The Master

Some good news for the Skyride, I saw it test running yesterday. Hopefully that means it will reopen soon. 

With cashless payment, companies, financial institutions, and even the government and law enforcement can collect more data and personal infomation about customers which is not an entirely good thing.

2 hours ago, Tower said:

 

Seems like I forgot to take into account the cost to operate the Safari, thanks for informing me of it. But ultimately I agree with everything you're saying. HersheyPark has been on the come-up for awhile and coasters aside it's one of the best theme parks in the country. Having not owned a season pass for any park for awhile, I may just invest in a pass for that park instead, until GAdv feels more like an actual themepark again and not a dump.

I haven't bought a SP for Hershey for a couple of years because their operations have really declined. Many SBNO rides, poor food service, reduced ride capacity, slow dispatches, long lines for even low tier flat rides, overcrowded restrooms, and a woefully undersized waterpark. 

On 6/8/2023 at 5:46 PM, 29yrswithaGApass said:

I don't think I ever noticed this before.  Why is this Skyride worker having a hard time stopping this car?  Maybe because there are six adult riders!  (Photo from 1977)

 

More mass means more momentum to overcome.

3 hours ago, BillyG said:

OK, never heard of that name for such a structure - thought maybe it was one of those auto correct errors

The ramada that used to be at Houdini looked similar to this one. Most are usually flat but some are peaked like Houdini's. All are open roofs, basically exposed rafters that are not decked and shingled. 

This year the park changed the ramada to a solid roof with shingles for the VIP conversion. Overall its a strange change. 

14 hours ago, BillyG said:

The ramada?

Houdini's queue used to have a ramada, a sun shade structure over it's rarely used overflow queue. This year the park has converted that ramada to a solid roof structure and turned the former overflow queue into a VIP garden lounge along with rerouting Houdini's queue.  

The Houdini fountain is still in place and is running water, just the walkway has been rerouted away from it and a hedge blocks guest access to it. This is why I am thinking the Houdini walkway rerouting away from its fountain and the Batman fountain removal are connected. Since they are keeping the Houdini fountain I don't its a cost cutting move but maybe a safety move to prevent drownings? Both are/were located in more secluded spots of the park. Either way its still sad to see decorative features like fountains be removed or walkways rerouted in more boring paths.

The smoke really kept crowds low today at the park. Many of the school trips were cancelled which caused the low attendance today.

Moreover, I saw they are doing strange changes to Houdini's queue. They have converted the old overflow queue under the ramada into a VIP lounge and took ouf the old pathway by the fountain which is still operating. Between that and removing the fountain in Batman's queue, I wonder if this is some new safety move? 

Riding the Wildwood tram cars is fun. 

On 5/27/2023 at 9:26 PM, Daved Thomson said:

This company, or its leader, has the strangest definition of what constitutes a "premium experience."  In fact, I think he may be the only person using such a definition to sell tickets.  He doesn't seem to understand that you NEVER want to over promise while under delivering.  The word of mouth opinion of people who purchase tickets/passes expecting a premium experience and receiving just the opposite when they visit, will destroy the company.

Its classic doublespeak. 

Sadly I am not surprised by this move. I am kind of surprised they didn't announced thevskyride is closed for good along with the parachutes, but it may be coming. Hate to say it but this has been a poor year so far. 

Besides the skyride seemingly to remain closed for awhile, the park has several other issues going on. Nitro is frequently breaking down and line cutting is getting bad. Last trip I had 3 incidences of line cutting at Nitro, Skyscreamer, and Kingda Ka. In Kingda Ka's case, people were line cutting by pushing people in front of them out of the way in the station in front of employees who did nothing about it.

Sadly marijuana use is becoming increasingly common in the parking lot, although this problem is partly NJ's fault. Still its upsetting to see a pot tailgate party in the parking lot. Two trips ago saw a group of people in a large pickup bed and in a hatchback parked next to it getting high. The truck may not have even been their's. 

I would not be surprised if the skyride is quietly being mothballed.  

The sign in front of the skyride has been changed. The new sign says nothing about the skyride opening Memorial weekend now. 

