Somethings missing...

Fall Family Fun Night is one of two season pass holder exclusive events held by Six Flags Great Adventure; the other being Coasters After Dark in spring. The obvious perk about these events is that the park crowds are dramatically reduced allowing coaster nerds like myself to ride over and over and over. This does backfire occasionally as past events have been canceled midway through due to not enough damn people showing up, typically happening if the weather turns for the worst.

This year the forecast was looking dismal but cleared up prior the the park opening. I arrived at about 6pm (the park opened at 5pm,) checkout out pieces of Green Lantern sitting in the parking lot and took in the sight of Great American Scream Machine NOT being there before speed walking to the entrance. Before anything, I walked down to where Scream Machine entrance was to see what they had done. The Scream Machine arch is still there along with the queue house, but everything else is gone. I thought about riding Superman as the line was abnormally short, but I wasn’t wearing pants with cargo pockets and feared that my wallet, camera and phone would come dribbling out while in that flying position.

I decided to walk over to El Toro, bypassing Kingda Ka for no particular reason. On the way I was treated to some dude with long hair arguing with a woman with two security guards/trash picker uppers standing around watching. The guy said something like “you always have to open your big mouth and ruin everything” before storming off. The women then turned to a guard and said “that’s my brother…he’s really into rides.” She continued to talk with the guard while the guy stopped, turned (with me basically standing between the others and himself) and yelled “you make me sick!” before storming off to El Toro. I tried not to die laughing at this flagrant display of coaster nerd rage.

El Toro had a one train wait and I waited maybe two minutes total. While waiting I noticed the raging coaster dude waiting for the back seat while excitedly spewing out El Toro facts to others waiting near him; he sure cheered up quickly. El Toro was fun as always with lots of air and a ridiculous amount of speed that doesn’t let up throughout the entire ride.

Next I headed to Bizarro to ride the only seven looping coaster in the park now that Scream Machine is gone. The area around the ride was practically a ghost town but they still made people enter the far end of the queue line instead of opening the queue further up like they normally do on low crowd days. The wait for Bizarro was literally nothing for most rows, however I noticed the front row had only three people waiting so I jumped in line for the front. It certainly is a different experience in the front with just track and nothing else around you. Bizarro also had the multicolored LEDs working on the shields at the bottom of the drop…a first it seems!

Afterwards I took the long walk to Skull Mountain, literally crossing the park and skipping Runaway Mine Train in the process, again for no particular reason. Skull Mountain had a nothing wait but my favorite seats had a line (those being the back ones of course.) Instead I rode in the second to last car. Skullie seemed to be going faster that night, possibly because the front cars were all filled with a big space in the middle. It was completely dark inside the ride save for a pumpkin prop that was awkwardly lit up with nothing around it. The ride also has strobes that flash while on the brake run for reasons unknown (maybe the drop is a better place for those?)

After Skullie I headed to Batman: The Ride expecting a total walk on. I was pretty much right, although the front row had a two or three train wait so I chose the second row which had absolutely no one waiting. As time goes on it seems that Batman is getting more and more forceful for some reason; the g-force while going the the loops and helix are really intense! After boarding I headed towards Dark Knight only to see the pre-show doors close. I didn’t want to wait so I just went to Nitro.

Nitro had a station wait and the last row had a couple of people waiting so I headed for the back. The two people in front of me boarded and of course took the two end seats, so I waited another train for my own end seat. When the next train came back, two kids stayed in the row while I boarded the end seat nearest to the air gates. Nitro wasn’t bad at all and had a lot of airtime going over the camel backs and especially in the bunny hops near the end.

I ran over to Dark Knight afterwards and got in the pre-show area prior to the doors closing. Despite the fact that basically everyone who was there that night has seen the pre-show (you know, being season pass night and all) we still had to endure the movie of Harvey Dent giving his ill-fated press conference (damn that Joker *shakes fist*…actually Joker is awesome!) I took two re-rides on Dark Knight without getting off since the pre-show hadn’t let out yet meaning that there was no one at all waiting in the station (ha!) I shut my eyes for the entire second ride in some type of attempt to heighten the thrill.

I was hungry by this point so I got a plate of fries from Johnny Rockets and devoured them while walking across the park to El Toro. Once I got over there, I decided to ride Rolling Thunder first which was only running the right track and had no wait. Rolling Thunder seemed to be running faster than normal that night and as a result I was COMPLETELY BEATEN TO A PULP. The first set of hills were rough as hell, the first turn totally killed as it tossed me to the left side of the seat like a hapless ragdoll; the ensuing bunny hops felt like series of boots kicking me in the ass several times a second, and the final octoganal-esque turn was like being tossed into a paint shaker. I exited the car a pile of mush.

