Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv) Discussion Thread

[KPfan]

I would think that ground work would have already started if they were building a coaster. Unless they already have space available.

[AmyUD06]

I will be visiting Six Flags Great Adventure on Sunday, August 4th for a few hours in the evening, then all day on Monday the 5th. This will be my first visit to the park.

1) How crowded should I expect the park to be on those day, and how long I should expect season pass processing to take? Would it be worth getting a Platinum Flash Pass for Monday?

2) In what order should I hit the coasters?

3) Any interesting or underrated flat rides I should check out?

4) Anything else I should know?

 

1. You probably won't need a FP on Monday, but budget for it just in case. SFGAdv's typical clientele will make you not want to wait in any lines with them at all whatsoever.

2. Kingda Ka as soon as you see it running, since it might not run all day. Others can fill in preferred routes.

3. Wonder Woman (if it's up), Zumanjaro, and Houdini. Cannot stress Houdini enough.

4. If you're not flying, go to Kings Dominion or Busch Gardens instead and have yourself a much more enjoyable time. If you are flying or will be in the area for other reasons, go to Hershey Park, Knoebels, Dorney Park, or Morey's Piers and have yourself a much more enjoyable time.

Edited July 30, 2019 by Mike240SX

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Zach, I'm glad your arrival in Philly was about 10x better than mine! What is it with that city? Gotta love it though.

 

Great Adventure is everything I could ever want in a Six Flags in New Jersey. I hope it never changes.

[3Mutts]

I will be visiting Six Flags Great Adventure on Sunday, August 4th for a few hours in the evening, then all day on Monday the 5th. This will be my first visit to the park.

1) How crowded should I expect the park to be on those day, and how long I should expect season pass processing to take? Would it be worth getting a Platinum Flash Pass for Monday?

2) In what order should I hit the coasters?

3) Any interesting or underrated flat rides I should check out?

4) Anything else I should know?

 

1. Not that bad, unless you see a ton of tour buses in the parking lot I don't think it'd be worth getting FP.

2. Go to Kingda Ka first and El Toro after. Other than that any order will do.

3. Zumanjaro, Houdini, the Parachute Tower, Justice League (unless you rode one of its clones), and Wonder Women are all worth doing.

4. DO NOT SKIP THE SAFARI that's one of the best attractions at this park.

[Jason Maier]

I will be visiting Six Flags Great Adventure on Sunday, August 4th for a few hours in the evening, then all day on Monday the 5th. This will be my first visit to the park.

1) How crowded should I expect the park to be on those day, and how long I should expect season pass processing to take? Would it be worth getting a Platinum Flash Pass for Monday?

2) In what order should I hit the coasters?

3) Any interesting or underrated flat rides I should check out?

4) Anything else I should know?

 

1. Flash Pass on a weekend is recommended; weekday . . . YMMV

2. Haul ass to Kingda Ka; you don't know how much downtime it'll have during the day. Other than that, marathoning Nitro is a must

3. Houdini's Great Escape; Vekoma madhouses are fun

4. Safari is a must do; but it closes at 4 or 4:30

[DILinator]

Great Adventure is everything I could ever want in a Six Flags in New Jersey. I hope it never changes.

 

You're not wrong! I accept it for what it is, and it never stops me from going!

 

Also, I have never been to the safari, in spite of being to this park more than any parks other than my "local" parks. I am now wishing my sister and I had done that when we got tired of the park two years ago, and then maybe we would have felt more up to staying until close and getting night rides on the bull. Oh well... Hopefully it's another non-crowded day next time I go, and I can finally check it out!

 

This 2020 addition announcement is intriguing... I had pegged the park for possibly getting an "East Coast Racers", pretty much a clone of what SFMM got. However, unless these "world records" are mundane and ridiculous (an absolute possibility, and maybe even likelihood!), I am not sure how it would fit that addition. This announcement definitely makes the 2020 speculation more interesting though!

 

Question for those in the know. Is there a height limit for this park? I know there is that AFB fairly nearby, so I wondered if they would be limited. I'm going to predict that regardless of what this is, if it a coaster with any size or substance to it at all, I think they will be removing the North Star Arena, and placing it over there, bringing more traffic and revitalization to that corner of the park.

[B&MIntaminGCI]

They took out El Diablo and are getting the world's largest Larson Loop.

[prozach626]

I will be visiting Six Flags Great Adventure on Sunday, August 4th for a few hours in the evening, then all day on Monday the 5th. This will be my first visit to the park.

1) How crowded should I expect the park to be on those day, and how long I should expect season pass processing to take? Would it be worth getting a Platinum Flash Pass for Monday?

2) In what order should I hit the coasters?

3) Any interesting or underrated flat rides I should check out?

4) Anything else I should know?

 

Don't get Flash Pass. Read my report and you'll understand why. I'd spend a couple hours at the park to see if you'll need it, first.

 

You'll need a locker to lock everything up before riding El Toro and Joker.

 

4. DO NOT SKIP THE SAFARI that's one of the best attractions at this park.

^Definitely this. The Sufari is practically a destination of its own.

[boldikus]

They still use the North Star Arena for concerts constantly, it ain't going anywhere.

 

If they wanted to put a coaster back there they have the entire area where the old Safari entrance was, as well as the giant area between Ka and Toro. This park has plenty of room and doesn't really need to remove anything for a large scale coaster or addition. Not that we're getting one anyway - "world record breaking", "monstrous" and "legendary" can be used to describe anything - a new kids area, a flat ride, a waterpark addition, a larson loop even. Everybody calm the f*ck down lol.

 

As far as a height limit, I highly highly doubt they are going for something taller than Ka. We have that record, and they can still market it.

[Highridin]

Maybe the monstrous and legendary part can have something to do with the name. Jersey Devil fits that description.

[coasterbill]

I love Great Adventure but almost all of our visits are in March, April and early May and then we avoid the place until November aside from maybe a few quick visits for an hour or so while we're driving by anyway.

 

I love the park, but the summer and Fright Fest crowds aren't really my thing. It's a very "Jersey" experience to say the least.

[boldikus]

^ Yep. There's a reason why most of my summer local trip reports are from Moreys and not Great Adventure. Once Memorial Day hits, its best to mostly stay away until after October.

 

@ Zach - glad you guys made it it to Tony Lukes and your Philadelphia culinary experience was not a let-down. They are good steaks. The rest of your trip sounds pretty typical of Philly and Great Adventure (lol), compounded by an overall "when it rains it pours" kind of vibe. Sorry it wasn't a great visit. :/

[B&MIntaminGCI]

I never have any issues at the park. I mainly go on Wednesdays and the park is almost always ghost town. I love my Wednesdays at the park.

[boldikus]

The last few years I'll just do random weeknights after work throughout the summer once I know the park has been light/dead that day. Just enough time for a few beers, bull rides and to remember why I don't like the park in the heat. lol

[jarmor]

Maybe they are announcing something like a T-REX!

[Highridin]

Ok, good. Let me ask. For all of you that go in August. How are the crowds on W-Th? Could pull off going on Tuesday instead, but rather Thursday, honestly.

 

Thanks,

[michaellynn4]

During the week tends to be better, but it's honestly a crapshoot. You may not notice any significant difference between the dates. Best way to prepare is to look up if any special events are occurring those days.

[Highridin]

Thanks for that. I'm going to find out. One thing is that most summer camps would have ended. Don't know if that's a good thing or bad. :-/

[DILinator]

Regarding the North Star Arena, I didn't know about it still being used much, not being a local. Literally every time I've been to the park (going back to the 90's) it's looked like a run-down dump, and that area as a whole feels like the part of the park that time forgot (yes, I know they have an actual part of the park like that, where the Old Country section used to be.) It was just a thought though, and certainly they can work around that arena in that part of the park, as it does make sense to expand there at some point to liven the area up.

 

Having said that, with the removal of El Diablo this year (which I actually just learned about since my last post! lol Random Larson Loops have never been high on my radar!), and apparently some land clearing around El Toro, there is some thought something may goes there. Who knows... It's not like the park has any shortage of places to expand.

 

Also, while I get that it's become humorous (and pretty cliche, honestly) around enthusiast circles that SF:GAdv hasn't gotten anything large scale in years, and this could absolutely be another red herring, it also may not be, and that's totally reasonable as well. As one of the premier SF parks, and in one of if not THE largest market, GAdv is definitely a prime location for a larger addition than most of the chain gets at some point. I mean, look at West Coast Racers, and there's absolutely no reason to think GAdv wouldn't get something like that at some point.

 

I mean, I get keeping your expectations low guys, but coaster enthusiasts participate in a lot of "memes" about certain things in the industry, and many times, eventually those memes are proven wrong. There is no reason to think a park of GAdv's caliber will never get a coaster addition larger than Joker again. Maybe next year will be the year, maybe it won't be. But at some point, they will get another larger (relatively speaking) coaster, it's only a matter of time. It's not a big deal to me one way or the other, and I certainly have no expectations for this announcement to be anything but much ado about nothing. But I just figured I'd point this out, since it seems some people are too quick to be dismissive about certain coaster topics (such as this one), when logic and reason bears out that the joke will eventually be on them, and not the people eagerly hoping for another large coaster at GAdv, as it usually is.

[prozach626]

I mean, look at West Coast Racers, and there's absolutely no reason to think GAdv wouldn't get something like that at some point.

 

Except that you won't get West Coast Racers if you're on the east coast.

 

[DILinator]

^

 

Hence, why in my previous post I referred to their potential incarnation as being called "East Coast Racers"! Both cloning that coaster, and naming it that, seemed like very Six Flags things to do!

[boldikus]

Regarding the North Star Arena, I didn't know about it still being used much, not being a local. Literally every time I've been to the park (going back to the 90's) it's looked like a run-down dump, and that area as a whole feels like the part of the park that time forgot

 

Are we talking about the same thing? Are you sure you're not referencing the arena in Movietown that looks like sh*t on purpose?

 

The Northern Star Arena and the area around it look fine, I guess. It's definitely not an area I'd consider run down. Enthusiasts regularly bring up this needing to bring life to that area but I swear its just because they see Bizarros *usually* shorter queue and assume no one comes back to this area lol. But between the flume, BOTW, SORA, Bizarro and the Mine Train, there's actually a good bit to do back there. When there are concerts it is absolutely mobbed.

 

If you google street view the area it gives you this shot (apparently from 2011 so maybe not the best example - but you did reference it looking like crap going back to the 90s, so...) I dunno. Not breathtaking or anything, but looks nice?

 

Here's a few shots this/last year of the area from Great Adventure History:

 

The front of the arena could probably use some paint and freshening soon, the concrete could probably use a repave but you could argue that about the entire park.

 

That arena had at least 3 large music concerts in May/June of this year, and there is a large christian concert this weekend and the big annual Caribbean festival/show two weeks later that we locals know to avoid because the place is a madhouse. Here is last years' summer schedule (courtesy of GAH):

 

it's looked like a run-down dump, and that area as a whole feels like the part of the park that time forgot (yes, I know they have an actual part of the park like that, where the Old Country section used to be.

Again, not sure what you're referencing. With the additions of Cyborg and Justice League there isn't a whole lot of Old Country left. And of what is left, what is visible to the public looks really nice. Again, courtesy of GAH:

 

The area that is fenced off and not easily seen by the public is very small and maayybbee enough room for a medium scale coaster?

 

They've also been building a smaller structure back here that is most definitely looking like a Fright fest trail. (photo courtesy Meghan from GA Connoisseurs)

 

To maybe give you a better idea of how little space is left, here is an overhead (google maps hasn't updated in a while apparently, so yellow = Wonder Woman, blue = Justice League, red = Cyborg, green = available space. I guess a Raptor or something would fit there but why would they when they have all the open area near Toro/Ka?

 

Speaking of all that land - there is tons of it already. Yes they've removed Diablo and sent that POS off to La Ronde where it belongs, but there hasn't been any other activity to warrant getting excited for over there. Splashwater Oasis (the waterplay thingy across from Ka) is fenced off and removed from the map, but still there. No one has spotted any markings or activity over here otherwise.

 

On the flip side, there HAVE been markings spotted all around the Safari Kids area behind Congo Rapids/Nitro. The Fright Fest trail behind there has been completely removed. There have been flags spotted in the woods directly behind this area. The little kiddie car ride that took a chunk of this area was completely removed. Now THAT area looks like the land that time forgot.

 

I mean, I get keeping your expectations low guys, but coaster enthusiasts participate in a lot of "memes" about certain things in the industry, and many times, eventually those memes are proven wrong. There is no reason to think a park of GAdv's caliber will never get a coaster addition larger than Joker again. Maybe next year will be the year, maybe it won't be. But at some point, they will get another larger (relatively speaking) coaster, it's only a matter of time. It's not a big deal to me one way or the other, and I certainly have no expectations for this announcement to be anything but much ado about nothing. But I just figured I'd point this out, since it seems some people are too quick to be dismissive about certain coaster topics (such as this one), when logic and reason bears out that the joke will eventually be on them, and not the people eagerly hoping for another large coaster at GAdv, as it usually is.

If GreatAdv adds any roller coaster at all for 2020 I'll happily videotape myself eating my foot in slow-mo and post it for all you nerds to j/o to.

[michaellynn4]

Just to help out, Google Maps was actually updated last year. Boldy, you have to turn off "Globe" view, that's why it incorporates the 3d stuff from Google Earth into what you're seeing.

[boldikus]

^ Word, thanks! That actually helps prove my point even further.

[RollerManic]

I don't ever see this park getting a T-Rex on the scale enthusiasts want to see - 200+ft tall. It's just not in Six Flag's interest to invest that much into single attractions anymore.

 

I would absolutely love they got a new new Premier launch coaster since they took out their first, but I don't care when it happens, honestly. Toro/Ka/Nitro/Bizzaro/the Safari are going to have me coming back to this park for years to come regardless.

 

I do hope whatever comes goes into Rolling Thunder's spot, though. I'm in the boat that keeping Rolling Thunder around, even in it's crappy state, still would have been a better solution than tearing it out to leave a gigantic hole in the park and not replacing it with anything.