6FGAdv Advice?

Going to Six Flags Great Adventure this month for the weekend (1st timer) - any advice/recommendations/comments? Also, I need a good place to stay. Can anyone tell me about the area - places to stay/avoid? Thanks!

Check out some recent trip reports. As for places to eat in the park it is expensive there are some fast food joins around the corner from the park less than a mile or 2 check them out. Get there early and hit all the big rides ASAP. Also the haunted houses tend to have long lines so try and get to them a little earlier. As for the hay ride if the line is short hit it up but I wouldn't wait longer than 20 mins for it. ITs really not that good.

Have a fun and safe trip!

I would seriously consider investing in a Gold Bot at least one day, it will make a huge difference in your wait times. I would get to the park early and get the Q-Bot right away as that line can get long fast. Also, this is a big park and it will take you a little while to find your way around. There are lots of little motels at the end of most exit ramps off the Jersey Turnpike within 1/2 hour of the park, to the north Holiday Inn at Exit 8A and Days Inn and Ramada Inn at Exit 8 and to the south I think some at Exit 6 and/or 7. Also, this is a NY/NJ/Philly crowd, so don't forget to bring a little East Coast attitude.

I do not condone the use of Q-Bots, but if you want to have an okay time at SFGAdv, you will need to pay up for one because long lines are an issue you should expect to encounter.

Don't expect anything and everything you get will be a plus. It a great park, really.

Thanks for the info, guys. I am REALLY REALLY out of my element these days - I don't have much time for theme parks. I do, of course, look at the websites for the parks, various travel sites, etc., but it is always better to get advice from the "seasoned professionals....." In looking at the recent topic by Mamoosh, it looks like this type of thread is an annoyance to regular coasterbuzz visitors, but in a way I look at this website as a useful source of information..... You can't get frank opinions from travelocity.com. Anyway, if you find this type of thing an annoyance, just don't read it ;)!

Dexter, I did read your trip report. I'm not sure what to expect on an October weekend as far as crowds. Those Jersey people are a different breed altoghether (and I say that as a best friend of a Jersey-ite). It sounds as if you got a fair amount of heckling for using your Q Bot. I don't know if I want to put up with that, and on second thoughts maybe I shouldn't go at all. I am not that big of a fanatic that I'll do anything for a coaster fix. I don't like to put up with that crap when I go to a park, especially if I've paid extra [for a Q-Bot]. How expensive are they, and how is this different from a Gold Bot?

Its not the Jersey people its all NY people. They come down in the masses!!

I really thought that the park guests were rather nice on my trip. I even had some very nice conversations with them in the long lines.

I am getting this info directly from the pamplet I took home as a souvenir...

Q-BOT PRICING
Daily Rental Fee
1 Person $30.90
2 Person $45.90
3 Person $60.90
4 Person $75.90
5 Person $90.90
6 Person $105.90

GOLD
1 Person $67.99
2 Person $100.99
3 Person $133.99
4 Person $166.99
5 Person $199.99
6 Person $232.99

Gold Q-Bot reduces wait time by 75%

The pamplet does not say this, but I was told by Lo-Q employees that they only give out 100 Gold per day.

^^ As a native New Yorker I take offense to that. People always think that the most rowdy people come from the urban environment. Guess again. Some of the most uncouth people I have come across are from the suburbs.

And ophthodoc, please do not let a few isolated bad experiences deter you from going to Great Adventure. It is an awesome park, and providing you go on a day when the crowds are light (you said weekend, so I suggest Sunday), you will have a good time.

The worst-behaved crowds I've ever seen have been church youth groups.

Amen.

i go to gadv a lot . Its my home park. In fact i was there yesterday (october 1st) from 10 am to 10 pm

BEST advice get a gold qbot. With the gold qbot you will not wait any more then 20 minutes tops.

I got 2 rides on ka one wait was 10 min with the qbot and the other at night about 8:30 pm was a 20 min wait.

All the other rides on qbot where 1 minute wait.

except the hayride. that was a 20 min wait also (not worth it if u dont have a qbot)

go at opening and stay till closing if u go for fright fest. Also the water rides, stuntmans freefall and rolling thunder are all closed so dont expect to ride them .

The gold qbot reduce ur wait time dramatically. I waited 1 minute for nitro thats right 1 minute basically a walk on. KK was a 10 minute wait . everybody in the que had about an hour wait. so the gold qbot is deffinately worth it.

The only people who will heckle you are the people who wish they thought of it lol

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Mamoosh said:
The worst-behaved crowds I've ever seen have been church youth groups.

