Just one day after visiting Hersheypark on Easter Sunday, Sam and I woke up early to make our way up to Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv) to meet up with our new friend, Kaylee. We met Kaylee during our March 31 visit to Six Flags America (SFA) when she recognized us from the site’s Instagram account (@WeWereInverted_IG). She mentioned seeing us at the park at the top of the lift for Penguin’s Blizzard River. That started up a conversation and a friendship.
During my conversations with Kaylee, I found out that she would be visiting SFGAdv on Monday and Tuesday. I asked her if she’d be up for riding some rides together if Sam was open to coming up. She said sure, Sam said sure, and we all met up on Monday.
So Many Rides!
Kaylee got to the park when they opened. Since Sam and I still had about 30-40 minutes before we arrived, Kaylee decided to check out the park’s SkyScreamer swing. It was one of the rides high on her to-do list since she regularly works the Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth swing at SFA. Once Sam and I arrived, Kaylee met us at the front gate. We were then on our way to getting in some amazing rides.
Batman the Ride
From our conversations online, I knew that the only coaster Kaylee was missing from her credit list at SFGAdv was Batman the Ride. She had missed out on it in the past, so I wanted to make sure that was one of our priorities. After saying our hellos, I figured, why not get it first thing? Not only did we get Batman first, but we also came back again later for a second ride. Both rides were walk-ons and you could certainly feel the whippy nature in the back of the train.
Nitro
Speaking of back of the train, Nitro was our second ride of the day as well as our final coaster of the evening. Like Batman, we rode Nitro twice – once in the back row and once in the front. Our first ride felt a little sluggish, even though that was the one we did in the back.
When we came back later in the day, you could tell the ride had warmed up. The pacing felt better for our front row ride and dare I say, so did the airtime. That’s usually not the case for Nitro from my experiences. And believe me, in December of 2020, we had a lot of Nitro experiences.
El Toro
El Toro was easily the coaster the three of us were most looking forward to riding. It wasn’t listed as open on the SFGAdv site, but over the weekend, we began seeing people post that the ride was testing and even fully operating. Sam and I only had one ride on El Toro in all of 2020. Kaylee hadn’t ridden it in years.
Of course it wouldn’t be a normal SFGAdv visit without El Toro going down. It also wouldn’t be a normal SFGAdv visit without a security guard being ignorant to park guest. Last year it was the guy who insisted you had to have lockers for Green Lantern, even with secured, zippered pockets. This visit, apparently wallets are no longer welcome on El Toro. They were fine last year when I asked.
I really think the park should invest in some better training for their security, both with policy and being more pleasant. The parks also needs to clearly state what their policies are. The signs next to the security say no cellphones or keys. The website just says no loose articles. Personally, I can’t see how a wallet is something that should be in a locker. If someone were to have a medical emergency, I could see that being a huge problem. Also, if the wait time extends past two hours, how do you pay to open the locker with your wallet inside? Someone in management didn’t think this through.
Kingda Ka
Although Sam decided to sit out on Kingda Ka this visit, Kaylee and I hopped on for a ride. In recent years, this record-breaking launch coaster has slowly been falling further and further down my rankings due to its excessive rattle/vibration. On Monday, however, I did get a better ride than last year. We weren’t as far back in the train, which I’m sure helped.
As for Kaylee, she got in a few more rides on Ka during her Tuesday visit. On her Instagram, she proclaimed, “Front row, heck yea! Kingda Freakin Ka is my ride now!”
It’s been a good while since I’ve had a front row ride myself, but I have heard it makes a world of difference. I’m jealous! I just can’t imagine it being better than Top Thrill Dragster though, which I rank much higher.
- Top Thrill Dragster – 21 steel, 28 overall
- Kingda Ka – 65 steel, 87 overall
More Coasters & Flats
The coasters listed above weren’t the only ones we rode during our visit. As a matter of fact, we rode every coaster and four of the flat rides. On her Tuesday visit, Kaylee also squeezed in a few more flats, like Twister, that we didn’t get to. She also managed to get a few re-rides on some of the coasters, like with Kingda Ka. It would have been awesome to be back there on that day too, but after doing Hersheypark and SFGAdv back-to-back, Sam and I needed some rest.
You can view Monday’s ride tally in the count below. What do you think of this new Final Ride Counts box for these trip reports?
Final Ride Counts
Batman the Ride (2)
Bizarro (1)
Cyborg (1: Patrick, Kaylee)
Dark Knight (1)
El Toro (1)
Green Lantern (1)
Harley Quinn Crazy Train (1)
Joker (1)
Justice League BfM (1)
Kingda Ka (1: Patrick, Kaylee)
Nitro (2)
Runaway Mine Train (1)
SkyScreamer (1: Kaylee)
Superman Ultimate Flight (1)
Wonder Woman LoT (1: Patrick, Kaylee)
More Great Adventures on the Horizon
Yup, that pun is totally intended. Naturally, more visits to SFGAdv are on the horizon, although none are planned as of yet. In the immediate future, Sam, Renee, and I will be heading to Hersheypark again on Sunday with our friends, Amber and Jason. Sam and I are also looking to visit for Hersheypark’s Season Pass Holder Preview Night on Friday, April 23.
Other than Hershey, the only plans we have set in stone right now are on Saturday, May 8 at Kennywood. Last year I won a season pass to the park in their Kennywood Jack Rabbit 100 Years, 100 Memories Contest. Covid put things on hold, but the park sent out an email inviting all the winners, plus one guest, to attend their Jack Rabbit 100 Years Ceremony on opening day. Sam and I will be attending that and maybe even Knoebels the following day.
Six Flags Great Adventure Photo Gallery - April 5, 2021
If you would like to use any of the images in the gallery above for your non-commercial projects, feel free to do so. I ask that you credit We Were Inverted whenever they’re used. I also ask that you do not alter the image or remove the watermarks. If you need any images/video resized or without the watermarks, please contact me directly.
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): n/a
Sam
Captain
New Credit(s): n/a
Kaylee
Ensign
New Credit(s): n/a
