4/27/16

[Yoshi]

It was exactly 1 month since my last trip to the park and I thought a Wednesday in April would be a good day to go to the park with cool weather in the low 50s and most schools in session.

 

The lot wasn't that crowded and only a few buses were there when I got to the park around 1:30

 

First was Skull Mountain that was a 3 train wait for the last row.

 

Next was Nitro with all 3 trains running and an almost full station. I went to row 9 and walked around for another ride and went to row 8.

 

Sky Screamer had a 2 cycle wait and there is a bin for glasses and cell phones besides being able to put other items like backpacks in the center of the tower.

 

I went to check out Blackbeard's new paint and it looks really sharp. There was no wait and the ride rattles a little more now but not too bad and almost nothing compared to some other coasters like Hydra.

 

Superman was running 1 train and I heard it was an hour wait so I skipped it. Green Lantern also had a long line and even with 2 trains running it looked like the line wasn't moving fast so I also skipped that coaster.

 

Zumanjaro had gotten stuck with riders while I was walking towards the ride and decided to wait to see what happened. After the gondolas were slowly lifted to the top and then dropped, the riders were let out of the exit and they ran 2 empty test runs. While the test cycles were running Kingda Ka was able to run I guess because the Zumanjaro gondolas had no riders.

 

After the 2 empty test runs they allowed us to ride. I was able to ride 2 more times with no wait after that and when I headed to the other side of the park and looked at the ride around 10 minutes later it was stuck with riders again. I skipped Kingda Ka because there were 3 or 4 switchbacks full. With Zumanjaro running that is probably an hour wait, with the Zumanjaro breakdowns and Kingda Ka not able to run during the entire breakdowns of Zumanjaro it was probably even longer.

 

Runway Mine Train had a long line with 1 train running so it too was skipped and I went to Bizarro with a station wait with 2 trains running. I hope they keep 2 trains running all season rather than add the 3rd train since the 3rd train never really seemed to make a difference with double stacking almost always happening.

 

El Toro was about 20 minutes for a middle row. It was great as always.

 

Sky Screamer had a 1 cycle wait so I went there for another ride, rode Skull Mountain with no wait and went back to Nitro again with a station wait as well as Batman also with a station wait.

 

The Dark Knight wasn't running the pre-show so I was able to walk right into the loading area waiting just over 5 minutes.

 

After getting dinner I went back to Superman and waited around 20 minutes.

 

It was another great trip to the park and anytime I can get multiple rides on Nitro is always good.

 

A nice place to relax

 

New snack bar near Sky Screamer

 

There was work being done at Congo Rapids.

 

Jolly Roger was testing. There were 5 or 6 employees in the queue line and ride booth watching.

 

This view looks a lot different compared to last year.

[pashacar]

Nice report. Weird to see one-train operation on multiple coasters -- obviously common at most SF parks but generally not GAdv's style.

 

What was the TDK procedure? No attendant at all until the station? Have never seen that, so curious how they handle the queue and Flash Pass merge.

[Yoshi]

Thanks

 

At TDK, the regular queue was closed and everyone entered the Flash Pass line and walked through the empty pre show room (the doors were open the entire time so there was no waiting to get into the room) and into the loading area where the ride operators were. If there had been a longer line, they might have had to come up with a different method for Flash Pass users, maybe they would enter through the exit?

 

I agree that it isn't normal for 1 train operations at Great Adventure. I am thinking it might have been lack of employees or new employees still getting used to the ride operations. Nitro was running 3 trains and I feel like if they were purposely running less trains because of crowd levels, Nitro would have only been running 2 trains