YoshiFan

I think it depends in the ride. The trim on Nitro before the hammerhead isn't a big deal but the one on Thunderhawk on the bunny hills kills the momentum and really slows the train down a lot.

Nice pictures, it's rare to see Hershey that empty. I can't believe they were running 1 train on each side of Lightning Racers and on top of that they had rows closed off. The station looked empty but based on past trips, they are hesitant to open empty rows even if crowds pick up a little.

Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train at Great Adventure yesterday

If the flashpass line gets really backed up do they then let flashpass have an entire train? That's what happens at Scream Machine a lot when it is crowded.

That is a shame that they refuse to help with the restraints, especially since if the belts are like some rides at Great Adventure, some are longer than others. With Batman, some seats I can buckle myself with no problem, others I need to have a ride op help buckle (and I can buckle the belt on the test seat easily).

Weekends in July and August are when the lines are, I went once on a Sunday in August and after Talon was 40 minutes I decided I would never go again on a summer weekend. Also Saturday nights during Haunt and later Friday night Haunts are crowded. Last year on the final Friday night, Steel Force was 25 minutes, Possessed looked to be around 45 minutes.

I hate ride ops like that which make up rules. When the ride first opened you needed to ride with a kid if you were over 54". They changed it where you don't need a kid to ride around 5 years ago along with most of the rides in Camp Snoopy. I'm surprised lines weren't bad, usually the first Friday in May is jammed with long lines because of all the school trips. Did you get the Dragon Coaster credit? That is in the back of the park and anyone can ride that coaster too, it's Little Laser next to it that is 54" maximum even if you have a kid with you

That would be cool if they did. Right now Nitro is sponsored by Snickers and Rolling Thunder is sponsored by M&M's and they don't give out samples but that might be different because the park sells candy and they probably wouldn't want to give out samples and stop people from spending $2 on a candy bar.

I like TDK, it is my favorite wild mouse coaster. I just wish they would do something about the pre-show since it is such a waste of time especially after seeing it close to 30 times. I think part of the reason it is hated so much is because it was added the year after Chiller, Flying Wave and Movietown Water Effect and Looping Starship were removed. Based on the reaction the ride gets with both the GP in the park and enthusiasts, I don't think SF will be in any rush to add it to any more of their parks. Even 2 years later I still see people yelling negative comments about the ride to the people waiting to get into the pre-show.

Same with Batman at Great Adventure, they took part of the existing line, made another entrance for Flashpass and now the line merges at the station like the newer coasters.

They need to get the SBNO flats open, I can only imagine how bad crowds are going to be this summer with less rides open this year compared to at least the past 10 or 11 years.

That doesn't work well on busy days. There have been times at Great Adventure where Scream Machine had the flashpass line backed up the entire exit ramp and because only 4 flashpass users could ride per train (car 6 is designated for flashpass users) they ended up letting 2 full trains in a row go out with flashpass users to get the flashplass line down which caused the standby line not to move.

I have noticed slower dispatches in some cases. Maybe it's because the people at the entrance aren't doing a good enough job keeping the items out of line but it seems like at least once or twice a visit you get someone leaving an item on the side of the station and they argue with the ride ops about it causing stacking. Then if it is an item like a hat they make the person take it on the ride with them which seems more of a safety hazard (if they hold the hat) than leaving it in the station. The other problem seems to be they don't have enough people checking restraints. Bizarro for example is almost always stacking with 2 trains and double stacking with 3 trains because 2 people checking the train takes too long. Hydra on the other hand which is much shorter of a coaster rarely stacks with 2 trains even though they allow you to leave items in the station since they have 4 people checking restraints. With the refillable soda bottles, the park has lost about $75 from me so far. I go to Great Adventure an average of 15 times a season, that is $12.99 and with 1 soda a visit after that it is $27 a season. I'd probably spend $6 - $7 to store the bottle on each visit to the park which makes it not worth it to me since I'll just wait until I leave the park to get a soda instead. I'd rather spend the money in the arcades in the park than to keep it in storage at each ride (every coaster except Rolling Thunder, Mine Train and the kiddie coasters have it plus the 2 water rides), and I usually spend a few dollars each trip to the park in the arcade.

I agree about Dorney, I really think it is an under rated park. The lack of lines for the coasters is always nice and there are so many non coaster rides to choose from plus WWK is really nice for an included with admission water park. I wish they would have kept Laser since it did operate with Voodoo operating for most of 2008 and Voodoo has been nothing but trouble for the park. It still hasn't operated this season.

I just hope the new operators stop closing down sections of parks and having so many SBNO rides and ride removals. It would be nice to see Old Country with the bumpers cars and music express reopen at Great Adventure

The 3rd and 5th cars also have the ads on them as well as the back of the 6th car

My favorite is also Canyon River Rapids at Hershey, it was a great ride and I also don't like how they got rid of it for the stupid Boardwalk expansion, and just shows how poorly planned the Boardwalk was (they should have had a separate waterpark either nest from the park but including with admission like WWK at Dorney or made it a separate gate park). My least favorite is Congo Rapids at Great Adventure, it's short and isn't that exciting of a ride.

The El Toro ads are nothing compared to the ads on Kingda Ka. There are Karate Kid banners all over the queue and in the station hanging from the ceiling but the 2nd train on the left side (orange I think) now has Karate Kid ads all over it including the front and back of the train and on the side panels of the train covering the tiger looking art that is usually there. It really messes up the theme of Kingda Ka. The ads on El Toro are only on 1 of 2 trains and the ads are on car 1, 3 and 5 with another ad on the back of car 6. It's not as bad as the picture online looks seeing it in person but still looks out of place. Coasters After Dark was awesome, basically no waits at all (a few 10 minute waits but otherwise all walk ons), 30 rides in 5 hours.

Dorney just added the no single rider rule to the Scrambler last year so I wonder what prompted the change.

It is being gutted, rumor is for next year it will be a 5D attraction

I'm not so sure about that, Scream Machine got the hair gel ads on the white train at the end of last summer or in September and the ads on the train have still been there all of this season. I'm just glad there is really no room to put ads anywhere on Nitro's trains.

Does the park ever have season pass only nights? If so, the people on Facebook really don't have a reason to complain. Great Adventure is having Coasters After Dark this Friday where the park is open from 5 - 10 for Season Passholders only (the park is open during the day just for school trips) and I figured SFMM did something similar.

Possessed is always having problems, it opened late in 2008 and I saw it broken down during numerous trips in 2008 and 2009. If you like waterparks, I would go when WWK is open at. It is really a great waterpark for being included with park admission. It's not a large park (if you just care about coasters it can be done in under 2 hours) but the lack of lines on a regular basis makes it one of my favorite parks to visit.

If you don't mind a 6:00 closing, going to Great Adventure during the week in early June is one of the best times to go to the park. Lines will be minimal to non existant

Talon about 2 1/4 hours ago