On a grey Thursday morning in August, my dad, uncle, cousin and I set off to Manchester Airport for our just-short-of-a-week long trip to America. We flew Manchester to Heathrow then chilled in the BA lounge for a bit before flying business to JFK. It’s the first time I’ve ever had the privilege of flying in such luxury and it’s definitely the best flight I’ve ever been on – I didn’t want it to end! One of the airhostesses pointed out another plane out of the window as we were travelling over the Atlantic, so I got a shot of it, note this is on very high zoom though!
We went through customs, picked up our luggage and got the rent-a-car and headed for our first hotel in Wrightstown, NJ. This all went very smoothly, as we were soon bidding the NY skyline a sudden farewell for a few days as we passed over the double decker Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island. We checked in, grabbed something to eat, and then got a good night’s sleep ahead of the big day at SFGAdv.
After a very early awakening thanks to the time difference, we hit McDonalds for breakfast (when in Rome) and headed off to Six Flags with our trusty Never Lost satnav. We set it to “least use of freeways” as the interstates can get a bit boring and to see the neighbourhood. Some of the houses were very nice but we were all surprised by the lack of fences or borders on most houses (wouldn’t see that in England).
Almost half an hour into the journey, I was wondering if we were travelling in the right direction given that the GPS said we were 2 minutes away but I still couldn’t see the biggest roller coaster in the world. We quickly saw the sign for Six Flags though and the clutter of coasters could be seen as soon as we entered the car park.
As we were walking up to the entrance, we saw a selection of coasters testing: Superman, Kingda Ka, and Green Lantern. It was about 10 AM by now so we had about a half an hour wait until the park opened, so we stood in the not so orderly lines outside the entrance which stretched past the ticket booths. Looking around though, it seemed that everyone, like us, had booked online.
Once the gates opened, I thought it’d be a good idea to head to the back of the park as everyone was heading for the bottom left corner (Superman etc.). We walked past El Toro which had men working on the lift hill not looking particularly promising. Still we hoped it may open later. It has a lovely setting mind.
Heading straight to the back corner, we intended to hit Bizarro first but we got there to find it didn’t open until eleven. Glad I was made aware of this beforehand… no wonder the ones near the car park were testing they were the only things that opened when the park did! Anyway, Bizarro was testing so we stuck around for ten minutes or so until they opened it. We were virtually at the front of the queue so got front row.
It was a very nice ride indeed. However, I’m not too sure about the setting just over a field. It’s a solid coaster though, even if it does throw you around a fair bit.
Next up was the mine train which was also walk on at this point. My cousin and I headed to the back row which actually provided some airtime in some places – particularly over the hill by the lake near the end. Slightly rough but it is an Arrow.
Afterwards we went on the Flume. Can’t really remember much about it meaning it was probably unremarkable but a fun water ride nonetheless. I do remember however that after one of the drops it doesn’t slow down and just bombs it round the corners. My uncle wanted the ORP and we got an email of it as well:
It was a really hot day, so we went to get one of those refillable drinks bottles. Not bad value at about $16 but what is it with the Americans and not adding tax on until you get to paying. It’s advertised as $14.99 then you get to the window and they say “$16.04” so annoying.
I think next we headed to the other side of the park and queued up for Nitro. The park had started to get busier as it got closer to lunchtime and we ended up queuing about half an hour. We went for the back row and expected a very intense ride given its reputation.
It certainly didn’t let us down. That first drop just feels like it goes on forever and the following hills are full of floater. The helix before the MCBR is really forceful and the final run of hills are very intense. Overall it is a very good ride, if a little nauseating when combined with the heat on the day.
Next I think we went to grab some lunch. We went to a chicken place which was alright. I probably should have stuck to some standard chicken strips and fries though because I went for buffalo chicken and mac ‘n’ cheese and the chicken was caked in the sauce and it wasn’t that great.
After lunch, we decided to go on the rapids. The wait wasn’t too bad given that there wasn’t a turntable. The queue does split off in two different directions though and you’re told to use both sides but one is obviously shorter than the other so we went that way. The ride itself was ok but was generally just one simple loop providing quite the soaking.
At this point, my cousin wasn’t feeling too great due to the heat and force from Nitro so he decided to sit out the next ride. I went and joined the queue for Batman not knowing how long it would be. I was looking forward to it as I’d missed out on a Batman clone at SFMM so hadn’t ridden one yet. Little did I know, the queue ended up being like an hour and it got very boring queuing on my own.
Once I got to the station, I kind of realised why the queue was so long. It is an absolute free-for-all. The bays are filled with about 10 people deep to the back wall and people with fastpasses are just thrown in from the side and filter in with no organisation whatsoever. Nitro’s station was the same. Would it be so hard to just hold people when you get to the station and then organise them into bays one train at a time? They were also consistently stacking two trains. Nitro was stacking three. Not overly impressive.
Despite all this, the ride was actually very good and really intense. I sat in the middle somewhere (tried to gauge which row I would get on quickest) and the tight elements lead to some really nice forces, especially in the last turn. It was a great coaster.
Due to the large Batman queue, it was mid-afternoon by now and we both wanted to get on something really good. El Toro still wasn’t open to our annoyance so we headed to Kingda Ka. As we got there, people were coming out of the queue and we heard it had broken down. Not ideal. Given that it was near we then went to ride Superman.
It also didn’t help that we faffed a bit on the way over to Ka. Most of us had forgotten sunglasses so we had to go buy some and then we had an ice-cream which was pretty pricey (like $7!).
The queue for Superman wasn’t that long probably about half an hour, but there was part of a switchback which was getting sprayed by a sprinkler so people waited until they could get clear to move in the queue. It was quite amusing to watch. Once we got to the station, we ended up going somewhere in the middle of the train.
The lift felt a lot higher than I thought it would, because it is over flat land. The other flyers I have ridden (Air and Tatsu) both have their lifts over elevated terrain. I really enjoyed the first swooping drop and the pretzel was more fun that Tatsu’s in my opinion. The following overbanks were also really fun. It is a good coaster, but not as good as other flyers due to its setting.
Ka had reopened so we headed straight for it. The huge cattlepen seemed to go on forever, not helped by the ride having a little hissy-fit and breaking down for 10 minutes or so whilst we were in the middle of the queue. They were also only running one side of the station. As a result of this, we ended up waiting about 70 minutes.
By the time we reached the station we were both pretty pumped and ended up going on row 2 (the front row would have been a long wait). We sat on the launch track for what felt like an eternity, then without warning we were launched down the straight. The acceleration went on and on and at the end it felt like it was shaking side to side. It felt so out of control. Then within seconds we were up and over the top, spirally back down to the ground and over the massive hill.
Though I don’t consider it the best ride I’ve ever been on (I still think Shambhala and X2 provide better all-round experiences) the feeling is nothing like I’ve ever felt on a ride before and it is an amazing coaster. I can only imagine what the front row is like. Here’s our ORP:
By now it was 7 PM and although the park was open for another 3 hours, we decided to call it a day and go and get something to eat and head back to the hotel. We were gutted about El Toro (it was still closed) but weren’t really bothered about the other coasters we hadn’t ridden. The only major thing we missed was Green Lantern.
Next up is Dorney Park where I had time to take a lot more better-quality pictures!
We went through customs, picked up our luggage and got the rent-a-car and headed for our first hotel in Wrightstown, NJ. This all went very smoothly, as we were soon bidding the NY skyline a sudden farewell for a few days as we passed over the double decker Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island. We checked in, grabbed something to eat, and then got a good night’s sleep ahead of the big day at SFGAdv.
After a very early awakening thanks to the time difference, we hit McDonalds for breakfast (when in Rome) and headed off to Six Flags with our trusty Never Lost satnav. We set it to “least use of freeways” as the interstates can get a bit boring and to see the neighbourhood. Some of the houses were very nice but we were all surprised by the lack of fences or borders on most houses (wouldn’t see that in England).
Almost half an hour into the journey, I was wondering if we were travelling in the right direction given that the GPS said we were 2 minutes away but I still couldn’t see the biggest roller coaster in the world. We quickly saw the sign for Six Flags though and the clutter of coasters could be seen as soon as we entered the car park.
As we were walking up to the entrance, we saw a selection of coasters testing: Superman, Kingda Ka, and Green Lantern. It was about 10 AM by now so we had about a half an hour wait until the park opened, so we stood in the not so orderly lines outside the entrance which stretched past the ticket booths. Looking around though, it seemed that everyone, like us, had booked online.
Once the gates opened, I thought it’d be a good idea to head to the back of the park as everyone was heading for the bottom left corner (Superman etc.). We walked past El Toro which had men working on the lift hill not looking particularly promising. Still we hoped it may open later. It has a lovely setting mind.
Heading straight to the back corner, we intended to hit Bizarro first but we got there to find it didn’t open until eleven. Glad I was made aware of this beforehand… no wonder the ones near the car park were testing they were the only things that opened when the park did! Anyway, Bizarro was testing so we stuck around for ten minutes or so until they opened it. We were virtually at the front of the queue so got front row.
It was a very nice ride indeed. However, I’m not too sure about the setting just over a field. It’s a solid coaster though, even if it does throw you around a fair bit.
Next up was the mine train which was also walk on at this point. My cousin and I headed to the back row which actually provided some airtime in some places – particularly over the hill by the lake near the end. Slightly rough but it is an Arrow.
