Lets kick this off with the biggest hype factor surrounding the park this year, the Jersey Devil Coaster. This ride will be what many people consider the first "real" roller coaster for the park since Green Lantern opened in 2011 and no ladies and gentlemen this is not another El Diablo trick where they call a simple loop a coaster. This is going to be a bonafide monster of a ride when construction completes. According to Six Flags Great Adventure's website, the ride is going to feature a 130 foot hill that will end in an 87 degree drop. Other features of the ride include a 180 degree stall and roll as well as several other inversions. The rides max speed right now is stated at 58 miles per hour. You may be thinking Six Flags already has coasters that are bigger, faster, and have more inversions than this so why is it special? Well friends, in typical Six Flags fashion, the park is aiming once again for biggest, fastest, and longest for their new ride. The ride is going to achieve all three of these thanks to one super important detail that I have left out. The ride is a monorail coaster. The trains travel on a single rail and rides sit single file in the trains. So there will be no grabbing onto your friend as you scream in sheer terror. Upon completion, Jersey Devil will be the worlds tallest, fastest, and longest single rail roller coaster. Riders are beyond hyped already, but also a little skeptical.
The biggest concern seems to be related to the ride's completion date and the ride's capacity. The ride went vertical just a few days ago. The season kicks off in less than a month, so it is super apparent that the ride will not be ready to go for that. When will it open? The last two years have not been the kindest to new rides at this park. Last year, Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth opened on May 23rd, but it was maligned with frequent breakdowns and down time through much of the first half of the season at least. It wasn't until sometime in the summer that I saw the ride routinely running. The year before debuted Cyborg: Cyber Spin which opened on June 17, 2017. It was a very short lived opening as it spent a chunk of the summer on wooden blocks as something had apparently gone very wrong with the hydraulics or something as the arms connecting the seats to the ride itself were removed for a chunk of time. The ride did better after whatever repairs or changes were made. That has some people around here questioning when this ride will actually open. Personally I feel that the ride will open sometime in late June or July. It's a massive project yes, but this year Six Flags has not had to contend with any snow. If watching the speed in which the Tron roller coaster is going up a Disney World is any indication, a roller coaster can go up quite quick, especially one that doesn't have any show buildings. Honestly I think a July 4th weekend opening would draw insane crowds, but we shall see!
Capacity wise it's going to be interesting to see what happens. The ride is going to have four trains that my guess is will hold ten to twelve people per train. How many trains they have out at once and the speed in which they are able to load and unload are going to be major, major factors on the capacity of this ride. Over the last couple years Six Flags Great Adventure has been really good about getting people on and off rides. While wait times are still long, it's not like years past where people were just lumbering onto the rides and doing five other things before sitting down. The staff has been pretty diligent about that. I've got a feeling there are going to be days that it runs better than others, but I expect this line to be quite long considering rides like Nitro fit more than 5 people in a row and the wait times for that still exceed 45 minutes, and that's an older ride now.
While Jersey Devil is certainly going to be the main attraction, the Safari is going to be getting some awesome new animals that I for one am super excited to see. One of these animals is a ferret. Okay, not the most exciting I admit, but from there we have the Patagonian Cavy which is a rodent from South America that looks like a cross between a rabbit, guinea pig, and a capybara. Next we have the American Kestrel, which is the smallest species of falcon found in North America. Then we move to the Great Horned Owl which will certainly be an impressive bird to see as well. If I had to guess all of these animals are going to be found at Camp Adventura which acts as the midway rest stop for guests on the safari. Here guests are able to see a variety of reptiles, birds, and mammals. There is also food and a zipline at the camp as well as one of the coolest things in the park, the ability to hand feed a giraffe. The last animal though is, I would guess, not going to be at the camp and that is a cheetah! The safari already had multiple big cats in the form of lions and several different types of tigers, and I think the cheetah is going to round out the big cats incredibly well.
Okay so now that we know what's new, lets look at when the park opens. In April the park is open weekends and the entire week of the 14th for spring break. From there it will open on Fridays in addition to the weekends until May 14th when it will start opening on Thursdays as well. Starting May 25th, the park will be open daily though hours will greatly vary through the weeks until you get closer to summer. Fright Fest will kick off on September 11th this year with Fridays and Saturdays seeing the park open till midnight. The park will remain open on weekends and most of the week of November 3rd. It's looking like Holiday in the Park will kick off on November 14th and run as usual until January 1st. Check Six Flags website for when the event is going on other than just weekends because there are a few other random days and winter break sprinkled in as well.
