coneyislandchris

Nothing to see here... Carry on!

I know it's a little bit late at this point, but here's my trip report from opening day; --- Overall, had a really awesome family-friendly time at the park on Saturday with the wife, the 4-year-old, and our 8-month-old baby. Since we were there primarily for the activities, the rides ended up being more of an afterthought, but it was still an amazing experience. All the LED lights lining every square inch of the park really made it a sight to behold. As I previously mentioned, we got to the park later in the day around 3 PM, and after getting settled, we ended up making our way to Santa's house for photos. The line wasn't even that long -- it didn't make it around a single corner in the rope line -- but it still took us about an hour to get up to the front. When we made it inside, we quickly discovered why... unlike other places where they just rush you in and rush you right back out, Santa was perfectly happy to spend some quality time with the kids and be very accommodating. The photos came out GREAT, too! Usually we've done the Macy's Santaland photos for our Christmas cards in the past, but this one came out so good we're thinking of just using that. Unfortunately, we picked up one of the packages that included digital prints, only to find that the code printed on the card was never activated. We're still in the process of trying to claim these prints and hopefully it'll all work out. After the photo experience, we walked through Old Country -- I mean, "Joy to the World" -- to make our way to the Showcase Theater for the Jack Frost stage show. First time I'd been in this theater in years, and the warmth inside was much appreciated since it was already getting dark and cold. The show itself lasted for a half-hour, maybe a little bit longer, and had a character playing Jack Frost doing his best Jim Carrey impression and throwing in some topical jokes (poking fun at Donald Trump and Teresa Giuduce, among others). We also had an elf named Adam who did juggling and stacking tricks, the "misfit toys" who had some really talented trained dogs with them, and a strongman balancer who stacked chairs nearly to the ceiling of the theater. All in all, not a bad way to kill some time! At this point it was already about 5:30 and we hadn't been on ANY rides as of yet. So the 4-year-old and I hit up some of our favorite flats; first we did the Buccaneer and got top row, then we did the Swashbuckler -- which, when it's about 40 degrees outside, is a real slap in the face with that cold air. Yow. After Swashbuckler, we headed in the direction of Skull Mountain... I mean, "Poinsettia Peak"... and checked to see if he finally hit that 44" mark. SUCCESS! He measured up (must be those winter boots!) and we hopped in line. Yes, outside of those lights strung across the outside, and a Poinsettia Peak sign that barely obscures the old Skull Mountain sign, they didn't change a DAMN thing with the ride. And since it was one of the few coasters open for the event, it was also more crowded than I had ever seen it, with people actually spilling back out of the station into the cave. When we finally made our way through the turnstile and saw how packed that station was, we ended up turning the corner and heading towards the front of the ride instead of the exalted back, and ended up with only two groups in front of us for the second row. But of course, just as we get in line, they ended up taking one train out of service and running it empty every circuit. No biggie -- it still only ended up being about a 10-15 minute wait due to this. For his first ride on it, the kiddo LOVED it! He kept screaming "SKULL MOUNTAIN!!! YEAHHHHH!!!" the entire time going through the ride. I gotta say, it definitely makes the ride more enjoyable when you get to share it with someone that's having a blast. Merry Christmas, creepy jack-o-lantern. Merry Christmas, alien and strobe lights. Merry Christmas, death metal soundtrack. Merry Christmas, obnoxious Takis advertising. Merry Christmas to all. After Skull Mountain success, the kiddo and I met up with the ladies and we walked around for a bit, seeing more of the sights, including the animatronic reindeer at the North Pole Village (creepy but cute), and then made our way back to the main square just in time to catch one of the light shows with the big tree. And wow -- what they've done with this thing is AMAZING. Using all the LED lights to tell a story synced up with the music is pretty cool for a Six Flags park, and you know, I haven't been able to get that stupid song out of my head since Saturday. AAAAGH. Really, though, very impressive and definitely worth catching if you happen to find yourself in the main square on the half-hour. About this time, we were starting to get pretty hungry, but the lines at just about all of the food stands were ridiculous. So we made a decision to hit a few more rides and then bounce and grab dinner outside the park (we don't have a dining pass, either, so that decision is a little easier to make). The kiddo and I went on one of his favorites, the tea cups (which has been loosely themed to the "Gingerbread Twist" by the simple addition of a few gingerbread man figures around the outside). I don't know how many more rides I have left on tea cups before they start making me hurl, because after the ride was over, I needed to take a minute to gather my bearings while the kiddo just wanted to go again. No thanks. At this point, I talked my wife into taking him on Houdini's Great Escape while I relaxed for a bit inside the Yum Yum Cafe with the napping baby. She agreed and got in line with him. Now, keep in mind, my wife really isn't a huge thrill ride fanatic. It's been a constant struggle to get her on even the most basic coasters; I think to date, her entire coaster count is at 4, including the Tickler at Coney Island, the Flying Turns at Knoebels, the Crazy Mouse at Steel Pier, and Blackbeard here at Great Adventure. So I had to reassure her that no, Houdini is NOT a coaster, no, you don't go upside down on it, you'll be fine. "OK, no problem." ** EDIT: I have since been reminded by her that no, she's gone on FIVE, and I forgot Laff Trakk at Hersheypark. My apologies, hon! You're going on Nitro next, right? I get a text message from her as she's on her way out, so I meet up with the two of them in the gift shop near the front. The first thing she says is "Chris, I'm going to kill you." Once she realized that the entire room was spinning around her, she ended up closing her eyes for a large portion of the ride. Of course, the kiddo loved it, but I doubt she'll be re-riding it any time soon (even though it's more tame than a pirate ship). We wrapped up the day with purchasing a couple of the souvenir Six Flags ornaments to add to our tree (the classic Great Adventure 80's logo and the Holiday In The Park commemorative one), and headed back to the car around 8:00. Not bad for 5 hours of park time! No adult coasters this time around, but you know, I'm okay with that. As far as a family outing goes, we had a lot of fun together between the Santa photos, the stage show, and all the lights everywhere. I took a few photos with my phone, attached below: Curtain call at "Jack Frost's Magical Christmas". Looks much more impressive at night. Red, radioactive glows throughout! The Christmas tree, just before the lights and music start. LEDs in action, #1. LEDs in action, #2. LEDs in action, #3. Rainbow carousel! The selection of official ornaments for this year; HITP, 80's logo, Kingda Ka, Nitro, and El Toro! Projecting the logo on the ground as we left the park.

Here right now with the family -- clearly not going to be a big ride day for is. Got here around 3, just got in line to see Santa at 3:30, and now at 4:15 we are ALMOST at the front of the line. Also, can confirm, Jersey Boys Christmas music is definitely a thing here.

It took me a while to realize that it actually WASN'T a Saw films branded car EDIT: T-Rex and Raptor track looks amazing; is there any estimated timeframe yet for when they will be announcing their first installation?

The folks doing the Cyclone repaint, Baynum Painting, posted up a blog report with several photos of the work-in-progress recently. You can find it on their Wordpress page. Here's one of the photos. I think it's looking fantastic! Can't wait to ride it next season! Fresh coat!

Ahem... I believe you meant "Poinsettia Peak Sponsored by Takis". Face the intensity... face it. I honestly thought you were joking, until I looked closer at the map PDF, and sure enough, there's that damned Takis logo. >_<

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOT BLACKBEARD'S WHYYYYYYYYY

Attention Boldikus; your pleas for Skull Mountain ERT have not gone unheard. From the latest newsletter:

Oh man, those are beautiful shots. Didn't get to stick around past 3 so I missed the lights, but I'll definitely be taking the family with during the regular HITP season. In the meantime, here's my brief recap from today; Got to the park around 10:30, after dealing with a silly detour on 195 that was due to them repaving the exit ramp... and the one immediately following it... sigh. No big deal, because as I pulled into the parking lot, I saw there was only a handful of cars. The main gate only had a few lines that were open; three or four for season pass holders, all of which were crammed with families... two people in a "single day ticket" line... and me along with a few others over at the Discover entrance. Really surprised more people don't take advantage of this, especially considering they typically let us in 10 minutes ahead of anyone else. First thing I did was head over to Movie Town in order to hopefully hit up Namtab... and lo and behold, not only was it open but it WAS still running backwards! Yay for small miracles! Since I didn't get a chance to get this one in the rotation last time I was there, I made sure to get as many rerides as possible while the station was still mostly empty. Did four in a row; one in the front, one in the back, and two second from the back. I absolutely love the G's and the view from the last row, and I'm going to be a sad camper for sure when they finally replace the trains and turn it right-side-front again. After I finished up at Namtab, I bounced over to an equally empty Nitro queue and hit this one three times in a row as well. Let me tell you, even with half-empty trains, this thing was hauling some serious butt today! Tons of floater air, just the way I like it. Interesting to note they saw someone with a phone out and radioed directly to the speakers on the lift hill, "if you don't put that phone away right now, we WILL stop the ride, and you WILL be ejected. Put it away. NOW!" Seeing as how they didn't stop the ride, I have to assume the person complied. After my trio of rides on Nitro, I decided one more ride on Namtab was in order. At this point, the station had filled up, but it was still only about a ten minute wait for the back row. (Damn that one, singular train!) And by this point, I was starting to feel just a touch nommish, so I felt like checking out the food options. Well... there weren't many. Almost every restaurant or food stand on that side of the park was closed, with the exception of Granny's. Meh. So I headed over to the boardwalk and got a cheap snack of mango bubble tea & a spring roll. Was hoping to take the Skyway over in that direction, but since everything in the Frontier section was closed today (yes, including the mine train and BBNP kiddie rides), that meant no Skyway service. Oh well. I quickly finished up my cheap snack and was heading towards Kingda Ka when I noticed that Twister was loading and was a walkon, so I gave this a quick ride. Not my favorite, to be honest, but a decent way to waste a few minutes. Then it was over to KDK for a ride or two, depending upon the wait. By the time I made it through the empty queue, I saw a full station and very slow-moving ride ops, dispatching maybe one train every five minutes or so. With that in mind I decided to forego the front row wait and take second row instead: still good, and I'm more than tall enough for the perfect rush of wind and view from the top. Sadly, as I was next in line, they got hit with one of their famous "technical difficulties" and had to shuffle back all the folks who had previously boarded the train while they worked on a fix. Still, only about a 15 minute wait for them to get it up and running again, which seems to be much better than average. That being said, I wasn't about to wait again for a reride; one and done with Ka today. Next on my must ride list was El Toro, which I hadn't seen many trains for throughout the day. Apparently they had been having several bouts of technical difficulties off and on as well, and just as I entered the queue they announced that it would be undergoing some maintenance as well. This had the fantastic effect of significantly thinning the line. So much so that I made it all the way from the snack stand up to the station without them sending out a single train. They finally got it up and running again, sent out one single train full of riders, and when it got back... down again. Oh well. They had to take Train A off the active track, and ended up only running Train B (the lovely Kia Soul train ), but finally, they were able to board us and send us out. Ran butter smooth and fast as heck, too! Again though, wasn't about to do a second attempt after that. I still had a little bit of time left to kill, so I hit El Diablo for the second time this season. Still thoroughly underwhelming. Then I decided to try for one more on Superman, if the line was short enough... and, it was! Back to the snack shack and moving fairly quickly. Though it was a little annoying to see them consistently sending out trains with rows of two people... especially as a single rider... thankfully managed to grab a seat in the last row. I still maintain it's a pretty boring ride, with the singular exception of that pretzel loop -- and wow, did it ever knock the wind out of me today! By this point, it was 3 PM and time to head home. Not a bad day, but definitely hampered by all the closures. Here's a few additional photos; The fountain of blood has been replaced with a steel tree, in progress. The fountain of blood has been replaced with a steel tree, in progress. The fountain of blood has been replaced with a steel tree, in progress. The fountain of blood has been replaced with a steel tree, in progress. Hanging lights to transform Skull Mountain into Poinsettia Peak. The Rolling Thunder train graveyard. Up charge attractions out of service? Stuffed with weight dummies? Is this really a Six Flags?!

Not that bad, but busier than I expected to be honest. The super warm weather probably has a lot to do with it. So many t-shirts & shorts combos. Early morning was reride craziness on both Namtab and Nitro. Full station at Kingda Ka, but nothing spilling out past it.

Whomever said Batman wasn't running this weekend must have had some misinformation. This is the current operating list... This is the current operating list... ...and here it is, still running backwards, as the crew starts decorating for HitP.

1. No. 6. Not very, but I don't anticipate buying a new set until the current one dies, and hopefully by that point the price will plummet. 7. 4K -- couldn't care less about 3D content.

Yeah, that gets all of the from me.

Yeah, they're also currently in progress on repainting the Coney Island Cyclone over here. But why bring this up in the Great Adventure thread? Am I missing something? Are they going to do Nitro or Bizarro again? Both of those could really use a fresh coat...

But what I REALLY want to know is if Blackbeard will be open. If not, perhaps I won't bring the 4-year-old, lest he flip his lid when he discovers it's not running. It's his absolute favorite there.

Hey, thanks for posting a picture of my car! Needless to say, I also was over there yesterday for a short period of time. Even though I was out by 2:30, I got a helluva lot of riding in thanks to the extremely light crowds. I was over in the Discover card line, and as soon as they let us in, I headed over towards Ka just to check... and, of course, it wasn't ready yet because they were still doing testing on Zumanjaro. No biggie. Even though I'm not a fan of the two B&M gimmick coasters, I headed back towards them to give them one more mercy try before the end of the season. Hopped on Superman: Ultimate Flight first and got the last row. Still bored by it, though that pretzel loop gave some serious G-forces in the back. I think I'm fine with riding this one only once or twice per season. Next, bounced right over to Green Lantern. Yep. Still uncomfortable as hell for me, and the shaking and rattling seemed to be even worse than the last time I rode it. Glad I got it out of the way early, but you know, I don't think I'll be riding this one again unless they convert it from a standup to something else. It's just not fun for me in the slightest. By this time, I noticed a few test trains being sent up Ka, so I jammed my way over there to find a mostly empty station and a walk-on to the second last row (yay single riders!). Definitely some shaking happening in the back, but as I was disembarking, I saw there was still no line, and it wasn't even 11:45 at this point, so I said to hell with it and jumped back in line, this time for the front seat (which I hadn't done yet). Usually the wait for the front is so off-putting I don't even bother, but in this case, I'm glad I waited the six trains to get it, because WOW, what an amazing rush being in the front is! Especially when you're hanging up at the top facing straight down for what feels like an eternity while the rest of the train makes its way over. I never want to ride any other seat on Ka ever again. From Ka, I bounced my way around over to El Toro and once again found a mostly empty station! Did two laps on El Toro and it's just as great as I remember. I'm seriously hoping my son makes it up to 48" by next summer so he can share in the revelatory joy of El Toro. Next on my must ride list was Bizarro. I'm in the same boat as Boldy because I absolutely love this ride, but then again, I love B&M floorless coasters in general. Definitely one of my favorites though. My first ride through I only got the flame effects, but since the station was empty by the time our stacked train made it back, I didn't even bother unbuckling... and to my surprise, the mist was on during the second ride! It's NEVER been on for me, so that was a pleasant surprise (even though it was overcast and windy). My plan from there was to hop the Skyway over to the other side of the park and hit up Namtab one last time. Two major issues hampered this from taking effect. One, the Skyway was temporarily out of commission, so instead I hoofed it over like a chump. Two, when I get to Batman's queue I see people in the courtyard, and ask the gate attendant how long the line is... "Oh, about 45, 60 minutes". Having walked on previously I didn't much feel like spending another hour in line to ride it again, and that train might still be around for HiTP anyway, so I said to heck with it and swung over to Nitro instead. RIGHT MOVE. My first ever walk-on to Nitro. I could hardly believe my eyes! Grabbed the last row far left on Train B, and yeah... although it was definitely more sluggish yesterday than usual, that just helped with the floater airtime, especially since the lap restraint left me ample wiggle room. I managed four re-rides in the last row before the station had enough people in it to force me to move. Unbelievable. Four in a row was a fantastic experience and I hope to be able to repeat it or top that during HiTP. Checked the wait time for Namtab while I was exiting Nitro, saw "55 minutes", and crossed it off the list. Not today, guys, not today. Decided to head back towards Bizarro and get one more in on that, but as I was walking back, I passed by Skull Mountain. And, okay, fine, I bought into the unyielding hype that you cultsters have been pushing at every opportunity. I got in there, got the last row, and... was thoroughly underwhelmed once again. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Well, at least the kiddo will love it when he gets big enough to ride, I'm sure. One last Bizarro ride, then a walk back to the car, and I was back in Queens before 5 PM amazingly enough. Good sanity day for me for sure. PS, Boldikus, did you happen to see this artist's rendering on the Santa shack? Skull Mountain is to become Poinsettia Peak!

