A Hot and Ugly Day at Six Flags Great Adventure
Six Flags Great Adventure: A reader has a bad day at the park.
From j j
Posted September 26, 2004 at 11:07 AM
I had not been to SFGA in many years. However my grandmother had aquired five free passes to the park for my family. We got there at 8:00 and pulled into a half empty parking lot. My family had planned to go on rides together. This does not happen often, since mme and my sister do not ride roller coasters. My parnets and my other sister would ride anything. We walked to the gates an hour before opening. When we went in, my mom and my sistr went on Superman while we waited outside. After that ride we all went on the Runaway Mine Train. I liked that ride. It was slower then other mine train rides butneat with the part over the water. Afterwards my parents and my sister went on Medusa twice. We hen walked down to Rolling Thunder where my mom and sister got on the ride. The rest of us got on this raging bull ride. It was my favorite ride. It whipped you around in fast circles and was lots of fun. We then went all went on the teacups, swings, ferris wheel, and carousel before leaving the park to eat lunch. After lunch was horrible. We went on the bumper cars together before heading of to roaring rapids. The Rapids had a 3 hour wait. How about Skull Mountain? 2 hours. Nitro? 2 hours. Chiller? 2 hours. My sis ter and mom finally hopped on Batman, saying it had a short wait. They came off 2 hours later saying they waited in a stifling line with no water. How much was water? $4.50. We decided to try hopping on Saw Mill Log Flume. 2 hour wait. At this point we went home withlines of 1 hour plus for every ride. Overall this day, especially the afternoon sucked. The park was full of shifty looking people, trash, and closed rides. I don't plan on going back anytime soon.
You probably just went on a bad day. Six Flags is normally really nice. You must have gone on a busy day or somthing the lines normally aren't that bad.
The park is totally different now that KK is open. Half of the people are waiting in line for KK so Medusa, Nitro and most of the other rides have very little wait. Just get your KK rides done very early in the day and you'll have a great day.
It sounds like your problem wasn't really with SFGA, but with the human race. There wouldn't be litter if people didn't throw it around. The staff to guest ratio is inevitably going to give favor to the litter throwers rather than the picker uppers. And should they put someone at the gate saying, "I'm sorry, but you look shifty. You may not enter the park." And how dare all of those people get in line for the rides that you and your family wanted to ride??
I'm not trying to pick on you specifically, but it just happened to be your post that finally made my bell go off.
The top complaints that people have against Amusement/Theme parks are heat, litter, long lines and breakdowns: all things over which the parks have little or no control. Although one might suspect that Six Flags America decoratively places crushed empty coke cups every 15 feet throughout the Wild West area, that choice was most likely made by the slobs who bought a ticket.
There are, however, plenty of valid things to complain about. Tell us if the food sucks. Tell us if the staff is rude or ride attendants are slow or sloppy. Tell us if your nearest-by park is building it's fourth stinking launcher for next season. But its not SFGA's fault that it was hot or even that KK had broken down and made everyone flock to Nitro. I hear Nitro is a great ride. Who can blame them for lining up?
Just try to be more strategic about your next visit. Go early, leave at lunchtime and get stamped. Go get lunch and hang out someplace air-conditioned. Come back around 7:30. By then the masses will be sweaty and exhausted and either leaving or slopped up on a bench. You'll be fresh and relaxed and ready to take the place on again.
From JR Walker
Posted April 5, 2006 at 6:55 PM
Sounds like a typical day at Six Flags...long lines, horrible operations, bad food. Doesn't surprise me one bit. I'm sorry you wasted your time at Six Flags. If I were you, I would never go there again.
I've visited many theme parks from the east coast to the west coast. Six Flags Great Adventures was by far the worst park I've ever experienced. If it wasn't for my exhilarating ride on Kingda Ka at 10:30 PM, I would have demanded a full refund. The service was just horrible. It seemed everyone was in a bad mood. The lines were held back for hours while Flash Pass holders were permitted to ride first. I witnessed fighting in the lines. There was also a gang fight in the parking lot that drew a lot of attention. I did not feel safe. This park could use new management.
"There was also a gang fight in the parking lot that drew a lot of attention. I did not feel safe."
Even though you still might not feel safe, it used to be much much worse. Lots of gangs would actually go into the park to fight, bringing in knives and other weapons. A horde of teachers even set fire to a haunted house, killing several people. The park also used to have poorly trained 14 year olds running rides. I know Six Flags is far from perfect, but it still is hundreds of times better than what it used to be.
