About a month ago, my nephew Mark called me up one Friday and asked if I wanted to go to Great Adventure the next day with him, Lucy and The World's Cutest Grandnephew. So, once again, we loaded up the car seat in the 4Runner, strapped in Little Mark, and off we went with my trusty Garmin (GPS) in hand.
Our objective was to ride as many of the insane wild roller coasters at Great Adventure as possible and in Mark's case, all of them if possible. Also, of course, we planned to take Little Mark on as many kiddy rides as we could and show him a good time.
Yeah, right. Even in October, the lines for the major coasters were 1-1/2 to 2 hours long. As a result, Mark got to ride three coasters in a whole day there, and Lucy and I got to ride one each. I will admit that the first coaster Mark chose to ride was basically batsh*t insane. It was called the "Kingda Ka" and the main feature was a section of track that shot over 400 feet straight up (were talking an actual 90 degrees to the ground) and then after a tight 180 turn in the X/Z plane, straight back down again. I chose the better part of valor and went with Lucy to the kiddy section of that particular part of the park and we showed Little Mark a good time. He even got to see some tigers (probably for the first time) in an enclosure that they had there. Lucy told him what they were called in English and Portuguese. He got to go on some kiddy rides and a cool slide that looked like and elephant's trunk. I think that section of the park had some kind of Rain forest theme.
Little Mark has a good old time on one of the kiddy rides - there were a lot of these for the little ones.
Anyway, Mark was on line for about an hour and a half for a ninety-second ride. I found Great Adventure annoying in that they do have something called a "flash pass" available that will get you a reserved time to get in ahead of the line. But guess what? It costs you another $30 or so beyond the $60 it costs to get into the park. I was not happy with this concept; especially since the Disney parks in Orlando have a similar system that is free. Once you've paid your admission to a Disney park, there are kiosks where you can reserve your entry for some time later in the day - no additional charges.
Here is the "Kingda Ka" that Mark rode on. This is the part that shoots you 400+ feet in the air.
Next, Mark and I went together on a coaster called "El Toro" that was supposed to be the fastest wooden roller coaster in the U.S. Again, we waited over an hour, while Lucy took the little dude on some more kiddy rides. It was a great coaster though. I experienced zero G's numerous times as my butt left the seat and then plopped back down again in the various drops and twists. Mark (who is a coaster connoisseur) even said it was a pretty good one.
Finally, Mark and Lucy went on the "Superman" roller coaster and ended up on line for like two hours. But I didn't mind since I got to take my lil' buddy on some kiddy rides in some kind of Bugs Bunny land that they had. We also wandered all over the park with him in his stroller and then bonded over hot dogs and french fries. Actually, the french fries were a useful distraction which kept him from wondering where the hell Mom and Dad were all this time.
Eventually, Mark and Lucy finished their ride - they enjoyed it - and were reunited with their son. We spent another couple of hours wandering the park including a thwarted attempt to get on the "Batman" coaster (a two-hour wait!) and more kiddie rides for Little Mark. The day ended with a Halloween parade of costumed "Zombies" and we headed home. Little Mark was asleep in his stroller before we even made it out the front gate of the park.
At any rate, a good time was had by all.
Our objective was to ride as many of the insane wild roller coasters at Great Adventure as possible and in Mark's case, all of them if possible. Also, of course, we planned to take Little Mark on as many kiddy rides as we could and show him a good time.
Yeah, right. Even in October, the lines for the major coasters were 1-1/2 to 2 hours long. As a result, Mark got to ride three coasters in a whole day there, and Lucy and I got to ride one each. I will admit that the first coaster Mark chose to ride was basically batsh*t insane. It was called the "Kingda Ka" and the main feature was a section of track that shot over 400 feet straight up (were talking an actual 90 degrees to the ground) and then after a tight 180 turn in the X/Z plane, straight back down again. I chose the better part of valor and went with Lucy to the kiddy section of that particular part of the park and we showed Little Mark a good time. He even got to see some tigers (probably for the first time) in an enclosure that they had there. Lucy told him what they were called in English and Portuguese. He got to go on some kiddy rides and a cool slide that looked like and elephant's trunk. I think that section of the park had some kind of Rain forest theme.
Little Mark has a good old time on one of the kiddy rides - there were a lot of these for the little ones.Anyway, Mark was on line for about an hour and a half for a ninety-second ride. I found Great Adventure annoying in that they do have something called a "flash pass" available that will get you a reserved time to get in ahead of the line. But guess what? It costs you another $30 or so beyond the $60 it costs to get into the park. I was not happy with this concept; especially since the Disney parks in Orlando have a similar system that is free. Once you've paid your admission to a Disney park, there are kiosks where you can reserve your entry for some time later in the day - no additional charges.
Here is the "Kingda Ka" that Mark rode on. This is the part that shoots you 400+ feet in the air.Next, Mark and I went together on a coaster called "El Toro" that was supposed to be the fastest wooden roller coaster in the U.S. Again, we waited over an hour, while Lucy took the little dude on some more kiddy rides. It was a great coaster though. I experienced zero G's numerous times as my butt left the seat and then plopped back down again in the various drops and twists. Mark (who is a coaster connoisseur) even said it was a pretty good one.
Finally, Mark and Lucy went on the "Superman" roller coaster and ended up on line for like two hours. But I didn't mind since I got to take my lil' buddy on some kiddy rides in some kind of Bugs Bunny land that they had. We also wandered all over the park with him in his stroller and then bonded over hot dogs and french fries. Actually, the french fries were a useful distraction which kept him from wondering where the hell Mom and Dad were all this time.
Eventually, Mark and Lucy finished their ride - they enjoyed it - and were reunited with their son. We spent another couple of hours wandering the park including a thwarted attempt to get on the "Batman" coaster (a two-hour wait!) and more kiddie rides for Little Mark. The day ended with a Halloween parade of costumed "Zombies" and we headed home. Little Mark was asleep in his stroller before we even made it out the front gate of the park.
At any rate, a good time was had by all.
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