Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv) Discussion Thread

[coasterbill]

Busy but not terrible. 20 min wait for Toro just now. Walked on skull before this. Currently stuck on brake run of Toro. Difficulties. :/

 

They probably just stopped it because some a**hole has his phone out.

 

JK

[Genx24]

Busy but not terrible. 20 min wait for Toro just now. Walked on skull before this. Currently stuck on brake run of Toro. Difficulties. :/

Works for me. Last week I overheard people saying the wait for Toro was 2+ hours.

[neil009]

This park is SUCH a crapshoot. This is why I don't make the two hour drive down there every year. Every time you're playing russian roulette, either the park will be reasonable and you'll have a great time, or it will be a f*cking madhouse and you'll get on 7 rides in 12 hours and go home wishing you'd never gotten out of bed that morning. And it's IMPOSSIBLE to predict.

[Superbatboy]

Did Joker soft open today? There are videos of people riding it on IG.

[coneyislandchris]

Did Joker soft open today? There are videos of people riding it on IG.

Commercial shoot today.

[Superbatboy]

Did Joker soft open today? There are videos of people riding it on IG.

Commercial shoot today.

 

Ahhhh, was wondering lol

[El Toro_Ryan]

Is that an every day thing or does it depend on conditions? Like if it were a 90 degree summer night with no wind would you just send it around or are they still reluctant to do it?

 

Oh during the summer time they send empty trains whenever. We actually stopped using test dummies in the morning during our testing but the night time maintenance team likes to play it extremely safe and they try as hard as they can not to send the last train empty. You can't blame them for being taking the safe route I guess.

[TBpony414]

Busy but not terrible. 20 min wait for Toro just now. Walked on skull before this. Currently stuck on brake run of Toro. Difficulties. :/

 

They probably just stopped it because some a**hole has his phone out. JK

 

LOL! Love you guys

 

Ryan thanks for giving us some insight on El Toro and its trains/lift/maintenance. It's cool to learn the inside scoop.

[PixelRush]

it looks like each side might offer a different experience each time you ride. It looks like some of the fins that help you spin are longer and shorter on some sides. I'd be interested to see which if any side is better and spins more.

Post by KingRCT3 » Tue May 12, 2015 5:23 am

It would have been cool I guess to paint the two rails in a different color and make one side Batman, the other a villain.

 

 

I also thought of putting a long fin on the lift hill: bam, the world first front/backflip lift in the world!

http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1585695#p1585695/

Holy sh*t. Move over Bush, we have a better conspiracy to cover...

[PixelRush]

Double post

 

But really wow ^

[boldikus]

Parking lot was filling up for such a cloudy/overcast day

So I wound up at the park as planned yesterday and had a really weird day but got in a bunch of good pictures and got to hop on most of my favorite rides. My buddy who is well aware of my hobby always tells me he wants to come along but we can never line it up right. His birthday was last week so I told him if he drove up we could go for some morning rides (I'd get him in with the BAF for $15.99 special) and Id buy him lunch after, he finally agreed and we met up bright and early and were out the door by 9. It was overcast and kinda rainy, me hoping that would keep the crowds minimum. We planned for a fun morning and then a nice lunch and our day basically went the opposite of what we had planned.

 

Entrace ordeal not particularly painful

First off, we took the Betsy Ross Bridge into Jersey to take back roads (takes about 40-45 mins on a quiet Sunday morning) but its all tiny backwoods backroads, and of course for some reason that has never happened before, we kept coming to detours that took us almost an hour out of our way. Normally when I leave my house In Philly to go straight to the park I get there in a hour or less. We didn't get through the gates until well after 11 (two f*cking hours later!!!!!) NO traffic, just dumb closed roads and detours.

 

Time for Six Flags!

