Matt Kaiser

^And the Parachutes!!

I just saw the movie, and I tried very hard to see if I could recognize Six Flags New Orleans in the background. I couldn't see anything. Every shot was very detailed to look like Jurassic World, leaving nothing looking like it could have been SFNO. I wonder what they actually shot there and how that gets changed through CGI.

You have Orange Chicken!! We'll trade you the Fried Shrimp for Orange Chicken.

Join at your own risk. https://www.facebook.com/groups/sfgadvconnoisseurs/

The park didn't come up with Ghoulmaster, he evolved into that role himself. That's why the park can't easily replace him with another character.

You're thinking of Safari Discoveries. It only lasted a few years, it's not open anymore. The sea otters still have shows, though!

Disclaimer: I have never worked for Six Flags or any theme park. However, I have a lot of friends that work at Great Adventure, and I experience first-hand a lot of what they go through. Sub-disclaimer: Most of those friends work in Rides, which seems to be one of the toughest departments. Working at the park is basically what you make of it. Not many people have the endurance to truly enjoy the job, but some still do. They will work you hard, so you have to be ready for it. If you can look past the negatives and keep your sights set on the positives, then you'll have at least a decent to amazing time working at the park.

I started my internship this week as a Software Developer. I'll be working on a pretty fun project.

I always feel bad for the Great Adventure employees because of how hard they have to work, and how extremely strict the safety guidelines are. Things you wouldn't even think of are against the rules at Great Adventure. A lot of the strict enforcement comes from NJ and the fact that Six Flags always gets so much negativity about safety when something bad happens. As one example, the attendants at Great Adventure must check each row together. If one attendant slows down to buckle a seatbelt, the other must wait for them. Employees also can't cross the train without getting permission from the operator. Because of this, they can't help each other out like you saw at Dorney. The rules/regulations/procedures at always working against them at Great Adventure. I've been to other parks with groups of ride operators from Great Adventure. All day long, they point out every safety violation they see. Essentially, every employee at the park we visited would be fired if they worked at Great Adventure. I just always follow Google Maps everywhere. It always gives you the quickest route, based on real time traffic, so I don't bother even looking at what roads I'll be taking.

To add to this, it's called Loss Prevention (LP). Most retail stores have plainclothes LP officers, and Great Adventure still does as well. There's also a reward to employees who report theft (either by guests or even other employees). I think they are given a $100 giftcard per verified report.

What exactly do you mean by this?

Thanks Harry! When I starting thinking about where to put all my stuff, I had imagined your house must be covered in Great Adventure trinkets. Haha

^ Does anyone know what that truck does? I believe it tests soil quality, especially close to bodies of water for how solid it is. I could be completely wrong.

I've been meaning to ask you Harry. I've been slowly acquiring/collecting miscellaneous theme park items from maps to pins to pieces of wood (Rolling Thunder and SFNE Cyclone). How do you store/display all of your theme park items?

I think I enjoy it more than El Toro. El Toro has stronger force in its ejector airtime, but Wicked Cyclone is so compact that it's a constant airtime machine. I have to ride it more to refine my opinion, but i'd also say Wicked Cyclone is like a combination of El Toro and Skyrush with some inversions. The seats are great. Very open and very comfortable. There's also a seat belt under the lapbar just like El Toro. The only strange thing I noticed was that the grey pieces around each seat are connected to the train with velcro. One piece was missing on Media day. I saw someone catch a piece that flew off mid-ride. Apparently this is common practice amongst RMC trains.

Brian from The Amusement Wire was nice enough to allow me to join him at Wicked Cyclone's media at Six Flags New England (Agawam, MA). I took plenty of pictures and videos. This was my first RMC coaster, and it is definitely one of the best coaster's I've ridden. The airtime is amazing on every hill. I love the stall, the rolls, and the outward banks. The park was closed, so only media, VIPs, and some ACErs were allowed in for the event. Because of this, they only had a handful of rides open. Those rides were Wicked Cyclone, New England Sky Screamer, Flashback, Pandemonium, and their Scrambler. I only got two rides on WC due to long waits and focusing on photography. NESS closed for wind right when we entered the line, so I still haven't ridden it. We did ride Pandemonium and Flashback, then grabbed lunch as they were cleaning up before heading out. I HIGHLY recommend going to SFNE to ride Wicked Cyclone. Here's my full album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt-kaiser/sets/72157650912668543 Some pics: Don't wear scarves.

I've heard they aren't allowed to tunnel underground, due to some sort of underground water thing. I've also heard they even faced opposition for the part of Superman's pretzel loop that dips below ground.

^ Yesterday I saw mechanics working on it all day. They were repeatedly opening and closing the restraints. Then they rotated the gondola about 10 degrees back and checked restraints repeatedly again.

Saw someone cleaning the pool yesterday. It looks really dirty, like it hasn't been cleaned in months. My thoughts are: 1) Maybe they just "clean" a bit like this on a normal basis, but still somehow let the pool get dirty. 2) Maybe they're actually trying to completely clean the pool.

Those pics look the same as from last July, besides the board behind the gate.

1.) They occasionally open the Old Country pathway when they have large groups using the Caterging Grove back there, so they don't have to walk all the way around through Movie Town. 2) I was the one who organized the tour of Chiller last year. (It was for Gadv Online, not ACE) I asked to tour chiller, there was no hint or push from the park pointing us towards Chiller. 3) As jdc12192 has posted previously, one of this year's new Fright Fest Terror Trails was supposed to be inside the Chiller station. That is not the case anymore, and I don't think the reason has been made public. EDIT: My point for no. 3 was that anything (work, hints, etc.) concerning chiller up until a few months ago was for the trail.

This is basically a press release from Six Flags Great Adventure sent to a bunch of news channels/sites, etc. They usually don't include private events.

Great shots, Harry! It was nice talking to you yesterday. Are you going to the park on Saturday?

I think that's pretty much the "El Diablo shot"--lot's of people are going to be taking it.

Sadly, the mist was only* for today. The entertainment department had some fog effects left over from Fright Fest, so they threw it in there under the mulch. *Unless upper management love it and make efforts to add it normally.