Great Adventurer

From all accounts it looks like Iron Menace enjoyed a wonderful media day/soft opening. Look at those awesome ride ops uniforms!

^ These are very good points. Being fairly local to the park, those lengthened seasons have been excellent to me, and they do seem to have put in a lot of work on Toro (which has been extremely smooth as of late) and Ka (always very costly in general, and operating spectacularly with little down time) this year.

I saw the same supervisor rotating between several different rides during my last visit, so hopefully it's just a matter of getting the new ride ops up to speed (no pun intended there). I'd really like to have multiple trains back on all the coasters soon and it's nice to hear that Nitro has two of them now. One train on a 3+ minute ride made for quite the wait, even when it was just from the stairs to the station.

The theming on this one could get really interesting!

His enthusiasm is infectious, it's immediately clear that he absolutely loves what he does. He's a perfect fit for the industry and I'd love to have someone like him running the show at GA.

There was just enough of a gap in the clouds in my area for the eclipse to be visible at its peak. Got a really nice minute and a half or so of ~90% coverage before the clouds rolled back in and obscured the view again. Six Flags Fiesta Texas certainly had a good time with it!

Awesome photos Phil - it's always great getting these updates from your unique aerial perspective! Really glad to see your site online again!

Hopefully everybody who was on an attraction at the park during the earthquake is okay. Probably caused quite a stir among some of the safari animals too.

Just before the April showers made their way to New Jersey, I was fortunate enough to have a chance to make my second Great Adventure visit of the season. Quite a few coasters were still running with a single train, but the two that weren't (namely Kingda Ka and Jersey Devil) operated with tremendous efficiency. There were countless instances of Ka and Zumanjaro reaching their peaks simultaneously, generating a lot of extra excitement for both riders and onlookers. Despite not being scheduled to open until Memorial Day weekend, Superman was running. A wonderful new addition greeted guests as they made their way to the fountain! It looks like the original attractions from 1974 will be getting commemorative tarps for their 50th anniversaries. The Glamping areas are beginning to take shape. It's difficult to see through the trees, but some Log Flume supports are awaiting the return of their track. Hopefully this week's rain won't sink Runaway Mine Train's footers any farther into the ground. Coordinated operations from Kingda Ka and Zumanjaro are always an amazing sight, even when the skies are bleak. The Congo Rapids sign, which was still up on Opening Day, has been removed. Track pieces for The Flash are being stored near the lift hill of Nitro. More construction vehicles have begun to make their way in to work on Great Adventure's newest attraction. Engravings have started to appear on Dream Street. A very special brick.

The way the forecast is looking, the only Spring Break day the park may get is Friday. It really is a shame that daily operations couldn't commence properly this week.

That 60th anniversary sign is fantastic! Looks like construction is coming along very nicely for Penguin Trek.

The train and track theming both look really cool - the aesthetic will make quite a statement as guests enter the park. I wonder how those airtime elements will feel with OTSRs.

I was surprised to see how gigantic they made the preferred lot. If it makes you feel any better, getting into the parking lots the previous day with no security might have been even worse - several of the Speedy Parking lanes were being held up by people who didn't their license plate numbers on file, and there wasn't much forewarning about the pre-registration requirements on the initial approach. The system itself did work well, but definitely could have used a little more clarity regarding who was eligible to use the lanes. It felt like the re-ride bracelets did hold things up quite a bit, especially combined with the flash pass users and single train operations. Zumanjaro wasn't immune to that effect either - ops didn't pre-load the lanes with riders ahead of time since there wasn't much in the way of indication for how many people would be going a second time. 2X rides was certainly a cool concept, but it was also pretty difficult to execute.

A selection of photos from earlier today, March 16th. 50 years of fun. Main Street Market now has automatic doors. Some footers and a bit of foundation are in place for The Flash. Signage for Roaring Rapids. Frontier Adventures was closed... Because the Log Flume is getting some well deserved care. Among other things, 50th anniversary logos line the tent windows on Dream Street. The Paintball Building is no more! The cable cars are presumably getting some off-site attention... As are the Giant Wheel cabins. Hey! Did you guys pay for your admission? The Parachute Tower still stands. A variety of Great Adventure logos now adorn the arches previously used for the Polar Point lights. The Carousel repaint looks outstanding. Good night park.

It's definitely sad to have a map without the iconic parachutes - I wonder if that tower has anything to do with Superman and Green Lantern not opening until Memorial Day weekend. Seeing Dream Street marked on the map again certainly is nice. Quite a relief to see the Skyway as well. They really chose an excellent location for The Flash.