Rider117 Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 To see all the pictures, click here. I had work early yesterday and got out around noon. So I decided I would go to GADV with my cousin Ian(MForce23). We made our way to the park and got there around 1:30pm and parked by Kingda Ka to take some nice shots of it going. I noticed that all the wood for El Toro and saw the trains in the distance. I also saw Vipers trains and Shockwaves trains sitting right next to each other. KK was running perfect and also got some nice pictures of Scream Machine and Superman going. As walking in, I noticed that the cake now has the 45th anniversary signs on them. So we entered the park and headed right to Chiller to see what was up with Batman. The wait said 15 minutes, but we ended up waiting about 30-40 minutes for the back row on Robin, Batman was still closed. But the train was in the station with the lap bars up. (Sorry for such the dark picture, but I couldn't get a nice shot of the trains because of the lighting in the station.) Anyways, we exited and saw Freefall running but the line was pretty long so we opted to skip it. We then went over to Water Effect to see why it hasn't open yet and it has something on the bottom of the lift hill. We skipped Batman and Nitro, then decided to take the long way passing Riptide(PSP) to Skull Mountain. There doing a ton of work on Riptide inside the station on the platform. We went to Skull Mountain to find out it was closed and then the Skyride opened up just then. We hopped on and got my first ride on the left side of it. On the way I took some pictures of Flying Wave dissassembled. I also saw Houdini was open and El Toro looks awesome from the skyride. They were doing work on the second hill today, as well as the turnaround. I also snagged a nice picture of BBNP from it. Once we got off, we headed over to Medusa to check out the wait. But it was in the switchbacks, so we skipped it. While walking past RMT we noticed the Flash Pass signs which are much better than the Q-Bot ones. We stopped at the lake and looked at them working on El Toro and shot some more pictures of it. It also looks like there getting ready to pour the foundation for Tango. Then I ate some Papa Johns. I had a souveneir cup with me so I decided to get the Super Slice combo, which came with a huge slice and a medium fry. I thought it was pretty good and if your gonna eat that, you are gonna throw down at least 10 bucks. Moving along... We then decided to head towards Kingda Ka, cause most of the rides had lines so we decided to wait for the best ride. The DJ was going and made the wait go by quicker. While in line, I got a nice shot of Toro's first drop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rider117 Posted April 18, 2006 Author Share Posted April 18, 2006 After 2 hours, we get on the 2nd row of the green train for my 80th ride on it. It was great like usual. We exit and head out of the Golden Kingdom, while walking out I notice the turtles are back because they weren't there opening weekend. We then head to Scream Machine and walk right on to the back row. Still intense and awesome! But then we noticed something we haven't seen in a while, the SpaceShip running! We go on it and it is a walk on as well. It didn't flip as much as I remember, but it was still good as usual. After that, we head towards Chiller and see Spinmeister still dismantled. We go to Chiller to see Batman not going. So we decide to try Skull Mountain again. We enter the queue and wait one train for the back row. We get in and the attendant checks the train and start. We move up and get stuck, now the front of the train is maybe halfway up the first lift. We wait for them to reset it, but then they announce that Skull Mountain is experiencing technical difficulties. So alot of people leave the station and maintenance is called. They arrive and an attendant is sent to the other train on the brake run to talk to the people on it. They turn the lights on and ten minutes later they try to re-send the train. We move an inch and it stops. AFter this, all hell breaks loose. People start sliding out of the restraints and demand that there children, husband, friend or whoever else was with them to be released as well. They tell them they need a battery pack to open up the restraints and that will be here in a minute. Then, people from the other train on the brake run slide out of there restraints and walk into the load side of the station and jump over the track to the other side. I couldn't believe this! People started yelling and the attendants were doing there best in the situation. I mean, I was stuck about 170 feet in the air on S:RoS in SFA and people were not doing this. Finally, the battery pack arrives and they open up the restraints and people are cursing off the attendants and they leave. Meanwhile, they are giving out these yellow forms to everyone who was stuck to fill out. I fill them out and they said I might get something in the mail. Then they give me and my cousin an exit pass to any ride EXCEPT Kingda Ka. They kept saying sorry and I thought they handled the situation pretty good. Well, it was about 7pm and we decide to use the exit pass on Nitro. So we walk up the exit and get on the 2nd row and have an awesome ride. We then make our way to the exit and leave. I take a final picture of Ka running and we were off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 Great report there. I'm really happy to see that the train is in the station on Batman. I really hope it is running in a couple of weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedTrack Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 I didn't realized how huge Kingda Ka's "bunny hill" is!\ Nice pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekRx Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 Your Skull Mountain story sounds VERY typical of the SFGAd clientelle. Had the people been stuck even a mere 5 feet off the ground though, they'd be saying their prayers and fearing for their lives. Pretty sad, and no matter how good the park attempts to be, it will never be the quality that Shapiro wants it to be based on the people that visit the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_Hollibone Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 El-Toro looks like it's way too good to be true. This question may already be in the forums somewhere, but because I am incompetent I am going to ask when is the ride expected to be completed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HCOSurfer90 Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 AHH I cant wait untill El Toro Opens . BTW, I cant believe how fast progress on El Toro is going since the season started. This winter I thought it would never be done. Also I'm glad the KK is having a very smooth start besides opening day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stew560 Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 The latest information has been that they are shooting for a Memorial Day weekend opening. Some "Inisders" are saying early June... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterguy618 Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 SFGADv and thier late coaster openings. You don't know how HAPPY I would be if they could pull off a new coaster opening on opening day. But anyway, you got some great shots of El Toro. I never saw alot of the El Toro pics you took. Good Job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rider117 Posted April 19, 2006 Author Share Posted April 19, 2006 I got more pictures if you click the link at the top. Just an FYI, Ka was running amazing all day today with a half hour wait. If you wanna go to GA, go tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuakerOaties Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 Nice pics. I was there yesterday for my physics day! Mark "I wonder when they'll finish el Toro..." Luskus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 A Memorial Day opening really only makes sense. That is the start of the true busy season at Great Adventure and I would think that they would be shooting for, and will really try to get it open then. It would only be logical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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