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Six Flags Great Adventure Trip Report – Late April, 2019

Sean: Are you all ready for the next adventure? A Great Adventure, if I may? This week’s out-of-state trip brought us to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. Home to trend-setters and record breakers such as El Toro and Kingda Ka, Six Flags Great Adventure has one of the world’s best coaster lineups. Let’s see what we thought of the park’s operations and rides!

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Here we are! Let’s start of with an iconic view of the park’s two most famous coasters. The 2005 and 2006 additions, Kingda Ka and El Toro.

We first rode Kingda Ka, the coaster I was looking forward to the most. Many had told me about its potential roughness and its inferior ride experience compared to Top Thrill Dragster. Whatever I was told, I disagree. Kingda Ka left me breathless. The 456 feet tall strata coaster is rough around the edges, but those that know me know I appreciate a bit of character. The launch was incredibly strong and the force/speeds while headed up and down the tower and the airtime hill left a great impression. A fantastic coaster that, of course, should be on everyone’s bucket list, whether or not it will be too rough or intense. It’s an experience.

Next up was El Toro, the true fan favorite. This 2006 Intamin pre-fabricated wooden coaster is best known for its insane airtime, unusual smooth- and swiftness and overall ride experience. There’s no denying that El Toro is one of the country’s best coasters. Both Kingda Ka and El Toro are perfect examples of Six Flags Great Adventure’s powerful lineup and importance in the industry. El Toro does seem to slightly run out of gas at the end of the layout, but by then a small break in intensity is much appreciated. So far, 2 for 2 AMAZING.

Next up is East Coast Scream!, or rather the original Medusa, now known as Bizarro. Confused yet? Great. – Bizarro still has its fire and fog effects working, and quite honestly that was impressive. It also ran three trains, much like Kingda Ka and Nitro. Indicating the park’s dedication to operations, more so than I have seen at other Six Flags parks.

Bizarro ran very smooth, unlike some other older B&Ms. The ride’s  location is a bit removed, but that should not mean it should be forgotten. Bizarro carries the park’s “looper” status and is a very important player in Six Flags Great Adventure line up in my opinion. In addition to the ride running great, the staff was awesome and efficient too!

Next up was the park’s Runaway Mine Train, which is a powerful Arrow mine train with some awesome airtime. The ride however failed to impress me. For years I heard it’s one of the best mine trains in the country, but I beg to differ. There are certainly some great moments, including some airtime, but the ride overall was short and not too impressive.

It was unusually warm out for the time of year, thus the park’s water rides were not yet operational. We’ll check those out next time!

Ready for the next set of coasters? Six Flags Great Adventure is home to Green Lantern, previously located at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom as Chang. The green stand up coaster has gotten many reviews for being rough and uncomfortable to ride. Though it wasn’t as smooth and perfect as Riddler’s Revenge at Six Flags Magic Mountain I did really enjoy my rides on it!

Green Lantern lacks a bit of landscaping, but from a distance it looks awesome next to Superman: Ultimate Flight. If anything its location wedged into the parking lot makes it a beautiful hood ornament for the park.

For a second we did not expect Superman: Ultimate Flight to open at all. Upon arrival we aw crews busy painting the ride and no trains on the tracks. Around 1PM the ride opened and hosted a healthy 2 hour line. Dispatches were great, but the fact that we got ourselves Gold Flash Passes was even greater.

I am not the biggest fan of this production model, as it’s a bit tame and simple, but the ride was actually running very well. Note that half the ride has been repainted and the other half has not.

Ready for yet another DC Comics themed roller coaster? The Joker, the park’s newest coaster, was next on our list of coasters to ride. The operations were unlike anywhere else in the park and were too slow. The ride itself is pretty tame compared to the other S&S Free Spin coasters. So I have no desire to deal with this queue again… NEXT!

Did you know that Six Flags Great Adventure has a Deja Vu? Not in the sense that we’re used to, but a classic Scrambler that has been relocated several times. The name really is an inside the joke, but I must appreciate the use of the classic Deja Vu logo.

Right across from Deja Vu we find Skull Mountain, who’s waterfalls were working! The ride itself was very crowded and had long lines. The ride experience did not live up to my expectations, and the light pollution inside the building really makes it just another coaster in a box. Easy to fix problems though may they even reinvest in the ride.

After Skull Mountain, we checked out one of the worst Batman clones, so there is no real need to go into detail on that. We also rode the Dark Knight coaster, which I really liked! Both will soon be part of DC Universe, which combines the Metropolis rides with the new Wonder Woman pendulum ride. The area looks nice and clean, and I was enjoying the fact that it wasn’t as busy there as else where in the park.

Cyborg Cyber Spin is the park’s newest thrill ride. It wasn’t particularly thrilling, but a very fun ride nonetheless. I personally enjoyed that it’s enjoyable for everyone and that the ride isn’t too intense. Would definitely ride again!

Wonder Woman: Lasso of Truth will be the same size as CraZanity at Six Flags Magic Mountain and will share the record for tallest pendulum swing ride in the world.

After we also rode Nitro, we decided to make our way back to the other side of the park using the park’s phenomenal double sky ride!

You get some amazing views of the park and really get to enjoy the grandness of Six Flags Great Adventure. The park’s layout is not the best, by any means, but the size is impressive!

El Toro and Bizarro only mark the edge of the midways, beyond is the park’s old Safari trails, now closed and part of the park’s Off-Road Safari attraction!

Though there are some concrete patches and some lesser-maintained areas of the park, its location far outside a major city does make for a beautiful natural surrounding.

We’re almost back for more El Toro and Kingda Ka!

Before we do so, let’s talk a bit about Nitro. Nitro is a good hyper coaster, but it by no means is as good as I heard people tell me it would be. Some good airtime, a nice helix, but vibrating the entire way thru and rather forceless. It’s a great ride if you want a slightly-thrilling scenic tour of the forest, but it definitely is no Mako. I also prefer Six Flags Over Georgia’s Goliath.

Okay back to Kingda Ka, that had spent almost three hours being closed after rolling back (too bad I wasn’t on that train). The ride eventually reopened and we got some extra rides in. Still can’t believe how amazing this coaster is, even with its rattle, the ride is one big blur anyways!

On our way out we had to check out the classic Parachute Jump. We now have ridden the only two remaining rides of this kind in the world as we rode the smaller version at Tokyo Dome City late last year!

Six Flags Great Adventure is also home to a large amount of flat rides and overall has one of the best balanced lineups in the Six Flags chain! Here’s a little night time action shot of the last remaining Six Flags top spin in the US: Twister!

Thank you Six Flags Great Adventure for running a tight ship and operating your rides so fantastically. Thank you to all the team members that showed that being understaffed did not mean you couldn’t push out trains and show kindness and a smile. We had a great time, and we’ll be back!

Thank you for joining us on this Great Adventure. More reports are on the way! Check out some of our other recent reports:

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