YoshiFan

Talon around 3 hours ago. I finished the 2014 season with a solo ride on the coaster.

Nitro, about 4 hours ago

If someone would have said that of the 5 Friday nights the park is open in October, Halloween night would be the least crowded, I wouldn't have believed it. I haven't waked more than a 5 minutes for anything the entire night when I thought by 7, it would be very crowded.

Crowds weren't too bad tonight, my longest wait was around 30 minutes for Nitro. Kingda Ka and El Toro were both listed on the closed rides board before opening, but both rides opened a little after opening. It looked like all ride lines closed 20 - 25 minutes early. By 11:35, Kingda Ka and Zumanjaro both had their lines closed for the night and checking other rides they looked like they had not just recently closed (lights off in the station or flat rides with lights off).

Great Adventure, 120 times since 2008 (first year I had a season pass) and probably around 15 times before that.

Even with Dorney only 45 minutes away from me, without Wildwater Kingdom being open I rarely feel like visiting in the spring and fall. Talon, Steel Force and Possessed are usually the only coasters I feel like I need to ride more than once per trip. Usually I ride Hydra and Thunderhawk once per trip and other than a handful of non coaster rides I try to get in every time I am usually done with the ride side in 2 to 3 hours, compared to a park like Great Adventure where I spent 6 1/2 hours at last week and still wanted to keep riding coasters. I skip Wild Mouse besides the horrible operations, the brakes are painful and even if Stinger was open, it has too much headbanging for me to go to it more than once or twice a season.

They changed the opening to 5:30 on Friday nights a couple of years ago. I don't like the rope drop by the fountain and they had it better set up last year. They didn't open the gates to the park until 5:30 and gold passholders had their own entrance gates which opened at 5:20 so there was no crowding at the fountain with everyone trying to push past each other.

Dorney - Hydra, Stinger, Laser, Thunderhawk Great Adventure - Barman The Ride, Bizarro, Skull Mountain, Scream Machine, Runaway Mine Train I want to eventually get solo rides on everything at Great Adventure except Kingda Ka (since they won't dispatch the train with 1 rider).

Absolutely: Great Adventure Dorney Park Probably: Playland's Castaway Cove Gillian's Wonderland Pier Hersheypark Knoebels Maybe: Busch Gardens Williamsburg King's Dominion I'm hoping to get to more parks next year compared to this year. I only got to Great Adventure and Dorney this year although I got to both parks many times this year.

It looked like rides didn't close early today. I got to Kingda Ka at 9:40 hoping it was still open and it had just reopened either because of rain or a breakdown. Crowds weren't too bad today. I got there at 4:30 and some rides were 30 to 40 minutes and around 7, most rides were no more than 10 to 15 minutes and Zumanjaro was a walk on right before closing.

That is strange they closed Kingda Ka's line early since they also did the same thing at The Dark Knight at 11:15. I'm used to seeing lines closed 2 to 5 minutes before closing but not 20 to 45 minutes early.

Tonight wasn't as crowded as last Friday night and it seemed like lines were only bad from around 7:45 to 10. I'm glad it didn't rain at all. I looked but didn't see you.

I'm probably going to try to get there today, the forecast keeps changing every hour. Around 2 hours ago weather.com said no rain until midnight, now its a 30% chance until 8 and then should be ok. I'm hoping its less crowded than last week, since I want to try to marathon Nitro for part of the night.

Laser was my 3rd favorite coaster in the park after Talon and Steel Force. I really liked those back to back forceful loops and the final helix at the end. I used to like Hydra more before it got that rattle that is there for almost the entire ride.

I think the only rides are Balloon Race, Little Laser and the rest of the Tot Spot rides that weren't moved to other parks or sold. 2 of the Tot Spot rides that were in storage are set up near the wavepool and run during Boo Blast.

That reminds me of Fall Family Fun Night 2008 (season pass night). It was raining all day and stopped at around 4, multiple people called the park and were told they would be open normal hours (5 to 10). At 6:45 they announced in the park they were closing at 7:30 even though there was no rain. So many people were angry with the park since some had gotten there at 7 only to not be allowed to enter the parking lot and others got there at 6:30 and only got a few rides in. I wasn't really upset because from 5 to 7:30 I had walk ons the entire time.

Runaway Mine Train at Great Adventure last night.

With so many people entering the lot at around 8, I thought crowds might still be bad until closing and left a little after 10. I'm hoping next week waits will be shorter.

The park was a lot more crowded than I was expecting tonight. I have gone to the first Friday night Fright Fest in October almost every year for the last 6 years and it's always been walk ons or 5 - 10 minute waits. Tonight by 8:00, some of the coasters had 45+ minute waits and some of areas of the park like the Boardwalk were very difficult to walk through since there were so many people. From Nitro's lift the lot looked almost 2/3 full.

There is no re-entry after 6.

Crowds usually stay away on Friday nights since there really aren't any Halloween events in the park except trick or treating for kids 12 and under. The park is decorated with lots of lights, Halloween props and the ride names are given Halloween names. Other than that, there really isn't much else with no mazes, trails or scare zones. If you get there at 5, you should be able to get all the coasters and get re-rides plus ride anything else you want to.

I went to the park the first Friday night in October they were open last year and it was empty. The only coaster that was more than a 5 minute wait was Storm Runner since they were only running 1 train (15 minute wait).

They used to keep it open until at least late September now I think the water rides close when Haunt starts. On Saturday, the trough was drained.

Skull Mountain, September 2002

http://www.greatadventurehistory.com/Forums/index.php?showtopic=3926&page=5#entry58267 There is a 2014 Fright Fest map here that shows where all the trails are.