Associated parks:
Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, New Jersey, USA
With the offer of free upgrade to Diamond for purchasing lured us back into buying season passes for $77 each for SFA. We got to the park right around 1130, and were treated to light crowds. Yay! Since our last visit in 2020 the park has made some general improvements, added a lot of areas of seating, and it was cleaner(that could have been early season too.)
Was reading trip reports and the general consensus is a lot of the park is closed due to staffing. It was no different today. There were rides still being renovated(Log Flume, Ferris Wheel, and other flat rides.)
Memorial Day weekend is upon us and The Flash's coasters track isn't near complete. It's terrible how that's become the norm for them. Also the poor choice of recent coaster additions for the size of the park. It just don't make sense for capacity. We had decided that we weren't paying for the Flash Pass, but were armed with four free skip the lines. We set our goal of riding Nitro, El Toro, Kingda Ka, and Jersey Devil(new for us, and first single rail RMC.)
**Nitro - The only regular line we waited in, and it was about 45 minutes for the front with 2 trains running. Still one of my favorite B&M Hyper Coasters. Especially the first few hills. The newer generation(Mako and Candymonium,) have more intensity in the airtime department than these older ones, but they hold up.
** El Toro - Wanted to see how one of my favorites is holding up, and it didn't disappoint. Intense from 1st drop to brakes. Waited about 40 minutes for the front row.
** Kingda Ka - With the drop tower being closed it was steady running two trains all day. We had about a 15 minute wait for the front row. Was a rush. I love that launch.
** Jersey Devil - Used a skip the line on this one, and still waited an hour for row 1. They were running one train. I was expecting the RMC intensity that i've grown to love, and was underwhelmed. It's a good coaster don't get me wrong, but the capacity is terrible and shouldn't be at a park the size of Great Adventure. They move it to Knoebels or a Canobie Lake, and it would fit well.
On the thread of low capacity I took my one and only ride on The Dark Knight, and The Joker in their opening seasons, but haven't ridden them since. Would consider if they were a walk on, but by design at a six flags a walk on isn't possible. I can say that I wouldn't have to ride the Jersey Devil again and can lump it in the one and done category because of the horrible capacity. I don't think that the new Flash coaster's capacity is really going to fit any better into the park, but we'll return in the fall to give it a spin.
The good - The pulled pork Mac & Cheese from the Best Of The West Grill & Saloon. 4 free skip the line passes. An enjoyable day at a Six Flags.
The Bad - It's crazy to use a Flash pass and still wait an hour to ride. I can only imagine how long the standby line waited. Also the Jersey Devil didn't open until the afternoon between 2-4 when were were on the other side of the park. Four rides in Five hours while using 3 of those skip the lines.
Maybe your mistake was to wait for the front car. I’ve ridden a single rail RMC and came away with the notion that there’s not that much difference between front car and second. Or third.
But I’ll agree that 1 train op is inexcusable, especially for a park as busy as it is and a ride that has low throughput. As for Knoebels or Canobie, those parks would be a good fit for a ride like that, but I also feel they’d do their best to operate at full capacity, because they’re kind of like that.
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