Last couple of years HH has dangerously overinflated their single person inner tubes for their water slides. They are so overinflated that they drag on the sides of the slides causing sudden violent spins and stoppages in the slides which is quite dangerous. Why would any park overinflate their tubes to such an insane level? Even more bizarre is that the park infllates its lazy river tubes to a normal level. At any rate, be very careful on HH's single person tube slides and try to get lessor inflated tubes to reduce drag. Overinflated tubes can be just as bad as underinfllated tubes. 

10 hours ago, BillyG said:

The point is, this store is carrying things people need (or at least want) WHILE already at the park.  Thus, they are not taking time away from doing things at the park any more than they normally would, in fact if this allows for faster purchases it may even give them more time to enjoy the rest of the park (and maybe spend elsewhere).

I was referring to the build a bear workshop. I don't know if build a bear is faster with plush toy purchasing than regular toy stores or park gift shops as I never been in one. I assumed it would be slower as customers must choose parts and assemble their plush toy for purchase as opposed to just buying a preassembled plush toy off the shelf. Its similar to going to a theme park just to play video games in a arcade which again can be done at most malls for cheaper.

5 hours ago, Yoshi said:

Anytime I walk past the ones in Busch Gardens Tampa and SeaWorld Orlando, there are usually no customers.

 

Maybe they will have Looney Tunes characters like the SEAS parks have Sesame Street characters.

Why pay parking and admission fees for something you can do at a mall? Especially eince it takes time away from rides, the main point to be at a amusment park instead of someplace else like a mall. 

GADV has removed the fountain from the city park section of the queue. The park loves deleting theming from this coaster.

The park is also adding a Build a Bear workshop near the park exit which is weird. 

Eww, bugman tech. 

12 hours ago, ericthewanderer said:

My first time at Great Adv. was in Sept. 1999,when Houdini was new.IIRC Marjorie was always part of it.the props were always in the main ride area,and there was nothing I remember about Houdini sounding scary or evil.

Here is a picture from 1999 showing the main ride room lacking the table with the cystal ball on the exit side of the platform. 

The ride always did have the gargoyes over the doorways, but the posters and furniture behind the pews are not original from 1999, they were added in 2000. In fact the one Houdini poster on a stand in the backcorner is not installed in this 1999 picture. 

9 hours ago, ericthewanderer said:

17 hours ago, 29yrswithaGApass said:

Your recollection of a lot of the details of the first version are better than mine. I do remember the layout being much simpler inside the cabin and Houdini on the ceiling behind the skylight. I think they opted for a show with many more props and special effects which did make it more interesting. The first edition was rather simplistic and less impressive.  
 

The first version was more simple and less sensical. Why would Houdini turn bad? However, I do miss the giant Houdini image appearing in the skylight and the old time music for the preshow film. The skylight image of Houdini was the same as the fireplace image that is still in the preshow. There are probably mors details I am not remembering.

12 hours ago, jollyroger said:

Don't know if the New England version had a different version originally or not, but that one has narration, but he sounds evil on that one, the Great Adventure one is much better and makes more sense than the New England one. Like Houdini is not a bad guy. 

It's interesting to know it was different its first year. 

I have not been to SFNE but it sounds like their version is similar to the early version at GADV's.  

For its first season of operation, Houdini had a different theme than it currently does. Its was changed to its current them in the attraction's second season. I wonder why it was changed? The first theme was still about Houdini but darker and more sinister. Perhaps his estate complained about it? 

The early version lacked Margery in the preshow, instead it played old time piano music thst was in sync with the actions of the characters in the preshow film. After the film breaks, all the spooky gags started up after the film breaks as in the curent version. 

The main ride room back then lacked the prop furniture  behind the pews by the windows, the Houdini posters, and the table stand with the ball containing Houdini's head. There was also no narration from Houdini during the ride. However, a giant image of Houdini, the same one that appears over the preshow fireplace would appear in the skylight over the riders. It would then change into a negative image of Houdini with glowing green eyes and gave out a sinister laugh. When the ride ended as you exited you could hear Houdini faintly yell no, noo. 

4 hours ago, Daved Thomson said:

I also found it funny how some of the commentary about those with small children seemed to think that those children might now be "scared for life" after having seen such an atrocity.  Really?  Perhaps it was the wailing and over reaction by others that would be more likely to leave such scars.

People these days seem so wimpy about these kind of incidents. Its just a machine that burned down. 

Nitro was closed down again today, 04,23,23.