Welcome to Theme Park Insider! Join the community or log in
Theme Park Insider
Facebook Twitter Pinterest YouTube

The Best Six Flags parks?

Which are the best Six Flags parks?

From Caroline Davis
Posted March 24, 2010 at 8:00 AM
I'm planning a big road trip to the US and I was wondering what are your opinions on the Six Flags parks? I definately want to go to Magic Mountain and Great Adventure, but a lot of the parks seem to have the same rides over and over. Which Six Flags are worth visiting?

Other than that I definately want to fit in Holiday World, Cedar Point, Busch Gardens Europe and Kings Island. (I'm going to all the Florida parks on a seperate trip this July.) Any other ideas?


Comments in chronological order. Most recent at the bottom. Scroll down to respond.

From Mike Bianucci
Posted March 24, 2010 at 9:35 AM
Of the ones I have been to, Six Flags Great America in Gurnee is the best. There seemed to be much more attention to detail in the themed areas and much more for all ages to ride. Marriott did a good job before selling to Six Flags.

From Anthony Murphy
Posted March 24, 2010 at 11:52 AM
Yeah, Six Flags Great America in Gurnee was on the road to directly compete for guests against WDW. If you search wikipedia, it was doing very similar items, but with the selling of it to Six Flags, it took a bit of a nosedive on quality, but has gotten better every year since 2000. Is it Disney? Of course not, but probably Six Flag's greatest attempt to stay fresh and clean.

Of course, nobody can compete with WDW outside of Universal when it comes to theming, but SFGA still has themed lands very similar to the Magic Kingdom. I know I am bias, its my home park. The town that SFGA is in, Gurnee, has also blossomed due to the park with excellent resturants, shopping, and hotels. In fact, there is a special deal that includes tickets and hotel stay with a indoor water park resort called Key Lime Cove. It is very similar to what Disney or Universal does with their resort hotels.

The two best, from this site it seems, is Six Flags Great America and Six Flags Great Adventure.

I believe the original "Six Flags Park" in Texas (I can't remember which one) is also really good!

From Eugene Koh
Posted March 24, 2010 at 1:51 PM
Six Flags Over Georgia or Six Flags Great Adventure (Haven't been on all the coasters yet).

From D-Man O'Connell
Posted March 24, 2010 at 2:18 PM
i personally like six flags new england, its a more quiet park, and very nice.

From Bruce Lane
Posted March 24, 2010 at 11:35 PM
The 'Best' Six Flags park?

Whichever one has the 'Closed' and/or 'Condemned' sign on the perimeter fence.

Surely there are better parks which would catch your interest?

Happy travels, no matter what you decide.

From James Rao
Posted March 25, 2010 at 8:19 AM
If I were going on a tour of Six Flags parks, for some unknown reason, here are the parks I would hit:

#1 - Magic Mountain (flagship)
#2 - Over Texas (the original SF park)
#3 - Fiesta Texas (supposed to have some of the best theme park shows in the nation)
#4 - Great Adventure (Kingda Ka & El Toro)

Runners-up: Great America is one of the most popular, Over Georgia has the recently renovated and unique Monster Mansion dark ride, SFNE has Bizzaro which is widely considered to be the best steel coaster in the world, and Discovery Kingdom is the SF version of SeaWorld.

From David Sutter
Posted March 25, 2010 at 8:24 AM
Id pick Great Adventure. For many reasons But mostly its the best attemp at a true theme park with diffrent areas all done to a theme. Of cousre SF cant take all the credit. Most of it goes to LeRoy Warner of " Tavern on the Green" in NYC fame. He was the desinger and creator of it. And a lot of it is over the top. And he stayed with it till selling his interests in 1992. So a lot of his original designs are still intact. And are just as wonderful today as they were in 1974 when it openned.

