Who: My mom drove my friend and I
What: ...?
Where: SFGAdv, Jackson, NJ
When: 10/10/09, from 11:00 am to 7:45 pm
Why: For fun, of course!
Overall views:
I thought this was a very nice and well kept park, and the employees seemed very nice. Since I was wearing my "Warning: Roller Coaster Junkie" shirt, one of the ride operators working at El toro said "Hey, do you post on any blogs?" (I quoted that to show that they were also outgoing.) And every time a train returned to the station, the ride operator would say, "So, guys, how was your ride?" Overall, everyone was very friendly!
Oh, and I could definitely tell why this was the biggest SF park! To get to Bizarro, you have to go from el toro and ALL the way around a long walkway to get to the entrance between the cobra roll. Also, it was an extremely long walk from Nitro to Kingda Ka, so I liked how the park put up green trashcans that I didn't notice until I asked a park worker while I was next to Nitro, "How do you get to kingda ka from here?" We ended up following it and it took us all the way across the park! It was very helpful!
My only complaint is that where the new gaming thing is or whatever, in The Chiller's old station, you couldn't cut across back to the front of the park. It wasn't that bad, but it cost my friend and I 10 minutes... still, since we were aware of that, we didn't do it again.
The food wasn't bad, but we only had lunch and a little candy and a HUGE funnel cake, that we could only finish half of! Anyway, next segment!
The day:
As I said at the top, we got there at 11:00. Actually, we got off the turnoff to the park at about 10:45, but then we had to find the place where my mom would drop us off, which took like 8 minutes. After that, a SFGAdv shuttle bus picked us up! I was surprised SFGAdv would pay for this, but I'm so happy they did, because we got there in a few minutes! And it dropped us off right at the entrance!
Anyway, after we got in the park, we "ran-jogged-tugged-walked" our way over to kingda ka. At this time, and actually during the whole 3 hour drive, it had been lightly raining, but you could still feel it. When we had gotten to the outside of the park, kingda ka was either running with people on it or testing, we werne't sure. But when we got there, they said they had shut it down until the rain stopped. We were a little disappointed, but not too bad, because we expected the weather to clear up. We went over to El toro, where the line was under 5 minutes. We went to the 2nd car, and got on on the 3rd train or so. We liked it a lot, so we went back, and while we were getting off the first time, we noticed how empty the back was. So, we got back in line and went to the back. (While we were on it, the rain wasn't too bad, by the way.)
Right next to El Toro was rolling thunder, so we rode the left side once, which had no one on that side, because everyone else was on the right side. We got the first ride in the front, and only 1 train was running on either side. Close to El toro was the entrance to the "old-timey" part of the park, where Bizarro was located for some reason. We waited 5 minutes for the front, because there was an opening for 2 people.
We headed back and walked along the lake to Nitro on the other side of the park. There, we "waited" in a no-wait line in the very back. We got back in line for a 15 minute wait for the front, after that. Since batman was adjacent to Nitro, we waited 20 minutes for the front, since it was his first time on a batman clone.
Right after that, we were GOING to eat at Panda Express (*cough*cough* James Rao), but it was closed for the time being. Not much healthier, there was a Papa John's very close to it, so we ate there. For a "digester" ride, we went over to Skull Mountain for a 3 minute wait for the front. While we were on Nitro and Batman, we noticed Kingda Ka was back up, so after SM, we "hustled" over to the side of the park. We hopped in line for a 1 hour 15 minute wait for the front, while a second row line would've been an easy 55 minute wait.
After a ride on KdK, I wanted to get a jump onto GASM for the coaster record, while my friend (who hates rough rides) was told by me that GASM was probably rough, so he got his well wanted funnel cake while I got a ride in the 3rd car for 5 minutes. Directly adjacent to GASM is Superman, which was a 45 minute wait for the front, although the sign said 120 minutes! :D After, there were 2 seats open in the 3rd row, so we rode again.
Nitro was good enough and close enough to get another ride, but in the 6th row or so.
We loved KdK so much, that we HAD to go back for another ride... of course, in the front, for an hour 5 minute wait. By that time, we had an hour left, so I got a KdK shirt (I was cold and I also wanted the shirt) for $15 (nice price!). We ran over to El toro, where the line said 90 minutes. We knew we couldn't trust that, because all day they had been half the time, and that it would be risky... but we went for it, and got on the back car in 55 minutes. I used the 5 minutes left to but a $12 el toro hat (ANOTHER GREAT DEAL), before we headed through a fright-festy park to the front.
Great day for me... :) I hope I get another one in the next year or so...
