Photo TR: Six Flags Great Adventure

[TopThrill182]

Photos will be uploaded tomorrow.

 

Six Flags Great Adventure

 

Date of Visit: July 28th

 

Weather During Visit: Sunny and extremely hot with a very slight period of rain

 

Crowds During Visit: Light - Medium

 

Time at Park: 10:30am - 10:30pm

 

Trip Report

 

The Park

 

The park itself is very nice.  It is extremely large, and everything feels very spaced out.  Some pathways and areas, especially the lakefront area, are so spaced out you can forget you are in an amusement park.  

 

There are several themed areas within the park.  The Golden Kingdom and Plaza Del Carnival are the newest areas, and are excellently themed and have a great atmosphere.  There is a ton of landscaping in these areas also.  These are the best areas of a Six Flags park I have seen yet.  

 

Movie Town, a relatively new area, really lacks any excitement.  There is no themeing, or very little themeing, no rides, no shops, no nothing.  The area is just very dead, and not nearly as good as Gotham City areas of other Six Flags parks.  

 

The Frontier area of the park is the only other noticeably themed area of the park.  It could use a bit more themeing, and has a bit too much concrete, but is still a relatively nice area of the park with a real Western feel.

 

The older areas of the park aren't nearly as good, and aren't noticeably themed.  They are similar to many of Cedar Point's midways, where individual attractions may be given a theme not tying into an overall area, but these areas of the park lack any landscaping or atmosphere.  Unfortunately, there are quite a few of these older areas.  

 

Upkeep of the park is decent, but no where near Cedar Fair standards.  Queues are broken and dilapidated, you will occasionally find trash in certain areas, and there are plenty of things in the park that have clearly been abandoned (old ride queues, stores, etc).  The upkeep wasn't horrible, but could definitely use some improvement.

 

Employees were generally friendly, quite friendly actually, but many weren't very knowledgeable of the park, the park's hours was a big confusion for all the employees.  English speaking employees were really needed.  Employees at photo stands, and other key locations where they need to be able to communicate with the customer, were unable to understand what kind of photo package I wanted.  Still, not horrible, but not great.

 

The Rides

 

Nitro:  We got on Nitro twice.  The ride has nice aesthetic appeal, with a great paint job, and nice station, and queue.  The B&M trains are extremely comfortable as always.  THe first drop is great, and tons of floater air follows.  The ride length is quite long, but this almost makes the ride a bit monotonous.  I actually think it would have been better if it were a bit shorter.  The location of the ride isn't as nice as Goliath's (SFoG), and the ride lacked an intense element of any sort.  It could have used a good turnaround.  Don't get me wrong, its a great ride, but the ride basically goes like this: hill with floater air, hill with floater air, hill with floater air, etc, etc.  Floater air is great, but some more elements need to be in the mix.  This had a huge helix, but it was so long it felt like one big turn.  I felt like this ride was built really "safely".  They tried to throw in as much air time as possible so as people would like it, but didn't try to do anything else with the ride.  Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia on the other hand seems to get out there, put its best elements on the table, and gets done.  As you can tell, I prefer Goliath to this.  While Nitro ended up not being amazing, or a top 10 ride, it is a great ride with tons of air time.  

 

9/10

 

Batman The Ride:

 

A nice intense ride as usual.  It was smooth and a lot of fun.  Nice loops and zero-g-roll.  It is a really nice and intense invert.  

 

8/10

 

Skull Mountain:

 

This was a really fun little indoor coaster.  The ride was completely dark, and I do mean completely, so it was a surprisingly good ride filled with air-time and unexpected twists and turns.  It was a simply enjoyable ride.  One thing I did notice though, is as the day went on and it got sunnier, the ride building would get lighter allowing you to see some of the track.

 

7/10

 

Rolling Thunder:

 

The first ride I got on this (right side) was horribly rough and had little to no air-time.  The second ride however was great!  It was fast, it had a lot of air-time, and was very enjoyable.  This was the left side, and was very fun.

 

7.5/10

 

El Toro:

 

This is the best and most insane coaster I have ever been on.  The trains are extremely comfortable, and you aren't stapled.  The crew was quite efficient as supervisors were usually present.  The lift feels just as fast, if not faster, as Millennium Force.  It provides a nice view of Medusa and Kingda Ka.  A quick turn around at the top of the lift leads to the first drop.  The first drop is absolutely insane.  In the back of the train, you get ejector air during the first drop that seems to last forever, and it is definitely more air than on any other coaster.  The drop is long and amazingly steep.  The roaring of the train as you hit the wood exiting the first drop is a great feeling.  Two more hills follow that produce the same great air-time, which is still insane ejector air.  The ride is already great.  You then enter a steep turn-around (steeply banked) which leads to a nice hill that produces floater air-time that flies past the station.  The hill gives you a split second to breath before the next element.  You go up a hil while turning to the left, and then fly over the top of the hill.  Going down is insanely steep, and longer than the uphill part.  The ejector air here is almost as insane as the first drop.  Since it is in the middle of the ride and less expected, to me this is the best part of the ride (hill rather).  Three Maverick tkype quick change in direction turns follow, hwich add to the excitement.  An s-turn type element follows which leads to another nice hill and then the brake run.  Even at the end of the ride you are still traveling at a really fast speed.   At this point, this is my number 1 coaster.  The insane ejector air, and I do mean insane, the awesome steeply banked quick change in direction turns, and the fact that it is the smoothest coaster I have ever been on (and it is wood) makes this an insane #1 coaster.

