SFGAdv. / America Trip

[gouldy]

Howdy y'all!

So, I went to New York for a week, with a couple of days at SFGAdv. thrown in for good measure! I also went out to Coney Island, but obviously, that was closed, so I didn't get to ride the Cyclone [V] heh. So anyway, here's my two cents:

We arrived in New York last saturday (30th of August) and walked around New York for the day... mostly a blur while I got used to the generally obnoxious temperature

The Sunday was the first day we went to Six Flags. The bus to the park was like 5 blocks away from our hotel, so transport was easy. $56 each for transport and entry the park included, thought that was probably pretty good! The journey there was interesting, looking at all the vehicles and such, very amusing. It was also amusing seeing the billboards advertising the Toyota Camry as being good because it does 31 miles to the gallon, I couldn't stop laughing! That's AWFUL mileage! Anyway yeah... we arrived at the park at about 10, which I gathered from the queue of people waiting just inside the park, was probably a good time to arrive.

First impressions comfirmed my beliefs that it's definitely an Amusment Park, as oppose to a theme park. As you're confronted with 4 or 5 coasters that are seemingly just placed on the car park. I expected this, it's just that it is the first thing you do notice. It is just that however that helps you to realise the scale of Kingda Ka, as you see it towering above Superman: Ultimate Flight, GASM, Rolling Thunder and El Toro. The second impression I got, as I was entering the actual park, is that it's really quite a pleasant place to be, with the flowers and water features and music and such, very nice! [^]

After reading the advice of others on coastercrazy.com, we headed straight for Kingda Ka (Linny (The Missus) did not ride, as she has an irrational fear of Rocket Coasters!). This was my first slight disappointment; it was lucky that Linny wasn't riding, as I found out half way along the queue that you can't take your bags and stuff into the station of most rides. What you infact have to do, is pay $1 for a locker on each ride you go on, before you join the queue. If Linny had been riding, we would have had to leave the queue, put our stuff in the locker, then rejoin the queue at the start again (Which would have sucked!). I gave her the bags, she buggared off and I rode!

Kingda Ka - 9.5/10 (But only on the front row - 7/10 otherwise):
I decided to ride it on the front row, simply because the other rockets I've ridden are just, well... better on the front row. It seems that this belief still stands true. On the front row this ride is F***ING Bonkers, I seriously loved it, purely for the acceleration! On Rita and Stealth, when you launch it's one giant push to reach the top speed. On Kingda Ka though, you begin the launch, it pulls you hard, real hard, but this is then followed half a second later by it pulling harder, then again another half second later, really noticably in steps all the way along the launch. REALLY impressive acceleration, it really did take my breath away.

HOWEVER - I rode it on the second day in the back row and this is one of the most tame coasters I have ever been on! without the wind in your face, the launch seemed... insignificant and, with the trim brakes on the top hat, there was absolutely no air time over the top. I was slightly disappointed, but the ride on the front row way way way makes up for it.


El Toro - 10/10:
Whatever seat you sit in, this ride is INSANE! Both me and weirdly, Linny, loved this ride. IMO, this is the best ride in park, probably the best ride I've ever been on if I'm honest. Even in the front row, the drop has huge airtime, in the back row, the airtime is just stupid! . Over every hill, you get crazy airtime in every seat. The turns at the end are also insane, the ride clearly takes them too fast, or at least it feels like it. As you're going through the whole ride infact, every element feels like it's being taken too fast, which just feels crazy. The speed on the chainlift is also crazy, really took me by surprise. Absolutely amazing ride. It felt very similar obviously to Colossos at Heide Park, but just better [:D]

Rolling Thunder - 2/10:
This ride is crap! I'm sure the layout is probably quite good, but... OW! Too much of my focus was taken on trying to make it not hurt so bad at the bottom of the hills... and by trying to hold the missus's breasts still for her. No bra could have made it hurt her chest any less! quite amusing though I guess once it had finished.

Superman:Ultimate Flight - 6/10:
This is pretty good, better than Air I guess, apart from the way Air hugs the ground. It wasn't great, after the Pretzel it just sort of... well, was boring. But the pretzel was really good, very nice! Not much else to say about this one!

Great American Scream Machine - 5/10:
This ride is not at all great, false advertising if you ask me (which if you also ask me, there seems a lot of in America!) It was ok, a little bumpy, but with these old corkscrew type coasters that seems to be the only attraction of the ride, the fact that it is amusingly bumpy and amusingly badly heartlined etc etc...

Nitro - 9/10:
I was really surprised how much I liked this ride, I was fully ready to say "well, that was fairly dull", but after riding it, it was the only ride we rejoined the queue of straight away. I really enjoyed this ride, the floater air over all the hills and the lack of massive forces kind of just makes for a really pleasant ride that is just real genuine fun. Nitro, although similar in layout to El Toro (air hills, turn around etc...), is a completely different type of ride, almost polar opposite type of ride infact. But enjoyable in a totally different way. Even though I feel like El Toro is a better ride than Nitro, if I could only choose one to spend all day riding, I would probably choose Nitro and I honestly can't explain why [confused]

Batman: The Ride - 7.5/10:
Pretty good, some fairly intense forces, pretty good layout, it was nice to queue inside out of the heat as well! Looks pretty too, but nothing special.

