Scream Break Review

    Hello everyone and welcome back! So my first Scream Break experience is now behind me and after some time to digest my experience I have to say that I actually really enjoyed myself. I am going to be going again tomorrow night and I will be making more of a point to take pictures of what is going on as on my first venture I decided to just enjoy it and experience it. So what did I like and what didn't I like? Read on to find out!

     Getting my wrist band for the event was super easy. The wrist bands were being given out at Six Flags Universe (gift shop). The main park closed at 8pm and by 8:15pm the Scream Break festivities began. Prior to the event starting I asked a staff member (supervisor) who was helping to construct the dance party stage about the attractions at the event. I was told that the Extreme Attractions (The Great American Road Race, Slingshot, and Dare Devil Dive) would still be an additional fee, but the two haunted houses (The Manor and Fears) would be included with the event admission. Once the event started though a different scenario was at play as all attractions ended up being included at no extra fee. To me that was incredible as I can never turn down free go karts. Fears and The Manor are what they always have been, unfortunately two of the weaker haunted Great Adventure offerings, but it was still nice to experience a bit of spooky in early April.

    It look a little bit for some of the activities to get started. I got through the two houses and go karts pretty quickly thanks to the limited crowd and found myself wandering towards the scream break fright zone only to find it merely a path with purple and green lights on leading towards Kingda Ka. Well after a bit of time had passed I went back over there and was please so see fog had taken over the path and heard legitimate screaming coming from within. This second trip over there was much better as several scream break ghouls were scaring unsuspecting guests. It was also nice to hear the scream of a chainsaw in the area as well. Felt more like a traditional Fright Fest scare zone than Fright Fest scare zones have been the past couple years (largely due to lack of fog and lighting). I do wonder if they will consider turning that path into a scare zone for Fright Fest as it worked surprisingly well. 

    I couldn't help myself in trying out a couple of the Scream Break food items. I had a buffalo (the animal) sausage sandwich and a funnel cake complete with gummy worms, chocolate soft serve, strawberry sauce, and powdered sugar. The food was actually really good all around. I like my sausage sandwich plan, but options for either peppers and onions or coleslaw were also available. To my surprise the sausage was cooked right in front of me on a portable grill as opposed to just being pulled out of some hot box like I was expecting. All that said, both food items were very much so overpriced and the way the pop up food stand for the sausage was set up did not allow for any dining plan or membership discounts. So, tasty, but won't be getting it again for tomorrow's round two. 

    The dance party was ongoing in the end of the boardwalk area near the path to Kingda ka and where Twister operates. I LOVE the fact that they did some basic maintenance on Twister by the way. I did not hear the ride making that awful squeak/screech as it came to a stop once. Even if it's just a bunch of WD-40, I am happy they did something to help the old ride out. The dance party itself had a fine selection of party music, but I honestly would have liked to hear some remixes of Halloween songs or something to keep that spooky party vibe going. There were ghouls hanging around the party too. Hilariously, they are all dressed in Hawaiian shirts drinking out of skulls. Pretty funny considering I'm so used to seeing the various Fright Fest costumes. They were all great. Some meandered among the guests happily before doing something creepy while others just stood and waited for an attempted jump scare. Kind of cool to have that not sure what is behind you feeling while just listening to some party music. 

    So for a quick wrap up. Yes! I do think that for passholders this event is 100% worth it. For non passholders it very well could be depending on what you plan on doing. If your plan is to ride the coasters at night, then no it's probably not worth it as the majority of them are closed during the event. That said, if you plan on hitting all the extreme attractions plus the two haunted houses, then honestly it's cheaper to do Scream Break for those things, as opposed to buying a day pass plus all the upcharges for those attractions during a regular day. The trade off again though is that the majority of the park is closed, so as to whether or not it is worth it for people without a pass is hard to say outright. Personally I had a real good time despite the freezing cold weather and am very much looking forward to a warmer experience tomorrow! I'll do another blog with my final thoughts on Scream Break (with some pictures) soon so stay tuned!   

