More flags, more fun!

[Tom]

Trip report of Six Flags New England 14/10/12

I knew I was going to the park for ages and ages and despite arranging to meet up with someone, people fail at organising themselves and all that so at the last minute my dad said he'd be happy to take me! Whatever, I'm going to Six Flags so I'm happy!

Park was advertised as open from 12-9 so I arrived at 12ish, greeted with a cheeky $20 parking fee the day wasn't looking very promising. Having visited Six Flags Elitch Gardens as a child and Six Flags Magic Mountain in a previous post-summer time to find horrific ride reliability, poor theming, incredibly slow operations, and Thorpe Park standard rudeness from employees etc I didn't have high hopes to begin with!

Despite the walk to the park being small, I didn't know so waited a bit for a shuttle bus to get to the entrance; waste of time but surprising and a good move from the park as the car park wasn't adjacent.

Heading into the park was easy but really set the tone for the worst having to hand in my phone and go through a metal detector; nice start for any guest! Especially a park that advertises heavily '3 kids areas!' to try and appeal to a family market. Despite this, the actual entrance was quite well kept and there was a lot of Halloween theming for Fright Fest, a lot more than you'd see in the whole of Thorpe Park in the space of just the entrance. (Organ man set piece below)

After reading a few reviews of Fright Fest in Magic Mountain, I got the impression the park would be busy, (like theme park Halloween events anywhere) But after discovering there were just 3 mazes costing $8 per maze, I wasn't so worried!

Plan of attack was to either do Goliath ('new' ride of 2012 which is really 'De ja vu' a Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang moved from Magic Mountain) or Bizarro first. As it happens Goliath wasn't operating that morning due to the 'weather conditions' (it was a bit cloudy and had rained in the night) - Great first impression, so walked briskly to Bizarro which was walk on! Yay.

Bizarro (Previously Superman: Ride Of Steel) was voted the world's number one steel coaster on various coaster polls.

There was even a sign in the station saying the years it had one etc; Six Flags really push this as many advertisements and signs say 'Home to the number one rated steel coaster, Bizarro' etc. (You can see on the left of this photo)

So after it being shoved down my throat, I was expecting quite an experience... which it failed to deliver! It all just felt 'meh-y', I expected crazy air-time or intensity or something. It was a smooth, fun, and fast ride, but I failed to see what all the fuss was about! It has it's moments.

I particularly like the first drop and tunnel, the tunnel and bunny hops at the end, and a part after the first turnaround where it dips slightly giving slight airtime and a feeling of speed. But overall not a fantastic ride and I felt that Silver Star which I had rode just months earlier was possibly better. I think it was a case of over-hype but hey! 7/10

Next in this section was a wild-mouse that was a reverse rattlesnake clone. - COASTER CREDIT.

Vekoma SLCs for life. As this was the standard layout, I had ridden it a thousand times before and knew what I was getting into; I think my aim of the day was 'while I'm here I'll do everything', so had 'fun' on this. Standard vekoma headache too! 3/10

Being mainstream as I am, I was really looking forward to a nice B&M that I knew would be painless and thrilling.

Batman – The Dark Knight is a cute floorless that isn't too intimidating and proves a fun ride; being so small it has some tight elements which are surprisingly smooth (but then again, its a B&M!).

I really liked it throughout despite being small it was fun; the Nemesis Inferno of Six Flags New England that isn't hyped but is still a strong coaster! 8/10

STORM SURGE CLONE was next.

Hilariously better themed and operated than Storm Surge, it had an actual station building and the boats actually spun. Still had a pool of water in the bottom of the boat though! Entertaining and a good filler, it's awkwardly located next to the water park even though it's for theme park guests; maybe the system in Legoland California for their new chute the chute ride could be implemented here, where the slide would be half for theme park guests and half for water park guests.

Huss topspin next which proved painful and had the awkward hang even though there were no water sprays. It was running on the Rameses second setting (or very similar!) so had spins and general awkward movement. As a side note, top spins are one of the worst flat rides ever.

'Scream' an S&S Power Tower (or whatever) next was fun as it had a launch, bounce, then drop and bounce setting that was genuinely fun and thrilling. I think 'thrilling and fun' is the theme here.

Goliath had opened not long after opening and had an 'hour' long queue! Yikes, I opted for single rider and walked straight on like a pro - Didn't even have to sit next to anyone as the seating configuration is so damn awkwardly staggered. I really thought this would be horrible and I had avoided it like the plague when it was at Magic Mountain; but I was in a funny mood and it was a fairly rare experience so I thought I would give it a go!

Hate me if you want but I LOVED it. The awkward backwards vertical hill climb at the start followed by a drop downwards was just hilarious. Leaves you no time to breathe as you fly through the station and into the cobra roll. Wasn't stupidly rough like I had expected and actually was intense and left me feeling weird being pulled in some weird directions. The loop was standard, pretty forceful, then the second tower felt exactly like Saw's climb, sort of falling out of your seat feeling but less weird than being pulled up backwards! You don't even realised you've hit the top when you plummet backwards seeing the supports either side of you flying upwards.

I forgot how much I secretly loved Vekoma boomerangs and sidewinders like Revolution at blackpool. Guilty pleasure but I love going through inversions backwards; the cobra roll was especially good. A second fly through the station and the most awkward lift-hill jolt ever as you are slowly dragged back up to the top before coming down. Crazy awkward but intense and interesting ride. For some reason I absolutely loved it, maybe just because it was such a unique experience! 9/10 (I'm sorry, theming and all that don't come into play because it was a somehow great ride).

