Tbone112499

I myself haven't been very active on the site recently, but just wanted to share how much this GAH community has meant to me! GAH has gotten me through a ton of difficult times, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's all thanks to Harry and his dedication to the park, and I think there's something that we can all learn from the way he brought us all together. We'll miss you Harry, and thank you for giving us all a place to share our love for Great Adventure!

I write this minutes away from my first (and hopefully not last, I’d like at least one more) ride on the bobsled! Made the day trip up to Great Escape to get a chance to ride this wonderful piece of GAdv History!

I think a lot about what Kings Island did for their 50th anniversary and that GAdv should model their celebration after that. I'd love to see some throwback merch (t-shirts, pins, posters). I would love if they'd reprint some poster maps too!

That’s odd, because I’ve gone twice without reservations and all I’ve had to do was show my membership card to get through. No problems doing that so far, I’ll report back and see if it works again when I go tomorrow!

With FF starting this Friday, I’m really interested to see what crowds are going to be like this year for it. Crowds are generally down this year, but we all know how crowded FF has been in years past. We’ll see!

1 hour ago, 29yrswithaGApass said:

 

 

 

Source:  Six Flags Great Adventure

 

 

I'll be there!

Happy Opening Day! Enjoy the park everyone 

42 minutes ago, Mr.Six said:

Little changes like all of these are going to add up, and equal a bigger impact than yearly flat rides did. 

Welcome back Medusa!  Much better choice than a DC IP.  Brings something more “unique” and familiar to longtime guests.

Agreed! I feel like they really listened to the fans here and with all of the other announcements! A digital flash pass system and single rider lines are things we've wanted for a while and I'm glad we're finally getting those too! This is already shaping up to be a great season!

8 hours ago, 29yrswithaGApass said:

It also looks like the maximum merchandise discount goes from 50% to 30% and food from 50% to 20%.  The 50% off was the only reason I kept the DE-VIP.  I don't think this is going to be pretty.

I wouldn’t have most of the merchandise I have w/o the 50% off either. Just another reason to hold on to the membership. Not to mention how helpful it is to use that discount for food when I bring friends who don’t have dining plans.

1 minute ago, Medusa42 said:

It looks like they are being called legacy memberships now.  I imagine Six Flags will increase the prices on legacy memberships after 12 months to get all of those people to switch to the new passes.

 

Here is the new pricing and pass options for Magic Mountain:

https://www.sixflags.com/magicmountain/store/tickets

 

Well then for at least the next year, I’m not canceling my DE-VIP membership. The loss of unlimited dining is the biggest killer. I can’t imagine having only 10 total meals for the amount of times I’ve visited over the last few years.

Photo taken from the Great Adventure Connoisseurs page on FB. Looks like a new paint job and theme is coming to Bizarro! 

Next year I graduate college, and the only big gift I want from my family is a Cedar Fair Platinum Pass with dining and drinks. I'm asking for it in mind of a trip I'm planning next year post-graduation to Cedar Point and Kings Island for the first time, knowing it'll lower the cost in the long run. However, while at school, I'm only 3hrs from Kings Dominion, definitely something I'm willing to make a day trip out of. I've been to this park before, but I'm missing some credits and want more rides on my current number one: Twisted Timbers. I'm thinking it may be best w/ this day trip in mind to maybe ask for the Platinum Pass early and have it be good for the rest of this year and 2022. However, while at home, Dorney is my "home" (closest @ about an hour and a half) Cedar Fair park. If I get this pass, does it work similarly to Six Flags where I must first visit the park the pass is tied to to activate it? And if this is the case, is it worth getting it tied to KD and making that my home park since I don't plan to visit Dorney between now and Labor Day when I go to KD? I was told that I may need to go back to KD to renew if I set up auto-renew, however with the difference being minimal in price, I'd be willing to rebuy at Dorney if I do decide on a Platinum Pass for 2023 (I've never had one before, so this next year would be a test on how much use I'd get out of it). What's the best way to go about all of this? TIA!