Scream Break Comes to Six Flags Great Adventure

    Tomorrow will mark my very first Scream Break at Six Flags Great Adventure! For those who do not know, Scream Break is a limited capacity event that will be taking place after the park closes at Six Flags Great Adventure and other Six Flags parks around the country. Scream Break is actually a sort of miniature Fright Fest, so naturally I am pretty excited to get a dose of spooky at the start of the season as well as during the fall. So what is Scream Break and is it going to be worth it. The following are my initial thoughts on it.

    Being a limited capacity event, you can either reserve a ticket online or walk up and purchase one when you arrive. Scream Break is free to pass holders, but a limited number of pass holder slots are available, otherwise the event for non passholders is $40. Seems like a reasonable price for an evening of chills and thrills from 8pm till 11pm right? Normally I'd say yes, but lets look deeper shall we. Unlike Fright Fest, the park is not fully open during Scream Break. In fact, the only portions of the park that will be open is The Boardwalk section and the Kingda Ka area of The Golden Kingdom. So this means that you attendees will not be getting to experience the usual decor and layout of the park's Fright Fest. In fact, there is no advertisements of decorations at all, which makes sense considering Great Adventure has not really decorated The Boardwalk in recent years and The Golden Kingdom historically has not really participated in Fright Fest (minus a terror trail being there). 

    While it does not sound like there will be too much in the way spooky decorations, Six Flags does advertise that there will be a Spring Break Zombie Scare Zone. I'll find out what that entails tomorrow when I go, but I hope it is more than just a few scare actors wandering around with no decoration or theming to be seen at all. There will, however, be a Scream Break Dance Party. Now don't go getting things confused. I didn't type Dead Man's Party for a reason. It's not going to be a dance party like that as it sounds more like it's going to be a dance party for the attendees that the ghouls/zombies will be intermingling in. I could be wrong, but I will certainly not complain hopefully hearing some good Halloween party dance music. Six Flags is also advertising fog, spooky lighting, and spooky music during the event. I'd hope so.

    So what's open? I mentioned the areas that will be open, but what about the rides? Well a select number of rides and attractions will be open during this event. The good news is that there does appear to be a little something for almost everyone. Superman Ultimate Flight, The Green Lantern, Twister, Dare Devil Dive, Sling Shot, Great American Road Race, and Kingda Ka will all be open. I am hoping with this being a limited capacity event that the extra fees for Sling Shot, Great American Road Race, and Dare Devil Dive will be dropped or even removed. I did have a Six Flags online support member tell me that they will still be there normal extra fee, but people close to the park seem to have been told other things. If not this means that four rides are available to ride without having to pay an additional fee. In addition to the rides and dance party will be two haunted houses. Both The Manor and Fears will be open during the event. These too I have been told will be at an extra fee. I have also been told though by others close to the park that they will not be at an additional fee. Long story short here is that Six Flags has not actually said what the situation is with these attractions so it's just as possible they will be at an added fee as it is they will not be at an added fee. For non passholder sakes I'd hope they are included as Scream Break is a separate admission from the normal operating hours.

    So whether this event ends up being worth it in my opinion will end up coming down to the situation with the haunted houses and extreme attractions as they call them. If there are added fees for all of those I do think the price would be a bit rough and really the $40 is getting you a dance party and a nighttime ride on three coasters and Twister, all of which can be done at various points during the season. I've seen a lot of people commenting on social media that Scream Break (at other parks) is a scam with hidden fees. I'm guessing the hidden fees people refer to is the fact that certain attractions are listed as included, but are still pay to ride. I don't think I'd personally call it a scam though... Still, a taste of spooky during the spring is something I am greatly looking forward to. 

     As a passholder I'm not going to be paying anything additional to go to Scream Break, so if I decide to spend any money on attractions, I'm personally not going to feel shafted or scammed since the event is covered by my pass. While I don't have a ton of high hopes for this being a spectacular event, I am hopeful that it will still be a good time and I hope to see at least some people get a good scare. I would love to see the park do more limited capacity events during the year like this. Even if it does not include the whole park, different themed events gives me another reason to want to go. So with that said I will be at the park tomorrow night having a scary good time and ultimately making the experience what I make it, and that will be a fun time regardless of ride availability (also helps that I'm not a huge ride person anyway). 