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I'll back that.

It holds true in my experience as well.

Thanks, Dexter, that's really helpful info. Whew! $100 for a Gold Q-Bot (for two)... That's really pricey. But it sounds like it's worth it (I think)? Plus general admission.... So you basically activate the Q Bot at the attraction and it tells you when to ride?

It does seem like a nice park though - four (I think) B&M's, Ka, and Superman.... I thought the same thing about Magic Mountain, but when I was there a year and a half ago I didn't see what all the commotion was about. Besides X, there really wasn't anything that great there (I did like Goliath, and who doesn't love a suspended [Ninja]....interesting layout).

As for the crowds, it's really a crap shoot no matter where you go. Taking some ribbing when you're walking in front of a thousand pissed off people in the fastlane line is the nature of the beast I guess. *** Edited 10/3/2005 3:30:19 AM UTC by ophthodoc***

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Mamoosh said:
The worst-behaved crowds I've ever seen have been church youth groups.

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Another vote for this one.

Yes Sir, you hold the bot in front of a tiny window with a scanner inside and it beeps. You look at it and it tells you what time to come back. You come back to the ride at that time and scan it a another window usuially near the Q-Bot entrance, and it beeps with a message that tells you if it's okay to enter now.

I used it but I didn't want to because I was very against it. After useing it one time, I better understand how it works, and I am not so against it now. I thought that the lines were severly being "stalled out" because of the practice of Q-Boters waiting in more that one line at a time. After using the bot, I now understand that there are not as many people using it as I though were.

The problem I have, and have always had is that it slows capacity of the rides. Take Rolling Thunder and Chiller for example. Both of these rides had me walk up to the exit and wait in a line where people are disembarking the ride (This was chaos in itself, because other Q-Botters were trying to cut, not noticing where the Q-Bot line started). After the platform was clear of those exiting, Q-Botters were let on the ride. After that, the air gates were open for the standby line to be able to board.

This was a complete waste of time. It completely goes against the way the rides were designed. These people get off while these people get on, check restraints, and send the train already.

I will also add that my Q-Bot time for Chiller was way longer than what the people in the standby line waited, because of the extra long line of Botters. It's in my TR, but IIRC, the line of Q-Botters was 45 minutes...or was it 25 minutes? I can't remember.

Another problem I have concerning Q-Bot is very easily solved. If the park would have posted the wait times at the wait time signs already in front of every big ride, it would have been much more helpful to me. You can be no later than 10 minutes late for a Q-Bot reservation. All day I worried about missing my reservations.

My conspiracy theory is that the park will not post wait times for coasters because Q-Bot lies about wait times. How does Lo-Q know how long the wait time is for a ride? It would cost a little money, but once again it would be very easy for the park and Lo-Q to work together to post wait times.

Last negitive thing that i can say about it...You may wait in line for an hour just to get the Q-Bot.

I'm not an expert on Q-Bot. I only used it once, and am still trying to figure out if it is or isn't a fair system. It really intrigues me. The park was so busy for me on a Thursday that I really needed the Bot. From now on when I go to SFGAdv, I will add the Q-bot to the price of admission, which makes for a very expensive ticket. I just wish someone would build another huge Mega-Themepark near SFGAdv to alleviate the crowds.

I don't think that this was a rant, but if it was, and you got all the way through, thanks for reading.

I can't imagine the *value* in Botting at a park I go to routinely....but for a far-from-home park, it certainly does make a lot more sense. And GAdv is usually pretty crowded (although I'm hoping Columbus Day this year isn't TOO bad, LOL).... ;)

I used it once with a friend of mine, and it did indeed increase the number of rides we were able to ride dramatically. Also, being the coaster nuts that we were, we used the system to double-ride the rides.. that is, we'd reserve the ride, then go wait in line. By the time we got off the ride, it was time to scan our bot, then get right back on the ride. The estimated times were fairly accurate (unless the ride breaks down, in which case the real line doesn't move, but the Q-bot virtual line doesn't adjust the time).

The problem I had with the system is that it's a 2-edged sword: Yes, it is worth the money because you experience more rides than you would without it. However, on days where the park is pretty busy but isn't insanely busy, you'll find one-train ops, and/or purposefully slow ops in order to make the line longer so they can justify having the Q-bot system in the first place. I've witnessed this several times last year, although admittedly I do recall a sign this year in May by the Q-bot place saying they weren't selling them for the day because "lines throughout the park are short today".