I can't help but feel like Jr. Thrillseekers is a placeholder name for something better that we might see next year. I think a new kid's area will be one of our next big additions. I could see a Timber Town (or hopefully a Pine Barrens) theme taking over the area. Lil' Devil would be perfect as is, with Sky Zooma, Tornado and Bugaboo even working with their current names/themes, but I would give a retheme to others: 

Jumpin' Joey --> Timber Tower 

Air Safari --> Pine Barren Planes 
Raja's Rickshaw --> Timber Twirler

I don't know if there's room back in Jr. Thrill Seekers for the old Seaport Rides, unless they put back the Flotilla and Planes back in their old pads, but I doubt they would remove the landscaping and planters that are there now. I think they could incorporate them into a DC Super Friends area, which could probably fit great on the opposite side of Justice League near the former site of the Musik Express. Filling out the space between the fountain and Metropolis would be great to fully revitalize the area of the park and extend it all the way to the end of the former Old Country pathway.

16 hours ago, 29yrswithaGApass said:

The sign finally went up and Safari Kids is now officially Jr. Thrillseekers!  With the start of revamping the kids section this year, what could be instore for next season?

 

Source:  Joe Dudek fb

 

 

I noticed this yesterday on my visit, too! I think they have some solid room near Lil' Devil to put back one or two of the old Seaport rides. Maybe some of the smaller rides like Hearts Aweigh or the Submarine. It'll be interesting to see new themes if/when these rides come back. Another nice area for some kids rides could be near the old site of the Musik Express. A DC Superfriends area could fit nicely there and help to fill out Metropolis on the opposite side closer to the fountain!

On 8/5/2021 at 12:35 AM, 29yrswithaGApass said:

How was Cyborg Hyper Drive?  Were the lighting/effects good?

Yeah, I was really impressed by all of the effects in the queue and on the ride itself. The ride itself I thought could’ve been a little longer and I could barely hear the video while on the ride, but overall I thought they did a great job with this one. It was probably one of the most immersive rides I’ve been on at a Six Flags park!

     This past weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to join some friends on a trip to Connecticut and Massachusetts for 3 new parks! Our plan was to stop by Lake Compounce for a few hours one day, spend the following day at SFNE and visit Quassy on the way back home to NJ. 

     Lake Compounce was first on Friday, and it was a very clean looking park! It reminded me of BGW in some ways with the really nice landscaping and flowers. Our main priority was to ride Boulder Dash, but we started with Wildcat. This one was super rough and wound up being my least favorite new coaster on the trip. Talk about setting the bar low! I can appreciate the history, but I feel lucky that I somehow came off w/o any back pain. One ride on that, plus one each on Phobia and Ghost Hunt. We got a backrow and frontrow ride on Boulder Dash, and both were incredible! Great speed for a wooden coaster and the mountain-backdrop made it even better! 2 rides total on Boulder Dash before heading out, no Zoomerang and I was unable to ride the kiddie coaster. 
     Saturday was the highlight day for me. Six Flags New England was one of the first I discovered outside of GAdv when I was little and would watch POVs on YT. Luckily, our group bought gold flashpasses which were upgraded to platinum for free as a perk w/ our memberships. The flashpass was a must for a Saturday visit and really helped us get to every open coaster (only Goliath was closed). One thing I really appreciated about this park over GAdv was that virtually every DC-themed ride was in the same area. And what an awesome ride collection it was with an excellent mix of flats and coasters! We ate at JB's BBQ for lunch and the pulled pork fries were awesome! One minor nitpick on the park was that we noticed a lot of employees allowing their coworkers to use the flashpass line, which obviously ate into some of our time and probably cost us a few extra rides on Superman and WiCy (an amazing 1-2 punch at the park and 2 new favorites for me). After spending a good chunk of change for the flashpass, it would've been nice to know only the people who paid for those passes were utilizing the lines. In my past experiences working at GAdv, I know employees could get into serious trouble for doing something like that. Final ride count: 1x ea. on Stampede Bumper Cars, Great Chase, Catwoman Whip, Gotham City Gauntlet, Supergirl Sky Flyer, Riddler Revenge, Batman the Dark Knight, Cyborg Hyper Drive, Joker, Thunderbolt, Pandemonium, Flashback & New England Sky Screamer. 4x ea. on Superman and Wicked Cyclone.
      Our last stop on our drive home was Quassy. I didn't do much research into this park, but again like so much else on the trip, I was pleasantly surprised! It was cool to see a similar ticket system like the ones at the nearby boardwalk parks, but we were only there to ride Wooden Warrior and Little Dipper. Little Dipper packed more of a punch than expected, but the real highlight was Wooden Warrior. This thing hauls and makes me more excited to get out to Sesame Place and try out Oscar's Wacky Taxi. 1 ride each on Quassy's 2 coasters. Here's a fun fact: our gas for the entire trip ($30) cost less than our 4 large drinks at Quassy (~$32)!
     Overall, I was lucky to gain 16 new credits on this trip to bring me up to 87. Not a ton in comparison to some of my other friends, but I'm slowly inching closer to 100! I highly recommend a similar trip to anyone looking to try out the coasters of the New England area, this was a fun one!

