Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv) Discussion Thread

[BDD27]

Made a quick stop up at the park today to snatch a Bizarro pin crowds weren't too too bad only managed to get a ride on Green Lantern and Bizarro before I had to take off.

My pin addiction continues to grow with every passing day.

Why did I choose this over Nitro or El Toro? The world may never know.

That is all considering I was only at the park for an hour.

Ah almost forgot, Runaway Train looked great with its new cancer fighting ads, what a great cause.

Edited June 9, 2019 by BDD27

[boldikus]

Made a quick stop up at the park today to snatch a Bizzaro pin crowds weren't too too bad only managed to get a ride on Green Lantern and Bizzaro before I had to take off.

 

How you managed to misspell Bizarro twice when you're holding/taking photos of a pin with the actual correct spelling is beyond me.

[BDD27]

^With a phone that likes to "auto correct" dang near any word I type anything is possible. I'm more surprised it didn't change it to Medusa

[Chasehat]

Happy 13th birthday to what is in my opinion, still the best roller coaster ever built, El Toro!

[Joey Cerasi]

For those curious, Great Adventure is now (almost) fully solar powered! They opened/started/turned on their solar panels yesterday. GAH has a nice report about it.

 

http://www.greatadventurehistory.com/GATrips_Summer_2019_06_12.htm

[Sluggo77]

Six Flags Great Adventure held their media day for the new Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth and TPR was invited to attend. Wonder Woman is a Zamperla Giga Discovery which the park is billing as the World's Tallest Pendulum Ride. For comparison it's the same larger size/version as CraZanity at SFMM compared to other park installs.

 

This massive pendulum stands 17 stories tall, spins 40 riders in counterclockwise circles, while swinging back & forth at up to 75 miles per hour. At it's peak it reaches 172 feet in the air. This new ride is now the third consecutive addition/improvement in this general area of the park and it's located between Batman: The Ride and Justice League. You won't have any issue finding it since it's huge!

 

The weather was not cooperating at all early for media day. We have a 3 hour drive to GA and it poured the whole way there. When we were literally 10 mins. from the park the rain started to slow and by the time we parked it was down to basically a light mist.

 

For our reverse POV it had totally stopped and was just a heavy overcast sky. As you'll see in the pics we even got lucky with a couple of hours of perfect weather. Long story short we avoided the downpours. Not everyone was as lucky. When talking with Kristin, who is the parks awesome Communications Manager, earlier some got drenched including herself. This isn't a water ride but early in the day it pretended to be LOL.

 

As for the ride itself we love these flats. My third favorite ride at SFNE is their slightly smaller Harley Quinn version. Riding that a bunch we knew what to expect and although very similar I felt that there was even more hang time weightlessness when WW was in full swing. Both versions are awesome and provide a different experience based on location in the park.

 

I think we ended up riding Wonder Woman 7 times during the event and every time we had a blast. This is such an awesome addition to Great Adventure! We all know that the World's Ultimate Thrill Park has a great coaster collection and outside of that Wonder Woman is going to draw visitors big time for a long time.

 

Thank you to Kristin and the entire Great Adventure team for inviting TPR and for the fun we had while there. As always thanks again to Robb for letting us represent.

 

Here’s the video from media day.

 

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Here's some pics.

Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth!

Why we are here. Besides just loving the park

As you can see the weather wasn't ideal to start but regardless the ride looks amazing!

Jay was taking the majority of the pics as I started messing with my new GoPro

Here's some of the signage talking about Wonder Woman.

Just getting started.

And here is where the weather became great.

Wonder Woman in action.

Due to the rides location we parked in the employee lot. Here's a shot of the recently turned on solar panels covering this lot. The park is almost completely powering operations by solar now. As a park in the Northeast great job Great Adventure!

Here's another shot from the employee lot as we headed out. Blue sky's were gone again but we enjoyed them while they were there. Oh and yea, Wonder Woman is huge. Thanks again Kristin and the Great Adventure team. Until next time, goodbye to Great Adventure and Wonder Woman.

[tanthonyam]

Is it in the old Freefall spot?

[michaellynn4]

Is it in the old Freefall spot?

 

Yes.

 

Flyin Phil recently did a flyover of the area around the park and took a lot of great photos of all the recent updates, including the land clearing for the upcoming hotel / sports complex off of Rte 537 as well as the park's "boneyard" of defunct rides. Here are a couple highlights. The rest can be found on his site here.

 

A couple of Wonder Woman and where the ride is placed:

 

 

The big land clearing off of 537:

 

Overheads of the solar panels in the Hurricane Harbor and employee parking lots:

 

[SbSteveZ]

Finally managed to get out and explore Six Flags Great Adventure after wanting to get out to the park for several years. With Darien Lake joining the SF lineup once more, 2019 seemed like the perfect year to take a couple days to visit.

 

Some worthy things to note:

- We visited on June 18th and 19th. Both days that were forecasted to have thunderstorms all day up until the day of when that changed to being mainly overnight and in the evening on Tuesday. This is what I imagine caused lines to be so incredibly short. We never waited for longer than one train (and that one train wait was because some kids took our seats on Skull Mountain right before the gates opened for us). I was pleasantly surprised that we were able to ride all 12 applicable coasters (minus the road runner attraction for obvious reasons) as well as Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Sky Screamer, the Parachutes, Houdini, Skyride, Deja Vu and others with plenty of time to spare.

- This place is HUGE. Something I consistently realized from ride to ride was just how long the queues were. Perhaps it's because the place was so empty, but Kingda Ka, Zumanjaro, Superman and Green Lantern at a bare minimum are rides that come to mind as having ridiculously long queues - with the only understandable one being Zumanjaro since that one kind of has to be that way.

- Something new to me is that apparently re-rides are not only allowed at this park, but strongly encouraged by the ride operators as well. We were offered re rides on El Toro, Bizarro, Green Lantern, Superman, Batman, Nitro, and Zumanjaro. I wonder if this is specifically a park policy, since Darien Lake still refuses to allow re rides even if the station is empty. This policy is something I didn't think I'd appreciate or like as much until I was able to experience it myself. Basically, if no one was in line to get into your row, you could stay on the train - or - if there were rows that didn't have people waiting for them that were empty, you could go to those rows and ride again as well.

- Apparently the park closed early on June 18th (at around 6pm), we were informed of this from a Houdini operator, but we didn't really care to confirm it since it began to pour moments before she forced us to leave the ride's exit area (totally understandable of course, no hard feelings there).

- Our only negative experience with the park came at the beginning of Wednesday. As explained on this thread a few pages back, we were in fact able to purchase 3 Bring a Friend Passes on Tuesday no problem. Wednesday morning however, we were greeted by an incredibly snippy and rude older woman whom decided it was best to yell at me when asking for "3 bring a friend passes" for purchase. I'm assuming she misunderstood me since she continued to reiterate that I needed 3 season passes to get them, but after enough back and fourth (which I hate arguing, I'm a really nice guy and it was no fun for me at all - I still feel bad about it), it clicked that we wanted to PURCHASE bring a friend tickets and she sold them to us. This exchange took close to 10 minutes and definitely wasn't something I was expecting after dealing with much much friendlier employees in the park the entire day beforehand. Aside from that one thing though, we really could not complain about the staff at all. Most all of them were friendly and knowledgable (minus one guy in the justice league gift shop. I asked if they had a "send to the front of the park" program - which they do - found the slip on the counter right in front of him, showed it to him and he said he'd never heard of it and refused to let us do it. Not a big deal though we just decided to make a run to the car after that anyway and did some merch runs to make the most of it)

 

Anyway onto some overcast and slightly over-edited photos!

Snapchat filter trying to make it seem like it isn't really sad outside. Doesn't look real at all but I do like how it turned out.

El Toro and Kingda Ka from the sky ride. El Toro beyond exceeded my expectations, Kingda Ka however? Not so much.

Wonder Woman: Lasso of Truth was surprisingly amazing (coming from someone who doesn't usually care too much for these types of rides) According to a ride operator, seat #27 was the "money seat" and I have to agree. (for those who are wondering, 27 is the seat by the support closest to Nitro - I believe this was already mentioned on here somewhere)

Post shower rainbow!

I never thought I'd like a wooden coaster more than an Intamin Strata, but it happened. No contest.

This thing was a pleasant surprise too. A fan favorite of most others in my group - mainly because it was so unique to them.

Not that it totally made sense to be where it was (from what I could tell), but I did appreciate seeing Looney Toons all over for sure

At the end of the day, I'd say this was my favorite coaster in the park, with Wonder Woman being my favorite flat. Lots of great stuff here, I wouldn't be surprised if I managed to get back here again before the season is over!

[prozach626]

Thanks for the report! It made me look forward to next month.

[Canobie Coaster]

I love the reride policy at this park. It makes it easy to marathon El Toro.

[michaellynn4]

Thanks for the report! It made me look forward to next month.

 

I didn't realize you'd be out to Great Adventure so soon! Hope you enjoy it!

 

Something new to me is that apparently re-rides are not only allowed at this park, but strongly encouraged by the ride operators as well.

 

Yep, this is one of those things that helps Great Adventure stand out. Growing up going there, I was so used to it. It wasn't until I started to visit many other parks in my late 20s that I realized just how uncommon that practice is.

[prozach626]

We're going to be in Philadelphia prior to going to SFGadv. Where's the best place to grab a cheesesteak?

[AmyUD06]

Boldy will chime in here I'm sure, but you can't go wrong with any of the following:

 

Geno's* (9th and Passyunk)

Delassandro's (northeast)

Steve's Prince of Steaks (few locations, though I'm pretty sure only the Center City one is open for the summer)

Jim's (on South Street)

Ishkabibble's (also on South Street)

 

*Some may call it a tourist trap, but it's still the 2nd best cheesesteak I've ever had (whiz and American without), and I've been to all of the above. 1st best is White House in Atlantic City.

[michaellynn4]

We're going to be in Philadelphia prior to going to SFGadv. Where's the best place to grab a cheesesteak?

 

I'm more partial to a great roast pork sandwich than a cheesesteak, but you can get some really good ones at the non-touristy places without needing to wait 30 minutes as well. Try John's Roast Pork for the best of both worlds. If you make your way over to Reading Terminal Market, DiNic's is good, too, but that one is straight up just roast pork sandwiches.

[Canobie Coaster]

We're going to be in Philadelphia prior to going to SFGadv. Where's the best place to grab a cheesesteak?

 

Do not go to Pat and Geno's. That's the only advice I can give.

 

My friend from Philadelphia took offense when I said my local pizza places were better. Come to find out, Pat and Geno's are the only two places he has ever gotten cheesesteaks from. I feel so sorry for him.

[coasterbill]

This is a Boldikus question but he sent us to Campo's Deli because it was near all of the historic / touristy part of town. Assuming you'll be in that area anyway that might be your best bet even if some place 3 miles away where it's a pain in the a** to park is technically better. Honestly it was f*cking amazing.

[boldikus]

We're going to be in Philadelphia prior to going to SFGadv. Where's the best place to grab a cheesesteak?

 

From another thread:

 

If a cheesesteak is on your Philly bucketlist go to John's Roast Pork. Go to Joe's. Go to Cosmi's. Go to Campos. Go to Delassandros/Chubbys. Go to Phillips. Go to Tony Lukes. Go all the way out to the northeast to go to Steves. But for the love of god don't go to Pats/Genos OR Jim's. It's nice he pointed out that they are tourist traps because it saves me the trouble (but I'll add that all three are absolutely disgusting and if you go at the wrong time you'll wait an eternity and regret your decision).

 

Signed,

A Philadelphian

 

If you'd prefer to not sound like a tourist the correct way to order a cheesesteak in city limits is simple. You state the kind of cheese you want (wiz, american, provolone, etc) and either wit or witout (onions). So basically you walk up to the counter and presuming you want wiz with fried onions you would say "steak, wiz, wit".

 

(P.S. Don't listen to anyone else in this thread try to tell you about Philly cheesesteaks. They ain't from Philly and they don't know what they are talking about)

[prozach626]

Thanks. What's your preference with toppings? Which is the most traditional? When I was yelping last night, Delassandros looked really good.

[boldikus]

We're officially the TPR cheesesteak thread now. And now I want one, so thanks.

 

Dalessandros is super good, one of my absolute faves (its a HUGE sandwich!!! you've been warned!) but be aware its tucked up into a neighborhood northwest of center city/touristy stuff I that assume you'll be doing here? Its not teeeeerrrrribly far but if time is of the essence dont go during peak times like say Friday or Saturday night. Traffic can be bad and there can be a line around the corner. I also wouldn't go there and expect to sit in there and eat. Its small and usually packed. But you'll definitely get the real Philly experience there. Also good about Dalessandros is Chubbys (their "rival") is right across the street and they're not bad either. Some friends like them better. So if one place is mobbed you have another respectable option. A little more on that: https://www.phillymag.com/foobooz/2014/01/21/cheesesteak-rivalry-dalesandros-versus-chubbys/

 

If you're going to be in town (or "Center City") Campos is good - where I sent Bill and Brit and Andrew. Easy to get to and again if you're not there during peak times you can get a table (indoor or out) and its a nice little spot to hang and people watch. Johns Roast Pork might be the best, or one of the best - but its a little drive/Uber ride from in Center City. Its a completely unassuming small roadside shack near the Delaware River and a bunch of big box Target/Ikea type stores. Its but easily one of the best steaks in Philly. But if you go there also get a roast pork sandwich with long hots and provolone. Sweet lord.

 

Philly is a city of neighborhoods and they all have their good cheesesteak place - Fishtown has Joe's, Northern Liberties has DelRossi. Old City has Campos and Sonnys. Roxborough/East Falls has Dalessandros and Chubbys. You could go down South Philly for Johns, Tony Lukes, Cosmis or Phillips. They're all good, just don't go to Pats/Genos/Jims or Ishkabibbles (ok you can go there for fries and a Gremlin... but just don't even go to South Street. Its awful).

 

As far as toppings, its funny with all this talk, I'm realizing I don't really eat cheesesteaks all that much anymore but I do get crazy intense cravings for them sometimes. When I do its just some salt and pepper. I'm a wiz (or provolone) wit guy. I used to always put ketchup on my steaks growing up but I try not to each that sh*t anymore.

Edited June 25, 2019 by boldikus

[coasterbill]

Ketchup on cheesesteaks is fantastic. When I actually went to Philly and saw other people putting ketchup on their cheesesteaks I felt vindicated because I always just assumed that I was just weird and nobody else did that sh*t.

[boldikus]

Yeah ketchup is a fairly common topping. People also do mayo, which some people find abhorrent but I actually kinda dig. Pickles are acceptable to some, blasphemy to others. Hot sauce. Hot peppers? Raw onion? I dunno. I've found over the years locals all kinda have their own way to top them and are usually skeeved out by the way everyone else eats them.

 

Then you start to get into stuff like cheesesteak hoagies (cheesesteak with cold lettuce/tomatos/etc) which mannn Ive tried, and some people I know (like Dawn) love them but its the whole hot/cold thing I just cant get into. I love them both, but not together. And then pizza steaks (cheesesteak with mozz cheese & tomato/pizza sauce on top) which I can f*ck with sometimes.

 

My alternative favorite to a cheesesteak is simply a chicken cheesesteak with salt pepper mayo and extra sharp provolone. Its gotta be chopped tho, some places will give you a chicken cheesesteak with like "cubes" of chicken and yeah... no.

Edited June 25, 2019 by boldikus

[michaellynn4]

But if you go there also get a roast pork sandwich with long hots and provolone. Sweet lord.

 

My man.

 

I like onions, but only in small amounts. I end up finding most places put far too much onion in their cheesesteaks for my taste, so I'm a "wiz witout" guy (notice the "h" is missing, in case you go this route). I, too, am a ketchup man myself, but I'm finding myself putting less and less on recently.

[boldikus]

But if you go there also get a roast pork sandwich with long hots and provolone. Sweet lord.

 

My man.

DUDE. I need to go there right now.

 

[youtu_be]

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(sorry everyone)

[Lemur]

But if you go there also get a roast pork sandwich with long hots and provolone. Sweet lord.

 

You no like the rabe?