was quite the opposite of 2 weeks ago when Skull Mountain had an almost full queue and Bizarre had a 2/3 full queue.

Can confirm Saturday was absolutely /insane/ Thunder Creek Mountain was over an hour wait, Demon Drop was over 45 minutes. Utter insanity for Dorney. If this is a trend for the rest of the season, do not go on Saturdays. I'm glad I got there early on Saturday. I was there from 11:30 to 2:30 and walked onto everything but when I was leaving, it was starting to get more crowded and when I drove by the park again around 7, I saw the main lot was full and the lot on the other side of the toll booths was filling up as well. It was a nice surprise to see Thunder Creek Mountain open, I thought it was closed for the season.

I would go on a Friday. Crowds are generally low then for the rides. For some reason the first Friday in October was crowded but the rest of them were good. This year I am expecting the final Friday to be crowded since it is the day before Halloween. I was there from opening to closing on the Friday nights last year and averaged around 15 rides a trip which I thought was a lot for 6 1/2 hours especially compared to how bad Saturday and Sundays are. Columbus Day is also a good day to go since it is a school night and with the park open until 10, the park clears out the last few hours.

Trick or Treat appeared to be very popular tonight, it had about a 2/3 full queue. It seemed like everyone in the park was there for the Haunt attractions with all the coasters walk ons, even Wild Mouse. Steel Force opened about an hour after the park opened.