Six Flags Great Adventure: 5/18/14

I made the third trip to Six Flags Great Adventure this past Sunday.  It was much more crowded than I originally expected because of some dance competitions going on in the park.  Because of the lines, I only rode each ride below once.

Green Lantern
Nitro
Batman: The Ride
Skyway (B Side)
Bizarro
Runaway Mine Train

We got to the main gate at about 10am and were through the security and pass scanning lines by 10:15.  They let premium passholders in at 10:20 which is 10 minutes prior to actual opening which is at 10:30.  This allows premium passholders a chance to be first in line for rides at opening.  They have a rope that blocks off the entrance, but as soon as they started letting passholders in, everyone started ducking the rope.  My dad and I were very frustrated because we paid good money for our passes and the benefit of early entry.  However, I wasn't going to let it ruin my day, so we took a brisk walk straight to Green Lantern.  It is the green coaster in this picture from the parking lot.



When we got there, they had not opened the line quite yet, but since Superman was already open, all the crowds went on that, and almost no one went to Green Lantern.  They opened the line within a couple minutes and we were on the first train of the day in the front row.  I had skipped this ride in my past 2 trips to the park because it has given me leg pain since it is a stand up coaster.  This time, I made it through with no leg pain at all.  This ride was totally awesome and I was regretting skipping it the past 2 times.  My dad loved it too and it was his first time on it.

After Green Lantern, we decided to skip Superman: Ultimate Flight because that is now our least favorite coaster and it has a horrible capacity.  We sometimes call it Supersuck: Ultimate Bore now.  We headed to El Toro, but it was closed   They were cycling the trains empty with hoards of people outside the entrance.  We could either go to Bizarro or Nitro now.  We chose to walk back to Nitro because it lines up worse than Bizarro does.



The wait was about 30 minutes and well worth it.  The crew was working fast and the line just kept moving.  I got this picture of Batman: The Ride from Nitro's line.  Nitro was awesome as always.  It is very fast and long.  There is a ton of airtime and it doesn't make you motion sick.  We rode in the 7th row out of 9.



Batman was our next ride.  It had lined up too and was also about 30 minutes.  Still, it wasn't that bad as the crew worked extra fast and never lined up trains outside the station.  Once again, the line just kept moving.  The queue goes right next to the track, so I got these close ups of the coaster in action.





We decided to wait for the front row on this, since my dad had never gotten it before.  It was about an extra 3 train wait for the front row.  This ride is SUPER intense.  It pulls a ton of g's and the force almost makes your legs fall asleep.  The inversions just keep coming and coming.  It was so intense that we needed a break, so we took the Skyway across the park.  We rode the B-side which is the one closest to the lake.  The A-side is on the side of the front entrance to the park.  This is a great place for pictures, so here they are.























After getting off the Skyride, we headed to El Toro which was now open.





However, when we got there, the wait looked to be about an hour.  My dad didn't feel like waiting, so we went to Bizarro instead where the line was only 10 minutes.  From the station, I got some pictures of the coaster.





We rode in the second row and the ride was awesome as always.  Even with 7 inversions, it didn't make me sick or my dad.  After Bizarro we had lunch.  We saw that the log flume had been open, but had broken down.  While we were eating, we saw that Bizarro broke down and was sending trains up empty.  After lunch, we knew that the lines would be nuts, so we rode the Runaway Mine Train because the line was short.  We rode in the third row of the second car.  This coaster has very little legroom, so my dad and I usually ride in the big boy seats which are in the first row of every car (my dad has very long legs).  These have more legroom.  We didn't this time, and my dad banged up his knees a bit as a result.  We will never ride this again if we are not in the big boy seats.  However, the ride was fun, but not too intense and we were glad we rode it.  The wait was about 15-20 minutes.  After this, the lines were very long everywhere, so we left.

I can't wait to come back in June and go on the new Zumanjaro Drop of Doom.  I also am looking forward to riding Kingda Ka since it has been closed for construction of Zumanjaro (both rides share a tower).

Chaperoned my sons band trip to Six Flags New England last week.  Had a non-rider in my group of 4 kids, so I didn't get to ride anything.  Would have liked to hit Bizarro, which had a 2 hour line, but on a bad weather day with no other lines it wasn't worth getting Flash Passes.  

My other son has a soccer tournament in Hershey this weekend, so well hit the park for free for a couple hours tonight (preview plan), and spend the late afternoon/evening there tomorrow.  We'll give Evening Fast Track a shot if it available.  Hershey has some decent coasters, including Skyrush, Storm Runner and Farenheit, and their wooden coasters (Lightning Racer and Wildcat) are also good.

The Six Flags New England Bizarro and the Six Flags Great Adventure Bizarro are completely different.  The Six Flags New England version is an Intamin hyper coaster (at least 200 feet tall with no inversions).  The Six Flags Great Adventure version is a B&M floorless coaster with 7 inversions.  The only thing they have in common is the name and theme.