Today I headed over to the park with Melissa for what was my last Great Adventure opening day for the foreseeable future. (I'm moving to Florida next month for anyone who doesn't know!) While we didn't stay too long, and hopefully some other members of the site checked out more than we did, it was still a nice day and we had a good time!



You can see all the photos from the day at our Facebook page!

The weather was nice, the park wasn't too busy, and everything we saw was open. We headed in, got our season passholder books from the Looney Tunes store, then headed to Safari Discoveries, where we spent the majority of our a time. Then we went to check out Ka, but the line was long! So that was pretty much it. Between moving next month, and oh yeah getting married!, we had some other stuff we needed to do today!

- Safari Discoveries is a great thing to have in the park, but feels a little small. Hopefully they will expand, because if a large number of people end up in there it will be tight! And there's only one entrance and exit. Also hopefully there will be more animals!
- They are doing introduction and training sessions several times a day with the sea lions, and you can just sit there and watch. There are other trainers and educators all over the exhibit with animals. I believe they will be doing shows later in the summer once the sea lions get used to the exhibit.
- I think they need to secure up the exhibits a bit. I fear for some of the animals, especially the birds hanging out between the entrance and the stadium seats.  Oh and the fences where the rabbits are should probably have chicken wire to keep hands out. But this is all just worries because of bad guests, and given everything the park has done with the area in a relatively short time it's a great thing to see!
- There is a big fence in the Golden Kingdom that prevents you from walking from Ka to Toro. Very inconvenient, and I hope it doesn't stay there. I did notice that the 2011 park maps are dawn that way, though. Ugh. We already witnessed several guests unhappy that it didn't go through anymore and they had to turn around through the boardwalk. And it's only going to get worse during the summer. AND I'm sure the trainers and educators in the area don't want to deal with that all year. This was a bad decision.
- Ka was running 3 trains today but seemed.. slow. I watched a few trains sit on the launch (there was only ever one out there at a time) for several minutes before they went. Hopefully this will speed up!

That's, pretty much all I have. One thing that I noticed is there is no mention of Season Passholder Day on Easter Sunday, or Coasters After Dark in May, on the SFGA website, or in the passholder coupon book or on any of the marketing materials. Does this mean those are not happening? That's sad, as CAD was probably going to be my last chance to ride coasters before I move.

One neat thing to look forward to: There will be a show called Extreme Raptors in the Safari Kids Adventure Theater (formerly Wiggles Theater) in the summer! We asked about it and it will have some famous bird of prey dude coming into the park to do shows.  They couldn't remember his name, but did mention he has an eagle flight license, which are hard to get.

Feel free to ask any questions, maybe I can come up with more things I remember! And if anyone else was at the park today, post your experience!





/\ the evil fence \/

Correction to CAD: There is a page in the coupon book for Bring a Friend on Coasters After Dark (May 6th) and Fall Family Fun Night (September 30th). I was looking for a page with all the season passholder events. Although I don't know why they aren't on the website, and I still don't see anything for Season Passholder Only day during Easter

One more thing - I still can't believe they closed the Season Pass processing line at 8PM with the park.  And we weren't the only ones that waited til the end of the night.  Ive done this before with no problem.

Don't get me started lol

That was almost the final straw for us this season. 5 season passes isn't cheap for us. I'm a sucker though and caved. Kids lol

I thought about the idea with not wanting to spook the animals, but what is there really? You would be on the other side of the bears, which you can get just as close to (if not closer) on the inside, and then the swans? And the birds at the entrance of Safari Discoveries can be snuck up on on both sides, especially the two on the left where the fence is. Melissa is worried some kid's just going to run up the hill one day and mess with them.

What do I have to do to get to hold a real life teddy bear like that dude in the picture? I so want!!!

the entire walkway from the entrance to the tiger stadium to Kingdom Trader is blocked off

See attached!

I know we are also getting 5 too ... There is even less for him to do and at 52 inches it is very fustrating !!! there is not much there and I see even less trips if things are the way they were yesterday . Over 2 hours to get on to El Toro with one train was not fun . We only waited for it because it is the one and only "BIG" ride he can go on !! We are booked for Hershey park for some of Easter break and if the height requirements are right on the Cedar Point web site them we will be in ohio in this summer which will give him a HUGE rollercoaster trip since TTD is 52 inches and Millie is posted as 48 !! WHOOO

What happened the large group didnt buy out the park this year so no one gets the season park perk !!

I feel for you guys. In all seriousness, why didn't they just leave it the hell alone. This is unreal. Play structures. Seriously... Geez. They must have had at least 50% less operating budget!  Oh, and they were also HUGE hit which after the number of hours I've spent there I can vouch for.

I remember an employee getting harrassed for that last year. The kid she had clearly wasn't close to height for Ka but she tried to get him through anyway.

I know it seems like it, but you can't really blame Gadv on the height restrictions. It's the state being so strict on it.