YoshiFan

I think 1 of Nitro's trains is running badly, I'm not sure which one it is though. I rode Nitro 5 times today and some rides were smooth and others were rougher. It's been like that all season. Crowds were very strange today, I was there from 1:30 to 5:45 and some coasters had no lines and others were longer than normal for the crowd level. Nitro was a station wait both times I went to the coaster same with Superman yet Green Lantern looked like it was around a 45 minute in the afternoon. Kingda Ka was around 20 minutes at around 4:00, after the ride I saw the line looked like it doubled.

It's the same thing at Great Adventure, you can enter at 10:20 instead of 10:30 with no rides running early (unless things changed last time I was there the rides still opened at 10:30)

Nitro 11 times

June weekdays can really vary. I have been going that time of year since becoming a passholder in 2008 and have had days where the park is empty and there are basically no waits for anything and other days where lines are 30 - 45 minutes for the major coasters. It really depends on the weather and how many school trips there that day. If you go the 2nd week when the park is open until 8, the school trips should be gone by 5 - 6 for the most part so the last 2 hours the park should be empty.

Green Lantern at Great Adventure. Other than the first few months it was open, it rarely gets into the switchbacks at the start of the queue and they can't be bypassed so what happens is almost every time I go to the ride and choose not to climb over the switchbacks, I get cut in line by others who do climb over the switchbacks. Also Kingda Ka's original queue. It supposedly could hold a 7 or 8 hour line. Now the current queue is too short. Last week it was overflowing into the Golden Kingdom.

Nitro around 4 hours ago

How was Nitro running today? I rode Nitro 3 times so far, I wasn't keeping track of which train I got for each ride but 1 ride was rough, the other 2 were smoother like it has run in past years. If I get back there before closing, I'll try to see if its a certain train that is bad.

Blackbeards is now open, you only get 1 lap now instead of 2 Nitro's 3rd train is running too, it's nice for it to have a much faster moving line again.

Nitro last Saturday (kind of cool the last 3 responses have all been from Great Adventure)

Yeah there really isn't much of a point to it since they were always stacking and sometimes double stacking. The Bizarro crew this year is better than last year's crew but with only 2 people checking restraints it is almost impossible not to stack with 3 trains even if they are dispatching trains faster this year.

Bizarro is running 3 trains now also. Hopefully Nitro's 3rd train is up and running soon since it really could use it. The line was at the snack bar and it took 25 minutes with 2 trains running. With 3 trains, that is usually a little less than 15 minutes.

Operations are usually excellent at Dorney except for the Wild Mouse (they have a rule of only 2 adults per car and added seatbelts so the line basically crawls). Talon, Hydra and Steel Force almost always run 2 trains and rarely stack. The bad clientele is basically only on summer weekends so that should be avoided if possible, I go on weekdays in the summer all the time and most people there are usually well behaved except for some camp groups that sometimes cut in line.

With Dorney, unless you go on a summer weekend, Friday in May or Saturday during Haunt you are almost guaranteed little to no waits. I agree it's an underrated park. I'd rather go to Great Adventure for the coasters but I try to plan my trips where I expect low crowds which limits when I go. I avoid weekends starting in May, usually all of July and August and only go on Friday nights during Fright Fest. I realize for a local that is possible but not so much for someone traveling a long distance to the park. With Dorney I can basically go whenever and know I won't be waiting in line. I've had some bad trips to Hershey since 2006 with high crowds, long lines and bad operations which is a shame since they have some of my favorite coasters there.

When I saw Rolling Thunder's line was past the bottom of the stairs I skipped it too since I figured that had to be a 40 minute wait considering I have had a station wait take over 20 minutes (and that's with the switchback in the station not full). I haven't ridden Rolling Thunder this year yet but I'll get to it eventually when it is a short wait.

I didn't know it was Nitro's birthday yesterday. It was a little more crowded than I expected it to be I guess because the weather was so nice. Although it was strange that Kingda Ka had a shorter line than Nitro and Green Lantern.

Nitro around 6 hours ago

I didn't know Steel Pier and Playland's Castaway Cove were both getting new coasters this year. I guess when I go to Atlantic City this summer, I'll have to stop at Funplex to get the credit and then get to Ocean City and maybe finally get to Steel Pier to get all the credits there. Sea Serpent at Playland was interesting for a kiddie coaster with the way it went over and around the antique car ride.

