Six Flags Great Adventure (New Jersey)

Six Flags Great Adventure

Six Flags Great Adventure features a great variety of rides, including the highest rollercoaster and drop ride in the world. As well as rides the park also features a wildlife safari. There are many Six Flags parks in the USA of variable quality, but we really liked the feel of it here. It has three outstanding coasters, which helps.

Six Flags GA is located about an hour south of New York and is well worth a day trip for anyone visiting the Big Apple.

Last visited June 2017

INVESTMENT

THRILL FACTOR

FUN &

LAUGHTER

STAFF &

FACILITIES

UNIQUNESS

VALUE

THEMEING &

IMMERSION

THOMPSONS'

RATING

Kingda Ka - the world's highest and second fastest coaster

BEST BITS

The animal safari is excellent. It features lions, tigers, brown and black bears, giraffes, elephants and a whole host of other animals. The animals are free-roaming. The safari takes about 40 minutes by truck.
There are some real gems in amongst the rides. These include the world’s highest and second fastest coaster (Kingda Ka) and a great hyper-coaster (Nitro).
Six Flags parks are generally very good value. An annual pass costs about the same as 2 day tickets, and gives unlimited access to every Six Flags park in the USA.

DOWN-SIDES

Although tickets are quite cheap, once you are in the park the costs quickly mount up. Food and drink is extremely expensive. Parking is also expensive.
The park is not far from New York in terms of distance, but it is not easy to get to by public transport. We found that the best option was to get a train out of the city and then hire a car.
We found the staff to be quite variable; especially those who work in the food outlets. Although some a friendly and helpful, others have a rather surly attitude. Others did not seem to understand simple questions or even be able to correctly take a food order.

TOP TIPS

The security at the park is airport-style and they will not let you take in ANY food or drinks.
We found the park map to be quite misleading; especially when it came to finding food outlets which sell healthy options or vegetarian food.
The park does not have a ‘back’ as such, so our usual tip about starting at the back of the park does not apply. We suggest going to the right-hand side of the park (to Nitro) and working across.
Quite a few of the rides are close together. This means you can use the same ($1) locker whilst going on a few different rides. But make sure you don’t exceed the 2 hour locker rental or you will have to pay extra.

The Dark Knight

A wild-mouse coaster in the dark. The ride is themed around the film, and the queue features a video with Harvey Dent and the Joker.

Our view: Unfortunately the queue is the best bit about this ride. The video creates a good atmosphere and the theming around the queue line is detailed. But the ride itself is very bland and does nothing exciting or interesting.

Skull Mountain

An indoor coaster in the dark. It has music and some small drops.

Our view: Another bland and unexciting coaster. The only slight interest comes from the fact that it is in the dark. Otherwise, it is instantly forgettable.

Nitro

A B&M hyper-coaster that features lots of high drops, airtime moments and long banked turns. This ride has harnesses that hold you into your seat by closing in on your stomach and the top of your legs, leaving your upper-body and legs to move around with the flow of the rollercoaster.

Our view: Nitro is often rated as being one of the top five coasters in the world, and we can see why. The ride is extremely smooth with lots of airtime, making it both thrilling and great fun. The section of the ride from the top of the second hill through to the first break run is exceptionally good – you just feel like you’re flying.

We prefer to sit towards the back as this delivers more consistent airtime. There is slightly more pure thrill sat the front. Either way, this is great ride.

Tips:

As with all coasters of this type, if you are afraid of the first drop we recommend sitting towards the back so you don’t hang down the drop.

Batman: The Ride

An hanging coaster that features many loops, twists and banked turns. It is themed around the original Batman films in an area of the park that is dedicated to all things Batman.

Our view: This is a fairly typical hanging coaster, but not as enjoyable as many others we have been on. This is mainly because it is very jerky – particularly towards the back – but also it doesn’t have some of the more thrilling elements of others of its kind.

Tips:

Sit towards the front, where it is less jerky.

Bizarro

A floorless coaster which has many inversions and high speed corners. It is themed around the Bizarro comic book character.

Our view: This is an excellent ride. It is both thrilling and smooth, despite the many different turns and inversions. We found that it was slightly smoother at the back, but being towards the front gives a bit more airtime – both are equally good. The floorless aspect means that you can see straight down to the track and your feet are dangling, which helps you to relax into the ride.

Superman: First Flight

A flying coaster, themed around Superman. The ride features multiple inversions and banked turns.

Our view: This is a fairly typical flying coaster with no particularly unique elements. It features a drop straight into a large loop, which does briefly subject you to forces significantly beyond normal gravity. Some may find this uncomfortable.

Tips:

As with all flying coasters, being at the front of the car means you will hang down the first drop waiting for the rest of the car to go over the top of the lift hill. We quite like that feeling, particularly on flying coasters, but if you are in any way afraid of it then sit towards the back.

Kingda Ka

This is the world’s highest rollercoaster, which starts with a launch taking you to over 120 mph. This is the second fastest launch in the world, which shoots you straight up a vertical track, over a hill and straight back down again. All in all, the ride is over in about 20 seconds. Unlike some other rides of this style, it has over the shoulder harnesses.

Our view: This ride is breathtakingly quick and when you get to the top, you realise just how high you are. It is a truly thrilling ride. King-da Ka is also smoother than you might expect for a ride of such speed, although we found that this can get a bit rougher when the wind picks up. It might be a short ride, but every second is fantastic.

Tips:

It doesn’t matter where you sit on this ride, all seats are good.
Be prepared that the queue moves slower for this ride than others. This is because it has a much lower capacity due to the time needed to re-charge the launch.
Avoid going on this ride on a very windy/rainy day!
Although we did not witness it, it is possible that the ride will not quite make it to the top of the hill and roll backwards towards the start. The ride operators reassure people that this is perfectly normal and safe as the ride is designed around this, but be aware that this is a possibility.
This ride tends to break down a lot. Keep looking to check if it is actually going before walking towards it – if it’s closed, Bizarro is nearby and very rarely has queues.

Zumanjaro

The world’s highest drop tower. There are three drop towers built into the structure of King-da Ka.

Our view: Joe is not a fan of any drop towers so would hate this ride. Hayley is not a massive fan either, but as it’s the world’s highest, wanted to give it a go. It is good that it doesn’t leave you at the top for very long before dropping, but the brakes kick in quite sharply which makes your stomach lurch a second time.

Batman: The Ride

Kingda Ka and Zumanjaro

Nitro

Bizarro

Zumanjaro

Kinga Ka

The Joker

Themed on the comic villain, this type of 4G coaster is sometimes referred to as ‘fourth generation’. The seats hang off the side of the and move independently of it, based on the weight distribution of the riders. The track itself has ‘rows’. The coaster starts with the cars being lifted to the top, and they then proceed along a horizontal track, dropping down a row at the end of each section.

Our view: We were pleasantly surprised by this ride, as we have not previously enjoyed this type of coaster (such as Green Lantern at Six Flags MM). We are not sure if it was just to do with the weight distribution or whether the technology has improved recently, but we found this ride much smoother than expected. The harnesses were also comfortable. Although not our favourite type of ride, we found this to be worthwhile and Joe thought it was good fun.

Tips:

If you don’t like the feeling of drop rides then you might want to avoid this ride. However, the drops are quite smooth.
The ride can make you a bit dizzy. Be prepared to want to sit down for 5 minutes after you’ve been on it.

El Toro

One of the world’s fastest wooden coasters, the ride features some very steep drops and high speed turns. Unlike most wooden coasters which are built one plank at a time by carpenters, this ride has a ‘prefabricated’ wooden track.

Our view: The prefabricated track means it is smoother than other wooden coasters. However, there is no getting away from the fact that all wooden coasters are jerky. The high speed of El Toro makes it especially rough. It is fast and thrilling, but best avoided if you dislike uncomfortable rides.

Tips:

When they say ‘hold on’ they mean it!

The Joker

The first drop on El Toro

The Joker

El Toro

The entrance to Bizarro

The Riddler's Revenge

A standing coaster themed around one of Batman’s enemies. It features drops and inversions.

Our view: This is an unenjoyable coaster which looks better than it is. We find standing coasters to be uncomfortable as you feel the need to brace yourself the whole way around. Also, Joe finds that the harnesses do not allow you to either fully stand up straight nor to properly sit on the bicycle-style seat between your legs. Holding yourself in a slight squat position, bracing against the ride forces, leads to you coming off the ride feeling like you’ve done a weights session in the gym but without the satisfaction.

Tips:

For men especially, the ‘seat’ can be very uncomfortable whilst riding, as it can impact on a very delicate part of the body. We advise pushing the seat down a little for comfort.