Phadd-F
Roller Poster
TOP EAST THRILL
31/05/'25: Coney Island
01/06/'25: Six Flags Great Adventure
02/06/'25: Kings Dominion
03/06/'25: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
04/06/'25: Hershey Park
05/06/'25: Kennywood
06/06/'25: Kings Island
07-08-09/06/'25: Cedar Point
10/06/'25: Canada's Wonderland
11/06/'25: Knoebels
12/06/'25: Dorney Park
13/06/'25: Six Flags America
DAY 2: SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE
Although you go to bed extremely tired on the first day after arriving in the United States (due to the time difference, you get an extended day), that doesn’t mean you’ll sleep in late the next morning. The time difference meant that we all woke up earlier than our alarms. Every disadvantage has its advantage, as a great Dutchman once said, and in our case, the advantage was that we could head to the next amusement park at a relaxed pace.
And that park was Six Flags Great Adventure. A park that doesn’t exactly have the best reputation—it's said to be somewhat in decline, with some attractions having been removed without replacements… Despite that, we were, of course, really looking forward to it. Compared to Coney Island yesterday, this was the real deal—the kind of park for which we undertook this trip.
We were so early that the parking gates hadn’t even opened yet, and we ended up waiting for half an hour on the park’s entrance road. Once the gates did open, we drove onto the massive parking lot. A huge contrast with my previous visit in 2018—the skyline without Kingda Ka and Green Lantern looks noticeably less impressive. I was lucky enough to ride both coasters back then, but my friends on this trip weren’t so fortunate. I guess you could call it a blessing in disguise that both rides have already been removed—nothing more depressing than seeing a roller coaster standing but not operating (SBNO).
This was the first park of the Six Fair/Cedar Flags group we were visiting—we planned to do around seven of them on this trip. That’s why we bought a season pass during Black Friday. Belgians buying a season pass?! They must have found that suspicious, because when we went to Guest Services, it turned out our vouchers were blocked… (and no, they just kept the money). Luckily, the lady there helped us quickly and kindly to unblock them, and our season passes were issued at the ticket check. Now we could finally start our day.
We entered just before the park officially opened and had to wait for a bit in the entrance plaza until the rest of the park opened up. No fences or ropes—everyone simply waited politely in front of the employees until they announced the park was open. Where would we start? We chose Flash: Vertical Velocity, the park’s newest coaster. Not only was it located right near the entrance, but as a boomerang model, it might not have the best capacity. Plus, Americans tend to rush the newest rides en masse and ignore the older ones.
Flash is the second installation of Vekoma’s Super Boomerang model. The words boomerang and Vekoma usually don’t spark much excitement among coaster enthusiasts—quite the opposite, actually—but we were still curious about this new super model. First, we had to put all our bags and loose items in a paid locker, and after a short wait in line, it was finally time to try this ride.
Comfortable trains with great lap bars that posed no issue at all for this broader fellow to close. I hadn’t looked up much about the rides on our trip beforehand—I like to be surprised. And surprised I was, because this coaster doesn’t start with a backward lift hill (like the classic boomerangs), but instead with a triple launch! It’s followed by an inversion with fantastic hangtime, a double-up with strong airtime, and a zero-g roll leading into the final spike… after which you do the whole thing again—backwards.
There are boost sections in between that help the train maintain its speed. A top-tier coaster that runs buttery smooth. Hangtime, airtime, triple launch… this ride packs a lot into its modest length. I hope we’ll see more versions of this Super Boomerang closer to home—Six Flags Great Adventure definitely has a ride here that’s worth visiting the park for.
We set aside our bingo-stress for a moment and decided to check out the local Justice League dark ride. Back in 2018, I discovered that Six Flags had a few of these dark rides in some of their parks, and to my surprise, they were actually quite good. A nice mix of practical sets and screens, at a level you don’t really expect in a Six Flags park—where you mainly come for the big coasters and thrill rides. This version didn’t disappoint either.