I agree the park is much cleaner. I had some horrible trips to the park in the 90s and remember the park was very dirty. I had another horrible trip there in 2002 that was so bad from the food being horrible, the restaurant we ate at being dirty , bad operations and rude employees that I stayed away from 2003 - 2006. I gave the park another chance in 2007 and had such an awesome day that I decided to get a pass in 2008 and have continued to get a pass each year since then and now go 15 - 20 trips a season. I only had eaten twice in the park in those years but did get the dining pass this year and the food quality hasn't been great but for the price, I'll deal with it. The 2nd day the park was open I got a grilled chicken sandwich and the roll was stale and the fries were cold. Last week the food was better though. I have also noticed the employees for the most part have been much nicer the past few years. Most of the times the ride ops say enjoy your ride when entering the line or when a ride op checks the restraint and then ask how the ride was after you are exiting. In all those trips to the park since becoming a pass holder I can only think of 2 really bad employees I have seen.

Nitro at Great Adventure, over 200 times.

I like the Double Shot at Playland's Castaway Cove in Ocean City, NJ. The airtime is way better than a Space Shot and if you sit on the side facing the boardwalk it is really cool to be facing the wall of the arcade and then get launched up and all of the sudden you see the beach and ocean.

It should be much more crowded than last Saturday. The weather is much nicer than last Saturday and the day before Easter is usually crowded.

Unfortunately that refurbishment with the new trains never happened.

Unless there is some event going on not listed yet (that weekend has been Girl Scout Weekend in past years), I would expect after 12:00 - 12:30 on Saturday of lines of 0 - 10 minutes for the smaller coasters, 15 - 30 minutes for the major coasters and maybe slightly longer for Kingda Ka and Superman depending on how many trains are running and wait times a little less than that for everything on Sunday. Hopefully by then Kingda Ka will be running 2 or 3 trains.

Sunday should be less crowded than Saturday. I would ride the coasters in this order: Superman, Green Lantern, Kingda Ka, El Toro, Rolling Thunder, Bizarro, Runaway Mine Train, then take the Skyway over to the Dream Street station, then go to Nitro, Batman, Road Runner Railway (if you want all the credits), Dark Knight, Skull Mountain and Blackbeard's. Even though Skull Mountain is next to the Skyway station, I put it later since it is more important to get to Nitro and Batman before it as Skull Mountain has a very fast moving line and rarely is more than 10 - 15 minutes. The alternate option is to go to Kingda Ka, then El Toro and then back to the Boardwalk to ride Superman and Green Lantern but that involves more backtracking. Also getting there at opening is important if you want to avoid lines. From 10:30 to 12:00, lines should be 0 - 10 minutes.

Here's some notes from today, the park was less crowded than I expected. I guess the cold weather kept people away. I got to the park right before 10:30, the new handheld scanners were not working so they were manually writing down everyone's pass number in the Premium Pass line. I entered the park right at 10:30, the other lines still had the gates down at 10:30. Nitro started with 2 trains, then went down to 1 train and later in the afternoon, went back to 2 trains. Skull Mountain had 2 trains with a 0 - 2 train wait both times I was there Blackbeard's was closed and the control panel area was covered, they were cycling the train but not for the full circuit. It stopped on the lift when I walked by the ride. Superman had 1 train with what looked like a 45 minute wait and walking out of the park a little before 4:00, around a 25 minute wait Green Lantern had 2 trains running with no line El Toro was closed in the morning, it opened later with I think 1 train Rolling Thunder had just the left side open with I think 2 trains Kingda Ka was closed until at least 1:00, 1 train was running. It was a 25 minute wait for a middle row but there was a 10 minute breakdown right before I boarded the train so it was just over 35 minutes. After that the line looked like it was around 45 minutes. Runaway Mine Train had no wait with 2 trains running. Bizarro had 2 trains running with no wait, like Sunday dispatches were fast with no stacking. The Dark Knight had no wait other than to get into the pre-show room. Fender Benders had a 1 cycle wait around 12:30 and a 2 - 3 cycle wait later in the day.