I should preface this review with the fact that SFGAdv is my home park. I suppose it would be worse living in New Mexico, or some other coasterless barren place, but this is close (or was...). I have never liked Great Adventure as an adult. Oh sure, as a kid it was great, it was a lot bigger than Adventureland on Long Island, which was bigger than Jolly Roger AP down the block from our house. Anyone remember a 'miniature village' at SFGAdv? But I digress...
We arrived early on a Thursday morning in May, which turned out to be a great idea, as the park was almost deserted for the entire day. This fact, more than anything else, helped me actually enjoy a day at SFGAdv for the first time in many years. Our first pleasant surprise came when we were told motorcycles park for free - cool! And we get spots as close as you can to the front gate, no tram car for us, thank you. We were also sporting a pair or complimentary passes from last season's power outage at the park, so it cost us $0 to get in, normally a $64 affair.
It was such a joy to walk around the park, and not be surrounded by thousands of screaming children, pre-teens and way-too-cool teenagers. Every ride was either less than a 10 minute wait or an outright walk-on. The park is sporting some new paint in a few places, but nothing much. The first thing I noticed is that now every ride is sponsored by a corporation or a product. The Giant Wheel is now 'Brought to you by Toshiba', and Rolling Thunder is 'Presented by Head and Shoulders'. If they are going to advertise corporate sponsorship, then they should at least hit them up for some money to fix up the rides, but more on that later.
First up, head over to the old home of Lightnin' Loops to ride the new steel sensation, Batman, The Ride (BTR). Two things become immediately apparant when you first see BTR. You'll notice the distinctive roar it makes (much like Kumba, I'm told) when flying along the track, and you'll notice that the ride looks totally wicked! BTR is a visually stunning ride for spectators, with its yellow and purple trains, and everyone's arms and legs hanging out, flipping around and spinning about. Just standing in the queue and watching this is an experience to enjoy.
You enter the queue by walking through a mock 'Gotham City Park', which contains some zig-zag gates, but looks a lot better to wait in than just the regular wooden building and zig-zags. There is nothing overhead in the park, so the sun may be a problem in the summer. While waiting in line, you're treated (subjected?) to music from the movie. There are no tv monitors on the line like there are on the other rides. After leaving the park, you enter a roofed area that contains a bullet-ridden crashed police car, a gushing fire hydrant, and violent sound-effects. In this area the zig-zags are more prevalant. Next up is the round steel tunnel with a fan at the end of it (very cool looking, IMHO), followed by a quick trip up two flights of stairs and a short walk to the station. Waiting time from the beginning of the round tunnel is about 10-12 minutes. I'd like to tell you how long it is from other points, but that was our longest wait :-). Heck, it was a walk-on early in the day!
When we were there, they did not let you choose your seat, but when we asked, we were sometimes allowed to wait for the front car, sometimes not. When you turn the corner out of the tunnel and enter the station proper, you can't help but be impressed. The theming is carried over into the station, and the overhead trackwork and purple coaches are a treat to look at. Little kids (too little to ride), were gaping in open-mouthed wonder at just the train! The queue lines for each seat hold about 10 people (twice as long as Gurnee, I'm told), so the station itself was never actually crowded.
The cars themselves work very well. You sit in a molded purple plastic bucket seat, which is pretty comfortable for average people. Larger people may not be able to ride BTR, as we saw 3 people who tried and failed to fit. The shoulder harnesses are bright yellow, and connect to the seat with a seat belt that goes between your legs, and works pretty unobtrusively. The shoulder harness still allows you to put your arms up, which is much better than Arrow's way of doing things (but then again, what isn't?). So, on with the show.
Floor drops out beneath you (cool), and you're off. A very quiet lift hill, except for all the general public (GP) on the ride who are now screaming that they're scared. Everyone is swinging their feet at this point, they just can't help themselves. At the top of the lift, there's a very short dip, and then a swooping drop to the left, which I prefer to take with arms and legs straight out. At the bottom of this drop (which is nothing spectacular), is the first of two vertical loops. OH. MY. GOD! If you are lucky enough to be in the front car, this vertical loop will be something you remember for the rest of your life! Flying, just flying, nothing in front of you, nothing underneath you, nothing over you, just flying. I was stunned, amazed, awed. This is no ordinary coaster ride. After the loop is the heartline flip, which is an element unique to this kind of ride. Basically the track just twists 360 degrees while maintaining a straightahead course, so the train rotates around a circle (whose center is supposed to be near your heart) and is pretty disorienting. There is only a slight jerky-ness to this motion, and I'm told the Gurnee ride is glass-smooth through everything. Maybe this is a function of the faster speed that this BTR is running at. After the heartline is another vertical loop, just as impressive as the first, and then a strong-g turn to the left. After that, I'll have to leave you guessing. I know there's a total of 5 inversions, but the ride is so fast and so twisted, I've lost track (!) of what happens on the later part of the ride.
