Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv) Discussion Thread

[njcoasterguy34]

I finally got to ride Nitro in the rain today. Fortunately it wasn't heavy rain just a light drizzle. It was still a tad painful.

 

Speaking of lines, I was definitely glad I got the Gold Flash Pass today. I actually had to use it for Skull Mountain which I rarely ever do.

 

I arrived before opening and ended up leaving around 4:00 because I was tired of the rain.

[ejot]

Was hoping for a cloudier morning to keep the crowds away today but it was indeed quite packed. Ka, 'Jaro, Nitro, BTR, Superman, Skull Mtn all looked to be 60-90min waits whenever I checked (a couple of those were before noon, too).

 

Toro crew was absolutely devouring the line. From the churro stand where the line was, though the five switchbacks, into the station, and onto a train in TWELVE minutes! Of the ~10 dispatches I saw throughout the day, they only stacked trains once, and for about 10sec. They were running around like some kind of Cedar Fair operators or something.

 

Stopped at Bowcraft on my way home for the Crossbow credit, as it appears to be listed for sale.

[boldikus]

^ Honestly I was in disbelief we got onto Toro as fast as we did yesterday. Almost too fast, I was afraid my nachos weren't full digested lol. Trains going out the second the other was hitting the brakerun. Watching them while in the station I was all

 

[Ed Farmer]

Chris Christie will fix the problem! Complete with adding fat seats.

He would also likely close 2 of the 3 gondolas.

[jburns309]

Arrived at 1:30 today. Park was very crowded 60-90 minutes for most coasters. Not even the rain scared anyone today.

 

King da Ka was down for quite a bit and people were angry. Everyone seemed grumpy today.

 

For me, it was a great day, just too many people. I will be returning on Sunday for some more fun!

[Nitro1118]

Chris Christie will fix the problem! Complete with adding fat seats.

He would also likely close 2 of the 3 gondolas.

 

I'm pretty sure he's also the cause for closing the Golden Kingdom/PDC bridge as well.

[Coaster Hero]

Went today

 

El Toro's crew was ridiculous. The entrance person said to expect an 80 minute wait with the line filling up the entire queue up to the station but we waited no more than 30 minutes. Incredible, I wish they always ran their coasters like this!

 

Kingda Ka was only running 2 trains today, but for whatever reason all 4 trains were there. Usually one of them is just not there, but it was sitting on the storage track today. Waited 2.5 hours but I was not about to leave without doing it. Today I had one of the best rides I've ever had on it, it was after a breakdown so the launch was ridiculous, more than usual.

 

Nitro was running a bit sluggish on 2 of 3 trains for some reason. The line was really short and the crew was dispatching really quickly, not even saying the usual spiel but just dispatching the trains without saying anything. There was some ERT event tonight, and you needed a yellow wristband to attend. I asked the employees how to get one but they had no idea. I asked the people who had them but they just said someone gave it to them. Strange, but I was a little ticked off because I could have gotten like 10+ rides instead of just 2.

 

So I finally got my phone repaired after not having one for a while, and I had lots of fun taking pictures and video of all the coasters there. It made the wait in line tolerable trying to get unique angles and closeups. I was a little paranoid of it slipping out of my pocket, especially on Nitro after Password121 told his story of losing his phone and the ride ops not being able to get it back.

 

Overall, it was an OK visit. I was half-expecting it to be dead because of the rain, but it was crowded to my dismay. I wish I got to attend that ERT though...

[Password121]

^Ahh yes, Nitro still has my phone. I'm being nice and made it my avatar in hopes that it'll give it back someday. Or that it'll get repainted

[coasterbill]

From here we jumped on the Skyway where I mentioned that Coasterbill would poo-poo himself that they were running both sides (we even took a picture for you but apparently it didnt take or was deleted because we couldn't find it) and were actually cranking through the lines.

 

Awesome Skyway report... the rest of the TR was okay too.

[El Toro_Ryan]

El Toro's crew was ridiculous. The entrance person said to expect an 80 minute wait with the line filling up the entire queue up to the station but we waited no more than 30 minutes. Incredible, I wish they always ran their coasters like this!

 

Kingda Ka was only running 2 trains today, but for whatever reason all 4 trains were there. Usually one of them is just not there, but it was sitting on the storage track today. Waited 2.5 hours but I was not about to leave without doing it. Today I had one of the best rides I've ever had on it, it was after a breakdown so the launch was ridiculous, more than usual.

 

Haha I'm glad to hear about Toro's crew! They've been winning crew of the day at the park the last few days we've been open. I can see why now. And Ka's maintenance crew usually reassembles the 4th train back together for fright fest either to act as a spare train or to swap out another train so they can begin maintenance on that one. As for us running two trains instead of three.. why do more when you can do less?... Nah jk our staffing hasn't allowed us to run three trains lately but hopefully by fright fest, we will be back to running all three pretty consistently.

[Coaster Hero]

^Oh are you a ride op for KK? If so I'll definitely try to see you one of these days!

[scbt]

Wow, it seems like almost all of TPR was at the park yesterday. It was actually my first visit to the park yesterday so I figured I'd share my thoughts.

 

• The climb to the top of Zumanjaro was terrifying and seemed to go on forever, but the drop itself was kinda eh.
  
• I went into El Toro expecting one of the best rides I've ever been on, and it surpassed that. I was absolutely blown away by it, it's by far the best ride I've ever been on. I've never experienced airtime like that before. Just Wow!
  
