Trip Reports
Master's Scholarship Day 4: Six Flags Great Adventure 19/08/14
Being the excitable person that I am I like to declare many things the ‘best’, the ‘greatest’ or the ‘ultimate’. Many theme parks around the world have legitimate claim to being the best, because there are a huge number of factors that influence how good a park is. Of course it’s all subjective anyway, and perhaps we shouldn’t even bother with the idea, but it’s all good fun. If we’re talking about theming, there is no doubt that certain Disney and Universal parks would come out on top. If you wanted a good blend of theme, food and a whole range of rides for all the family you might pick Europa Park, Busch Gardens or Dollywood. But if the sheer number of massive rides is what you’re after, then there is a trifecta of American champions: Six Flags Magic Mountain, in California, has the most roller coasters in the world with 19, including a huge number of prototypes and record breakers. Cedar Point, in Ohio, has competed regularly with Magic Mountain for that coveted ‘Most Coasters’ crown over the last two decades, and has owned countless ‘tallest’ and ‘fastest’ records. But what both parks suffer from is a lack of a truly world-beating ride. They both have numerous standouts, no doubt, but neither has one that is considered to be the very, very best. Six Flags Great Adventure has just that, and although it doesn’t have quite as many coasters (it’s currently home to twelve), its arsenal of major rides, which includes a monolithic record breaker, makes it more than competitive with any park you can name.
The first thing that surprised me was just how close to the park you have to get before the rides come into view. From my brief driving experience, this area of New Jersey does seem to be entirely covered in forest, but even so there was no sign of gigantic coasters until I was right by the sign for the parking lot. But eventually as I rolled into the tarmac driveway Kingda Ka came into view. The twisted green spire is unlike anything I have ever seen, and understandably so: it’s the tallest roller coaster in the world. The whole panorama from the middle of the parking lot is unbelievable; five of the seven major roller coasters are in full view.
The first thing that surprised me was just how close to the park you have to get before the rides come into view. From my brief driving experience, this area of New Jersey does seem to be entirely covered in forest, but even so there was no sign of gigantic coasters until I was right by the sign for the parking lot. But eventually as I rolled into the tarmac driveway Kingda Ka came into view. The twisted green spire is unlike anything I have ever seen, and understandably so: it’s the tallest roller coaster in the world. The whole panorama from the middle of the parking lot is unbelievable; five of the seven major roller coasters are in full view.
Gotham City
I always try to avoid the obvious rides at the start of the day, as they’ll probably never have short queues, and instead pick up the less popular rides that will get busier throughout the day. So I headed through the attractive entrance plaza to the Gotham City section of the park. Batman The Ride is a staple at Six Flags parks; there are eight or nine of them across their roster, as well as host of differently named clones at non-Six Flags parks. The ride is a fairly standard B&M inverter, the second of my trip after Talon at Dorney, and it’s pretty forceful. This one wasn’t as good as the equivalent at Magic Mountain but it was still good fun. Opposite Batman is the similarly themed indoor coaster, Dark Knight. Six Flags haven’t struck up movie-based deals for a number of years, Batman is themed to the character in general rather than a specific film, but in this case the ride is themed to the 2008 Christopher Nolan film itself. For such a dark and brooding film it is a little odd that they chose a Wild Mouse ride to represent it, and it’s simply not a very good ride. The queue line is well done; there’s a video segment with what seems to be original footage featuring Aaron Eckhart, who plays Harvey Dent in the film, which takes a turn for the worst as the Joker sabotages it. “Why So Serious?” graffiti ends up all over the walls as well as a huge scattering of Joker cards. It was actually quite an intense scene and most of the kids ended up with their hands over their ears and their eyes firmly shut. Unfortunately the ride doesn’t live up to it; it’s just the regular Wild Mouse layout with a few hairpin turns and sharp drops. They’ve also made no attempt to keep the warehouse dark; you can regularly see out into the sunshine which completely ruins any effect of fear.
I always try to avoid the obvious rides at the start of the day, as they’ll probably never have short queues, and instead pick up the less popular rides that will get busier throughout the day. So I headed through the attractive entrance plaza to the Gotham City section of the park. Batman The Ride is a staple at Six Flags parks; there are eight or nine of them across their roster, as well as host of differently named clones at non-Six Flags parks. The ride is a fairly standard B&M inverter, the second of my trip after Talon at Dorney, and it’s pretty forceful. This one wasn’t as good as the equivalent at Magic Mountain but it was still good fun. Opposite Batman is the similarly themed indoor coaster, Dark Knight. Six Flags haven’t struck up movie-based deals for a number of years, Batman is themed to the character in general rather than a specific film, but in this case the ride is themed to the 2008 Christopher Nolan film itself. For such a dark and brooding film it is a little odd that they chose a Wild Mouse ride to represent it, and it’s simply not a very good ride. The queue line is well done; there’s a video segment with what seems to be original footage featuring Aaron Eckhart, who plays Harvey Dent in the film, which takes a turn for the worst as the Joker sabotages it. “Why So Serious?” graffiti ends up all over the walls as well as a huge scattering of Joker cards. It was actually quite an intense scene and most of the kids ended up with their hands over their ears and their eyes firmly shut. Unfortunately the ride doesn’t live up to it; it’s just the regular Wild Mouse layout with a few hairpin turns and sharp drops. They’ve also made no attempt to keep the warehouse dark; you can regularly see out into the sunshine which completely ruins any effect of fear.
Nitro
In any ordinary park this would be by far the biggest and best ride, some might even still claim it is the best, but hidden in the very far right corner lies the park’s only third most significant roller coaster. Nitro is a B&M hyper coaster built in 2002, and back then it was regarded as probably one of the best five steel roller coasters in the world. Twelve years is a long time in the coaster world, so understandably a lot of rides have surpassed it, but there are still very few who have a bad word to say about it. Its emphasis is on speed, smoothness, floating airtime and huge hills. The first drop, 215ft in length, is phenomenal, floating you out of your seat. The second hill is quite high so is traversed a little slowly, but after that the train dives into a fantastic airtime hill – hammerhead turn – airtime hill combo, which is frankly breathtaking. There is a then a mild helix before a devastating finale of three strong bunny hops. The whole ride is spread out in cleared paths through the forest; it feels miles away from the park itself, and the open trains with their simple clam shell lap bars make it even freer. I’d rank it just a place below Shambhala, a newer ride of the same model at PortAventura in Spain, but it still easily makes my top ten.
In any ordinary park this would be by far the biggest and best ride, some might even still claim it is the best, but hidden in the very far right corner lies the park’s only third most significant roller coaster. Nitro is a B&M hyper coaster built in 2002, and back then it was regarded as probably one of the best five steel roller coasters in the world. Twelve years is a long time in the coaster world, so understandably a lot of rides have surpassed it, but there are still very few who have a bad word to say about it. Its emphasis is on speed, smoothness, floating airtime and huge hills. The first drop, 215ft in length, is phenomenal, floating you out of your seat. The second hill is quite high so is traversed a little slowly, but after that the train dives into a fantastic airtime hill – hammerhead turn – airtime hill combo, which is frankly breathtaking. There is a then a mild helix before a devastating finale of three strong bunny hops. The whole ride is spread out in cleared paths through the forest; it feels miles away from the park itself, and the open trains with their simple clam shell lap bars make it even freer. I’d rank it just a place below Shambhala, a newer ride of the same model at PortAventura in Spain, but it still easily makes my top ten.
El Toro
With the park getting ever busier I decided it was time for the main event. In effect the entire trip was pivoted around one ride; if it weren’t for this I may well have chosen somewhere else to visit, such was its draw. The ride in question is the legendary El Toro. Simply put, it’s the ride most people would claim is the best in the world. Now that vote is certainly not unanimous, in fact most of the people I know closely would disagree, but overall throughout the coaster community El Toro comes out on top. It’s a wooden roller coaster and is built by Intamin of Switzerland. I covered this particular model in my Liseberg report; the Swedish park have another by the name of Balder, but in short Intamin have come up with a system that involves building the track in the factory, laser cutting it and shipping it to the park, where it’s assembled like a steel coaster. This avoids the lengthy and imprecise hand-construction usually involved in building woodies. It removes the signature rattle, but retains the out of control feeling of a regular wooden coaster. It also means that they can be built much taller without ripping themselves to pieces (every normal woodie ever built above 150ft has either been closed down or requires yearly retracking, so self destructive are they).
With the park getting ever busier I decided it was time for the main event. In effect the entire trip was pivoted around one ride; if it weren’t for this I may well have chosen somewhere else to visit, such was its draw. The ride in question is the legendary El Toro. Simply put, it’s the ride most people would claim is the best in the world. Now that vote is certainly not unanimous, in fact most of the people I know closely would disagree, but overall throughout the coaster community El Toro comes out on top. It’s a wooden roller coaster and is built by Intamin of Switzerland. I covered this particular model in my Liseberg report; the Swedish park have another by the name of Balder, but in short Intamin have come up with a system that involves building the track in the factory, laser cutting it and shipping it to the park, where it’s assembled like a steel coaster. This avoids the lengthy and imprecise hand-construction usually involved in building woodies. It removes the signature rattle, but retains the out of control feeling of a regular wooden coaster. It also means that they can be built much taller without ripping themselves to pieces (every normal woodie ever built above 150ft has either been closed down or requires yearly retracking, so self destructive are they).
The Bull stands a mighty 181ft tall and tops out at 70mph, currently holding 2nd place in the world in both wooden categories, and is themed to the Mexican old west. The theming is sparse but it works; the ride’s entrance is nestled amongst a little Mexican village and it really does look like the bull has gone on a rampage. After a surprisingly short queue in the beating heat I took a seat on the very back row. The cable lift is dauntingly quick and soon you are whizzing around the 180 degree turn and into the near-vertical first drop. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the best drop I have ever done on a roller coaster. You hit the lap bar straight away and don’t touch the seat right until the trough of the drop. Next are three completely linear, massive hills which each rocket you out of your seat, the last one curving down to the right and into the second half. Some claim the ride dies down at this point (this is the reason some don’t rate it as the best coaster on Earth), but I have to disagree. Early on in the latter section is thrown in probably the best bit of the entire ride; a weird, sideways twisted hill which launches you into the restraint and back down, almost through the seat (I believe this is the hill that used to go over the now-defunct Rolling Thunder, hence its bizarre shape). The airtime now does peter out, but it’s replaced with insane side-to-side banked turns before crashing into the brake run. I don’t like to pre-judge rides, but this was my new number one, just as I had predicted. I instantly took the advice of my seatmate and rushed back around for the front. The drop isn’t as good, but the rest of the airtime is even crazier. The first three hills at the front are generally considered to be the best section on any ride, anywhere in any seat, and I find it hard to believe that’s not the case. The Rolling Thunder hill is just as mad, and with the wind in your face the twisting finale is even more brutal.
Bizarro
Back in 1999 legendary (and at the time fairly new) ride designers B&M pioneered a new model of coaster; the floorless coaster. When many people hear the name, they assume it refers to rides where your legs dangle under the track, but in fact those are known as inverted coasters. Floorless coasters are regular sit down coasters, but rather than having the bottom of the train to rest your feet on, your legs dangle directly above the track. The trains are akin to kitchen chairs strapped onto the track, and are quite unnerving. I’ve done quite a few of them, including Dominator the previous day and Hydra the day before that, and most of them are rather good. I mention the history because Bizarro was the first of its kind, opening at the end of the last century under the name Medusa. It’s a pretty unremarkable ride; there are a number of fun inversions, but it doesn’t do a lot. There are, however, flamethrowers, which obviously elevate its levels of awesome by at least a factor of three.
Back in 1999 legendary (and at the time fairly new) ride designers B&M pioneered a new model of coaster; the floorless coaster. When many people hear the name, they assume it refers to rides where your legs dangle under the track, but in fact those are known as inverted coasters. Floorless coasters are regular sit down coasters, but rather than having the bottom of the train to rest your feet on, your legs dangle directly above the track. The trains are akin to kitchen chairs strapped onto the track, and are quite unnerving. I’ve done quite a few of them, including Dominator the previous day and Hydra the day before that, and most of them are rather good. I mention the history because Bizarro was the first of its kind, opening at the end of the last century under the name Medusa. It’s a pretty unremarkable ride; there are a number of fun inversions, but it doesn’t do a lot. There are, however, flamethrowers, which obviously elevate its levels of awesome by at least a factor of three.
