boldikus

I can't imagine there is that much more that needs to be done to Zumanjaro. The tracks are done, gondolas are on, so barring electrical work what else would they need to do besides testing? Ryan or anyone know if they have tested it at all? In my recent visits I haven't seen either ride run at all. Id imagine they are going to have to test Zumanjaro *with* Ka to make sure they can run simultaneously - unless of course there is truth to the rumor that they won't run at the same time.

^^ Exactly. Not to mention thats ACE's quote, not directly from SFGAdv.

Just sat and read this entire thread. So funny. Was thinking the same thing about the Intamin cable.

According to ACE's FB page:

the escalator to board the subway makes you think of El Toro's lift

whats a CD? lol some all time favorite LPs (according to my last.fm counter): Interpol - Antics Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest Deerhunter - Monomania Autolux - Transit Transit Autolux - Future Perfect Warpaint - The Fool New Order - Movement New Order - Power Corruption & Lies The Cure - Disintegration The Cure - Head on the Door Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine Beatles - Sgt Pepper Beatles - Abbey Road most of these are listened to via MP3, sometimes vinyl if I feel like digging it out. couldnt tell you the last time I put on a CD.

St Vincent - Regret

NYC weather in the summer = they would make a killing with a waterpark.

The Horrors - So Now You Know

wow that looks great!

Coincidentally a guy I work with just came in and told me how he was also @ the park yesterday with the wife and kids. Considering how crowded it was its not a surprise that we didn't run into each other. He goes fairly regularly and agreed it was one of the most busy days he's ever experienced, tho he stuck to the kiddie rides and he said they had a great time. He also noted the Catholic Youth Rally kids everywhere. He also managed to last until closing. Well, lesson learned. Next time its that busy I will just have to go for the Flash Pass.

Well, not sure how much they test the trains in the morning before opening but it had to have been one of the first trains of the day with riders. Both rides had 85-90% full trains. The drop over RT was still giving great airtime. Last time I rode ET was at Coasters After Dark, at 6:30pm-ish and it just felt slower yesterday compared to the couple of rides we got that night. It certainly didn't make it a bad ride.

Green Lantern, SFGAdv yesterday

It was giving us a lot of airtime in all the usual spots, I suppose it helped to sit toward the back as its always more intense. This was the first time I really noticed a coaster running slower. Wasn't sure if it was just my imagination.

Ahhhh ^^ thanks. I thought it looked like there was no third train when we got close enough to the train shed to see inside but guessed it was maybe out for maintenance or something. I think I knew that about the third train moving to SFMM but it never crossed my mind today. Too cranky to think.

^ HA! I think about this every time I am in line.

