Today was my first visit to SFGAdv since May of 2005 and a massive improvement from my SFA trip just a couple days ago. It wasn’t the best weather to go in, steady rain and a high of the mid 60s, but I knew exactly what that would bring… NO LINES. It brought exactly that, so I thought it was a good trade for bad weather and no lines. I was amazed that the park opened with almost everything operating. Every (big) ride operated except for Toro (broken), Kingda Ka (understandably not operating), and Batman (supposedly, so they say, it was leaking grease somewhere). EVERYTHING else was a walk-on so I was able to ride basically everything. I noticed that it was a LOT cleaner, as well as many more security guards roaming around. It was an AWESOME day. Sadly, they ended up closing at 3, so we decided to go back tomorrow until about 6 or 7 when, hopefully, KK and ET will be open. I’ll post an update tomorrow night if possible, or the day after tomorrow.

El Toro: not operating

Kingda Ka: not operating. From my 2005 ride, it was awesome, the only bad thing being the OTSRs. 9.9/10

Great American Scream Machine: it was ok, even the front seat doesn’t accommodate tall people very well. The design was pretty good, but it was fairly rough. 6/10

Batman: The Ride: not operating. From my 2005 ride (and the other Batman clone at SFOG), it’s a great, very fast paced coaster. It’s too short (length wise) though, but other than that, it’s a great ride. 7/10

Nitro: completely awesome. Great airtime, great design, awesome trains, an all around awesome ride. 9.8/10

Medusa: a great ride, very well placed elements, pretty good length, and very smooth. 9.7/10

Chiller: not operating

Superman: Ultimate Flight: I still definitely prefer this over the Vekoma flyers. I love the pretzel loop, a great ride in all. It does a great job of imitating flying. 9/10

SkullMountain: it was ok, a pretty good family coaster, not something I would wait much more than fifteen minutes for though. 4/10

Rolling Thunder: not operating

Twister: not a very good Top Spin… 3/10

Here’s how I rate a park:
Quality of rides (up to 8 points): 8
Overall Staff (up to 1 point): 1
Park Operations (usual reliably, cleanliness, efficiency of staff, etc – up to 1 point): .5
Score: 9.5/10

Here’s how I rate an independent visit:
Number of rides running efficiently (up to 4 points): 3
Cleanliness (up to .75 point): .75
Staff (up to .25 point): .25
Score: 4/5

-Note- Quality of rides is gauged by actual ride quality, amount or quality of scenery/theming or other interactive elements do nothing for this grade.


I love SFGAdv, it’s only flaw is they have a hard time keeping all of their rides open. Chiller, Batman, and El Toro would’ve all not operated today, even if the weather was better. They have improved a lot in the areas other than rides since my last visit in 2005. Their employee quality has really improved, and the park is significantly cleaner. Their rides are awesome, the only park that I’ve been to IMO that I enjoy just about as much as CP. I just hope Shapiro’s “all family, no thrills” plan doesn’t ruin this awesome park.

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^I definitely agreeing with you about the problem with keeping their ride up and running. For my past 3 visits to the park since 2005, I haven't been able to catch a ride on Kingda Ka! My past two visit I haven't been able to catch a ride on El Toro. Hopefully you'll be able to ride all the rides tomorrow, and from what you've said on aim it seems like it'll be a great day for rollercoastin'.

Thanks, I really hope Toro's back tomorrow, I've really been looking forward to it. It was an AWESOME day, easily one of the best park days this year.

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I think it is sad that so many rides were down. I would visit SFGAdv again, but the rides I would want to ride would most likely be closed, so why bother?

How does that make sense? There were 5 rollercoasters not operating, two of them having two tracks which meant 7 individual tracks were not operating. While they all have their own reasons, rain being a good one, a 4/4 rating is pretty ridiculous.

Its too bad you missed out on El Toro, its easily the best coaster in the park.

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2007 Gadv Count: Kingda Ka-6, El Toro-6, Nitro-4, Medusa-2, S:UF-2, R:TC-1, B:TC-, GASM-0, Skull Mt-0, B:TR-0, RMT-0, RT-0

Looking at it again... you're right, I'll change it to 3 , I'll be a little lenient since it was bad weather.

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I just don't understand your point system at all. All of the coasters were open and operating at SFA, including Skull Mountain on Saturday but you flat out gave them a bad review. But, SFGadv had a number of rides down and you give the park a good review? I don't understand why people use point systems.

This is a SFGAdv review not a SFA review, enough said. If you want to talk about anything, don't bring in the other thread and start complaining to him about his opinion.

And I went on Sunday, wow, everything was open, except for Chiller, what happened? Kingda Ka was even open the whole day after it opened at 11. Someone did throw up on El Toro, and supposedly, it got all over the hydraulic motors? The ride op said it.. That could have caused a problem I'm assuming. Hopefully it's open tomorrow for you, and will stay open because that's definitely one of the best, if not the best ride there.

Edit: I also see Rolling Thunder wasn't open, that seems to get stuck A LOT.

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I'm questioning the rationale behind his point system? Doesn't seem to be consistent from one park to the next. Seems if your going to have a point system you should be consistent.

If you want, I can go line by line and explain why I don't share most of his opinions about Great Adventures coasters.

He gave SFA a 1 out of 4 points for rides running efficiently (his words not mine). Yet, gave points to SFGadv for having rides that were closed. Closed rides don't sound to efficient to me. Whether someone spewed, the ride was stuck or whatever the reason might be.

My opinion....

You also have to bold efficiently, if it takes a minute to load Nitro at SFGAdv and if it takes 5 minutes to load a similiar ride, S:RoS for him, then SFGAdv would be much more efficient.

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Okay, a running Superman is operating more efficiently than say a closed El Toro or a one train operating Batwing is operating more efficiently than a closed a Batman.

I could go on a long discussion and rage about point systems, if you want, but that would be off topic.

Why don't you just stop whining, or go do it on another site because, if you haven't noticed, nobody cares. Maybe you might think that one park is great and the other one isn't, it's all a matter of opinion.

If nobody cares, then why are people reading trip reports? All I'm saying is, if your going to mark one park down for being inefficient then then other park needs to be marked down as well. Whether the park is SF or CF. Do you guys suddenly have a problem with debating opinion?

^Nope, I always love a good debate.

It's very rare to see Batman the Ride closed but it was raining so it's understandable with the grease hanging off the chain, if they say so.

Have a great 2nd day bud at SFGADV. Get on the Space Shuttle.

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