Six Flags Great Adventure

I'm moving to NJ this summer with an 8 and 6 year old. I've heard in the past the Six Flags Great Adventure is overrun with problems. Is this a safe park for kids? Is the park clean? I'd love to take a ride on Kingda Ka but I'm wondering what the environment is like. Please advise.

> Is this a safe park for kids?

It's no differant than the outside world, just like every other park. If you can keep track of your little ones, you'll be fine.

> I'm moving to NJ this summer with an 8 and 6 year old. I've
> heard in the past the Six Flags Great Adventure is overrun
> with problems. Is this a safe park for kids? Is the park
> clean? I'd love to take a ride on Kingda Ka but I'm
> wondering what the environment is like. Please advise.

ok..that's great to hear...so no gangs hanging out in the park? I used to hear a lot of bad comments from this board.

> ok..that's great to hear...so no gangs hanging out in the
> park? I used to hear a lot of bad comments from this board.

As a New Jerseyite I find it distressing that people listen to over hyped, whacked out descriptions of anything in the NY/NJ/PA area. SFGAdv is as safe as any venue in the Metro area and probably has the best looking grounds of all, while everyone envisions anyplace around here as a cement city, SFGAdv is actually an oasis in the Garden State. I hope this gives you some more fuel to think about.

Ed

It seemed safe enough to us when we visited over a couple of days 7 months ago. I was completely blown away by its massive size, though. It is huge and feels as such (especially trekking back to Superman). I call it the Cedar Point of the East.
And on crowded days, there's a sea of people!

Great, great park. This is the park I want to revisit MOST.

MommaBeast, who felt safe with her 10, 13, and 15 year old

> I'm moving to NJ this summer with an 8 and 6 year old. I've
> heard in the past the Six Flags Great Adventure is overrun
> with problems. Is this a safe park for kids? Is the park
> clean? I'd love to take a ride on Kingda Ka but I'm
> wondering what the environment is like. Please advise.

> ok..that's great to hear...so no gangs hanging out in the
> park? I used to hear a lot of bad comments from this board.

To answer your first question is the park safe for kids. Yes...it's very safe. I would let my own children(if I had any)roam freely though the park, put a hundred bucks in their pockets, tell them to try their luck at some games; "I'm going to ride coasters...sorry you're too short." However the park may not be safe for adults. Gangs of young Freaks from NJ, NYC,& Philly arrive en masse on weekends. I've had to see fat girls with blonde dredlocks walking around with their guts hanging out & smelt marijuana burning while I waiting in life for coasters & waited behind men that have drunken enough alcohol to have it oozing out of their pores. You may encounter "line jumpers" but all you have to do is speak up....don't take any static from those buggers. When you see them approach...hold your ground, grab the hand rails and demand money if they want to get by. Whatever ammount you think is fair. Don't wear any gang colors: red, blue, purple, black & gold, white, or silver. You can't go wrong with some sort of Hawaiian motif with cargo shorts. Also, travel light, you wouldn't want to have somthing stolen on the ride platform. They'll do it. So no sandals. Try black S.W.A.T. boots. You'll need something proven and able to handle the massive amount of trash you're going to be walking through. I heard a rumor that GADV donated their trash cans to SFA in Maryland so it may get more messy than in the past. I have found out the hard way that the locals DO NOT like "fanny-packs." Just dont't wear one. No worrys, though. Don't forget the sun-screen and Mace. Go to have fun and you'll have a blast.

Andy_South

yea....they even now started PAINTING the asphalt path blue, so you can hardly realize that they took the "cheap way out" on the paths.

Maybe he over-done blue paint on the paths makes it feel like an "oasis in NJ"???

The place does attract "undesirable" patrons, but not unsafe, just unpleasant.

> I'm moving to NJ this summer with an 8 and 6 year old. I've
> heard in the past the Six Flags Great Adventure is overrun
> with problems. Is this a safe park for kids? Is the park
> clean? I'd love to take a ride on Kingda Ka but I'm
> wondering what the environment is like. Please advise.

Thanks for your comments....I'm still chuckling from Andy South's comments..I think i'm ready to dive in at SFGADV

I just found this board, and this is my first post. Hi all!:)

In response to your question, I've been to Six Flags Great Adventure , Great America(near Chicago) and St. Louis. I had the most pleasant time at Great Adventure. It was the cleanest and everyone had their shirts on. The crowds are lighter in the middle of the week, so I play hooky from work.