Facebook comments, but yeah, I get where you're coming from. Most of the time I see a lot of positive feedback, but this for some reason just stuck out like a sore thumb.

Was on Facebook earlier and saw that Robb had posted the i305 backseat POV. I was reading through the comments and found gems like: And so on and so forth... I have to ask, is this honestly the accepted consensus in regards to this ride from the general public? Because when I visited this summer, it melted my face off and immediately leapfrogged to my #1 all-time coaster. I'm kind of shocked at the negative response.

Or, what Robb said above. That too.

Pff. Same thing. I was at Great Adventure this past weekend with my 4-year-old son and just before being admitted to ride Houdini he told me "Daddy, I need to go bathroom". I ask him "Can you hold it or do you need to go right now?" "Right now Daddy." I take him out of line and head to the nearest bathroom (which wasn't as near as I would have hoped but thankfully no incidents). When we get back to the ride, the line had more than doubled in length. We sucked it up and got back in line at the back. I wasn't about to push our way through and use him as an excuse. That's lame. Yes it means more waiting, but it's more fair for everyone, and hopefully teaches the kid to let us know about his bathroom needs BEFORE getting in line rather than at the end of it. (We'll see on that front though.)

Most likely will be SFGAdv for Holiday in the Park. Wish I could make it out there this weekend to do the stuff on the west side of the park, but have a wedding to hit on Saturday, and the NYC marathon is on Sunday which means escaping the city is going to be nigh-on impossible. So I'll just have to make do with Nitro and whatever else is open during HITP.

I have nothing of serious interest to say here, just posting so I can have this in my saved threads. I did get a chance to hit Morey's for a day over the summer with the 4-year-old. Hadn't been there in decades. Just as much fun as I remembered from my childhood, and he had a blast as well! Hoping I can drag the wife and infant along next summer and possibly do the Breakfast In The Sky thing. Even though my wife is deathly afraid of heights, she saw footage of that and thinks it's really unique, so she is willing to give it a shot.

Many thanks, Robb. Subscribed!

Forgot to mention this -- it looks like wait times are finally working in the app; Bizarro with a shorter wait than Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train. Gotta love it.

I haven't gotten any of these. Are they for Club TPR members only?