While wandering around Six Flags this past Friday I stopped dead in my tracks and exclaimed “hell, I still didn’t write that last Six Flags trip report that I PROMISED!” A few people stared in my direction, but I didn’t care; they didn’t know the gravity of the situation! I had slacked off on my site duties! The following is a trip report from a few weeks ago with the more recent one (and subsequent last trip) coming by next week.
Fright Fest: Six Flags Great Adventure – 10/9/09
After getting stuck in traffic and nearly battering another driver with the bat that I lovingly keep in the back seat on my previous trip to Great Adventure, I decided to leave earlier. I left for the shore house in Brick at 2:45pm and cruised down the Parkway, beating most of the rush. I arrived at the house at 4:00pm, dropped off my bag, and hung around for about an hour before heading off the park. The temperature out was about 70 degrees and I was fully expecting the park to be mobbed.
I arrived at Six Flags at about 5:30pm and, to my surprise, found that the lot was only 1/8th full (photo). I waltzed into the park, admired the nice blood fountain with skeletons surrounding it, and then speed walked to El Toro. If I was surprised to find the parking lot nice and empty, I was completely shocked to find a half empty station for Toro! Despite the lack of riders, I took only one spin; I had other rides to quickly hop on at my leisure.
I walked across the bridge to Bizarro to, once again, find a barren station with open slots just begging to be waited in; I hopped into the back car which only has two outer seats separated by a large steel box housing the audio devices or power or whatever is in there. The back seats are a little rough but nothing to really complain about; the upside is that it’s nice riding without a seat next to you!
After Bizarro I headed down through Frontier Adventures, which unfortunately wasn’t transformed into Bone Butcher Territory this Fright Fest. With only the Runaway Mine Train operating over there, the area was pretty desolate. I bypassed the coaster and ended up trekking over to the other side of the park. I hopped on Skull Mountain first which had basically no line. The inside was decked out with Halloween stuff as well as strobe lights at the end, triggering as the train hit the brakes for some reason.
Afterwards I headed for Nitro which sported a station wait. I chose to wait one train for the back seats and was accompanied by two other riders who decided to take the two middle seats after I took the outermost seat on the far side; come on, gimmie some space! The ride was running pretty nice tonight with lots of air over the hills.
Next I got into line for Batman: the Ride and was greet by a completely empty station (photo); oh boy! I scurried right for the front seat before anyone came barreling through the Flash Pass entrance. Again, two other riders got into the front line, but this time I got space! Now I’ve never been on Batman’s front row before, but I have to say, it’s pretty damn good! There’s a lot of G force in the front along with the obvious unobstructed view.
I walked over to Dark Knight, but balked when I saw that the pre-show doors had just closed. Instead I made my way to Fantasy Fling (photo), the park’s old Round Up. Not much to say, the ride was pretty standard but I hadn’t ridden a Round Up in a while so I wanted to have a spin. Next I walked through the Graveyard, a transformed portion of the Lakefront which isn’t used as anything in the regular season. A few ghouls stared at me and I made the mistake of saying “hey” to one of them who responded by following me through the entire scare zone without saying one word; scary no, awkward yes! I tried to get him to say something but no dice. I finally exited, where he continued to follow me for a short bit before abruptly turning to a pair of guests.
Next up was the Boardwalk, which was now ‘Psycho Circus’ complete with evil clowns strolling around. I headed toward Scream Machine but saw that Twister, the park’s Top Spin, had a small line, so I jumped on in. Twister had its cycle changed recently, something that was five years overdue. The new cycle flips the gondola some six times and then proceeds to do the ‘locking the gondola face down’ trick. The ride lasted less than a minute, but at least it’s a fun minute!
Now I was ready for Scream Machine, I walked through the abandoned queue, up the stairs and waited in line for a row…….it looked to be a 2 train wait, I guess I’ll pull out my camera and review some of the pictures that I…HOLY SHIT!! A LINE (photo)!!!!!!!!! I wondered if people started appreciating the old school looper or if the Apocalypse had finally come but then noticed that the next train was taking a while to come in. I then realized that they were only running one train, bah. The full train flew through the mild night air and to my surprise, the trim brake after the first loop didn’t seem to trigger. The result was the train plowing into the second two loops and rushing around the infamous ‘bonsai turn’ into the mid course brakes where the train proceeded to overshoot half of them before fully slowing down.
Next I went on Superman which had a short line; it’s an okay ride when there’s a short line. Finally I decided to head over to Kingda Ka, which had a small line as well. I waited about 10 minutes and then lo and behold, the ride broke down! People in line got the whole “you can stay in line but we don’t know when it’ll reopen” jazz and I decided to whip out my camera and film the ordeal. After about 10 minutes, then tested the two trains only to have the ride break down again before the second launch. At this point I just left line and decided to leave as it was nearing 10:30pm.
Other Photos
Video: Kingda Ka Breaks Down
Kingda Ka Breaks Down from The DoD3 on Vimeo.