We get in, security and main gates are fine, we decide we're gonna rip the bandaid right off and go for Toro. Lucky for us even though it was probably at least 11:30, it was still generally a ghost town with a small station wait so we lined up at the magic seat and waited one train. My buddy hadn't been to ANY park since 2001, and hasn't ridden a coaster since then. Maybe Toro was a bad choice for the first ride? Well, he seemed to hate it. I was having the time of my life, he was turning green. No wait for our row upon returning to the station so I suggested another round and he said "no way". Meanwhile I could have played musical chairs and ridden this thing quite a few times but thanks to his reaction decided to head somewhere else. He needed a break so we sat and decided what to do next.

 

This is how you do Sunday mornings. No line.

Brian was a little unsure after our first ride. I on the other hand am ready for a marathon.

I suggested Bizarro was around the corner ("But be warned, it goes upside down a lot"). He was cool with that so we went (he had ridden it as Medusa 15 years ago).

 

But no let's get twisted instead.

Pretty dead over here.

Again, no line. Row two, perfectly smooth (still no fire effect though, WTF SFGADv? Have these been on at all this season?)

 

Buddy was now 50 shades of green so we sat by the Toro/Mine Train bridge and BS'd until the conversation turned to where was the nearest bathroom. He has to throw up. Not a good start to the morning. After the bathroom buddy needed to sit some more and since we were right next door I asked if he minded if I jumped on Runaway Mine Train since it has zero line and was right here.

 

Still a fun classic. The airtime hills over the lake really deliver in the front of the train. (I was in row 2)

Classic fun little bugger as always, always fun to ride with SCREAMING, FREAKING preteens and kids on a modest little Mine Train like its some sort of death machine. A little rougher than I remember from my last ride last fall, but I love a good wild mine train and SFGAdv is one of the best.

 

An angle not normally seen. Take from RMT's lift.

Oh hush now, the phone was zipped in my pocket before we left the lift.

Trivia: how many coasters are in this pic?

When I exited buddy was more or less pale white and practically laying down. This was not going well. I asked what he wanted to do, suggesting we get a little food and water, so that's where we headed. We sat on the bench overlooking the lake/Toro. It was then he informed me he was done doing rides, could barely move, but didn't want to leave because he knew I was having fun. I hate this dilemma. I feel bad for a friend who is sick but I'm at my happy place having a grand old time. This happened ocne before with a friend who was hungover and yacked after 3 rides and wouldn't do anything the rest of the day, but insisted on staying so I could ride. I'm always conflicted because I have serious stamina and don't want my friend to be sitting there doing nothing.

 

Taken from RMT's exit. So many gondalas!

Bill look! I was amazed

I had to take multiple pics.

I suggested a mild ride on Skyway (which at this time zero wait) to which he promptly shot down saying he couldn't tolerate any uncontrolled movement, informing me he'd be that guy puking over the side onto unsuspecting guests. Ugh. He suggested maybe if he took a nap in the car for a bit he would feel better. I agreed and walked him to the front, explaining how he had to get handstamped, etc.

 

Can we just start calling it Rust-o?

After I sent him on my way of course I took a detour to Nitro. The line reached the bottom of the stairs so I was happily seated in the back row within just 10 minutes. The crew was cranking out trains. No clue what train I wound up on but absolutely no rattle - smooth as butter. Nitro is my "zen coaster". I just throw my hands up, feet out, look up at the clouds, and just float through the sky at 80 mph.

 

Still my zen coaster. Floaty greatness.

There's nothing like it for me. Its so crazy big and fast but its peaceful in some weird way to me. It's like flying. It's not forceful (except maybe that helix) but its just such a well designed coaster. I love the floater airtime, its perfect. *insert paint/rust jokes here, yes it needs it. I agree*

 

NEW Go Fresh cafe next to Nitro's photobooth.

Batman kicking all sort of ass

I checked on Batman and the line was through the garden. Man that backwards gimmick has given this ride a new lease on life and thats nothing but a good thing, its one of the best coasters we have.

 

Regret not getting a ride but apparently this is the popular ride in the park again.

And thats nothing to say about the rest of the line-up, Batman has just stood the test of time and I hope if we do we get a JLDR as the current rumors are lean towards, that it goes in the Chillers old spot, just to keep Batman in peoples peripheral vision. They're obviously working on something over there. Probably just a haunt though lol.

