YoshiFan

Steel Force on Friday

It seems like they are only running both sides on the weekend.

I think it's just CF and their strict rules. It's like that at other rides too. The Camp Bus for example has a rule of only 1 person over 54" per row, but the same ride at Great Adventure, Morey's, Dutch Wonderland and probably every other non CF park out there allows 2 riders over 54" to sit in the same row. I skip the Wild Mouse almost every visit to the park because of the wait. What would be a 5 minute wait for the Dark Knight at Great Adventure is at least a 15 minute wait at Dorney. The loading setup also slows things down. They load from 4 rows, gates 1 and 2 unlock at the same time or gates 3 and 4 unlock at the same time so both 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 try to board the car when it's supposed to be just 1 row boarding which causes confusion (understandably so).

I think it will be somewhat crowded next Friday. Every Friday in May is Music In the Parks, I was only there for an hour today since I was in Allentown anyway so I stopped in to get a couple of rides but with the school groups lines were long (for Dorney). Stinger was 15 minutes and got a longer line by the time I exited the ride, Steel Force was 20 minutes and looked to be close to 30 minutes after my ride (the first set of switchbacks were full with the line on the stairs). Thunderhawk had 1 train running and looked to be at least 30 minutes. Possessed looked to be at least 20 minutes, same with Hydra and Talon's line was in the switchbacks. That's interesting to hear, since when the park got Voodoo I thought they refurbished the ride and trains. Maybe they didn't feel it was necessary for this ride?

The park had very light crowds today, I wasn't sure how crowded it would be since it was Student Council Day and years ago I heard it can get very crowded that day. Lines were short overall but by 4:00, the park was empty when the schools started to leave everything was either a walk on or a station wait.

Bizarro at Great Adventure 6 hours ago

I was at Great Adventure on Friday too, Green Lantern has really taken over as the coaster with the consistently longest line in the park. I got to it at 10:25 (the park was supposed to open at 10:30 but opened earlier for the physics day school groups there) and waited 15 minutes and by the time I exited the ride, it was already close to a 30 minute wait. The single rider line has been closed every time I have gone to the ride this season too which would save some time in line. I agree it was nice to see 3 trains on Nitro, I never waited more than 10 minutes for it the entire time I was at the park.

I went to the park today and it was empty as usual for the Sunday of opening weekend. For all rides except Wild Mouse, Fast Lane merges before the station although I didn't see anyone using it today. Here is my Stinger review: The queue is not that big, there is a pathway to the switchbacks which there are 5 of and then a long ramp to the station. Like Talon, they weren't letting many riders in the station at once so even on a day like today when the park was empty, the line was almost halfway down the ramp. I can see the ride getting a full queue on a busy day. For my first ride, I took row 1 since there was no one waiting for that row. I haven't ridden a coaster with these restraints since 2007 when Great Nor'Easter still had the old trains and I forgot how uncomfortable the restraints were compared to Intamin or B&M inverted coaster OSTR's. It felt confining around my shoulders. The ride was smoother than I was expecting with a little bit of headbanging in the cobra roll. Like a standard boomerang, going backwards through the loop was very forceful. I walked around and this time went for the last row. I liked that better since you go up the lift forwards and I don't like the feeling of going up the lift backwards and falling into the restraint. I also did not realize at the top of the first lift, there was a slight pause before the train went back down the lift hill. I also didn't know the floor lowers on this coaster type like B&M inverts, although it was done differently with part of the floor moving forward out of the station and then lowered with the part out of the station on an angle. For my 3rd ride, I tried a middle row this time facing other riders. I had enough after 3 rides and although I thought the ride was ok, it's my 2nd least favorite coaster at Dorney (Wild Mouse is my least favorite). It seemed to be popular though with many people getting right back in line for another ride while a few people said it was too much for them and didn't go for another ride. FastLane has a separate line that basically runs parallel to the main line and goes to the opposite end of the station.

Very crowded, It is Girl Scout weekend, there is a dance competition tomorrow and a Gym Class Heroes concert. If you are going at opening, you should be ok though since I have gone to the park at opening 4 times this year so far and every visit until 12:30 - 1:00, lines have been short.