Back to coaster hunting. The next one we encountered was Dark Knight, an indoor wild mouse. Putting it inside a warehouse allows for many more opportunities to add fun effects and theming, which is definitely an upgrade compared to a standard outdoor wild mouse. Unfortunately, I noticed that many of the effects had been removed since my last visit in 2018. For example, the oncoming train effect at the end was missing…
We stayed in the Batman theme, because Batman: The Ride was right nearby. Any seasoned coaster fan will know exactly what coaster that name refers to… the often-cloned B&M inverted layout. It’s not a bad layout, but I already had this credit, and I’ve ridden so many versions of it by now that I chose to go grab a refill cup while my friends added it to their count. Because of the merger between Cedar Fair and Six Flags, I was hoping the refill cup I bought here would be usable in any of the new group’s parks—but unfortunately, it was only valid in parks that still had “Six Flags” in the name. Oh well, it was warm enough that I got my money’s worth anyway.
I skipped the next coaster too—Lil’ Devil Coaster is nothing more than a Zamperla single-helix coaster that I had already ridden on my previous visit. The rest of the group who did ride it said afterward that it was a coaster they’d never want to do again—not because of the layout or size, but because of the “smoothness” and “comfort” of this little Zamperla…
Little devils aren’t much of a challenge—give me the big devil instead! Jersey Devil Coaster was the second and final new coaster for me at this park, and I was really curious about it. My experience with single rail coasters is limited: I thought Mahuka at the French Walibi park was fantastic—but that one is by Intamin. The two Why oh Why (YoY) coasters at the Dutch Walibi park disappointed me and didn’t do much for me. So how would the larger Jersey Devil Coaster hold up?
Before I could find out, I first had to deal with the ridiculous loose article policy. As an experienced theme park visitor and coaster rider, I wear shorts with zippered pockets—to safely store items like my phone, glasses, and wallet. Those zippers don’t just fly open on their own, and I’ve never had any issues with them, not even on previous trips to the U.S. But the ride operator had eagle eyes and thought my side pocket looked too full, and promptly sent me away from the station. Zippered pockets or not, I had to store my belongings in a paid locker. Strange people, those Americans.
Eventually, I did get my ride on the devilish Jersey coaster. A very fun ride with some nice doses of (lateral) airtime and a cool zero-g stall. It was smooth too, though I often get the feeling on these RMC single rail coasters that I’m riding over a bridge: kadang kadang kadang… It’s definitely not painful rattling, don’t get me wrong—but the supposed added value of a single rail track is completely lost on me. Aesthetically, I also don’t find it very appealing. All in all, I was still happy to finally ride a good RMC single rail coaster—it helped wash away some of the disappointment from YoY. Though I still think I’d rank Mahuka higher than this Devil.
Back to coasters with more than one rail. Big Nitro, had been calling to us for a while, and with it, we’d finish off this side of the park. This B&M hyper confirmed what I thought of it back in 2018: a fun, smooth coaster with nice floater airtime. A bit like what Silver Star at Europa-Park should have been. Admittedly, it’s not the best of its kind, but that doesn’t make it any less fun and enjoyable.
Then it was time for a good Intamin… or rather, just an Intamin—forget the “good,” because we’re talking about Skull Mountain, the park’s second indoor coaster. Some effort has been made with the theming—at least on the outside, because inside there’s nothing but darkness. And “some” effort, because the whole facade still looks quite flat. It’s a family coaster that doesn’t really do anything noteworthy. Combined with zero theming or effects inside, the comparison to Crazy Bats at Phantasialand comes up quickly—though thankfully this Skull Mountain is much shorter.
After a short break to fill our stomachs with a slice of pizza, we got in line for Harley Quinn Crazy Train, a classic Zierer Tivoli. So far, we had been lucky with the lines—there weren’t many people in the park, on a Sunday, no less. We did have to wait a bit here because the ride had a short breakdown, but luckily it was quickly resolved. Choo-choo-ba and another credit—at least for my friends.
Their next credit was right next door, a ride I already had and wisely chose to avoid like the plague this time. Joker is an S&S Freespin coaster, and I feel a bubbling hatred rise whenever this type of ride comes up. I have no idea what others find fun about it—the complete unpredictability of which way you’ll spin, the lack of any real elements that provide negative, positive, or lateral G-forces… These kinds of rides should’ve just been topspins.