    Scream break will run nightly from April 8th until April 15th from 8:00pm till 11:00pm. For tickets or to book your passholder reservation visit https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/events/scream-break .   

Six Flags Great Adventure Opening Weekend 2023 Review

    Trying to dust this thing off again. It's been two years since I've blogged at all, but I've come to miss it, so that being said I want to try to get more into it again. I'm going to be largely covering my home park, Six Flags Great Adventure and Hurricane Harbor, but I'll also keep tabs on what's going on in the Disney Parks should I find anything I want to throw my feelings out on. I don't know how active this blog will be, but as I said before, I have missed it, so I'd like to think I'll be fairly active again. So without going into a super long story about what's been going on the last two years, let's take a look at my thoughts on opening weekend at Six Flags Great Adventure 2023!

I'm going to divide this blog up into The Good and The Bad. Keep in mind that these are my thoughts so I may see something as good that you may not, so if you do have a different opinion I would love to hear it in the comments. This season should be an interesting one to say the least. Last year the CEO brought in a swath of changes that were met with well.... Lets just say a less than favorable response from the public. Attendance at the parks took a major hit across the board and Six Flags responded with a just a mess of different passes, way to pay for passes, and passes with nearly identical names that do different things. With a new season getting started and a lot of uncertainty still surrounding the future a very much so not ready to roll Six Flags Great Adventure Opened. 

The Good 

    Just because a park is not ready to roll doesn't mean all is bad. In fact a big part of why the park isn't quite ready to be running at 100% is something I've been harping on for years. Maintenance. In addition to El Toro's ongoing refurbishment it does appear that Runaway Train and the Saw Mill Log Flume are also undergoing some maintenance. Keep in mind that those are two of the oldest rides in the park so it's always good to hear work is being done on them. Both rides are probably opening over Memorial Day Weekend. Speaking of maintenance. Yum Yum Cafe debuted it's new menu and new internal look. The new layout I think looks much better than the old and it really is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do for a place. 

    

    Now for the food. The good news is I can say that it is an improvement over the old menu. The standard chicken tenders and burgers are there, but there are now a couple different options with the burger. They have a double cheeseburger now as well as bacon burgers. I went a bit of a healthier option but had a bit of the burger and it actually had a taste which is a massive change from previous seasons at Yum Yum Cafe. I'd say it was about the quality of a McDonalds burger. Still nothing special, but it's Six Flags, so the bar is not exactly high in the food quality department. My chicken Caesar wrap on the other hand was a refreshing flash back. Back in I'd say 2016 or so, there were several places in the park where you could get a chicken Caesar wrap and it was pretty good quality. I'm not sure if this wrap will be elsewhere this year, but the lettuce on the wrap was fresh and the parmesan was not the usual out of the bag shredded cheese. It appeared to be parmesan cheese crumbles. They tasked pretty good to me. I'll be visiting Yum Yum Cafe again should I decide to eat in the park. Good in a pinch, but more on the food situation later.

    Justice League Battle for Metropolis for whatever reason still has not been calibrated correctly in the absence of the 3-D glasses, but the first screen has been changed! Harley Quinn now appears on the ride on the first screen. The rest of the ride was the same, but that was a neat surprise addition. It was in pretty good working order too with just two effects not working (the mist screen which works like 30% of the time since the ride opened and the fire effect which didn't work most of last season). Fix the calibration or bring back the 3-D glasses and I think the ride would be fantastic.

    The Dark Knight was a completely different experience. The preshow is back! Well it's kind of back. It now runs as the doors are open, so you can watch it if you want to, but they have not gone back to locking you in the room and trying to scare you by banging something against a garbage can. Still neat to see it running again after it was turned off during the pandemic era. As we boarded the ride attendant asked if we were afraid of the dark and laughed. I've ridden this ride a ton of times. It's not that dark in there. Well.... This time it was pitch black. Minus the very first trick turn sign not a single light or set piece was on. It was honestly a pretty cool experience. Even knowing the track so well I was caught off guard with a couple of the sudden drops. I honestly won't complain if it stays that dark. It was a pretty cool experience.

