Eventually, I did make my way out of the park after some more filming and riding Harley Quinn Crazy Train. Yeah, guess I wasn’t done riding when Ryan and Brian left, huh? Oh well. I love this park, big rides and small. And on that note, I’d like to touch on something that I decided to leave out of my vlog, but feel needs to be addressed. 

In my vlog I debated on whether or not to include a segment where I brought to light how rude the park’s security can be at Great Adventure. As an enthusiast, I respect the parks that I visit and don’t think I’m above the rules. That being said, I do think that as a human, I, along with other guest who are visiting the park, deserve not only hospitality, but respect.

Other than not getting in a ride on Jersey Devil Coaster or Batman the Ride, which was also closed, the evening turned out to be a great one in terms of ride variety. Sadly, I didn’t come away with too many photos from this visit. I didn’t want to waste our time stopping for photos, especially since I had taken a bunch last week. I did manage a few night photos and motion trail shots, like the ones of Green Lantern and Superman shown above. I figured they’d be something a little different for the SFGAdv Gallery once I get it published to the site.

I’m not sure if this will mark my final visit to SFGAdv for the season or not. It’s not like I thought I’d be going either of these last two visits anyhow. I know Kaylee really wants to ride Jersey Devil Coaster, so maybe we’ll be back up again soon. I’m also thinking Sam and Greg might be up for one last visit before 2022. We shall see!

After riding Jersey Devil Coaster 13 times, I certainly felt it in my legs walking back out to my car. You know what though? I have no complaints. It comes with the territory and I’d do it all over again if I knew I could go up on a day like Sunday with small crowds and kind ride ops. Part of me does wish I jumped on some of the other coasters, but when you go to a park as many times as I’ve gone to SFGAdv, you don’t feel like you’re missing out. I’ll grab some rides on the others before the end of the year, I’m sure. The others like Kingda Ka and El Toro (which is still closed anyhow), I’ll look forward to riding in 2022.

If you read the June 5, 2021 blog, “Knoebels – An Impulse Decision,” then you’re aware that Sam discovered a love for log flumes that day. She told me after riding Knoebel’s Giant Flume that she wanted to ride Coal Cracker at Hersheypark. Well, we haven’t gotten back to Hershey yet, but Sam was game to ride SFGAdv’s Saw Mill Log Flume yesterday. I was glad for two reasons. One, I haven’t ridden this log flume in years. And two, it was hot!

I had forgotten how long and scenic a ride the Saw Mill provides. You get great views of the lake and we also managed to get splashed a couple of times prior to the final drop. When walking off the ride, Sam commented how glad she is that she discovered how fun log flumes truly are.

The coasters listed above weren’t the only ones we rode during our visit. As a matter of fact, we rode every coaster and four of the flat rides. On her Tuesday visit, Kaylee also squeezed in a few more flats, like Twister, that we didn’t get to. She also managed to get a few re-rides on some of the coasters, like with Kingda Ka. It would have been awesome to be back there on that day too, but after doing Hersheypark and SFGAdv back-to-back, Sam and I needed some rest. 

You can view Monday’s ride tally in the count below. What do you think of this new Final Ride Counts box for these trip reports?

Yup, that pun is totally intended. Naturally, more visits to SFGAdv are on the horizon, although none are planned as of yet. In the immediate future, Sam, Renee, and I will be heading to Hersheypark again on Sunday with our friends, Amber and Jason. Sam and I are also looking to visit for Hersheypark’s Season Pass Holder Preview Night on Friday, April 23. 

Other than Hershey, the only plans we have set in stone right now are on Saturday, May 8 at Kennywood. Last year I won a season pass to the park in their Kennywood Jack Rabbit 100 Years, 100 Memories Contest. Covid put things on hold, but the park sent out an email inviting all the winners, plus one guest, to attend their Jack Rabbit 100 Years Ceremony on opening day. Sam and I will be attending that and maybe even Knoebels the following day.

Upon entering the park, after waiting about 10-15 because the pass member perks for all members arriving at the park were not registering properly, Sam directed us straight to Nitro. I wasn’t about to complain, but on the way back, I wanted to stop and show Greg the construction site for Jersey Devil. Earlier in the year I had shared some photos with him, but on this day, he could see it for himself.

During our time taking some photos, we saw some workers and trucks driving around. The very next day I saw posts being made about construction resuming on the ride. It would have been awesome if we would have been there to see them raising some track. Oh well, a day late. Story of my life.

As we looked at Jersey Devil, Nitro loomed over the trees in the distance. I took a few photos and we were then on our way for the first two rides we would get on the coaster that day. Know we wanted to do the 10 rides in a row, after our second ride I asked Sam and Greg if they wanted to keep going and do it now, or come back and do the 10 in a row later at night. The elected to do it at night. That was fine by me.

Since we weren’t too far away, we decided to head to Harley Quinn Crazy Train to secure Greg’s other missing credit. He wanted to try this coaster the last time he visited the park, but didn’t know what his non-enthusiast friends would think. He elected to ride the park’s larger coasters that day instead. Lucky for him, Sam and I are also coaster nerds and love a good ride on a family-sized coaster too. And with the ride, Greg has now completed SFGAdv’s available coaster credits.

When Greg and I met back up with Sam, I asked her if she wanted to try to ride Batman the Ride one last time. I hadn’t seen it run in a while, so I wasn’t sure if it was even open. Sadly, it was not. Unlike the first ride, no one came over to unlock the gates. It was done for the night, it looked.

It was during this time I had something pop into my head, though. If we left the park now, as we had intended, Dark Knight would be our final ride at SFGAdv in 2020. Although it’s a decent Wild Mouse, we still clown on the ride a bit for some laughs. So that’s when I suggested we ride the ever-so-badass Skull Mountain instead. This is another coaster we totally clown on too, but it’s a guilty pleasure. To Skull Mountain we went.

Another night shot I managed to get was of the illuminated Skull Mountain. Sam and I enjoy this ride. Not because it’s the greatest or anything. We just do, for some odd reason. True, it could use a lot more theming on the inside to match the outside, but we always jump on it nonetheless. 

Other than a bunch of Taki’s ads that I never noticed in prior visits (bringing the total count to 3 million Taki’s ads in the loading station), I told Sam that I feel like Skull Mountain used to have a soundtrack that used to play during the ride. Am I wrong here? Mandela effect, perhaps? If someone else remembers this, please let me know. I just feel like I recall some metal sounding music with a monster groan playing over it from time to time.