Ultimate Guide to Six Flags Great Adventure: Tips, Rides & More for an Epic Visit! - Jump Traveling (2024)

Embark on an exhilarating journey through the captivating world of Six Flags Great Adventure, in New Jersey! From heart-pounding roller coasters to enchanting landscapes, this post unveils the secrets of this theme park gem. Join us as we delve into thrilling rides, explore immersive lands, and share essential tips for a truly unforgettable adventure. Get ready to experience the magic and excitement firsthand!

Preparing and Planning

If you do not own a car and live in New York City, I got great news for you. Me neither! So I am going to explain you what I did to get both transportation and tickets into the park.

• The first thing you are going to need to do is download the NJ Transit app.
• After creating your profile, you are going to buy the Special Promotion tickets for Six Flags Great Adventure, on the day before your trip, starting at 4:00 PM. But the tickets can also be sold at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in the morning of your trip.
• The 2 tickets with entry to Six Flags Great Adventure cost me $175.00, and this is how it would look like on the app when you buy them:

You can also opt for buying The Flash pass, which is like a Lighting Lane system, to skip the lines, and I did this for $180.00 for 2 passes. But, I will talk more about it and if you really need it.

On the way to the park

Had to wake up early on this Sunday, because the bus departed from Port Authority Bus Terminal at 9:30 AM. We got there and asked for the location of the gate, and it was on the second floor. By 9:10 AM the line was already long, and we were able to get in the second bus that arrived. The driver only SAW the 2 tickets without scanning and that was enought proof for him. Not too long after the bus got filled, it departed towards the Lincoln Tunnel and New Jersey.

Once on the bus, I was able to activate the actual Park Tickets on the NJ Transit App, and it showed something like this:

An hour or something later we arrived at Six Flags Great Adventure, literally in the middle of nowhere in New Jersey. We were drop off by the Main Entrance on this Bus Stop. The Return time was posted on these timetables attached to the pole, what it was not really clear at what time we could return here.

We asked the driver and all he said was, just check the website. Well, a problem to solve later I guess.

Entering the park

Finally in Six Flags Great Adventure, and my FIRST EVER time in any Six Flags. I had been to 6 Universal Parks and 9 Disney Parks around the world, but never to the closest one to my hometown of New York. The irony. But I had had Six Flags in my bucket list since 2022 and I was here now.

The NJ Transit Six Flags tickets worked perfectly and we got in fast, to a not too crowded (suspicious) Main Street.

First Stop: Carnival Land

I had done some small research on this park, not to the level I always do with Disney, but I still saw some videos and bookmarked on my Google Maps all the most important attractions. It seemed like El Toro was the most famous ones of all and my Flash Pass was showing that it was open, so we went that way. I added it to the Flash Pass and with no wait it said go to the attraction NOW.

Like I said before, the park was empty, and the Wait Times were at zero to almost all the attraction. What was happening? Maybe it was too early? I mean it was 11:00 AM on a Sunday in summer. Universal would be crowded by now. I was regretting buying The Flash Pass for $180 for 2 people.

We got to El Toro and showed The Flash Pass in the dedicated line. They gave us a wristband for this service, and asked us to still put all of our stuff in the lockers, meaning I could not search and get another Flash Pass ride until I finish the ride I was doing now and got back to the cellphone and my lockers. This sucks. Also, the lockers were $10 for the day, which is a novelty for me, since they are included in many other parks as part of the entrance ticket.

Anyways, we rode El Toro, and as a first ride in the morning it really woke me up. We had gotten some Starbucks earlier in the Port Authority Bus Terminal, but this rough ride from the tall wooden roller coaster, really had me and my body fully awake due to the shakiness.

Frontier Adventures

I was nervous that all the rides were going to be this rough, but still scheduled the next Flash pass, and it was Medusa, right next door but in another land: Frontier Adventures. The locker can be moved around the park, and we were able to put all of our stuff away while on the rides. Medusa was super fun, and left me wanting more roller coasters.

Not too far from there, the next stop was the Runaway Mile Train, another more smaller in scope roller coaster, aimed probably for families and kids. The ride was long and fun, and definitely a necessary rest from the previous thrilling ones.

It was already past 12 PM and we were hungry, so I put The Joker as my next Flash pass, and looked for food options. Unfortunately the one I bookmarked, a BBQ one, was closed. The next in line was Johnny Rockets, just because I had never tried their burgers. To go there, we decided to take the Skyway, and it was kind of fun.

No Flash pass is required for this cable car, but the views are nice. And it is not scary at all. I feel like the Skyliner in Walt Disney World is a bit more scary.

When I said the park was in the middle of nowhere I was not joking. Reminded me of the hikes I did years ago in New Jersey and at the end, when I reached the top, all I could see was acres of vegetation.

We were still very behind all these roller coasters, and needed to be back on track, but after eating tho.

Johnny Rockets

Finally got to Johnny Rockets in the Main Street, and for a bit more of $50 we got 2 double burgers with fries and a milkshake. Kind of expensive even for a theme park, but we quickly realized it was a bad idea coming here, since the burger was very meh! and there were other bbq options on this side of the park.

Metropolis

I really do not know how this park is able to differentiate all the lands, especially the ones related to DC Characters, but it kind of works. In Metropolis, we found Cyborg Cyber Spin, which we did not get in. While we were having lunch, we realized that The Joker was a bad idea for the next ride, since we were going to be full, and I switched it to the next one available: Justice League: Battle for Metropolis.

We got into the Justice League: Battle for Metropolis, and finally like in other parks I did not have to put my stuff in lockers, and was able to book the next Flash pass.

My shooting device was not working, and the graphics were really bad. I do not know how Six Flags cannot invest in better game systems, and theming in general. Only the roller coasters were good, the other attractions like this dark ride, were very very lacking.

Up next was The Dark Knight Rises. I was seeing my Google Maps bookmarks to see the closest rides from where I was, and then would book them on the Flash Pass page.

Again, I fell so ashamed for this ride. In a very tiny space, it would throw you from left to right and so on with no story at least to compensate for the mess of the ride. Horrible. Fortunately, a famous roller coaster was next. I was just laughing at the experience, not really negative at all during my visit. It was just funny, all these so-called rides and then they were a budgetted mess.

MovieTown

But wow! Batman The Ride was so much fun. A proper roller coaster with loops and inversion. Chef kiss.

Lakefront

After all the thrills, we wanted something relaxing this time, and even though it is a roller coaster, we decided to go to Skull Mountain. As a dark ride it was ok, in a bigger space but very ware-housy space after all. I think it would be perfect if it was pitch dark. In this attraction we decided to do the line, since we had onde the Flash Pass for Superman and had to wait about 45 min, and while doing the line we realized that the park was definitely way more crowded. It seems like locals and passholders like to come later in the day, and it make sense. But I would recommend coming in the morning if you are only here for today.

A bit of out of order since this was one of the last roller coasters, but located in this land was The Joker. We had been eyeing this attraction for a while since it looks crazy from below. The rotating cars seem like a nightmare for anyone with motion sickness, but we were decided to do it. After putting the Flash Pass on this, we got in and it was crazy as expected. The good thing: it last nothing. So even though, I was completely disoriented, I also fell it was super fast.

Boardwalk

As I mentiones before, I had booked a Superman Flash Pass, and this is what they look when there is a timer on them. This basically allows you to be in a Virtual Line until it is time to return to the ride. You can cancel them at anytime and book another one.

We went back all the way to the Boardwalk, and the ride broke down. Even with Flash Pass this is the longest we had to wait for any attraction. It came back after a few minutes but there was no doubt that the ride was very faulty. When we arrived back, the could not release us and took them a few minutes to let us go from the restrainers. Scary! Same thing happened when we went to the neighbor attraction: Green Lantern. It was also down and we decided to just leave this area for better rides.

Pine Barrens

In this land we can find the famous Nitro, a very long and fast ride. It was great, also very tall. Loved every second of it. At some points I just could not believe I had passed some areas that looked so far away.

The time was also over for us. I had called New Jersey transit to see what was the return time for the bus, and they did not give me an answer. We went for the posted time in the pole in the morning, and decided to walk back at 7:30 PM. The last one we would do would be The Jersey Devil Coaster, with also a 22 min wait in the Flash Pass page.

This crazy newer ride is amazing. We had so much fun in it. Only one person per row is a first time for me (I think?) and it definitely was just nuts. Recommend it a lot!

And a last treat, we got some Dippin Dots, which is a new for me, I know, crazy!

Conclusion

I was talking to my friend and we agreed on not having to come back every year. Six Flags needs to invest, not only in new thrilling rides, like they usually do and succeed in doing, but also fixing the existing ones and elevate the dark rides for sure. Tore them down and rebuilt them with great theming and technology.

The Flash Pass was definitely a waste of money. Do not buy it if you are going early in the morning. The lines are very short, and we were able to go in regular lines through the day. Also, compared to a similar service: The Lighting Lane, Disney Genie+, in Disney World and Disneyland, which costs at most $25 and lets you go in more better rides, $90 is a scam.

Leaving the park

Finally time to go at 7:15 PM, and a lot of people were already leaving as well.

There was a bus already and a long line, so we hopped in the line. The first bus left and a lot of people were still waiting.

I checked for the stop by texting its number to 69287 and it showed 4 more buses coming up.

We boarded and basically passed out at the bus from being tired, until we got to Port Authority Bus terminal in New York City.

Related