gmoney422 Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Today was one of those unbelievable theme park days. Arrived at the park about 7:45am (park doesn’t open till 10am). I had won an eBay charity auction for ERT tix and all day VIP exit passes for the entire park! Well, we definitely put them to good use! For starters, El Toro wouldn’t be open until 8:30 for the ERT, so we headed right for KK! There were maybe 4 people on the ride when we got there and nobody in line. Rode KK about 4 times straight (twice in a row up front!). It was crazy! We’d get back to the station (all 5 of us) and nobody’s in line. The ride op would say, “Wanna go again?” and we be like, “Sure, set it up again!” and away we’d go! Nuts! Next, we headed over to El Toro. Rode it about 7 or 8 times, without leaving the station! We would just jump around to all the different rows and see which row was best (front row was my favorite). This coaster is top notch!!! IMO, it’s definitely the best “overall” coaster in the park! By ‘overall’ I mean it’s got the best of everything, speed, drops, air time, fun ride-ops (especially my boy Steve stapling you in), head-choppers (oh boy!), turns, and MAN is that lift hill quick! Awesome coaster! After El Toro, went back to KK for 3 more rides, and then the park opened. Once 10am hit, we went around and hit all the other coasters (VIP exit passes, baby!). Rode Nitro 4x (front, back & 2 mids), Superman, Batman, “the Deus”, Mine Train, Skull Mtn, and Rolling Thunder, which was the roughest ride I’ve ever been on…OMG OUCH!!! I’ll be peeing blood for a week! After our 4th Nitro, said goodbye to that side of the park, and headed back over to KK and ET. Rode KK once more (great finishing ride) and strolled over to ET, exit passes firmly attached. Made our way passed the 2 hr wait “peon line” and proceeded to ride ET 5 more times, bringing our total rides on ET to 13 (in one day)!!! Here’s just a quick ride-total breakdown: El Toro 13 Kingda Ka 7 Nitro 4 Medusa 2 Superman Rolling Thunder Runaway Train Batman Total of 30 coaster rides…nice! Great trip and thanks to everyone at Great Adventure (especially Linda and Walter) for a truly memorable day! Now, on to some pics… The station is packed now. Let the stapling-in commence! This is Walter’s “El Toro hairdo”. This was after 29 park rides today. This hill crossing RT has the sickest ejector air on the entire ride, IMO! (insert NL Vacation music here)…”and we went – dancin’ ‘cross the USA…” ET’s world record first drop! This pic was taken from Runaway Train’s lift hill. Because of ET’s cable lift, the ride pretty much starts right here! Foghorn’s one tuff bird. “Whack-a-marmoset” was one of the games debuting today. There were monkeys and snakes out for the big kickoff party. Sylvester is finally on the other side of the camera. Empty ET station…yeah…! Here’s where they had the live WABC broadcast from. ET is about to open. Check out how many cars are empty. ET and RT goodness intertwined to make for good coaster-ing. Shot of the trains and station from the bridge (and some nice cleavage, too!). Time to wake up the sleeping giant…! KK’s station at 7:45am First one’s here, first one’s here…! There’s the security guard we tied up and made bark like a dog for us! “Sorry folks, park’s closed. Moose out front should’ve told ya!” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterguy618 Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Great Photo TR! Your so lucky you won that ebay aution! Gaven"I wish I were you for a day" D'Ambra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ECZenith Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Beautiful photos. Is there any word on when they're going to put the second train on? I'm heading down there in a couple weeks to see El Toro for myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterguy618 Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 ^They said a week or two when ET opened, but there has been no official word yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmoney422 Posted June 23, 2006 Author Share Posted June 23, 2006 I did hear from one of the ride ops that they were not going to open the bridge from ET over to Medusa! He said because the walkway goes under ET, it will never open for safety reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoshiFan Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 Nice photos. I was watching those auctions and out of the 500 spots available it looked like less than 25 or so actually sold. I would have went since it was so easy to win the auction (3 hours of ERT with so few people, admission and parking would have been worth $100) but I couldn't get there that day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhillyGirl Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 I was at SFGAdv on Saturday the June 17th and Thursday the June 22nd waiting in the “peon line” (as referenced by gmoney422 ) for El Toro On Saturday, at 12:55 PM, I joined the ET line after being advised the wait was a 2 - 2.5 hours. After about 3 periods where the ride stopped working and numerous hours of bonding in line with coaster enthusiasts; it was 5:19 PM when I boarded the back seat of the train. (There was an extra 25 minute wait for the back, since it takes an average of 10 minutes between each ride). Yes folks, a 4.5 hour wait; however, after riding it, I had no regrets. The ride was extremely smooth, the speed was incredible, and yet I felt that I couldn't adequately