Episode 15: Six Flags Great Adventure (The Golden Kingdom of Ka)

My third stop on my summer road trip was Six Flags Great Adventure.  I last visited in 2014 and loved the El Toro Intamin pre-fab wood coaster.  Unfortunately, Kingda Ka, the world's tallest roller coaster was closed that day, and I badly wanted to ride one of these Intamin hydraulic-launched stratacoasters.  The park has since added the Jersey Devil Coaster, the first custom-designed Raptor single rail coaster from Rocky Mountain Construction.

Join me for my first time reactions to Kingda Ka and Jersey Devil, as well as my first rides on El Toro in nine years.  

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Transcript

Welcome to Episode 15 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 almost halfway through my second theme park road trip.  I’m driving from Florida to Massachusetts to spend time with family and friends where I grew up, while visiting six parks on the way up and back.  Yesterday, I stopped at Six Flags America, where I rode my 150th roller coaster, Superman: Ride of Steel.  It wasn’t the best park day I’ve ever had as I dodged ride closures and lamented overall poor maintenance and operations.  But I’m not one to dwell on the negative, and today I’ll be returning to one of the flagship Six Flags parks for the first time in nine years.  I can’t wait to get back on El Toro, and also take my first rides on Kingda Ka since it was closed on my last visit, and try out Jersey Devil Coaster, the next generation RMC single rail.             

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 second visit to a park with one of the best coaster collections in the country, as we roll into Six Flags Great Adventure on Coaster Redux.

I was greeted with a chamber of commerce morning in Cranbury, NJ, about 25 minutes from Six Flags Great Adventure.  Temps were in the mid 70’s with zero humidity, that there was that unmistakable fresh scent of a wooded area during the summer in the northeast.  It’s hard to pinpoint, but it felt like home.

My drive would take me along winding country roads through tree-lined hills dotted with small farms.  Fortunately, I did pass a Dunkin along the way and stopped for an iced coffee for the road.  While the park is located about halfway between Philadelphia and New York City, it’s situated in a small rural enclave by itself, and the property is massive.  In addition to the theme park, it’s home to a stand-alone Hurricane Harbor waterpark and the 350-acre drive through Wild Safari.  

The parking lot is positively massive, and for my money, the skyline is second only to Cedar Point for building anticipation.  The foreground consists of Superman: Ultimate Flight and Green Lantern, a B&M stand-up and flyer respectively, with a tangled web of red, yellow, and green trackwork.  There’s a Skittles ad on one of the buildings that says, “Ride the Rainbow,” and as cheesy as Six Flags advertising can be, this piece is spot on.  To the left is the 456 tophat on Kingda Ka, and the massive wood structure of El Toro.  Nitro, the park’s B&M hyper flanks from the right.

As I made my way into the lot, I watched Kingda Ka send a test train skyward, then twist down the top hat charge over the speed hill.  It’s open.  That’s a relief because these Intamin hydraulic launch coasters are super finicky.  I now knew what my first ride of the day would be. 

While I was fortunate to have preferred parking because of my season pass, there was a steady line of cars waiting to enter, and I started to fear it would be a busy day.  It was a Tuesday morning, and the line for security stretched about 200 feet from the gate.  Six Flags does the entry experience very well, however, and it was only a few minutes before I was walking down Main Street before hanging a left towards that beckoning top hat.  

I passed through the Boardwalk area which is home to games, restaurants, and flat rides.  It’s pretty chaotic, but when I walked through the gate to the Golden Kingdom, all of that disappeared.  I had never heard anyone talk about this area of the park, but it’s tranquil and serene as the pathway meanders with fifteen foot tall bamboo chutes on either side.  It feels worlds apart from the bustling theme park until you enter the clearing where Kingda Ka’s station resides.  

The world’s tallest roller coaster track is still way off in the distance, while El Toro’s twisting finale is literally right there.  I had to pause to watch the Intamin pre-fab wood coaster navigate its ending sequence.  It sure looked sweet, but that massive stratacoaster was calling to me, and it was time.

I put my belongings in a locker before entering the queue for Kingda Ka.  I wore shorts with zipper pockets and I kept my phone on me, hoping to press record and properly secure it before boarding to capture the audio from my experience.  I approached the ride entrance and the security guard pointed to my pocket and said, “phone.”  I was busted.  I had no intention of breaking any rules.  Heck, I almost always buy a moveable locker rental because I prefer not to have anything in my pockets because that can hinder the ride experience.  “No loose items” signs are posted on pretty much every roller coaster out there, and the enforcement of this policy varies widely from park to park.  No worries.  I returned to my locker, leaving my phone there, and stepped into the queue.

It’s a stunning oasis.  There’s more of the bamboo, and you can’t see anything around you.  There’s no line until the stairs leading into the station.  As I get closer, my hype meter reaches overload.  The mystique and speculation surrounding the closure, and announced refurbishment of Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point garnered the attention of the enthusiast community like no other.  I watched all the videos on YouTube.  Whether it was predictions, or analysis on why it was problematic, one thing was abundantly clear.  Everybody loved Top Thrill Dragster.  Was it short?  Yes.  Did it only do one thing?  Yup.  But was it awesome?  Undeniably.  It was a landmark prototype, and I never got to ride it.  I never got to stand up on the rooftop shouting out, “Baby I’m ready to go.”  That theme music was just so perfect.

Kingda Ka stands 36 feet taller than Dragster, and its top speed is 8 mph faster, but it features the same over the shoulder vest restraints as Intimidator 305 and Maverick.  Most enthusiasts preferred Dragster for its t-bars, but I’m guessing Ka will become the the strata of choice as long as it remains.      

The re-imagined Top Thrill 2 will debut next year with an LSM swing launch and a new 420 foot vertical spike on the back end of the launch track.  It’ll still have the massive drops, two this time, and the same top speed of 120 mph.  I’m sure it will be a great coaster, and I intend to ride it next year, but by all accounts, the acceleration from Intamin’s hydraulic launch was the life force that made that attraction so special.  Knowing how troublesome these coasters are, I had to experience the only other one like it while I still can, and I’m now in the station.  With the ride running.  It’s almost time.

I queued up for the back row for my first ride, and I can’t possibly praise the Kingda Ka crew enough.  They were killing it!  As the train entered the station, they said over and over again to unbuckle the seatbelt holding the restraint down.  Riders were hustled off, and new riders boarded just as quickly.  It was a stark contrast to operations at Six Flags America yesterday, and Pantheon on Sunday.  This crew was hustling and it showed.  Massive props to them and to management for prioritizing speedy operations while guaranteeing safety.

So this was it.  I’m in the back row left.  I’m secure, and the train is dispatched.  We roll out to the launch track looking at the massive top hat way off in the distance.  The train stops, and there are some kerchunks and the hiss of compressed air being released as the catch car engages the train.  You back up slightly and an announcement plays.  “Arms down.  Head back.  Hold on.”  

It was probably another second or two, but I couldn’t tell.  The train exploded forward and the rush of pure acceleration took over.  Faster and faster, it just kept going.  The wind was exhilarating and the vibration of the train let you know that you’d reached 128 mph.  Then you pitch up, gaining elevation, and then time slows down.  The vibration stops, and you’re slowly cresting the world’s tallest roller coaster with spectacular views of the park and the surrounding country.  Then the back row gets whipped down in a death spiral and you’re completely outta your seat until the train pulls out and launches into the airtime hill.  There’s some sustained floater before the magnetic brakes gently bleed off the speed and you return to the station.

It’s been said that roller coasters are complex man-made machines that essentially accomplish nothing.  You board a train in the station, and subsequently return to the station to disembark right where you got off.  You’re right where you were just a short time before.  While this over- simplification is true of any roller coaster, Kingda Ka does more something in 28 seconds than any similar device that accomplishes nothing.  It forcefully propels 18 willing participants to 128 mph delivering them higher than any such contraption in the world, then safely brings them back to a safe and comfortable stop.  And it’s glorious.  It’s epic.  It’s a rush the likes of which I’ve never experienced on a roller coaster.  I get the hype for these rides.  Kingda Ka is amazing!  It doesn’t do much, but what it does do is something I want to do again.  So I’ll be back.

