Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv) Discussion Thread

[Dom497]

All that rust?

[GwaziBSRider1]

I don't recall Ka being rusty...

[nicman]

On the track were the wheels run there is a lot of rust or maybe it is just the paint being scraped off from the wheels so what you see is just the steel without the paint, I saw it on POV's.

Edited October 30, 2014 by nicman

[Dom497]

Pretty much every roller coaster has that (and its mostly just steel)....that's what happens when wheels go really fast on paint.

[RideofSteel]

Kingda Ka is a tiny bit faded, but it isn't rusty. You really can't judge that from a POV...

[strz]

Pretty much every roller coaster has that (and its mostly just steel)....that's what happens when wheels go really fast on paint.

 

 

Correct- Kingda Ka isn't a rusty mess!

[Genx24]

On the track were the wheels run there is a lot of rust or maybe it is just the paint being scraped off from the wheels so what you see is just the steel without the paint, I saw it on POV's.

Literally every roller coaster has that. Besides, if theres any ride at GAdv begging for a fresh coat of paint, it's Nitro.

[El Toro_Ryan]

On the track were the wheels run there is a lot of rust or maybe it is just the paint being scraped off from the wheels so what you see is just the steel without the paint, I saw it on POV's.

Literally every roller coaster has that. Besides, if theres any ride at GAdv begging for a fresh coat of paint, it's Nitro.

 

Agreed. Even Batman and Superman should get fresh paint jobs before Ka does. In my opinion, Ka should look fine for a few more years before it needs a paint job.

[Dom497]

I can't remember where I heard it from (some TV show) but the paint used on roller coasters is made to last about 10 years before needing attention.

[YoshiFan]

If someone would have said that of the 5 Friday nights the park is open in October, Halloween night would be the least crowded, I wouldn't have believed it. I haven't waked more than a 5 minutes for anything the entire night when I thought by 7, it would be very crowded.

[coasterbill]

We had a crazy day at Great Adventure yesterday morning / early afternoon.

 

We got to the park at opening and were one of about 10 cars in the lot. It was pouring and freezing but it was our last chance to ride coasters (locally) until next year so we decided to go anyway. Nothing was open when the park opened but we made our way over to Nitro first as we had seen it testing. We walked up to Nitro having ridden coasters in freezing cold temperatures and in heavy rain (but never at the same time) and got in line for the front row. We were the only people in the train.

 

The ride operator warned us that it hurt but we thought nothing of it. About half way up the lift we noticed the "rain" was now bouncing off the restraint and had switched over to sleet. The entire ride was spent covering our faces in pain... the guy in the photo booth said every single photo so far had people doing the exact same thing. Sleet at 80 MPH isn't something I need to repeat again.

 

We got off and spent a lot of time riding things like Skull Mountain, Houdini, the Teacups and the Dark Knight and finally we decided to try Bizarro. We were going to sit in the back (we were the only ones on the train) but the ride op walked over to us and said "you might as well sit in the front because this won't help you"... for some reason we listened and obviously the same exact thing happened. It was a horrible ride where nobody could keep their eyes open.

 

The thing that makes this whole thing really weird is that after about 2 hours we were ready to leave. We rode Skull Mountain like 3 times without getting off and even though we had planned to stay all day and we knew it would clear up later it wouldn't stop raining for hours so we figured the park would either close or if it didn't our clothes would be so soaked we'd be miserable anyway. We were layered like crazy but you just couldn't dress for this crap, especially because Great Adventure has massive puddles everywhere so keeping your feet / socks wet wasn't an option either. We noticed they opened the Skyway though (I know right... I couldn't believe it either) so we decided to take a ride (we had planned on just taking it back to the same station we got on since there was no line but that didn't happen). While on the ride we saw El Toro testing and then I was really conflicted.

 

First of all the ride looked like it was going to valley... I'd never seen it run that slow before. Second of all I knew riding it would be a terrible idea but at the same time it was El Toro and it was my last chance to ride it until next year. My girlfriend saw me looking at it and informed me that there was "no way in hell she was riding that in that weather and that I could ride it myself" but I convinced her to do it anyway. So we got on El Toro and sat in the second to last row and braced for the worst... for some reason though that I'll never understand the ride was absolutely amazing. It was raining just as hard as it was on Bizarro but it wasn't a problem at all. The ride was way under-speed but still delivered amazing ejector air time on the drop, every hill on the way out to the turnaround and on the "Rolling Thunder" hill. The strangest thing though is that the rain didn't bother anyone on this ride. We actually stayed in our seats and re-rode because it was just that awesome.

