Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv) Discussion Thread

[Alex Sutcliff]

Ok thank you for that tip Mike

I was also looking at the meal offer of 2 x meals and a drink for $35. Is this something that's worth getting? we would probably eat at least lunch in the resort and maybe dinner as well so it seems like a no brainer but I don't know how the prices compare with on park or if there is some kind of negative to weigh up.  

[AmyUD06]

Sorry, I can't speak to the park's meal deals since I never eat there.

[YoshiFan]

If you were going to get that amount of food anyway, it's worth it. A meal can be as much as $14 and if you get a more expensive snack that could be $9 or $10 (like a funnel cake), and the all day drinks is worth around $15 (if it's a all day drink bottle).

[coasterbill]

The park will probably not hit capacity on a Wednesday / September 1st. You'll have no problem getting a reservation / dated ticket, they just haven't released them yet because they're probably hoping they won't need them by September. If you were going to buy all of that food anyway then you'll save money. The food sucks but it is what it is.

[coneyislandchris]

My son and I checked out Coaster Power Hours this past Friday night. I'm not sure why more people aren't talking about this! Yes, it's an upcharge ticket, but if you're already a season passholder or member, it's literally $5 per person for basically five hours worth of non-stop uninterrupted coaster rides. Weather was cooperative this week and it was a beautiful spring evening in the high 60's, so all twelve of their coasters were open at one point or another.

Aside from Kingda Ka and Bizarro, both of which had their own issues, we never ended up more than a station wait for a train, and the majority of the time we walked right on with a good chunk of those being front-row rides. Another nice factor was that for the first hour of the event, they were doing automatic re-rides; so if you were already on and you wanted to go again, you didn't even have to get out of your seat. Of course, thanks to the turnout, this basically was in effect all night long if you so desired because very rarely would you end up with a full train anywhere.

Other than the coasters, no other rides were open. Only a handful of restaurants and snack booths were open, primarily around the Main Street area (also notably the Skybar next to SkyScreamer). Most of these locations had special items for sale that you can't usually get, like the pulled pork topped hot dog and chicken alfredo pizza. Other than a water refill though we skipped out on food while we were there in order to maximize our rides. They also had some of the carnival games in the Boardwalk section open, but other than that, it was really a barebones crew.

In the span of the first four hours of the event, we managed to ride all 12 of the coasters, and that's even with doing two or sometimes three rides in a row. The last hour of the night we just spent backtracking our way to our favorites and getting extra rides in. All told, the final count ended up being:

• Superman x2
• Green Lantern x2
• Kingda Ka x1 (due to it dispatching three trains then going down, then coming back up ten minutes later, dispatching another three, and going down again)
• El Toro x4 (and yes, the locker rule is still in effect even at this low capacity event)
• Bizarro x1 (due to the one-two punch of someone horking on the front seat before our ride then getting triple stacked after our ride)
• Runaway Mine Train x1
• Joker x1
• Harley Quinn x1
• Skull Mountain Remix x3 (the "remix" consists of a couple of colored disco lights strategically placed throughout the building to turn it into a rave-in-a-box, plus switching out the usual soundtrack to some electro house and dubstep. Volume was way too low to notice that anywhere but the brake run, though.)
• The Dark Knight x1 (no preshow)
• Batman: The Ride x1
• Nitro x2

Seriously, I can't remember the last time I was at Great Adventure and got that many coaster rides in on a single day, even with a Flash Pass, short of maybe Holiday in the Park several seasons back before it blew up in popularity.

The amount of people that showed up was way below your average Saturday and Sunday crowds. For the most part, the park well and truly felt deserted. It really felt like something special and to be honest I'm not sure how they're making money on this event, but as long as they're going to be offering it, I highly recommend that you try to sneak away to Jackson for a few hours on Thursday or Friday nights to take advantage of this. It was easily the best $10 we have ever spent at the park.

[SharkTums]

^It sounds great! I hope they keep it up!

[Canobie Coaster]

Tomorrow Great Adventure is open 10-5 and then 6-11 for Power Hours.  I separate reservations for each.  Does anyone know if meal plans reset for Power Hours?

I wasn't planning on going to Great Adventure tomorrow, but it looks too risky to go to Hersheypark with the winds.  I saw Candymonium close last November when winds were in the 15-20 mph range and tomorrow is calling for 20-25 mph sustained winds with 40-50 mph gusts.  Meanwhile I know Great Adventure is willing to play with fire as evidenced by that Nitro test run I witnessed last month when winds were approaching 40 mph on a cool 40 degree morning.  Days like this are especially why I love Great Adventure.

[coneyislandchris]

29 minutes ago, Canobie Coaster said:

Tomorrow Great Adventure is open 10-5 and then 6-11 for Power Hours.  I separate reservations for each.  Does anyone know if meal plans reset for Power Hours?

This is going to be the first day since they started Power Hours that the park was actually open earlier in the day, so it's really anyone's guess. I'm no help here either since I didn't use my meal plan last time, so I couldn't even say whether they gave us 1 meal + 1 snack or 2 meal + 1 snack during that time period.

Wind sounds like it might be a factor for Ka, but yeah, everything else should be golden.

[Canobie Coaster]

I'll see if my app updates.  I always wondered if the meal plan reset if you visited 2 Six Flags parks on the same day as well.  I probably should have tried that when I did Six Flags America and Great Adventure on the same day a few years ago.

[tndank]

SF Great America made it a point to let people know they couldn't double dip at HH and SF on the same day with dining after making it a separate park this year.

I'm curious to know the results, though.  What they say and what the app/their systems allow can sometimes be different.

 

[Canobie Coaster]

Your meals count for the entire calendar day regardless if you have two separate tickets.  So it sounds like the same situation as Great America and Hurricane Harbor.

Overall, yesterday was fantastic.  Despite the extremely windy conditions, Great Adventure had almost everything open except Kingda Ka, Zumanjaro, and Sky Screamer.  And most rides were running at full capacity.  Nitro almost valleyed at a few points from the gusts, but the park just kept sending trains.

For Power Hours, El Toro went down to one train to ensure they were fully loaded.  Despite that, it wasn't more than a 10-15 minute wait and it was a walk on for the final hour.

Most things were great, but I do have two issues.

One was a policy used during Power Hours though.  El Toro was loading front to back.  If you wanted to stay on, you were allowed to fill in any open row.  So the same group of people were able to sit in the back car for an hour straight and there was no way for anyone else to get that car unless they got up or El Toro got a full train of new riders.  Neither happened for the last hour.  I get why El Toro had to be front loaded at minimum, but a lot of people who wanted the back had no way to get it unless someone back there was kind enough to swap seats.

One other warning for those looking at all-season Flash Passes.  I purchased one for Great Adventure last fall that was good for the rest of the 2020 season and 2021 season.  I deliberately purchased the all-season one (not the membership one) since my home park is Six Flags New England.  This just meant I had to scan the original purchase barcode and it wasn't linked to a pass.  This worked fine the 3 times I used it last year and the first two times this year.  Yesterday, I was told I could no longer do that.  Apparently, they waived the rule that the all-season Flash Pass can only be purchased for your home park while Six Flags New England was closed.  Once they announced their reopening, I was told I either needed to get a full refund, switch my membership to Great Adventure, or buy a season pass for Great Adventure.  I took the refund, but I wish there was a way the Six Flags system could allow the all season Flash Pass to be linked to another park's pass that isn't a home park.

[tndank]

That seems very Six Flags.  Good they gave you a full refund after using it several times.  Guess the only way around it another season pass.  At $50-60 it's not a killer, but not ideal.  

Good updates here.  Thanks for all the info.

 

[DoinItForTheFame]

From the parks Instagram...

 

[blk_mamba]

I am holding out on going to this park until they open. I wish they would hurry up. Has anyone heard anything about member previews?

[boldikus]

LOL they haven't finished the queue, etc. Calm down.

Member preview is gonna be a from like 4-6pm on random Wednesday afternoon in early June (because they're probably aiming for Memorial Day but they'll miss that) announced the day before and you're gonna have to buy a $30 t-shirt in order to ride.

[tndank]

Word is Zumanjaro and Ka have been running together. Anyone else see this? 

Rumors also suggest they are trying to get lap bars for Ka. Not sure how much I believe that one..

[AmyUD06]

Ka and Zumanjaro frequently run together....they just can't launch a train while Zum's cars are anywhere on the lift/drop.

And yeah....not counting on them buying any amount of new trains for Ka anytime soon.  Maybe they'll switch to the soft shoulder restraints, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that either.

[tndank]

1 hour ago, Mike240SX said:

Ka and Zumanjaro frequently run together....they just can't launch a train while Zum's cars are anywhere on the lift/drop.

And yeah....not counting on them buying any amount of new trains for Ka anytime soon.  Maybe they'll switch to the soft shoulder restraints, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that either.

Reports are they are running together today at least a few times. New agreement with state.  A few people have said it happened some today bit not consistently.  Maybe it did, maybe it didn't.  I'd like to try Z while Ka is running. Sounds fun 

[thrillseeker4552]

I remember reading somewhere that the reason Kingda Ka is so much rougher than Top Thrill Dragster is because the center of gravity of the train is much higher due to the OTSRs and hydraulic cylinders being located behind the seat back rather than on the floor. Soft straps would eliminate the neck banging but the train would still probably shuffle like crazy at the high speeds. Although I'm skeptical if Six Flags would even spend the money on that.

 

[boldikus]

This all sounds really awesome (and like they still have a good bit of work to do). Loving that they're adding hundreds of trees, etc around the ride.

https://www.facebook.com/sixflagsgreatadventure/videos/806171693646555/

[JG-77]

5 hours ago, tndank said:

Reports are they are running together today at least a few times. New agreement with state.  A few people have said it happened some today bit not consistently.  Maybe it did, maybe it didn't.  I'd like to try Z while Ka is running. Sounds fun 

Holy crap, if this is true this is awesome! Maybe KK will finally have a capacity that isn't absolute sh*t again!

[AngusW]

I do believe there are still Little Devils in the details left to be discovered about the Jersey Devil Coaster area. Perhaps back to 14?

[coasterbill]

On 5/3/2021 at 1:20 AM, JG-77 said:

Holy crap, if this is true this is awesome! Maybe KK will finally have a capacity that isn't absolute sh*t again!

It's not. Every few years people see a test train launch while Zu is running and freak out. The rides will never run together.

[wildcattb5]

Just got back from today's Coaster Power Hour. As others have already mentioned, it really is a fantastic ERT event with a VIP feel and in 5 hours it is easy to rack up as many rides as you would on a normal full day. Big shout-out to all the Ride Ops who were really flexible with re-rides; even after the first hour of unlimited rides ended, you could pretty much get back on and/or move spots as long as you weren't keeping a new rider from getting on. This was the best way to snag a back row (or near the back row) as the queue-ops would try to load sequentially from the front like normal (but usually accommodated if you asked to go elsewhere). Some notable parts of the day:

- Got 8 rides on El Toro, and could've early done more if only my body could handle it.

- Kingda Ka (and the entire Golden Kingdom) were closed for the whole day.

- I was ecstatic to hear the Mortal Kombat theme on one of my Nitro rides. It seems like it now is part of a station playlist similar to Kingda Ka where there are several songs on a loop (though the rest of the soundtrack is not only ridiculously generic but does nothing to pump anyone up).

- The Skull Mountain "remix" was...meh.

- First time in years riding Dark Knight and not the least bit surprised SF has let it slowly but surely deteriorate from an effects standpoint.

- Got an entire train to myself on Batman, which for whatever reason seemed to be the forgotten coaster today.

- Nice to spot one of Jersey Devil's trains to continue the tease and anticipation. (Also the menu at the Jersey Devil BBQ stand near Nitro's exit sounds amazing and mouth-watering even if it is yet another overpriced food stand)

[Canobie Coaster]

I was surprised Kingda Ka was down as well, but it allowed me to focus on El Toro and get nearly 30 rides on it.  From atop El Toro's lift, I noticed Kingda Ka had a train parked on the side of the dual load platform that hasn't operated in years.  When Kingda Ka is closed, do they usually park trains on that side of the station?

The reason I ask is because if people did see Kingda Ka and Zumanjaro operating together, maybe they're thinking of bringing back the dual load platform on Kingda Ka to boost its throughput.