The rides, in order the order of the day:
El toro: 3 rides, 10/10! :D Amazing! The first couple times I rode it, I got a lot of airtime, but not as much as I had hoped or heard from from my friends and family. Then, when we rode it at night, it had 100x more speed and airtime! It was insane! I definitely got the feeling on the small hill that everyone is scared of toward the end! Just an amazingly superb ride, that my friend was scared it was going to be rough on, that he soon took back. ;)
Rolling Thunder: 1 ride, 4/10. Too rough for my taste, and especially my friend's taste, even in the front. Not very enjoyable, and you have to watch everyone on the El toro as you go up the lift hill! So you kinda feel jealous, and you're about to get some serious pain.
Bizarro: 1 ride, 8/10. A lot of fun, and the fire really warmed me up as the rain pelted my face in the front. I liked how it was in the far back depths of the park, although it's a pain to get to, but not too bad. I don't really know what my favorite part was, but I just know that I didn't notice the inversions- it was all just kindaa jumble of track and fun.
Nitro: 3 rides, 9/10. This ride was awesome, and amazing how long it is, and how even FARTHER back you are than Bizarro from the rest of the park while you're on it! My only complaint is the air time. You get some good punches, but they're somewhat terrible. Instead of getting "ejector seats", you get the somewhat zero-g feel, when you're in the middle between the seet and the restraint over hill. Sadly, the most airtime in the back was the first little dip before the lift hill! sad, right? Still, with the minimal air time, the speed in the front (including the view over the sides) was awesome. I made this sound a lot worse than it is. Just check out my top 10 list!
Batman: the Ride: 1 ride, 8/10. Another great, intense, and fun Batman B&M invert clone. That's number 3 for me! :D
Skull Mountain: 1 ride, 6/10. Fun little family ride, and the darkness and "spooky" pumpkins and aliens added to the fun.
Kingda Ka: 2 rides, 11/10.... pure "bliss", as I like to say... ahhh.... AMAZING! The force was just unbearable! The first time I got off, I felt like I had a minor concussion, but I just shook it off (yes, I did keep my head back). As we rocketed up the first hill the first time, my hands shot up, and I lost my vocal chords, because just like on Griffon, I yelled "YYYYEEEEAAAHHHH" in an amazingly deep voice for me. :D The second time, I my hands came up halfway through the launch! It was so hard, before and after the huge hill, to keep your hands up! I know it was short, but it was worth every second... Just so amazingly intense, as I said many times before... Next time I see it, I want to hug it's support!
Superman: Ultimate Flight: 2 rides, 8/10. Just like SFOG's version, it's awesome. Because its restraints are so comfortable, it just makes the ride THAT much smoother! It's really fun, but not super thrilling. The pretzel loop is really unexpected and the best part of the ride. This really "glides" more than the SFOG version after the pretzel loop. It's not bad, but it's not as fast.
Great American Scream Machine: 1 ride, 5/10. Meh. Not nearly as rough as I had expected, but that was because I braced myself and knew what was coming, unlike the rest of the train. I felt like I was the only one that didn't have a neck injury! The only rough parts for ME was the first drop and between the 1st loop and the 2nd and 3rd. Everything else wasn't too bad, and like other arrow coasters, the corkscrews weren't rough. But... this ride wasn't "fun". The loops were over too quick, but my first batwing felt like I was upside down. The g's are a little rough, too. Still, this is just an average ride, just like I rated it. Nothing special, especially because both trains are sponsored... wtf?
Aftermath:
Great day for me, as I stated billions of times before. So, a quick q: does anyone have any clue what happened to el toro? Like how the speed got changed? There was a huge difference in speed and airtime, no doubt. So... have any answers?
Ok, anyway, sorry I finished this a week after my trip, but at least I finished it, right? Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll comment on something by clicking on that box down there. Have any q's youself?
I really hope I get another experience sometime soon! Bye!
I'll make up for that with Zachary, because he's never been there yet. Happy Birthday Eli, enjoy your day today, I had my fun yesterday throwing snowballs at Zack.
Yeah, that makes sense, jake.
Yes, anthony, I forget where I heard it, but from a reliable source, I was told it was the biggest. I assume that the next biggest would be SFMM/SFGAm and then next would be SFOG or SFFT. Any other guesses? And yes, I bet it's huge. I thought that SFOG was huge, but then I saw SFGAdv... it's gotta be more than 1.5 times the size!
Go ahead, Bob and James! It's great!
James, if you ever get out to NY or Philly or sumtin, go to SFGAdv! Oh, and maybe (Panda)...
