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2019-10-06 03:37:07 UTC
Made a visit to Six Flags Great Adventure this past Friday. My first visit to Fright Fest since 2010 I think. Park open 5:30-12:00. Due to traffic of course, didn’t arrive until about 6pm. (Couldn’t pass up a quick planned visit to the rare Roy Rogers on the NJ Turnpike.) Parking was quick. Didn’t park too far outside the preferred area, which is actually quite large.
Once inside, we went immediately to the right to try to get on Justice League and the two newest rides which are all in the same area. The path going pass the old Spin Meister spot is finally open! Walked right onto JL using single rider and even got to sit together since they had no small parties to fill the back row of the vehicle in the station. Ride is still great, most everything was working well. Still amazed this park has such a good dark ride.
Next, Cyborg. No wait at all, walked right on, the ride was maybe 1/3 filled. This was new to me, as the ride was down all the day my visit last year during the summer. We rode in the seats facing away from Wonder Woman. This ride was okay, it’s movements remind me of a Rotoshake or even the Mixer. Too controlled but still a cool machine, more-so to watch than to ride. Ride cycle seemed short, when it stopped, I thought it was going to change direction.
We then went to the Unleashed show, which was right there in the Showcase Theater and close to start time. We decided not to do the haunted trails as they were upcharge, but to do some of the shows instead. This is a steampunk style acrobatic show and was pretty entertaining. Some of the stunts they did were quite good! This show lasted almost a half hour. I think the last time I saw a show in this theater was during Fright Fest in the late ‘90s. After that, we went to Dead Man’s Party in the batman Stunt Arena. By now, it was dark out and very cold. The show was decent. This is the 20th anniversary of this show, but the first I’ve ever seen it. Cool to be back in the stunt arena, I did see a Batman stunt show there in the late ‘90s, and also remember it used for queue for the hayride in later years.
Back to rides- went over to Wonder Woman, which at this point had technical difficulties, so we went to Batman the Ride. BTR did have a wait at this point- we waited close to 15 minutes. This is still my favorite coaster and got a ride in my favorite row 6 (I got the left seat my favorite). Luckily the lights for the video were off on our row and we got a true in the dark night ride. They were playing the movie music in the station but none of the drips/bad guy audio in the tunnel were on.
Went back over to a Wonder Woman as that ride was back open. Waited a lot longer than we thought, about an hour! This ride is impressive and huge to see in person. They weren’t using the staging area numbers on the ground, but loading and unloading did go pretty quickly. I typically prefer spinning pendulum type rides that face out, rather than in. The moving floors on this remind me of the moving staircases on the Flip “N” Out.
We then went over to Dark Knight which we made it right into the pre-show for. I enjoy this pre-show and am god it’s still used. All the effects in the queue and rode itself seemed to be working well. I enjoy this ride a lot. Then went to Nitro and got a second to back row ride after about a 15-20 minute wait. Fun ride, hadn’t been this one in the dark in quite some time, which is better than my usual summer daylight ride. Load and unload was very fast on this one.
We then went to Skull Mountain. This ride’s line was backed up but did move fairly quickly into the station and was luckily able to get to a row quickly being a party of 2. Ride was good as usual with some nice airtime. We stopped in the last brake area, but never moved forward after that, and the ride’s work lights went on with the train behind us going through the circuit, stopping in the brake run behind us. After about 10 minutes it was decided we were getting evac’d! Exit passes were given out, I found it strange that they asked for information like name and phone number upon giving them out.
At this point, we had less than hour until closing. We went over to El Toro to use the passes there. Using the exit pass, you enter using Viper’s old exit ramp, which was neat to see. It seemed some guests had been giving some of the employees a hard time up in the station and security was brought over. We eventually got on and got to ride the back row and the ride is fun as usual. Hadn’t been on this ride in the dark for several years.
We then had less than 15 minutes and decided Kingda Ka for the last ride. I hadn’t been on this one for many years as I typically skip it. But I figured, why not, it was this or Bizarro. Walked right on. Ride was not so bad, except very cold as the temperature was only about 50 by this point.
Lockers are still required and we did use them for El Toro and Kingda Ka. We skipped Joker, but I believe they’re still required there, as well. Would’ve liked to have done Bizarro, Twister and Houdini’s Great Escape, but time did not allow. We did walk through scare zones in Gotham and along the lake in the back. They were decent. Would’ve liked to do at least some of the haunted trails but it’s all or none for a haunted trail pass. The park was busier than I remembered Friday nights for Fright Fest being, but realized it was bring a friend for $10 day, which likely increased the crowds significantly. Also, it’s amazing we spent close to 2/3 of our night in the Movie Town/ super hero area, when most of that area was completely empty and blocked off for so many years.
Once inside, we went immediately to the right to try to get on Justice League and the two newest rides which are all in the same area. The path going pass the old Spin Meister spot is finally open! Walked right onto JL using single rider and even got to sit together since they had no small parties to fill the back row of the vehicle in the station. Ride is still great, most everything was working well. Still amazed this park has such a good dark ride.
Next, Cyborg. No wait at all, walked right on, the ride was maybe 1/3 filled. This was new to me, as the ride was down all the day my visit last year during the summer. We rode in the seats facing away from Wonder Woman. This ride was okay, it’s movements remind me of a Rotoshake or even the Mixer. Too controlled but still a cool machine, more-so to watch than to ride. Ride cycle seemed short, when it stopped, I thought it was going to change direction.
We then went to the Unleashed show, which was right there in the Showcase Theater and close to start time. We decided not to do the haunted trails as they were upcharge, but to do some of the shows instead. This is a steampunk style acrobatic show and was pretty entertaining. Some of the stunts they did were quite good! This show lasted almost a half hour. I think the last time I saw a show in this theater was during Fright Fest in the late ‘90s. After that, we went to Dead Man’s Party in the batman Stunt Arena. By now, it was dark out and very cold. The show was decent. This is the 20th anniversary of this show, but the first I’ve ever seen it. Cool to be back in the stunt arena, I did see a Batman stunt show there in the late ‘90s, and also remember it used for queue for the hayride in later years.
Back to rides- went over to Wonder Woman, which at this point had technical difficulties, so we went to Batman the Ride. BTR did have a wait at this point- we waited close to 15 minutes. This is still my favorite coaster and got a ride in my favorite row 6 (I got the left seat my favorite). Luckily the lights for the video were off on our row and we got a true in the dark night ride. They were playing the movie music in the station but none of the drips/bad guy audio in the tunnel were on.
Went back over to a Wonder Woman as that ride was back open. Waited a lot longer than we thought, about an hour! This ride is impressive and huge to see in person. They weren’t using the staging area numbers on the ground, but loading and unloading did go pretty quickly. I typically prefer spinning pendulum type rides that face out, rather than in. The moving floors on this remind me of the moving staircases on the Flip “N” Out.
We then went over to Dark Knight which we made it right into the pre-show for. I enjoy this pre-show and am god it’s still used. All the effects in the queue and rode itself seemed to be working well. I enjoy this ride a lot. Then went to Nitro and got a second to back row ride after about a 15-20 minute wait. Fun ride, hadn’t been this one in the dark in quite some time, which is better than my usual summer daylight ride. Load and unload was very fast on this one.
We then went to Skull Mountain. This ride’s line was backed up but did move fairly quickly into the station and was luckily able to get to a row quickly being a party of 2. Ride was good as usual with some nice airtime. We stopped in the last brake area, but never moved forward after that, and the ride’s work lights went on with the train behind us going through the circuit, stopping in the brake run behind us. After about 10 minutes it was decided we were getting evac’d! Exit passes were given out, I found it strange that they asked for information like name and phone number upon giving them out.
At this point, we had less than hour until closing. We went over to El Toro to use the passes there. Using the exit pass, you enter using Viper’s old exit ramp, which was neat to see. It seemed some guests had been giving some of the employees a hard time up in the station and security was brought over. We eventually got on and got to ride the back row and the ride is fun as usual. Hadn’t been on this ride in the dark for several years.
We then had less than 15 minutes and decided Kingda Ka for the last ride. I hadn’t been on this one for many years as I typically skip it. But I figured, why not, it was this or Bizarro. Walked right on. Ride was not so bad, except very cold as the temperature was only about 50 by this point.
Lockers are still required and we did use them for El Toro and Kingda Ka. We skipped Joker, but I believe they’re still required there, as well. Would’ve liked to have done Bizarro, Twister and Houdini’s Great Escape, but time did not allow. We did walk through scare zones in Gotham and along the lake in the back. They were decent. Would’ve liked to do at least some of the haunted trails but it’s all or none for a haunted trail pass. The park was busier than I remembered Friday nights for Fright Fest being, but realized it was bring a friend for $10 day, which likely increased the crowds significantly. Also, it’s amazing we spent close to 2/3 of our night in the Movie Town/ super hero area, when most of that area was completely empty and blocked off for so many years.