 

Time for a little SM Cult action. Back seat always and only.

Love how freaked kids get over this ride. Even just the queue and station. And its so poorly done. But it's SCARY!!!!!!!

I wandered around to make my pit stop at Skull Mountain and wound up behind a huge group of people in line in front of me. I was hesitant but surprised when we cleared the turnstyle with no wait. The back row had a one train wait and as usual it was awesome. One of my favorite rides on it even, in fact. No particular reason why, it was just a ton of fun.

 

Crazy Quinn and the Joker!

Looks nice up close.

I was going to cross back through Main Street/the fountain but took a detour to gawk at Joker, Harley Quinn, its new queue and the ongoing plaza constructions. Here are some photos to droll over.

 

I was hanging all over the giant fence getting pics. The men working were not amused.

It's coming together nicely, I'm excited to see it when its done. I found time to stop at Main Street Pub and while I'd hope to enjoy a summer shandy the tap was providing strictly foam so I went with an Angry Orchard instead and had a seat on the patio and did some people watching.

 

And then I had to chug some liquid refreshment.

What's the best thing to do after chugging an Angry Orcahrd? Well, ride The Bull of course. It was midafternoon and the first two rows of switchbacks were full so it was about a 20 minute wait, not bad at all.

 

Another lap.

Magic seat madness.

Crew was doing a really good job. We did manage to get stuck on the brake run for about 5 minutes due to issues with the trains advancing. No big deal. I took out my phone and broke park rules. :/

 

Taken while stuck on the break run. Rotting Lumber cars still sitting there doing nothing.

Pics from the brake run. An op came out to the brake run to tell us it may be a minute and we could use our phones.

I thought that was funny.

This entire time I am texting my buddy and getting no response, and getting a little freakout. He did not seem well when I left and it had been a few hours. Repeated calls were getting no answer.

 

Heading out

I headed out to the lot (not even remembering exactly where we parked, repeatedly calling and texting him to no avail. Finally I found him and he was dead to the world. Like not responding to pounding on his car windows and barely moving when I squeezed my arm in to shake him awake.

 

Some pics from the lot as I was trying to wake up my driver lol.

Later SFGAdv, til next time.

Still not feeling well, he took a few minutes to wake up and get his bearings and off we carefully sped out of the lot across to Wawa where we loaded up on coffee and sugar junk food to get us back to Philly. He was really out of it and having a little bit of trouble driving but not like drunk driving, just so tired and stomach in serious pain. (He doesn't drink, ftr) Ten minutes from the Ben Franklin Bridge (5 mins from my house) some wild doubchebag cuts him off (and doesnt stop) causing us to swerve and slam into the median, destroying my buddies left driver side wheel and what sounds like the axl. This lead to a 3 hour wait in the rain (of course) for a cop car to show and take a report (even though there was no contact), AAA finally sending a truck over, and having to call my other half to come get us in Jersey, which if you know her, she was NOT pleased about. But she is an angel and saved my ass big time.

 

At this point we realize we hadn't really eaten since the pretzel we had after the first couple of coasters around noon and the random tastycakes at Wawa a bit before the road incident. We needed real food ASAP. So of course I came home, devoured some crap and immediately fell asleep. Good day of riding, totally weird/off day otherwise. Crowds were never too bad but if you were expecting walkons that wasn't happening. Mostly 15-20 minute waits. Bummed I missed Zum (did see it stuck halfway up twice throughout the day - WTF?!) and wished I waited for Batman but I got some good riding in and got i out of my system. Hope you enjoyed reading and checking out my pics.

 

 

Ride count:

El Toro 2x

Nitro 1x

Skull Mountain 1x

Bizarro 1x

Runaway Mine Train 1x

Edited May 23, 2016 by boldikus

[coasterbill]

Damn dude, that's one screwed up day.

 

Great pictures as always but... damn.

[boldikus]

^ Not a single mention of the skyride porn I took JUST FOR YOU!?!??!

