Six Flags New England 7/10/08 (Day 1, Part 1)

I apologize that this is so late, but I just got back into town. My friend Chris and I (my name is Chris too) went on an 8 day, 11 theme park road trip from July 10th-18th. The parks we visited were Six Flags New England, Lake Compounce, Six Flags Great Adventure, Rye Playland Park, Astroland, Dorney Park, Knoebels Grove, Hersheypark, Six Flags America, Kings Dominion, and Busch Gardens Europe, in that order.

Chris and I both from Orange County, California and this was my first trip to the east coast. Chris was already doing other things in the New England area, so this trip was planned around his time on the east coast.

My redeye flight from Los Angeles to Boston was delayed an hour and a half but I eventually landed at 8 AM, allowing us 2 1/2 hours to get to Six Flags New England before it was scheduled to open. We hit some traffic on the way to the park and ended up arriving to the park about 30 minutes later than we planned.

After our SF Season Passes were scanned, we (obviously) headed right for Superman: Ride of Steel. The wait was only about 15 minutes even though the operations were very slow. This is something we encounted at every single park we visited. Anyways, we opted for a backseat ride. I had huge expectations for this ride, and it EXCEEDED them. The airtime is incredible and the positive G’s you feel in the banked turnaround and helix are sick! I loved the pacing of this ride and it ends very well. I’m a big fan of multiple bunnyhops! This is now my #3 coaster behind X2 and The Voyage.

By the time we exited the ride, the line got rather long, exceeding 30 minutes. We wanted to get back in line but we had to get the other credits out of the way. Next up was Catwoman’s Whip since its close to S:RoS. It’s a decent family coaster but nothing special.

I’m not a fan of Vekoma SLCs but Mind Eraser was one of the best I’ve ridden! The foot-choppers just before the double inline twist get me every time!

Batman: The Ride was a 10 minute wait so we did that next. Floorless coasters don’t do much for me, and this one was no different. It was very mediocre.

We spent some time walking through Hurricane Harbor. I don’t like water parks so we didn't ride anything. They have a decent selection of water slides but nothing that looked TOO impressive.

Since we did everything we had wanted to ride in South End we headed back to Main Street Plaza and North End. Thunderbolt was about a 10 minute wait. They staff a grouper at this coaster but the operator just let the correct amount of people in the station and since no one went for it, we got to ride the front row! I’m a huge fan of classic woodies but I had never heard anything about this coaster. Thunderbolt has some wicked airtime on a few of the hills. This coaster was a nice surprise.

Chris and I then opted for the single rider line at Pandemonium because the entire queue was filled. We got on together in about 10 minutes. If I recall, this is my 2nd spinning coaster. Although it was fun, it comes NOTHING close to how intense Sierra Sidewinder is at Knotts Berry Farm. I liked the long track and we got a little bit of airtime in the bunnyhop near the end of the ride.

We skipped Flashback, I don't ride Vekoma boomerang clones. To our disappointment, Cyclone was closed. It looked as though they were retracking one of the lower sections. We ended up missing 3 credits at this park. I’m not a big flat ride person, so Chris rode Catapult by himself while I watched. Next we took the New England Sky Way back to Main Street Plaza and then spent the next few hours taking pictures of the park.

Out of nowhere the line for Superman was at the stairs, so we finished our day marathoning it. We never got a front seat ride but we didn’t mind because the back car is incredible. On our 3rd ride our train stopped on the lift. The operators initiated an emergency stop because a guest was in the track area retrieving (guess what…) A HAT! The couple behind us was discussing the recent incident at SFoG. After 15 minutes of being stranded on the lift, the ride was reset and we finished another amazing ride on S:RoS. We got a total of 6 rides on Superman to finish out our first park of 11.

Coaster Ratings:
Superman: Ride of Steel – 9.5/10
Catwoman’s Whip – 4/10
Mind Eraser – 7/10
Batman: The Ride – 6/10
Thunderbolt – 8/10
Pandemonium – 7/10
Flashback - SKIPPED
Cyclone - CLOSED
Great Chase - We forgot to ride it.

Part 2 of Day 1 (Lake Compounce) will be posted soon. Thanks for reading.

I finally learned what the term "square wheels" means after I rode Cyclone in the back seat. The thing was brutal...I'm glad they're retracking some of it.

BTW, there are two moments of "airtime" on that ride in the back seat that are beyond insane. I put quotations around airtime because it's not really airtime, but the train just violently bucking and you getting chucked into your lap bar oh so hardly. Kind of hilarious in its awful-ness.