Photo TR: Yankee at Six Flags Great Adventure

Firstly, I'd like to state that I conqured Kingda Ka and all I got for it was a youth XL size T-Shirt. I bought the wrong size t-shirt and realized it when it didn't fit me when I tried it on at my grandparents house.

 

Now onto the TR,

 

Yesterday I drove over to Six Flags Great Adventure since I was visiting my grandparents for the weekend, so this gave me a great chance to get back to the park and finally ride Kingda Ka before the summer ended. I was successful in riding it and it was amazing.

 

I start the day out pretty early, i left the house around 7:30am and got to the park 8:30am so I was one of the first few people to get through the turnstiles so I had no problem in getting a Gold Q-Bot. Which I did purchase one because the queue for Kingda Ka all day was about 2 1/2hrs wait. While waiting at the turnstiles, I actually ran into someone who lived two towns away from me, so we hung out for a bit, we both got Q-Bots and we rode on the 4th train of the day on Kingda Ka. Front row of course.

 

Kingda Ka is amazing in the front end, when our train departed the station to the transfer track/launch track, I was a bit nervous since I've never experienced a coaster that went over 100mph. When it was our turn to launch, we rolled up and the cable sled hooked onto us, we rolled back and heard the horn and we launched. Now I did hold on since it isn't wise to have your hands up when you initally launch. The train got up to speed in three stages. It wasn't a constant increase of speed, it would gain up to one speed and hold it for a split second, then go faster and do the same thing, and then it do it for the final time where you're going 128mph right up the hill. When going over the top hat you go pretty fast and then you decend down the 270degree spiral and over the airtime hill.

 

Now as you heard me mention I did enjoy this but I did have some negative thoughts about it.

- Last row: It isn't fun since you're constantly shaking side to side.

- I didn't really feel any airtime on the top hat, nor on the "airtime hill"

- It broke down about four times while I was there.

 

The first break down did push my Q-Bot time at least 30 minutes, but I didn't mind since I found someone to hang out with and we chilled out till we both left. The second break down happend right after the train I was on launched, when we pass through the end of the brake run we came to a crawl which meant the brake fins didn't retract, which means...ride broke down. So we waited in the train about 10 or so minutes to get us back into the station so we could get out. The last two breakdowns occured almost back to back while Russ (person I was hanging out with) and I were waiting for the front row (which took about 2 1/2hrs). During that time we talked with some people behind us and we joked around and made fun of this kid who was obnoxious and running his mouth. We were hoping he'd get ejected from the train...sadly that didn't happen. (yes, I can get that evil)

 

Of course I did other rides while in the park, but not really. The only other rides I hit was Superman, Skull Mountain, and Rolling Thunder. Between those rides I was either recovering from my headache, eating, or waiting for Kingda Ka which I rode 4 times that day.

 

Now onto the photos!

GOATS!!!....what? Goats are sexy....At least I think so.

oops, forgot to add this ealier in the photos. My Onride photo of Kingda Ka. Sorry for the poor quality, my scanner sucks...Now onto the hot and sexy picture I told you guys about!

Gas was up to 2.75 in PA. Luckly I only put a few bucks in and topped it off in NJ where it's cheaper.

You can see more damage here.

Look how far the ground moved away from the edge of the road.

closeup of the area. You can see into the quarry when originally you couldn't

This is neat, this is where the birm (far right) collapsed into the quarry during a bad rain storm last year. They had to close this road and rebuild it to the left because the collapse caused fissures along the road.

This is the "eight sided school house" that my ancestors help build. Fun Fact: my family (on my mom's side) helped with the American Revolution by having soldiers stationed at their house before George Washington crossed the Delaware River to Trenton.

Driving back to my grandparents house. This is where the stateline of NJ and PA is.

This train is actually being brought back into the station. It even turns out the train on the launch track can also back up into the station since it didn't back up into the sled yet.

Where you see this train is where it stopped when coming into the station. This was breakdown number 3.

For all you dirt lovers on the boards, here's a picture of the former Viper site. All I've noticed was they smoothed the dirt around and the station is still intacted. But other than that, I haven't seen anything new.

Scream! No wait...it's Medusa.

If you look between the trees straight ahead, you can see someone walking on the launch track. This was during the first closure which was just a routine inspection. That guy walked from one end of the launch track to the other making sure it was fine.

hmmm, I still prefer calling it Kingda Klunk.

Boardwalk side entrance to the Golden Kingdom

due to the crappiness of my camera without having a zoom. Here's a picture of the train going over the top hat on Kingda Ka.

Train infront of ours ready to board.

Me waiting to board the number 4 train. Our train was the 4th to launch for the day.

Us walking into the station...ooo no one in it yet

Looking down the midway. The offical entrance to Kingda Ka is at the far end of the picture.

I'm at the Fastlane entrance where only 5 of us were waiting.

This is the queue entrance for Kingda Ka...Notice it is jamed pack from all the people. But if you notice where I'm taking the picture...

People getting ready for the run of the bulls. It was a lot of fun running and dodging people at split seconds. It's like driving in Connecticut.

Entrance to SFGAdv

Driving down the road into the park

Driving down I-195 East towards SFGAdv

and you can't forget about cocks! What?

Edited August 23, 2005 by Token Yankee Guy

Hey Craig,

great photo TR. Your Kingda Ka pictures are really cool. It sounds like you enjoyed the coaster. That coaster is on my list! However, good job. Thanks for posting.

 

--Sören

Great TR TYG! Awesome coaster pics, too.

I was at SFGADv yesterday too!

sweet pics of KK, although I do feel a bit let down by the hot & sexy pics.

As always, another great TR by TYG!

Awesome photo TR. I, too, think goats are extremely sexy. Not to keen on the cocks, though :shock: .

Awesome TR.

 

SFGAdv is in our "contigency" plan for our trip next month. Hope it works out so we can make it out there for at least a few hours.

 

How are the lines on the other rides? I would gladly skip KK to be able to ride all of the other coasters in the park.

When did Chang move to SFGA, oh wait it's just Medusa . Excellent trip report and great pictures, thanks for sharing them!

Awesome TR.

 

SFGAdv is in our "contigency" plan for our trip next month. Hope it works out so we can make it out there for at least a few hours.

 

How are the lines on the other rides? I would gladly skip KK to be able to ride all of the other coasters in the park.

 

ummm, the park was pretty packed that day. Superman looked to have I say about an hr to 1hr 1/2 wait. Since you're going next month I think you'll be fine since school will be session. I can't remember when they switch to the weekend schedule though. So if I were to guess i think the waits were about 0 (small rides) to about 2 1/2hrs (Kingda Ka's wait)