Time for something more enjoyable, though still a ride where you don’t sit in a normal position. In Superman – Ultimate Flight, you lie down! It’s one of four clones, with two others located at Six Flags parks and another in China. Despite the many coasters I’ve done, I still feel a bit of nervousness on rides like this. With your full body weight resting on the harness, you start wondering things like “what if it opens?” and due to the flying position, you can only look down—at least until you reach the top. Not ideal for someone with a fear of heights. But the fun ultimately wins—the ride is a lot of fun. The pretzel loop is, of course, the highlight, pulling some serious G-forces. Vekoma may have perfected the flying coaster by now, but the B&M flyers still hold their own quite well.
Ten coasters done—we could almost smell the bingo! Well… for a moment, at least. Because when we tried to ride Runaway Mine Train (the park’s Arrow mine train), we found it closed. No movement at all in the station, and we got the feeling it just wasn’t going to open today. A bit of research told us that the ride had already been down the entire day before, so we let go of any hope of riding it.
We continued walking, because tucked away in a corner of the park is Medusa, a B&M floorless coaster. On my last visit, it was still painted purple and called Bizarro. Unfortunately, I had trouble closing the restraint here—but luckily, this coaster has big boy seats. So I moved over, pulled the restraint down, and fastened the seatbelt. However, the restraint hadn’t locked in place yet—I never heard it click. This made me think it wasn’t secured at all… When I mentioned this to the operator doing the restraint check, they said the seatbelt would be enough to keep me in place.
Hey ho… I rode the entire ride thinking my restraint hadn’t locked and that I was fully relying on just those little seatbelts. I have to admit, it definitely added a serious fear factor to the ride. When we hit the final brake run, I wanted to see what would happen if I unbuckled the belts—would the restraint immediately fly open?! Nope—it turned out the restraint had been locked properly all along. I had just been too quick with pulling it down and fastening the belts. Luckily! Aside from that, it was just a fun ride. You can say a lot about B&M floorless coasters, but I’ve honestly never been on one that wasn’t fun.
Under the motto “save the best for last,” we finished our coaster hunt with El Toro. Since Kingda Ka was demolished, this is now truly the flagship ride of Great Adventure. I don’t remember exactly what went wrong, but we had an issue with the lockers there. I volunteered to stay with the bags while the others tackled this beast. After all, I had already ridden it once, and their hunger for the ride was greater than mine. They came off unanimously raving about it—and then it was someone else’s turn to take over backpack duty.
El Toro is still just as I remember: pure wildness! It pounds hard and feels like it doesn’t lose any speed. The first half delivers buckets of airtime over hills that aren’t exactly small, followed by some fast turns and more airtime hills. Leaving aside some debatable RMC coasters, this is simply my favorite pure wooden coaster. El Toro has it all and throws you each way possible. Admittedly, you have to be able to take a beating. El Toro isn’t smooth, but that actually adds something to the ride—wooden coasters should definitely be a bit wilder in that regard. It’s certainly not painful. But wow, what a beast. I wish Intamin would jump back into the wooden coaster market…
Needless to say, we opted for a few extra rides on El Toro. After that, we took a few rerides on other coasters, including Flash. Some of us wanted to do the log flume. Personally, I wasn’t so keen, well aware of how wet water rides can be in America. And my experience proved me right—my friends came out soaked.
One ride I really wanted to try, one I regretted not doing on my previous visit, was Houdini’s Great Escape. One of only two madhouses in the United States. We know this type of ride from Villa Volta (Efteling), Hex (Alton Towers), and Houdini’s Magische Huis (Bellewaerde). This one here—and its clone at Six Flags New England—shares not only the theme and story but also the same year of construction as Bellewaerde’s madhouse. No coincidence, as Bellewaerde was just acquired by Premier Parks (the then-owners of the Six Flags group) and must have made a very good deal with Vekoma at the time. Three madhouses were built in 1999, one in 2000 for Six Flags Holland, and another in 2001 for Six Flags Belgium.