I had an awesome day at Jersey Devil previews! I got to ride 11 times throughout the day, really great considering that there was some extended downtime at times during the day. The back was incredible for airtime, and I definitely felt more hangtime toward the front. While it ran really slow after the MCBR early on, it got a lot faster and better as the coaster warmed up. I could say that in general about the entire experience! I can’t wait to go to media day tomorrow and get more rides, this is easily a top 3 coaster at the park for me. Stop me if you see me and say hi! I’ll be wearing an El Diablo shirt

So excited to be there for opening day! Lots of cool additions to compliment JD. Glad we're getting some different food options too 

10 minutes ago, Louisatsweetlou said:

Looking through, these are changes I noticed from last year. Let me know if I missed anything or added something that is the same as last year.

 

1. Jersey Devil Coaster (most obvious and we knew about this already)

2. Congo Rapids Open until the end of October?

3. Houdini's Great Escape is listed. I doubt it'll be open at the beginning of the year, though.

4.  Safari Off Road Adventure- on the website is says that it will open. Maybe this is from a previous year? Or maybe it will open with both cars and trucks? We will have to wait and see.

5. Log Flume: "Weekends only until May 2" Meaning it could be open on opening day? Also closes in October.

6. No loose articles still on Jersey Devil, El Toro, Kingda Ka, and The Joker.

7. The Ride Information Center has moved outside the park- Im grateful for this change. That line used to take up half the midway.

8. The Apple Shop in the CocaCola Freestyle Building looks like it is permanent- at least for this year.

9.  The Last Drop- not sure if this is a new name for a store.

10. The mask break zone along the waterfront has been removed.

 

That's all that I see. Any more from any of you?

Jersey Devil BBQ coming to the building that used to be Casa de Quesadilla (Nitro Grill) across from Congo Rapids. New Smokehouse near Dare Devil Dive and the Carousel, too. That might be something like what we see Rita's becomes during HITP.

Awesome! I was there opening day and this past Sunday, it was an awesome park! I've only been 3 times ever with my first visit being last year, but the park is so much better than its reputation! I was able to get a ton of rides on Superman, I had a blast!

This cool Facebook post on the Great Adventure Connoisseurs page reminded me that on this day in 1993, Traffic Jam’s roof collapsed from a blizzard!

14 hours ago, 29yrswithaGApass said:

Special thanks to our Moderator Tbone for helping in the preparation of the text for the updated Skull Mountain spotlight.  He worked at Skull Mountain so knows all about the ride!

This was the first major coaster I worked in my time at the park, this was a fun one to work!

22 hours ago, MarioSonic94 said:

So track work's gonna be finished by the end of the month.

 

Is it possible that Jersey Devil is gonna be the first coaster since Nitro to be up and running by opening day? 

There’s a chance! Still a ton more to go into the ride after track is finished. Queue/station construction, programming, testing and training for crews. Probably more likely that it opens after opening day, but still possible!

4 minutes ago, XENITH said:

BREAKING JERSEY DEVIL COASTER is currently beginning top-off with track pieces NJ-5!

Here I am live with pictures!

So it looks like the drive thru safari really helped them maintain/boost single day ticket sales. I can see the drive thru lasting a little longer than expected because of that. I wonder too what parks they're talking about when they mention investing with new rides in "markets with high growth potential".