Mr. Hot Dog

"If I Ever Lose My Faith In You" by Sting. I remember watching the music video for it on the TVs while waiting on the left side queue that ran along the back of the building. It was probably memorable because there was a cute girl on line in front of us that seemed to be checking me out in line. Although I was finally brave enough to ride roller coasters, I was not yet brave enough to approach a girl! That song always brings me right back there.

Ahh, bummer: I just read that this will be Rolling Thunder's last season. NJ.com says: "The park says technology has surpassed the dual track coaster, which opened in 1979." As someone who is a fan of retro coasters, I'm pretty sad to hear that news. I've got a lot of good memories of riding it (or chickening out when I was younger). Even though it is dwarfed by El Toro, I always thought it was a nice "family ride", and fairly tame for kids to warm up on. It wasn't always that way, of course -- it used to be a pretty crazy ride back in the day, comparatively speaking. I remember my dad going on it with my sister in 1986 and saying that it felt like his fillings were going to rattle out of his head. (Some things never change!)

Oh boy, let's see... mine weren't as good as those guesses, but here's what I jotted down: My Guesses! 1. Runaway Mine Train 2. ? 3. I guessed Condor because of the structure, but knew it was wrong since those pictures looked WAY earlier than that. 4. Carousel 5. Rolling Thunder - also not right based on the metal fences. 6. ? 7. Trying to think of the original name for the Sombrero, I said Calypso -- right thought, wrong name! 8. Enterprise 9. ? 10. Flying Wave 11. ? 12. Skyride 13. ? 14. Scrambler 15. Giant Wheel 16. Bumper Cars 17. ? 18. Swiss Bob 19. Musik Express 20. 1981...?

Awesome spotlight! I'd love to see what that controller looked like. I don't think I ever saw Sci-Fi at Great Adventure, but I very distinctly remember the time he came to our elementary classroom. Everyone loved him! By the end of the visit, I was desperately trying to figure out a way that I could get my own similar robot to hang around the house. With an interactive robot, life would be so great. My plan was obvious -- I'd head straight home, dump my beloved Commodore 64 straight in the trash (I wouldn't need it if I had a robot), and then start clearing out my bedroom so that a robot like Sci-Fi had enough room to roll around. My dreams were dashed when a girl in class pointed out that there was a man lurking in the hallway peeking into the classroom and talking into his hand. Dang! I finally got my wish 25 years later in the form of a robot lawnmower. It doesn't entertain me with witty banter, but it does keep the yard looking tidy. Meh, good enough.

Hey Harry, I just wanted to dip in and let you know how much I enjoyed the Log Flume spotlight. I saw it appear last week, but I was a little busy and wanted to give myself a chance to read and enjoy it thoroughly without having to rush through it. The spotlight was fantastic -- maybe one of the most comprehensive and best ones to date. The Log Flume is arguably one of the most memorable rides at Great Adventure, and it was great to peel back the layers and really see how it has evolved (or not evolved, maybe?) over the years to remain a real park classic. Just by looking at the pictures, I can imagine the feel of grabbing those wet, cold bars inside the logs and can hear the rumbling sound of the log going down the drop. Over the past several years, I've come to recognize myself as somewhat of a log flume enthusiast. I love climbing aboard a log and seeing what each particular flume has to offer, and I've certainly ridden some really great ones. I'm not sure if it's just sentimental, or if it's the long length and great variety on the ride, but there's just something about this one that really takes the cake. I'm glad you mentioned the dip -- I noticed that in some of the early pictures and couldn't recall ever riding uphill after the second drop. (Maybe I'll have to get out to Kennywood and see what that's all about.) I remember seeing a Saturday morning TV show for kids back in the 80s where they dedicated the entire episode to the Log Flume at Great Adventure. I can't remember the name of the show, but I remember them talking about it was one of the most popular rides in the park and how the ride takes you through the treetops. Anyway, I just wanted to give you guys a shout out for doing a great job. I know building this kind of web site and acting as a historian is a real labor of love, so I wanted to let you know that it really resonated with me. Great work! PS: I love this picture (below). You've waited on the [possibly long] line to get on the Log Flume... you're hot, you've walked past the same people over and over on that cramped little queue, and you're ready to get wet. You finally climb up the stairs and get your first good glimpse of the payoff. You're a little jealous of those people, but you know you'll be in one of those logs soon, and people will be jealous looking down at you. Ha ha.

