Photo TR: Mr. Maier goes to Great Adventure

So I made the time to take a trip to Six Flags Great Adventure on 11-4-17 (glad they have the bonus November days).

Took me only 2 hours 35 minutes to drive up there (left home at 7:25 am, got into the parking lot at 10 am) . Not much traffic going up 95 and the Jersey Turnpike on a Saturday morning. The high temp was only 56 and there was a Wine & Safari special event.

Soon as the gates opened, went straight to Movietown and ended up being the first person in line for Batman: The Ride. Can't beat front row on a B&M invert (and yes, I did go twice in a row to start). After that . . . walked right on over for a spin on the Dark Knight. Then I took a ride on JL:BFM, didn't get highest score on my car, but I had fun so that's what matters. Bit surreal to see how nice JL is and how fresh the Showcase Theater looks; then over the fence, the abandoned Old Country.

Then I took a couple of rides on Nitro (front row & back row), and wow . . . . Nitro in cooler weather is sweet.

Then I made my way towards Boardwalk, making single stops on The Joker (I got on the purple side), Skull Mountain and Houdini's Great Escape.

Did a couple of turns on Superman: Ultimate Flight (front row once, back row once) and of course, got to love the Pretzel Loop. Between S:UF rides, popped on Green Lantern once, then once on Parachuter's Perch.

After my second S:UF ride, I spotted a train running on Bizarro, so of course I was making my way over there. Of course, I had to get my requisite trips on Kingda Ka (three times; twice first car second row and once second row last car) and Zumanjaro once. Got two rides on Bizarro.

But of course, the highlight for me . . . your Golden Ticket award winning EL TORO. Twice for me . . . . once in the front row (with about a 10 minute wait) and once in the back row.

Then I made my way back to the front of the park, and finished off my day with another turn on Skull Mountain, Batman: The Ride (back row) and . . . two more turns on Nitro (both front row). Nitro at night is . . . so awesome.

Then I decided to pack it in and head home about 7:25 (with some rain as I crossed over the Delaware/Maryland state line).

Overall it was a very good trip. Decent crowds + colder weather + not too terrible lines (the biggest lines I saw were S:UF and KK). Operations were very good, getting trains dispatched quickly . . . and the food operations were good as well (Johnny Rockets chicken tenders & fries/onion rings for lunch, pretzel for snack and Cheese-steak for dinner, with plenty of water for me); didn't have wait too long for my eats.

My overall ride count:

Nitro - 4

Batman: The Ride & Kingda Ka - 3

Skull Mountain, The Dark Knight, Superman: Ultimate Flight, Bizarro, El Toro - 2

Green Lantern, Houdini's Great Escape, Parachuter's Perch, SkyScreamer, Twister, JL:BFM - 1

My overall toll cost: $37.20 ($4 for the Fort McHenry Tunnel each way, $8 for the Perryville toll plaza going out, $4 for the Maryland/Delaware state line each way, $4 for the Delaware Memorial Bridge coming back, and $4.60 for the New Jersey turnpike from the DMB to exit 7A).

I might come back up again for HITP (I do know everything beyond Boardwalk is closed for that. But heck, it means marathon runs on Nitro and/or Batman: The Ride) . . . were HITP crowds last year at GAdv hectic?

And now for the pictures:

Obligatory parking lot shot . . . .

Getting things prepped for 'Holiday in the Park'

NITRO

Purple Side for me . . . I got decent rotation and two complete flips (I know with these Free Spins, YMMV on how much you spin)

Green Lantern is WAY smoother than Apocalypse

El Toro and Kingda Ka . . . . what more can you ask for?

Cobra roll time!

Of course I wanted to get a coaster shirt!

You got on a heck of a lot of rides! Funny about the tolls, I was just up there 2 weeks ago and we commented that nobody in my family actually knows how much we are paying in tolls every time we head up since we just zip through with the EZ Pass. I knew it was around $30 though.

HITP is definitely worth the trip. The ride lines last year both times I went (on a Sunday) were not that bad. I think I waited the longest for the round-trip sky ride and it was about 40 minutes with the line filling the entire queue and spilling out towards Skull Mtn. It was absolutely worth the wait. Everything else was between 15-30 mins. People are watching shows, oogling at the beautiful light displays, getting in line for photo ops with the characters and huddling around the fire pits nomming on food and sipping hot chocolate so are too busy to ride rides. The colder it is the less people in line for sure. I'm excited that JL is in that area now as it'll be warm inside the queue!

Sounds like an awesome visit!

Very nice trip report! Glad to hear you had a good time! You know, I always read posts trashing this place. But after reading some recent trip reports and watching some vlogs from here, it doesn’t look like a bad park at all. Matter of fact, it looks really good. I’ve even seen some videos of ride operations where most coasters were dispatching under 1 minute. Yes, it’s a still a Six Flags, but it looks like one of the better parks in the chain.

Wonderful!

Great report! Cool to see the Holiday in the Park decorations coming up. That event is awesome.

Nice report. These November weekends have been really great. I almost went Sunday but came down with a really nasty cold Friday so told my buddy I was out, and he wound up going and said the place was deadsville with walkons everywhere. Bummed I missed it. Thanks for sharing.