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I’ve never been to Six Flags New England before, so I didn’t know what to expect. Having heard numerous stories of how awesome SROS was from friends, I knew I couldn’t go another season without trying it out. I went with my best friend Jon. He’s not a coaster enthusiast, but he has been to Cedar Point before, so his expectations were high, just like mine.
We arrived at the park at 9:40AM. Jon had called the park the day before to ask about FastLane. They told him that we should go on Superman first and then come back to guest relations and get FastLane tickets sometime before 1pm (which is when they supposedly run out).
We were pretty close to the front of the crowd when they dropped the ropes at 10 am. To anyone waiting, go with the crowd that goes to the right. It gets to SROS first. Jon and I were in the front seat of SROS by 10:20 am. So how was the ride? It was AWESOME. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. It was probably about 70 F with clear and sunny skies. The view was amazing…and so was the drop into the misty, neon-lit tunnel. Then it’s back up a hill into an over-banked turn to the right, followed by two big airtime filled hills. Its great waving at the crowd waiting in line as we swoop left and then right into a helix. Then it’s a sharp turn to the left into another helix and another mist-filled tunnel. The ride ends with two nice bunny hops and a right turn into the braking area. Every hill and major transition has a nice bit of negative Gs. The ride feels very different from the SROS at Six Flags America. I like both of them a lot. The advantage of SROS at SFA is that it’s in a more open area. Going through the huge helixes on Superman at SFA with your hands up really makes you feel like Superman. Anyways, this TR is about SFNE, not SFA, so enough about that. J
After a great introduction to SFNE, we were dismayed to be told that all FastLane tickets had run out already. It was only 10:30 am! Jon and I were pretty ticked off. Actually, earlier in the week, I had called SFNE and asked about SROS and how many trains they were running. The guy on the phone said two, but yet they were running only one train the whole time. The other train was nowhere in sight. So my advice: get FastLane tickets as soon as you get to the park and don’t listen to people from SFNE on the phone.
The rest of the day:
Riverside Cyclone (~10:45 am, wait time: 10 minutes): Short line, but only one train running. We rode in the third row. The ride wasn’t all that great; especially with the girls behind us groaning about all the pain they were suffering. Jon really hated the ride! I thought that it was too slow in a lot of parts, but I knew I would have to ride it again in the last row later.
New England Skyway (~11 am, wait time: 5 minutes)): The gondolas for this ride look really spooky. The line was short though and it was nice way to get back to the center of the park.
SROS (~11:15 am): The line had grown very, very big. It was a 110 minute wait for us. What was really aggravating about waiting in line was the lack of shade and a group of 14 shameless line cutters. They went all the way from the beginning of the cue and cut in where the line enters the building. They bypassed about 65 minutes of waiting. Yet, no one did anything about it; the line cutters even congratulated themselves with high fives! If my cell phone had been with me, I would have called for park security. On to the ride: Jon and I sat in the 3rd to last row. What a difference it made! Every hill had much more intense ejector air. We were both grinning widely at the end. J
Buzzsaw (wait time: 10 minutes): Rotating flat ride. I don’t know the official name for this type of ride, but it was a lot of fun. Every-time we accelerated downward, we got forcefully ejected from our seats.
Colossus (wait time: 5 minutes): Giant Ferris Wheel. This was actually the second-best part of our trip to SFNE. The view from the top of this 150 ft wheel is incredible. I was able to take lots of pictures of SROS. I’ll put them up on a website soon, so you can all see!
Lunch: Cheeseburger with fries ($6.29). Regular Soda ($2.69). Quality: Not bad. While I'm talking about food, I had soft-serve later in the day for $2.99. It was yummy! =)
Now the rest of the day is getting a little hazy in my mind. Jon wasn’t all that enthusiastic about riding anything else after lunch, but we headed over to Poison Ivy’s Twisted Train anyways. This thing looks really weird having such a long train. There was no line, but we still had to wait in the train a while. They didn’t dispatch it until it was full! The ride itself was amusing, but should be fun for younger people. (Wait time: walk-on).
Nightflight (wait time: 40 minutes, queue point: from entrance): This is an incredible Huss flat ride. It’s really hard to describe in words, other than the fact that you lie down for this ride and then get spun around. The plane of motion goes from fully horizontal to fully vertical. It spins pretty fast; maybe 30 revs a minute? It’s a very intense ride! When it decelerates at the end, I definitely felt a queasy. Then after getting off the ride, I thought I was going to puke. It’s one of those things that are really fun while you’re on it, but leave you feeling weird for a while afterwards. Actually, someone had puked on this ride right before our ride. They had to get disinfectant out and clean!
After Nightflight, we took a break from riding. It was amusing watching people play carnival games. People spend so much money on these games, because they look deceiving easy to win. The worst one was Bank a Ball. It’s where you have to throw a whiffle ball against an angled sheet of wood and get the ball into a box located in front and below the sheet of wood. We watch for twenty minutes and not a single person could do it!
After watching games, we went on Blizzard River, SFNE’s whitewater ride. It had very nice theming. The mist created a very nice effect. It was a nice way to cool off. The line was about 30 minutes long.
Thunderbolt (wait time: 30 minutes). They were running only one train on this classic small woodie. I rode in the last seat, while Jon wandered off looking for more carnival games to watch. It was fairly fun; not much else to say then that.
Cyclone #2 (wait time: 20 minutes). They were running two trains for my second visit to the Cyclone. I rode in the last seat, while Jon waited at the exit. He wasn’t willing to go through roughness again. It seems that the Cyclone gave him a bad impression of wooden coasters overall, which is a real shame. I need to get him to ride Lightning Racer at Hersheypark. Then maybe he’ll think otherwise. Anyways, the ride in the last row was a riot. I was holding on for dear life! I can see why a lot of people really like this ride; I loved being thrown around!
Mind Eraser and Flashback (wait time: too long). Standard Vekoma SLC and Boomerang, respectively. It seems that the Mind Eraser is still a very popular ride, even though it is rough in some points. I think it’s more of a nice ride to look at than it is to actually ride.
SROS Finale (wait time: 90 minutes). We went on this for our last time of the day after watching the Batman Thrill Spectacular. The Batman show was pretty terrible. The dialogue is all lip-synched. The special effects and stunts seem so randomly placed. The plot was incomprehensible. We had to get the bad taste of the show out of our mouths by riding SROS. We hit the last row. By the time that happened, it was already 9 pm and completely dark. The ride experience was one to remember for a long time. How to describe it? Ride it for yourself!
All in all, SFNE is a nice park. It was kept pretty clean throughout the day and the landscaping is decent. The crowds were friendly on a whole. Running only one train on SROS is rough though. The perpetually long line for it shows that this is definitely this park’s star attraction. The installation of a B&M for next season should help distribute crowds away from SROS. I’ll definitely be coming back to this park in the future.
How come you didn't ride scream? That was my second favorite ride there!
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Batwing-Bow Down
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Any resemblance to living or
dead people is purely coincidental.
SFNE is great! S:ROS is awesome, so is the Cyclone.
Glad you had a good time!
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