[coasterbill]

Lol it was great, but what was I going to say? "Hey sorry about the car accident thing and the fact that your friend almost died from riding a forceless B&M flourless but at least you got to take a picture of the Skyway so all in all it was a good day.

[coasterbill]

... and double post

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

(still no fire effect though, WTF SFGADv? Have these been on at all this season?)

I believe we had fire a few weeks ago in April. I remember because my friend liked the ride 10x more for that reason.

 

I, too, have a dilemma when I go with non-enthusiast friends and they feel sick and don't want to ride anymore. They usually tell me to go for it, but I'm like, "Am I a bad friend if I just leave him/her and go for it, or am I obligated to stop riding and help my friend?" I'm the type of person that isn't good with knowing when to read between the lines with what people say, so if they tell me "go ahead and ride" then I go ahead and ride!

 

They're all still friends with me, but the list of my non-enthusiast friends who were willing to go to theme parks with me got shorter and shorter and shorter as the years went by. Thankfully, there's this awesome group of enthusiasts who call themselves "TPR members" who have no problem making friends and going balls to the wall at theme parks with me

 

Oh, and sorry about your friend's car

[coneyislandchris]

(still no fire effect though, WTF SFGADv? Have these been on at all this season?)

I believe we had fire a few weeks ago in April. I remember because my friend liked the ride 10x more for that reason.

When I went a few weeks back, they had fire but no mist. But that was par for the course for all of last season, too. You rolls the dices and takes your chances.

 

Really sorry to hear about your friend's sudden onset sickness and subsequent accident; here's hoping he recovers quickly.

[Keetz]

I'm heading to the park either Sunday or Monday. We're gonna spring for flash pass, I was wondering if anyone had experiences with gold vs platinum? Is platinum worth the extra cost?

 

Thanks

[coasterbill]

I'm heading to the park either Sunday or Monday. We're gonna spring for flash pass, I was wondering if anyone had experiences with gold vs platinum? Is platinum worth the extra cost?

 

Thanks

 

Rumor has it Joker will be open by then and will be Platinum only. So yes.

[boldikus]

Really sorry to hear about your friend's sudden onset sickness and subsequent accident; here's hoping he recovers quickly.

 

He's fine. We were both fine. Not a scratch on us. Said he feels OK today, his car is f*cked tho, that thing was making noises I've never heard in my life. I feel bad for him about that. It wasn't even his driving, it was a douche that cut him off (and didn't stop because... Jersey).

 

Lol it was great, but what was I going to say? "Hey sorry about the car accident thing and the fact that your friend almost died from riding a forceless B&M flourless but at least you got to take a picture of the Skyway so all in all it was a good day.

Edited May 23, 2016 by boldikus

[boldikus]

double post, please delete sweet moderators.

Edited May 23, 2016 by boldikus

[PhantomNick]

Lol it was great, but what was I going to say? "Hey sorry about the car accident thing and the fact that your friend almost died from riding a forceless B&M flourless but at least you got to take a picture of the Skyway so all in all it was a good day.

 

OMG!! Did Bill just stumble across the solution to some of the recent "forceless" B&M coasters?!?

 

They forgot to add FLOUR to their design recipe!!

[I Like Theme Parks.]

Lol it was great, but what was I going to say? "Hey sorry about the car accident thing and the fact that your friend almost died from riding a forceless B&M flourless but at least you got to take a picture of the Skyway so all in all it was a good day.

 

OMG!! Did Bill just stumble across the solution to some of the recent "forceless" B&M coasters?!?

 

They forgot to add FLOUR to their design recipe!!

[coasterbill]

 

I blame autocorrect

[TBpony414]

Boldikus that's one f'ed up day at the park! I'm very careful with who I invite to things because I hate getting in situations like yours, where they claim they're up for anything but quickly it's clear they're not. Cue them getting sick, being over-faced, scared for their life, what have you. And then it gets weird! Too bad your friend had the day from hell and ended up with a busted car.