coasterbill Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 Everything is still open as of this very second I honestly don't expect anything to close unless there's a mechanical problem. It's Great Adventure, they don't care. Also, this is really random and you may or may not know who I'm talking about but now I have to share even though nobody cares. I always had this really weird suspicion that you "anonymouscactus" were Drew the Intern from In the Loop. I don't know why I thought that, and a while ago I figured that was totally wrong... but it's funny that you posted a picture since you sort of resemble him. Anyway, that's all. Carry on. And you're welcome. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymouscactus Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 Funny enough i actually worked with Drew for a few years, but alas I am not him... lol. I was staying anonymous since I worked in the industry for much of my life but I left it a few years back so now I don't give a crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devins3 Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 Okay sweet I'll be going tomorrow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoinItForTheFame Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 . . . I guess they want to break the record, but only barely. . . It's Six Flags. . . That's how they do things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymouscactus Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 The only shot I have without me or my fiancé in it... memorizing, I know... My quick report: A balmy 20-something degrees and everything was open! Yay! Spiked cider! ($10) Yay! Houdini! Yay! Finally got to ride the green side of the Joker. Clearly superior especially the first guaranteed flip in the front. Purple didn't flip at all for us once again. The waffle cart (~$11) was awesome including the real good PREMIUM hot chocolate they served there (~5$). Rode all the open coasters except for Green Lantern since i consider myself a smart human being -- Longest wait was Joker at 5 minutes... though I didn't get to 'von roll' my way across the park since we had to head out a little early. Was impressed yet again by Six Flags and I'm really happy I made the long trip. Not sure how they make enough money to stay afloat, though I will say the midways seemed a bit more crowded as we were heading out. Now we just need some of the other Christmas parks up here to bend the rules and actually open some damn rides! Oh, and what's with those creepy ass burnt gingerbread people!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satans Hockey Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 There is nothing like riding Nitro in 20 something degree weather at night. Amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 Not sure how they make enough money to stay afloat, though I will say the midways seemed a bit more crowded as we were heading out. Holiday in the Park is weird. The first few hours of the day are always dead (though this is true of most operating days) but people come out in droves to see the lights. A lot of times if you're on the main stretch between Big Wheel and the Carousel it's hard to walk because of all the people but the coaster lines are always manageable. I'm sure Nitro still gives more rides during the event than any of the others but there's a shift towards family rides and attractions since it's such a family event. Seriously, you'll never see that many strollers at Great Adventure during the regular season. To be honest, I'm sure the park would rather see this demographic than the usual demographic because families with kids spend a lot of money in the park. The cold weather also forces people into arcades, food locations and gift shops which is a nice added bonus too. If you want to know how successful the event is, don't look at the empty rows on Batman, look at the enormous food line at Granny's around 7 PM, or the number of people walking around with souvenir hot chocolate mugs / cheap flashing, glowing souvenirs. Actually, this is the coldest weekend in HITP history and I'm thrilled to see the results. The crowd levels seem very strong and the park has forged ahead with their "keep calm and dispatch on" weather policy so I love everything I'm seeing from the park this weekend. Funny enough i actually worked with Drew for a few years, but alas I am not him... lol. I was staying anonymous since I worked in the industry for much of my life but I left it a few years back so now I don't give a crap. Awesome! That sort of explains it then, I could tell you were an industry guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 (edited) The crowd levels seem very strong and the park has forged ahead with their "keep calm and dispatch on" weather policy so I love everything I'm seeing from the park this weekend. "Keep calm and dispatch" is a much more comforting name for the park's approach than "we don't care about manufacturers suggestions" Edited December 11, 2016 by larrygator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superbatboy Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 I see on coasterqueue all the coasters are closed. Did it finally get too cold or has nobody updated it. It's only saying 32 and I know I rode nitro at 32 last year. Just on the fence about going tomorrow cause I won't be able to get there until around 4. Being from Southern California, just the thought of riding something like Nitro at 32 degrees shivers me timbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 I see on coasterqueue all the coasters are closed. Did it finally get too cold or has nobody updated it. It's only saying 32 and I know I rode nitro at 32 last year. Just on the fence about going tomorrow cause I won't be able to get there until around 4. Being from Southern California, just the thought of riding something like Nitro at 32 degrees shivers me timbers. Coasterqueue does that a lot. If you see Skull Mountain and Dark Knight closed then you know the problem is with Coasterqueue and not Great Adventure. The crowd levels seem very strong and the park has forged ahead with their "keep calm and