boldikus

THIS. Personally, GreatAdv has better coasters in Nitro, Batman and El Toro but thats where it ends. Skyrush destroys everything at GreatAdv except Toro. I prefer Storm Runner over Kingda Ka, Great Bear over Batman (because of the unique layout and location) and would rather ride Fahrenheit than any of the other B&Ms at Great Adv. Lightning Racer may not even come close to Toro in smoothness or intensity, but it is a solid-as-hell woodie, one of my faves, even without the racing aspect. What Hershey is missing imo is really just more adult flats - they need a good drop tower or something like a giant frisbee or screaming swing.

This has nothing to do with theme parks but everything to do with selfie sticks. LMAO.

And Zumanjaro, but as stated don't bother. TRUST ME. Standby line ALWAYS moves faster, its like the SRL doesn't exist.

I haven't been on the Congo Rapids in 2 decades but the Log Flume is legendary, and well worth a ride, especially if its hot. But then again, if its hot, its going to be a loooooooong wait.

LOL its been discussed here before, thats how I found out about it last year when I started going to the park all the time. Thanks TPR! lol edit: I meant to say make a LEFT at the fountain, not a right.

First off, Great Adventure has tons of shade. And from what I understand it is one of the most shaded parks in the chain (Ive only been to SFA which is the polar opposite of GAdv in terms of shade). As far as a plan of attack, most people will tell you to go to Kingda Ka and Zumanjaro first as those usually have the longest lines all day. That's probably a good idea if you really want to ride both of those. I would do Ka first due to its reliability, then Zum. Don't use the single rider line on Zum, the standby line always moves faster. Always. However, personally I always go right to El Toro first thing. There is no natural path right to the ride (crowds can go either into the Boardwalk area towards Ka, Superman, etc or Adventure Alley towards Sky Screamer, Nitro, etc) so the GP crowds usually doesn't show up back at El Toro for the first 30 minutes to an hour. I'm sure most folks here will agree Toro is the best ride in the park by a mile so if you want to enjoy the best of what this park has to offer and get a bunch of re-rides, do this first. If you want a short cut to Toro to get there even faster - make a right at the Main Street fountain, walk through Fantasy Forest and cut through the arcade next to the Tea Cups and it will take you right into Plaza Del Carnival so you can avoid going into the Boardwalk, most people don't know this so a lot of times its like early morning ERT on Toro. Superman and Green Lantern both have crappy capacity so both will tend to have long lines all day starting right away since they are the first rides people see when pulling into the lot and the restraints on both are tricky, but personally I wouldn't suggest hitting either of them first since GL is just terrible and Superman is fun but short so waiting a while is not worth it IMO. Batman certainly will have a nice line due to it being the "it" ride of the park right now. And Nitro is sort of the same as Toro - if you get back there early in the morning you can get some re-rides but after that it will have a decent line all day. Keep in mind w/ Nitro its a people eater. As long as they have all 3 trains running the line usually moves. Bizarro usually has one of the shortest lines in the park, but be advised it tends to NOT open with the park, usually at 11am, sometimes noon so don't head there first. Other than these suggestions I don't know what to tell you other than to perform sexual favors for some Flash Pass loot.

Last Friday night.

Yes, you are not alone and I think there is hope for you. I've always loved coasters and will go on any and all but have mostly been uneasy about drop rides. The first drop ride I reluctantly did was Freefall @ Great Adv in the early 90's. I don't remember much of the experience other than being happy when it was over. About 15 years ago, my then girlfriend (now fiancee) dragged me kicking and screaming onto Morey's "Atmosfear" Larson drop tower and I felt like I was going to die. I vowed never again. I think a huge part of it for me is the unexpected/sudden drop and also unlike a coaster you are not facing down during the drop, therefore you don't know when you are going to stop. Last year with my first ever season pass to Great Adv I made many visits to the park in the spring while watching them build and then open Zumanjaro. Curiosity turned my fear of drop rides into a major internal conflict (will I ride it or avoid it?), until one day last July I had a sort of YOLO epiphany and forced myself onto the ride - alone as my riding partner for the day flat out refused - hands sweating and pulse racing, and... would you believe it? I loved it. Since then I make it a point to ride every drop tower at every park I go to, mainly to compare to Zum, as no other drop ride compares when it comes to duration of drop (I havent done Lex Luthor) but also just to push myself to do something I don't want to do, but I know I'll end up enjoying when its over.