Does that park offer Flash Pass? If so, perhaps you'd try it next time. It's a great investment to avoid extra wait times. Also, I understand why you'd want to eat elsewhere & I don't know if you just ate AT the park but just not inside or away from the park entirely but that probably had something to do with the longer wait times too in that more people had chance to catch up to where you left off. You may just want to spend the money & eat at the park to avoid that possibility next time. Also, try to go during the week if that's an option. I'd give it another try, I wouldn't give up on it so quickly. After all, if you DO have passes, you can go anytime (assuming, of course, you were referring to having season passes).
From Stephen A.
Posted September 6, 2006 at 3:34 PM
Well why is it popular? Because its the best park!
Not trying to burst your bubble, but when people are always complaing of closed rides, dirty park with trash everywhere, shift people, and non-helpful employees, not the best park. Why do you think Cedar Point has been ranked as the best amusement park in the world 9 times running? Mainly because they have a great collection of rides, they consistenly get ranked high on the friendliest of their employees, and they run their rides so effieceintly that they are always high on the list of best capacity (they did win it this year). I'm not trying to say that you'll never have a bad day at Cedar Point just like I'm not trying to say that you'll never have a bad day at Six Flags.
Please excuse my ignorance, but how long of a wait is reasonable to expect at a large theme or amusement park during peak season without using any kind of express pass? Two hours does not seem exceptionally long to me if the park is crowded. Also, what do shifty people look like?
Stephen A., your response made me laugh. Hard. I would say that Great Adventure is the worst park I have ever seen in my life. If you think that it even deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the 9 time winner of "Best Amusement Park in the World", you must have permanent brainfreeze.
From Jenna V
Posted December 22, 2006 at 8:37 PM
Hi,
Yes, do not expect to go here without any kind of Flash Pass. If your going to take the time to come here, and if you need to buy tickets fork up the money for those, don't come with out a Golden Flash Pass. You'll definetly need it. Be happy you went on the rides you get on so far, that's a pretty good start. You need to give Six Flags another chance. If you arrive early, run to the flashpass station located near the main fountain, (i believe?) and purchase a golden flash pass. You will even be able to get on Kingda Ka and El Toro to your extent. If your bringing out the money to go to the park and pay all the charges, you should be able to pay $4 for a bottle of water, though it is ridiculous. And about "shifty" looking people. They can't go to people and say "Oh, sorry, you look shifty, we can't let you in this park, go home." Now that isn't fair, is it? All types of people want to go to this park, though some can increase their manners, I do agree. I do hope you give this park another chance. Hope your next visit is better, have a great day.
---Jen
P.S. - Your day at the park sounds like my first. Had no idea what to do. For less crowds, go between late april - early june, on a weekday, and arrive at 8:00 and run to the flash pass station and to your favorite rides. Arrive earlier and you can get on more rides.
so is the pass worth getting if your going on a weekday?
From Jenna V
Posted December 23, 2006 at 11:58 AM
Well, that's kind of a matter of opinion. In the morning, your waits might be 30-40 minutes per ride. But in the afternoon, school is out, and crowds come in around 4:00, which inches the waits up to 1 1/2 - 2 hours the max. Personally, I'd rather wait 10 minutes with a Flash Pass than 30 minutes or 25 minutes than an hour, which I have done in the past, but that's if you want to fork up the cash for it, because they are pretty expensive. Depending on the amount of people you have, it's $30 per person and a $33 deposit for the Golden Flash Pass, which actually reduces your time by 75%. If your looking to hit the main attractions (Kingda Ka, El Toro, Nitro) your better off with the Flash Pass, even on a weekday. You can still go in the summer, just pick a day where the weather isn't dramatically hot. You should still get there early, because in the summer the line for the Flash Pass even at 10:00AM is 2 hours long, and SF only has a minimum supply. You can also pre-order a FP on the Six Flags website, though I've never done it. This isn't illegal or anything, these are real, but on Ebay over time people sell Exit Passes, or Line Passes (what ever they call them.) You simply bring the pass up to the extis of the rides and they let you on. I almost won one for $15 once, but was outbid, and sometimes the park does hand out these passes, so they are not artificial. Hope that helped!
This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.