[Six Flags Great Adventure] Trip Report Saturday May 2nd, 2026
I was in Philadelphia for work Sun-Tues and decided to come in a couple days early to get some time at Great Adventure on Saturday.
After reviewing my options (Uber? Train+Uber, etc.), I ended up just renting a car and then booking a hotel about a half hour away. (By the way, how does Great Adventure have no close hotels? Everything is at least 25 minutes away it seems).
After the hour drive from the Philadelphia airport, I got in to my hotel around 10pm on Friday night.
I woke up early enough and got to the park by about 9:45 for the 10:30am opening time. I was expecting a fairly high crowd for the first Saturday in May. The temps were a bit low, with highs expected in the low 60s but a low chance of rain. I knew going in that Batman and Superman were expected to be closed all day, which was a bummer as that would complete the set for both of them for me, but I guess I'll just have to come back.
I was able to use my Diamond Membership for the preferred parking (great location and well worth it here) and got first in line at the gates after going through security.
After a short wait, I got scanned in and lined up in front as we waited for them to fully let us into the park. My plan was to get to Flash right away and head to the back of the park to get on Jersey Devil.
There were a good handful of track stars, but I power walked to Flash and was able to get in quickly. I had a small bag with me that fit in the pass-through lockers and lined up for the second train of the day.
Unfortunately, they were unable to launch the first train. I'm going to chalk this up to early season ops training. They had to release the riders to the exit. As soon as the engineering ops got there, they were able to cycle and test the train easily. The 1st train riders got back on and I was able to get my ride right after.
This ride was really good and exceeded my expectations. The airtime in the back row on the hangtime after the reverse launch was great. A lot of really good moments, some sweet hang time on the stalled immelman over the station and just generally a fun ride. The one train is unfortunate and the wait for this was long all day.
I was pretty worried/annoyed at the half hour after the delay on Flash as I was hoping to knock out some rides quickly before the park started filling out more.
Afterwards, I headed to Jersey Devil. I was ready for it, but still unfortunate that I had to rent a locker for my small bag on this ride. Thankfully, all I had was a quick station wait before I was able to get on the back seat for this ride. I have to say that it's unfortunate that the reviews for this ride were pretty accurate. I got my first single rail ride on Wonder Woman at MM back in December and that is a much better ride. The straddle seating is a bit uncomfortable for me, but the way there is no speed in the back half of the ride and none of the elements have any punch is pretty disappointing.
After riding, I got in line for a re-ride to confirm my thoughts, but it broke down immediately and I decided to head to Nitro instead.
Nitro was another station wait and as a wise man once said, "You can't go wrong with a B&M Hyper." Nitro is certainly in the back half of my favorite B&M Hypers which is still a very good ride. The drop is good, and I got a lot of sustained floater on that second camelback after the turn. The helix packs a nice little bit of punch and some good airtime on the hills on the way back. I decided to re-ride here since the line was so short in the early part of the day here. I'd say it was running a little slow with it being morning and a bit cold, but still a really good one.
After the couple rides on Nitro, Jersey Devil was back up and running so I got my second ride here. Unfortunately it was the same story. Some okay forces at the beginning but that back half is just a slog. I wanted to like this ride more and also prove the reviews of it wrong, but there was just no shot.
Afterwards, I headed to Skull Mountain nearby as there was a short wait. It was a fun little indoor ride with some minor, but cool theming in line. A little bit uncomfortable as an adult, but overall nice and a good addition to the lineup.
I tried to head to Dark Knight next, but it was closed (the app said it was a 15 minute wait).
Instead, I headed to Joker where I was also informed I couldn't bring any bags with me and had to head to my locker. The $10 for the all day locker isn't the worst, but it's a bit annoying and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to find out which rides I can't bring anything into the queue and which rides have lockers or cubbies, etc. I was a bit surprised that Joker was a "no bags in line at all" ride but I get it has low capacity and they want to speed up loading.
I got some strong flipping right at the start of Joker, but I don't think I flipped a single time afterwards. The location right next to the water is nice here at least (even if I was on the side facing the park).
After Joker, I looked at the app and it showed me that El Toro was down, which made me a bit anxious as that was the ride I was looking forward to most. I figured I would head that way though and check it out. As I passed El Toro, I saw that it was running with people on it, despite what the app was saying. I figured I could get Medusa and the Mine Train and make El Toro my 175th credit afterwards.
Medusa was a pure walk on where I was able to double tap as the row in front of me was empty as I was getting off my first ride in the back. And I was really impressed with the ride itself. Butter smooth with a lot of fun elements, good drop and overall good pacing.
Runaway Mine Train was just a station wait as well. This was definitely one of the better mine trains I've ridden and really lives up to it's name. Not the best ride, but a good one.
Finally, I made it to El Toro. One train ops were pretty rough, and the ops themselves were really slow. The lead op on the mic was doing a good job of trying to push people through, but you could tell there was training happening and checking restraints was really, really slow. The ride itself was great, though. I can only imagine what that ride would have felt like when it opened and before RMC changed the game on what you could expect from a coaster. El Toro felt a lot like a sibling to many RMCs, but with an out-of-control speed element all the way through. The ejector on the camelbacks after the drop may have been the strongest ejector I've felt. Really tough to compare to Steel Vengeance, Gwazi, AF1. Great, either way. I felt a little bit of roughness, maybe, but nothing I would complain about.
I took a short break to grab a drink and sit down, before getting back onto El Toro for a second go around. Line was about 40 minutes at this point and the ride was just as good as the first time.
Next, I wanted to grab the last credits that were open as well as a couple re-rides. I got on Harley Quinn Crazy Train which was actually a nice family coaster. I expect it's normal (but maybe not?) but we got two circuits on it and it's another nice family ride.
I skipped Lil' Devil Coaster because I don't want the credits that badly but I got on Dark Knight to complete all the open coasters. Great America is my home park and while I'm not a huge fan of the ride there, it feels like the theming was lacking at Great Adventure. There was only about a 10-15 minute wait so I skipped through some of the rooms, but it felt like it was missing some of the theming at GrAm. The ride itself also felt like it was missing some of the effects, although I know Six Flags didn't really break the bank for theming on either ride.
It was about 4:30 at this point and I was ready to grab a couple last re-rides and head home.
There was a short wait for Nitro, and then I was able to use my one-time fast pass on Flash, which was up to a 95 minute wait. I purely walked on with the fast pass, which felt like cheating, but I got another ride and it definitely feels like a good one. I wish the capacity was more because it's a pretty good ride.
My totals:
- 16 Rides
- 10 total coasters
- 3x on Nitro
- 2x on Jersey Devil
- 2x on Medusa
- 2x on El Toro
- 2x on Flash
My overall thoughts is that it was a fun park. It felt pretty small. The ops were medium, although it definitely felt like they were trying. I had a few good conversations with some of the ride ops, and could tell some of them were having fun (shout out again to the ride ops on El Toro). I got a lot of compliments on my SteVe hat and my Knott's hoodie. It definitely feels like there is a lot more potential here than what's there right now. I'm sure the loss of Kingda Ka and Green Lantern play a part in that. (I also forgot that Green Lantern got axed along with Kingda Ka until about halfway through my day when I felt like I was missing something).
I'm looking forward to coming back on a trip in the future when the Purple Project is completed because that ride seems nuts.