SFGAdv Trip Report (7/11) TRIP REPORT AND PICTURES UP

[Paradox]

Hello all!

I will be heading up to SFGAdv this Saturday July 11. Believe it or not this is my first time visiting the park even though I have been about 3-4 hours away from it my entire life. I need tips to be able to do all the rides that I want to in the short time frame that I have. We will arrive at the park around 12 and leave around 6 in order not to come back home too late. Thanks for helping.

I do not wish to ride Bizarro as I will be riding Scream at SFMM in about a month and I also do not wish to ride Green Lantern as I heard bad things about that ride.

When I went, what I did was rushed over and rode Green Lantern (It's a great ride, believe me, I loved it). Then towards KK. After that, you'd want to rush over to El Toro, Then Nitro, Then the rest of the rides. This is what I did when I went both times and had enough time to ride almost everything.

Here's some things I've noticed from my many visits to Gadv that you should consider for your gameplan. Keep in mind things are very temperamental at this park and things can be completely different depending on what day you go. If it doesn't look like what I'm saying is working the day you go, definitely change your strategy.

Most people head straight for Green Lantern and Superman upon entering the park. Don't do this, and instead head for Nitro/Batman first. Though, with Batman Backwards the line could be long as people want to try it out. I usually start with Nitro, then go on Batman.

After you're done with that section of the park, either walk or take the skyride to the other side of the park. (If the line for the skyride isn't too long, I'd do it. Though you guys had one in SFNE so it's up to you.) I'd go straight for El Toro. El Toro's line is never more than an hour and a half at the absolute max so you don't need to worry about it too much.

Because of the way El Toro's station is designed (being the former station of Viper, a TOGO Ultra Twister) it's very thin. There are the lines for each row and very little room to move between rows. This makes people go straight for the front and people rarely go to the back at all (which is kinda dumb because El Toro is legendary in the back). The back rows are always a 1-2 train wait, but the front row is an extra half hour. Decide which one is worth it, becaue Toro's dispatches are very slow this year.

Bizarro is much better than Scream! from what I've seen but if you choose not to ride it, head for Superman next. Unfortunately the line is always enormous because A. It's right at the front of the park. B. The flying experience is a huge draw to the GP.

Definitely save Kingda Ka for last, as the line gets shorter throughout the day. The line is usually 45 minutes to an 1 hour 30 minutes, more if it's having an Intamin fit that day. Ka is not maintained too well and hasn't aged to good so it's rough unless you sit in the front 4 rows. I STRONGLY SUGGEST waiting for the front row. I can't express enough how much better the front row is than every other row. (It's 1000x better than even the second row) The wind in your face at 128+ mph is absolutely mental. It's worth the wait x1000.

If you have any free time after that, I'd try some of the flats (especially Zumanjaro; Life CHANGING experience) or maybe go on Bizarro. I don't think you would like Green Lantern as it has tons of headbanging and is hard on the ankles, unless that's your sort of thing . Zumanjaro would probably be the best option because it's right next to Kingda Ka. If the single rider queue is significantly shorter than the regular line, I say go for it. If they are more or less the same, just use the standard queue. That should cover basically everything you wanted to ride for the most part!

[TTD03]

Paradox wrote:

Hello all!

I will be heading up to SFGAdv this Saturday July 11. Believe it or not this is my first time visiting the park even though I have been about 3-4 hours away from it my entire life. I need tips to be able to do all the rides that I want to in the short time frame that I have. We will arrive at the park around 12 and leave around 6 in order not to come back home too late. Thanks for helping.

I do not wish to ride Bizarro as I will be riding Scream at SFMM in about a month and I also do not wish to ride Green Lantern as I heard bad things about that ride.

Ah paradox, we need to get on a skype call brugh....

And I might be able to meet you on Saturday but don't get your hopes up.

I actually suggest riding Kingda Ka first...if you head there right away you can beat a lot of the crowd and get front row right away. Hidden benefit: In my experience, the first say 20-40 mins of the day, Kingda Ka launches WAY faster than the rest of the day. Seems it has to get warmed up, so they make sure it doesn't roll back by turning up the speed. It's great later in the day, but it's a huge and very visible difference if you watch from offride, and that translates to a stronger launch, pullup, and airtime moment at the apex, with no break in pacing. I fully agree that the front row is much better than the rest of the train, though I do think the second row is excellent too, then there's a big dropoff in quality for the third row until the end of the train. The second row is elevated above the first so if you're tall enough you still get a lot of the wind in your face. To me the wind feels more violent in the second row too since it runs past more than just a smooth hood. Still, front row is the way to go.

El Toro on the other hand is slower in the morning, particularly if they don't have enough people to fill the train. Other than that it's a fairly consistent experience, but I'd definitely suggest an evening/night ride too as it seems to really be flying when it starts to get dark out.

To me, Green Lantern isn't very rough and is worth a ride. I find it uncomfortable because of the standing position/seat and forces, but still a fun ride. I don't completely understand why it gets put down so often.

Nitro is worth both a front and back row ride, Batman was insane the one time I rode it in the front row (now the back of the train), Bizarro is good front or back, same with Superman and Green Lantern, in my opinion. I'd suggest back car (2nd to last row) on Toro first ride, then front car. Front row line seems to take forever on that one though given that it's 2 across and almost always long, but it is a great ride. My third row ride was actually my roughest ever this past weekend, but 1st row, two middle of the back car, and one in the middle of the 2nd to last car were all smooth as always. Odd.

Never know how crowds will be, I've been going what 18 years of my life and I still can't anticipate like I can other parks. Some rainy summer Tuesdays will be packed, and beautiful summer Saturdays empty. Good luck lol.

[Paradox]

Thanks for all of the advice guys! It really helped me out today.

Trip report coming soon. I'm too tired to do it right now lol.

^Can't wait to see what you thought! Hope you enjoyed it!

[mkingy]

Looking forward to seeing the report!

[Paradox]

Full report and some pictures should be up around midnight EST.

Coaster Hero wrote:

Most people head straight for Green Lantern and Superman upon entering the park. Don't do this, and instead head for Nitro/Batman first. Though, with Batman Backwards the line could be long as people want to try it out. I usually start with Nitro, then go on Batman.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!! Nitro was a walk on in the beginning of the day and so was Batman.

Coaster Hero wrote:

Definitely save Kingda Ka for last, as the line gets shorter throughout the day. The line is usually 45 minutes to an 1 hour 30 minutes, more if it's having an Intamin fit that day.

Well it was definitely on its period that day as it broke down and my 1 hour wait was doubled. It would launch 2-6 times and break down in a constant cycle. Also I got extremely lucky as when I got off they had to cancel the train about to launch because some idiot had his phone out.

Also somehow the park managed to break El Diablo to the point where it didn't even open all day. I wasn't bummed about this as I was going to skip it anyways and it's just a Larson loop.

I was also mad that RT's old trains were just lying around next to El Toro. If they don't want them anymore they should just sell them to enthusiasts because I would love to have one of the cars.

[TTD03]

^ The park didn't break El Diablo. It's been closed because of the incident at SFDK with their's. So as a precaution, they closed all the others, including El Diablo.

[Paradox]

TTD03 wrote:

^ The park didn't break El Diablo. It's been closed because of the incident at SFDK with their's. So as a precaution, they closed all the others, including El Diablo.

What happened?

[Paradox]

Sorry for the double post but here's my favorite picture that I took:

[Paradox]

Ok here's the report.

Ride Counts:
Nitro-2x (Front and back)
Batman Backwards-1x (Front)
Dark Knight-1x
Skull Mountain-1x
Sky Screamer-1x
Skyway-1x
El Toro-2x (Front and 2nd to last row)
El Diablo-Closed
Parachute Tower-1x
Zumanjaro-2x
Kingda Ka-1x (Front)
Runaway Mine Train-1x
Bizarro-1x (Front)

Reviews:
Nitro-8/10
I headed to this first and it was a walk on! This ride is great and provides some nice floater on the hills especially in the back. The helix was pretty forceful and much better than Behemoth's. I liked diving through the supports after the MCBR and that double up thing was really fun. The first floater hill was really good and provided some really good floater air. This is a really good ride, but I'm going to have to say that Behemoth is better because of it's consecutive floater hills and strong finish and it's location over the water.