dispatch on" weather policy so I love everything I'm seeing from the park this weekend. "Keep calm and dispatch" is a much more comforting name for the park's approach than "we don't care about manufacturers suggestions" Agreed. I'm trying to keep everything as merry and holly jolly as possible during Holiday in the Park. It's festive. Being from Southern California, just the thought of riding something like Nitro at 32 degrees shivers me timbers. It's really not like you would think it would be. It's actually pretty awesome and it makes it feel like the coaster is going a million miles an hour even though it's usually running slightly slower than normal (unless it's Batman of course). You're more focused on the coaster than the temperature. Strangely, if you ride something like Sky Screamer you REALLY feel the cold. On Nitro you don't care at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superbatboy Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 I see on coasterqueue all the coasters are closed. Did it finally get too cold or has nobody updated it. It's only saying 32 and I know I rode nitro at 32 last year. Just on the fence about going tomorrow cause I won't be able to get there until around 4. Being from Southern California, just the thought of riding something like Nitro at 32 degrees shivers me timbers. Coasterqueue does that a lot. If you see Skull Mountain and Dark Knight closed then you know the problem is with Coasterqueue and not Great Adventure. The crowd levels seem very strong and the park has forged ahead with their "keep calm and dispatch on" weather policy so I love everything I'm seeing from the park this weekend. "Keep calm and dispatch" is a much more comforting name for the park's approach than "we don't care about manufacturers suggestions" Agreed. I'm trying to keep everything as merry and holly jolly as possible during Holiday in the Park. It's festive. Being from Southern California, just the thought of riding something like Nitro at 32 degrees shivers me timbers. It's really not like you would think it would be. It's actually pretty awesome and it makes it feel like the coaster is going a million miles an hour even though it's usually running slightly slower than normal (unless it's Batman of course). You're more focused on the coaster than the temperature. Strangely, if you ride something like Sky Screamer you REALLY feel the cold. On Nitro you don't care at all. I may just be traumatized, a couple years ago we rode MF in freezing temps after it just had rained. It was probably in the low 50s, lets just say I couldn't feel my face like The Weekend for like 30 mins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canobie Coaster Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 Strangely, if you ride something like Sky Screamer you REALLY feel the cold. On Nitro you don't care at all. The New England Sky Screamer isn't too bad at New England in the colder weather since it runs backwards for Fright Fest and you don't get the wind in the face, but the Windseeker at Canada's Wonderland was absolutely frigid at the start of October. I agree that coasters aren't too bad unless it's snowing. If it's snowing, you will definitely feel the cold even on a smaller coaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highridin Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 I'm going today, gonna do the Guinness world record thing as well, I'm ready for some cold nitro rides! More power to ya. I'm gonna sit in my warm apartment and recover from the URI I'm currently suffering from. Hmm, thanks for the info... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Like Theme Parks. Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 I was at the park for the ACE winter adventure event. There were presentations from Diggerland, Morey's Piers, Casino Pier, and of course, Great Adventure. They actually talked about some interesting things, including some important things about Casino Pier's expansion and why Morey's is expecting the new Great Nor'Easter to be so much better. I'll share those in the relevant threads. Unfortunately, today was probably the first day in Holiday in the Park history where the cold affected the rides. The Joker had its trains in storage all day, but it seems like that wasn't because of the temperature. However, Batman was closed the whole time I was there despite the park giving their best effort to get it running. Nitro was closed for the beginning of the day, and the employees said that it was closed because the temperature was affecting it too much. Nitro was able to open eventually, so once again Six Flags rose above the weather! Rides: Skull Mountain x 5 - Back and second-to-last rows without leaving the station. It was running really well today for some reason! The turns felt like they had some more power, and I even felt a brief little floaty moment halfway through the ride. Sky Screamer - EXTREMELY COLD!!!!! Swashbuckler - Also incredibly cold. Twix: The Ride - We got a program with 6 flips! It's still a pussy ride though, since Kings Dominion's does 8. Superman: Ultimate Flight - Back row. This coaster is always more fun than I remember. Except the coaster aged really badly this season appearance-wise. It's really rusty, the paint on the gates are horribly peeled, the tent building is becoming even more horrendous and gross, and the dying winter grass and cloudy day really made the coaster look like a sketchy Chinese coaster in an abandoned park. It's a shame, since it's a really good ride. Nitro x 5 - In the back and second-to-last row, didn't leave the station. It was so freezing and amazing. It was the star of Holiday in the Park as always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devins3 Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 At least the right ride was open. I got my Nitro fix and got 10 rides in on her yesterday. Not only are the weather be damned but they also are the park that allows re rides these days. 8 rides in a row at night when it was 30 degrees?? Pure bliss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 To be fair, temperature always affects the rides, it's just that maintenance refuses to take no for an answer. In the case of Joker, that doesn't really sound weather related since the trains never even left the transfer track. Joker is a bit of (to use a bit of a complex, industry-specific, maintenance term) "an unreliable piece of sh*t", so this sounds like more of a Joker problem than a weather problem. As for Batman, who knows? Maybe it was weather related, maybe not. But it's run in much colder temperatures with much colder start up temperatures (like on Friday night). One thing I've noticed is that when a ride breaks down for any reason during HITP, people always assume it's because of the weather. In some cases it is, but these rides break down in the summer too so it's hard to tell and that's not really a fair assumption all the time. That's a shame about Batman though, it's very rare for that ride to be closed for an entire day. That being said though, if you would have told me 2 years ago that I could ride Nitro, Superman, Skull Mountain and Dark Knight on December 11th I'd have been thrilled so I can't get upset. It sounds like you're sort of in the same boat, and I'm glad you had a great time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devins3 Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 That's the boat I was in. I was all bundled up going up the lift on Nitro thinking "I can't believe I'm doing this". I was mildly looking forward to Joker as I've never ridden a 4d before but I was purely going for Nitro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ytterbiumanalyst Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 So after hearing about this world record attempt and Six Flags' efforts to just barely break it, I went looking for news articles to see if they succeeded. I found this Jerseytastic article, which I will post below. It's not good journalism. It's better than that. Because, let's face it, if the arithmetic made sense, I'd be questioning whether this was really from New Jersey. http://www.nj.com/ocean/index.ssf/2016/12/couples_help_break_world_kissing_record_at_great_adventure.html Over 150 couples braved the biting cold and flurries to gather at Six Flags Great Adventure Saturday and help break a world record. The challenge? See how many people can kiss under mistletoe at once and best the the Guinness World Record of 402 people -- or 201 couples -- set by a Six Flags in Georgia. To break the record they decided that couples from all over the country would meet at their closest Six Flags and kiss underneath the mistletoe at 5:15 p.m. In Jackson, that meant 175 couples, or 350 people. Each pair packed into a small space in the middle of Six Flags' annual Holiday in the Park event Saturday as a line of hopeful participants stretched around the rides. "The parks made 'kisstory' by gathering hundreds more than the current record of 402 kissers," Six Flags said in a statement, though the company did not have a final tally on how many people smacked lips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boldikus Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 LOL! There's also this which is a *tiny* bit more in depth. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161210005028/en/GUINNESS-WORLD-RECORDS%C2%AE-Title-Couples-Kissing-Mistletoe GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE:SIX), the world’s largest regional theme park company, now holds the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® title for the Most couples kissing under the mistletoe. The record was broken by 1,678 people at seven Six Flags locations during Holiday in the Park®, the company’s annual wintertime celebration. 839 couples joined hands and kissed for at least 10 seconds under romantic sprigs of live mistletoe provided by Mistletoeing.com to break the previous world record, set by Six Flags Over Georgia in 2015. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ytterbiumanalyst Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 I see. So it was a coordinated effort, and they're counting the cumulative total of all the parks. Changing subjects a bit, but how is that 1,713 foot tall coaster at Six Flags? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Great Adventure just announced a Fireworks show at 9PM on New Years Eve. I still think they should be open until Midnight, put everyone in the boardwalk area, shoot off the Fireworks from the lot by Kingda Ka and drop Zumanjaro at midnight but I'm not here to tell anyone how to do their jobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boldikus Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 With the weekends forecast (temps in the 20s at opening on Friday, and dipping a bit before close, rain/snow mix and 40s+ on Saturday at opening, and more precipitation on Sunday) could this be the first true washout for GreatAdv's HITP. I'll be a little surprised though not really if they wind up opening and staying open Friday. Though they are pushing their BAFF promo for Friday pretty hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 I sort of feel like Saturday and Sunday could be a crapshoot. The park will probably be dead because of the forecast but the really crappy weather is mostly before the park opens and Sunday should be semi warm despite the rain. As for tomorrow, I expect a grand total of 3 people to show up and I would think they would make no effort to run the outdoor coasters. That being said, if they so much as test Nitro tomorrow I may literally piss myself laughing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Sorry for the double post, but the park will not be open tomorrow night. This isn't really surprising news, they would definitely have lost money by being open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boldikus Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Sucks. I think if there was the potential for it to be nice Sat/Sun they'd take a chance opening Friday, but since those days are gonna be potential money losers (Saturday night might turn out nice but Sunday looks like high chance of rain all day), they might as well cut Friday completely since its gonna be so freaking cold and no ones gonna go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now