From David Sutter
Posted March 25, 2010 at 8:24 AM
Id pick Great Adventure. For many reasons But mostly its the best attemp at a true theme park with diffrent areas all done to a theme. Of cousre SF cant take all the credit. Most of it goes to LeRoy Warner of " Tavern on the Green" in NYC fame. He was the desinger and creator of it. And a lot of it is over the top. And he stayed with it till selling his interests in 1992. So a lot of his original designs are still intact. And are just as wonderful today as they were in 1974 when it openned.

From Anthony Murphy
Posted March 25, 2010 at 8:55 AM
Bruce, believe it or not, there are some good SF parks.


Where is the love for Great America? I believe it is one of the oldest parks in the chain, has tons of theming, and their roller coasters are pretty solid!

Plus, you can come and see Chicago!

From Bob Miller
Posted March 25, 2010 at 9:57 AM
Caroline, I did a trip just like you want to do, it was with my daughter about 14 years ago. Like you stated, they all seem to have the same kinds of rides, so do some research before you decide.

Great Adventure, Magic Mountain,and Great America are a must see as others have stated. But as you mentioned, go with the other parks as well, to break up the Six Flags overload.

I don't know if this still is included or not, but if you buy the season pass for Six Flags, you can use it at all their parks. I know it did when we went on our trip and it saved alot of money on tickets and parking. But being from the UK, I don't know if this will make a difference when buying a season pass.

From steve lee
Posted March 25, 2010 at 7:58 PM
Yes, Bruce. The world needs more closed theme parks. That's going to help the industry immensely.

(I'll be at Six Flags Over Georgia on Saturday and will be having a great time. First time in two years that the ACE event wasn't marred by rain)

From Scott Polidore
Posted March 25, 2010 at 8:19 PM
six flags MAGIC MOUNTAIN. it's the originator and the biggest non sell cedar point wont EVER own.

From James Rao
Posted March 26, 2010 at 3:27 AM
Six Flags Over Texas, which opened in 1961, will always be the "originator" (and Texas is the only place where "Six Flags" actually makes sense). But, Magic Mountain, which was owned and operated by Newhall Land and Farming Company until 1979, is indeed the flagship park (regardless of attendance) in the Six Flags chain these days.

From Nick Markham
Posted March 26, 2010 at 11:48 AM
I have to disagreee with you James on Six Flags Over Texas being second best. I have actually heard it is worst in quality mostely because there have been so many accounts of gang activity, closed rides, etc.

But, if you know a better point to make it look good, I would love to hear as I to need an excuse for my mom to visit that park (and reviews mentioning gangs do not help) :)

From Nick Markham
Posted March 26, 2010 at 11:50 AM
Sorry, Double post.

From Jake Jones
Posted March 26, 2010 at 12:04 PM
James, no SFSTL?

I should be writing a trip report about a visit to SFSTL soon.

From Bob Miller
Posted March 26, 2010 at 1:50 PM
Nick, you could have said the same thing about Great Adventure, gangs that is, but they've done a good job of keeping them out. So maybe Texas is trying to do the same thing and cleaning up the place. But I must say, that was one of the reasons I've never gone there, and I stopped going to GA when they had the gang problem.

From James Rao
Posted March 26, 2010 at 1:59 PM
Nick, I never said it was second best, just said it was second on my list. After all, it is the "originator", so for the sake of history I have to visit!

Besides, who doesn't want to go to Texas at least once in his or her life?

And no, Jake, SFStL did not make my list, although I will be visiting in June to see if it is as improved as you have promised.

From Nick Markham
Posted March 26, 2010 at 1:57 PM
This actually makes me think: Does anyone here think at least a lot of Six Flags' problems come from bad luck? I mean how could they control whether gangs try to come in. I mean sure they can try to stop them, but still, it could just really be bad luck!

From John Jackson
Posted March 26, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Actually, for the past five years I've visited SFOT at least 5 to 10 times a season and have literally never seen a gang problem. In all of my visits I've only seen line jumping a handful of times, and the rides are hardly ever down. SFOT is a great park to visit. My only gripe, which would be the same for all Six Flags parks, is the food. It is subpar (my nice way of saying 'absolute garbage') and exhorbitantly expensive for what you get.
Though a lot of fun to visit, the most frustrating SF park I've visited is Great Adventure followed closely by Great America. The rides at SFGAdv are world class but unfortunately, you never know if they're going to be running.

From Bruce Lane
Posted March 26, 2010 at 11:29 PM
Hi, Anthony,

Good or Bad for any park, theme or otherwise, is highly subjective. I will admit I probably shouldn't have made that original post, and I apologize if I offended anyone by doing so.

My grudge against SF as a chain, and in regards to their euphemistically-named "Discovery Kingdom" in particular, is based pretty much on the hatchet-job they did on the former Marine World park. I'm uncertain if I will ever be able to forgive what they did to the place. As I've said before, I would rather have seen the place turned back into a golf course than become the horrendous mockery of its former self which it is today.

I don't expect anyone who was not a 'regular' at the original Marine World to understand. With that in mind, I will make an extra effort to keep my keyboard silent whenever SF is mentioned in times to come.

Happy travels.

From Jack Curley
Posted March 30, 2010 at 2:34 PM
As somebody who grew up less than an hour from Six Flags Great Adventure, I would have to say that the best Six Flags park is NOT Great Adventure.

There is always a crowd, no matter when you go. I don't care if it's raining all day while school is in session, the park is still going to be packed. I've never gotten on everything that I wanted to ride in a day, even before Kingda Ka and El Toro showed up.

The park is dirty, the coasters aren't always maintained as well as they should be. In fact, I don't think I've ever been there on a day where every coaster was open.

The park is dirty, line jumping is rampant, and there's just not enough upside to make up for that.

When I was a teenager, it seemed cool. Now? Not so much. Since I moved away from New Jersey, I have gone back every year to visit friends and family. I've taken time out of those trips to go to amusement parks, but not Great Adventure.

From Mike Gallagher
Posted March 30, 2010 at 3:20 PM
Jack,

I'm far from a Great Adventure fanboy, even though I've been going since it opened in 1974.It's probably only my 4th or 5th favorite park. That being said:

Crowds? Hit or miss. I've had many days the last 3-4 years where I didn't wait more than 15 minutes for anything. Last October, I got 53 rides on Toro in one day. The park is much cleaner than it was in past years, and line jumping is no longer "rampant" I saw three people being thrown out for that on Opening Day Sunday. It sounds from your post like you haven't been there the last couple of years, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's time to give it another try.

From Steph Ramos
Posted March 31, 2010 at 12:16 AM
Magic Mountain...HANDS DOWN!!! :D

It has the reputation for being one of the cleanest parks around and its chalk full of coasters! (Has been tied SEVERAL times for the most coasters in one U.S park, now secound only to Cedar Point).
Aside from this, Magic Mountain has been the site of several firsts and record breakers in roller coaster history...
-The Revolution (First coaster with a 360 loop in the world, paved the way for what we now know as the modern coaster)
-Colossus (Fastest, largest dual track wooden coaster at the time of its opening)
-Ninja (First suspended swing coaster in the West coast)
-Viper (Holds the world record for the highest vertical 360 loop)
-Riddler's Revenge (Holds the record for fastest and tallest stand up coaster)
-X2 (Worlds first...and one of only two in the world, 4th dimensional coaster)
-Superman the Escape (First coaster to reach speeds of 100 mph)
-Tatsu (The world's tallest, fastest and longest flying roller coaster)

With so much going for it, Magic Mountain is most DEFINANTLY one of the best Six Flags parks around!! I only hope that they keep going with the coaster pace and build more in the near future...I mean, its a pretty big park and they most definantly have the space for it....
In order words...EXPAND damn you! You guys are up in the middle of nowhere with desert mountains surrounding you...build more coasters!! :D

This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.