BTR is now my #1 steel, without a second thought. Visually, it's a stunner. The ride motion is very smooth, no head-banging at all. The trains are comfortable and wicked looking, and the ride itself is fast and furious. We were lucky enough to get in an even dozen rides in the 3 hours we spent at BTR, which is better than the 1 ride we could probably get in during the height of the summer in that same 3 hours. I'd heard that opening day they shut the line down at 10pm, and were running BTR until 1:30 that morning to finish the line. Ouch!
If you have never ridden this before, or are new to Arrow mega-loopers, make sure you ride BTR first. That will give you a better idea as to just how crappy this Arrow ride is. Warning: You Will Get Your Head Slammed.
The GASM is located off to one side of the park, past all the games of chance, near the parachute drop (I wonder what the survivors of parachute rides like Coney Island's think of these new ones?). The ride looks impressive, with its 173' lift hill and seven inversions. The trackwork is white and red, with 3 trains, one red, one white and one blue. There is some new trackwork at the tops of the 3 vertical loops, which is easily spotted by the different shades of red paint.
No theming for this ride, just a long, long walk through zig-zags and then under the ride itself, which is pretty neat. Since there was no crowd at all, we were allowed to wait for any seat we wanted, which was a new experience for us at this park. Anyway, we sat about 4 seats from the front for our 1 ride on this one.
The lift hill is long and noisy (Arrow's hollow tubes?), but there is a 173' reward at the end of it, culminating in a vertical loop. This first loop was very smooth, no head banging at all. Couldn't tell where the new trackwork was. After that loop, some straight track and a turn to the left and into 2 vertical loops in a row. These were a lot different from the first one. Very rough, especially where the new track joins the old track. Real body slamming going on here. Major trim brake before going into the last, and roughest section of the ride. I know there are four more inversions out there, including a 2-inv corkscrew, but I was too busy wincing in pain to notice. Now, I'm not a whiner about these things, I've done Drachen Fire and Steel Phantom with re-rides and no major complaints, but the GASM is downright painful. My girlfriend and I vowed that this was to be our last ride on the GASM. It's just not a worthwhile ride anymore. The ride itself is one of three triplets, so the layout is not really unique, and none of the elements can't be found elsewhere. The Steel Phantom at Kennywood is kinda rough, but has that wonderful long drop through the Thunderbolt. The Anaconda at King's Dominion is kinda rough, but has an underwater tunnel and is pretty to look at situated over (and under) the lake. The GASM has no redeeming features. I apologize for seeming so down on this ride, but after riding BTR you really see how bad the GASM is, and how good a steel coaster can be.
OK, Six Flags. Start taking care of this thing, or take the wrecking ball to it. I hate to say this about any coaster, especially this one. Rolling Thunder was my first adult wood coaster, so it has a special place in my heart. And it even ran pretty good once last year while I was there, so there must be some hope. From what I've heard, Rolling Thunder was a good ride when it opened in 1979, and it certainly has some noteworthy features - one of the only wooden racing coasters with different left and right track layouts. It has good height, and what should be a very good bunny hop back to the station. But...
This thing is in bad shape. The tracks are rusting. The cars are rusting. The paint is so bad, it's non-existant in a lot of places, peeled down to the bare wood. The trains screech around the turns, sounding exactly like NYC subway trains. The cars drag along the tracks, feeding back every subtle surface defect back to the rider's spine. There is no speed on this ride at all, the trains just seem to drag themselves around the circuit. The bunny hops that should give a lot of airtime do nothing.
They were running the right side only on Thursday, and the ride was so empty we got to choose our seats, plus we got to do re-rides, a first for Great Adventure! That was the only positive thing I could say about Rolling Thunder.
The Runaway Mine Train is pretty good, for that type of ride, certainly better than the SFoG version. There's even some airtime before the final lake turn. This ride had the strangest rule so far - you must cross your feet at the ankles before they lower the lap bar. I thought Georgia's mine train had the wierdest rule, 'Taller rider goes in first', but this one was better.
Got to see Eddie Murphy, wife, child and entourage (sp?) at the park. He had his baby on his shoulders, and was gazing up at BTR when we saw him.
Saw a bunch of ACE'rs at the park, all on Batman (of course).
That's about it. If you want to ride Batman (and you should), try to get to Great Adventure before the crowds start. These weekday openings in May seem like the perfect time to go. And don't bother with the other coasters in the park, stick to BTR and you'll go home impressed.