TR Six Flags Great Adventure, 9/26/08, Fall Family Fun Night

[YoshiFan]

No photos but I wish I had brought a camera today to show how empty the parking lot and the actual park was.

 

I have been looking forward to Family Fall Fun Night after the awesome time I had at Coasters After Dark in May where I had basically no waits. Since the park tonight was also only open to Premium SP holders, I expected the park to not be that crowded.

 

The forecast for tonight was horrible all week with it saying 80 - 90% chance of rain as of yesterday. I decided to take the chance and go to the park because it wasn't raining and was only misting/drizzling on the way to the park.

 

I got to the park a little after 5:00 and it almost looked like the place was closed. There couldn't have been more than 20 - 25 cars in the lot and rides weren't running, because they had no one riding! By the time I got to the entrance it was a little before 5:15 and the security guard told me the park might be closing at 6:00 or 7:00 so I knew I would have to move fast to get on a lot of the coasters today.

 

I went to Nitro first since I wanted to power ride today and I missed it on my last trip. Unfortunately it was closed for minor technical difficulties and remained that way the entire night. Batman was closed when I first got to the park and was listed as closed on the rides board but I saw it running with people so I went there instead. 2 trains running, station was empty except for 2 people waiting for the front. I was going to go for a re-ride but they ended up taking a train off and I think it closed shortly after that for the rest of the night. The Dark Knight was empty but after I and 3 others went into the pre-show room, the op said they would start the pre-show in around 5 minutes after more people entered. I didn't want to waste close to 15 minutes (5 minutes waiting, 5 minutes pre-show, and a few minutes riding the coaster) so I left.

 

I went to Skull Mountain next and the ops were standing around waiting for riders, I was the only one on the train. I took the sky ride to the other side of the park. Very few cars running but I was the only one in line so it didn't matter. From the sky ride, the park looked closed, I think I saw a total of 5 non employees walking around the park.

 

Runaway Mine Train also had no one in the station, I got a solo ride in the front, and took a re-ride again in the front. 2 trains running. Medusa only had people waiting for the front. 2 trains running and I got 4 rides without leaving the train.

 

The tigers were right up to the viewing windows in the Golden Kingdom which was cool but since Kingda Ka was closed, I went to the Boardwalk. Scream Machine had just the blue train running, another solo ride. I took a re-ride in the 3rd row and this time there were actually 4 other riders.

 

Superman was also running 1 train but it was a 1 train wait for the front. I moved around to different seats to get 3 total rides but the train never has more than 3 - 4 rows with riders.

 

On the way back to check Nitro, it was 6:50 and I heard the dreaded, the park is closing at 7:30 announcement (it was supposed to be closing at 10:00). Nitro was still closed so I went back to the Dark Knight where they were still letting people in the pre-show room even though the pre-show was almost over. The room was about 1/2 filled. About 2 minutes later I was boarding the ride and by the time I got to the end of the ride, there was no one waiting to ride so I stayed on for 2 more rides.

 

It was 7:10 at this point and Nitro was still closed and I knew it wouldn't be opening tonight so I went back to Skull Mountain to finish the night. I got 6 more rides in only having to change seats once.

 

Although it was dissapointing to have the park close 2 1/2 hours early, I guess they figured it wasn't worth it to keep the park open for around 200 people at most. Still, I got more rides (23) in those 2 1/4 hours than most people get during a full day in the park so it was well worth visiting, if only to see what it feels like to almost have the entire park to yourself.

 

Ride Count:

Batman The Ride, 1x

Skull Mountain, 7x

Skyway, 1x

Runaway Mine Train, 2x

Medusa, 4x

Superman, 3x

Scream Machine, 2x

The Dark Knight, 3x

[yankees15]

Was El Toro running? I'm going on Sunday and it's supposed to rain, but I'm hoping it will keep the crowds away.

[YoshiFan]

Yeah, only 1 train running, but it was going out about 40% full.

[yankees15]

WHAT?! Wow, I really hope there is a small crowd on Sunday cause I could ride Toro all day long!

[YoshiFan]

Someone on a Great Adventure site said they rode El Toro 23 times in a row just having to switch seats. It will probably be on the ligher side on Sunday but I don't think it will be as empty as it was tonight.

[STR8FXXXINEDGE]

I was at the park today and it was SUPER dead!

It was so dead in some parts of the park that you felt like you were there after hours or something.

it was raining/misting off and on.

I drove 12 hours to get to the park, and they ended up closing it down at 4:00 pm.

I was quite pissed. I missed out on some prime night time riding!

They said that it was because of the approaching weather.

It's after 9:00 pm right now and it still hasn't stormed.

 

I was lucky enough to ride El Toro in the front seat 3 times in a row without ever getting out of my seat though. What an AMAZING coaster!

Despite the crap weather, and the park closing down at 4:00 pm I was still able to get all the credits in except for one side of Rolling Thunder, and Kingda Ka.

 

WHAT?! Wow, I really hope there is a small crowd on Sunday cause I could ride Toro all day long!

 

Hopefully they don't close down early on you too!

I wasn't sure if they were actually closing the park due to the "approaching weather", or because it was so deserted.

[YoshiFan]

We were discussing that last night on another site. Last night some people were told they were closing the park due to attendance (I am guessing around 200 people were there at the most), others were told it was due to the weather and it wasn't even raining out at 7:30 when the park closed. Last night was a season pass night so as much as I hated the early closing, I could see why they did it since they had to have lost a ton of money since no one paid admission except for maybe a few who paid the $14.99 friend deal.

 

Multiple people called, myself included last night and we were all told the park as open until 10:00 with no mention of a possible early closing. As I mentioned in my first post, I got plenty of rides in but others only got a handful of rides, and even some were stopped from entering the lot since the park was closing early.

 

I would have been annoyed if I drove that far and the park was supposed to be open until 10 on a regular operating day and they closed 6 hours early if the weather was ok.

 

Even worse I just checked the website and it still says they are open until 10:00 tonight! I know hours are subject to change without notice but you would expect them to change the website like they usually do like 3 weeks ago when they closed at 2:00 due to the horrible storm. What if someone checked the site at 5:00 and saw 10:00 and figured they had a few hours to go to the park only to find out it closed.