 

10/10

 

Great American Scream Machine:

 

The dispatches were very slow for some reason.  There was some trash in the station, a large container of orange juice to be specific.  The ride felt very slow, and was also quite bumpy.  The bumpyness wasn't horrid, but the coaster was still very boring.

 

6/10

 

Kingda Ka:

 

The ride was running perfectly all day.  Lines were very minimal, and were even a walk-on for much of the day.  We waited 35 minutes for the front though.  The ride was quite bumpy, and there was a 3-tug launch which I am not a fan of.  Literally, you can feel the cable yanking on you 3 different times.  The one tug launch on Dragster is more intense and comfortable in my opinion.  The ride felt incredibly intense throughout though (I felt plastered to the seat), but I don't know if this is only because I haven't ridden front on Dragster recently.  The ride still fell short of Dragster by quite a bit.  The bunny hill added to the disorienting feeling of the ride, but this also detracted from the fun.  Dragster's straight away after the hill allows you to feel your speed more.  It also didn't feel like you were on top of Kingda Ka's hill as long as Dragster's, as it looked like Kingda Ka tended to over launch.

 

7.5/10

 

Superman: Ultimate Flight:

 

The dispatches were good (35 minute line with a full queue) but the ride is a bit dull other than the intense and fun pretzel loop.

 

7.5/10

 

Medusa:

 

This ride (and Scream!) is still one of my favorites.  There is a great layout, especially with the zero-g-roll and the interlocking corkscrew section.  The floorless trains only add to the ride's "fun" factor.  This is a great ride.

 

9/10

 

Mine Train:

 

It was a bit short, and other than a nice helix and turn over the water, it was pretty dull.  Other than the occasional boredom, it was a fine mine-train coaster.

 

6/10

 

Other Rides/Attractions

 

There really aren't many other rides at this park to talk about.  Kiddie rides are in great supply, but there is a concerning lack of flats at the park.  Houdini's Great Escape was quite fun (you sit in a car while the room spins around you making you feel like you are spinning).  The sky ride provided a nice view of the park.

 

Notes/Observations

 

-Employees were generally quite friendly

-Upkeep of the park could be better

-One woman took a bag on one ride that flipped numerous times, and mid-ride the bag opened, sending a razr cell phone, camera, sun tan lotion, and numerous dollar bills flying through the air (it was cool to watch)

-Nitro ride-op got angry and started screaming in the station as people were trying to leave their lap bars up slightly in order to obtain the most air time.  One quote from him was "Six Flags does not allow air-time".  Mind you, during his rant, the train was e-stopped half in and half out of the station.  After the screaming, we pulled ours in as tight as possible.

 

Next up: (Paramount's) Great America

 

 

I have many more photos that will be uploaded after I finish with all the trip reports.  I should get the next few out quite quickly as they are already written mostly.

 

-TT182-

A little preview...

[Jim S.]

-Nitro ride-op got angry and started screaming in the station as people were trying to leave their lap bars up slightly in order to obtain the most air time.  One quote from him was "Six Flags does not allow air-time".  Mind you, during his rant, the train was e-stopped half in and half out of the station.  After the screaming, we pulled ours in as tight as possible.

 

Although leaving the lap bar up on Nitro doesn't seem like the smartest thing in the world (it was plenty scary banking in a sideless train with it all the way down), the park really didn't seem to allow airtime when I was there last month. They pulled my seat belt tight on Rolling Thunder! I've ridden the back seat of Phoenix enough to know that seat belts aren't even necessary at all on most wood coasters.

[Little Coaster Girl]

El Toro - The trains are extremely comfortable, and you aren't stapled.

 

HUH!!?? I dont think i saw one person on that coaster chunky or skinny that wasnt stapled to the seat via the seat belt and lap bar that they push as far down as they can push it , even if your legs are in the way. Dont get me wrong, i love el toro, its my favorite woodie, and the ride ops where great, but its no way comfortable. Thank god the ride is so much fun , that it takes your mind off the pain some.

[robbalvey]

When we rode in April, during all my rides I was "secure" but I was never stapled to the point of pain.

 

All of my rides were perfectly comfortable.

 

--Robb "Maybe the ride ops just don't like you?" Alvey

[lil jimmy norton]

Sometimes they staple you, sometimes they don't. It really depends on the op I think. Sometimes I will push the restrain down a little more because I get paranoid, and I have some kind of axiety disorder. Every coaster I go on I check the restrain five times.

[Divv3k]

When I was at Great Adventure a week ago I must've rode El Toro about 20 times (the park was DEAD).

 

I found that some ride ops were worse than others when it came to pushing down on the lap bars. But even then, I also never found myself uncomfortably pinned into the seat.

[hemmy]

 

I haven't been to GADV since El Toro was built I am very sad inside.

[TopThrill182]

Here are the photos: