Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv) Discussion Thread

[boldikus]

JFC calm down y'all. Have we learned nothing from the whiners who freak out at the first POV videos of coasters shot early in the season on cold mornings with an empty train? Like any ride, its going to feel differently than it looks from an offride video. As far as the ride program for Cyborg, it changes. Did the last few posters miss this line?

 

Second ride had more intensity to it so it seems to vary.

From CJ (if unfamiliar, he basically lives at the park) who rode it 12 times as soon as it opened yesterday:

 

 

It’s funny how many people premptively bitched about nausea when Joker (Total Mayhem) was announced yet no one said a word about nausea when this contraption was announced.

 

Huh? Plenty of people in this thread (myself included) have been saying they wouldn't go near this vomit machine since the very moment it was announced. I also said the same thing about Joker and turns out I love the free-spins.

 

at least they're not some $#!tty, can't sing, can't play instruments, no-talent, rap act!

Care to be more specific? Or are you insinuating that all hip-hop artists have no talent?

[Sluggo77]

^Boldikus is right. Give it time. This was just my first impression from day one of it being open. I didn’t stand there to video each cycle to pick the best looking one and I believe this was only the third of the day. I was on the first full cycle with CJ but didn’t marathon it like he did LOL. We definitely flipped more on my second ride so the early mellowness could easily just be part of the break-in cycle. Either way I’d wait to ride it for yourself before drawing any conclusions from this.

[thrillrider]

Does anyone know if they still sell ribbon fries? If so, where in the park do they sell them?

[GCI Wooden]

I've been crazy busy for the past few months so I'm just trying to catch up with all the stuff that's been going on and I completely forgot that this thing was actually getting built. I love seeing some weird flat rides get installed. It's interesting that it has a unique ride cycle everytime, I suppose it makes sense for it to adapt to weight distributions but I didn't expect it.

 

Also, regardless of the quality of the on-ride experience, you can't deny that it is a really cool ride to watch.

 

Are they that band that gets super pissed when you call them a Christian rock band even though they’re totally a Christian rock band?

 

Yeah, this is them! To be fair, they aren't explicitly Christian Rock, at least they weren't. Sadly, it seems they've trended in that direction recently...

I literally saw them at a Christian music festival I went to with a friend last summer lol

 

They're okay at best, I wasn't a fan.

[alilstronger]

Cyborg looks so boring! It barely even flipped once. I am obsessed with spin and pukes but this just looks boring. With all the pieces spinning its a visually neat looking ride but the over all experience looks boring. It reminds of the terrible cycle the runs on Twister - when I rode that last it flipped twice.

[DILinator]

Are they that band that gets super pissed when you call them a Christian rock band even though they’re totally a Christian rock band?

 

Yeah, this is them! To be fair, they aren't explicitly Christian Rock, at least they weren't. Sadly, it seems they've trended in that direction recently...

I literally saw them at a Christian music festival I went to with a friend last summer lol

 

They're okay at best, I wasn't a fan.

 

Oh, I'm not saying they don't play at Christian music festivals, or get lumped in there. My point was more that they themselves don't classify themselves as Christian rock, and a lot of their songs over the years aren't about Christian things specifically. I personally like that they're not pigeonholed like so many "Christian" artists.

[B&MIntaminGCI]

Happy 12th Birthday El Toro

[jamesinclair]

Review from Saturday:

 

Arrived around 11am. Was still able to park close by, row 11, 10 cars down from the premium barricades.

 

Security lines were long. Dont understand why they dont have a no bags line.

 

Went into park and went straight to Cyborg. The "secret" path was wide open, but no signage. Walked straight on to the ride. The ride has a basic queue area, but does have a basic metal roof for some shade. Thanks God. Needs more trees though (surprise surprise)

 

....and about 30% in we got stuck. Took about 3 minutes for them to lower the ride back to starting position. Everyone in line was kicked out and the mechanics brought in. We did not get a chance to re-ride.

 

The ride we got was super mellow. We did about one flip. Hope they fix that.

 

Since we were in the park primarily for the concert, we decided to have a very different day and focus on the non-coaster rides. However, Safari was closed for training (there was a lot of training going on in the park), and both water rides were closed. It was very hot so we really wanted those water rides. We saw the logs getting tested.

 

Justice League was about a 10 minute wait. Enjoyable as always, especially with the AC blasting.

 

Did Dark Knight which was better than I remembered. All the effects were working. However, the bad forced video was set to volume level 1 so you couldnt hear anything.

 

Hit the Batman Roller Coaster. About a 15 minute wait. For some reason they were not loading the train until the second train arrived behind it and came to a full stop.

 

I wanted to go on the giant swings which I still havent ever been on. This was the one other ride that was closed.

 

Found a bar serving alcoholic drinks, and more importantly, home to two Freestyle machines apparently nobody knows about. Very useful. I dont know why Id never seen them before, new? (Sky bar).

 

Skull Mountain was about a 8 minute wait. Better than I remember. It was actually dark this time and there were no random pumpkins. Waterfall was on.

 

We did a few of the random fair-style rides...the pirate ship, the spinning thing where you stand up and so forth. All short waits (1-2 cycles).

 

The Sky Buckets were actually running on both sides today, but the line was long.

 

They are building an 'Ale House" near the entrance, looks like an outdoor beer garden. We went to the sushi place. A benefit of membership is a discount off food... EXCLUDING the sushi. I rally hate when they pull fine print like that.

 

We did Diablo, had to wait just 2 cycles. However, they were training so the ride was super mellow, they didnt hold us up on top.

 

The secret path between Diabolo area and Kingda Ka area was wide open, as was the animal area. You could pay them money to feed goats.

 

Houdini was Houdini, waited 2 cycles.

 

I think that's it for rides? Overall, I was impressed. A lot of the annoying Six Flags things have been fixed, like when the door is open in Skull Mountain so theres light, or the waterfall being off, or the skybuckets being half open.

 

Best part: the two rides we went on that usually enforce locker use werent doing so. We were ale to dump stuff on the side. We didnt ride Toro, but no one was posted either, and we saw people walking in with bags.

 

MIRACLE ON ICE. Just makes the day so much better.

 

One negative for the day was that the wait times werent showing in the app.

 

 

As for the concert:

 

They had two lines set up along the back path connecting the Toro area to the logs area. One for diamond passes, one for general queue.

 

At 6:15pm, the area in front of the theater was closed off. I know this because I went to the restroom and couldnt get to the line. At 6:25 they started letting the people who lined up into the theater. At 6:35, the area was opened up so anyone could walk in.

 

Theater was maybe 50% full during the show so there were no restrictions on going in or out. There is a stand inside selling cotton candy, cookies and pretzels. The food stand outside the theater was not open. The closest funnel cake retailer is quite a hike away.

 

The sound inside the venue was good, and the seating was good. Switchfoot played from 7:35pm to 8:55pm. I had a good time. My gf, who wanted to see the band, loved it. The singer actually come to out seating area and stood directly behind us to sing, she got a high five.

 

Only downside is that the only bathrooms are outside the theater and theyre pretty small. I think 4 urinals and 4 stalls. If the theater is 100% full, thats a disaster as theres no other bathroom in that side of the park.

[Sluggo77]

Security lines were long. Dont understand why they dont have a no bags line.

 

When we were there on Thursday and Friday they did have multiple no bag lines. They are all the way to the left hand side. They had security watching too make sure that no bags were brought into those lines.

[JG-77]

Would you guys say this calendar is accurate? I’m hoping I might be able to head up there soon, but my family would probably only be able to go on a weekend (or next Friday - possibly).

[coasterbill]

There's no rhyme or reason to the crowd levels at this park. Give up.

[boldikus]

[michaellynn4]

Yup, they're both right. A few years ago I'd say that you can rely on a calendar like that pretty well, but the crowd level will have no real rhyme or reason behind it now. I've seen slow sunny summer Saturdays followed by slammed overcast Tuesdays. If this is going to be your only visit in a while, you can hold out and see what crowds are like when you get there, but I'd highly recommend you go for the Flash Pass. If it's a money concern, start now and save a couple dollars here or there each day, cut out little luxuries. It'll add up faster than you realize.