    Along with maintenance I've been saying for a long time that some landscaping love would go a long way. Well, Great Adventure is starting to work on that. There are already a few newly landscaped areas and many areas of the park have nice fresh mulch where there probably hasn't been any in years. Some of it is kind of confusing at the moment like the picture below, but it's a start and I will take that! They also have a walk through garden in the works near Cyborg Cyber Spin (yup it's still there) which will look very nice once it's in bloom.

    While Nitro was not open, the new train and one of the newly painted trains are visible. This just further confirms that the ride is going to be getting either just a new paint job or a retheme/name. The trains were not on the track, but from what I can see, the new blue color looks very nice, but will probably look a bit odd on the currently rusted purple/yellow track the ride has now. Also, Zumanjaro Drop of Doom was open! I haven't seen that running since before Fright Fest and King Da Ka appeared to have it's usual early season difficulties in staying open.

The Bad

    On the flip side of The Dark Knight, Skull Mountain is looking really rough. There is a lot of light coming through at this point and when you are near the top of the lift hill you can see just a ton of siding falling apart on the upper right porting of the structure. The music and flashing lights remain off as well. The Dark Knight seems to have replaced Skull Mountain as the dark ride. The ride itself was fine, but the structure it's in is in desperate need of some love.

   

    The prices of food are a bit much at this point. I've eaten my fair amount of theme park food over the years and I completely understand that it's going to be expensive, but $16 for a slice of pizza seems a bit much. One of the burgers at Yum Yum Cafe was approaching $20. Again, I understand it's a theme park, but there is one problem that may be unique to Great Adventure. That is it's next door neighbor Adventure Crossing. Yes the megaplex continues to grow and expand. There is a bunch of food already there at standard food prices making it real hard for me to justify spending the money in the park. I suppose if someone is going to the park for a whole day it is what it is, but personally I would rather grab Taco Bell, Popeye's, and soon Carvel than a quesadilla, chicken strip, or ice cream at the park for twice the price. Again, that's more of a me thing, and yes I realize Six Flags probably doesn't care cause if they sell one order of chicken strips they've nearly made up the cost of the bag.

    In a bizarre move, the fountain is not running. Now work with me on this cause this has potential to be hilarious and awesome. There is currently a gigantic rubber duckie statue in the middle of the fountain and a bunch of rubber ducks just floating around. Problem with this is the fountain isn't running at all so the ducks all just end up where the wind blows. Would be awesome of there was some kind of current or even if the water was running as the big duck appears to have a fountain in it's mouth. We shall see if this changes, but not having the fountain outside of Holiday in the Park seems like an odd choice and the duck reminds me of Sesame Street. Just bizarre in it's current form, but long live the ducks!

    Overall I had a nice time at opening day 2023. The whole park is not open yet and will not be until sometime this summer when El Toro reopens. It will be great to have the whole place up and running again. Next week is supposed to be Scream Break, which is a super mini Fright Fest featuring two terror trails, select rides, and ghouls wandering the boardwalk area. I do want to point out the boardwalk has not been decorated for Fright Fest for the past few years.... Anyway... Sadly after we left Six Flags Great Adventure would come under a Tornado Warning. They would not open on Sunday due to damage in and around the park. I've heard rumblings that the confirmed tornado did in fact go through a part of the park, but so far the park nor the National Weather Service have confirmed that, but it does sound like there was at least some damage. I'm planning on going back this week (park is supposed to open Wednesday for Spring Break) so I guess I'll see what happened at that time. If it's anything noteworthy I'll be sure to discuss it. The 2023 season has kicked off in one of the most unexpected ways, but the park is mostly open for the year and I couldn't be happier to once again have somewhere to go, hang out, and most importantly, have fun!