gmoney422

I guess we wore out the rides the day before...oops...!

I did hear from one of the ride ops that they were not going to open the bridge from ET over to Medusa! He said because the walkway goes under ET, it will never open for safety reasons.

Today was one of those unbelievable theme park days. Arrived at the park about 7:45am (park doesn’t open till 10am). I had won an eBay charity auction for ERT tix and all day VIP exit passes for the entire park! Well, we definitely put them to good use! For starters, El Toro wouldn’t be open until 8:30 for the ERT, so we headed right for KK! There were maybe 4 people on the ride when we got there and nobody in line. Rode KK about 4 times straight (twice in a row up front!). It was crazy! We’d get back to the station (all 5 of us) and nobody’s in line. The ride op would say, “Wanna go again?” and we be like, “Sure, set it up again!” and away we’d go! Nuts! Next, we headed over to El Toro. Rode it about 7 or 8 times, without leaving the station! We would just jump around to all the different rows and see which row was best (front row was my favorite). This coaster is top notch!!! IMO, it’s definitely the best “overall” coaster in the park! By ‘overall’ I mean it’s got the best of everything, speed, drops, air time, fun ride-ops (especially my boy Steve stapling you in), head-choppers (oh boy!), turns, and MAN is that lift hill quick! Awesome coaster! After El Toro, went back to KK for 3 more rides, and then the park opened. Once 10am hit, we went around and hit all the other coasters (VIP exit passes, baby!). Rode Nitro 4x (front, back & 2 mids), Superman, Batman, “the Deus”, Mine Train, Skull Mtn, and Rolling Thunder, which was the roughest ride I’ve ever been on…OMG OUCH!!! I’ll be peeing blood for a week! After our 4th Nitro, said goodbye to that side of the park, and headed back over to KK and ET. Rode KK once more (great finishing ride) and strolled over to ET, exit passes firmly attached. Made our way passed the 2 hr wait “peon line” and proceeded to ride ET 5 more times, bringing our total rides on ET to 13 (in one day)!!! Here’s just a quick ride-total breakdown: El Toro 13 Kingda Ka 7 Nitro 4 Medusa 2 Superman Rolling Thunder Runaway Train Batman Total of 30 coaster rides…nice! Great trip and thanks to everyone at Great Adventure (especially Linda and Walter) for a truly memorable day! Now, on to some pics… The station is packed now. Let the stapling-in commence! This is Walter’s “El Toro hairdo”. This was after 29 park rides today. This hill crossing RT has the sickest ejector air on the entire ride, IMO! (insert NL Vacation music here)…”and we went – dancin’ ‘cross the USA…” ET’s world record first drop! This pic was taken from Runaway Train’s lift hill. Because of ET’s cable lift, the ride pretty much starts right here! Foghorn’s one tuff bird. “Whack-a-marmoset” was one of the games debuting today. There were monkeys and snakes out for the big kickoff party. Sylvester is finally on the other side of the camera. Empty ET station…yeah…! Here’s where they had the live WABC broadcast from. ET is about to open. Check out how many cars are empty. ET and RT goodness intertwined to make for good coaster-ing. Shot of the trains and station from the bridge (and some nice cleavage, too!). Time to wake up the sleeping giant…! KK’s station at 7:45am First one’s here, first one’s here…! There’s the security guard we tied up and made bark like a dog for us! “Sorry folks, park’s closed. Moose out front should’ve told ya!”

Anyone know how you can be one of these people, or is it first come, first serve kinda stuff? Also, have any of you forum members been invited to this event?

No worries, Robb! And just to clarify, I wasn't saying it sucks that you guys weren't doing a media day, I merely meant that it sucked that I thought TPR wasn't getting an invite or anything. Figured we'd just be invited to ride and take pics/vids and stuff for the site, but I guess that's not how it works. Wow...I didn't realize you guys shelled out so much dough for the Tatsu Media day!!! You guys are way to good to us! I'm gonna have to buy another shirt or DVD pack or something (does TPR sell those logoed thongs ). Man do I feel like a freeloader! No offense intended...you guys rock! G "much appreciation for all R & E do for us TPR nerds" Money

GASM at SFGA in 2000 I think. Since then, I've been a RC junkie!!!

^^^ What skycoaster? Where's this?

Good job finding the 6. But I guess you're right, there are 7 if you count both sides of rolling thunder. I usually just count it as 1.

Took this pic on May 30th to showcase SFGA's new skyline. What a great array of coasters this park has now. Check it out, it's almost a history of coasters right in front of you! There are 6 coasters in this pic. Can you spy them all? -G "I need me some El Toro" Money Pic of Great Adventure's new skyline taken from atop the Big Wheel.

Well, I guess if they're planning on opening El Toro this weekend, then no TPR media day for us. Man that suuuucks!

Aha...I see. Thanks for the info.

Anyone know anything about the picnic areas at SFGA? Going with my family, and they want to bring sandwiches and a cooler, etc. I know there's a picnic area over near The Chiller. Just wanted to get some info on how it works... Is there a separate entrance from the parking lot? Is there access to the park from the picnic area? Can you buy tickets over there instead of the main entrance? Is it clean, or full of scumbags and such? Where's the best place to park if you're going to picnic? And any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks TPR! G "picnicing was not my idea" Money

I love the launch element! Especially upwards such as the one on The Hulk!

It was a great day to hit the park! No lines and lots of afternoon sun. Only Kingda Ka would've made it a A+ day...

What a great trip to SFGA today! The weather report was terrible, but I had faith the weathermen would be wrong, as usual…and they were! Drove to the park in the rain, but right after we paid for parking, it stopped raining. Went with my wife for our first day off from caring for our 7 week old twins Nathan & Gracie. Parked ALL the way up in the row right outside the preferred parking. Get this! Then we got out and headed towards the gates. A shuttle driver drove up to us and said they weren’t charging for preferred park today, so we could move our car up if we wanted. I said, “Hells yes!” and we moved up to the very first row! Thanks safari shuttle driver!!! Now onto the park. Arrived about 10:10am (10 minutes past opening) and headed straight for Nitro. Well, we weren’t the only ones with that idea as a following pic will show. But the wait was minimal. Nitro was running 2 trains and smooth as butter! After Nitro, we headed to Batman: The Ride and it wasn’t open yet. The Op said b/c the track is so old, they really have to grease up the wheels to get it to run smooth. And when the track gets wet, the grease drips down onto the riders (yuck!). So we had to come back later. Headed to the Chiller which only Robin side running today. Great ride and no wait time at all. Next, we tried to take the sky ride over to Frontier Adventures, but they said it was too windy to open yet, so we had to hoof it…argh! Walked over to the Runaway “Pain” Train and experienced some nice back trauma and knee-bruising fun (my legs are long)! Then, on to “The Deus” as I refer to her! No lines for “The Deus” so we rode twice, once in the front. Second ride she banged me around too much, so I’ve kinda fallen out of love with her, preferring Nitro’s ride much better today. Took a walk over to El Toro area and peeked over the gate by the bull, but couldn’t see nuthin’! Then headed to KK area and it was also all blocked off. So while there, we took in the Tiger show which was pretty cool BTW and got some lunch. After lunch (which was funnel cake & dippin’ dots), it was on to Superman & the Great American “Scream from back & head trauma” Machine. Man, I never remembered it being so rough before (that’s what she said!)! Liberty (white train) and Freedom (red train) were running. I think we rode Freedom, but the short-term memory loss from multiple mini-concussions kind of clouds things. After that, we were kings of the world bow-riding on Superman. Great ride except for that dang pretzel loop! That thing truly hurts. They should call it the ACEr loop, because it feels like an ACEr is sitting on your chest!!! After Superman, we took 2 more rides on Nitro (my new love) and headed home. It was an A+ day due to the morning rain and weekday keeping the crowds to virtually empty! The sun even showed most of the afternoon. Now, on to the pics… NOTE: My pics are in reverse order b/c this is my first Photo TR and I don't know what I'm doing...sorry. This was the line to get in line for Nitro! No worries, it opened shortly after this. Check out the chick in white hoodie strolling up to the front of the line. Is it considered line jumping if you’re not really in line yet…hmm??? My new love, Nitro, look gloomy…for now. Met up with some fellow TPR lovers! Said they have trouble typing on the forums though… Shot of Batman’s 1st Zero G from the exit ramp. Another shot of Batman whippin’ past the exit ramp. Just keeps you wanting to come back for more! El Toro looms in the distance ready to pounce on SFGA like my cat on a wadded up McDonald’s cheeseburger wrapper! TPR is fully endorsed by Big Bird (I know, I know…Foghorn Leghorn!) S: UF’s brutal “ACEr Loop!” (see explanation above) Unbelievable to all weathermen, the day turns spectacular. By the way, Skull Mountain is trying to eat Batman in this pic! Nitro stands proudly and gleams above all others! She is my queen! This was about 3pm. Guess no one else wanted to have fun today…GOOD! Another shot of the emptiness…Mmmm emptiness…! I saw the same sign outside a club down in Daytona…inside was an entirely different atmosphere… This is what we call “Gmoney’s End of the Day Coaster Hair!” Check me out…*sigh* I give S: UF two thumbs up! Our parking spot was about 10 ft from me! As we were leaving, I pulled over and snapped some pics of “The Bull” from a distance. Check out that drop! Took this to show the cranes tending to KK…*sigh* As we left, Scream Machine bid us farewell with a pleasant smile.

<---- I'm gonna be there Monday, too! Look for me! I'll be sportin my black TPR shirt. Pray for no rain!!!

Awesome media camp out! I think this is what my El Toro camp out's gonna be like...not! Something I noticed below gave me a chuckle...! G "Coordinator of El Toro camp out" Money Robb, dude in green is totally scammin' on your woman! Release the hounds, Bro!!!

Dang it! I was suppose to pop my KK cherry on 5/15! And with no El Toro yet...crud! G "still a Kingda Ka virgin" Money

^^^^^^^ Yeah, I guess I meant "relatively" new pics or newer than the last ones. G "don't take me so literally" Money

They just posted some new pics of the construction on the official site, but nothing great...

Good job guys! Can't wait to see the water park photos. I've never been to Typhoon Lagoon before. Hope there's lots of bikini shots, too!

Awesome! Finally, I might be able to give something back to TPR by covering the media day. <--------Hey, check it out! Triple 31s! Cool! That only happens like once in a millenia!!!

I was just curious if anyone knew whether TPR members would be invited to the El Toro Media Day? I would assume, since we get invited to so many others. It'd be nice since it's one I could actually attend. G " Your El Toro Media Day Trip Coordinator" Money

No one has mentioned one of the best themed RCs...Big Thunder Mountain RR @ WDW!!! Gotta be tops on most lists. Great theming!

Kinda dissappointing PTR. IMO, no PTR is complete without some grinning Elissa pics. They make me smile BTW, where was Wonder Woman during the superhero pic...?