El Toro_Ryan

I heard a rumor on Greatadventurehistory.com that Zumanjaro is now open for season pass holders but no official word yet.

Idk, the Theme Park Maniacs are funny as hell when I'm working. They have an interesting sense of humor. They'll walk up to a ride and start freaking out as a joke or get the whole crowded chanting YES over and over again. It's always entertaining.

Zumanjaro and Ka will be run independently. Originally, the state of NJ didn't even want both rides to run simultaneously at all but Six Flags fought against that I believe. The two rides are now allowed to ride simultaneously but they will not purposely be matched up during regular operation. That would probably kill capacity for both rides if they did.

The black car is from Monster Spin. There's rumors that GADV is turning the currently empty red tent into a history museum of some sorts. Pic courtesy of greatadventurehistory.com

Here's a little park update from greatadventurehistory.com. http://www.greatadventurehistory.com/GATrips_Summer_2014_06_28.htm And it appears Zumanjaro's filming shoot has been moved up to tomorrow so expect some reviews shortly. Edit* I found a video of Zumanjaro and Kingda Ka running together.

Sorry for the late reply but yes, Kingda Ka should be running but not until 3 or 4.

El Toro is the most appropriately named coaster I've ridden. And agreed about the turnaround being rough, but I havent noticed any other sections that are. If you ride it in the middle seat of the last car on either train the ride is smooth as butter. I second this. I'll be at the park tomorrow night and Sunday to get some re-rides, but I rode twice in two of the first five trains in opening day in the morning, well before the ride had warmed up or reached any sort of "mid-season form." That being said, as it was for those two rides, it destroyed Intimidator 305 as my number one overall coaster. I rode in the "magic seat," 6-2, both times. I didn't feel and ounce of roughness and it's ridiculous to say it's rough in any way, unless it has gotten rougher in two months (which is almost impossible). I'll be sure to get multiple rides this weekend to experience it warmed up, but I don't expect anything other than it was, other than Expect even more this time around. Compare these two videos. The first one is of a test run I filmed on opening day and the next one is how the ride runs normally when it isn't 40 degrees out. Just watch the difference in speed on the Rolling Thunder hill. http://instagram.com/p/mtCa5vOvsH/?modal=true Man that first video is the slowest I've very seen it run! The train is really sluggish and looks like it might rollback on the brakes. My rides on April 12 were much faster than that, but I doubt they were up to speed as I'm sure they are now in the afternoon. I've ridden it multiple times, but never at night, which is my plan Friday night. I love that freaking hill so much! Crazy how slow it goes over it on the first video there. As far as the speed difference between morning and later in the day, Id read that and never really noticed it until I was there earlier this month and rode it a few times right away after opening in the morning, then went back for a ride around 5pm and HOLY CRAP it felt SOOO much faster! Both rides were in the magic seat, but such a huge difference in speed and forces that much later in the day. Oh yeah Toro is a ride that definitely warms up during the day. Morning test runs now are still as slow as that test run I posted just we don't need the test dummies for the train to make it around the track. During my training in March, I saw Toro run even slower than it was in that video and it was actually scary. It didn't make a fart noise at all on the rolling thunder hill and it only made the course thanks to some tire drives at the peak of the break run hill. (It vallied 2 runs later haha)

El Toro is the most appropriately named coaster I've ridden. And agreed about the turnaround being rough, but I havent noticed any other sections that are. If you ride it in the middle seat of the last car on either train the ride is smooth as butter. I second this. I'll be at the park tomorrow night and Sunday to get some re-rides, but I rode twice in two of the first five trains in opening day in the morning, well before the ride had warmed up or reached any sort of "mid-season form." That being said, as it was for those two rides, it destroyed Intimidator 305 as my number one overall coaster. I rode in the "magic seat," 6-2, both times. I didn't feel and ounce of roughness and it's ridiculous to say it's rough in any way, unless it has gotten rougher in two months (which is almost impossible). I'll be sure to get multiple rides this weekend to experience it warmed up, but I don't expect anything other than it was, other than Expect even more this time around. Compare these two videos. The first one is of a test run I filmed on opening day and the next one is how the ride runs normally when it isn't 40 degrees out. Just watch the difference in speed on the Rolling Thunder hill. http://instagram.com/p/mtCa5vOvsH/?modal=true

El Toro is the most appropriately named coaster I've ridden. And agreed about the turnaround being rough, but I havent noticed any other sections that are. If you ride it in the middle seat of the last car on either train the ride is smooth as butter. I completely agree with you. And yeah, the ride really isn't that rough, just the turnaround. The twister section is still surprisingly glass smooth. I guess you can say it's rough for a prefab but I think the humid climate of NJ might partially be at fault here. I know wooden coasters don't age well in humid climates. (*cough* Gwazi! *cough*) And I rode Toro the other day after a rain shower and it was glass smooth, like as smooth as when the ride first opened and that was in the last row so if you want to ride the ride in its original form, check it out after it rains.