^ ^ I just watched that Xtreme Waterparks/Travel Channel episode about that dude Jimi building the slide in New Zealand. Easily my favorite episode of that show, dude is awesome. Crazy its coming here.

THIS. @jamesinclair - First off, you asked a question and I gave you an honest (albeit humorous) answer. Second, I'm far from a millionaire. I'm getting tired of the insinuations around here that if you have a flash pass = you are rich. It's called budgeting your money. I work my ass off and set money aside to enjoy myself at parks. And you better believe I am going to budget in a extra $$$ for a skip-the-line pass at any major park I go to on a weekend in the middle of summer, even my home park. Why? Because riding rides is fun and standing in endless lines in the heat is not. I'll save some dough and pay extra to guarantee I have fun. But if you want to spend a hot Saturday waiting in 2+ hour lines and only riding a handful of rides, have at it.

Yes, and its called Flash Pass lol

LMAO as soon as I saw this was being removed I thought "Well looks like Dorney is getting a stand up coaster for 2016" lol

No Reading Terminal is awesome. It can definitely be touristy but you should go check it out. It gets totally crazy busy on weekends but thats kind of part of the charm of the place. A sort of organized chaos. Go into it expecting it to be packed so you are not overwhelmed. But yeah tons of great food there. Also for ordering a cheesesteak order it how you want it. I prefer provolone and fried onions but sometimes crave wiz. The proper way to order at most places is "wiz wit", "provolone witout" etc. Basically you are ordering the type of cheese and then the wit/witout is whether or not you want fried onions. I'm not sure of what goes all the way out to King of Prussia but check http://www.septa.org/ for any and all info about area public transit. The trip planning function on there can be pretty clutch. You are probably looking at taking multiple buses/trains/etc to get into and back out of the city. King of Prussia I know is maybe a 45/1 hour drive to center city, and that will likely be longer on public transit. My suggestion would be to drive into center city, park in an all day parking garage and take the EL/subway and cabs to get around the city. Also for magic seats or whatever, here's a few of my recommendations. El Toro - 2nd to last row (middle of last car). Ludicrous airtime and hardly ever a wait for this row. Skyrush - Back left wing seat. Most insane coaster ride I've ever taken. Nitro - Back row all the way to get yanked down the drops. Kingda Ka - Front or near the front of the train, avoid the back at all costs Skull Mountain - Back row for insane airtime on the first drop Phantoms Revenge - Back of train to get ripped down the drops, front of train for insane airtime on the bunnyhops Sky Rocket - Back for airtime on the drops Talon, Thunderhawk & Steel Force - front seat rides all the way I like airtime and prefer back seat rides mostly.

Going to bump this. If anyone has any information that would be great. Approach with caution. One of the morning ERT sessions earlier this year wound up to be on the Tea Cups, Carousel, and Houdini lol

^^

^ Agreed. It surprised the hell out of me, much more enjoyable than I expected. I am really looking forward to getting back up there and trying different seats.

The first thing that came to mind is the airtime pop before the rolls on Storm Runner. Did not expect that whatsoever.

