Great Adventure 6/23/18

[mattkopp23]

Six Flags Great Adventure Trip Report 6/23/18

 

This past weekend my family and I headed over to Great Adventure for my birthday! We were worrying the days and even hours prior to our visit because the weather forecast showed 90% thunderstorms all day. As we were pulling into the lot it was drizzling. However, that led to a very empty parking lot and an empty park. The security and entrance lines were non existent. It was my first time using the "Bring a Friend for Free Day". I scanned the pass for my sister and I and we were in! On a day where the park was empty due to weather, this free friend deal worked out great for us. 

 

El Toro

When we walked in, we headed straight for El Toro since it was closed on my last visit. I noticed that the fences around the blue tent with the arcade were gone and that there was an employee taking down signs on the door that said it was closed. I'm wondering if I was the first guest to walk through the tent or if those signs were just there because they closed the prior night. Anyways, what a difference! The tent smelled SO much better! Thank you Great Adventure for renovating the shortcut. It was my first El Toro ride of the season and the ejector airtime on this ride never gets old! I'm so happy that this ride is at my home park. I rode back row and was able to get a second back row ride without leaving the seat. After that second ride, there was still no wait and I would've ridden again, but my family wanted to get on other rides, as it was now expected to pour at 3 PM.  

 

Kingda Ka

We decided to head over to Kingda Ka, just in case they shut it down due to storms or whatever. This was the first time I took the shortcut from Toro to Ka. It really is a nice quiet path that saves so much energy and time. I rode 2nd row, which was the closest that I've been to the front. There is a big difference in the smoothness of the back and the front. This ride always makes me nervous when waiting on the launch track, but it is always a blast. 

 

Zumanjaro

While we were in the area, we took the long hike down Zumanjaro's queue. We hopped right on the ride. Due to the clouds and fog in the sky, the ground was hardly visible when we reached the top, making it one of my favorite rides on Zumanjaro. It's awesome being so close to Ka's tracks while being lifted.

 

Cyborg Cyber Spin

When we entered the park, the app said that Cyborg was temporarily closed. I was bummed because the ride was still testing during my earlier visit in the season and saw that they were replacing a motor the day before this visit. However, after getting off Zumanjaro, I checked again and saw it was open, so I ran over there. First off, the ride entrance with the sign looks very cool and the "theme-ing" was nicely placed. The ride looks very cool to guests watching off the ride. They had the lights running during the day, which I was a bit surprised about since they were hard to see with the sun. Maybe it's only programmed to run with the lights, I don't know. I was expecting the ride to be trash because of all the reviews that it's not intense at all. I actually enjoyed it. There was some nice hang-time and flips. I do see what people are saying. But, I think it is a great addition and it really fits the Metropolis section well. 

 

Justice League: Battle for Metropolis

The whole family was able to get on Justice League. There was literally no one in the station. We walked right onto the ride. This ride is always a fun time. I got in the 100,000s and was proud of myself. We waled around and went on one more time because there was no wait. I'm very happy that this was added so that the whole family could share a fun experience.

 

The Dark Knight Coaster

We were passing the themed wild mouse so we decided to take it for a spin. This was my first visit where they weren't running the pre show and we just walked right through. It does get repetitive but it's nice to see if you are waiting for people in front of you anyways. It was a fun ride.

 

Batman: The Ride

We then went across to Batman. It was a station wait. When we got there, employees were looking at a row of seats. I have no idea why. That held us up a little. This ride is alway a fun and intense ride. It really shows that the older B&Ms last long and stay smooth. 

 

Lunch

For lunch, I listened to many people and tried out the Metro Grill. I got a chicken sandwich with the chips. It was actually good. I enjoyed my meal and didn't feel gross after it. I hope Six Flags adds more food with this quality to the park.

 

Skull Mountain & Nitro

Skull Mountain had no wait at all. The first drop of this ride is great in the back of the train. I like the waterfall mist in the tunnel and really can't complain about this ride. We rode the legendary B&M hyper next. We were stuck behind a really slow group, but once we got to the station, we walked right on. I took my young brother on for his first time and he loved it. His scared face turned into a smile as we were going down the first drop. He decided to ride a second time because there was no wait.

 

Joker, SkyScreamer, Justice League Again, & Skyway

Joker had no wait. I rode the purple side after riding the green side on many of my past visits. Only got 2 flips though . It was still a fun ride. We then rode SkyScreamer. It was great to go up more than 200 feet and soar over the park. Someone joined our group at this point and we re-rode  Justice League with them. As we were there, I saw Cyborg was down and then checked facebook to see all the posts that it was down. We then waited on the longest line of the day: The Skyway. So glad that Great Adventure still is operating theirs. They were only operating one side, but this was understandable due to the lower crowd size that day.

 

Safari & Bizarro

The last two rides we rode were the Safari and Bizarro. I along with my family never went on the safari until this day. We wanted to change up our visit, so we went on line for it. It was a very fun ride. I am happy that I experienced it. I don't know if it is an every visit ride, but I definitely will ride it in the future. When we got off, we were getting a little tired. We decided that our last ride would be on Bizarro, since it was close by. We waited one train load for the front row. The front row on this ride was awesome. Being floorless and in front made it my favorite ride on Bizarro yet. I am definitely going to try to get front row on other floorless coasters.

 

We really had a great day at the park, and I had my favorite ride on many of the rides that day. The weather ended up just being cloudy, so we had an empty park all day. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. Can't wait until my next visit.

 

Ride Count:

El Toro: 2x

Kingda Ka: 1x

Zumanjaro: 1x

Cyborg Cyber Spin: 1x

Justice League: 3x

Dark Knight: 1x

Batman: 1x

Nitro: 2x

Joker: 1x

SkyScreamer: 1x

Skyway: 1x

Safari: 1x

Bizarro: 1x

 

(How was my first trip report?)

 

[Yoshi]

Great report. That's a lot of rides for a Saturday in the summer.