Photo TR: Six Flags Great Adventure 6/16

[Josh Linn]

I apologize for the length of this TR, but here it is:

 

We went to Hersheypark for our senior class trip on June 4th (no TR, but Fahrenheit is sick and Storm Runner is still amazing), and ever since then I've really wanted to get back into the whole coaster thing. When I was 13 years old, I was as big of an enthusiast as anyone else here was. I obviously couldn't drive and I'm about the only person in my family that likes roller coasters, so I was lucky to get to 1-2 new parks a year. I'd get to Knoebel's multiple times since it's right down the road, maybe Hershey or Dorney once, but the rest were all vacations.

 

For whatever reason, I guess you could say I grew out of it. My family decided that they'd rather go to the beach than go to amusement parks, so I was SOL. I didn't even go to Knoebel's (still haven't either, not since '04, I'm waiting for the Turns but I miss Phoenix dearly). Before the aforementioned senior trip to Hershey, the last parks I visited were IOA and USF in 2006. The feeling I got while at Hershey was pretty much "damn, I miss this". I wanted to plan something and go to another park as soon as I could. The initial plan was to go to a place that I haven't been to before, but there really wasn't anywhere within reasonable driving distance that I haven't been to, so instead I picked a place that has 1) added a ton since my last visit and 2) has rides that I didn't get to go on when I was there last. Great Adventure fit the bill.

 

My first and only visit to SFGAdv was in 2002, and from what I remember, I enjoyed myself. However, I only managed to get on 6 coasters (Nitro, Medusa, B:TR, Rolling Thunder, GASM, Viper). Nitro and Medusa immediately broke into my top 10, B:TR was one of my favorite inverts, and Viper and GASM were decent. With the additions of S:UF, El Toro, and Kingda Ka, not to mention getting to ride Nitro, Medusa, and B:TR again, it was the perfect choice.

 

With the help of a Tastycake Buy 1, Get One Free coupon, I managed to drag my one friends with me. She doesn't mind coasters, but was a little afraid to go on the likes of Ka and Nitro. They were calling for rain and thunderstorms all day, but I had a gut feeling that we would be fine, so we went anyway. We left around 8:10 AM and was there by 10:45, which I understand is making good time (going 80 on the interstate goes a long way, I guess). The park didn't seem too packed, which was a good sign. I was hell bent on getting on Kingda Ka, so we headed over there first. We got in line to see a good number of the switchbacks full, so we said screw it and would go back later. Apparently the line wasn't as long as we thought, because on all of the coasters they would fill up the station and then cut off the rest of the line and have it further back. We couldn't get a clear view of KK's station from where we were, so we didn't know that at first. Oh well, on to El Toro.

 

EL TORO - I said before that I'd be hard pressed to find a wooden coaster better than Phoenix. Well, I found one. Everything I heard about this ride proved to be true, it was amazing in every sense of the word. The drop was sick, getting yanked over every hill was sick, and the end was crazy. The air I got on the hill leading into the twisted turn ending was Phoenix-esque. It was pure speed start to finish, and it's now sitting atop my wood list. 10/10

 

After El Toro, I had a bit of a headache, which really worried me. I know some people develop motion sickness on coasters, and I was afraid that I was too. I was fine at Hershey last week (except for Sidewinder), so I'm hoping that this was just a fluke or something. Anyway, we headed back to Medusa so I could catch up with an "old friend".

 

MEDUSA - After riding Medusa in 2002 it was one of my 5 favorite coasters. It wasn't quite as good as I remembered it to be, but it was still a great ride. Love the first drop and the zero g roll, not to mention the great pacing. No longer in my top 10, but still a favorite. 9/10

 

My friend wanted to hit up Runaway Mine Train on the way out of that section, but it was experiencing "technical difficulties" so we passed. We worked our way to Movie Town because she really wanted to get on Dark Knight, but the attendant at the front of the line said "wait is about an hour, not worth it", so we moved on to the bigger Batman-themed ride.

 

BATMAN: THE RIDE - B:TR was the fourth B&M invert that I rode, following Talon, Alpengeist, and Great Bear, and was my 2nd favorite after '02. It's just as intense as I remembered and still ranks among my favorite inverts (behind Raptor, Montu, and Talon). I actually greyed out in the transition between the first loop and zero g roll and was pretty close to doing it again right after the second loop. 9/10

 

We checked TDK again, still a long line. We decided to check out Skull Mountain, which had no line. It was a good little ride, and the first drop really sneaks up on you. After a quick ride there, we headed back to Nitro.