What?! That's crazy. I never noticed that the fountain had changed. That's interesting information that I'll bet most other people never noticed either. The last time I was in the park, my girlfriend and I were talking about the fountain. She said that whenever her family would take a trip to GA, the fountain would serve as the designated meeting place in case they got lost or separated from the group. (Of course, this is before cell phones were around.) It was funny to hear because that was always our plan too... meet at the fountain. It always made me wonder if half the kids hanging around the fountain because they had gotten lost and were waiting for their parents. We never actually had to use that plan, but it was a good idea just in case. I had to laugh when I saw the picture of the lone kid wearing one shoe in the spotlight -- if he was one of those kids who got lost, his mom is going to be furious when she finds him standing in front of the fountain wet, shirtless, and shoeless.

Huh. This doesn't seem like a fair exchange. As a regular season pass customer, the one single thing that made the parking fee easier to swallow was the fact that you'd get free parking at other parks. We put it to pretty good use during travels to Maryland, New England, and California over the last two years. A lot of people seem a little reluctant to rock the boat and express their feelings on the matter, but as a customer, I've been pretty dissatisfied with the steadily creeping parking price... especially since there's not really any justification for the increase besides the "people have no choice but to pay it" theory.

Really? Like what? (For the record, I like that it has a generic name instead of a superhero theme.)

Another difference: - I regretfully did not ride Shockwave - I will definitely ride Green Lantern Great comparison... I have always been a little fascinated with Shockwave since I foolishly decided to pass on it back in the day. It's pretty neat seeing them side by side like that. Smaller or not though, part of me still wants to give Shockwave a whirl! I'm still hoping to make it up to La Ronde to ride Cobra, the closest thing left to Shockwave.

For a while, I was tied between Nitro and El Toro. I finally decided that El Toro really takes the cake. Still, I can't talk about favorites without mentioning the Great American Scream Machine. That coaster really had so many nostalgic memories for me, and unlike a lot of people, I truly enjoyed every ride right up until the end.

This seems like a significant one to me. Batman was the first ride I remember having theme music... or maybe more accurately, the first time I noticed the theme music and felt that it really added to the suspense/experience. Anytime I hear The Batman Theme, it gives me a little flashback to standing in that winding queue next to the smashed up police car... or better yet, the feeling of standing in the tunnel on a hot summer day with the slight breeze from that gigantic rotating fan. (Even if that thing isn't really functional, at least it gave the placebo effect that you were getting cooled down.)

That's an interesting factoid, but I'd have to say that concept/connection is definitely going to be lost on probably 98% of the general public. Still, the effects sound pretty neat... I'm certainly getting curious.

I rode Shoot the Rapids this year, and I've gotta say that I was rather disappointed. The line was outrageously long, and the ride really fell flat in my opinion. This comes from a big flume and water ride enthusiast. Skull Mountain at Six Flags America was similar to Shoot the Rapids, but it had a much better execution.

The exception to this is definitely X2 at Magic Mountain. Their audio kicked that coaster so far over the top and put it in a completely new realm for me -- I haven't had that much suspense going up a lift hill since I rode GASM for the first time when it opened (my first big coaster). The big difference, in my opinion, was that it was pure music and not dialogue. It's way too hard to understand dialogue on a noisy coaster... music seems to be a lot more effective.

I must say, I really enjoyed the Rolling Thunder spotlight. You guys really do a great job with this site, and your recollection and attention to detail is awesome. How in the world did you have the foresight to take all your pictures and make mental notes about everything? Well done. It's funny how RT went from a big scary ride to an entry level coaster. I refused to ride it as a kid, fearing that "terrifying" first drop. My dad rode it once and said that it nearly rattled the fillings right out of his teeth, which scared me even more! Times sure do change. A friend just went to GA for the first time this summer and mentioned how they didn't have time to ride "the little one" near El Toro. Blasphemy! "You mean the classic one," I said. By the way, talk about assuming an unauthorized riding position (upper left):

I'm actually a little jealous about that! I have wanted to take a little trip up to La Ronde -- I'd like to ride Le Cobra for the sole reason that I never rode Shockwave at GA and it's essentially the same ride. There would be a little bit of satisfaction in being able to finally check that one off my list, but it's not THAT high of a priority for me to go out of my way.