[boldikus]

We're lucky because its our home park. Its easy to pop over not knowing what crowds are like and just deal with it being busy, because we can always just come back whenever. I never go to Great Adv feeling like I gotta get it all in, as long as I get some laps on El Toro everything else is a bonus. If the lines for rides are bad I'll just sit at the bar.

[jamesinclair]

Would you guys say this calendar is accurate? I’m hoping I might be able to head up there soon, but my family would probably only be able to go on a weekend (or next Friday - possibly).

 

Park hours are a good proxy.

 

If theyre open until 10pm, they expect a lot of people.

 

If they close at 8pm, they expect less people.

 

Weather wise, the absolute best scenario is major thunderstorms from 6am to 10:29am.

[coasterbill]

Yes, but note that if storms keep people away and there's ANY rain at all lingering throughout the day the park will very likely "close for inclement weather". If it's a Fright Fest weekend the park will pretty much (well... in one case, literally) open in a hurricane but they'll close for marginally cold temperatures or a light drizzle if the park is dead and they're losing money.

[B&MIntaminGCI]

The park is DEAD today. Just got off Cyborg and can confirm it’s mediocre AT BEST. We flipped once.

[JG-77]

Referring to all the responses to my question last page about crowds:

I see. As a follow up question, how does GAdv generally handle rain/storm? What rides are most likely to close during rain? If it thunderstorms, how long after the storm dies down before they re-open stuff?

 

(Sure hope the answer to this question is a bit more conclusive than my last one )

 

EDIT: Just realized coasterbill mentioned some of the answers to the above Q’s in his last post. I’ll leave the questions up there if anyone has something to add.

[hoppedup]

Here now. Rerouted from Hershey due to weather. A gamble, but we got Nitro x2, El Toro x2, Bizzaro, Runaway, and Kingda Ka in about 1.5 hours. KK was the only wait and it was a two train wait.

[coasterbill]

It's simple...

 

Great Adventure will run every ride except Kingda Ka in rain, snow or in extreme temperatures if the park is decently busy. They have a wonderful, ludicrous weather policy where they basically run their rides until they valley or refuse to work anymore. During Fright Fest we rode Nitro in the sleet. It was excruciating. They never closed it. Last year they ran their coasters on multiple 19 degree nights.

 

If the park is dead, they'll close the entire park early in a light drizzle due to inclement weather.

[Canobie Coaster]

5-6 years ago I had a visit where it rained hard enough that El Toro, Nitro, and Kingda Ka all closed for a few hours. But once the rain stopped, I had 1.5-2 hours to marathon them before the park closed early.

 

One of the surprises in that visit was Rolling Thunder. I actually got some really good airtime on the return leg in those conditions.

[Sportsdude360]

The park is DEAD today. Just got off Cyborg and can confirm it’s mediocre AT BEST. We flipped once.

 

Sounds like the park is running a weak ride program. The thing must be capable of a better ride cycle than that.

[B&MIntaminGCI]

^I got on it again and it did about 3-4 inversions, but still a very tame ride. Looks way more intimidating off of it than it feels on it. On ride is very smooth and seems to meander. Comfortable as well. I guarantee anyone that averts spin N pukes could handle this ride no problem.

 

Log Flume is currently testing.

Edited June 13, 2018 by B&MIntaminGCI

[hoppedup]

They had the ride ops, the merch stand folks and even the safari guide asking, "Did you try Cyborg yet?"

 

It's so dead my daughter got coastered out so we did Skyway, Safari Adventure, and the Houdini thing. She still wasn't up for coasters so I went back for more El Toro, Nitro and a front row Kingda Ka. Good times! Except for Green Lantern. It was better than Vortex, though.

[willh51]

Yeah, love this park. Unless there’s a tornado the rides are usually rolling. The polar opposite of Cedar Point. They know the B&Ms will survive freezing temps.