I usually go to parks alone (my friends have no interest in going to parks, I have tried multiple times to get them to go with me at least once), and usually won't wait in any long lines, 30 minutes usually being my limit. I either play games on my phone or go to this site or some park fan sites.

Dorney does it at Haunt. They have an old Hercules car out and tombstones for many removed rides. There are some pictures of it here: http://dorneyonline.com/gallery.php?d=%2FHalloween%2FHaunt%2F2008%2FHeadstone+Hollow

Something else not helping the capacity is the single rider being closed a lot. It has been closed all 3 trips I have taken to the park this year and was closed during my last 2 trips at the end of last season. I see at least a few spots every train going out empty.

A menu board from the Liberty Inn (the large menu that is above the registers) and a tray from the old Sunshine Seasons food court in the Land both from Epcot. I bought both items on EBay.

Runaway Mine Train at Great Adventure around 5 hours ago.

Today was much better than my trip to the park on opening day. It did get crowded in the afternoon but I was able to get 15 rides in a little under 5 hours. Skull Mountain's crew was amazing, running to check lapbars and they were dispatching full trains faster than I have ever seen before. Kingda Ka is still having issues though, it was closed in the morning and didn't open until later in the day.

Great Adventure sometime in the next 4 days

I'd be very angry if I went to a park and saw that. 1 group of people shouldn't cause the ride to be taken away from anyone over the age of 12 without kids in their group.

It was way more crowded than I was expecting. NYC school district and Jackson school district were both in session that day so I figured that would help with the crowds. The real problem seemed to be the rides either closed or that kept breaking down, and rides not running at full capacity. Until around 12:30, lines weren't bad, I was able to ride Nitro twice with a 2 train wait each time earlier in the day. I'm going to try again later this week and hope for lower crowds.

I agree, with all but 1 coaster at Great Adventure (Skull Mountain), the other coasters that have Flashpass merge right at the station or right before the station which works really well since no one has priority for any seat and there are no cars/rows reserved for Flashpass.

The Dark Knight at Great Adventure 2 days ago

The park wasn't too crowded today (the lot was about 40% full) but lines were long because rides kept breaking down or in some cases like the Log Flume closed (I expected it to be open after it was open at the beginning of the season for 2010 and 2011). Nitro and Bizarro were running 2 trains and I think Green Lantern was as well. Bizarro had some of the slowest dispatches I have ever seen with one train getting to the brake run before the restraints on the train in the station even were checked. Kingda Ka, Skyway and Runaway Mine Train kept opening for a short time and then closing back down again. Kingda Ka only launched 2 trains after being closed before closing again because of problems, then reopened launched 3 or 4 trains then closed again for a while and then reopened. When I left the park, Nitro's line was in the switchbacks and with 2 trains running was probably around an hour, Batman's line was in the Garden area and Green Lantern's line was almost to the switchbacks at the end of the line.

It will be very crowded both days unless it rains on Tuesday (the forecast says 30% chance of rain). Friday will be crowded with almost all schools on Spring Break that day since you have schools that were off this week and schools that have Spring Break next week but start their break on Friday. Then on Monday - Wednesday next week there is a large Jewish group that goes to the park every year for a few days (previously they used to go on Easter when they had a buyout and only they and passholders could get in but the park is now open to everyone on Easter).

I don't know if it counts as a restaurant but one of my favorite places is the snack bar at Costco. $1.50 a quarter pound hot dog and refillable fountain soda or $1.99 for a huge slice of pizza and you can get the soda for $0.59 on it's own. Plus you can get a churro for $1 (enough for 2 or 3 people to split) and a large cup of frozen yogurt for $1.35. I really like Texas Roadhouse. There are 2 locations near me and they are always very busy. The prices are great too, I usually get the Roadkill (Chop Steak) and for $8.99 with 2 sides, it is a really good deal.

As of the end of October last season it was next to Superman, there is also that season pass center outside the park but it rarely seems to be open.

I'm hoping to get to Great Adventure on opening day this Thursday, if not I am either going to go on Easter Sunday or a weekday after that while they are open for Spring Break.