In this order, I've ridden Shockwave at King's Dominion, Riddler's Revenge at Magic Mountain, and Mantis at Cedar Point. I liked Riddler's Revenge best, but it felt like it rattled your feet a lot. Mantis kind of made my legs ache, like the blood was pooling in my legs from the G's. It'll be nice to finally get to ride a stand-up at GA since I blew it the first time around wimping out on Shockwave!

I remember when Shockwave came out, very few people had really ridden a stand-up coaster let alone seen one. Times have changed a lot since then, and the concept of stand-up rides isn't nearly as uncommon as it once was. Now that the Green Lantern is being built, I've been wondering... who has been on a stand-up coaster? (For the record, I regrettably wimped out when Shockwave was at GA... so my first was Shockwave at King's Dominion.)

I was going to say the exact same thing, right down to the reasons. I'll choose seats according to their wheel positioning to smooth things out when necessary. On Batman, it's the front row or nothing since you can hardly see anywhere else. On Skull Mountain, I always sit in the very back just to get that great whip over the lift hill during the first drop -- without freedom of choice, I'd probably opt to skip those both.

Ring Racer is definitely kind of weird. It doesn't sound all that exciting to ride a coaster that speeds up to essentially do nothing... no top hat or anything too interesting. I thought there was a wooden coaster somewhere with a drop that was a little steeper too, beating El Toro by 1 degree (edit: T Express, built in 2008). I remember one of the Guinness editions from the 80s pointing out that coaster claims are often exaggerated by parks, so maybe that was the case with that coaster. GWR seems pretty diligent about fact checking, so maybe T Express wasn't as steep as advertised.

Has anyone seen the 2011 edition of Guinness World Records? I leafed through the book in the store the other day and saw Great Adventure listed twice -- once for Kingda Ka (I think as the tallest/fastest coaster open to the public), and once for El Toro (I think for having the steepest drop on a wooden coaster). I'm just paraphrasing the wording... it might have been a little differently worded. Everyone knows there are/were some recordbreakers in the park, but it's always cool to see it in print.

I don't think I agree -- Maverick at Cedar Point is a great example of a really well done western theme on a new coaster. Just my opinion, but I think it would be a little more interesting for Bizarro to have raced over water and through some kind of rocky canyon like that rather than sticking to the usual superhero theme. (That's all a bit off topic for the discussion at hand.) However, I would like to agree with the other guys and admit that I know only about 1 or 2 people that have any knowledge/interest of superheroes beyond the basics (Superman, Batman, and Spiderman). Now there's an idea for a superhero themed ride! Spiderman. You know that feeling you get when you walk through a spiderweb and you get totally skeeved out? They can recreate that feeling by having the train roll really slowly through an area full of spiderwebs. Getting a web across the face would make me scream more than any roller coaster ever would. It's not too late to paint the Green Lantern tracks to be Spiderman colors...

Darn, you guys are fast. I saw that article in the paper this morning and thought I was going to be the first to post it. Weird how there's no mention of it being a stand-up roller coaster. (Oops, I now see that several other people already noticed the same thing.) I wonder if they're trying to make that a surprise later, or if standups aren't all that uncommon these days like they were when Shockwave came out.

Ding ding! Got it -- the opening of the upper loop of Lightnin' Loops in 1978.

In a way, I'd be pretty surprised if GA particularly minded at all. Leaking photos ultimately just feeds the buzz of anticipation for the new attraction. Yes, I'm sure they would like to get a big bang out of their press release... but from a PR perspective, the extra boost in attention is exactly your goal when promoting something like this, no? Now, if someone took an after hours video of GA of something bad -- let's say they were using monkeys from the Safari as test riders for the new ride -- then I could understand the park being upset.