For me, it’s been just a little too long ago to make a full comparison with Bellewaerde’s Houdini, but the story felt the same. Not that you could enjoy it properly, because the operations here were cringe-worthy. There weren’t even that many people in line, yet it became the longest wait of the day. That was partly due to the very slow pace of the staff—two employees were present to load the attraction, but only one was actually making an effort. She was busy helping a group with disabled people, while the other staff member just stood there with his hands on his hips, watching and loafing around.
When they finally started with the regular queue, the preshow had already started. The preshow starts the moment they open the line and let people in, which basically ruins the few storytelling elements the ride has. But the poor operations don’t end there—oh no—because here too, you’re not allowed to bring backpacks with you. Guests have to walk through all the benches to the exit to put their backpacks in the designated lockers. The result? People have to squeeze back through the benches, past others without bagpacks who have already sat down.
In the end, the madhouse also was only half full—efficient work, you could say. Again, strange people, these Americans. So, we ended up waiting way too long and endured dumb and illogical operations for what turned out to be a mediocre madhouse. Looking back, it just wasn’t worth it.
Because it was so quiet, we finished quicker than expected. That gave us the chance to leave a bit earlier than closing time, which was definitely welcome for me as the driver, since we still had several thousand kilometers to cover on our trip—which was just getting started.
We had a great day at Great Adventure. From what I experienced I wouldn't dare to call it a park in decline; it looked fine overall. Admittedly, with the indoor coasters you could notice the lack of effects, but that’s only a minor downside. The operations were slower than what we’re used to here in Europe, but that seemed to be the standard throughout our American trip. Otherwise, the staff was very friendly.
Even without Kingda Ka, the park still has plenty of other top rides that make a visit worthwhile. El Toro leading the way, but also the new Flash is definitely a coaster you want to ride, as is the Jersey Devil Coaster. Coasters like Medusa, Superman, and Nitro never disappoint either. I’m looking forward to Kingda Ka’s replacement, but for now, another visit is not planned for the coming years.
31/05/'25: Coney Island
01/06/'25: Six Flags Great Adventure
02/06/'25: Kings Dominion
03/06/'25: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
04/06/'25: Hershey Park
05/06/'25: Kennywood
06/06/'25: Kings Island
07-08-09/06/'25: Cedar Point
10/06/'25: Canada's Wonderland
11/06/'25: Knoebels
12/06/'25: Dorney Park
13/06/'25: Six Flags America
DAY 2: SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE
Although you go to bed extremely tired on the first day after arriving in the United States (due to the time difference, you get an extended day), that doesn’t mean you’ll sleep in late the next morning. The time difference meant that we all woke up earlier than our alarms. Every disadvantage has its advantage, as a great Dutchman once said, and in our case, the advantage was that we could head to the next amusement park at a relaxed pace.
And that park was Six Flags Great Adventure. A park that doesn’t exactly have the best reputation—it's said to be somewhat in decline, with some attractions having been removed without replacements… Despite that, we were, of course, really looking forward to it. Compared to Coney Island yesterday, this was the real deal—the kind of park for which we undertook this trip.
We were so early that the parking gates hadn’t even opened yet, and we ended up waiting for half an hour on the park’s entrance road. Once the gates did open, we drove onto the massive parking lot. A huge contrast with my previous visit in 2018—the skyline without Kingda Ka and Green Lantern looks noticeably less impressive. I was lucky enough to ride both coasters back then, but my friends on this trip weren’t so fortunate. I guess you could call it a blessing in disguise that both rides have already been removed—nothing more depressing than seeing a roller coaster standing but not operating (SBNO).
This was the first park of the Six Fair/Cedar Flags group we were visiting—we planned to do around seven of them on this trip. That’s why we bought a season pass during Black Friday. Belgians buying a season pass?! They must have found that suspicious, because when we went to Guest Services, it turned out our vouchers were blocked… (and no, they just kept the money). Luckily, the lady there helped us quickly and kindly to unblock them, and our season passes were issued at the ticket check. Now we could finally start our day.
