| 5-8-04 Six Flags Great Adventure lives - up to its name
No, not the Six Flags name, the Great Adventure name, because I really had a Great Adventure[/cornyness]
Warm sunny day, light breeze, moderate-heavy crowd
Time: 2-6
Arrived to find all coasters operating, sans Runaway Train.
Most flats were up as well, even Twister. Ones that I noticed not running were Space Shuttle and Chaos (big surprise there). The water rides weren't running either, obviously, and the Swings are still in rehab.
Updates: Upon ascending Nitro's lift hill, I noticed new seats for the Flying Wave covered in plastic. Some people were wondering what the roof structure was next to the batman stunt arena. They've added the "Climb the Ladder" game, where you have to step from rung to rung without flipping over. It really looks out of place, but whatever. New brickwork for the walls of the GASM station, looks nice. The arcade that you have/had to walk through to get around Jumpin Jack Flash has been redone; it mainly has games where you win tickets to trade in for crap, as opposed to just general arcade as in the past.
The Rides:
Nitro - 3 train op - 40-60 minute wait - crew was dispatching pretty fast, a large woman was trying to close her lapbar and it only clicked once. They told her she couldn't ride, they unlocked it, she took off her waistpack, and tried again, still only clicked once, but since the B&Ms have sensors, they couldn't send the train with a lapbar that loose, so she had to get off.
Batman: The Ride - 2 train op - 30 minute wait - crew was fair, running as great as usual
Batman: The Chiller - 30-45 minute wait, running GREAT, excellent hangtime in the top hat (note: both sides of chiller were running pretty much all day (read: the 4 hours I was there), and at times they were dispatching so that one train would enter their signature element while the other would be exiting theirs, it turned out to be a pretty cool effect, both visually, and while riding it.
GASM - 2 train op - walkon-15 minute wait - crew was pretty fast - running ok, not as good as it was earlier in the year
Rolling Thunder - 4 trains!!!!!!! - times varied a lot, sometimes walk on, sometimes 30+ minutes. They were actually racing, and the ride ops were great, especially Andre. The op from each side would get their train to scream the loudest for who would win. As you're on the lift, the ops would talk to you, as per the speakers on the lift, and ask which side was gonna win, followed by more screams and cheers. Really a lot of fun. Racing isn't amazing, as the trains aren't always interacting/ next to each other, but still adds to the ride.
Parachutes: 4 chute op - 10-15 minute wait - my first ride ever on these was an uneventful one, nice view though
Conclusion: I'm LOVING the general park improvements that have been made so far, can't wait to see more. Keep going down this path SF, you're almost there.
Quick question: Upon ascending the Rolling Thunder lift hill, left track, I noticed a really old blue support on the ground amongst some trees. Anyone know what this used to be for?  | 
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