larrygator Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Good to see you today Derek. Joe - you left out the best part of our Great Adventure, when I got punched in the face and pushed through the crowd for confronting and trying to stop people from cutting the line on S:UF. Time spent in the Security office is a real team building experience. Luckily the woman that punched me, punched like a girl. For the record they didn't completely staple us in on El Toro today and that made it better. However, late in the day they took the second train off the track halting the ride for 20 minutes and lengthening the wait. For my last ride I got on the line at 6:15 and didn't ride until 8:40. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Hmmm, this sounds really familiar. Perhaps because we had about the same experience on Sunday? We did the running of the bulls and made it to ET within the first train load of people. Only problem was, it hadn't even started testing. While we should've had no wait at all, we ended up waiting an hour and a half before it opened and we got on. RT and KK also didn't start testing until after park opening. RT opened at 10:30 and KK didn't open until noon. People were not happy! Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterguy618 Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 The park is looking really nice lately. Even today while the park was opened there were landscapers out planting flowers, trimming bushes, etc. If anything at the park is still lacking, its operations (and the fact that they can't get the rides opened with the park). I'll let them slide on KK being down because it was struck by lightning (though if you think about it, wouldn't the park be smart enough to put in a lightning rod, seeing how you've got a 456 foot tall giant metal "rod" in the ride?? I know both back on opening day and again today, my friend Bret had to pretty much train the operators of the kiddie rides his son was on. The one op didn't know you had to be UNDER 54 inches to ride one of the kiddie rides, he thought you had to be OVER it. Another op never checked if Conner was buckled in before starting the ride, and a final op argued with Bret about which type of train car his son could ride in, 1 was for those under a certain height (which is where Conner falls), but she wanted him to sit elsewhere. Eventually Bret trained her properly, but she said "sorry, I don't normally operate this ride." Its rotating rides like this which ends up causing accidents (much like the Disney Parade dude who died a few years ago). Still, the security guards, exiting people, operators, etc were all telling people to have a great day, some even sounded enthused, unlike the staff at SFMM. If there is anything that will always make SFGAd seem like a rough park, its the clientelle it attracts, which is exactly what Shapiro is trying to get away from. Hopefully in the next couple of years the new management will be making some progress with the changes they desire (unlike the Premier days). Supposedly KK, Toro, GASM and S:UF all got hit by lightning 2 days ago due to a HUGE storm (amusementpics.com has some pics of some of the lightning). GADV is a very good park. My only gripes is the addition of KK (great ride, but I have had some terrible experiences with it) and the demolition of our best flat rides. Think about it, wouldn't you rather have KK and El Toro than some flats? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelwmoss Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Your very lucky to be able to ride this coaster. I've been on Colossos at Heide Park and found it to be an amaing ride with everywhere. What is the difference...? It depends on how many different rollercoasters you have ridden. However, I have found that most of my favorite all time coasters were a surprise (In other words, I didnt' expect that they would become favs of mine) Don't know though, This one may make a run for my #1 Woodie:Wildcat At Hersheypark. Riding The Voyage Two weeks from today too ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelwmoss Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 ^^I went to Great Adventure two weeks ago and Nitro was also running great. It went from 9th to 4th on my steel coaster list. You have Alpengeist on your avatar. Believe it or not, that ride was a bit of a disappointment to me. I think the fact that the ride elements were bigger and a bit more spaced out actually made this ride less thrilling to me. BUT, I'm not saying it wasn't a good ride. It was very good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelwmoss Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Think about it, wouldn't you rather have KK and El Toro than some flats? I think you need a great mixture of both along with a good collection of Family Rides. With moms and dads getting younger these days, they are looking for what they can take the little uns on unto they get bigger or if the bigger rides always scare them,. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheArchfiend Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Well, after about 50+ rides on El Toro I must say that it just gets less and less spectacular the more I ride it. Don't get me wrong, it is a spectacular ride and I would reccomend any enthusiast to come to the park and ride it. I just am kinda down with; the incessantly long load times, the shortness of the ride gets very noticable the more you ride it, and the restraints are just flat out uncomfortable unless your like me and cheat to push your hips forward to prevent stapling so you can REALLY feel the air time of this ride. I don't see how stapling is necessary as the restraint would have to be obscenely loose for a passenger to be ejected out of the ride. To sum it up, I still have Nitro as my favorite coaster of the park. Sure, Toro offers elements and excitement that Nitro doesn't. But I wasn't getting annoyed/speculative after the first two months of opperation for Nitro. EDIT: One last thing... I feel that El Toro is lacking one of my favorite traits for a wooden coaster to have... ROUGHNESS!! It's nice that this ride is hella-smooth and all, but thats not what I ever remember about wooden coasters. I like my wooden coasters to be more like Hercules (R.I.P.) and less like roller skating on a Sunday afternoon. Maybe it's just me, but I like my head to hurt (just a little) from the brute rumbling force of a wooden coaster. Just my two cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpengeist04 Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 ^^^I like Alpengeist, but it's nowhere near my favorite. The reason it's my name/avator is that when I started counting coaster credits in 2004, it was the first coaster I rode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Think about it, wouldn't you rather have KK and El Toro than some flats? I'll take 2 El Toros and 15 good flats rides Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekRx Posted July 5, 2006 Author Share Posted July 5, 2006 ^At this point, it really doesn't matter if we have Kingda Ka and El Toro over the old "new" flats like Evolution, Jumping Jack Flash, and the Pendulum....they all spend more time closed than they do opened! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 good point Derek - I'll take one El Toro with smooth two train operations and 10 working flats and security guards sitting in Beach Chairs watching the queues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekRx Posted July 5, 2006 Author Share Posted July 5, 2006 ^Now that seems like a paradise, Larry! Oh, forgot to mention it earlier, but the new Tango Rock'n Tug was also closed on both Monday and Tuesday. If it was due to lightning or lack of staff, I don't know. And Rolling Thunder...not racing, left side not even opened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Joe's eyes teared up when he saw the area where the Schwarzkopf Enterprise was removed from. But at least he wasn't shuffling papers in Atlanta. On a surprise note Houdini's Great Escape is still operating, but the pre-show has been butchered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitro1118 Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 ^Now that seems like a paradise, Larry! Oh, forgot to mention it earlier, but the new Tango Rock'n Tug was also closed on both Monday and Tuesday. If it was due to lightning or lack of staff, I don't know. And Rolling Thunder...not racing, left side not even opened. Tango has been down for weeks now, no one knows what's up with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 I'll get in on the discussion here. El Toro actually gets better and better every time that I ride it. Larry and I, however, were victoms of one train operation and a couple of breakdowns that caused us to wait 2 1/2 hours for our last ride of the day, as he mentioned earlier. I have to say that I really liked the park operations last year a lot more than this year. I hate all of the flowery words that Shapiro is throwing out there and how nothing is being done to improve. I was impressed in the beginning of the year when they were actually "trying", but it has just gone down since April and May. The whole fight in the line was a sign of that. Security is beefed up for this year, but it would be great if they were actually taught how to do their job and then actually did them. I had never seen the Medusa line so short, but I'm not complaining that much. Kingda Ka sucks. I like having El Toro and Kingda Ka in the park (when they run) but would love more good flats. The park really does kind of suck without flat rides. A park experience to me isn't just coasters. And since they are going for the families, a few tame flats would be nice along with some bigger ones to keep people like me and the teens in those families happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyerACE1 Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Good to see you today Derek. Joe - you left out the best part of our Great Adventure, when I got punched in the face and pushed through the crowd for confronting and trying to stop people from cutting the line on S:UF. Time spent in the Security office is a real team building experience. Luckily the woman that punched me, punched like a girl. For the record they didn't completely staple us in on El Toro today and that made it better. However, late in the day they took the second train off the track halting the ride for 20 minutes and lengthening the wait. For my last ride I got on the line at 6:15 and didn't ride until 8:40. Sounds like you learned a valuable lesson the hard way, Larry. DON'T mess with line-cutters at SFGAd. Don't you know it's their "right" to line cut you "just because they can"? Seriously, I've given up being a line-cutting police. It's not worth the aggravation and possible fight that may ensure. The security at SFGAd surely doesn't care. I watched no less than 20 people cut me at El Toro and the security guard was more concerned about people sitting on the hand rails. I wanted to punch the security guard more than anyone else but my fiance calmed me down. Security at SFGAd is an absolute joke. Family friendly and safe my ass!