Posted on by Coaster Kings

Six Flags New England – Trip Report – June 2019

Sean: Our travels have been taking us all over the continent lately, that included a visit to Six Flags New England! The park is home to a fascinating mix of production model coasters and world-class custom rides. The park is clean and maintained but has made some questionable decisions in their lifetime. Let’s take a look!

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We’re here! We made it before opening and headed straight to the backside of the park! The backside that features Wicked Cyclone that is. The park’s unique layout means it has two backsides.

Wicked Cyclone, like most rides, had a delayed opening but we waited in front of the ride’s entrance to secure a spot on the first train’s front row. I must say that it’s my favorite of the RMC Iron Horse coasters! The elements feature a very healthy mix of banked turns and inversions, as well as airtime hills. The ride doesn’t constantly throw you out of the seat, which is what gets repetitive on these rides usually.

While in this corner of the park, let’s hit up Pandemonium! The park’s Gerstlauer spinning coaster found at more Six Flags parks. The ride’s color scheme is awesome and it seems well maintained. We had a great ride!

The park really is not that large, and features quite a collection of major coasters. That means little walking between coasters and colorful steel structures everywhere you look!

Next up is our 2nd production model at Six Flags Production Model Land, the classic Vekoma Boomerang named Flashback. Flashback opened in China, moved to Kentucky Kingdom and eventually made it to Six Flags New England.

For a production model that’s already in its third location, this Vekoma runs particularly well! The MK1200 trains have held up very well and we were surprised by how much fun we had on the coaster!

We’ll interrupt the list of production model coasters with the park’s star custom coaster! Superman: The Ride. A phenomenal location and integration elevate this park to another level.

Below Superman: The Ride is Cyborg Hyper Drive, an indoor flat ride with light and sound effects. Due to the “meh” reviews and our time crunch to get on all rides we skipped it.

We did however ride Catwoman’s Whip, which offered amazing views of Superman!

As you may know Superman: The Ride previously went thru life as Bizarro from 2009 thru 2015. This was a response to a fatal accident that happened on the ride back when it operated under the Superman: Ride of Steel name from 2000 to 2008. The fatal accident of the guest getting flung out of the train lead to a rebranding and redesign of the trains. Unfortunately the original trains underwent modifications that make the trains particularly inaccessible and uncomfortable for taller people. The ride has a phenomenal layout with lots of amazing airtime. However, I was in pain the entire ride.

Time to continue our tour of the park, the park’s DC Comics themed rides and production models! The tour continues in Gotham!

The park struggled to get any of their “newer” attractions to open for the day. Goliath and Joker were down well into the afternoon and Riddler Revenge also struggled to wake up.

Riddler Revenge did open up for guests to enjoy, bringing us to production model 3 of the day! The Vekoma SLC underwent a significant rebranding for the 2018 season. The coaster started its life as the classic Premier Parks Mind Eraser in 1997, in 2017 the coaster received Vekome Freedom Flyer trains and in 2018 it was rebranded to Riddler Revenge to join Harley Quinn Spinsanity, The Joker, and Batman: The Dark Knight in the Gotham City area!

To my surprise these new Vekoma trains don’t just run well on the tracks, they also run much faster than the original trains turning this coaster into a very intense experience.

In fact Riddler Revenge was so incredibly fast that it still added an element of roughness even though the trains are much more comfortable than the old ones. You are rushed through the ride’s slightly rough elements at a speed that’s almost too fast. I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Having ridden four US Vekoma SLCs in the past month, it did not live up to the amazingness of Thunderhawk at Michigan’s Adventure.

However we still rode the coaster several times, because I do love the Vekoma SLCs. The ride is just so intense we needed a break between marathoning it. It’s also a very nice color scheme that is easy to admire from the queue and surrounding midway. – I do hope Six Flags New England goes in to fix the ride’s outdated queue and terrible landscaping.

Adding another break to our production model tour for the park’s unique small B&M Floorless Coaster: Batman: The Dark Knight! The park already featured an inverted coaster (Riddler) when Six Flags acquired the park, thus instead of adding the classic Batman clone from B&M (inverted coaster), the park added a small Floorless coaster with a unique layout that in some ways reminds us a lot of the Batman clones!

Batman: The Dark Knight does not feature a mid-course brake run and is over in a flash. The ride’s great pacing, landscaping, midway interaction and snappy small elements make for a rather unusual Floorless coaster! Definitely a memorable ride and certainly a coaster belonging in our Top 3 at the park!

While waiting for some of the park’s major coasters to open such as Goliath and The Joker, we checked out the park’s classic Thunderbolt coaster first! The ride’s layout is cute, the ride itself is pretty smooth, however the short seat belts and maximum-of-one-train operations were less desirable.

Eventually Goliath actually opened and I was so excited to ride it. Words can’t describe how stoked I was to get on Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Deja Vu, my favorite coaster in California back in the day!

However, I soon cried. Six Flags and Premier Rides added a custom train to the coaster when it reopened as Goliath in Massachusetts and it couldn’t have turned out more awful. Absolutely terribly rough and uncomfortable, sluggish and problematic.

Goliath has a phenomenal location, a great color scheme and superior landscaping. The giant Vekoma production model, known as some of their best work, is now best enjoyed off-ride.

A jack hammering pain accompanied by poor tracking, a lack of flow thru elements, and uncomfortable trains have lead to the demise of the ride. I did not even want to give it a second try. Riders around us were complaining in the exit and bashing the ride. I really hope Six Flags New England will work with Vekoma in the future for new trains because this decision to add this Premier Rides train was dreadful.

Goliath does look so good in its location and really has an amazing presence at the park. Even more reasons to fix it up. For now I’ll travel to Silverwood for their EXCELLENT Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang: Aftershock.

A few hours after Goliath started moving the park finally managed to open their newest coaster around 2.30pm, The Joker! This was actually a great installment. The coaster’s flipping was more than that of Six Flags Great Adventure‘s and the setting was awesome. Overall the park’s Gotham City is very well rounded and cohesive.

The last remaining production model never opened for us. Just as we were leaving the park we did one final check to see if we could get on Gotham City Gauntlet: Escape From Arkham Asylum. The park’s coaster with the longest name.

Goodbye Six Flags New England! You’ve got awesome landscaping, beautiful rides and a clean park. I may not agree with all the decisions you’ve made but I did enjoy your mix of production model favorites and unique coasters. We’ll meet again, perhaps once your rolling stock on Goliath and Superman: The Ride aren’t trying to hurt me and my feelings.

Thanks for checking out this Six Flags New England report! We have lots of new coverage available for you to explore, check it out:

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