I took a trip down to Seaside for the first time since the September 12th fire that destroyed the southern end of the Seaside Park boardwalk. It was reported that the fire started underneath the boardwalk and was due to faulty wiring. the fire spread quickly northward and onto the former Funtown Pier location and only stopped after a pair of firebreaks were made in the boardwalk. The area affected received somewhat minimal damage, save for Funtown Pier, during superstorm Sandy but was basically wiped out during the fire. The only two structures that survived at the southern end were Funtown Park Arcade and Sawmill Cafe.
I decided to head down to Six Flags Great Adventure on Friday, the 27th. I got to the park at around 6pm (5:30pm opening) and was greeted to a modest amount of cars in the parking lot. I made my way through the security gate, having to open my jacket and have my glasses case looked in. I obviously looked like a common ne’er-do-well.
Once in the park, I made my way to El Toro, only to find the train stuck on the lift. I thought about heading to Kingda Ka to take advantage of the early lines, but started on my usual, clockwise trek around the park instead. First stop was Bizarro, which had a station wait. The flamethrowers were working today and if you look up while coming through the dive loop, it looks like they’re shooting at you! The trains were all stacking, which seems to be the norm nowadays. The ops seemed efficient enough; I think it’s the riders taking too long to do, well, everything!
… Trip Report: Six Flags Great Adventure (Fright Fest) – 9/27
I stopped over at the St. Bartholowmew’s Italian Festival in Scotch Plains, NJ on September 1…yes this report is a month old! Let me just say, I’ve been pretty good with trip reports this season, so I can fudge a bit now, right? Anyway, this is an annual, Labor Day weekend carnival put on by the church and local UNICO group and is in its 39th year now. In terms of rides, it’s a pretty modest event, but there’s quite a bit of other things to do (and eat!)
The area was dodging storms all evening and I eventually made the quick drive over after one storm had passed. Another storm was on its heels, so I had about an hour to check out the fair. The midway was done by Majestic Midways and the fair had:
I don’t know what happened this season but I took my first trip to Six Flags Great Adventure this season on September 5th. I had a 2013 season pass since last year. Literally! I got it at the end of last season and paid about the same as a single day admission at the gate for the pass itself (the parking pass is akin to three trips.) Basically, if I go to the park at least once more, I will have paid off the season pass. This is why I’m not upset at all about having a season pass and not going till now! Funny thing is, next season’s pass is going to be cheaper if I get the Gold Season Pass instead of Regular.
I arrived at the park at around 4:30pm. The park closed at 8pm so I had limited time to nab as many rides as possible. As I exited the car, I was greeted to the sight of Nitro’s train stuck on the lift. Guess I’m heading left once I enter the park! Being a Jewish holiday when many school are off, the park was moderately crowded. Not bad, but not great either. I got in line for Bizarro first. While walking to the entrance, I snapped a photo of the train coming out of the zero-g roll only to see that the train was empty. Uh-oh, that’s not good! Turns out that they had just put an extra train on the track…eh, no biggie. The wait ended up being about 20 minutes. Looks like they restored the last row this year; previously the back row had two seats with a box containing sound equipment in the middle. The track that played during the ride was barely audible amongst the roar of the train, and didn’t make any sense anyway, so it was taken out.
On Friday, August 30th, I decided to head over to the Queen City’s own fair, the Great Allentown Fair. I actually had no idea that Allentown had the nickname “Queen City” until I saw it on a sign heading into the area. Very interesting…yep.
I left at around 4:30pm and got into Allentown about an hour later. I navigated to my preferred parking place next to Wawa on Gordon and 15th, only to find that the once family owned lot was now run by the local health care institution. The charge was now $10 bucks instead of $5 despite being further away from a closer $10 lot (also owned by said health care company.) Let’s all give a nice round of applause for capitalism.
The midway was done by Powers Great American Midways and the fair had: