Photo TR: Great Adventure

After a night at Clementon, I decided to go to Great Adventure with some people from work who had never been there before. Adam and Ellen would join us, as they had not yet actually ridden Kingda Ka and wanted to try one more time this season. The park wasn’t too crowded, but we opted for the regular Qbot just because we didn’t feel like waiting in line for KK. In the days time we managed 4 rides on Batman, 3 on Nitro, 2 on Skull Mountain, 1 on Robin: The Chiller, 1 on Superman: UF, 1 on GASM, 1 on Medusa, a ride on Houdini, and Runaway Train. After 3 hours of being Qbotted, Adam and Ellen finally got on Kingda Ka, as did I for my 2nd time. Some thoughts throughout the park:

Kingda Ka really shakes you back and forth. My first ride in the back was really violent a month ago. This time in the middle was also really bad. The launch didn't seem as powerful as Dragster's either, it seemed more like "shifting"

SUF is really annoying hanging as you wait for the other train to leave the station

Rolling Thunder is closed for the season as they are working in that whole area on the new 2006 woodie

Lots of land clearing inside Rolling Thunder

No “new trains” on Runaway Train as promised earlier this year

Medusa is still the best floorless coaster north of Orlando

Batman still rocks

Batman the Chiller is still lost

A bunch of the crews are back to being slow and unhappy (ie SUF and Nitro)

No more milkshakes

Station spiels back on Skull Mountain and Batman

Its our fault that tigers are dying and we should live in harmony with them

I won’t ever wait more than 30 minutes for Kingda Ka again

Something smells like goats cooking bacon

Adam and Ellen give big thumbs up to Qbot for helping them finally get the Kingda Ka credit

After at least 3 hours of waiting (or lots of money spent on a Gold upgrade) a trainful of excited Ka riders gets ready to leave the station

The tortoises enjoy laughing at the humans dumb enough to ride GASM

This view will look totally different next year, and I can't wait

Kingda Ka stands tall, anxiously awaiting its wooden cousin next year. Note the lack of Viper but the remaining station? Could it be used next year....

Frontier Adventures between Golden Kingdom and Medusa is completely closed off, as there be construction a going on for the new 2006 Intamin Plug N Play. No Rolling Thunder anymore this year, but its not going anywhere

Obligatory photo of Ellen sticking something in her mouth in a dirty fashion

Here's a train of happy riders on Superman. They won't be so happy when they're sitting on the brakerun hanging for another 5 minutes while the crew casually checks restraints on the other train

One of the only SF parks left with a Parachute Tower

Holy crap! It only took 5 years, but Blackbeard finally has a sign!!

Obligatory vertical loop photo

Here's Batman. He's still newly yellow and always forceful and intense.

Still smooth, still has forces, still is the best hypercoaster in Joisey.

Nitro isn't cleaned up very often. (Actually they're just getting ready for Fright Fest, which starts in like another 20 days)

Great TR, thanks for sharing the photos. I feel the same way about SUF taking forever to unload... Last week was the first time I'd ever gone on it and I thought the ride had broken down while we were in the brakes. Didn't realize it was typical.

Kinda bummed Batman the chiller is never running, the inverted top hat is awesome. Can't wait to see this new wooden coaster start to take shape.

Kingda Ka really shakes you back and forth. My first ride in the back was really violent a month ago. This time in the middle was also really bad. The launch didn't seem as powerful as Dragster's either, it seemed more like "shifting"

yeah, Kingda Ka is nasty in the back seat. But I remember sitting in like the second to last car and it didn't feel that bad. And Kingda Ka does shift when it increases it speed. You can't tell on video, but you can feel it.

Good TR Derek.

Nice pics, Derek. The Premier top hats have always been a favorite of mine as well. I never understood why Intamin decided to put OTSRs on a Strat coaster. This automatically makes TTD the better of the two in my book. Lapbars rule...

^ My guess it had to do something with the accident on Superman: Ride of Steel at SFNE. that Intamin decided to get rid of the T-Bar restraint completely to prevent another death because of it.

Lapbars rule...

Until another person is thrown from an INTAMIN T-bar restraint ride...

Nice photos. In the first picture I see there is a sign up about a test seat for Nitro but it looks like there isn't a test seat.

It's been misisng for about a month now. I think someone broke it.

That's not surprising. The way people play with those test seats probably causes more wear than neccessary. At Hershey, I saw kids (who had no reason to try it other than for "fun" because they were either too short to ride or could easily fit) playing around with both the ones for Great Bear and Storm Runner.