I did in fact make it over to the park today and will just have to chalk it up to a bad hunch because contrary to what I'd hoped for, it was PACKED. Between the Dancefest thing and some sort of Catholic Youth Rally we didn't manage to get much in and gave up a little after 3pm. I'm spoiled after the lighter crowds of opening day and then basically having the park to ourselves for Coasters After Dark. Stopping at the Wawa on Monmouth has always been a good gauge of how crowded the park is going to be. Well, the parking lot and store were overflowing with cars and people. Hmmmm... Upon navigating the entrance road just after 10am, we could already see how unexpectedly full the parking lot already was. We got to the gate at 10:20 and it was a sh*tshow. My buddy who purchased a ticket online (and therefore used a separate line as me) managed to get past the gate in a matter of seconds. The 'Activated Season Pass Holder' lines were horrendous. They honestly must have had the two oldest employees at the park operating the biometric scanners, one of the newest pieces of technology the park has in operation. Slow. as. molasses. Didn't get into the park for another 20 minutes at least. This started the day off on the wrong foot. Definitely feeling cranky. (Side note: while in line, overheard a group of people talking about how El Toro is being removed at the end of this season. LOL) Finally make it in, and bee-line through the arcade shortcut to where else? El Toro of course. It's really the only thing I've thought about the past few days leading up to this morning so I was determined to get at least one ride in before the lines got too long. And lucky us, we succeeded. Pretty much a walk on, sat in the magic seat (2nd to last row). My riding buddy had never done it before and loved it. Without hesitation he agreed for a second spin so we walked all the way around and back through the empty queue, right up into the station and right onto the next train pulling into the station - this time in car 4, middle seat. Great ride both times but I have to say felt a little slow. Anyone know if it is because it was early? I feel like I remember there being discussion about that. Also, while it was still early/dead and they should have been, the ops were insanely fast and were dispatching the train before the other train hit the break run, which I don't think I've ever seen on Toro before. (Side note: from the break run you can see the just-about-finished walking paths for Zumanjaro through Rolling Thunder's old infield.) Now I was in a much better mood. But it was then I made my 2nd mistake of the day which was not going for a third spin since the queue was still a ghost town (1st mistake was going to the park at all). However, it was bathroom break and while we're over here - why not a spin on the walk on that is Bizarro? Not really, but only a one train wait. Ops seemed faster than usual, running all three trains and only stacking one. Ran smooth as always. Sat far left 2nd to last row and smooth as butter with the only headbanging in the same spot as always - after the cobra roll going into the MCBR. Now for quick dash to the Skyride - a walk on at this point also - to hop over and hit up Nitro. At this point I was feeling confident that the park wasn't in fact that crowded and my experience at the gate gave me the wrong impression. Upon arriving at Nitro I was shocked at the line - through both sets of switchbacks almost to ride sign at the front. (!?!?!) I said it was early and if there was one thing worth waiting for besides Toro, it is Nitro. Besides, Nitro is a people eater and I was hoping they were running all three trains. Wait was about 30 minutes total. Got a bunch of good BTR pics from Nitro's queue. Got train A, back row (far right) and it rode fantastic. Such a great first drop in the back. Never gets old. It seemed BTR was cycling trains very fast as we queued for Nitro so we gave it a shot. Line was out to the front of the ride and seemed to be wrapping around the Batmobile. Nope. Over to S:UF/Lantern and checked the lined for both. I knew what was coming. Enormous. Ugh. Not rides I felt like waiting an hour for. Back to check on Toro. Line was through both sets of switchbacks and almost at the entrance/sign. We'll try back. Do we really go for a Flash Pass? Let's break for lunch. I usually pack a cooler and pop out to the car for lunch but we wandered around and finally settled on the Main Street Pub. I wish SFGAdv had an actual pub where I could sit and hold a menu and be waited on. The food here was overpriced as expected but was actually really good. Nachos Grande with a Red's Apple Ale that went down really easy. I'm used to living in center city Philly and the food prices here but $20 for one beer and nachos? Robbery! Still, it was good. We got a table outside overlooking the fountain and sat for a while and talked about nothing and enjoyed the weather and people watching. This was one of the highlights of the day, really. After, we headed back through the boardwalk to Super/Lantern. The park was noticeably CROWDED at this point. We gave S:UF a shot but the line was almost out into the tent/indoor potion of the queue. Nope. Lantern? Line is long but let's see how fast it moves. If not, we'll go back to Toro and wait as long as we need to for our last ride of the day. My thinking was the line for Lantern would be moving faster as it has 3 trains and the loading isn't as complicated as S:UF. Once we waited for a while I figured out they were only running 2. Grrrrrr. We'd already waited a good 20 minutes before I realized that so I'm feeling like we're already in too deep, why give up now, etc. We noticed a giant menacing cloud overhead and as we are entering the final area of the queue just before the steps, it starts to drizzle. We had waited at least 45 minutes at this point. This is one of my least favorite rides at the park, so why are we waiting again? Also, line jumpers. Many. Totally cranky. Just get me on this thing already. Finally we made it up the stairs, I sat 2nd to last row far left side. Made sure everything was where it needed to be before they locked the seats (gentlemen know what I am talking about) and also made sure the seat was a bit low so my taint wasn't bearing the brunt of G's at certain spots. Surprisingly, this ran great. One of my mottos in life is that everything happens for a reason so after we rode this I decided that the reason I waited so long to ride something I didn't even really want to was so that I could see that it was in fact enjoyable. But I still prefer sitting over standing on a coaster. Buddy LOVED this. Said it was his favorite after ET. I think he's crazy, but that's a whole other trip report. We decided to give Toro one last shot for the hell of it, and agreed that if the line was worse than the last time we checked that we would just throw in the towel and head home. And after seeing the line now wrapped around the back of the coaster toward the lake bridge we just laughed at each other and started walking to the main gate. Upon leaving, the parking lot seemed to be completely filled. Have to say weather was great. Cloudy/overcast with periods of sun, in the upper 60's/low 70's. The clouds and blue sky made for some nice pictures. Got a little sunburn. Being that I got not one but two rides on El Toro first thing this morning without waiting, I can't complain. That's all I really wanted. I guess I just got a little greedy. El Toro 2x Bizarro 1x Skyride 1x Nitro 1x Green Lantern 1x Now, just a few pictures. I didn't take too many, mostly when we were in line for Nitro and Lantern. Enjoy. Main gate @ opening. Who needs coffee when you can spend your Sunday morning with this? Obligatory Toro/Ka from Skyride shot. BTR was cycling trains very quickly. We kept hearing blood curdling screams while the train was still on the lift. Multiple times. Is this a thing? Why? But we never rode it. People seemed to be enjoying it. Nitro was also cycling trains with maximum efficiency, as always. Train to heaven. Looking up Nitro's skirt. Why are we waiting for this again? Gotta love multiple coasters-in-operation shots. Lantern's queue gives you plenty of great photo opportunities. It's not that bad of a wait simply because its fun to watch over your head the entire time. Damn Flash Passers. I envy you.