We entered just before the park officially opened and had to wait for a bit in the entrance plaza until the rest of the park opened up. No fences or ropes—everyone simply waited politely in front of the employees until they announced the park was open. Where would we start? We chose Flash: Vertical Velocity, the park’s newest coaster. Not only was it located right near the entrance, but as a boomerang model, it might not have the best capacity. Plus, Americans tend to rush the newest rides en masse and ignore the older ones.
Flash is the second installation of Vekoma’s Super Boomerang model. The words boomerang and Vekoma usually don’t spark much excitement among coaster enthusiasts—quite the opposite, actually—but we were still curious about this new super model. First, we had to put all our bags and loose items in a paid locker, and after a short wait in line, it was finally time to try this ride.
Comfortable trains with great lap bars that posed no issue at all for this broader fellow to close. I hadn’t looked up much about the rides on our trip beforehand—I like to be surprised. And surprised I was, because this coaster doesn’t start with a backward lift hill (like the classic boomerangs), but instead with a triple launch! It’s followed by an inversion with fantastic hangtime, a double-up with strong airtime, and a zero-g roll leading into the final spike… after which you do the whole thing again—backwards.
There are boost sections in between that help the train maintain its speed. A top-tier coaster that runs buttery smooth. Hangtime, airtime, triple launch… this ride packs a lot into its modest length. I hope we’ll see more versions of this Super Boomerang closer to home—Six Flags Great Adventure definitely has a ride here that’s worth visiting the park for.
We set aside our bingo-stress for a moment and decided to check out the local Justice League dark ride. Back in 2018, I discovered that Six Flags had a few of these dark rides in some of their parks, and to my surprise, they were actually quite good. A nice mix of practical sets and screens, at a level you don’t really expect in a Six Flags park—where you mainly come for the big coasters and thrill rides. This version didn’t disappoint either.
Back to coaster hunting. The next one we encountered was Dark Knight, an indoor wild mouse. Putting it inside a warehouse allows for many more opportunities to add fun effects and theming, which is definitely an upgrade compared to a standard outdoor wild mouse. Unfortunately, I noticed that many of the effects had been removed since my last visit in 2018. For example, the oncoming train effect at the end was missing…
We stayed in the Batman theme, because Batman: The Ride was right nearby. Any seasoned coaster fan will know exactly what coaster that name refers to… the often-cloned B&M inverted layout. It’s not a bad layout, but I already had this credit, and I’ve ridden so many versions of it by now that I chose to go grab a refill cup while my friends added it to their count. Because of the merger between Cedar Fair and Six Flags, I was hoping the refill cup I bought here would be usable in any of the new group’s parks—but unfortunately, it was only valid in parks that still had “Six Flags” in the name. Oh well, it was warm enough that I got my money’s worth anyway.
I skipped the next coaster too—Lil’ Devil Coaster is nothing more than a Zamperla single-helix coaster that I had already ridden on my previous visit. The rest of the group who did ride it said afterward that it was a coaster they’d never want to do again—not because of the layout or size, but because of the “smoothness” and “comfort” of this little Zamperla…
Little devils aren’t much of a challenge—give me the big devil instead! Jersey Devil Coaster was the second and final new coaster for me at this park, and I was really curious about it. My experience with single rail coasters is limited: I thought Mahuka at the French Walibi park was fantastic—but that one is by Intamin. The two Why oh Why (YoY) coasters at the Dutch Walibi park disappointed me and didn’t do much for me. So how would the larger Jersey Devil Coaster hold up?
Before I could find out, I first had to deal with the ridiculous loose article policy. As an experienced theme park visitor and coaster rider, I wear shorts with zippered pockets—to safely store items like my phone, glasses, and wallet. Those zippers don’t just fly open on their own, and I’ve never had any issues with them, not even on previous trips to the U.S. But the ride operator had eagle eyes and thought my side pocket looked too full, and promptly sent me away from the station. Zippered pockets or not, I had to store my belongings in a paid locker. Strange people, those Americans.