Afterwards we went on the Flume. Can’t really remember much about it meaning it was probably unremarkable but a fun water ride nonetheless. I do remember however that after one of the drops it doesn’t slow down and just bombs it round the corners. My uncle wanted the ORP and we got an email of it as well:
It was a really hot day, so we went to get one of those refillable drinks bottles. Not bad value at about $16 but what is it with the Americans and not adding tax on until you get to paying. It’s advertised as $14.99 then you get to the window and they say “$16.04” so annoying.
I think next we headed to the other side of the park and queued up for Nitro. The park had started to get busier as it got closer to lunchtime and we ended up queuing about half an hour. We went for the back row and expected a very intense ride given its reputation.
It certainly didn’t let us down. That first drop just feels like it goes on forever and the following hills are full of floater. The helix before the MCBR is really forceful and the final run of hills are very intense. Overall it is a very good ride, if a little nauseating when combined with the heat on the day.
Next I think we went to grab some lunch. We went to a chicken place which was alright. I probably should have stuck to some standard chicken strips and fries though because I went for buffalo chicken and mac ‘n’ cheese and the chicken was caked in the sauce and it wasn’t that great.
After lunch, we decided to go on the rapids. The wait wasn’t too bad given that there wasn’t a turntable. The queue does split off in two different directions though and you’re told to use both sides but one is obviously shorter than the other so we went that way. The ride itself was ok but was generally just one simple loop providing quite the soaking.
At this point, my cousin wasn’t feeling too great due to the heat and force from Nitro so he decided to sit out the next ride. I went and joined the queue for Batman not knowing how long it would be. I was looking forward to it as I’d missed out on a Batman clone at SFMM so hadn’t ridden one yet. Little did I know, the queue ended up being like an hour and it got very boring queuing on my own.
Once I got to the station, I kind of realised why the queue was so long. It is an absolute free-for-all. The bays are filled with about 10 people deep to the back wall and people with fastpasses are just thrown in from the side and filter in with no organisation whatsoever. Nitro’s station was the same. Would it be so hard to just hold people when you get to the station and then organise them into bays one train at a time? They were also consistently stacking two trains. Nitro was stacking three. Not overly impressive.
Despite all this, the ride was actually very good and really intense. I sat in the middle somewhere (tried to gauge which row I would get on quickest) and the tight elements lead to some really nice forces, especially in the last turn. It was a great coaster.
Due to the large Batman queue, it was mid-afternoon by now and we both wanted to get on something really good. El Toro still wasn’t open to our annoyance so we headed to Kingda Ka. As we got there, people were coming out of the queue and we heard it had broken down. Not ideal. Given that it was near we then went to ride Superman.
It also didn’t help that we faffed a bit on the way over to Ka. Most of us had forgotten sunglasses so we had to go buy some and then we had an ice-cream which was pretty pricey (like $7!).
The queue for Superman wasn’t that long probably about half an hour, but there was part of a switchback which was getting sprayed by a sprinkler so people waited until they could get clear to move in the queue. It was quite amusing to watch. Once we got to the station, we ended up going somewhere in the middle of the train.
The lift felt a lot higher than I thought it would, because it is over flat land. The other flyers I have ridden (Air and Tatsu) both have their lifts over elevated terrain. I really enjoyed the first swooping drop and the pretzel was more fun that Tatsu’s in my opinion. The following overbanks were also really fun. It is a good coaster, but not as good as other flyers due to its setting.
Ka had reopened so we headed straight for it. The huge cattlepen seemed to go on forever, not helped by the ride having a little hissy-fit and breaking down for 10 minutes or so whilst we were in the middle of the queue. They were also only running one side of the station. As a result of this, we ended up waiting about 70 minutes.
By the time we reached the station we were both pretty pumped and ended up going on row 2 (the front row would have been a long wait). We sat on the launch track for what felt like an eternity, then without warning we were launched down the straight. The acceleration went on and on and at the end it felt like it was shaking side to side. It felt so out of control. Then within seconds we were up and over the top, spirally back down to the ground and over the massive hill.
Though I don’t consider it the best ride I’ve ever been on (I still think Shambhala and X2 provide better all-round experiences) the feeling is nothing like I’ve ever felt on a ride before and it is an amazing coaster. I can only imagine what the front row is like. Here’s our ORP:
By now it was 7 PM and although the park was open for another 3 hours, we decided to call it a day and go and get something to eat and head back to the hotel. We were gutted about El Toro (it was still closed) but weren’t really bothered about the other coasters we hadn’t ridden. The only major thing we missed was Green Lantern.
Next up is Dorney Park where I had time to take a lot more better-quality pictures!