 

We got off the ride and pulled out our phones and saw that it would be hours before the rain let up but at Dorney it wasn't raining and probably wouldn't rain all night. We decided to leave Great Adventure and head there but not without some awesome rides on El Toro that just left us confused as to why the rain wasn't a problem at all when on Nitro and Bizarro even in the lower speed areas it was excruciating. The only thing I can come up with is that El Toro is so amazing that it defies the laws of nature. lol

 

Rides (I never do this but it's kind of funny because of the weather)

 

Skull Mountain (roof) 5X

Batman the Dark Knight (roof) 3X

Houdini (roof) 1X

Teacups (roof) 1X

Skyway (roof) 1X

Bizarro 1x

Nitro 1x

 

El Toro 2x... this made the whole trip to Great Adventure worth it.

 

Oh and as a footnote the Bizarro crew called over to the Nitro crew (I guess, or someone just passed the info along) about 2 hours after park opening and started laughing and said that Nitro only did 80 riders in 2 hours. They were all sure the park was closing early which is part of the reason we went to Dorney. It turned out that never happened but I think we still made the right call as the weather at Dorney was much, much better (and if we stayed at Great Adventure in the rain any longer my GF would have killed me... she jokingly told me that when we got to Dorney I owed her "the biggest stuffed Hydra thing they had for putting up with that Great Adventure trip". She was kidding but I got it for her anyway because really she was kind of right. lol As a side note we were at Dorney until midnight, the weather was great, every ride was open and we had a great time. We also spent a hundred bucks at the bar at Chickie and Pete's so that also had something to do with it . We made Talon our last ride of the season right at Midnight .

[Genx24]

I visited the park yesterday as well. When we arrived at noon, a woman at the gate told us the only roller coasters open were Nitro and Green Lantern, and that they were most likely closing early. She was wrong on both accounts. In 2 1/2 hours, we had ourselves quite a day, as the park was a ghost town. Nitro was painful, Bizarro was hauling, but rougher than usual, and El Toro was running like the track was coated in molasses. One thing that shocked me was that the theming on TDK was actually working. Despite the bitter cold and drenching rain, we had a great day to close out 2014.

 

Nitro 3x

The Dark Knight 1x

Skull Mountain 2x

Bizarro 1x

Runaway Mine Train 1x

El Toro 2x

Edited November 2, 2014 by Genx24

[ejot]

Was in front of coasterbill for his first ride on Toro yesterday. There were a couple other TPR lurkers behind us as the only people insane enough to be out there were enthusiasts it seems. The ride wasd inded truly amazing and since my row kept staying open I managed five rides in a row before my fingers couldn't take it anymore. I had to pee afterwards and my hands were so numbed i couldn't unbutton my jeans, that wad extremely awkward lol.

 

On my up to great escape now for some Comet marathoning. A more complete GAd TR when I return tonight...

[coasterbill]

Was in front of coasterbill for his first ride on Toro yesterday. There were a couple other TPR lurkers behind us as the only people insane enough to be out there were enthusiasts it seems. The ride wasd inded truly amazing and since my row kept staying open I managed five rides in a row before my fingers couldn't take it anymore. I had to pee afterwards and my hands were so numbed i couldn't unbutton my jeans, that wad extremely awkward lol.

 

On my up to great escape now for some Comet marathoning. A more complete GAd TR when I return tonight...

 

Yeah that was pretty cool how it was sort of an unofficial enthusiast meetup in the back few rows of El Toro. You had to know nobody besides enthusiasts would be insane enough to be back there. lol

 

You guys made it a lot of fun. I wish we could have stuck around longer but we were frozen. lol

[boldikus]

Was thinking about you guys yesterday and waiting for some sort of report about the park yesterday. Glad you had an awesome time despite the rain, makes me glad I got my final rides in of the year last weekend when it wasn't raining (but kind of jealous they were not on El Toro, as awesome as Skyrush was). It had rained all week up until the day we went last Friday so I felt really lucky to have a really nice night. Now the off-season depression begins.