^ LMFAO

^ I think its important to keep in mind

Man that place was PACKED today. One of the most crowded visits I've had. With the weather and holiday weekend it wasn't too much of a surprise. We were there from 5-10pm and managed 6 rides in that time with a gold pass. To be fair we spent an hour of that eating and sitting around. But crazy lines. Ive been having so much luck so far this year with manageable waits (save for Cedar Point on Mem Day wknd, but that was to be expected) so I felt I was due a day with crowds like today. Ka was down all day today (according to a security dude we talked to - and we never saw it run @ night), so I'm sure that not sucking some lines away from the other rides made it feel more crowded than it was. Other rides had issues, but nothing that affected us. El Diablo was flat out closed for the day by 9pm. Bummer as I wanted to see the lighting package after sundown, but the thing was completely shut down. We did manage to conquer Namtab which was our main goal of the night. They only had one of the trains running, but what a smooth ride! We sat in the 2nd row. My buddy's initial reaction afterwards was "they should leave the trains like that forever!" So intense, but very enjoyable. Sitting toward the back of the train through the funky pre-drop kicks things off nicely. It's weird to not feel constant positive G's, but instead feel like you are being ripped from your seat. I got confused on the zero-G and was expecting it to flip in the opposite direction than it actually did and we really got yanked through that nice and snappy. Totally awesome, best part of the ride. People have mentioned headbanging, I got none. I'm not sure I could've marathoned it but we both liked it a lot. Though I would probably have gotten right back on if possible, and we did discuss heading up for passholder ERT on Wednesday evening. I'd like to try it in different seats. Highlight of our night for sure. Bizarro was running really well, its such an underrated ride and one of my faves at the park. We had a great ride on it, totally hauling ass. My favorite floorless, it just has that old school B&M intensity to me. The effects are just the icing on the cake. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I LOVE the zero-g. Crazy to see it with a full queue. Stacking 3 trains as usual though. Our first ride of the night was Zum and for whatever reason it really got me tonight. I love this ride but it felt like the drop lasted forever, I don't know why. Bonkers though. While waiting to board we witnessed a very tense scene as a gentleman with an entire family with him began berating the grouper and slamming his fist on the turnstyle, barking about having to wait in the single rider line for 2.5 hours. Security was called. My one personal gripe was that we never made it on Nitro as we went to reserve it while in line for Namtab but was coming up as closed. This was at 8pm and Nitro was running with people, so I don't know why we couldn't reserve it, other than the fact that the line, from what we could see from Namtabs lift, was out to the entrance, so maybe they just cut the FPs off. I certainly wasn't waiting in the regular line. Oh well, still haven't ridden Nitro at all in 2015. Lame. We ended the night with Skull Mountain, I think I may be this rides biggest fan. Great as always, a walk on with our gold pass. We hightailed it out of there just before the fireworks so we didn't get stuck trying to leave, which was a very good idea as the lot was filled completely as we exited at quarter til 10. I can't imagine the insanity when everyone eventually left at the same time. So no explosions for us, but we didn't care. 2 evening/magic seat rides on The Bull and Mission: Namtab accomplished. Not many better ways to spend a Friday night. Namtab 1x Skull Mountain 1x Zumanjaro 1x Bizarro 1x El Toro 2x Two final points - After doing Dorney and Cedar Point on my last two park visits, I'm very spoiled by having someone at the top of the station steps holding the crowd back. On a packed day like today it was almost unbearable in the stations, SF really needs to take a page from CFs book on this one, it sucks. - The loaded bacon and cheddar fries @ Main Street Pub are light years better than those overrated limp Potato Patch fries lol

^ sounds like you had a good time. I'm excited to try Namtab today. I took advantage of my day off today and slept in for as long as possible but I'm up and headed up to the park in a bit. I have a feeling with this weather its going to be packed, but I'm prepared to buy a gold pass if needed. Anyone else headed over today?

Still Kingda Ka, but now I can say Dragster too.

I'll add back car of El Toro on the first drop and all of Skyrush. Oh this thread! I can add more now: Phantoms Revenge 2nd drop and the turn that follows Dragster launch Millenniums pull out of the drop Mavericks turns after the drop and launch out of the tunnel Raptors final helix

Great photos and report. I just killed a bunch of time at work reading lol.