Batman: The Dark Knight - 6.5/10:
When I realised that this was one of those wild mouse clones, like the one at Chessington (Which I think is great!), I was fairly excited to get and ride this. However, I was pretty disappointed. While it was still fun, they've toned it down loads, it's slower, or at least it seemed it and it wasn't as amusingly rough and crazy feeling as the one at Chessington (the craziness and rough feeling is surely the attraction of these wild mouse coasters?!).

Medusa - 7.5/10:
I'm not really sure what I was expecting for B&M Floorless coasters, but the floorless element really doesn't add to the ride at all apart from making the ride look nice. Even in the front row, it just didn't seem to make any difference to me, I could have been riding Dragon Khan (apart from the fact that Dragon Khan has a better layout is better in general ). ALthough the helix before the corkscrews was pretty darn good, best bit of the ride for me. This ride just wasn't quite as good as I was expecting, but it was still pretty damn good!

Skull Mountain - 8/10:
I cannot tell you how surprised I was when I rode this. The drop (in the back row) has perfect floater air! Me and Linny were expecting some crappy kiddy ride, but wow! I think that I felt it was so good because I was expecting much less. But the first half of the ride was actually genuinely good, even slightly intense. Big surprise!

The Runaway Train - 5/10:
Meh, alright, surprising little pops of air around the place but... nothing excited me at all.

Overall Park and Other Rides - 8.5/10:

Generally, I really enjoyed this park, it is a pretty nice place to be, the rides are for the most part, pretty amazing. The only things that annoyed me were the lockers and the food. The food annoyed me slightly about the whole holiday, not only in the park, but in New York also, it seemed impossible to obtain any actual food. Like if you don't like hot dogs made from nasty frankfurters, if you don't like burgers, if you don't like fries and if you don't like pizza... you're pretty much screwed. You're also not allowed to take food into the park, which to be fair is just an abomination. In other words, it's only $60 to come in, but you'll have to spend the same amount again on food and drink once you're inside! thieving bastards!

Really glad that I went though, a really nice park to be in, if slightly ruined by the two above points. Some really amazing rides and I would probably make the trip out there again to go back to SFGAdv. (although in a slightly colder month )

Here are some photos! (Some of the photos are from our phones so you'll have to mind the quality!):

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/566653306fcavCt

Any questions for me, or further comments you'd like me to make about anything in particular, post so below [:D]

Thanks for watching!

Hey Gould, How did you get to SFGadv from NY?

[gouldy]

The 308 bus, from gate 324 at the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 8th on 41st street [:)]

$56 transport and entry

It took about an hour and 20 minutes

Nice Trip Report, how were the lines when you went? I'm thinking of driving dwn there later this month, but it's a way's for me.

[gouldy]

we didn't have to wait very long for anything to be honest, i was expecting it to be busier, I queued about 30 mins for kingda ka on the back row and about 45 minutes to get on the front row. Superman was probably the longest to be honest, we waited about an hour for that, but i had an ice cold lemonade to keep me going [:D]

[Oscar]

Sounds like you had a lot of fun! Good work Linny, I knew it would come out ok [:)]

You really should have stopped by sfne. Its real close. And Lake Compounce. Superman is preety sweet at sfne. You would have found it was worth the trip.

Ok SFNE is not close to New York City man.

[gouldy]

Had there have been a bus to SFNE, I would have gone there I'm sure [;)]

Originally posted by Jimmy Yoshi

Ok SFNE is not close to New York City man.

[lol] Spoken like a true n00b ... map it out Kyle, you aren't even remotely in the same area -- or EVEN the same state (SFNE = Massachusetts ... SFGADV = New Jersey)!! Nice catch Jimmy.

Nice TR Gouldy, looks like loads of fun!

Cool TR. I pretty much agree with everything you said, i did the same trip a couple of years ago, but my parents drove and we stayed in this B&B in Jackson NJ so we could get 2 days at the park.

Btw, you arent really missing much by not riding the Coney Island Cyclone, give me a BPB woodie anyday.

[gouldy]

I probably didn't make that clear, we also spent two days at the park. I'm glad we did as well, because I'm not sure I really took anything in on the first day. Us still being on England time!

Ben, did you ride the Cyclone in the back seat? It is INSANE back there.

[hyyyper]

Insane? IMO 'lethal' is a more fitting description.

Originally posted by Jakizle

Ben, did you ride the Cyclone in the back seat? It is INSANE back there.

I rode in the middle somewhere i think.
I would NEVER ride it again.
hyyyper is right when he uses the word "lethal".

And just think .... THAT was my FIRST coaster ever, at the age of 8!

im suprised how high you rated skull mountain.
dont get me wrong, the drop is great in the back, but I would have rated it lower.

Glad you had a good trip though