Well what kind of bull would El Toro be if it didn't try to launch you across the park? haha

Yeah Toro has gotten more aggressive lately since it's a bit more bumpier than it used to be and it feels like it runs a little faster than it should. Personally, I love it even more now because it feels much more like a wooden coaster, but everyone has their own opinions on that. When the ride was glass smooth, it literally felt like a steel coaster made of wood but now it definitely feels much more wooden. I still wouldn't consider it rough though. Nitro's C train also feels very wooden (but not in a good way lol) I'm guessing you didn't ride the C train. (You don't want to haha)

Park officials are aware that this side of the park has become a deadzone. John Fitzgerald even hates the abandoned Chiller Station that only gets used for haunts. Hopefully their future plans will revitalize the once most popular area in the park. A new coaster or a major flat ride along with a new show in the arena and a general renovation of the area would be perfect.

Runaway Mine Train at GADV. It's probably one of the best mine trains out there with some intense helixes, an awesome head chopper, and an excellent airtime hill at the end.

From what I've heard, I wouldn't keep your hopes too high for a new coaster next year. The park is supposed to get something new for next year but I'm not sure what exactly it is. Hopefully it's a screaming swing. A ride like that would definitely help balance the park out.

No promises that this is true but I've heard from Theme Park Maniacs that Zumanjaro will have a season pass holder preview day on Friday, July 3rd and will open to the public the day after. Stay tuned to hear for an official announcement from the park.

The reason that I've always heard why more prefabs haven't been built is because they are pretty expensive for a wooden coaster. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here but I heard el toro cost 12 million to build when the average wood coaster costs between 4 and 6 million. However, the extra money will probably save tons of cash and man hours in labor down the road with the much lower upkeep. It is a real shame that there are only four in the entire world. I've actually heard El Toro cost $28 million according to several of the maintenance guys at Toro but I'm not sure which one is true. $12 million sounds a little bit more reasonable though.

Hmmm... It would be quite interesting to have three trains running at the same time! Lol is it true that American Eagle used to run three trains or am I making stuff up in my head? haha

Another factor is Liseberg doesn't staple you (or at least they didn't in 2009) like Six Flags does. I found the airtime on Balder to be a lot more enjoyable as a result. For me there is no comparison between the two: Balder kicks El Toro's A$$. El Toro has a great start (stronger than any sequence on Balder), but then loses a lot of steam. Balder kicks your A$$ with punchy airtime throughout the entire circuit. El Toro is, of course, really good too though. Well there's a reason for the stapling. haha It's literally because El Toro is in America. The ride was designed by Europeans for use by slim Europeans. We staple everyone by habit now just so we can get trains out of the station. When everyone fits, we can run nice 1:40 intervals but when people do not, those intervals double or even triple depending on how many people do not fit. I've been meaning to try Balder but El Toro looks like the most well rounded coaster out of the prefabs to me. It's got airtime, high speed turns, crazy laterals in the ending, and a gnarly first drop. I can't really say one is better than the other since I haven't ridden both but it just leaves me wondering why more prefabs haven't been built if they're such amazing rides.

Liseberg looks amazing. I've always wanted to take a trip out to Europe to try out the park. Out of curiosity, is Balder still running as smooth as when it first opened? I'm just curious about how the other prefabs have been holding up over the years.

Nice, I'd be happy to take a picture with you. I work today until 8 and tomorrow from 9:30 to 10. I'll either be at El Toro or Tango which is the small flat ride next to Toro.

It's not a coaster fact but Great Adventure was originally planned to be built as the Disney World of the Northeast. This obviously never happened but the original owner, Warner LeRoy, had a very large plan which would have seen almost all the land around the park and even behind the lake used towards the resort. You can see the full plans here curtosy of GreatAdventureHistory.com. http://www.greatadventurehistory.com/GAOriginalParkHP.htm

The Batman The Ride clones also definitely pack a nice punch in under 45 seconds.

I was about to say Intimidator 305. Kingda Ka and Top Thrill Dragster are both excellent as well.

El Toro on a morning test ride this morning. It's cool because the ride runs so much slower with an empty train than with a full train, especially in the morning. It's still fast but the second half of the ride feels noticeably slower, especially on the Rolling Thunder hill.

Goliath is all about hang time. The overbanked turn, the dive loop, the zero-g stall, and the overbanked twist and shout. Goliath is the worlds best hangtime coaster and will fight that position. It looks wild for sure. I definitely want to get out to Great America to try it soon.