• I was honestly kinda underwhelmed by Nitro, I think I'd give a slight edge to Apollo at BGW to it. To be fair, my opinion might be a bit biased since I rode it not long after El Toro
  
• The Dark Knight pleasantly surprised me for what it was. The top was unbraked and it seemed to just fly over the hills at the end.
  
• I was a little disappointed to skip Batman, but it looked like they were only running one train and cycling what seemed like every 10 minutes.
  
• El Toro's crew was absolutely flying and pumping out trains like crazy and very rarely stacked everything. On the other hand, the Bizarro crew was awful - it seemed like they double stacked every cycle.
  

[coasterbill]

Glad you had fun! And yeah, the Bizarro crew is horrendous. It's been that way for years for some reason.

[jburns309]

Hey Everyone! I am thinking about going for the day this Sunday. How do you think crowds will be if it is a nice day? It is the first weekend of frightfest which I am worried about.

 

But I can't pass up the opportunity to ride the woody El Toro in the dark Thanks in advance for your help!

[El Toro_Ryan]

^Oh are you a ride op for KK? If so I'll definitely try to see you one of these days!

 

Yup! KK is my home ride but I also work Zumi and Toro a lot. Come say what's up! I'm the curly-headed kid. I think I was at Zumi the day all you guys were there.

 

Glad you had fun! And yeah, the Bizarro crew is horrendous. It's been that way for years for some reason.

 

Yeahhhh, Bizarro honestly needs one of the best crews in the park if they don't want to double stack their trains. I sometimes worked it last year and the window to not stack the third train is much shorter than on other B&M's because of the slow-moving floors. But until the ride gets more popular, I doubt GADV will give it the crew it deserves. I've always thought Bizarro deserved a spot on the boardwalk because a lot of the GP have no idea it exists and it's a much better ride than Superman or GL in my opinion.

[DBru]

The climb to the top of Zumanjaro was terrifying and seemed to go on forever, but the drop itself was kinda eh.

 

If you get the chance to ride again, once at the top, try closing your eyes, tilting your head down toward your crotch, and don't hold on. You may look stupid doing it, but this method will absolutely change your opinion of Zumanjaro...and every other drop tower. Please take my word for it.

 

My friends and I do this on every drop tower we ride and any coaster with a long, steep drop. It has completely changed our lives. We call it "The DBru Method," or "The DBM" for short.

[Coaster Hero]

^lol I need to try that

[boldikus]

Yeahhhh, Bizarro honestly needs one of the best crews in the park if they don't want to double stack their trains. I sometimes worked it last year and the window to not stack the third train is much shorter than on other B&M's because of the slow-moving floors. But until the ride gets more popular, I doubt GADV will give it the crew it deserves. I've always thought Bizarro deserved a spot on the boardwalk because a lot of the GP have no idea it exists and it's a much better ride than Superman or GL in my opinion.

 

Is there a reason they insist on running a 3rd train all the time? Even when its dead they have that thing on. I'd imagine they don't even need it but all three are always running.

[tororific]

Wow, it seems like almost all of TPR was at the park yesterday. It was actually my first visit to the park yesterday so I figured I'd share my thoughts.

 

I went into El Toro expecting one of the best rides I've ever been on, and it surpassed that. I was absolutely blown away by it, it's by far the best ride I've ever been on. I've never experienced airtime like that before. Just Wow!

 

 

Yup, El Toro is one of the few rides that you simply cannot overhype - it always meets expectations, which, of course, makes the fact that it has never been replicated in the United States at another park one of the great mysteries of the universe.

[Genx24]

Hey Everyone! I am thinking about going for the day this Sunday. How do you think crowds will be if it is a nice day? It is the first weekend of frightfest which I am worried about.

 

But I can't pass up the opportunity to ride the woody El Toro in the dark Thanks in advance for your help!

Fright Fest and nice weather? It'll most likely be packed. Fright Fest is easily GAdv's busiest time of year.

[michaellynn4]

Is there a reason they insist on running a 3rd train all the time? Even when its dead they have that thing on. I'd imagine they don't even need it but all three are always running.

 

I've been wondering the same thing, too. To me it seems like a way to cut down on maintenance costs.

[El Toro_Ryan]

Is there a reason they insist on running a 3rd train all the time? Even when its dead they have that thing on. I'd imagine they don't even need it but all three are always running.

 

I've been wondering the same thing, too. To me it seems like a way to cut down on maintenance costs.

 

GADV pretty much always insists on running all available units on our coasters. Ka is usually the first ride to cut down on the number of trains it runs because it needs a higher amount of staffing to be efficient but most of the other rides just keep running all their trains even if they aren't necessary. It's not really a policy but just a general guideline we all follow. But if a supervisor wants to have a train pulled off, they can have that done. It just doesn't happen that often.

 

And I believe running less trains saves on maintenance costs. Running all your trains means each train is running the course inducing more wear and tear on each train.

[njcoasterguy34]

When Bizarro was Medusa, did it have the same operations issues?

[El Toro_Ryan]

When Bizarro was Medusa, did it have the same operations issues?

 

Aside from the first few years Medusa opened, the operations on Medusa were generally worse than than they are now. They used to never run all three trains and they would stack for minutes at a time with just two trains. But when the ride opened in 1999, they had a stellar crew. 4 people on the train and they would dispatch as a train was clearing the dive loop.

[coasterbill]

Medusa used to roll trains like nobody's business when it was brand new... then again they probably had plenty of available staff since they could pull them from the parachute drop, Evolution, Viper and the 25 random flat rides every day that were never open. I'll give Great Adventure credit, at least they've moved on point in their history.