Batman Backwards-8/10
Wow this was very forceful and I was not expecting that. The loops provide an insane amount of force and I remember my head getting whipped back at the end of the second. The zero-g roll was perfect and was very snappy and so were the wingovers. I remember riding this forwards two years ago in Georgia and it was not as forceful as it was backwards. I actually really like this layout as it always throws you into a new element. I could only ride this once as it was pretty forceful and doing it consecutively unfortunately gives me a bad headache because I'm not a power bottom like Turbo.

Dark Knight-5/10
I don't understand why this ride gets so much hate, it's actually a pretty decent dark ride. I thought the theming was good for Six Flags standards and I loved the individual restraints. Having ridden the wild mouse at SFNE the single bar for two riders isn't that great as it adds to the person next you being crushing you on all of the turns. The ride was a bit rough especially towards the end and that's what killed the score, but all in all it's a pretty good dark ride/coaster and great for families.

Skull Mountain-6/10
The only reason I rode this is because I didn't know what was inside of the mountain and the lines were short so why not? It was actually pretty fun for a family coaster and the darkness really made it disorienting at times. This is great for families and had some pretty strong laterals. It was pretty fun but I wouldn't re ride it.

Sky Screamer-6/10
This had a great cycle and offered a great view of the lake and the rest of the surrounding park. If only SFNE's sky screamer could run a longer cycle. I always find these rides fun especially when they are tall. The height adds to the excitement.

Skyway-6/10
This is a much better Von Roll than SFNE's! I loved the double skyway and it provided a great way to get across the park as it is really long as opposed to SFNE's. There were great views from the top of it and it made me miss SFNE's even though it was subpar to this one. The M&M's logo on the carts were ugly and they could run more carts on it as well. I think it's not maintained as well as there are barely any carts on it compared to CP's. If they ran it like this then there would be barely any lines for this.


El Toro-9/10
THIS RIDE IS INSANE!!!!! I heard reviews about this ride but I wasn't expecting that the ride was that crazy. You guys were right about everyone flocking to the front lol I was able to bum a ride off of a single rider in the front row line so that helped and I rode in the 2nd to last row as dc suggested. That first drop is absolutely crazy especially in the back as it throws you out similar to WC's first drop. The first two airtime hills provide great ejector, but the turnaround was a bit rough, but not that much. Now comes the infamous Rolling Thunder crossover hill. I heard that this hill provides painful airtime and is crazy so I was extremely excited to see if it lived up to the hype and it lived up to the hype and beyond. That hill is by far the most intense airtime I have ever experienced. WC's first hill after the overbank and first big outward banked hill after the double down are probably the only things I can compare to this hill. I want Intamin to build more of these! Why didn't all of the Six Flags parks get a plug and play? If the clone for Dubai becomes real I wouldn't complain at all! Awesome ride! I'm so jealous you guys get to ride it so often.

Also I saw the carcass of RT and it made me sad. I like that they left the hill under El Toro and it reminded me of how Holiday Park kept a corkscrew of Superwirbel and used it as a decoration. I didn't like the train cars sitting and rotting out in the open. If I could I would have taken a car and put it in my house.

El Diablo-Closed
Yea I didn't care much that it was closed. Yea I was a little bummed, but it's just a Larson loop so I can go to my local fair and ride the same thing probably with a longer cycle. I did like the theming though.

Parachute Tower-5/10
I've never ridden one of these rides but I really wanted to before they all disappear as they are classic. I forced my dad into riding this and he enjoyed it even though he absolutely hates rides of any sort. I hope this doesn't suffer the same fate as SFoT's.

Zumanjaro-8/10
I was horrified of this but I loved the adrenaline rush going up to the top. The single rider line really helped but the walk to the ride is really, really long. The restraints were comfy and the drop was very fast. The stop was very fast and gave me some whiplash that caused my neck to hurt for about 10 minutes. In the end, the drop didn't do much besides provide a lot of speed. I prefer S&S towers as it actually feels more like freefall on those. Fun ride though, I can't wait to try out Lex Luthor in a couple weeks.