Eventually, I did get my ride on the devilish Jersey coaster. A very fun ride with some nice doses of (lateral) airtime and a cool zero-g stall. It was smooth too, though I often get the feeling on these RMC single rail coasters that I’m riding over a bridge: kadang kadang kadang… It’s definitely not painful rattling, don’t get me wrong—but the supposed added value of a single rail track is completely lost on me. Aesthetically, I also don’t find it very appealing. All in all, I was still happy to finally ride a good RMC single rail coaster—it helped wash away some of the disappointment from YoY. Though I still think I’d rank Mahuka higher than this Devil.
Back to coasters with more than one rail. Big Nitro, had been calling to us for a while, and with it, we’d finish off this side of the park. This B&M hyper confirmed what I thought of it back in 2018: a fun, smooth coaster with nice floater airtime. A bit like what Silver Star at Europa-Park should have been. Admittedly, it’s not the best of its kind, but that doesn’t make it any less fun and enjoyable.
Then it was time for a good Intamin… or rather, just an Intamin—forget the “good,” because we’re talking about Skull Mountain, the park’s second indoor coaster. Some effort has been made with the theming—at least on the outside, because inside there’s nothing but darkness. And “some” effort, because the whole facade still looks quite flat. It’s a family coaster that doesn’t really do anything noteworthy. Combined with zero theming or effects inside, the comparison to Crazy Bats at Phantasialand comes up quickly—though thankfully this Skull Mountain is much shorter.
After a short break to fill our stomachs with a slice of pizza, we got in line for Harley Quinn Crazy Train, a classic Zierer Tivoli. So far, we had been lucky with the lines—there weren’t many people in the park, on a Sunday, no less. We did have to wait a bit here because the ride had a short breakdown, but luckily it was quickly resolved. Choo-choo-ba and another credit—at least for my friends.
Their next credit was right next door, a ride I already had and wisely chose to avoid like the plague this time. Joker is an S&S Freespin coaster, and I feel a bubbling hatred rise whenever this type of ride comes up. I have no idea what others find fun about it—the complete unpredictability of which way you’ll spin, the lack of any real elements that provide negative, positive, or lateral G-forces… These kinds of rides should’ve just been topspins.
Time for something more enjoyable, though still a ride where you don’t sit in a normal position. In Superman – Ultimate Flight, you lie down! It’s one of four clones, with two others located at Six Flags parks and another in China. Despite the many coasters I’ve done, I still feel a bit of nervousness on rides like this. With your full body weight resting on the harness, you start wondering things like “what if it opens?” and due to the flying position, you can only look down—at least until you reach the top. Not ideal for someone with a fear of heights. But the fun ultimately wins—the ride is a lot of fun. The pretzel loop is, of course, the highlight, pulling some serious G-forces. Vekoma may have perfected the flying coaster by now, but the B&M flyers still hold their own quite well.
Ten coasters done—we could almost smell the bingo! Well… for a moment, at least. Because when we tried to ride Runaway Mine Train (the park’s Arrow mine train), we found it closed. No movement at all in the station, and we got the feeling it just wasn’t going to open today. A bit of research told us that the ride had already been down the entire day before, so we let go of any hope of riding it.
We continued walking, because tucked away in a corner of the park is Medusa, a B&M floorless coaster. On my last visit, it was still painted purple and called Bizarro. Unfortunately, I had trouble closing the restraint here—but luckily, this coaster has big boy seats. So I moved over, pulled the restraint down, and fastened the seatbelt. However, the restraint hadn’t locked in place yet—I never heard it click. This made me think it wasn’t secured at all… When I mentioned this to the operator doing the restraint check, they said the seatbelt would be enough to keep me in place.
Hey ho… I rode the entire ride thinking my restraint hadn’t locked and that I was fully relying on just those little seatbelts. I have to admit, it definitely added a serious fear factor to the ride. When we hit the final brake run, I wanted to see what would happen if I unbuckled the belts—would the restraint immediately fly open?! Nope—it turned out the restraint had been locked properly all along. I had just been too quick with pulling it down and fastening the belts. Luckily! Aside from that, it was just a fun ride. You can say a lot about B&M floorless coasters, but I’ve honestly never been on one that wasn’t fun.