> I just found this board, and this is my first post. Hi
> all!:)

Welcome to URC! I went to Great Adventure for the first time 7 months ago and I fell in love with the park! I want to revisit soooo bad! I'm from Indiana and travelling that far isn't too feasible for me right now. But I will get back to that park.
LOVE THAT NITRO!

> In response to your question, I've been to Six Flags Great
> Adventure , Great America(near Chicago) and St. Louis. I
> had the most pleasant time at Great Adventure. It was the
> cleanest and everyone had their shirts on. The crowds are
> lighter in the middle of the week, so I play hooky from
> work.

I've also been to the above parks you mentioned, as well as others. I really like the one in St. Louis, too; reminds me of a giant state fair.

Thanks for posting and come back often!
MommaBeast

Wouldn't it be nice if instead of wasitng all this money on a gimmick they could invest some of this wasted capital into getting Rolling Thunder into proper condition for once in how may years??!!!!!!!!! It really pisses me off that they waste so much money on this JUNK when they negelect their wooden coasters. EVERY SIX FLAGS PARK NEGLECTS THEIR WOODIES.

There's not a Six Flags park that takes care of their wooden coasters. New England and Cyclone is rotting. Rolling Thunder is affectionately known as Rotting Lumber, Cyclone looks like a piece of S&it, Colossus looks like it's about to fall over...It breaks my heart to see the condition Colossus is in now a days. That coaser was a sight to behold in its opening days. Yet they can justify wasting money on crap like X and Kingda Ka vs. getting the classics back in shape????. KEEP EM!!!!!!!

You can have your X's you can have your Nitros.....keep the CLASSICS in shape!

I LOVE Superman Ultimaite Flight but truth be told, I'd have rathered that money go into restoring Rolling Thunder into what it opened as rather than a new coaster.
TAKE CARE OF THE EXISTING COASTERS. I find this 'coaster war' of the highest and fastest a total waste of money when they've can spend this money on better things.

I could give toss if a drop is 456 feet...TAKE CARE OF WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE!!!
I Won't be lining up for Kingda Ka.....it's a JOKE! Give me Rolling Thunder in proper working order ANY DAY nand I'm happy. Whioe we're at it, Medusa can stand a new paint job. Crissake.....

Will I ride Kingda Ka.. Not on your life!!!! Give me a well taken care of Rolling Thunder....Rollig Thunder is a far better ride than Kinga Ka can EVER hope to be.

I'm not impressed by size! They can shove it!

I know the vast majority of you will disagree with me...this is my opinion. Newer and bigger does not equate with better, necessarily.

Coasterdude02149

> There's not a Six Flags park that takes care of their
> wooden coasters.

I'd have to disagree with you. There are some that do a pretty good job of taking care of their woodies.

Six Flags Great America comes immediately to mind. Viper has been, and remains, awesome!! And the American Eagle gave me some very good rides when I've been there.

Six Flags St. Louis also gave some very good rides for me on their coasters. Yeah, I'm one of the wierdos that enjoyed the Boss. And Screaming Eagle gave us a good ride. One friend that was with us and goes there fairly often told us they've been taking much better care of it lately.

And I haven't heard to many complaints about the wood coasters at SFoG either. While I think we caught them on a bad day last summer (partially because I have a hard time enjoying a coaster my kids aren't), I constantly hear how much others enjoy them.

Heck, even SFKK takes pretty good care of their wood. It's not like they can help the crappy g-trains on Twisted Twins and their lack of ability to track well. And Thunder Run is just an awesome little ride.

And SFMW's Roar has always given me great rides- smooth and fun. And that's been over several years of riding it now.

So seems like I found several examples that would disagree with your overall statement there.

However, I'll certainly agree that SFMM has left theirs to rot, which is just sad. I would absolutely love to see them put some money and effort into getting it back into shape. But that's not a wood problem, that's a park problem. See, for further examples, Revolution, Flashback, the monorail, the observation tower, Jet Streamer, etc., etc.

> I know the vast majority of you will disagree with
> me...this is my opinion. Newer and bigger does not equate
> with better, necessarily.

I don't think you're going to find much disagreement there. Most of us don't fall for the "bigger or newer = better", and we'd all love to see them take better care of what they have. But it's not all parks that are doing that. And I have certainly seen a concerted effort over the last couple of years in many of the Six Flags parks to put some money back into their parks infrastructure. And that's a good thing.

But keep in mind to, that without new attractions of some sort, many people won't bother to visit the parks. It's what helps to draw them in. So a balance of both needs to be done. But balance is the key, and that's been ignored in to many cases.