• Six Flags Great Adventure | Theme Park Reviews

  Written by The Coaster Critic 5 Comments
  Last Updated: July 21, 2007

  Flagship Six Flags Park is a Story of Extreme Highs & Lows
  Six Flags Great Adventure
  Jackson, New Jersey
  Google Maps Satellite Map
  Tickets & Pricing
  Last Visit: September 2006

  Six Flags Great Adventure, located in Jackson, NJ, is probably Six Flag’s flagship park. While Magic Mountain has been downsized in the past few years, Great Adventure has flourished. With seven new roller coasters in the past eight years and the tallest and fastest roller coaster on the planet. Obviously the company is investing a lot in Great Adventure. Not to mention Philadelphia and New York City are just a few hours away. A point of contention for a lot of enthusiasts has been the park’s frequent breakdowns on major attractions like Kingda Ka and Batman & Robin.

  Notable Rides & Attractions
  I can’t recall any particularly notable rides or attractions. You will find a swinging inverter themed as a space shuttle along with a long list of flat rides and water rides.

  Theming & Atmosphere
  Great Adventure is located next to a lake in Northern New Jersey. The park has been relatively clean in my experiences and the theming was standard Six Flags fare. Two new sections were recently added. The Golden Kingdom is home to Kingda Ka and a white tiger exhibit. The Plaza del Carnival opened in 2006 with El Toro and some pretty authentic smelling Mexican food.
  
  Coaster Breakdown – Trinity of Coaster Goodness with an Uneven, But Large Supporting Cast
  El Toro, Nitro, and Kingda Ka are an amazing trio.

  

  Road Runner Railways - Steel Kiddie Coaster – N/A
  Small Zamperla kiddie coaster.

  Blackbeard’s Lost Treasure Train - Steel Family Coaster – N/A
  I’ve never ridden it, but it’s identical to Beaver Land Mine Ride at Geauga Lake which I gave a 5 (Average). It’s a fun family coaster.

  Batman & Robin: The Chiller - Dueling Launch Shuttle Coaster – N/A
  Unfortunately, this dueling launch coaster has been shutdown during both of my visits. Check out some pics here.

  Superman: Ultimate Flight - Steel Flying Coaster – N/A
  Another ride that was down during my visit. I’ve ridden its clone at Six Flags Over Georgia. It’s a short flying coaster that’s fun, but over before you know it. At least the pretzel loop makes it worth the wait. I gave its clone a 7.0.

  Rolling Thunder - Wooden Racing Coaster – 3.5
  Rolling Thunder’s a racing coaster, but you’d hardly know it. On both of my visits the park was running trains on only one of tracks. Kind of defeats the purpose of a racing coaster, doesn’t it?

  Great American Scream Machine - Steel Looping Coaster – 4.0
  An aging old steel looper that’s gives a shaky, rough ride. Check out my full review including an onride video.

  Skull Mountain - Steel Indoor Family Coaster – 5.5
  Decent indoor ride that’s pitch black in most spots.
  
  Runaway Mine Train - Steel Family Coaster – 6.0
  Great mine train ride.

  Batman The Ride - Steel Inverted Coaster – 6.5
  This is yet another clone of the popular Batman The Ride found at Six Flags parks all over the world. It’s packed with a tight twisting layout. For me some of the inversions are a bit too close together. I got off feeling like I’d just been tumble-dried, but it’s still a good ride.

  Medusa - Steel Floorless Coaster – 8.0
  Medusa was the first B&M floorless coaster. It features a smooth, loopy layout, with open trains that have no floors and no walls.

  Kingda Ka - Steel Strata Coaster – 8.0
  The aforementioned tallest and fastest coaster in the world. It’s more of a thrill ride than a full-fledged roller coaster, but it’s quite a thrill indeed. Check out my full Kingda Ka review including an onride video.

  Nitro - Steel Hyper Coaster – 9.0
  Nitro’s an excellent hyper coaster that deserves the accolades and praise that it receives.

  El Toro - Prefabricated Wooden Coaster – 10.0
  This wooden coaster is like no other. It’s silky smooth and jam-packed with airtime. To see why I gave it a 10 out of 10 and ranked it 3rd on my Top Ten Coasters, read my full El Toro review.
  
  Six Flags Great Adventure Q.Q.M.
  Quality – 6.7/10
  Quantity – 13
  Mix – Strong
  
  Get There Index – 4
  (A Must Visit for Anyone With a Pulse)
  The numerous attractions coupled with that trinity of top-notch coasters results in weak 4 out of 4. The pros do just enough to outweigh the mediocre coasters and sub par park operations. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend a park with a track record of breakdowns and outages, but Kinga’s launch, El Toro’s airtime, and Nitro’s overall fun ride can make an enthusiast overlook quite a bit.

  See the rest of the GTI & How I Rate Theme Parks. Got any questions or comments about Six Flags Great Adventure? Leave a comment below.Images courtesy of CoasterImage.com

  

  Related Posts:

  1. Nitro @ Six Flags Great Adventure | Coaster Reviews
  2. Kingda Ka @ Six Flags Great Adventure | Coaster Reviews
  3. El Toro @ Six Flags Great Adventure | Coaster Reviews

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5 Comments

1. #1 samantha says:
   August 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 am

   Hi I brought my sister and four other friends to have a fun day at great adventures, two days ago , we left early in the morning to have a good 8 hours at the park in the middle of the week on purpose because we didn’t want be with the weekend crowd.
   When e arrived there around 11 am we went strait to business, the park was packed and lines were running 2 hours each, some of the fun roller coaster roller coaster you had to pay an extra 5 to 10 dollars to be on and they had something called the flash card, a way they have to make an extra buck on you, 15 dollars extra to skip line making the regular people lines longer. Strange when you walk in the park you think this is just a park we are all having fun and equal at this point, kind of going back to your child hood when money and adult problems didn’t happen, but to be shoved back on your face.
   Another thing is the prices, a hot dog is cheaper than bottle of water and you can’t bring your on, the all metal detector is to look for bottles of water in your bag and make you spend the money, there is no water fountains and they make you check you bags as small as it can be in lockers for an extra charge. So if you need to drink anything and hydrate in the 10 hours you spend there you ll probably should be looking at an extra 10 dollars for each family member.
   The machines are controlled by teenagers, with no visual supervision, ours lives and safety are entrusted to them and whoever had checked on the machines before the opening. And they pay no attention to their jobs, i watched one of the most humiliating things doe to a teenager girl at the superman roller coaster. They have this employes teenagers at the entrance of each line to supervise people getting in with bags and drinks, make you check you small bag, but wait and hight limits they over look, we stood on the super man line for 50 minutes, was one of the smallest lines we faced, and behind me was a girl who weight at list 250 pounds. She stood on line the all time until she arrived at the cars, they let her go on, tried to strap her into and told her to leave in front of hundreds of people. I wasn’t sure if i was more up set about her humiliation or to the fact they tried when was obvious in that kind of machine she would be too heavy.
   The last thing that happen was the last line we stood in the end of the day to the new bat-man machine, from 8:30 pm to the end when it brook 7 people to our time. We paid 50 dollars each to get in, 15 dollars for the cheap parking, 10 dollars for water and a hot dog, tolls to get back home and we had time to go on 3 toys because the las one broke. Now you tell me if was worth it?????

   Reply
2. #2 The Coaster Critic says:
   August 23rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm

   Samantha, I’m sorry you had such a bad trip. Here are a few things to consider when visiting a park as large and popular as Great Adventure:

   You should really try to be at the park before it opens. Then you can be guaranteed a ride or two on the most popular coasters with little or no wait.

   It doesn’t cost extra to ride any of the roller coasters. There are a few thrill rides that do cost more, like those bungee swing rides.

   The Flash Pass is extra and it allows people to bypass the queue. BUT they only sell a limited number of the flash passes so it really doesn’t make the regular lines any longer.

   I don’t know where you live, but for a better experience you might want to try a smaller regional park like Dorney Park or Darien Lake or a more traditional old school park like Knoebels, Rye Playland, Morey’s Piers, or Lake Compounce. Those types of parks might be more to your liking. The prices are a lot better and the crowds are much smaller. Other parks not only let you bring in water, but Holiday World and Lake Compounce have FREE soft drink fountains!

   The larger parks can be so crazy and crowded that some planning is always needed to really enjoy them. Check out this post for best times to visit theme parks.

   Lastly, about the overweight woman, isn’t it better that they tried to see if she would fit rather than just turn her away. Also, rides like Superman Ultimate Flight have seats for larger riders. I’m not sure if they tried to put her in one of those seats, but it’s better that they tried to seat her rather than turn her away.

   I hope you enjoy your next theme park trip. Thanks for reading.

   Reply
3. #3 Jake says:
   May 12th, 2009 at 10:59 pm

   The Batman and Robin coaster is gone now. I rode it on my first trip to the park and while it was fun it was also quite rough. Their new coaster The Dark Knight was cool, but over-hyped. It was brand new last summer when I went and I hadn’t done my homework on exactly what it would be like since it was an indoor coaster. That was a mistake because it had the longest line in the whole park (including Kingda Ka) and it turned out to be nothing more then an indoor wild mouse ride. Had the line been 15 minutes it would have been fun, but waiting over an hour for a mouse coaster really hurt the experience for me.

   I also have to disagree with you on rating Medusa as an 8. I loved that the coaster was floorless, smooth, and had lots of inversions, but it was simply too slow to actually be able to be excited by any of it. Another 5 or 10 mph throughout the whole ride and it could definitely be an 8 or a 9. As it is now I was somewhat bored throughout most of the ride.

   Reply
4. #4 MarvelMaker says:
   July 2nd, 2009 at 10:38 pm

   Great Adventure is so overlooked – but it’s great. El Toro is my alltime #2 favorite coaster (second to Revenge of the Mummy in Orlando), Nitro is AMAZING, and Kingda Ka in NEW JERSEY?? That’s great. The Dark Knight Coaster and Skull Mountain both give thrilling and fun rides, and Batman: The Ride isn’t so bad in the front. There are two doozies though, Rolling Thunder (Rotting Lumber) and Great American Scream Machine. OUCH, headache. This park is great, and sure, some prices are big but that’s why you bring a cooler. If you go out in the parking lot around 2 or 3, and come back later, a lot of the crowd is gone.

   Reply
5. #5 QB3 says:
   September 5th, 2009 at 4:47 pm

   One of my favorites

   Reply