Kingda Ka-9/10
Okay this was having a fit. It broke down as soon as I entered the line and the wait was already 1 hour. I decided to wait it through just in case I wouldn't have time later. I also hate how they would launch two trains then wait for Zumanjaro. That really killed the capacity and I really wish the state of New Jersey would allow the park to run both at the same time as it would really make the line move faster. This ride just kept breaking down, however, every 2-6 launches and there were times where a slight gust of wind at the top could have caused a rollback. Unfortunately, I did not witness a rollback but I heard someone talking about it when I was having lunch so it might have happened. So after the 2 hour wait I finally got in the front seat and for some reason the fear didn't kick in until the launch track. That launch is crazy! The moment it took off I closed my eyes as I was afraid something would hurt me or fly into my mouth, but when I thought the launch was over it just kept getting faster. The ride up to the top is really fun and starting straight down to the ground is really scary but the drop didn't do much for me. The hill provided some nice floater and this ride is just an insane adrenaline rush. I absolutely love this ride. The only thing that would make this ride better is lapbars *cough cough TTD cough cough*

Runaway Mine Train-6/10
This is a nice little mine train, but was a little rough at some points. I liked the ending with the turn around the lake and that last hill had some nice airtime which I was not expecting. It was a fun ride and great for families.

Superman and Green Lantern-Skipped
I had to skip these because they had long lines. Also I already rode the Superman clone in Georgia and I will be riding Riddler's Revenge in a couple weeks at well which I have heard is a much better standup.

Bizarro-8/10
This was a really good floorless and much better than Batman at SFNE. I loved the entrance under the cobra roll as it was very photogenic. The ride wasn't very rough and the zero-g roll was pure bliss. I loved the small theming elements, but I've already seen them all except the spike roller thing at SFNE already. I was glad that I rode this as it was very fun. I might ride Scream! in a couple weeks but now that I've ridden this there's a bigger chance that I might skip it. It was a great ride to end the day on but it could use a paintjob as the paint was very faded.

*Also in line for Bizarro one guy said "This is like Dominator" and the kid that was with him said "Yea and it's also like this ride at Cedar Point called Rougarou. It used to be called Mantis and you used to stand. Mantis also had a horrible color scheme but they changed it and made it floorless like this one."
The kid also said "Kingda Ka is also like this other ride at Cedar Point called Top Thrill Dragster and there's also this ride at Thorpe Park in England called Stealth but it's not as tall or as good as those." I liked that kid because he knew what he was talking about. Maybe he will become an enthusiast some day.

Thanks for reading! I had a great time here and would definitely go again!

Here are some pictures and I have included 2 nerd shots of Nitro's lift motor and a weird Kingda Ka support in Zumanjaro's queue. If you want any of the pictures PM me and I will get them to you.

Nice Trip Report! Now I must ask the question now that you've ridden both; Boulder Dash or El Toro? Also, Bizzaro (in it's current form) or Nitro? Glad you got to try out Zumanjaro and ride Kingda Ka as both rides are down like 80% of the time and they're both can't miss experiences. Also glad El Toro lived up to the hype, and I agree that there should be more Intamin Pre-Fabs.

[Paradox]

Coaster Hero wrote:

Nice Trip Report! Now I must ask the question now that you've ridden both; Boulder Dash or El Toro? Also, Bizzaro (in it's current form) or Nitro? Glad you got to try out Zumanjaro and ride Kingda Ka as both rides are down like 80% of the time and they're both can't miss experiences. Also glad El Toro lived up to the hype, and I agree that there should be more Intamin Pre-Fabs.

Thanks for reading!

I would have to say Boulder Dash is better due to it's interaction with the terrain and my bias towards Lake Compounce (if you look in the Lake Compounce 2016 thread you will see I am defending Lake Compounce a lot because of my bias towards them).

Bizarro is much better than Nitro imo because it has nice airtime moments and a very strong finish and its spaghetti bowl section is much more forceful. Also Bizarro is much more photogenic especially next to the CT river.