El Toro_Ryan

The park was insanely crowded today. We were expecting 35,000 people and I think we easily received more. The entire parking lot was filled and so was the over flow lot on my way out. I guess that's what happens when you combine memorial day weekend with an R5 concert (They'r'e apparently very popular but I've never heard of them until today lol) I also talked to a few maintenance people and so far, the only good answer I have gotten regarding El Toro's slowed down lift was to save on wear and tear both for the ride and lift motor. I still haven't asked the most knowledgeable person there yet so I'll let you know what he says.

You're correct, it's to make a silent lift ride and to save on wear and tear.

that's all? just 2? so when is it opening? fri? sat? They could also be testing the ride at night time and the crew was being trained on the ride on Tuesday and Wednesday so it had to make test runs then. I heard someone at minetrain said the ride opens Friday.

why and when did they slow down the lift? I don't know exactly when but I guess they did it to reduce the speed of the ride (especially in the first drop) probably to decrease wear, maybe Ryan knows a bit more. That's what I'd guess. I'll ask one of the maintenance dudes next time I work and see what they know.

This is not true, the ride runs just as fast as it did when it opened. The ride still hasn't hit its full summer time speeds yet this season. We haven't received high enough temperatures and the ride has not run enough. During the summer time, the ride will average about 35mph past one of the last sensors into the break run but we still haven't gone that fast yet. The ride will though as it does every year, just give it some time. El Toro is heavily affected by colder weather (more so than the rest of the roller coasters in the park) and the cold nights we've still been having have taken blows at the ride hitting its full potential. Hope that answers all of your questions.

No, you'd think that though. Picture on the first drop, the farther back you are on the train, the more of a whip the train gets. By the time the second to last row starts going down the drop, the train is already going pretty quick. It continues to gain speed and then the back row starts going down the drop. So the back row hits the drop a little faster giving more airtime. But honestly, the difference on El Toro between rows in the same car is minimal and so is the roughness. I test ride it every morning in empty trains where it's actually more bumpy than in a full train and it's not uncomfortable in anyway. I could ride it all day. Hey Ryan I think you were working ET yesterday morning. I'll be back today, and I'll say hi. The only "semi-rough" part of ET is the the turn around after the main drops. Lot's of up and down bouncing, but I try to push up out of the seat. Any plans to do a little work on that? If so it would need to happen this week as I think you start daily operations after Memorial day. Yes, I too can ride it all day, but a little work on that one part would make it perfect! It still runs great after all those year... Definitely my #1 by a long shot. Unfortunatelly, work like that is all done during the off season. How you see El Toro will be how it is all season. The offseason leading into this season saw minor parts of the ride receive track work. El Toro runs much slower in the morning than the rest of the day as do almost all coasters. It's just more noticeable on El Toro because of all the airtime it's capable of delivering and how noticeable the difference in airtime is in the morning, especially during the 2nd half of the ride. Once the wheels warm up a bit, she flies through the course.

No, you'd think that though. Picture on the first drop, the farther back you are on the train, the more of a whip the train gets. By the time the second to last row starts going down the drop, the train is already going pretty quick. It continues to gain speed and then the back row starts going down the drop. So the back row hits the drop a little faster giving more airtime. But honestly, the difference on El Toro between rows in the same car is minimal and so is the roughness. I test ride it every morning in empty trains where it's actually more bumpy than in a full train and it's not uncomfortable in anyway. I could ride it all day. Hey Ryan I think you were working ET yesterday morning. I'll be back today, and I'll say hi. The only "semi-rough" part of ET is the the turn around after the main drops. Lot's of up and down bouncing, but I try to push up out of the seat. Any plans to do a little work on that? If so it would need to happen this week as I think you start daily operations after Memorial day. Yes, I too can ride it all day, but a little work on that one part would make it perfect! It still runs great after all those year... Definitely my #1 by a long shot. Unfortunatelly, work like that is all done during the off season. How you see El Toro will be how it is all season. The offseason leading into this season saw minor parts of the ride receive track work. El Toro runs much slower in the morning than the rest of the day as do almost all coasters. It's just more noticeable on El Toro because of all the airtime it's capable of delivering and how noticeable the difference in airtime is in the morning, especially during the 2nd half of the ride. Once the wheels warm up a bit, she flies through the course.

No, you'd think that though. Picture on the first drop, the farther back you are on the train, the more of a whip the train gets. By the time the second to last row starts going down the drop, the train is already going pretty quick. It continues to gain speed and then the back row starts going down the drop. So the back row hits the drop a little faster giving more airtime. But honestly, the difference on El Toro between rows in the same car is minimal and so is the roughness. I test ride it every morning in empty trains where it's actually more bumpy than in a full train and it's not uncomfortable in anyway. I could ride it all day.

^Yeah, I'm sure the experience will be worth the extra wait. I get a good view of the ride from El Toro and it definitely was not ready yet. If I see it testing soon and I'm allowed to post about it, I'll let you guys know for sure if someone else doesn't get to it first. lol

Wow, that looks sick. It's cool how the seats were rotating around a little. Haha

Agree. A Timberliner retrofit would only work out if the Boss received a complete retracking and ledger adjustment to basically make the ride new again. Timberliners are very submissive to the track that they run on and running them on roughened track would only make the ride rougher as a result (hence Hades 360). Buying new trains and essentially completely revitalizing the coaster probably outweighs the cost of the park continuing to use the Gerstlaur trains it already has and just retracking bits or adding topper track to save on maintenance costs.

(These are all in the backseat lol) Cedar Point - Millennium's first drop Dorney Park - Hyda's first drop Six Flags Great Adventure - El Toro's first drop Kings Dominion - Intimidator 305's first drop Carowinds - Intimidator's first drop Busch Gardens Tampa - Sheikra's first drop Busch Gardens Williamsburg - Loch Ness Monster's first drop (I really liked that one for some reason, lots of airtime)

The cranes around the ride are down but there's still a lot of cables hung up around the ride for the construction workers to climb around on. It's getting there though.

The train does have to enter the station in order for the next train to crest the lift hill. It's how the blocking of the ride works. It's probably just new employees getting into the groove of things. And yeah, when everyone on the train fits, we can have trains ready to dispatch before the train on the course even reaches the Rolling Thunder Hill.

Nice update. The new midway looks fantastic. Do you know why they moved Gemini's entrance?

I'd just like to give my fellow El Toro crew members a shoutout. While I was working the entrance at the end of my shift today, I saw them dispatching trains so quickly that several trains had to stop on the lift hill cause the prior train still hadn't fully entered the station. I also saw that Nitro wasn't double stacking as I was walking out of work so hopefully everything there is worked out. Also, the park is adding a lot of landscaping to the Zumanjaro quene area and it looks gorgeous so far. I can't wait to see how it looks when it's finished.

When I walk into a very clean park with several 25 million dollar plus rides and lots of fairly happy employees, I don't think walmart. When I am paying $8 for fries and $35 for a sweatshirt, I do not think Walmart. Have you ever worked for either Walmart or Six Flags? If so, I would love to hear some real reasons why Six Flags is anything like walmart in anyway shape or form. Honestly, how much more complex of a lighting package do you need on the ride? Top Thrill Dragster has essentially the same exact thing and I have never heard any complaints. There are homes within 10 feet of the park's borders and an airport a few miles away. I doubt either of those would really appreciate a thousand lights on a 456ft tall structure. There is a difference between practical and cheap. If a single spotlight is all you need to do the trick, than I wouldn't call having just that "cheaping out". I don't understand all of the sudden Gadv hate. Yeah, the park is going through some growing pains rights now and has some weird dead ends, but in reality its got one the best collections of rides out there and a fairly nice atmosphere. Golden Kingdom and PDC are two of the nicest areas in any Six Flags or Cedar Fair parks out there. Both cost a fortune and nobody wants to bring them up when comparing the park to Walmart. End rant. I feel the park lacks details, such as theming on many of the rides, or had them, and let them go to crap like the following year. and out the 3 parks I have been to this season so far, its by far the dirtiest. that's why I consider them like walmart. and yes, I worked a handful of season at SFGadv in the 1990's in rides. This thread is full of fighting and complaining, jeez. haha Let's settle this. Walmart and GADV are nothing alike. First off, the only thing dirty about Walmart is maybe some of the people that shop there, but that makes for some hilarious internet pictures. GADV isn't even a dirty park. Sure it's the cleanest place in the world but it's hard to keep a place spotless that serves nearly three million guests a year, and I think the park does a damn good job for what it can. I work at GADV currently and my supervisors are constantly picking up trash and as employees, we are taught to clean up any garbage we see lying around. Even our park president walks around the park everyday just picking up trash. We take cleanliness seriously. Walmart charges almost nothing for its products while GADV prices things at typical expensive amusement park prices. I see no similarities. Walmart is a store, GADV is an amusement park. Again, I see no similarities. And having a light placed on Kingda Ka is better than nothing at all. Like honestly, does it really matter how it was rigged. It works and serves its purpose. We can complain all we want but it won't change anything. I'm sure management has a multiyear plan for the park already worked out to smooth out the dead ends and round the park out more. Just give the park some time. haha Let's focus our energy on Zumanjaro. The ride opens this month!!!

Hard to say. They like to staple people on El Toro, so that might be a bit tough for you. Haha We don't actually enjoy stapling people on El Toro. It shouldn't be a problem on a majority of the rides besides maybe El Toro. If anything, there's a test seat right in front of the entrance that actually has a light to verify if you can ride.

Here's a pic of the new light package on Ka I'm pretty sure.

That's not the case with Bizarro. The ride opens with 3 trains everyday and then reduces if needed. Bizarro is actually one of the hardest rides to hit its capacity on in the park. With most rides, the next train is advanced into the station only seconds after the train before it was dispatched but Bizarro's next train doesn't actually fully park with the floor up until the train before is half way up the lift hill. And then when we dispatch the next train, there's like a 5 or 10 second delay while we wait for the floor to drop. I know the crew there could be a little faster but those factors slow things down. haha I recently got trained on Bizarro so if I ever work at it, I'll see if I can make things any faster for you guys. And honestly, I think it's time we all stop complaining about the park. haha Be grateful for what you have!! I'm sure there's people who live hours away from the closest theme park who would love to call GADV their home park.

You're not the first one to suggest that actually. It's a great idea but we are technically not allowed to single out heavy people to make them try the test seat. Our world is too sensitive. haha Like when we have to kick someone off a ride for being too big, we can't even mention that they were too big to ride.

Is the park crowded during the week in May? Some buddies and I are heading up to the park then.

It's not that the entrance person purposely lets people slip by. It gets crowded as hell there sometimes. There's only so many people you can see in a crowd of people walking through your line. haha Sometimes you miss people. However, usually bags slip through the entrance rather than people who are too short cause bags are usually harder to notice. And again, its our goal to have things flow nicely in the station so that we don't have to waste time explaining things to people who cannot ride. That's why we height check at the entrance of the line to make sure everyone is tall enough. But due to safety regulations, we do have to height check again before people board a ride. Hope that answers your question. haha

Maybe it's a test to see if you're truly a coaster nerd or just a member of the GP. haha