PTR: Sept. 27, 2020 - Hallowfest & Safari

[nbadude44]

Hi everyone! This is my first visit to the park since 2019, and boy, how things have changed! 

 

My mother and I went to the Safari Drive-Thru (which I never thought would be a thing again after 2012) at noon and were done in about 45 minutes. It was nice to see all the animals again (including the monkeys) right before they go back in to hibernation after this weekend.

 

Our reservation for the park was at 2PM sharp and we had no problem getting in. The entrance was swift and efficient and the employees did a good job of enforcing the masks on all the guests. I can't the same for social distancing on all the queues, however. As much as we tried to space ourselves away from the people ahead & behind us on all the rides we went on, I still felt sandwiched by guests who didn't seem to care at all. 

 

Anyway, the two of us went on Nitro then Batman, and even though they were walk-ons with no lines, the staff didn't let us re-ride like usual (for  admittedly obvious reasons). Also, I could see pieces of Jersey Devil and every piece of Road Runner Railway laid out, which leaves me to believe that they'll rebuild it somewhere else eventually. Next, we went to Mama Flora's under the impression that we had to use our Dining Pass lunches by 3PM like normally, but the man behind the counter said we can use them any time of the day (up to an hour before the park closes) to my surprise. We went on the Big Wheel next, basically so we could digest our lunches properly.

 

Next was Superman, which had a sizeable line since the guests weren't using the entire queue at first, but it got much worse by the time we got off, so we lucked out. After that, my mother went to rest in the car and ended up staying there for the rest of the day. Good thing she did, since the crowds got worse as the sun went down, like they always do in Autumn. I was only able to ride Bizarro (twice), Kingda Ka (albeit with technical difficulties that occurred only two trains ahead of me) and El Toro, which had a 30-minute wait on the express line even though I had a skip-the-line pass. I redeemed my free ticket for a walk-through maze, but never ended up using it because it got too late at night between Ka breaking down & the long El Toro line. I did buy the Nanocoaster of El Toro before I left, and saw that they already had plenty of Jersey Devil merch, including shirts with the monster on it (which looks like Darth Maul).

 

Ride count: Bizarro 2x

El Toro 1x

Kingda Ka 1x

Nitro 1x

Superman 1x

Batman 1x

Big Wheel 1x

 

The entire album of photos (over 100 pics) can be found here: 

https://imgur.com/a/69QX9Zh

 

Here are some highlights:

[29yrswithaGApass]

Thanks for the trip report and photos!

 

The animals will have to wait before hibernating - the last weekend for the Safari is after Thanksgiving.  So far it will be open Fri/Sat/Sun in October (and Columbus Day).