explain the experience to anyone. So, Thursday I returned...entering the line at 7:00 PM and boarding the back of the train at 8:47.....the time was cut by more than half (the fact that the park closed at 8:00; so Fast Passes were not being used beyond 8:15 definitely helped.) Take home message...the ride is phenomenal....Fast Pass is the way to go......AND......just one time is not enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbilly Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 ahh now we have two picture TR's of this beauty (mine is on page 3), this thing really is incredible and it's awesome how you got on it 13 times man lucky! Thanks for sharing your experience as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Sabo Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 Nice photo's and report. Sounds like you had a complete opposite experience from this person's TR: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26174 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmoney422 Posted June 24, 2006 Author Share Posted June 24, 2006 Nice photo's and report.Sounds like you had a complete opposite experience from this person's TR: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26174 I guess we wore out the rides the day before...oops...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socalMAN123 Posted June 25, 2006 Share Posted June 25, 2006 Very good Photo TR! Gah, these photos make me anxious to get my ass out to New Jersey and ride these things! Good job again! ---Brent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ogolo Posted June 25, 2006 Share Posted June 25, 2006 I was also one of the lucky 24 people that attended this wonderful Childrens Miracle Network event at Six Flags Great Adventure. Kingda Ka in the front car by yourself was just amazing. They had to overlaunch the train to get it over the top since it was enpty. You actually got airtime over the tophat! After about my 6th time I also realized that there is a fog/mist generator at then end of the launch track. Wow! El Toro is now my favorite ride in the park. The very front train has great views, but the back is definitely my favorite. Towards the end of the day it was going much faster, especially in the twister section. Much more intense. The rest of my day was spent cycling thru Nitro / Kinda Ka / El Toro. (Ka broke down about 5:30PM) I left the park at 6:00 after 2 more rides on El Toro. My body had enough for the day. I contemplated a nostalgic ride on Rolling Thunder, but opted to keep my kidneys intact. That ride just hurts. This was an amazing event! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HCOSurfer90 Posted June 25, 2006 Share Posted June 25, 2006 Sounds like you had a good time. By the way, does anyone know what rides will close in the rain or if there is a chance of rain because I'm going with a couple of my friends Tuesday and there's a 30% chance of rain. So if you could tell me, we would be very happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted June 25, 2006 Share Posted June 25, 2006 We were there a few weeks ago where it rained most of the time. All the coasters wer open except Kingda Ka. (Chiller and Runaway Train were both down for other reasons and EL Toro was not quite open yet). They do not run them if lightning is in the area though. They will run Kingda Ka once the rain stops for a while. Be careful of riding Batman in the rain as oil and grease can drip down from the lift and soil your clothes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ogolo Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Kingda Ka is the only ride that does not operate if there is even a slight drizzle. The weather reports are not very accurate. There was an 80% today and it didn't really rain at all. A 30% chance of showers is not bad. If anything a passing shower may clear the park and make your trip a little nicer. Just stay after the storm passes and you should be fine. And El Toro is now operating with 2 trains!! Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitral Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 where would u regularly get ERT passes or do u need like "connections" to get them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike541x Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Cool Tr. I want to go to SFGAD sometime. BTW The caption for your first picture is great. National Lampoon's Vacation is the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmoney422 Posted June 26, 2006 Author Share Posted June 26, 2006 where would u regularly get ERT passes or do u need like "connections" to get them? We got them from the park ppl, but I believe if you go to the "VIP Experience" office just to the right just outside the main gate, you can buy them there (for I think $150 each). Pricey, but if you're only going to the park once, and it's a crowded day, well worth it! Here's a link: http://www.sixflags.com/parks/greatadventure/parkpress/viptours.html#allinclusive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HCOSurfer90 Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 I'm going tomorrow, does it usually open with the park, when they drop the rope should I run there first? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmoney422 Posted June 27, 2006 Author Share Posted June 27, 2006 ^^^ It's before the rope, so you don't need to run anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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