The Master

In the meantime the park is a mess sad to say. 

Is there any news  for how long Medusa and the Safari are supposed to be closed? The last thing the park needs now is even more closed rides.

You can see one of the track support columns by the park entrance now.  

Operations have somehow declined since two weeks ago. Besides Skull Mt Big Wheel, Sky Ride, Mine Train, and GL still being closed, Medusa and Houdini were also closed today. The drop tower was broken down, test running empty and KK had issues besides declining back to single train operation. 

With so many rides closed the park should be running the remaining rides at extra capacity to make up the difference which of course they are not. Its more than just shorter off seasons as recent past Springs we did not see  such scaled back operations like this Spring. The issue is the CF merger, SF is operating rides at reduced capacity to slash budgets as well as to spur flash pass sales, both to help pay the merger costs. When news of the merger broke out I knew SF would cut corners as its common with corporate mergers, but this is worse than I feared. This may be further compounded that the park itself has bitten off more it can chew in a single season with being stretched thin by engaging in so many projects. 

Besides the reduced capacity, the park was not running any A/C despite being a very warm day. I had to leave the queue for TDK as it was hot, stuffy, and smelly from the sweaty guests inside. Even the shops and bathrooms were hot, again clearly cost cutting.

Hopefully they will increase capacity and improve operations soon but I would not be surprised if they hold off increasing ride capacity until Memorial Day. Regardless, for any out of staters who are reading this, the 2024 Spring season is not the time to visit GADV and I have doubts about the remaining 2024 season. The park is sadly a very poor value at this time with its terrible operations and artificially long, slow lines. The currant situation is like the opposite of the ole War on Lines, its currently a war on rides with half the park SBNO for over a month already with no signs of the situation improving anytime soon.   

Are there any reports of other SF parks having scaled down operations like GADV? It is a shame I have to type such an unfavorable review. At this point I don't plan on visiting the park for a long while, its just not worth the time. I was there for 4 hours and only got on 4 rides, two flats and two coasters near closing. 

How vulgar commercials and ads have become in recent years. 

On 4/18/2024 at 8:25 PM, Great Adventurer said:

From all accounts it looks like Iron Menace enjoyed a wonderful media day/soft opening.

 

Look at those awesome ride ops uniforms!

 

 

 

Unusual amount of theming for Dorney.

Much of the park's current operations are downright terrible so far this season. Many of the rides are either SBNO or operating under capacity causing artifically long lines. Only KK and Nitro were running dual trains. Breakdowns have been much more frequent this Spring too.  At least they did improve Nitro's operations since opening weekend as well running Houdini's Escape.

Screamscape reports that Dorney is removing the old speed slides from WWK. While not my favorites its still sad that they are being removed as they are the last of the original 1985 slides when the water park first opened. That pretty much leaves the old wavepool as the last oc the original 1985 attractions for WWK. The speed  slides are also the last of the wooden water slide towers in WWK. 

There was an aftershock at 6 but I didn't feel it.

Anyone here watch the eclipse t8day? I viewed it through a #14 shade lens in one of my welding helmets. 

Shame the weather is so crumy for Spring Break this week. Of course the weather is supposed to finally warm up and dry out next week.

So today the Battleship New Jersey is being moved from Camden to the Philly Navel Yards for drydock refurbishment. First time its been moved since 2001. 

The park tried the re ride bands once years ago during a coaster night event, it didn't work well then either. 

2 hours ago, Centraljerseycoasters said:

Park was not crowded at all from an employee's perspective. I worked Main Street Snacks and the only real issue through the day was the new registers.

The park wasn't crowded but that was negated by single train operations for the coasters. Nitro had a posted hour long line halfway to the forward switchbacks. Batman was completely down the stairs into the tunnel, DK had a solid line into the first pre show room, Medusa was down the stairs and ground queued. JD's line was into the first queue house. Surprisingly El Toro had the shortest line of the major coasters. The flats had short lines as they were not being operated at reduced capacity.  Several of the big coasters being closed also compounded  the problems but the worst issue was the single train operations along with extra slow dispatching.  Hopefully these issues will be ironed out in the upcoming weeks.  

I didn't know about those bracelets.

My first trip at the park this year and I wish I could say it was a good one but often is the case the park had issues with its seasonal opening.

First some good news, the paintball quonset hut has been removed which has greatly improved Dream Street. The parachute tower is still standing. Sadly there is a lot more bad news. First the parking lot is now a mess, they increased the size of preferried parking to a quarter of the the whole parking lot. They also rearranged the driveway lanes into a confussing mess, they even now have security guards stopping every car to direct them to the proper lanes. It looks like parking for the glamping is a section in the main parking lot.

Inside the park many rides are closed besides the ones undergoing refurbishment. Skull Mt, KK, and several flats were closed. To compund matters all the running coasters were only operating single trains causing unusually long lines for the level of park attendance.  Flash pass was already inmoperation, hopefully SF isn't following Disney's MO of running rides under capacity to spur upcharge fast pass sales. Batman broke down while I was sitting on the train in the station.

Sad to see the Parachute tower missing from the park map. The Flash's location will make a dynamic first impression entering the park. 

I don't like the sound of updated and newly designated parking areas. 

On 2/21/2024 at 3:54 PM, pashacar said:

 

What contractor? Looks from the booking experience like a homespun operation.

Maybe SF spun off a new separate company to operate the the glamping site? 

It crushed my thighs on the airtime hills. I think its worse for smaller riders where the restraints are further closed causing a greater pinching effect. 

Pretty overdue for better seats. 

8 hours ago, Great Adventurer said:

I was still terrified of roller coasters when Chiller was in operation, so I never got to ride it, but I do remember hearing that loud noise from the parking lot and wondering what it was from. As a kid, I thought it might have been a malfunction or something falling apart - perhaps that's what dissuaded me from trying the ride at the time!

 

I also vaguely recall those electrical/cackling sound effects (if I'm not mistaken, they were generated near the queue area of the ride), which can be heard in the last 30 seconds or so of this video:

 

 

Hard to believe Chiller has been gone for 17 years already.

I came upon this by accident, so there were at least two amusement parks along the Delaware river on the Jersey side, this and Burlington Island Park. It reminded me a lot of Dorney in the pictures too. Seems like parks like Riverview and Dorney were in similar niches but Dorney was able to evolve with the times while other small picnic parks faded away. 

Anyone remember the loud roar Chiller used to make when the train launched? 

Riverview Beach Park was a former amusement park on the shore of the Delaware River in Pennsville Township, NJ in Salam county. It lasted from the 1900s to 1967. NJ.com has a pretty good article about the park. https://www.nj.com/salem/2018/07/vintage_photos_of_one_of_njs_most_popular_amusemen.html

The posters should have stylized riders on the trains. They are neat but not $50 neat.