Kingda Ka
Three days of eating rubbish were soon rectified with a fantastic salad from Six Flags Greens (Good salad in a theme park?!?), but I realised what I was missing out on and treated myself to a very large helping of chocolate ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. There was only one to cure the frozen-fat induced stomach ache I was developing: taking a ride on the world’s tallest and second fastest roller coaster. Kingda Ka (the name means nothing, it’s just supposed to fit in with the subcontinental Asian jungle theme) is another Intamin coaster, this time an accelerator, meaning it has a massively powerful hydraulic launch at the beginning. It’s the same model as Stealth (Thorpe Park) and Rita (Alton Towers) here in the UK, and in fact has precisely the same layout as Stealth; a launch, a vertical tower, and a tiny hill. Except in this case that ‘tiny’ hill is 139ft tall. And the vertical tower is 456ft tall, and the launch hits 128mph.
Three days of eating rubbish were soon rectified with a fantastic salad from Six Flags Greens (Good salad in a theme park?!?), but I realised what I was missing out on and treated myself to a very large helping of chocolate ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. There was only one to cure the frozen-fat induced stomach ache I was developing: taking a ride on the world’s tallest and second fastest roller coaster. Kingda Ka (the name means nothing, it’s just supposed to fit in with the subcontinental Asian jungle theme) is another Intamin coaster, this time an accelerator, meaning it has a massively powerful hydraulic launch at the beginning. It’s the same model as Stealth (Thorpe Park) and Rita (Alton Towers) here in the UK, and in fact has precisely the same layout as Stealth; a launch, a vertical tower, and a tiny hill. Except in this case that ‘tiny’ hill is 139ft tall. And the vertical tower is 456ft tall, and the launch hits 128mph.
Fortunately the ride would be a 70 minute wait away (by far the longest queue of the trip), but it passed quickly as I met a friendly Brooklyn family who proceeded to tell me every single detail about their lives. It turned out I knew a lot more about their home-park roller coasters than they did, but they knew much more about London’s clubbing scene. I reckon they have the bragging rights there. They also made me feel great about myself by informing me how hard it was to drive a ‘stick-shift’ (manual) car. It was really nice to hear about the park’s legendary defunct roller coasters Batman and Robin and Great American Scream Machine, and regular people’s (not nerdy coaster enthusiasts) opinions of them.
Eventually we got to the front, and I tried my best to seem macho in front of my new friends. They didn’t even try, and were practically wetting themselves. The ride is completely ridiculous. It’s obscene. When you’re on Stealth, waiting to launch, the ride looks big. It’s imposing and you’re nervous. With Kingda Ka is just looks like a caricature. It’s a joke; you literally have to bend your neck to see the top, even when it’s so far away. Ka receives two regular criticisms: One is that it has the much-maligned Intamin over-the-shoulder restraints, as opposed to lap bars. I don’t really have a problem with them, and there’s so little lateral movement that this was a non-issue. The other is that people claim it is rough, which is unsurprising when you have a ten tonne train screeching down metal rails at 128mph. I also didn’t really notice this; yes it vibrates a little, but it’s no way near painful. It is also obviously very short, but despite this, I loved it. It was, very briefly, my favourite Intamin accelerator, although I will say very clearly: Stealth has a significantly better launch. It simply accelerates faster, and thus feels a lot more powerful. However Ka’s sheer size edges it for me.
Zumanjaro...nearly
Six Flags Magic Mountain in California has a ride similar to Kingda Ka; Superman stands 415ft tall and launches to 100mph, and is by far the biggest ride in the park. Two years ago Six Flags decided to install onto the side of Superman’s structure the tallest drop tower in the world. Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom took its victims to 400ft before plummeting them back to Earth. Speculation had gained momentum that the same addition would come to Great Adventure, and this year Six Flags announced just that, with Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom taking the record from Lex Luthor at 415ft. I am a big fan of drop towers, but they do get very repetitive, and I wasn’t particularly blown away by Lex Luthor when I did it two years ago. But I got in the queue with my Brooklyn buddies and began another long wait. After a little while I realised my time was running out, and so I politely left them and joined the single rider queue. To my horror it was even slower, and eventually I could see them catching me up in the regular line. I thought they might invite me back into the line, which would go against every enthusiast’s principle in my body, but fortunately/tragically the ride broke down right then. I didn’t wait around, but as it turned out the ride remained down for about an hour.
Six Flags Magic Mountain in California has a ride similar to Kingda Ka; Superman stands 415ft tall and launches to 100mph, and is by far the biggest ride in the park. Two years ago Six Flags decided to install onto the side of Superman’s structure the tallest drop tower in the world. Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom took its victims to 400ft before plummeting them back to Earth. Speculation had gained momentum that the same addition would come to Great Adventure, and this year Six Flags announced just that, with Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom taking the record from Lex Luthor at 415ft. I am a big fan of drop towers, but they do get very repetitive, and I wasn’t particularly blown away by Lex Luthor when I did it two years ago. But I got in the queue with my Brooklyn buddies and began another long wait. After a little while I realised my time was running out, and so I politely left them and joined the single rider queue. To my horror it was even slower, and eventually I could see them catching me up in the regular line. I thought they might invite me back into the line, which would go against every enthusiast’s principle in my body, but fortunately/tragically the ride broke down right then. I didn’t wait around, but as it turned out the ride remained down for about an hour.
Superman
Superman, like Batman, is another ride that’s present in a number of Six Flags parks and is themed to the superhero in general. (Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Superman is a different ride entirely) It’s a B&M flying coaster, meaning you really do take on the famous prone position, and swoop around...the parking lot. It’s pretty tame really, only a little better than its next of kin, Air, at Alton Towers. The one standout moment it the pretzel loop (imagine doing a head-over-heels; it’s like a face first loop), which some claim pulls a lethal 9g (spoiler alert: it doesn’t). The one remaining ride, aside from the still out of order Zumanjaro, was Green Lantern, a B&M standup (yes, you’ve read that name a lot; the park has a record five coasters from the elite Swiss company). Stand up roller coasters are a rarity, and they’re notorious for being particularly unpleasant towards men. This one is the second largest in the world, just behind Magic Mountain’s Riddler’s Revenge, which I hated, and so because of the large queue I decided to give it a miss. Many enthusiasts consider skipping any roller coasters a heinous crime, but I’m much more liberal: I’m supposed to be enjoying these things, and the last thing I wanted to add to my hideous sunburn was a Swiss production of the Nutcracker.
Superman, like Batman, is another ride that’s present in a number of Six Flags parks and is themed to the superhero in general. (Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Superman is a different ride entirely) It’s a B&M flying coaster, meaning you really do take on the famous prone position, and swoop around...the parking lot. It’s pretty tame really, only a little better than its next of kin, Air, at Alton Towers. The one standout moment it the pretzel loop (imagine doing a head-over-heels; it’s like a face first loop), which some claim pulls a lethal 9g (spoiler alert: it doesn’t). The one remaining ride, aside from the still out of order Zumanjaro, was Green Lantern, a B&M standup (yes, you’ve read that name a lot; the park has a record five coasters from the elite Swiss company). Stand up roller coasters are a rarity, and they’re notorious for being particularly unpleasant towards men. This one is the second largest in the world, just behind Magic Mountain’s Riddler’s Revenge, which I hated, and so because of the large queue I decided to give it a miss. Many enthusiasts consider skipping any roller coasters a heinous crime, but I’m much more liberal: I’m supposed to be enjoying these things, and the last thing I wanted to add to my hideous sunburn was a Swiss production of the Nutcracker.
I grabbed my Kingda Ka photo, bought a kids t-shirt to go with it (the smallest adult size they had was large) and headed back to the hotel for cheese fondue. Being honest, theming and atmosphere do a lot for me, and Great Adventure is fairly devoid of both, so it doesn't get too near the top of my ‘Best Parks’ pile. There aren't enough rides to get it as high as Magic Mountain, although two rides in my Top 6 is a hefty achievement (El Toro and Nitro).
El Toro and Nitro: 10/10
Kingda Ka: 9/10
Batman: 8/10
Superman and Medusa: 6/10
Overall: 8/10
El Toro and Nitro: 10/10
Kingda Ka: 9/10
Batman: 8/10
Superman and Medusa: 6/10
Overall: 8/10