The Dark Knight was coming close. The park was opening a new ride using action scenes! It was a long time-a-coming. I couldn?t sleep much the night before and when I woke early, I tried to feel the weight of it all. I was tired!
Make no doubt about it; An indoor attraction is my favorite type of ride. Epcot was a favorite park as a kid, outside of Great Adventure. I liked riding the slow-moving vehicles to travel past dinosaurs in the tropics, the pyramids in Egypt, and a farmhouse in the early 20th century to see what life would be like in the late 21st century. Six Flags focused on thrills, and any change in direction toward indoor rides with scenes would have to come in the form of a coaster.
I arrived at the park late and it felt like it was time to clock in. When I saw Wade, Tom, Bubba and his friend Tom, my focus changed to riding that new type of coaster!
Before I posted about Great Adventure on the net, I wished Six Flags would build a big indoor-attraction for families. Between Ultra Twister, The Scream Machine, Shockwave, Batman and Viper, I was inverted-out. I thought the park may refurbish The Runaway Train with a new, large indoor-addition but the park introduced Skull Mountain. I was happy with it, but the novelty wore off in time. Mach 1 and Houdini helped the park revolve toward making the indoor family attraction a staple at the park, but Six Flags changed focus at the start of this new decade. Skull Mountain was a fun family-ride but its lack of scenes couldn?t allow the ride to compare in scale to the new thrill rides built in Premier Parks' time.
Excitement over The Dark Knight Coaster wasn?t so much for me as it was for the park to attract more families. Great Adventure has five major thrill coasters, all built within the last 10 years. That's reason alone for a Type-T personality like me to be lured out of his sleep. The families with children under 48?? have allot of rides to enjoy in the park?s four children areas and on 15 older big rides throughout the park (eight of those rides are height-required.) Now the park needed a big new marketable ride for everybody, yesterday.
Thank you Wade and Angel for the invite to the opening ceremonies.
(I should have posed you guys.)
Here are Diana and her sons Austin and Dane, who you will see shortly.
Rob and Melissa made it!
I met Flyin? Phil and a few other people who I will go up to the next time I see them.
Not this guy?
Diana and Wade in their Dark Knight shirts
(The pose shot doesn?t always work)
^Should have had a V8
Ride supervisors Marc and Dom are dressed for the occasion too.
Dainan was the warm up act
Six Flags Great Adventure?s President Mark Kane
Dainan captured Mr. Kane?s speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHLhFjQFAhg
TDK?s first line cutter couldn?t wait!
Angel started speaking
And the crowd erUpted
I felt so fortunate to witness all of this!
The ribbon-cutting ceremony
Bubba said these were deleted scenes from the movie
?It?s the Dark Rat. Snicker. Snicker. Snicker.?
There?s Bubba and his friend Tom! (My camera took too long to capture their other smile)
Mel, Rob and my on-ride photo
(I?ll scan it later)
And their after reaction?
FROM THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE JUSTICE LEAGUE?
Came these guys looking for their on ride photo?
They posed with Dane and Austin
(Someone asked Robin what he thought about his ride coming down for the Dark Knight! I let him know that we were glad we could ride this one.)
Dom shows the Batman symbol from the ribbon-cutting ceremony
Ken, Nick and Wade share their Dark Knight Coaster experience
It?s the public?s turn
Dark Knight?s first park guest
The ride?s first Flash Passer
The preshow is hilarious
The overflow of opening day guests
I loved the ride. It was a modern version of the scenic railway, with new technology behind the effects. I like the ride as much as my top five coasters in the park: Rolling Thunder, Nitro, Batman, The Great American Scream Machine and El Toro. It?s in there with my all-time favorites, too many too mention. The Dark Knight is something to do while it is raining, and it almost did.
I like the pre-show. I can tell we are going to be all ?Rocky Horror Picture Show? by the end of the season. I don?t understand the random movie images, but I like it. Perhaps The Dark Knight movie will explain it.
The scenery in the ramp is cool. I can?t believe I didn?t take my camera inside! The station doesn?t look very ?in disarray,? and I like it. I love the cars moving through the station. The lift hill seems to move so quickly since it is indoors.
I don?t like that I don?t work there, or else we could ?Guess the number of rats? or, ?What are all the locations of the Joker cards??
I like hairpin turns! Arrow-esk! The holograms were interesting. I missed them the first time. The Batman shoot-out scene at the burning building didn?t quite work correctly each time, but I did see it work every time when we went up the lift hill. I like the curving swoop. The big bright box shooting at us was the back of a truck! Perhaps they can get this thing to back up toward us, or pull away! I couldn?t make out the scene at the bottom of the ride across from the truck, but that gives me all the more reason to come back. I like the dips. They came out of nowhere. Hills were something sorely missing in Skull Mountain. A scene towards the end of the ride was not working, but they will get it working.
It?s a dark ride/ mouse in a box, and I like it as much as Exterminator. It has better scenes and Exterminator has spinning. Will Six Flags install a ?B SIDE? with spinning cars for the thrill riders?
* I moved the rest of the TR here
http://gadvupdates.com/forums/index.php?topic=2324.new#newThanks for reading thus far!
Topic: Dark Knight Media Day (Read 24145 times)