 

NITRO - After my ride on Nitro 6 years ago, it was my #1 or #2 coaster, Apollo's Chariot being up the other. I remember tons and tons of floater air and a sick helix leading into the MCBR. I must say that in 2008, Nitro left me disappointed. Still a fantastic ride, don't get me wrong, but there seemed to be less air this time around. Still a good amount, but nowhere near what I experienced last time. The helix was intense as ever though; I greyed out near the end of it. Not the perfect 10 it was before, but still well worth the ride. 9/10

 

After Nitro, we went to check out the line for S:UF, and it looked a little lengthy, so we skipped it. She then saw GASM and wanted to ride that, which was a huge mistake. I won't dedicate a paragraph to GASM, it wasn't worth it. I'd like to know what happened to it, though. In '02 it was a good ride, not a great one, but not as painful as I was expecting. In '08, horrible. I got knocked around early and often, and it actually made my friend's ear bleed (she was wearing little stud earrings). My headache got a million times worse after that, so we took a break. We went through the Fly Me to the Moon 3D show, which sucked, then we got some food. She liked what she got, but my mozzarella sticks were subpar. I didn't know marinara sauce was supposed to be watery. After a little rest, I decided it was time for some Ka.

 

KINGDA KA - Damn. That is all. But really, TTD and Ka were the only rides that I was legitimately scared to ride. My friend was terrified too, but along with the fear I was also pretty pumped, so she didn't really appreciate me getting all excited. I decided to make matters worse when they played the "128 MPH in 3.5 seconds" over the loudspeaker by saying "Hey, you know that's pretty fast right? It's pretty tall too." She responded with "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you" when we were getting ready to launch. Speaking of the launch, WOW. I love launches, and ever since Storm Runner 2 weeks ago, I was craving something even faster and better, and Ka delivered. The top hat was pretty sick, as was looking over and seeing everything look so small. The "small" hill into the brakes provided some nice floater air. As insane as that was, I'd still rank Storm Runner as my favorite Intamin rocket. I'd go SR 1, Ka 2, TTD 3. It's still a top 5 ride for me, but Storm Runner is top 3. 10/10

 

I've looked and noticed that this TR is dragging on, so I'll condense the rest.

 

After Kingda Ka we went over to Dark Knight and decided to suck it up and wait. The pre-show was really cool. Decent in length and made me sort of feel like I was in Gotham City. The rest of the queue was nicely themed also. As for the ride, just your standard Wild Mouse, but packed a punch due to minimal braking. Easily my favorite of the Wild Mice due to the above average theming.

 

Headed over to Superman, wait was non-existent, walked right into an empty row in the station. This was my first flying coaster, and I thought it was pretty fun. The pretzel loop was as intense as advertised, but the rest (save the inline roll) was just average. Re-ridable, but not near the top of my favorite coaster list.

 

I had to beg my friend to get one last ride on El Toro before we left, so we got that out of the way, as amazing as it was the first time. We made our way towards the candy store on Main Street and left at about 8 after picking up some stuff for the road. We made our way back to PA and got home around 10:45. I had to pull over after an hour because I was so tired, so she took one for the team and drove the rest of the way.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience. SF seems to be doing everything right here. The park was clean, all the staff I encountered were nice and seemed to enjoy their jobs, and the dispatches on rides were solid. This trip did it's job, which is get me back into my coaster loving mentality. It introduced me to two of my favorite coasters, including my new favorite wooden coaster. Lucky for me, I'm going to college at Bowling Green which is just a short drive from Cedar Point, so my habit will be supported for at least 4 more years. What was a really spontaneous, spur of the moment trip turned out to be a huge success.

 

As for the pics, they were all taken with a cell phone, hence the poor quality.

we found this sign funny for some reason

medusa's cobra roll in all its cobra-ness.

2 of my new favorites

from our parking spot...looks a lot different than it did in 2002.

kingda ka from the road leading into the park...very nice.

going 80 mph and texting at the same time...don't try this at home

[ttd rox]

Awesome TR. Medusa looks cool in its Medusiness. Anyways, KK looks cool but El Toro even cooler! I want to ride both and maybe someday I will! Thanks for the PTR!

[FeelTheFORCE]

Cool pics! I was just there a week ago and already miss it.

[Reon]

I'll have to disagree with you a bit. For me, its Phoenix at the top and then El Toro, but its still a really awesome ride! I'll have to go back to NJ sometime to get a second opinion, since I only got 1 ET ride during my credit run, compared to 7 runs on Phoenix when I got to Knobels.

[Medusa1861]

Dude, That's not cool. You look like a little kid, and even if you are an adult you shouldn't be breaking rules (Theme Park Review is strongly for not breaking rules) I.E. speeding and using a cell phone while driving (both of which cops can and will pull you over for. I'm sorry for this being the first thing for me to say, but I can't stand when kids think they're so cool and exploit how bad of a driver they are.