Quickly regaining my composure I headed to El Toro. The line had now swelled to a station wait which was still nothing and I ended up riding near the back somewhere. Like Rolling Thunder, Toro seemed to be running swiftly as well, minus the riding a go-kart down a cobblestone street feel. Finally I ended the night by taking a spin on Kingda Ka which had a station wait. I mulled over waiting for a front seat, but decided to just wait two cycles for a second car seat. Good thing I did too! Upon returning to the station, the train stopped a few feet short of lining up with the gates and the ride broke down. We waited a couple of minutes before being let out of the train however the people in line were S.O.L.

I left at around 9pm; all in all it was a pretty good visit with like no lines!

Video: Vortex (Fabbri)

Vortex is a Fabbri manufactured ‘Junior Booster’ owned by Powers Great American Midway. The ride is one of the many spin offs of the largely successful Sky Scraper originally manufactured by Gravity Works. Much like their namesake, Sky Scraper is a very large ride standing at 160 feet. Due to its large size, the ride is mostly installed at amusement parks where the cost of moving such a beast is not applicable. Soon after, Fabbri jumped on board with their 128 foot portable version called Booster. The success of  Booster finally resulted in the design of Junior Booster, a more compact version that stands at roughly 98 feet.

Vortex Great Allentown Fair 2010 from The DoD3 on Vimeo.

2010 Lead Ticket Awards

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S0xEUdshCc

It’s that time of the year again! Amusement Today’s Golden Ticket Awards were held on the 11th to celebrate the best of the best in the theme park industry. Unfortunately these awards are voted upon by a panel of amusement park experts which is why Cedar Point has won best amusement park for the past thirteen years. However, Superman: Ride of Steel/Bizarro finally ended its three year reign of best steel coaster…although Millennium Force was voted #1 this year…l0lwut?

As an answer to the Golden Ticket Awards, TheDoD3 hosted the first ever Lead Ticket Awards in 2009 to find the worst in the amusement park industry. And unlike the Golden Tickets, you get to vote for your least favorites!

The voting form will be open until October 31st, 2010 and will officially close at 11:59:59:59:59PM. Have fun voting and check back in November for the results!

The Rules

  1. You may choose from any park or attraction in the world (ie. Ring°Racer has just won multiple categories.)
  2. Please only choose from currently operating parks/attractions.
  3. When typing in your choice, please use the full name of the park/attraction. For example, instead of typing “Great Adventure” please type “Six Flags Great Adventure;” or instead of “TTD” type “Top Thrill Dragster.”
  4. If choosing an attraction with a common name, please put the park name after it. For example, if you choose something like “Viper,” please write it as “Viper six flags magic mountain.”

May the worst park win!

It’s officially official now; Six Flags Great Adventure has announced that Green Lantern will be coming to the park in 2011. The Great Adventure website details Green Lantern as on of the tallest and fastest stand up coasters in the world, “standing 154 feet tall and reaching speeds of 63 mph.” The page also includes a No Limits video featuring a mock up of the coaster. Of course most of us already know the details and layout considering that we know about the Green Lantern’s interesting past life!

There is news with this announcement however; we now know that Chang will indeed be themed as Green Lantern as opposed to something not comic book related.

(go ahead, click him!)

You can stop that at around 15 ;). I really shouldn’t complain about the name because I wanted it to be named Shockwave as an homage to Great Adventure’s past stand up coaster! If that was the case, could you imagine how many people who haven’t been to GAdv in years would think that the new stand up was still the old Shockwave? Hell, some people might still think that, after all some park goers think that El Toro and Rolling Thunder are the same ride!

I’ll be posting updates on the construction of Green Lantern throughout the rest of the season and into the off season, so stay tuned!

