Hi,
My 11 year old son and I will be visiting Great Adventure in New Jersey in June. We both love rollercoasters, but I don't like when they make your head shake too much. Can anyone tell me if any of the coasters rattle your head a lot? For example, we won't ride Viper at Magic Mountain because it rattles your head way too much.
Also any other advice for a first time Great Adventure visit would be great. Thanks!
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Based on my visits to SFGAdv, Russell has pretty much nailed it. Green Lantern definitely has the most headbanging of the coasters at the park, though I never found it as bad as Arrow coasters (like Viper). Batman the Ride and Bizarro are about the same as their SFMM equivalents, and while Dark Knight and Runaway Mine Train are somewhat rough they don't have a shoulder harness so there's no headbanging. The rest of the rides are pretty smooth, but one thing I will say is to make sure you ride Kingda Ka in the front. In the front, it is very smooth, but in the back the ride has extreme vibration that to me is more uncomfortable than headbanging.
For a first time visitor, if you only have one day and want to do everything I would recommend investing in a Flash Pass. On a weekday you will probably be able to do all the main attractions without one, but you'll have limited time for re-rides. On a weekend (especially a Saturday), you will definitely miss stuff without one. While operations have been better at SFGAdv than SFMM in my experience, they still get lines of two hours for the headliner attractions.
If you have a Flash Pass, your touring order will not matter too much and you should just minimize walking. If you don't have a Flash Pass, I would recommend starting with Kingda Ka and Zumanjaro, then doing Superman-Ultimate Flight (if the wait is reasonable), Green Lantern, El Toro, and Bizarro in that order. Following these, take the Dream Street Skyway across the park (or walk if preferred...but it is a LONG walk) and do Nitro and Batman The Ride. After this, you're free to do what you want. Other rides I'd recommend doing are the Edwards AFB Jump Tower (just because it's the last of its kind), Houdini's Great Escape (a fairly unique ride with excellent theming for Six Flags), Safari Off Road Adventure (if you've got the time...it is an excellent safari attraction, but the ride is an hour), and Skull Mountain (just an indoor family coaster, but it's a unique layout with a couple surprise thrills). The rest of the coasters are optional (Runaway Mine Train and Dark Knight are okay, Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train and Road Runner Railway are kiddie coasters) and the park's other non-coaster rides are mostly common models running fairly average cycles.
Six Flags Great Adventure is a pretty good park, probably one of the top three Six Flags parks. The coaster collection isn't as good as SFMM, but the park is more balanced and, in my opinion, run better than most other Six Flags parks. Plus, El Toro is one of the best coasters I've ever been on (I'd rank it 3rd out of over 350). Go with the same expectations you'd have of any other Six Flags property and you'll have a pretty good time.
I will visit Sunday Oct 4 coming from Phil.
Bus 318 does not operate then - or? So I use Bus 317 until CR528 and take a Cub for the short Distance, but still something like 48 min waöl? Should I use Fast Lane as I devinetly not like to wait longer as 20 min. Buying at the Entrance or Online cheaper? (I have Season Pass)
It's 2nd visit. First was 2007 during VIP Event with Food and only a few 1000 people in the Park for 100 $ Entry. Was GREAT!
What's new since that?
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Green Lantern (B&M Stand-up) by virtue of its design is a bit of a head banger. Some may also consider Bizarro (identical to Scream! at SFMM only older) a bit rough by B&M standards as well as Batman: the Ride.
The rest of the coaster lineup is pretty smooth...
Nitro is a B&M hyper that is one of the best of its kind.
Superman Ultimate Flight is not a great flyer, but it's pretty smooth.
Kingda Ka is so short, it doesn't have time to be rough, but some may find that 0-128 MPH launch a bit jolting.
El Toro is the best wooden roller coaster on the planet, and one of the smoothest.
The rest of the non-kiddie coaster lineup is not worth your time on a first visit (Skull Mountain, Runaway Mine Train, and Dark Knight).
Make sure you're in the parking lot at least 20-30 minutes before the park officially opens. Try to visit on a weekday, but if you must visit on a weekend, go on Sunday instead of Saturday. If you have to visit on a Saturday, you might want to consider a Flash Pass, or be satisfied with only getting on each coaster once over the course of a full day visit.
Due to the operational changes on Kinda Ka since they opened Zumanjaro, I highly recommend doing that first to avoid 2+ hour waits, unless it doesn't appear like it will be ready when the park opens. The lines for Superman, Batman, Kingda Ka, Zumanjaro, and Green Lantern are hidden, so you can't tell how long they are until you walk through most of the queue. Don't be afraid to turn around and go somewhere else if the line looks too long. Green Lantern and Zumanjaro both have the advantage of a single rider line, so use that if you can to reduce waits. The overall park design is very poorly conceived (elongated midway style), so expect to do lots of walking or be willing to wait in the skyride line (30+ minutes on busy Saturdays). There are attractions that are literally right next to each other (Kingda Ka, Zumanjaro, and El Toro) but you end up walking well over a mile to go between them.
Overall, bring your patience and tolerance. This park has some great coasters, but much like Magic Mountain, they are operated incredibly inefficiently and there's just a lot of people that get stuffed into the park on busy days and want to ride the same coasters you do.