Day 6 Part 1
After an awesome week in Virginia and Pennsylvania, it was time to end the trip with a bang. After getting up at 5:45 and fitting the entire cabin into the trunk of the Hyundai, we were off. If you're wondering why we left so early, it was to avoid any possible traffic since we only had a day at the largest park of trip. Despite not being familiar with the area, the last thing we wanted to do was get stuck in traffic.
Luckily the traffic we had anticipated never appeared and before long we were in the Garden State.
Not realizing the park opened half an hour later than we had expected, we stopped at McDonalds to try out the local cuisine.
After waiting around for awhile, it was off to one of the parks that had been near the top of my bucket list for years...
image.jpeg (690.87 KiB) Viewed 6880 times
Almost immediately we realized the park was getting very packed. Granted it was a Friday in the summer with a 0% chance of rain so what else could we have expected? Crowds aside, we kept our hopes up.
Once the park opened, we quickly made our way to what was about to become Sean's first Strata Coaster.
image.png (1.08 MiB) Viewed 6880 times
Whether or not you like them, these are incredibly massive and downright intimidating no matter how many coasters you've ridden. Plus, there's something fascinating about knowing you're looking at the tallest roller coaster on the planet, along with the tallest drop tower.
With the queue not being too bad, we decided to try out the front row. As we pulled out to the launch pad, I got a little nervous as I never got to ride Dragster in the front. Simply looking at all 458 feet of the coaster made me nervous. The ride? Fantastic! Don't think I've ever felt rushing wind reach into my eyelids and cause them to flap around like that. Some might see these as one-trick-ponies, and that may be true, but wow is it one heck of a trick.
Quickly afterwards, we rushed to Zumanjaro. This ride has been very interesting to me as I had always wanted to ride Lex Luther from the moment it was announced. Now I'd get to ride one that was 15 feet taller! The view from the top is just amazing, there's nothing like it in the world... literally. Simply being on the side of a Strata is unlike anything I have ever done in my life. But the drop? Meh. Not much to it really.
Ride number three was done to get it out of the way since we may or not have been dreading it.
image.jpeg (751.3 KiB) Viewed 6880 times
Mantis remains the 2nd worst coaster I've ridden and I couldn't imagine Green Lantern being any better. Though the ride, despite not being good by any means, was a lot better than I expected. We (unintentionally) got placed in the front row. Its fairly smooth for a stand up and pretty enjoyable to be honest. Must be a Six Flags thing because Georgia Scorcher was actually pretty fun.
By this time lines were REALLY starting to pile up. Several rides with a 90+ minute wait. Sean and I both agreed it would be better to pay the price for a Flash Pass and guarantee that we would get everything in. And to be honest it was VERY worth it. A much better system than I had previously thought and one that allowed us to get a lot of extra rides in.
The fourth ride of the day was the park's newest coaster.
image.png (1.33 MiB) Viewed 6880 times
I still remember thinking this was an awful addition when it was announced back in September. However after seeing in person my beliefs began to change. The ride is actually very aesthetically pleasing and fits in very well. The theming is is great and the ride itself is a lot of fun. The flips are a lot more intense than I had first expected and even got a few man screams out of me. Truth be told, I no longer have a problem with Six Flags cloning these, they're just a lot of good fun.
Moving on, with Sean's 100th coaster approaching we credit whored our way on and off the Harley Quinn family coaster. After which was the park's mine train. Nothing special about it really, it was actually pretty rough in some parts.
Now with Sean at 99 credits, it was time...
image.png (1.52 MiB) Viewed 6880 times
image.png (1.11 MiB) Viewed 6880 times
I'm not going to lie, I was extremely excited for this. I don't think I've ever heard one negative review of this ride or even one that didn't give it heavy amounts praise. Well I'm about to step into the lion's den but here we go... I though El Toro was very good. Not amazing, not mind-bendingly insane, just very good. I guess I had set impossible expectations for this ride over the last seven years. Don't get me wrong, it's a very fun coaster that provides a lot of airtime, but I suppose I had convinced myself that the restraints would break away from all the airtime.
.jpg "WP_20160609_11_33_25_Pro (2).jpg (361.85 KiB) Viewed 6908 times")