I rapidly exited Kingda Ka and returned to the midway.  I removed my belongings from the locker and set off to walk the entire length of the coaster’s launch to the top hat.  This pathway provides several up close photo ops of El Toro’s lift hill and first drop, as well as the infamous Rolling Thunder hill which provides the strongest airtime on the coaster.  As I approached the base of Ka’s initial ascent, a train launched and it sounded like a jet taking off as it passed.  What’s even cooler is that you can hear the cable pulling the catch car as it winds up to 128 mph before the train arrives.  That sound gave me goosebumps.

Of course I didn’t walk all the way back here just for the views.  Kingda Ka’s tower offers a terrifying two-fer.  It’s also home to Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom, the world’s tallest freefall drop ride at 415 feet.  For some reason, drop rides are among the few that still get me nervous, and the tallest I’d ridden thus far was Falcon’s Fury at Busch Gardens Tampa, another Intamin creation, but it’s 100 feet shorter than this one. What makes this insidious installation even more demented is that Kingda Ka’s trains continue to operate and often duel with the drop tower.

Being located in a remote corner of the park, there was no line and I walked right onboard for the next cycle.  I lowered the lap bar which comes down over the shoulder, but there’s no vest to hold you in place.  There are large grab bars seated well away from your torso, but it’s really only that lap bar holding you in.  On Kingda Ka, you’re sitting in a roller coaster train with a much more restrictive restraint, and you’re at that record-breaking height for such a short time, you don’t have time to process it.

Zumanjaro hoists you up slowly with your feet dangling giving you plenty of time to soak up the view of the entire park and realize just how ridiculously high you are.  It just keeps climbing.  It’s a stunning vista, and the car finally stopped at the top.  Any second now.  As the brakes released, my feet instinctively went straight out, and I saw Kingda Ka’s train climbing the top hat as I descended.  It’s six seconds of freefall and it’s incredible!  The height, the view, the duel, they all combine for a spectacular experience, and my day at Six Flags Great Adventure was off to a great start.

I left the Golden Kingdom and walked back through the Boardwalk and hung a left into Plaza Del Carnival, the Spanish themed area of the park home to El Toro.  If you’ve listened to the last couple of episodes featuring my brother Karl, we talked about El Toro quite a bit.  It’s his number one coaster, and my number four, with both of our last rides being when we visited Great Adventure together in 2014.  He got to ride this coaster’s newer and longer sibling, T Express at Everland in South Korea this year, and I was looking forward to getting back on the only ride of its type in North America.  

El Toro is an Intamin prefabricated wood coaster built in 2006.  This ride type differs from traditional wood coasters in that its track is constructed off site and assembled more like a steel coaster.  Each rail is custom built from pieces of high-strength wood with the planks precision cut and joined together side by side with a steel laminate attached to their seems.  Most wood coasters are constructed on site with track built from timber stacked vertically and micro-adjusted in place to achieve the desired profile.  

Intamin’s prefab system creates a ride capable of more intense maneuvers while requiring less maintenance than a traditional wood coaster.  The trains also run the track more smoothly due to their higher-strength materials, more precise construction, and the use of polyurethane wheels rather than steel wheels.  Despite all these advantages, Intamin has sold only four prefab wood coasters to date, most likely due to cost.  Most parks built traditional wood coasters for their value.  They offer a great thrill at a fraction of the price of a steel coaster.  The price tag for El Toro rivaled some of the biggest steel coasters out there when it debuted, and the ride has had its share of problems.

It had two separate incidents in 2021 and 2022, the latter resulting in minor injuries to some riders.  Both left the ride closed for extended periods to be repaired.  El Toro received the approval to reopen in June, 2023 and I couldn’t wait to get back on this elite roller coaster.  My 2014 rides were some of the best I’ve ever had, and it stole my number one position from Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags New England that day because of its insane ejector airtime and smooth ride experience.

Upon entering the Plaza del Carnival, El Toro’s massive first drop appears vertical in the distance, and the trains rocket over its two parabolic camelbacks.  The airtime is audible as each train passes with the up stop wheels slammed against the bottom of the rails in the trademark Intamin fart.  The sound is unique to this style ride, and El Toro is one of the prettiest roller coasters in the world.  Full stop. 

Like Kingda Ka, this ride has a strict locker policy.  You can’t have anything in your pockets. After stopping at the lockers, I entered the queue and walked right up to the station stairs.  As is common, guests don’t understand that they can fill in the back rows of the train and there was a bottleneck at the first few rows.  The ride crew on El Toro was on point making periodic announcements encouraging guests to keep moving back.  I waited politely until I had an opportunity to excuse myself to make my way to the back of the station.

Both trains were operational and dispatches were quick.  Before long, I found myself in the back seat of the 36 passenger train.  Six cars accommodating six riders each.  There’s a typical Intamin seatbelt and a U-shaped non-ratcheting lap bar.  Before long, we were off to experience one of the world’s best wooden roller coasters.  

The train makes an about face out of the station and engages the cable lift.  It’s the same technology Intamin used on Millennium Force and Intimidator 305.  It’s smooth, silent, and really fast.  Because this ride uses polyurethane wheels, there’s none of that normal wood coaster clacking.  At the top, the train makes a turnaround providing a similar view to Zumanjaro, except it’s less than half as high.  

Then the train careens down the 176 foot first drop at a 76 degree angle.  It’s a wicked moment made better by a head chopper going under the ride’s structure.  Next up are those two awesome airtime hills that provide some of the most ferocious and sustained ejector in the world.  My hands were all the way up, and in the valleys of these hills, the trackwork turned out to be rougher than I remember.  This caused the lap bar to become uncomfortably tight on my thighs.  I was so unprepared for this.  

The turnaround features a few more jolts before the return portion of the coaster.  It navigates two speed hills providing floater airtime with great views passing through the structure.  The bull then charges through a sharp left hand turn before ripping over the Rolling Thunder hill.  This used to pass over the Rolling Thunder racing wood coaster that has since been removed.  It’s the most aggressive airtime on the ride and it slams you out of your seat.  

El Toro concludes in a sublimely twisted finale with S-bends sharper than should be allowed on a wooden roller coaster.  It reminds me a bit of those turns over the water on Cheetah Hunt at Busch Gardens Tampa, but way more pronounced.  Again, this is a wood coaster and it’s ridiculous.  The ride then wraps up and over itself and enters the final magnetic brakes.

I was reeling from this experience on one of my favorite roller coasters.  The intensity is still there, in fact, I’d say it’s more intense than it was in 2014 because it’s not as smooth.  My thighs were screaming, and that lap bar couldn’t possibly have been opened quickly enough.  I didn’t expect to be talking about thigh crush until I got to Hersheypark at the end of the trip, but I guess it’s a thing here too.  I could have lapped El Toro all day long on my last visit, but that seemed impossible now.  I get that the coaster is nine years older, and Six Flags probably isn’t going to spend the money for a full re-track since it’s still a crowd pleaser.  I needed a break after my first ride, and left the area to continue my day.

I walked along the main midway to the opposite end of the park.  It’s got an unusual layout with many dead end pathways versus the more common loop set-up.  I was looking for the Jersey Devil Coaster, and found it secluded down its own pathway opposite Nitro next to the lake.  Its orange trackwork with black supports are gorgeous, and the sign sits right below the lift hill and is framed by the zero-G stall and zero-G roll.  Unfortunately, nobody was in line because the coaster was down at the moment, so I walked back towards Nitro only to find it sported a 45 minute wait.  I’ll pass for now.

I reversed course heading back to the center of the park to check out the Joker, the 2016 S&S 4-D Freespin.  I wanted to ride it once for the credit, but it also had a full queue.  I decided to stop for lunch and come up with a game plan for the rest of the day.  I opted for Boardwalk Steak & Fries because this park is near Philly, so the thought of a cheese steak sounded pretty darn good.  I got my sandwich with cheese and grilled onions, and it was great!  Purists would question the park’s use of what tasted like nacho cheese, but I thought it worked and gave the sandwich a bit of spice, which I enjoyed.

It was just after 1 pm, so I had plenty of time left.  I really wasn’t that interested in riding the park’s B&M looping coasters.  I’d been on them before, and they were all pretty unremarkable.  I cover my thoughts on Superman: Ultimate Flight, Green Lantern, Medusa, and Batman: The Ride in Episode 2 if you’re interested.