Yeah I considered that too. I"m actually holding off on using my Sunday Bring-A-Friend coupon as my sister is itching to go in a few weekends and I'll use it for her - she also hasnt been in quite some time but recent enough to ride El Toro. In fact, her requirement for getting a sitter and driving us up there was that we do Toro at least 5 times that day haha. As far as this Sunday, I'm also thinking that since next weekend is Memorial Day, and most folks in Philly/Jersey/NY do the Jersey shore or some sort of long weekend vacation, that might help us with lesser crowds this weekend. We'll see... As far as the Dance thing, looks like it was over the course of 3 weekends and this is the last so theoretically it might see the smallest crowds for that. LOL I'm trying to be optimistic. And agreed about the 2nd to last row on Toro. Did that seat the last two times I rode @ CAD and it was smooth as silk.

Ugh don't know how I missed that. Thanks Yoshi. Hopefully we'll be entering at opening and can get a bunch in before it gets too bad.

^^ Its really a washout in Philly today - been POURING all day. No lightning tho, so I'd imagine they would still run stuff but would they maybe shut the entire park down if it pouring buckets and was completely empty? Thats what I'm thinking! I have absolutely nothing to do Sunday, weather looks perfect and this season pass is burning a hole in my wallet. My buddy loves coasters but hasnt been to SFGAdv in 10+ years and we all know its always fun to take first time riders on Toro, Nitro etc. I told him let's go early and marathon anything we can til it gets crowded. Also excited to visit with the knowledge of avoiding train C on Nitro, thanks guys!

Can I get an opinion from the SFGAdv regulars? Crowds on nice Sundays in May EARLY in the day? Doesnt look like any events are happening, weather is looking like 70 and partly sunny. We are planning on going at opening this Sunday and obviously I'm hoping to not have to wait in many lines. I really just want to re-ride Toro a bunch and then bounce lol. Opinions? Thanks!

The Beatles - I'm So Tired

I absolutely cannot wait for this. That drop and loop looks awesome. I guess because its close to me and looks like a great layout and lots of varied and interesting elements, but while everyone is drooling over Helix, Banshee, Goliath, etc I find myself getting most excited every time there is an update about this. CAN'T WAIT TO RIDE THIS!

It looks like a mini version of an old Arrow, but looks fun for sure.

Aren't they the same restraints as LL:DOD has?