Photo TR: SFGAdv, Sesame Place, and DelGrosso's

Well, originally this weekend was going to be a visit to Dollywood for Night of Thunder, but Catrina still hasn't been to a lot of cool parks on the East Coast. SFGAdv was on her short list of parks, and we also planned on hitting a couple of small parks on the way home.

 

Besides a couple of small MapQuest hurdles, the trip went very well and a good time was had ... now on to the photos ...

 

Six Flags Great Adventure - 09.17.2005

 

It's early Saturday morning and Bugs and the gang welcome us to Six Flags Great Adventure.

 

Our first order of business was to get our [legalized line-jumping device] near the front of the park. After which, we headed over to Kingda Ka to queue up our first ride of the day.

 

We grabbed a quick (no wait) ride on Superman and then headed back to Kingda Ka, where our reservation was now ready.

 

Once inside the station, I let the Qbot know what I really think about it.

 

Jason is just excited because we didn't have to stand in the 155+ hr queue to get a ride on the big green thing.

 

Kingda Ka started as a 4-train operation and worked it's way down to three while we were in the station. Later in the day, it went down to two.

 

It took us about 40-45 minutes to wait for about 10 trains. In the end, I was just glad that we were able to get our ride, because many people have travelled here just to be dissapointed.

 

As far as quality, I don't really see any improvement over Dragster, but it certainly looks much taller. Most of this is probably due to the fact that it stands alone. The ride was much rougher than Dragster and the OTSR really limit your view. While I am not a big fan of either, I probably still prefer Dragster.

 

Another addition in the Golden Kingdom is the tiger exhibit. This was much cooler than I pictured it. The tigers were very active and entertaining to watch.

 

After Superman, Kingda Ka, and a short credit run on Blackbeard, we met up with Jason's cousin and hit the other side of the park. We grabbed rides on Batman and Nitro before grabbing a bite to eat.

 

While Batman was pretty much as I remembered it, Nitro was much better than I recalled. We rode near the back on both rides and got great air over nearly every drop. There were a couple of trims along the way, but they merely "kissed" the train and did nothing to alter the experience.

 

We grabbed some pizza and then headed back to the other side of the park, where the Log Flume would be our next ride.

 

After a 5-minute wait (credit: Qbot), we had our log loaded and ready. Later, I would find out the sitting in the front of fully loaded log would not be the best choice. The ride was fun none the less.

 

Here is a shot of the drop for all you log flume fanatics.

 

Due to it's proximity, we rode the mine train next. I didn't really remember much about it, but this thing is just wrong. There are all kinds of moments in the ride where you wonder what was going through their heads in the design phase.

 

From the top of the mine train lift, you can see some of the "new for 2006" work area.

 

On a nice hot day like today, it would have been nice to save ourselves some walking with the skyride, but no dice ... it wasn't operating.

 

Catrina is kind of a dolphin nut, so after a couple more rides we took a break to check out the Dolphin and Sea Lion show. It was a very good show and the dolphins were very funny. They even did little tricks ... er behaviors when other parts of the show were happening. Guess they just got a kick out of soaking the audience.

 

Yay! Construction picture!

 

While many of the parks great flat rides were not running, the top spin was ready to go. Too bad that nobody will ever ride these things with me

 

This picture is for Soren. Another fine product of Bremen, Germany.

 

Since these rides are quickly becoming a dying breed, we all grabbed a ride on the Parachutes before leaving.

 

Sesame Place - 09.18.2005

 

Since our hotel was about 5 miles from Sesame Place and we all had a Busch pass, we made a little pit stop along the way to check it out.

 

Catrina is excited to have the opportunity to visit anyplace Elmo related.

 

At 75" inches tall, I should have no problem getting on any of Sesame's attractions

 

A shot of the Grover themed Vapor Train. I didn't feel nearly as "dirty" whoring this coaster after I got a look at it. It is a pretty decent size family coaster ... and a lot of fun!

 

Another shot of Grover's Vapor Trail

 

Give me your hills, your loops, your kiddie coasters and I will ride them, says Jason.

 

In the giftshop, Jason tries out the Oscar in a box contraption.

 

DelGrossos Amusement Park - 09.18.2005

 

After our short Sesame visit and about 3 and a half hours of driving, we made a stop at DelGrossos.

 

More kiddie credit action was had.

 

Purchased in 2004, the wacky worm is one of DelGrosso's two coasters.

 

Along with being $10 carload day, DelGrosso's was also holding their annual Italian Fest. This meant that all kinds of good eats would be available for the taking.

 

We all had the sampler (Lasagne/Gnocci/Shells/Bread) and grabbed a table in the picnic shelter.

 

As part of the Italian Fest, DelGrosso's had live entertainment performing. These guys had to be my personal favorite. The played Laura Branigan's Gloria .... in Italian!

 

Note the bass player with his spiffy gold lame' shirt and Italian Flag bass.

 

Along with their two coasters, DelGrosso's has a great selection of traditional rides including this classic Hershell/Spillman carousel.

 

Complete with removable parts.

 

To complete our weekend, we took a ride on their Crazy Mouse. Pretty much the same as any other crazy mouse.

 

We had a great time on our weekend adventure, and hope you had a great time reading it. Till next time ....

Ted, I'm glad you had a good time at SFGADV and got to ride KK before it broke for the day again. By the way our Top spin doesn't have the greatest program either so you didn't miss much.

Is it recommended to get the Gold Q-bot over the standard at that particular Six Flags park? We may be going there next summer.

^ Unless you are hitting the park on a July or August weekend, the regular Qbot should suffice. The park was pretty quiet when we went and we really only got the Qbot because of Kingda Ka. The stand-by lines had to be really bad because of the slow moving operations. The rest of the ride throughout the day wouldn't had been too bad without. They were running 2 trains on pretty much everything.

 

The Qbot was giving us 5-10 minute return times almost all day with a couple 20 minute Nitro waits in the mix.

We would be going on a weekday if we go, thanks for the information.