YoshiFan

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.

Superman could be relocated easily too

I remember reading they got rid of it because people complained about how "unfair" it was despite it making the line shorter for everyone. I don't know if that is the real reason though. It is a shame that it isn't used anymore since the ride is so low capacity to begin with and to see 2 seats go empty on a 12 seat train even makes it worse.

I have been working on my video game backlog. I finally finished Grand Theft Auto 4 after 2 1/2 years of working on the game. I also went to Florida last month and went to Busch Gardens Tampa and all 4 WDW parks which was a nice coaster break right in the middle of the offseason.

Antique Cars, it seems like a lot of parks have removed them recently.

Unfortunately, I don't think you will fit. I can fit in a non modified B&M seat (although barely) and at Cheetah Hunt, even if you can buckle the seatbelt, the restraint may not be lowered enough for the ride to be dispatched. I saw that happen to someone else where they had to really push on the OTSR to have it lowered more and for my 2nd ride a ride op pushed down the restraint more so it could dispatch even though in both cases the restraint was buckled.

Expedition Everest yesterday, my favorite Vekoma coaster. I'm glad I was able to ride some coasters in the middle of the offseason since it's tough going 5 months without any coasters normally.

There is no ride I would wait 5 hours for, even if I knew I would never have another chance to go to that park again. I don't like waiting more than 30 minutes for anything and would maybe wait an hour for a new ride at a park I won't be back at any time soon but otherwise I would skip the ride.

I got the e-mail too since I bought tickets for Lake Compounce online last year. I submitted my information since it looked legitimate to me.

25 out of 26, if I had gone with my 1st choice without rethinking about it on the one I got wrong, I would have had 26 out of 26.

I wonder how much they will charge (I am guessing $75+ a person). I am hoping to go to Cedar Point in the next few years and I was concerned about being able to ride all the coasters in 1 day, now that won't be an issue.

The one at Dutch Wonderland was awesome. It was a lot more fun that the smaller 3 lane slides they have now. Playland's Castway Cove in Ocean City, NJ also has a 3 lane slide. Morey's had one of the larger models but didn't seem as good as the one at Dutch Wonderland. The other problem with the one at Morey's was that they only ran 1 lane at a time despite it having around 12 lanes so it was a long wait even when there weren't a lot of people in line.

I'm not sure if it counts because it is a relocated ride but Stinger at Dorney. I don't have a problem with relocated rides if they are good rides like Chang/Green Lantern but after getting an impulse coaster that has a lot of down time, a 1st gen freefall that is rough when there was already a modern drop tower in the park and now this coaster, I would rather have seen it not be relocated to the park, not to mention it is another vertical shuttle coaster so even though it is different than an impulse, they are still too close in ride type for me to be installed one after another. Plus throw in the bad history the ride has and the problems the other models have had and that the park lost a great Anton looper and this is the replacement is bad. One of the press releases said it was $10 million investment. A new GCI could have been built for less and would have been a better fit for the park. It also has a 52" height requirement and the last thing Dorney needed was another coaster with a high requirement. Of the 7 non kiddie coasters, 2 are 48", 2 are 52" and 2 are 54" I know it could be said the ride isn't overrated because it's a boomerang which usually aren't that popular with enthusiasts (inverted or not) but the general opinion seems to be positive for the ride except for those that have Dorney as a local park and that's why I think it is overrated.

2 highlights for me First was going to Universal Orlando and riding the coasters in the Studios park and going to Islands of Adventure for the 1st time. Dueling Dragons and the Hulk had been coasters I have wanted to try for years. Dueling Dragons lived up to the hype and the Hulk did too (except for it being a little rougher than I was expecting) Second was getting to try a stand up coaster. I know they don't have the greatest reputation among enthusiasts but when I heard Great Adventure was getting Chang, I was looking forward to finally getting the chance to ride a stand up coaster. I found it to be a great coaster and another nice coaster addition to Great Adventure.