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 No, the lesson learned is to get everything on videotape so you have evidence. I may now have to bring a video cam to the parks in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 There were guys that actually got it all on their cell phone, but when I asked them to show it, they just went up to the station and when I told security that I would go get them, security ignored me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 ^^I'd be careful with that too Larry! We had our video camera to catch a female teenage linejumper at Cliffs and she actually hit the camera! (Pretty hard) Although, we did show it to security and get her kicked out of the park so that was cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 I bet even if we had shown a video to the security at Great Adventure they would not have done anything. Their excuse would have be something like "Blah blah blah, policy, blah blah". I wish there was a policy that said they have to do their job. I still can't believe that holding a spot in line for someone is not considered line jumping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekRx Posted July 5, 2006 Author Share Posted July 5, 2006 The Medusa line is probably so short because people don't go back to that section of the park at all. Maybe if they opened the bridge between Toro and Medusa, people would go back there. On Tuesday they had forgotten to close the gate by El Toro and while I was waiting for an hour for the ride to actually open, I counted 4 couples who decided to walk on that trail to go ride Medusa and Runaway Train, about 5 minutes later, they all walked back with an aggravated look on their faces for wasting 5 minutes and a walk because the Medusa side of the bridge had the permanent wall up. Finally, the last couple shut the gate upon their return. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheArchfiend Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Maybe if they opened the bridge between Toro and Medusa, people would go back there. I'm sure there is a very good reason why that bridge is closed. I can't think of why, but I'm sure it's a very good reason. I mean, it only offers new views of Toro and promotes better access throughout that end of the park. Ummm.... maybe it's still closed cause they want to uh.... crap, I can't even kinda think of a reason why it's still closed. But my gut is telling me that it's not reopening anytime soon. Sucks, cause I want to get to see that opposite side of Toro up close rather than just seeing a quick glimpse while on the Runaway Train. Hopefully it opens up tomorrow now that I said that. And I noticed how much of a dead area it became back by Medusa last year once they closed off that bridge for Toro's construction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteb Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 SF GADV was so worried about saving a few bucks on their first of a kind in the USA multi million dollar coaster that they totally screwed up the ride throughput by recycling the crap station from Viper. The Intamin engineers must have been laughing when they were told, " We want you to design us a record breaking coaster around this station from a 1995 TOGO coaster" This coaster screams for a dual track loading setup, but then again they would have had to take down the beautiful old Viper station... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 I have to admit that I hate the station, but it works. It saved a little money (I guess maybe, they DID have to do a lot of work to it) and some time (well maybe not, like I said they DID have to do a lot of work to it). I'm changing my views on the station now. Although I didn't like it in the first place because it just gives me bad memories of Viper. The project seemed "rushed" though. Obviously it wasn't because it opened late, but I'm positive that this wasn't in their 5 year plan considering it was ordered 3 months late. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekRx Posted July 5, 2006 Author Share Posted July 5, 2006 Ordered 3 months late?! How far in advance does SFGAd usually order their coasters, since El Toro was public knowledge even before Kingda Ka opened. Seeing how when Viper closed down, they already had an idea of what they were going to put there. Maybe Six Flags finally found enough change in the couch to put a downpayment on ET so Intamin would finally send over the wood, but even that isn't much of an excuse, seeing how it was all prefab by Intamin. Voyage managed to open in time, and its a lot longer than ET. The saving of the station is really strange. I could see them saving it because of the elevator from Viper for handicap access, but they went and installed a ramp instead. So why they saved the rest of the station I have no idea. At least its not load and unload at different areas, and the station does sort of work (though they could have used more room on the exit side. All they need to do is stop cutting off the line so early to let more people into the station and fill the seats...or tell people where they are sitting. Otherwise trains will continue to go out with empty rows, which is really annoying considering how the wait times are. I'm sure there are plenty of people who really don't mind where they sit, they just want to ride it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts