With Opening Day a bit of a disappointment, we headed back to SFGAdv on Easter Sunday with great anticipation. The park was closed to the general public & open for season pass holders. Considering that most pass holders celebrate Bunny Day at church & home, we were expecting everything to be walk-on all day. Even through it was sunny, there was a cool wind out of the north to also keep the crowds away.
We arrived right at 10:30am and headed straight for El Toro only to find it still running with water dummies. So we made a bee line for Kingda Ka & found this sight much to our delight.
It's an extremely good sign when Kingda Ka is walk-on even though El Toro is closed. Looks like Easter was going to more than make up for the park's opening day disappointment.
We had a short wait (4 trains) for the front row & as soon as our quick blast off was done we spotted passengers riding the Wild Bull. So it was off to El Toro and another empty queue.
After three back seat go rounds on my favorite coaster it was off to the other side of the park for some floaty goodness on Nitro.
Nitro was already running two trains which were both walk-on, so we took four back row rides before we noticed that a second train with water dummies was already running on El Toro. So it was back across the park for some more Intamin prefab fun.
We took another three back seat rides on the wild bull before taking a break at Nathans for lunch. Two chili dogs, some fries & an ice tea later we were off to ride Superman. We had a 30 minute wait for the front row because they decided to start running a second train just before it was our turn to ride, but it would have been walk-on if we had chosen to sit in any other row.
After our flight over the parking lot we headed next door to GASM, which is almost always walk-on. Today was no exception and within seconds we were in the front seats heading through one inversion after another.
GASM was running great and Aidan didn't regret coming along for the ride, as the 36 year-old-looper failed to give him the usual headache. So we made our way back across the park for some more Nitro fun with smiles all around.
There were three trains running by the time we arrived at the B&M floater much to our surprise. With two trains the coaster was walk-on & three trains was overkill TBH, but we weren't complaining. :wink:
We took another three rides in the back row before hitting up Batman for the one and only time today. The kid & I took the front row while four others grabbed the back seats, leaving all the rows in between empty.
We though we'd go back and blast off on Ka again, only to find the ride closed due to wind gusts above 300 feet. So it was back to El Toro to finish up the day.
On our way over we spotted Rolling Thunder stuck at the top of the lift hill & soon the classic woodie was closed for the day (not that we were going to ride it anyway).
After another two back seat rides on El Toro, the train we just rode also got stuck on the lift hill as we waited for it to come back into the station.
It only took about 10 minutes to get the coaster running again and we got in another two back seat rides before 6pm & they announced that the train we were on was the last train of the day. They also announced that we could stay seated if no on was waiting to get on in our row, but the ride supervisor:Matt & ride manager:Andrea hopped across the track behind the last air gates, forcing us to scramble up two rows before someone else got the only empty seats left on the train. So we managed one last glorious ride and I managed to snap one last photo while we waited to pull into the empty station as Matt & Andrea yelled at me to put my camera away.
Needless to say the day went even better than we had hoped it would & we left the park beaming from ear to ear. :--D
Ride count:
El Toro - 11x
Nitro - 7x
Kingda Ka, Superman, Batman & GASM 1x each
Everything at a leisurely pace & all rides either front or back seats. What more could you possibly ask for? Night time rides? Well Coasters After Dark is just around the corner (Friday, May 1st) & once again the park will be open to season pass holders only.
We arrived right at 10:30am and headed straight for El Toro only to find it still running with water dummies. So we made a bee line for Kingda Ka & found this sight much to our delight.
It's an extremely good sign when Kingda Ka is walk-on even though El Toro is closed. Looks like Easter was going to more than make up for the park's opening day disappointment.
We had a short wait (4 trains) for the front row & as soon as our quick blast off was done we spotted passengers riding the Wild Bull. So it was off to El Toro and another empty queue.
After three back seat go rounds on my favorite coaster it was off to the other side of the park for some floaty goodness on Nitro.
Nitro was already running two trains which were both walk-on, so we took four back row rides before we noticed that a second train with water dummies was already running on El Toro. So it was back across the park for some more Intamin prefab fun.
We took another three back seat rides on the wild bull before taking a break at Nathans for lunch. Two chili dogs, some fries & an ice tea later we were off to ride Superman. We had a 30 minute wait for the front row because they decided to start running a second train just before it was our turn to ride, but it would have been walk-on if we had chosen to sit in any other row.
After our flight over the parking lot we headed next door to GASM, which is almost always walk-on. Today was no exception and within seconds we were in the front seats heading through one inversion after another.
GASM was running great and Aidan didn't regret coming along for the ride, as the 36 year-old-looper failed to give him the usual headache. So we made our way back across the park for some more Nitro fun with smiles all around.
There were three trains running by the time we arrived at the B&M floater much to our surprise. With two trains the coaster was walk-on & three trains was overkill TBH, but we weren't complaining. :wink:
We took another three rides in the back row before hitting up Batman for the one and only time today. The kid & I took the front row while four others grabbed the back seats, leaving all the rows in between empty.
We though we'd go back and blast off on Ka again, only to find the ride closed due to wind gusts above 300 feet. So it was back to El Toro to finish up the day.
On our way over we spotted Rolling Thunder stuck at the top of the lift hill & soon the classic woodie was closed for the day (not that we were going to ride it anyway).
After another two back seat rides on El Toro, the train we just rode also got stuck on the lift hill as we waited for it to come back into the station.
It only took about 10 minutes to get the coaster running again and we got in another two back seat rides before 6pm & they announced that the train we were on was the last train of the day. They also announced that we could stay seated if no on was waiting to get on in our row, but the ride supervisor:Matt & ride manager:Andrea hopped across the track behind the last air gates, forcing us to scramble up two rows before someone else got the only empty seats left on the train. So we managed one last glorious ride and I managed to snap one last photo while we waited to pull into the empty station as Matt & Andrea yelled at me to put my camera away.
Needless to say the day went even better than we had hoped it would & we left the park beaming from ear to ear. :--D
Ride count:
El Toro - 11x
Nitro - 7x
Kingda Ka, Superman, Batman & GASM 1x each
Everything at a leisurely pace & all rides either front or back seats. What more could you possibly ask for? Night time rides? Well Coasters After Dark is just around the corner (Friday, May 1st) & once again the park will be open to season pass holders only.
