Episode 16: Six Flags New England (Kryptonite)

My fourth stop on my summer road trip was my former home park, Six Flags New England.  I grew up visiting this place, and when Riverside Park became a Six Flags in 2000, my first rides on the brand-new Superman: Ride of Steel catapulted my teenage coaster enthusiasm into the stratosphere.  This would be my first time returning to the park since 2005, and a lot has been added.  The Cyclone wood coaster got RMC'd and Superman underwent a number of changes to its trains and restraints.  Were these changes really that bad?  Because it seems nobody considers Superman to be elite anymore.  

My father, my friend Eric, and his two young daughters who are budding coaster enthusiasts joined me for my return to Six Flags New England for the first time in 18 years.  

If you enjoyed this episode, please help me out by rating, sharing, and subscribing. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @coasterredux.

Transcript

Welcome to Episode 16 of Coaster Redux.  My name is Erik and I am a life-long roller coaster enthusiast, but up until lately, I’ve been kind of a lazy one.  For years, I’d all but forgotten my roller coaster obsession from high school and college.  Then during the pandemic, I started following the coaster world again, and after last year’s road trip, I’m now on a mission to ride as many new coasters as I can.

This is the story of my revived roller coaster fandom, and I’m starting the return leg of my second theme park road trip.  I drove from Florida to Massachusetts to spend time with family and friends where I grew up, and I visited three parks on the ride north.  After taking a five-day break from coasters in my hometown, it’s time to start the southbound run.  Riverside Park became Six Flags New England in 2000, and my first rides on Superman: Ride of Steel propelled my teenage coaster mania into the stratosphere that year. Today, I’ll be returning to the park for the first time since 2005 with my father, and my friend Eric who joined me for those epic first Superman rides, as well as his two daughters who are budding coaster enthusiasts themselves.  Of course, biggest addition since 2005 is Wicked Cyclone, and with the original Cyclone wood coaster being one of the baddest I’ve ever ridden, I can’t wait to check it out.              

I know as a roller coaster fan that one of my favorite parts of the hobby is getting the reaction of somebody coming off of a ride they’ve never ridden before.  That’s what I want to share with you.

And with that, join me for my return to my former home park as we roll into Six Flags New England.  The Intamin trip continues on Coaster Redux.

It was a brisk late summer morning on Massachusetts South Shore.  Maybe only 70 degrees with some cloud cover and a slight chance of showers.  I packed up my car and had breakfast with my parents.  Then I had to say goodbye to my mom.  She’s never enjoyed roller coasters, but my dad does, and he was excited to join me for this visit.  We got on the road and drove across town to meet up at my friend Eric’s house.  We would caravan to the park, and my dad would catch a ride back with him and his two daughters at the end of the day, and I would continue onward.

I reached Eric’s and his girls were excited.  They were season passholders, and this was to be their fourth or fifth time going to Six Flags New England this summer.  When I hung out with them at their house earlier in the week, Ali, the oldest, was excited to show me the POV videos of all the coasters at Six Flags that they had queued up on the TV.  She had asked me if she could be on the podcast, and of course I was all too happy to oblige.  Her favorite coaster is Wicked Cyclone, which at ten years old is super impressive.  I’m pretty sure I was still afraid of roller coasters at that age.

We got on the road and settled in for the two-hour drive to Agawam, MA, situated right on the Connecticut border just south of Springfield.  We left at 9 am and there was no traffic on 128 or the Mass Pike.  Northerners go to work much earlier than most in the south so rush hour beat us instead of the other way around.  

On the way to the park, I filled my dad in on the whole saga of Superman: Ride of Steel.  We’d ridden it numerous times back in the day, and we loved it.  He remembered the coaster’s first incident in 2001 when the red train collided with the blue train while it was parked in the station.  Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, but the ride operated with only one train cobbled together from working parts from both for a long time while damaged components were repaired.  

Then in 2004, a guest was ejected from the coaster leading to his death.  This gentleman’s body dimensions were such that the lap bar did not come low enough to contact his upper thighs and properly secure him.  This led to subsequent modifications to Superman’s lap bars with leg and shin guards, similar to what RMC uses on their trains.  I had ridden the coaster after these modifications, and while the lap bars were not as comfortable as before, they did not substantially hinder the ride experience.

Then in 2009, the coaster was re-themed to Bizzaro, Superman’s cloned mirror image.  The track was repainted purple, and new car bodies were added to the trains to support onboard audio in an attempt to revamp the ride and give it more marketing power.  The redesigned trains featured a U-shaped lap bar, similar to what can be found on El Toro.  The park hoped these restraints would be more comfortable than the modified T-bars while still satisfying state regulators.

The coaster returned to its original paint scheme and theme for the 2016 season becoming Superman: The Ride.  Onboard audio was removed, but the Bizzaro-era trains and restraints remained.  All of these changes took place during my extended roller coaster hiatus when I was not visiting parks regularly or following the industry.  As I started sticking my toes back in the water as a roller coaster enthusiast, I found that this Intamin mega coaster that was so beloved when I last rode it had fallen out of favor among enthusiasts.  

How could that be?  Were these trains really that bad?  Or were the coaster boys just being overly dramatic?  Today would be the day I would finally find out.

We exited the highway onto River Road, lined with homes butted against the Connecticut River, then merged onto Main Street right before arriving at the park.  This must be a new route, because I remember driving down Agawam’s Main Street every time I went to the park in years past.  It sticks in my mind because I always thought of it as Main Street USA.  A picturesque small town boulevard with American flags on every telephone poll.

Wicked Cyclone pops into view on the left, but we turn right into the main parking lot located across the street from the park.  There’s a steady line of cars in front of us about 20 minutes before rope drop.  We parked, and decided to walk to the gate rather than wait in line for the tram.  It’s a short distance, and we were soon climbing the M&M’s branded stairway to cross the pedestrian bridge to the entrance.

It looks exactly as I remembered it.  Colonial architecture with white columns just like Six Flags America.  Superman’s lift hill is ever present in the background, and we made our way into the park.  We didn’t have much of a plan going in, but we had previously decided to head for the Thunderbolt first.  This classic figure-8 wood coaster operates only one train, and being a family favorite, it’s known for long lines.

The park looked clean and well-maintained as we walked down Main Street.  At the end of the entry path, the Scream S&S drop ride is straight ahead, and the entrance for the Thunderbolt is just to the left.  It’s got a great neon sign with the coaster’s logo, and this ride is a blast from the past.  This just might be the first roller coaster I remember riding and truly enjoying from school trips in the 7th and 8th grades.  Eric’s younger daughter Emma is a fan too.  The queue is pretty full, but it’s also really short.  We waited about 15 minutes and soon climbed aboard the PTC 3-bench train with ratcheting lap bars.  We ended up close to the back, and headed out on the course to experience a childhood favorite.

The coaster makes three full circuits around the course and crosses over itself in the middle, hence the term, figure-8.  It runs pretty well, and there’s some light floater on the final bunny hops on the back side of the layout.  While it could certainly use a coat of paint, Thunderbolt is reasonably well-maintained, and continues to be the great starter coaster it was when I first rode in the late 90’s.  

We then walked downhill into the DC Universe area.  This used to be home to the Riverside Park Speedway, which was removed when the park became a Six Flags.  The Metropolis cityscape making up Superman’s entrance and the surrounding shops and restaurants feel on par with the Marvel area at Islands of Adventure, but on a much smaller scale.  It was well-done for the time, and still looks good today.  Unfortunately, Superman had yet to open for the day.  With Ali as our guide, we made our way to the north end of the park to ride Pandemonium.  

We passed the Crackaxle Canyon western section.  This used to be a rather hidden corner of the park, but it now stands out because of the open grassy commons that used to be home to Goliath, a giant Vekoma inverted Boomerang.  Relocated from Magic Mountain, this coaster was oddly placed right next to the Flashback standard Boomerang, and closed in 2019 before being removed last year.  This is speculated to be the site for the park’s next coaster, and if they were to remove Flashback, there would be an even bigger plot available.

Pandemonium is a Gerstlaur spinning family coaster that opened in 2005, the last year I visited.  I didn’t ride it that year, so it was time for one of three new credits for the day.  Ali guided my father and I into the single rider line, which was awesome because the regular line was quite long.  We all had to ride separately, but we got onboard 10 minutes later.

I like the way Pandemonium is placed in the center of the midway so guests walk all around it, and the ride itself is pretty good.  It’s a similar layout to its sister at Fiesta Texas, but I liked this one better.  It’s just plain fun.

Then we went next door to Flashback.  Ali likes this one too, and my father and I joined the young thrillseeker while Eric and Emma got a snack.  It still features the original Vekoma horse collars.  It’s an older Boomerang.  It is what it is.

The whole group rejoined, and it was time for Wicked Cyclone.  It’s an RMC IBOX conversion of the Riverside Cyclone wood twister that opened in 1983.  I remember my first ride on that coaster during a school trip when my friends and I had taken several laps on Thunderbolt and thought we’d try that bigger version perched atop a hill.  This was pre-Six Flags and the ride operated with lightweight fiberglass bodied trains from D.H. Morgan.  I remember getting off the coaster awestruck.  It was violent, but super intense.  The first drop was really steep, and the train banked hard right at the bottom reversing course in a high-banked fan turn.  The rest of the ride featured maniacally twisted trackwork, insane airtime, and head choppers galore.  

I later logged onto America Online and found a review of the ride.  It was my first time ever seeing the term, “ejector airtime” which we enthusiasts use so frequently today, and it described this coaster perfectly.  

Over the years, Cyclone would receive numerous modifications in an effort to make it more comfortable and therefore less intense.  Padded PTC trains were added in 2000 when the park became Six Flags New England.  Then in 2001, the twisting pull-out from the first drop was raised up, making it shallower and far less thrilling.  The heavier PTC’s wore the trackwork much faster, and the ride only became rougher and less enjoyable over the years.  Eric and I had a tradition of going to Six Flags New England right after school let out every summer, and he was never a fan of this ride.  We always did it exactly one time.  

In 2015, Six Flags was working heavily with Rocky Mountain Construction throughout the chain to refurbish its tired wood coasters into modern thrill machines.  RMC conversions are significantly less expensive than ground up roller coasters because they reuse components of the original structure and many existing footers, two of the most costly parts of building a coaster.  The result every single time is a top notch thrill ride that turns an outdated attraction into one of the best rides in the park.  Eric texted me earlier this year when he rode it for the first time gushing about Wicked Cyclone’s intensity and smoothness.

This would be my seventh IBOX coaster.  It probably compares most closely with Twisted Cyclone at Six Flags Over Georgia which I rode for the first time in April.  Enthusiasts say that ride is too short, and criticize Wicked Cyclone for losing its momentum at the end of the ride.  Of course we’re nitpicking because we’re talking RMC here, but this should be a fun comparison.

The queue winds through Wicked Cyclone’s infield providing excellent views of the trains rocketing through the course.  It’s a bit overcast, but I love the look of the orange rails with gray supports.  The line slowly moves past some pretty good theming details.  A small airplane crashed into the bottom of the station building; only its tail remaining, and a boat was tossed ashore nearby.  Both sport logos for CHASE, which stands for Cyclone Hunters And Storm Enthusiasts.  A mangled “Massachusetts Welcomes You” sign appears blown into the lift structure.  This must be one heckuva storm!

The line is slow moving, to the point where I thought they were only running one train.  Once we got closer to the station, I could see that there were indeed two on the track, but the second was stacked on the brake run for so long that it almost didn’t matter.  As we entered the station and queued for the back row, the problem appeared to be that the coaster wasn’t equipped with RMC’s monitors that display when each lap bar is fully lowered.  This required the ride op to tell his crew which rows to recheck leading to sluggish dispatches.

After a few more cycles, my dad and I sat down in the back row of the CHASE vehicle.  This would be his first RMC, and I couldn’t wait to get his reaction.       

The train departed the station and this coaster doesn’t have any pre-lift elements, just a gentle turnaround to the right before engaging the lift.  It’s like the calm before the storm.  After a quick and steep ascent, the train plummets to the ground at a 78 degree angle, then you soar through an overbanked turn and reverse direction.  We’re in the outer bands now, and the energy at the cyclone’s center continues to pull us inward.  Next comes a small speed hill with a slight outer bank to the left before ripping through a zero-G stall through the lift hill.  The hangtime is brief, but it works with a snappy entry and exit.

You then turn left into another overbank before charging through a double down followed by a straight speed hill.  It’s three glorious ejector pops in a row, but as you turn left to begin the next revolution, you’re now entering the storm’s eye wall.  It starts with an outer bank, then a barrel roll through the structure providing a spectacular weightlessness.  A ridiculous bunny hop launches you out of your seat again, followed by three right hand undulations to the right.  Lumber passes by quickly on both sides, and guess what chasers, you’re caught in the storm’s clutches.

You maraud through an off-axis fake out turn, a second zero-G roll, and then miraculously escape the clutches of the storm as you face a quick series of strong airtime moments before the train enters the brakes.

We walked off the ride, and my dad was blown away!  He’s not a fan of anything rough, so he loved the smoothness and intensity of Wicked Cyclone.  As for me, this is an aggressive ride that perfectly honors the original coaster.  It twists around and through itself with all those RMC elements that kick.  The sequence of the outer bank after the double down, the first zero-G roll, and the bunny hop before the ride starts to turn around are among the most intense airtime moments I’ve ever had.  It’s right up there with ArieForce One’s quad down.  As for whether Wicked Cyclone loses its momentum at the end, I didn’t think so at all, and I definitely preferred this to the Georgia version.  The coaster is strong start to finish, and Superman now has a worthy contender for best ride in the park.

We left Wicked Cyclone, and it was time to find a spot for lunch.  We chose JB’s Smokehouse BBQ in Crackaxle Canyon.  My pulled pork sandwich with fries was quite good, and we made our way back to the midway.

While on Wicked Cyclone, we’d seen Superman testing, so we returned to DC Universe hoping to ride.  The app said the wait was over 90 minutes, and as we stepped into the queue, it looked like it would be every bit of that.  The coaster had just opened for the day, so we decided to wait on riding it in hopes the line would die down.

Eric split off with Emma to ride Catwoman’s Whip, the Zierer family coaster, and my father and I headed for the south end of the park.  This area didn’t have a theme in years past, but it’s now called Gotham City.  It’s home to the Riddler Revenge Vekoma SLC which opened in 1997 as Mind Eraser, and was my first inverted coaster.  The paint and re-theme work in the area, especially since Mind Eraser’s track was red, and it bothered me having it next to Superman’s red  camelbacks.  Harley Quinn Spinsanity is beautifully placed right in the middle of the land.  This Zamperla Giant Discovery pendulum ride replaced the park’s Ferris Wheel, and it swings way out over the main pathway.  The Joker S&S 4-D Freespin, just like the one I rode a few days ago at Great Adventure buts up against Harley Quinn, but the anchor attraction in this area was where my dad and I were headed.

Batman: The Dark Knight opened in 2002 as New England’s first (and still only) B&M coaster.  When it opened in 2002, I was obsessed with B&M and having a foorless coaster with a zero-G roll at my home park was a dream come true.  The ride still looks great in the park with purple track, blue rails, and black supports.  Its steep lift hill and five inversions are all visible from the midway, and while compact, it’s still unlike anything else in the region. 

As we entered the queue, we found that there was a single rider line up the exit stairs.  We decided to go for it in hopes of skipping the line.  While there were only about five people ahead of us, the ride ops seemed to be completely ignoring us.  Trains were dispatched with empty seats while we stood there waiting.  Dispatches on Batman were about as abysmally slow as Wicked Cyclone, but for no good reason.  There’s only a shoulder restraint to check.

I suspect it’s because the park probably lost a lot of its summer staff who went back to college in the middle of August, and they were either short staffed, or training new employees.  I dealt with the same problem in the maritime industry when I lived in Boston.

Anyway, we decided to head around to the main queue, and it only took about 15 minutes before we were onboard towards the back.

The ride begins with a particularly steep lift hill leading into a very sharp twisting first drop.  You then soar through a vertical loop followed by a dive loop, then take a breather on a banked turn through the first loop.  Next up is a zero-G roll, and it’s by far the best moment.  You then bank right into a pair of interlocking corkscrews and snap into the final brakes.

Batman is the perfect inversion-focused roller coaster for Six Flags New England.  It manages to pack many of B&M’s best elements into a compact package while remaining smooth and re-ridable.  It’s like a floorless version of the Batman: The Ride inverts, with the added benefit of being a custom layout.  While it gets overshadowed by Wicked Cyclone and Superman, it’s a solid number three coaster for the park.

We then rejoined the group, and decided to hop next door and ride the Joker.  This would be Ali’s first time riding this coaster, as well as mine.  The line was about 15 minutes, and for whatever reason, my ride on this was the best of the three I’ve been on.  It seemed to twist more ferociously, and I enjoyed it.  After the ride, I interviewed Ali to get her first-time reaction.

She’s such a champ, and like she said, we headed over to ride Harley Quinn next.  This massive pendulum ride makes a bold impression as its rotating gondola swings beyond horizontal, reaching a maximum height of 147 feet.  We waited every bit of a half hour for this ride, but it was really good.  You get a super long cycle, and the rotating ride vehicle ensures that you get spectacular views of the entire park.  I prefer the S&S Screamin’ Swing to this model due to the added intensity of swinging faster than gravity, but Harley Quinn was a lot of fun.

As we left Gotham City, we had about two hours left in the day, and we still hadn’t ridden Superman.  We made our way back down to DC Universe only to find one of the trains stalled on the lift hill.  There was no telling how long this delay would be, especially if the ride crew would need to evac the guests onboard.  I was starting to get nervous that I might somehow miss out on riding my old favorite, and leaving that question about the restraints unanswered until my next venture north.  At this point, there was nothing we could do.  

We decided to return to Wicked Cyclone for a second ride, and I’m so glad we did.  The wait was exactly the same as our first ride, and we opted to ride up front this time.  I offered to let Ali ride in the front row and sit in the second, but Eric pulled the dad card and said, nope, we’re riding up front.  Dispatches were much quicker this time around.  It seemed like there was a lead operator coaching the ride team on techniques to get the trains out more quickly.  It was working, and we were soon ready to take on the cyclone for a second time.

As powerful as Wicked Cyclone was in the back, the front row was an absolute Category 5.  This coaster was flying this late afternoon, and the airtime in that middle sequence was some of the strongest I’ve ever experienced.  RMC took the radical layout of the Riverside Cyclone and transformed it into a world class roller coaster.  Eric and I walked off that ride in agreement that this coaster is truly epic.

So here we were.  Everybody was tired and ready to call it a day, yet we looked up and saw that there was no train stuck on Superman’s lift.  Did it reopen?  The app said it did, and the wait was 90 minutes.  None of us were willing to wait in that kind of line at the end of the day, so we decided to use Flash Pass for a one time skip-the-line to get a quick ride on Superman before leaving the park.

We made our way back to the coaster and walked through that queue that looks the same as it did 23 years ago when Eric and I rode for the first time.  The trains rocket overhead through the spaghetti bowl making a sound like no other steel coaster type out there.  Everything is clean and well-maintained, and we entered the Flash Pass line and immediately stepped into the station to choose our row. 

The lift chain never stops running and that continuous clacking from the sprocket is unmistakable.  The trains exit that final banked turn into the brake run and come to an astonishingly quick stop.  Five posters adorn the wall opposite the boarding platform commemorating each year the ride was voted best steel coaster on the planet in the Golden Ticket Awards.  The last year was 2009 when the new restraints were added and the ride became Bizzaro.

If I was only going to ride this coaster once, it was going to be in the back row.  After a few cycles, my dad and I climbed aboard, buckled the seatbelt, and pulled down on the lap bar which enthusiasts call the U-brick.  It’s just a lap bar.  How bad can it be?  The ones on El Toro are perfectly fine, but these are different.

As the lap bar made contact with my thigh, I felt like I’d just been stapled, except it wasn’t a ride op giving my restraint an extra push down, it was just me lowering the lap bar as normal.  It’s the first time I’ve ever been auto-stapled, and I didn’t like it.

The all clear and visual scan are complete, and the train rolls out of the station.  The clacking becomes faster as the lift motor increases speed once the entire train is engaged.  The Superman theme is piped in on speakers as you climb the lift.  The Connecticut River is to the left, and it’s just like I remember, except for that U-brick.

At the top of the lift, the train dives 221 feet into a tunnel. It’s a great first drop, but at 68 degrees, it’s no longer as impressive as it once was.  Then you blast out of the tunnel and enter the first large camelback. The train screams over this element, but that lap bar has me so firmly planted in the seat that there’s no way to fully enjoy it.  Next is the overbanked turnaround that was groundbreaking in 2000.  It’s still pretty alright, but then the train enters an S-bend leading into the two strongest airtime moments on the ride.  

The negative G’s come on strong as Superman soars over these two massive hills.  The ride is hauling the mail at this time of day, and the U-brick is positioned so the forces are trying to snap your femur as it tries to catapult you skyward to Krypton.  The problem is that it can’t.  Because you’re auto-stapled.

Next comes the twisting part of the ride, and the right and left handed helixes are great as ever.  The bunny hop finale is fast and forceful, but the restraints keep you so locked in position that it’s equally as lackluster as the large hills.

As we slammed into the brakes, I turned to my father and regrettably said, “They were right.”  The enthusiasts were right.  The train modifications murdered this ride.  Some would say they neutered it, but that isn’t the case.  I’d heard that the coaster runs slower with the new trains, but I don’t think that’s true.  The ride’s heart and soul are still present.  All that airtime is there, you just can’t call it airtime when you’re so firmly planted in the seat.  Those U-bricks might as well be filled with kryptonite and stamped with a LexCorp logo.

While I’d love to believe that Six Flags might consider a different restraint configuration for this coaster, I can’t see that happening.  Superman: The Ride is a massive crowd pleaser.  It had the longest wait in the park when I visited.  Heck, it’s still a darn good ride experience.  It’s tall and fast, and it doesn’t have the shuffle that its Six Flags America cousin does.  The layout is near perfect, and if I was part of the GP, I’d love this thing.  The problem for me is that I remember how good it was.

As Three Doors Down so eloquently asked, “If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?”  Things went crazy for this roller coaster when it became Bizzaro following two tragic incidents resulting from manufacturing mistakes and operator error.  As for me?  I’ll always call it Superman: Ride of Steel.  I’m happy to remember how incredible this roller coaster once was, and appreciate how it’s still pleasing the masses to this day.  

So we left Superman and made our way back to the parking lot.  It was such a blast to return to my former home park with Eric and my dad, with whom I’d visited so many times in years past.  And I loved riding with Ali, who at ten years old, is enthusiastically taking on roller coasters I never would have thought possible when I was her age.  It was an unforgettable day.

We said our “see you laters” in the parking lot and my dad joined Eric and his family for their return to Boston, and I headed west.  The sun was just setting, and I had a two hour drive to Fishkill, NY where I would spend the night, about halfway between Six Flags New England and my next stop.  If you enjoyed this episode, please go back and listen to Episode 1 when I talk about my childhood and teenage experiences in this park.

Join me for the next episode, when I make my first-time visit to one of the most unique traditional amusement parks in the world.  Phoenix, Twister, and a propane-powered Flying Scooter are on tomorrow’s agenda from none other than Knoebel’s Amusement Resort.  That’s next time on Coaster Redux.