hollyferry

I just read on a FB page that El Diablo's train is off (sitting next to the loop), and that Ka is having work done and is closed for a few days. Any info on that? Just curious if there was a problem, if it's the weather, or just routine maintenance. I'm living vicariously through here as I broke my ankle and won't be at the park for another 5 weeks. Sigh.

While in the park on Sunday (me with 5 kids ranging from 2 to 14), I noticed in the window to one of the shops something about getting a shopping pass. And with all those kids in tow, I wasn't about to go into a shop lol What exactly is that? I know you can show your season pass and get a small discount when you spending a certain amount. Is this something different?

I'm just happy they repainted the water tower :-)

My kids are loving the snack options. Especially considering that cotton candy and Dippin' Dots are included lol

Well, GA is my home park. I had season passes all through the 90's until say 2000-2001. Last year we got passes again for my family, and this year as well. I'm so used to just going to the park, and riding what I want. Yes, there are lines, but you can get on most rides with little wait times. (unless you are there on a Saturday lol) I'm actually a little...concerened-we are leaving Saturday to go to WDW for a week. I have our FastPass+ booked (and since I have little kids, I skipped things like Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion)...but I'm not liking the entire "You have to have 80% of your trip booked at 60 days out". I love that I can just go to GA, and really go do what we want without needing reservations and FastPass+ and riding rides at certain times. Tell me that I will love it even with all the planning that had to be done.

So glad they announced this on April Fool's Seriously though, this is AWESOME!!! My kids wanted to go to Sesame's holiday in the park...and we have passes for GA, so no go. They will be really excited about this!

I'd love to go during opening weekend...however my husband is having surgery (ahem, no more kids for us)...and I doubt he'll be wanting to walk around the park that weekend ;-) Maybe I'll just take my 2 older kids with me.

So then...if you get the free red cup with the dining plan (ours says it's included on the voucher)...you'd still have to get the $19.99 green cup with the free refills?

She really is :-) She told us that next year to make sure we let her know when we are coming so that we have a better chance of being a volunteer!

My husband is really good friends with one of the sea lion trainers/writers :-) She played the "Cindy" character.

Yes on the TV programming!! Animaniacs for sure :-)

We got there yesterday (mainly to get next year's passes processed) around noon. It certainly wasn't terrible at that point-the parking lot was less crowded than some of the weekends we went during the summer. Big rides had long lines of course. But we rode Skull Mountain twice in 30 minutes (around 2 pm)-it was almost walk on. The kids got to ride a remarkable number of the little rides as well. I have little guys, and they most certainly don't want to stay for the evening festivities. We left around 4:30. AS we were leaving, we were coming from the sea lion show. And holy crap was the line for the Flash Pass long. It went from the Flash Pass building, snaked through the food area, and went behind Johnny Rockets and beyond. It was insane. As we were leaving, the security lines were fully backed up as were the ticket/scan lines. And yeah, driving home (195 W), it was totally backed up with traffic trying to get into the park. I guess it's good for GA, right? But you couldn't have paid me enough to have stayed in those crowds lol

This was the last year I went to a Fright Fest :-)

I certainly don't consider myself "low class" or "that type of patron" that goes to GA. However, we got Sesame Passes for 8 years. We finally stopped when they started costing over $150 per pass (yes, you can get cheaper ones, but you pay through the nose for parking each time) and the crowds were so horrid. For my family of 5 (2 adults, an 9 year old, a 5 yr old and a 2 yr old)...$180 per pass would be way out of our price range. So please don't say that everyone that gets the passes cause they are inexpensive are the problem. Sesame Place, Hershey, & Dorney (when I've been there) all have the same crowd issues, especially on weekends. We've gone to GA at least 4x a month (I'd say we averaged 2x a week over the summer-even going on weekends)...and I've never experienced the awful way the crowds at Sesame act.

I was told yesterday that it was the last day for Congo Rapids. Most of the ride operators in the area (we were on mostly the kids rides) ended their speech with "Go take one last ride on Congo Rapids before they close today!"

Brought my kids today. They wanted to go on the trick or treat trail. No actual getting the candy...the kids were handed a huge bag of candy. Stuffed to the top! My kids are in heaven with all the candy lol And it's really not crowded it at all.

Quick question: last time I was at a full FF had to be around 1998 or 1999. We were there the last day last year, but as I have little ones we left around 5. When did it start having the extra cost to do things during FF? I remember the hayride behind Skull Mountain being included in admission way back when.

Question: When did you get yours? I bought my membership (the pay a little each month) last year the end of October. I didn't realize that the membership would roll over to this year...so i purchased passes during the Labor Day sale this year. I ended up emailing them through the website and they called me back. I had to cancel my original membership, and they left my new ones (where I added 2 passes) as is. The rep told me that I should only be billed once...but when I cancelled the original membership, it said I was required to pay Sept and Oct (to make the 12 month commitment). Just curious if your term was up when you got the new membership.

We want to go on Sunday. But luckily (unluckily? lol), my kids are still little and want nothing to do with the activities after 6. So I'm *hoping* that the park won't be too bad that early.

My 5 yr old daughter's finger NEVER scanned. We went to the season pass processing center, and as we had gotten our passes last October all our pictures were on them already. But they overrode the need for her to have her finger scanned and they just went by her photo. Had she not already had a photo, then they would have taken a new one.

I was just texted by 2 different people asking if we were at Great Adventure today as they apparently had a huge power outage. I haven't seen anything reported yet...anyone here have any info?

That is so funny!! I often wonder when I go to GA if anyone in the crowds is in here.

This being our first year ever going to HH, I can't compare it to previous years. Plus I have a 9,5, and 2 year old, so we didn't do the larger slides. What I can compare it to is the water areas at Sesame Place. They have a number of water slides (tubed and just riders), a small wave pool, a lazy river, and the Count's Castle (very similar to the climbing/large bucket drop area at HH). The wait at HH was nothing compared to the wait for the water rides at Sesame. Even with the lack of tubes, I prefer HH.

Action News just showed Colossus on fire and the top of a hill had collasped. Though, I had to shake my head when the newscast said, "Oh, I hope no one was riding it!"

I thought I posted this before, but can't find it. So if it posts twice...apologies in advance. As much as I want a big new thrilling ride (and oh how I do!)...at this point I'd almost rather have the park take a year off and do the much needed improvements. The parking lot (which looks so awful), paint that ugly water tower...take the time and money to paint the current coasters, just do a general spruce up around the parks; remove the buildings that are old, run down and not in use or repurpose them. It certainly wouldn't be a popular option...but one I think GA desperately needs.