Nitro = overrated piece of crap - SFGADV, 7/11
Associated parks:
None
Six Flags Great Adventure would be my first Six Flags park, and I would also get to ride my first flying and floorless coasters, Batman clone, as well as my first Togo sit-down. Nitro would also be the tallest and fastest coaster I've been on.
Overall: I kept an open mind about the park, even after hearing all the negativity about it. However after the visit, I think that all of that negativity is deserved. Frontier Adventures was the only area that I really liked, everywhere else it was either dirty or it looked like crap. Lots of the rides didn't look like they were being well maintained, and the employees sucked. Plus, many rides didn't open until mid-afternoon and many closed around dinner or before. Maybe I'm spoiled by parks like Hershey, Dorney and Knoebels, but I think that this is perhaps the worst park I've visited. Although I didn't like the park I still had a nice day, as the coasters are awesome.
Staff: They sucked. Are all Six Flags employees stoned? 'Cause it sure looked like they were, and seeing as how slow they moved, I wouldn't be suprised if they actually were. What could have been a 15 mintue wait for Robin turned out to be about 35 minutes. Stacking was everywhere and a few times there were 2 trains stacked and one train in the station on Nitro and Medusa. There was also an old jerk at the park entrance who seemed extremely pissed for no reason. A bunch of employees would also sit in the coaster before the gates open to board. Lazzyyyy. The one good thing I saw the staff do was try and get this overweight man into Nitro. They tried for a few minutes, and all the trains were stacked and many people were getting irritated, and they were still trying. Gotta give them props for that.
Wait Times/Crowds: The crowds were non-exisitant until around 2:00. The longest wait was 35 minutes for Batman and Robin: The Chiller. It could've been shorter, but the ride operators were extremely slow. But they were this way with every coaster almost. Nitro was about a 30 minute wait for the front, and a 20 minute wait for any other seat. Medusa was a walk-on most of the day. Batman: The Ride was a 30 minute wait when it opened around dinner, and a walk-on shortly after. A ton of rides were not open, or were only open a few hours.
Coasters: This is where Six Flags shines. Their collection is awesome! If only the park experience lived up to their coasters...
Nitro - After riding Apollos Chariot, I was really excited to ride Nitro. The layout is visually impressive, as well as the color scheme. I took my first ride in the back. The drop was impressive (one of the best), but I felt the rest of the ride (aside from the helix) was a complete bore. I didn't recieve any airtime in the beginning, and in the bunny hops I recieve just a tiny bit. Needless to say I extremely dissappointed, and I decided to try it again towards the front. I sat in the 3rd row and had a much better ride. Still not one of my favorites yet though.
Later on, Sheryl and I decided to take a front row seat, which was a 25 minute wait. Hanging over the first drop in the front is insane - and a little scary. Before you know it, your racing down and up the next hill and turn to the left before once getting flying down. There was some floater air on the next hill, but it was barely noticable. The hammerhead is great - my favorite part of the ride. The next hill offers a little floater air, and the next park (the helix) is extremely intense, as I "grayed" out. The bunnys actually offered some airtime this time.
When we hit the breaks, I felt Nitro was a great ride, but still overrated. Maybe a point ejector air would've made this ride my favorite, but it just popped in at #7. 9/10.
Best Part: Hammerhead. Rides: 5
Medusa - This was my favorite ride at Great Adventure. Here's why: Awesome first drop, amazing inversions, great headchoppers, and some nice pops of air. I experienced my first sit-down zero-g roll, and it is now my favorite inversion. The cobra roll didn't kill your neck, and the dive loop was awesome. The floorless concept is also a neat idea. Too bad they closed the ride down at 6:00, or I would've gone on it a lot more. 9.6/10.
Best Part: Zero-g roll Rides: 2
Superman: Ultimate Flight - This would be my first flying coaster, and I really enjoyed it. It offers some intense g's in the pretzel loop, disorientation through the inline twist, and I actually enjoyed the non-intense part where it seems to focus on the flying experience which I really liked. Not a mind-blowing ride but it was very cool. 9/10.
Best Part: Pretzel loop Rides: 1
Batman And Robin: The Chiller (Robin) - Robin was only open, which kind of upset me since I really wanted to try out Batman, however I still couldn't wait to try Robin out. Since I really liked FoF, and I couldn't wait to try out a launch with just lap bars. The launch itself is very intense as well as the cobra roll, and the zero-g roll is insane going backwards. It wasn't rough but it did rock you around, which is part of the fun. 8/10.
Best Part: Launch Rides: 1
Batman: The Ride - This would be my first Batman clone. In the beginning of the day, it wasn't operating and I was extremely dissappointed. I ask an employee in the nearby area if it was going to open today, and he said he doubted it would. You could see maintence workers crawling all over the zero-g roll. However, it did open around dinner. The queue is one of the best, however the sewer area gets really hot inside. The ride itself is smooth and extremely intense. The g's after the loop are extremely intense and the zero-g roll is great. The rest of the ride is fairly good with some nice foot choppers. Even though it's one of the older deisgn by B&M, it's still one of their best. And to think some people dislike it because it's been cloned so many times... 8.8/10.
Best Part: First loop Rides: 2
Great American Scream Machine - Six Flags really needs to do some work on the queue, it looks like crap. The ride itself doesn't look like it's in the greatest shape, as the supports are beginning to rust. However, the ride itself is actually pretty good. The drop is alright and the loops are semi-intense. I recived no headbanging by leaning forward, and the hangtime in the kamikaze curve and corkscrews was pretty cool. The trains were coming to a near complete stop on the midcourse, and sometimes they did completely stop on it. However, I think with a little TLC this classic looper could be really good. 8/10
Best Part: Kamikaze curve Rides: 1
Skull Mountain - This coaster was nicely themed, and I actually enjoyed it. The first drop gives some nice air and there is also another point where you recieve some more. The rest of the ride seems to just do some twisting and helices, and it can be uncomfortable without any padding on the back of the seats. Still not a bad ride. 6.2/10.
Best Part: First drop Rides: 1
Rolling Thunder (Left Side) - How anyone can say this is rough - it's way to slow to be rough. The train does squeak and bounce a little though, which makes it fun. I sat in the second to last row, and I received just a little airtime on the first few drops. It looked like there would be more air in the front, but I wanted to get on Nitro once more and decided not to ride again. I think that if Six Flags would give it a little more attention and race it, this would be a fairly good woodie. 6/10.
Best Part: First drop Rides: 1
Viper - Togo evilness at it's best. There was only one coaster I hated - Shockwave at PKD. But now, Shockwave has a partner. Viper is the most painful coaster I have ever been on. I will never ride it again and I hope they tear it down. The first drop was very good, and fairly smooth, but then, the first curve completely kills your neck, and the beginning of the first inversion hurts like hell (but the hangtime is pretty cool). The rest is a blur due to my head getting beat up. They only this has going for itself is the themeing, first drop, and the hangtime in the first inversion. 1/10.
Best Part: Hangtime in the first inversion Rides: 1
Runaway Mine Train - This coaster begins out fairly nicely with a helix and some hills that go through the woods. However, after the midcourse, it becomes bumpy through the second helix, and when you go to turn, this thing wips your neck around and hurts like a mother. Just when you think it's over, there's a hill that provides a large amount of air - except with the metal lap bar, it has to be the most painful air ever, and I got a nice black and blue line across my legs now. 4/10.
Best Part: Dive over water Rides: 1
Other Rides: I didn't do to many flats, but I did do a few. Great Adventures line-up of flats and other rides is very impressive. It would be more impressive if most of them were actually open, and if most of them would stay open after dinner or would open in the morning instead of late afternoon. I wanted to check out Stuntmans Freefall as well as others but they seemed to have closed around 6-7:00, or didn't open at all.
Houdini's Great Escape - An interesting ride. The house itself and area inside is nicely themed, and the storyline is pretty good. The illusion itself is always fun, but it can make you dizzy after awhile. Still, it's worth checking out.
Fantasy Fling - Well, the ride op was mighty pissed off when someone was jumping up and down while the ride was in motion. He stopped the ride, started yelling and came up to tell the kid to get off - except it was the wrong guy he kicked off. The ride itself is fairly boring but the g's are cool. It's not really thrilling but it's pretty fun.
Saw Mill Log Flume - The themeing was alright but the ride itself was really bumpy. I kept getting slammed back and forth in the boat, which wasn't fun. Still, the setting and layout was pretty good and it gets you wetter than most flumes.
Sky Ride - If you don't want to walk to get to the otherside of the park, this ride really helps out. Plus, it gives a nice view of the park. One side was only open which resulted in long lines, and the ride operators were extremely slow.
Space Shuttle - This looks like it's in extremely bad shape. However, the actually ride itself isn't to bad, a little boring, but the hangtime is definately cool. The restraints suck though.
Best Ride: Medusa. I have to say I enjoyed this ride more than Nitro. The zero-g roll itself makes it one of my favorites, and the rest of the ride (the first drop, diving loop, and corkscrews) makes it in my top 5.
Worst Ride: Viper. It's the most painful ride I've experienced. I think I've already explained enough above.
Most suprising ride: Viper. I heard it was painful but I didn't expect it to be that painful. But suprising in a good way was Great American Scream Machine. It wasn't as rough as I expected and the inversions were a lot of fun. I guess I'm a sucker for Arrow loopers. If only it were taken care of a bit better...
Final Word: Great Adventure could be one of my favorites, however the only thing I enjoyed were some of the rides and coasters. I don't think I'll be heading back anytime soon and I doubt I'll be visiting any Six Flags parks again for awhile. I'd give Six Flags Great Adventure an 8/10 for the coasters and a 6/10 for the park experience. Overall, a 7/10.
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"If we knew how safe roller coasters were, we'd lose their thrill" - Daniel Keller
*** This post was edited by 3r1c 7/17/2003 9:58:46 AM ***
3r1c said:
...I doubt I'll be visiting any Six Flags parks again for awhile.
Don't rule them all out because of one crappy experience.
EDIT: Great TR!
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Bugs or bed springs?
*** This post was edited by The Shy One 7/12/2003 6:49:50 PM ***
Very nice TR. :)
-Danny
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Coaster Insomniacs- Coastin' the Night Away
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Koaster King said:
Whoa, I had a completely different experience. I thought Great Adventure was the best SF park I had been to next to Great America, Nitro knocked MF out of my top 20, I thought Medusa was highly overrated, Viper was better than most of the coasters at Dorney and Hershey
You did not just say that Viper is better than Talon, Steel Force, and The Great Bear.
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Coaster Grotto - Over 1,000 coaster photos and 80 theme park reviews now online!
Don't let the park sour you on the rest of the chain. Most SF parks are nicer than SFGAdv.
On the other side, I also don't find their collection of coasters too entertaining for the most part either...but we won't get into that.
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Dorney Park Visits in 2003: 13
Nitro is nowhere near milleniums calibur of ride, just look at the height difference, speed, and teh coasters are kool, and like wide open.
Also Koaster King, how coudl Nitro knock MF out of your top 20?! Mayeb your as your favorite ride or out of your top 5, but 20! Thats a surprise.
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Top 5 SFGAm Coasters: 1) Raging Bull 2) S:UF 3) V2 4) B:TR 5) Viper
Maybe Deja Vu would be on this list if it would open!
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Top 5 SFGAm Coasters: 1) Raging Bull 2) S:UF 3) V2 4) B:TR 5) Viper
Maybe Deja Vu would be on this list if it would open!
Why, when MF was 17 and SUF, Nitro, Lightning Racer, and Talon entered my top 20... that's when it happened. I was just using that to show how impressed I was personally. Stats don't make a great coaster. Nor do uninteresting layouts.
I thought SFNE and SFKK were both much worse than SFWOA. Maybe I was just lucky with GAdv. No crowds, no lines, great coasters (same with SFWOA). I guess I could blame the friends I met at the park for allowing me to have so much fun, but what's the use in forcing the park to a bad level in my mind when I had such a great time to begin with? Go to SFGAm and SFOG if you haven't been. I'm pretty sure those are a couple of the 'good ones'.
-Danny, (imao)
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Coaster Insomniacs- Coastin' the Night Away
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"If we knew how safe roller coasters were, we'd lose their thrill" - Daniel Keller
*** This post was edited by 3r1c 7/13/2003 10:16:41 AM ***
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-Sean Newman
The Superman flying coaster.. I guess I'm just not taken by the flying aspect, but it bored me. There should have been more to it, I thought. Medusa was incredible. Robin was really fun, and it's a shame that Batman was down - when, does anyone know!!, will this open again??
Viper is an abomination. No coaster has even made me cry out 'Ow!" while riding, but this did. To think, they tore Drachen Fire into scrap metal, yet this thing still exists and operates. It's a cruel world.
Nitro - I had a fabulous front-seat night ride. Swalloed three bugs. I loved this ride, though the mid-course brakes hit a bit hard.
RT isn't rough, it's violent! ;-)
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