 

I also can't understand how you think this management is doing better. This is by FAR the worst year i've ever gone to great adventure. Sure they've been doing some things "better" but they are so strict about the locker policy and all i hear are ride operators yelling at people for trying to leave their cell phones with non-riders. The park has manifested itself into almost the "advertising capital of the world". I guess since you haven't been to the park, it might be fun, but until this year, i have never been unenthusiastic about going to SFGADv.

 

Sorry for my rant.

[Thom25]

^Yikes, ya know, when I was growing up my folks would always tell me if you don't have anything good to say - then don't say it.

 

I will say that texting and driving is illegal in NJ and should not be done by anyone.

 

I thought the TR was awesome - thanks for sharing - and if you like ET - then get to SFNE and ride RoS (it's steel brother).

[Loopy]

^^ I have to agree with this. At your age, I don't think you realize how dangerous driving can be while you are following the rules.

 

Blatant disregard, now that's another thing.

 

Be careful while you are driving dude, there are no second chances.

[coasterbill]

Idiots like this are why there are always accidents on the turnpike. There is no other reason as to why a perfectly straight road with very few exits is always backed up except for that people don't pay attention. Pay attention to the road, especially near Six Flags since you usually have to slam on the brakes right before exit 7A or at the merge.

[johnusername]

is El Toro a rough ride like typical wooden coasters?

[coastakid]

^ Not at all. It is very smooth, although incredibly intense in term of airtime, and speed at which the overall ride is taken.

 

Well I'm not going to go into how bad of a driver you are since I'm 14 and can't comment on that, but I will comment on how I'm glad you had a fun day, and are starting to get back into coasters. I've been obsessed since I was around 4 years old and never even began to drift away.

 

-Jon

[Josh Linn]

Dude, That's not cool. You look like a little kid, and even if you are an adult you shouldn't be breaking rules (Theme Park Review is strongly for not breaking rules) I.E. speeding and using a cell phone while driving (both of which cops can and will pull you over for. I'm sorry for this being the first thing for me to say, but I can't stand when kids think they're so cool and exploit how bad of a driver they are.

 

I also can't understand how you think this management is doing better. This is by FAR the worst year i've ever gone to great adventure. Sure they've been doing some things "better" but they are so strict about the locker policy and all i hear are ride operators yelling at people for trying to leave their cell phones with non-riders. The park has manifested itself into almost the "advertising capital of the world". I guess since you haven't been to the park, it might be fun, but until this year, i have never been unenthusiastic about going to SFGADv.

 

Sorry for my rant.

 

I actually am 18, first of all, I don't see a reason to lie about my age. Second of all, I figured the chances of me getting pulled over were low considering I either barely kept up with traffic or was getting passed by car after car. Third, I was only told you weren't allowed to talk on the phone while driving in NJ, didn't hear anything about texting. We made it there and back safe, it's all good.

 

As for the park...I personally didn't experience any of the things that you talked about. The only time I heard a ride-op yell was when a small group tried to sneak up from the FastPass line without a FastPass, and the only time I saw employees strictly enforce a rule was when people were smoking outside of the designated areas, which is an extremely good thing, IMO. I have a feeling the Six Flags of old might not have taken the same steps.

[BeemerBoy]

Third, I was only told you weren't allowed to talk on the phone while driving in NJ, didn't hear anything about texting.

 

Yeah, um, what exactly was the reason for texting while driving on the highway? I'm dying to see the transcript from this ingenious moment in time.

[Josh Linn]

Third, I was only told you weren't allowed to talk on the phone while driving in NJ, didn't hear anything about texting.

 

Yeah, um, what exactly was the reason for texting while driving on the highway? I'm dying to see the transcript from this ingenious moment in time.

 

My friend texted me...I wasn't going to ignore him...I'm not trying to be a smartass about this either, but that's the story.

[coasterbill]

didn't hear anything about texting. We made it there and back safe, it's all good.

 

Well now you have (Link)

I have no problem with the speed because sometimes (even though it's a 65) that's just the speed people are going, but pay attention to the road. Yes, you should ignore him. Think of all of the people that are going to be stuck in traffic when they have to clear the debris, not to mention the other drivers closer to you put in danger.

[Medusa1861]

I actually am 18, first of all, I don't see a reason to lie about my age. Second of all, I figured the chances of me getting pulled over were low considering I either barely kept up with traffic or was getting passed by car after car. Third, I was only told you weren't allowed to talk on the phone while driving in NJ, didn't hear anything about texting. We made it there and back safe, it's all good.

 

Well I'm hoping that now you know the rules that you become a safer driver, for example, I'm assuming there was someone else in the car, he or she could have answered the text for you.

Also, your driving habits should not reflect your "chances of getting pulled over" but rather how to get to your next amusement park as safely as possible.

- Happy Coastin

[Wes]

I think we can all agree that he shouldn't be texting while driving, but please get back to the Photo TR and not dwell on cell phone laws and unsafe driving habits.