My main goal was to ride Kingda Ka several more times, because it was just such a rush, ride El Toro at least one more time, get my Freespin credit on Joker, get a couple laps on Jersey Devil, and ride Nitro at least once.  The park was starting to get pretty busy, and I was nervous about getting all this done.

I was right by the entrance to Golden Kingdom, so I decided to head back to Ka.  There was still only a station wait, and I opted for the front row this time.  It was killer!  The wind in yer face at 128 mph was exhilarating, and I liked the airtime pop at the crest of the top hat, followed by the hanging sensation at the start of the drop.  My eyes hurt a little after that, but with such a short line, I went right around again and sat in the middle this time, and it was still phenomenal.  

After two rapid fire rides on Kingda Ka, I thought back to my middle school experience at Space Camp, where I went upside down for the first time.  An astronaut was telling us about what it feels like to launch on the Space Shuttle.  He said that no amount of training prepared him for the intense acceleration and vibration of liftoff.  I had a bit of a headache because of the vibration on the ride, but I think the space man’s comments summarized Kingda Ka perfectly.  That acceleration is unbelievable, but the vibration, which I don’t necessarily hate, is also a unique quality of riding rails at this velocity.  

I made my way back to Jersey Devil after the app revealed it was open, and was greeted with about a half full queue.  The ride was running two trains, and dispatches were hit or miss.  Some were pretty quick, and others seemed slower.  I stood in line for about 40 minutes watching the ride maraud through its double out-and-back layout.  It didn’t have that sped up appearance of Wonder Woman at Fiesta Texas, but the elements looked really fun. 

A team member at the front of the shaded switchbacks was allowing small groups of guests through at a time when the stairs up to the station were clear.  Flash Pass users were also allowed to walk straight to the station from this point.  

The Jersey Devil Coaster opened in 2021 as the world emerged from the pandemic.  It was the fourth single rail Raptor track roller coaster from Rocky Mountain Construction, and the first with a custom layout.  It features three inversions over 3,000 feet of track with a height of 130 feet.  Its trains are the longest yet on the type with twelve cars each seating a single rider.  Enthusiasts have praised this coaster, but said it lacks the outta control intensity of the originals.    

While Jersey Devil looks like an awesome roller coaster, I had to question Six Flags’ judgment for installing such a low capacity ride at one of their busiest parks.  Indeed, a similar ride has also been added to the chain’s flagship park, Six Flags Magic Mountain.  Understanding that the last few years have been tough on the company, and the world for that matter, I hope that Six Flags returns to building large scale attractions at their bigger parks.  Rides like this are really meant for smaller parks, like Six Flags America, who could benefit from big time thrills with a smaller price tag.

I was finally allowed to proceed out of the switchbacks and up to the station,  The line stretched the full length of the ride platform single file.  I estimated I’d probably be onboard within about four to five cycles.  As I got closer to the front of the line, the back seat of the next train out was open, and the ride ops asked if there were any single riders.  I raised my hand and was beckoned forward.  The train remains in motion through the station while riders board, so I had to hustle.  I jogged up to the train and quickly sat down, swinging my leg over the hump in the middle as quickly as I could.  The ride-op lowered my lap bar with the standard vest restraint, but because I had rushed to get on the ride, I sat down awkwardly, and I had a cramp in my left hamstring.

All I needed to do was kick my left leg out straight, and I would have been fine, but the restraint prevented me from doing so.  Good thing this is a short ride.  I wiggled around in the seat on the lift and found some relief, then down we went.

The first drop is near vertical at 87 degrees and it’s a maniacal descent.  With my arms stretched out to the side I was ejected before the train pulls up and into the dive loop.  It’s profiled like ArieForce One’s raven truss dive where you rise up almost like an airtime hill, then rapidly snap to the left before the pull out.  Next up is an glorious camelback providing delicious ejector airtime before entering the ride’s best element, the zero-G stall.  

The entry into this maneuver is sharp, and you get what seems like several seconds of perfect inverted floater.  You snap back to level, then rise up into a banked turn around before dropping into the zero-G roll.  It’s perfectly executed, but compared to some of RMC’s IBOX coasters, it’s a bit floaty.  

The train then rises up into the midcourse before dropping off, turning around, and cruising through three bunny hills.  The first two are slightly outer-banked, the last is straight, and all provide great flojector.  Then the train rose back up into the brakes.  

Fortunately, we rolled right into the station, and I could finally kick my leg out straight.  It was a relief, and despite the discomfort from that, I really liked Jersey Devil.  It’s big thrills in a small package.  I love how RMC does this. It’s all about how the ride is profiled.  It doesn’t need to be 300 feet tall to provide strong forces.  I thought back to Pantheon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and how I thought that felt like Intamin trying to be RMC.  Jersey Devil Coaster is the opposite, it feels like RMC trying to be like Intamin.  This ride doesn’t have any of those abrupt choppy moments found on many RMC’s.  It’s more of a fluid series of elements in which each stands on its own as a strong moment with excellent forces.  The long trains, which were undoubtedly added for capacity reasons necessitate this, and I really liked the result.  I mean, it felt more like an Intamin and you know I love Intamins.

While I wanted to ride again, I wasn’t interested in hopping back in that long line, so I made my way back to El Toro.  I had to see if I could have a better ride experience.  Again, there was only a station wait, and I selected the second from the back row.  I hoped that not being over the wheel would be just a little smoother.  Turned out I was right!  I also took a little bit of a different approach to riding.  While I still went hands up, I also raised my legs and pushed my stomach out in the valleys between the hills to keep the lap bar from coming down.  It worked, and on this ride, I got to experience the airtime I love on El Toro with no discomfort.  It was so good that I went around again and did the exact same thing.  I left the ride satisfied that I had gotten two great rides on it.  I lamented that it wasn’t the same amazingly smooth experience that it used to be, but I could still enjoy it.  Like my brother said about T-Express at Everland, there’s no doubt that this is a wooden roller coaster, and that’s just fine by me.

Feeling better about El Toro, I returned to the other end of the park to ride Nitro, no matter how long the line was.  On my first visit to the park, I was massively disappointed by this ride.  It was my first B&M hyper, and I found that it had a terrible rattle and very little airtime.  Was that because I had ridden El Toro for the first time that day and comparing B&M floater to pre-fab ejector is a non-comparison?  Or maybe I rode it towards the end of the wheels’ lifespan like my first rides on Fury 325 when it too had a nasty rattle?  I’ve since ridden five more B&M hypers, and liked them all better than Nitro.

This year, the park added a fourth train with a beautiful blue-gray paint scheme, and is refurbishing the original trains to give them the same look.  Clearly, money is being spent to keep Nitro up, so I was looking forward to getting back on this thing.  

The wait was about 30 minutes, and upon entering the station, I was pleased to see more excellent operations from the ride crew.  While only two trains were running, it almost didn’t matter because the train in the station was being dispatched before the train running the course stopped on the brakes.  The team at Great Adventure was on top of their game, and it was really nice to see.

I was fortunate to get on the new D-train and sat in the back row right.  The crews hustled us out of the station, and we soon started climbing the lift.  The whole park is visible to the right, and it’s a magnificent view.  Then it’s time to fly down Nitro’s 215 foot drop.  It’s on par with the rest, and as we hit the valley, there was a bit of a rattle, but it wasn’t any worse than the other older hypers.

You rise up before turning left and dropping down towards the first camelback.  Mako does this maneuver so much better, but it’s still a fun moment.  That first airtime hill provides strong floater, just like a proper B&M should.  Next comes the standard hammerhead turnaround before another solid airtime hill leading into a banked left turn into the upward helix.  I got a nice snap in this moment on the right side of the train, then the upward helix provides some strong positives as it spirals upward into the midcourse.  After the pause, three bunny hills provide more excellent floater before entering the brakes.  

So this time, Nitro delivered for me.  There was no stand-out moment on the ride, but it ran exactly as a B&M hyper should, and the floater airtime was present in spades.  I was happy to walk off this coaster having experienced its full potential.  Still, B&M has continually improved this ride type, and I strongly prefer their newer models.

I left Nitro and headed for the Joker.  The line had died down quite a bit, and I wanted to ride one of these S&S Free Spins properly.  I rode the first of this ride type, Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Fiesta Texas back in January.  I enjoyed it, but I foolishly left my sunglasses on and the rotation of the train tried to rip them off my face.  Rather than enjoying the experience, I focused on holding my glasses in place.  I wanted to ride one of these just focused on the ride, and of course, I also wanted the credit.

I waited about 25 minutes, and boarded one of the ride’s five cars.  Each one seats eight riders, four on each side of the track in rows of two facing each other.  Twelve of these coasters exist around the world with six located at Six Flags parks.  They were designed by Alan Schilke of RMC fame who’d previously developed the 4-D coaster concept for Arrow Dynamics with X at Six Flags Magic Mountai.  After Arrow closed, he moved onto S&S and then to RMC.  This coaster has a compact footprint with a vertical lift hill rising 110 feet.  The trackwork (which was built by Rocky Mountain Construction) has brakefins on it to make the wing seats spin while it undulates up and down, making three passes tucking beneath itself.

It’s honestly an ingenious idea that creates huge thrills within a compact footprint giving the GP incredible “would you ride this?” photo ops.

So we climbed vertically up the lift and were soon released.  The train rises slowly up and down, somersaulting over each hill .  It’s really fun.  Then you drop down a level and the ride picks up more speed and spins more chaotically.  You do it a few more times, then slowly glide down the brakes back to ground level.  It’s a wildly unusual coaster, and that’s the marketing gimmick.  It’s over in just a few seconds, and it’s a stomach churning thrill.  The biggest bummer about these rides is the slow load times, and I think I spent way more time waiting to disembark than I did on the coaster.  Still, it’s an enjoyable and affordable ride for small parks to add to their coaster collections.  Similar to my thoughts on Jersey Devil, I hope Six Flags aims higher with future installations at this park.

By this time, it was starting to get late, and I began planning my exit strategy.  I wanted one more ride on Kingda Ka, but unfortunately, it went down as I entered the queue.  I decided to finish my day on Jersey Devil to experience the Raptor without a leg cramp.  I only waited about 25 minutes this time, and it was joyous.  It’s got just the right blend of intensity and reridability that I really like.  The airtime is great, and every element is successful.

I walked towards the exit with a minor headache.  All the coasters I’d ridden this day had a vibration to them.  None were bad by any means, but they weren’t as glass smooth as other parks’ collections.  This isn’t a complaint, it’s just my observation.  Overall, it was a phenomenal day, and I rode everything I wanted to. 

I can’t say enough good about management at Six Flags Great Adventure.  This park couldn’t have been more of a stark contrast from yesterday at Six Flags America.  Operations were killing it.  There was hustle and you could tell the crews were having fun.  The park and the rides looked great, and this park has one heck of a collection of coasters.  

On my way to my car, I paused to take a picture from the parking lot looking at Superman and Green Lantern in the foreground with Kingda Ka and El Toro in the background.  I couldn’t make the picture truly do this vista justice, but I really do love this park’s skyline.  I returned to my hotel, and took to my new post-park visit ritual.  

The advent of Instagram reels gives me a creative outlet that I really enjoy, especially high off the rush of a day at the park.  I love trying to pick the perfect song to make a music video commemorating a memorable attraction, and then setting it so the video synchs up with the music.  Before bed, I posted a reel of Kingda Ka set to Elevation by U2.  I typically post a reel right after a park visit, and save another one to post right before I launch a podcast episode.  If you haven’t been to my Instagram or Facebook, I strongly urge you to do so, because they’re really companion pieces to the podcast.  You can find me on either platform @coasterredux.

The next morning was Wednesday, and it would not bring another theme park visit, but a return to my home town just south of Boston.  I had a five hour drive in front of me and looked forward to spending time sailing the waters of Boston Harbor, hanging out with my folks, and catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in years.  As for you all, this story will resume bright and early Monday morning when I embark on my return trip.  The first stop is my former home park, and I’ll be joined by my father, my friend Eric, and his daughters.  Join me for the next episode, when I return to Six Flags New England for the first time since 2005.  That’s next time on Coaster Redux.