[gecomet92]

On my up to great escape now for some Comet marathoning. A more complete GAd TR when I return tonight...

Avoid the 2nd car on the red. I marathoned yesterday. Got 11 rides in total for the day.

[TheMagician]

I guess I have to write this down as a kind of therapeutic measure.

 

I'm from Germany and I've been visiting the East Coast of the United States for the last couple of years with a group of students on an exchange program. My group (four 14-year-olds and me) visited the park on Saturday, 18th October. Now you can call me stupid for visiting on a Saturday during Fright Fest but in recent years we've always had a great time and no problems whatsover. Not so this year.

 

Somehow SF's promotion must have been especially great this year because the park was packed. It was crowded beyond belief. We arrived well before the opening and it was packed already and more and more people kept pouring in during the day. When the sun set parts of the park (the plazas) were so crowded that you could only move in the bulk of the crowd - and through the fence we saw even more people walking towards the entrance.

 

In addition some of the rides were closed almost the entire day: Superman, Zumanjaro, The Dark Knight. This meant that the other rides had even longer wait times. To give you an example: when we walked up to Green Lantern at 11:30am the wait time was 2 1/2 hours already.

 

When Superman opened in the evening we immediatley went there. Wait time was said to be 2 1/2 hours. After 2 hours one of the girls had to go to the bathroom. We left the other three kids in line and I went with her to the bathroom. We weren't let back in. Angry families threatened to call security. Over at El Toro the crowd started to get angry (jealous) at the Flash Pass holders because there were so many of them that the main line basically didn't move at all (plus they were only running one train at times). The atmosphere was horrible. In the end we waited 3 hours for El Toro.

 

To sum things up:

 

Time in park: 11:00am - 11:00pm

 

Rides:

 

Kingda Ka x1

Bizarro x1

Mine Train x1

Batman x1

El Toro x1

 

Needless to say that we missed all of the public Halloween events because ... guess what ... we were in line.

At least Fright Fest kept its promise: it was a horror trip.

[tarheel1231]

I'm jealous of SFGAdv. In 2016, you guys will have 2 of the world's best Intamin coasters (Jersey Giant & El Toro).

[DevilsFlight]

I'm jealous of SFGAdv. In 2016, you guys will have 2 of the world's best Intamin coasters (Jersey Giant & El Toro).

My guess is 2016 will bring a new kiddie carousel in the seaport. But of course it will be advertised as a coaster

[RideofSteel]

I have a feeling 2016 will be an update to Adventure Seaport. They've been in the process of adding a kiddie train for the past two years (still no progress really), and it has several empty pads. We have an amazing selection of thrill rides and family rides, but our kids areas need small improvements.

[DevilsFlight]

^ I agree. I have a feeling we aren't getting a coaster for at least 2 years unfortunately

[ejot]

A more complete GAd TR when I return tonight...

 

We arrived about 11:30. It poured until maybe 2:00, cleared up all afternoon, then started lightly raining again around 8:00. We'd planned to stay the whole day but ended up bouncing around 8:30, as we'd used up all our changes of dry clothes in a few trips to the car. Still got in some great dark rides on Toro and Nitro. I don't think it got above 50 degrees all day, mostly mid 40's. Definitely an experience.

 

• Yeah, Nitro, our first ride too, HURT, wow! Did a second consecutive lap (whyyy?) STILL HURTS! One look at my friends after that, and I thought we were going home right then and there.
  .
  
• By noon BTR had a -- no exaggeration, I measured -- 6" deep lake flooding the queue path. We actually stopped for a minute and watched peoples' strategies for maneuvering around it, was decently entertaining. Basically you just grabbed each railing, pitched your body about 45 degrees and kept your feet against one side.
  .
  
• And generally: MASSIVE puddles EVERYWHERE. GAd really needs to invest in some drainage improvements. It's a funny contrast to CP where an army of squeegie-mop people come out at the slightest rain and literally wipe the whole park dry. At least Six Flags runs the rides though....
  .
  
• Skull Mountain was a great way to get out of the rain, and I really got a new appreciation for the first drop in the back seats, catches you off guard even after a couple rerides
  .
  