Now the biggie, what do the prices look like for season passes and memberships this year. Well, as always seems to be the case, Six Flags currently has a promotion going on for season passes and memberships. For all the details on what memberships and season passes entail as well as current pricing at Six Flags Great Adventure click here! This will be my second season as a member. Last year Six Flags ran an opening weekend sale that was lifetime Platinum Membership for the cost of a Gold. What that means is that I am currently paying the price of Gold which is about $7 a month and getting the benefits of the Platinum (which is about $10 a month). I have no idea if the park will be running the same sale this year or not, so keep an eye on that link I put up. My feedback on the membership is that it is 100% worth it. Even at $10 a month, the Platinum membership pays for itself super quick and the added benefits of things like free drinks all season, free parking, 15% off food and 25% off most other things, and a ton of coupons and special events make it worth it over a season pass for me. That said, if you only plan on visiting the park twice in the year, the season pass may still be better due to the fact that you will not be able to get the most out of all the added benefits.
There are still multiple levels of membership that come at a range of prices. All of the prices of the monthly payments appear to be the same as last year and are Gold at $6.99, Platinum at $9.50, Diamond at $12.50, and Diamond Elite at $18.49. As you may expect discounts and benefits increase as the price increases. Last year a couple of the added benefits of Diamond and Diamond Elite were the ability to ride Wonder Woman Lasso of truth before anyone else, including other members and season pass holders. Diamond and Diamond Elite members also gained their own park entrances to greatly speed up getting into the park. Which membership is right for you will depend on your wallet, how often you visit, and what you do at the park. As always the option of adding on the dining plan is also available to members and season pass holders.
Phew that's a lot of information there. Again, please click the link above. The prices I placed in this blog are what was listed at the time of typing and will not be updated once the blog has been posted. I do not represent Six Flags in anyway so if the prices on the website are updated soon please do not tar and feather me or call Six Flags because they have no idea I even exist outside of the fact I'm a member. Alright, so what would I like to see this year? Really just continued little improvements for the most part.
Wish List for 2020
Fresh paint for Nitro. Superman Ultimate Flight got one last season, with Jersey Devil being built next door, it'd be great to see Nitro shining again as well.
Repainted/paved parking lot. Over the past two years Six Flags has improved safety for pedestrians and paved a portion of the lot. There is still a lot to go though and having actual directional arrows painted and clear parking spots would also help tremendously.
Breakfast options. Yes the park doesn't open till late morning, but with the all day breakfast craze going around I'm still surprised the park removed all breakfast outside of pork roll and cheese a couple years back.
Remove or repaint the blue line. Two years ago the park painted a blue line from the pretty much the fountain all the way to the safari. It was all for a Dr. Scholls ad so it has no real importance other than leading people to the safari. Last year it greatly deteriorated and just looks bad.
Bring back Unleashed with Dead Man's Party: Pretty self explanatory. Both Fright Fest shows should make a return. Both have been incredible for years.
Replace the glass. The glass on the backside of the wild walkway that allows guests to see into the alligator and random animal exhibits are in serious need of fixing. Now that the path between El Toro and King da Ka has reopened, this should be a thing that happens because it's one of the parks biggest eyesores.
Continue to care. The past couple of years I've noticed a big shift in supervisors around the park actually caring about what is going on. If I've had a complaint they're on it trying to make it right and they legit seemed super happy to hear positive feedback as well. Keep trying to strive for better and the park can only improve. Now get the food staff some better training.
That's about it really. I'm not asking for anything crazy this year. The biggest things I could have asked for I already got in more animals and a new actual roller coaster. The 2020 season for Six Flags is looking like it is going to be quite interesting. With Spring seemingly here, or super close by, it could be a real big year for the park and I cannot wait to get back on that property. December feels like forever ago and I need to work on my Justice League score and perhaps challenge a few more rides this year! Thanks as always for reading. Expect a return to Disney and the next blog real soon!
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