The NJ State Fair, also known as the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show, is the Garden State’s official state fair. It lasts for one week towards the beginning of August (yeah, this trip report is kind of late) and features a horse show, 4H events, free shows and of course a carnival midway provided by Reithoffer Shows. The fair had…

  • Wild Claw (KMG Fireball)
  • Power Surge
  • Zipper
  • Super Himalaya
  • Yoyo
  • Sizzler
  • Orbiter
  • Tidal Wave (Chance Thunderbolt)
  • Fireball (Larson)
  • Big Wheel
  • Tornado (Wisdom)
  • Avalanche (a Moby Dick type ride)
  • Pharaoh’s Fury
  • Starship 2000 (2x)
  • Bumper Cars
  • Super Slide
  • Haunted Mansion
  • A bunch of fun houses

A few things were missing from last year, most notably the Sky Flyer which was too bad since it was pretty good ride. Also missing were Storm, Slingshot (a shot/drop tower) and Tilt-a-Whirl. No biggie I guess, there still were a bunch of decent rides and the fact that wristbands were like $25 kind of made up for it.

The first ride we (two of my cousins and I to be exact) rode was Avalanche. It’s pretty much an older model Moby Dick type ride. One thing I never liked about these types of rides is that they all use shoulder harnesses…and not comfortable ones either! These types of rides could surely get away with a lapbar, couldn’t they? The ride we got was ridiculously long in both directions. Those paying with tickets actually got a pretty damn good cycle!

Next up was Haunted Mansion, which by all accounts is pretty much just a haunted pair of trailers. It was pretty average by carnival standards with a handful of props, some buzzers, and lots of darkness (save for the few cracks of light coming between the seams.) This is totally a wristband ride.

Afterwards it was time for a spin on Yoyo, the Chance swing ride. I have to hand it to Reithoffer, this ride looked GREAT with all LED lights and a clean paint job. If all Yoyo rides looked like this one, it wouldn’t be a WTCR! The cycle was a bit short, but whatever, we had wristbands. Zipper was our next stop which now had the required four riders it needed to run. My cousin and I attempted to flip the car while others were loading but it just didn’t want to flip; the cycle itself provided a dozen or so flips however.

Our final ride before grabbing something to eat and checking out the farm stuff was Power Surge, which for the second year now did not have the added rotation of the support arm; the resulting ride was pretty sub-par. I hate to say it but it’s not nearly as good without the extra rotation of the support arm.

As for food, I grabbed two slices of pepporonni pizza for $5 bucks a slice. Interestingly enough, the cheese slices were also $5 per slice…hmm. While away from the rides we checked out a few shows, including the Pig Races and  Kountry K9 dog show headed by this dude that sort of looks like a mustache clad Carl Pavano in 15 years. We also took a walk through the vast concession areas and club sponsored spaces. Some sponsored spaces of note were the NRA, Pro NJ Hunting, Tea Party Crazies, and the Creationist Ark complete with dinosaurs; yep…we’re in the boondocks of NJ all right.

We also stopped by at the art exhibit and made fun of the scribbled drawing that won 1st place. I mean, it was part of  the 5 year old entries, but still…the macaroni and glue art should have won!  The photography entries that had the time stamp visible on the photo were also smirk inducing. Of course we checked out the animals as well. The fairgrounds had rows of stables containing cows, pigs, goats and other barnyard animals. They also had a section with rabbits and guinea pigs; one rabbit was bigger than my chihuahua I think.

Back to the rides; we hopped on Tidal Wave, a Chance Thunderbolt, first.  Every single Thunderbolt I’ve been on has been as bumpy as a really bumpy thing and this one didn’t deviate from the norm at all. I wonder if it has anything to do with the center mount configuration and how the track is right near the center as opposed to farther out, near the cars (like on Reverchon Matterhorns and Bertazzon Rock n’ Rolls.) Super Himalaya was the next stop and in contrast to Tidal Wave, this ride was very smooth and pretty damn fast as well! I think we rode the wheel next, which I think was their Gentle Giant wheel, as opposed to the Century Wheel they had last year (the one we got soaked on.)

Next we took a spin on Sizzler which went fairly fast compared to other Sizzler rides I’ve seen lately. The ride was also very long, probably around 4 minutes. Finally we hit up Avalanche again along with another wild flipping experience on Zippity doo dah. Before leaving I ran through the Cuckoo Haus funhouse. Some of the stunts weren’t working but the barrel at the end was so I propped my feet and hands on opposite sides and rode the barrel until horizontal. You’re probably not supposed to do that, but if I got hurt I wouldn’t be dumb enough to sue because…well, it was my own fault!

Before leaving I grabbed a milkshake, a really good one at that for like $5. We left at around closing, probably 11pm or so. All in all we got on a lot of rides and the crowds weren’t too bad for the Friday opening day.