• Houdini's Great Escape was another excellent escape from the downpour. The Vekoma Madhouse is in my top-3 flats. Such a unique ride.
  .
  
• GAd has to be home to laziest ride ops in the industry. Blackbeard op only let guests sit in the first 10 rows. Now perhaps there was some legitimate reason for this but there really didn't appear to be; I think she simply just didn't want to walk to the back of the train every cycle. Granted, Zierer Tivoli trains are 13,459 cars long, but ... c'mon, really? Really?
  .
  
• I got a great ride on Green Lantern in second to last row, left-most seat. I have no idea why but there just wasn't any headbanging, and I do like the layout.
  .
  
• Ka opened for a couple hours and we got a ride in. Zumanjaro, sadly, was down all day. Saw gondolas going up but they stopped halfway and stayed there all day.
  .
  
• Our Skyride stopped for about 10sec at like 8:00 when it was dark and cold and drizzling, and I freaked out a little more than I ever really do. Just did not want to be stuck up there all night or something. Not sure if this is a common thing on these rides? Only been on a couple and they never stopped.
  .
  
• Superman was closed the whole day until we were leaving when we saw them testing.

 

Overall it was a lot of fun braving the crazy weather. Toro was absolutely the highlight. If you could keep your hands and nose warm it was strangely painless and just totally sublime.

 

Nitro: 6

Toro: 8

Ka: 1

Bizarro: 2

GL: 1

Dark Knight: 1

Mine Train: 1

Batman: 1

Skull Mtn: 3

Blackbeard: 1

-------------------

Houdini: 1

Skyway: 2

Swashbucker: 1

 

 

 

 

On my up to great escape now for some Comet marathoning. A more complete GAd TR when I return tonight...

Avoid the 2nd car on the red. I marathoned yesterday. Got 11 rides in total for the day.

Sadly they were only running blue and the queue got pretty out of hand. I still did pretty well with the single rider line, and toward closing when it died down. Also got in 11 I think. It was very cold and must have been running quite slow as the airtime wasn't too strong.

[YoshiFan]

Were the trains on Blackbeard's going out all 10 first row full? If not, maybe they were concerned about the train valleying because of the weather if there were only a few riders and they all went to the back of the train. I have always seen them allow people to sit anywhere on the train even with the train is going out with mostly empty rows except I think last year on a day it was really cold outside and they did the same thing of only loading the front half of the train.

[ejot]

^ That makes more sense. It just seemed odd because my ride happened to be full (front half) and I think there were even a couple groups she made wait, when it seemed like they could have gotten on. I'm sure most of the rides throughout the day were less full.

[coasterbill]

[*] Skull Mountain was a great way to get out of the rain, and I really got a new appreciation for the first drop in the back seats, catches you off guard even after a couple rerides

 

I had the exact same reaction on Saturday. We got a nice pop of airtime in the back of Skull Mountain on the first drop and just looked at eachother and said "where the hell did THAT come from?".

 

Our Skyride stopped for about 10sec at like 8:00 when it was dark and cold and drizzling, and I freaked out a little more than I ever really do. Just did not want to be stuck up there all night or something. Not sure if this is a common thing on these rides? Only been on a couple and they never stopped.

 

That's not common at all on Von Roll Skyrides but it does happen (It's very common on Skyrides where the cabins don't detach for loading and unloading). Ride ops can stop the cable though if they get backed up with cars and I've noticed that the Great Adventure skyway stops a lot right before it goes down for wind. I don't know if that's an automatic or a manual thing though. Did you notice if they closed the ride when you got off? If so it was mostly wind related. Otherwise I have no idea.

 

I was shocked that they opened the Skyway but I was definitely happy to take it for a ride as any ride with a roof was a god-send on Saturday. On the Dream Street side the cabins were ridiculously close to splashing down in a huge pool of water that was forming in the spot where the cabins roll down and attach to the cable. I don't envy the guy that had to catch those cabins.

 

Ka opened for a couple hours and we got a ride in. Zumanjaro, sadly, was down all day. Saw gondolas going up but they stopped halfway and stayed there all day.

 

Can this ride not operate in the rain? We were wishing that it would open all morning since it was the only real thrill ride (besides El Toro for some insane reason) that probably wouldn't have been painful since it doesn't move forward into the rain / sleet.