Under the motto “save the best for last,” we finished our coaster hunt with El Toro. Since Kingda Ka was demolished, this is now truly the flagship ride of Great Adventure. I don’t remember exactly what went wrong, but we had an issue with the lockers there. I volunteered to stay with the bags while the others tackled this beast. After all, I had already ridden it once, and their hunger for the ride was greater than mine. They came off unanimously raving about it—and then it was someone else’s turn to take over backpack duty.
El Toro is still just as I remember: pure wildness! It pounds hard and feels like it doesn’t lose any speed. The first half delivers buckets of airtime over hills that aren’t exactly small, followed by some fast turns and more airtime hills. Leaving aside some debatable RMC coasters, this is simply my favorite pure wooden coaster. El Toro has it all and throws you each way possible. Admittedly, you have to be able to take a beating. El Toro isn’t smooth, but that actually adds something to the ride—wooden coasters should definitely be a bit wilder in that regard. It’s certainly not painful. But wow, what a beast. I wish Intamin would jump back into the wooden coaster market…
Needless to say, we opted for a few extra rides on El Toro. After that, we took a few rerides on other coasters, including Flash. Some of us wanted to do the log flume. Personally, I wasn’t so keen, well aware of how wet water rides can be in America. And my experience proved me right—my friends came out soaked.
One ride I really wanted to try, one I regretted not doing on my previous visit, was Houdini’s Great Escape. One of only two madhouses in the United States. We know this type of ride from Villa Volta (Efteling), Hex (Alton Towers), and Houdini’s Magische Huis (Bellewaerde). This one here—and its clone at Six Flags New England—shares not only the theme and story but also the same year of construction as Bellewaerde’s madhouse. No coincidence, as Bellewaerde was just acquired by Premier Parks (the then-owners of the Six Flags group) and must have made a very good deal with Vekoma at the time. Three madhouses were built in 1999, one in 2000 for Six Flags Holland, and another in 2001 for Six Flags Belgium.
For me, it’s been just a little too long ago to make a full comparison with Bellewaerde’s Houdini, but the story felt the same. Not that you could enjoy it properly, because the operations here were cringe-worthy. There weren’t even that many people in line, yet it became the longest wait of the day. That was partly due to the very slow pace of the staff—two employees were present to load the attraction, but only one was actually making an effort. She was busy helping a group with disabled people, while the other staff member just stood there with his hands on his hips, watching and loafing around.
When they finally started with the regular queue, the preshow had already started. The preshow starts the moment they open the line and let people in, which basically ruins the few storytelling elements the ride has. But the poor operations don’t end there—oh no—because here too, you’re not allowed to bring backpacks with you. Guests have to walk through all the benches to the exit to put their backpacks in the designated lockers. The result? People have to squeeze back through the benches, past others without bagpacks who have already sat down.
In the end, the madhouse also was only half full—efficient work, you could say. Again, strange people, these Americans. So, we ended up waiting way too long and endured dumb and illogical operations for what turned out to be a mediocre madhouse. Looking back, it just wasn’t worth it.
Because it was so quiet, we finished quicker than expected. That gave us the chance to leave a bit earlier than closing time, which was definitely welcome for me as the driver, since we still had several thousand kilometers to cover on our trip—which was just getting started.
We had a great day at Great Adventure. From what I experienced I wouldn't dare to call it a park in decline; it looked fine overall. Admittedly, with the indoor coasters you could notice the lack of effects, but that’s only a minor downside. The operations were slower than what we’re used to here in Europe, but that seemed to be the standard throughout our American trip. Otherwise, the staff was very friendly.
Even without Kingda Ka, the park still has plenty of other top rides that make a visit worthwhile. El Toro leading the way, but also the new Flash is definitely a coaster you want to ride, as is the Jersey Devil Coaster. Coasters like Medusa, Superman, and Nitro never disappoint either. I’m looking forward to Kingda Ka’s replacement, but for now, another visit is not planned for the coming years.