Up till this point everything had been walk on except Goliath if I hadn't have used single rider, but a low capacity ride was looming. Pandemonium is a Gerstlauer spinning coaster that again is a classic Six Flags chain ride. Having been on 3 Maurer Sohne spinners and a Mack spinning coaster... Well a sort of spinning coaster, wild mouse... thing, I was semi-excited to seeing what Gerstlauer did to make it so special.

So with a queue of 30 minutes I jumped in. It was fun, had a few moments when we spun quite a lot and a small dip; the layout was unimaginative but compact so oh well! 6/10 but not a scratch on Dragon's Fury.

Panda Express was had for lunch.

Fast food chinese food is just great. Gross, but great.

Despite having just eaten I was keen for Catapult, the only other existing sky swat other than our very own Slammer! Interestingly (so not interesting), the right side rotates over the top first unlike the left side of Slammer. But otherwise the ride is the same low throughput banter nightmare with painful lap bars!

Either way it was fun and with Slammer being closed most of this season, I actually hadn't ridden in a while and enjoyed the sky swat experience.

Next was a wooden rollercoaster Cyclone which looked very rough. Having ridden and compared Psyclone an older wooden coaster at Six Flags MM to Wodan in Europa Park, I was expecting a horrific ride from Cyclone which was an older woodie.

But I was thankfully surprised to enjoy my ride as it was just the right amount of crazy with nice bits of airtime and some big drops! 7/10

Blizzard River a rapids ride was better themed than any UK rapids rides I have ridden and there were plenty of soak moments without much use of sprays or waterfalls that take the 'rapids' out of rapids.

All good fun even though I got pretty wet! Also wasn't sure on the manufacturer as the station was a conveyer rather than a turntable, and boats were more 'open' than any other rapids rides I've been on! EDIT: Just looked at the website, the manufacturer is 'OD Hopkins'

Placed right by Goliath is a vekoma boomerang called Flashback. So 2 vekoma boomerangs right by each other; brilliant. This proved fun, as I said they're a bit of a guilty pleasure.

This was it, pretty much all the rides done and it was only 3:45 so I looked up the show times. In honour of Fright Fest there were some scaryish themed shows including a freak show, but I opted to see a hypnotist show as it started at 4 and wasn't that far away. Whether you believe in hypnotism or not etc you would have to be stubborn to not enjoy the show just because it was made clear from the beginning it was just meant to make everyone laugh and have a good time. I'd never seen a show like it and really enjoyed it, particular highlights were everyone on the stage driving a car and suddenly hit 'speed bumps' as well as someone looking at the audience and thinking they see someone famous. Glad I caught it as it was a little gem!

Despite advertising a 40 minute show, it lasted 55 which was no issue for me as I had done almost everything. A quick sweep around the park I had a go on Batman again, Goliath using single rider, a small Huss Frisbee called Tomahawk that I thought was quite thrilling and despite not being as high or 'beyond vertical' as Vortex, was on a long setting and spun quite quickly so was another new found favourite alongside the giant vekoma boomerang.

2 final rides were an old compact wooden coaster called Thunderbolt which was thrilling despite not being high and taking up loads of room and a final ride on Bizarro just before dusk. This ride was an improvement of the first, it felt a lot smoother, faster, airtime-y and made me re-evaluate my rating to a 9/10.

Utter shock at how good my day was – Friendly staff, efficient running of rides with most running full capacity, busy enough for an atmosphere but not busy queues, good amounts of theming for a Six Flags park with loads of roaming actors, gag theming, and smoke for Fright Fest! So even though I hadn't intended to visit at Halloween time; not going in any mazes didn't segragate from the great theming throughout the park as well as scare zones on major pathways when at about 4 actors started roaming around.

Thanks for reading! I didn't take many pictures as I hadn't intended to look back fondly of this trip, but there you go!

[Mark9]

Thanks Tom, it's always a pleasure to read about parks that are rarely spoken about on TPM.

I found the same with Stuntfall in Spain as you did with Deja Vu, they are great rides with so much variety going on in such a small footprint. Shame they are a reliability nightmare because they ride really nicely. We also seem to have had similar experiences with former Mitch Hawker number ones too, I thought Expedition Ge Force was average at best and you've found the same with Bizarro. It's stupid how rides actually set themselves up to fail in this way. Final thought, Revolution at Blackpool isn't Vekoma, it's Arrow. D'oh

Loving all the Uk comparisons by the way you cheeky scamp.

[pluk]

Nice report, SFNE is a park I can't decide whether I should be going too far out of my way to visit or not. It does have a couple of unique things I'd like to try, but so much of the park is clones of things I have ridden I'm not so sure it is worth it.

As a side note, hypnotism exists. It is not like fortune telling type clairvoyant nonsense that you can decide to believe in or not, it is a proper thing that happens. I've even dabbled in it myself a little.

[Deleted Users]

I knew I was going to the park for ages and ages and despite arranging to meet up with someone, people fail at organising themselves and all that so at the last minute my dad said he'd be happy to take me!

She was just too scared to go on Catapult.

This park is just so awkward. Either you got lucky or they have improved their operations since I went because it was such a mess. Regarding Bizarro, best in the world is of course subjective but what you do get is a very fun set of airtime hills, helices, great pacing and good length with no MCBR or trims (I think?!). If you disregard UK restrictions, if we got something like it here it would be praised to high heaven.

Nice report, SFNE is a park I can't decide whether I should be going too far out of my way to visit or not. It does have a couple of unique things I'd like to try, but so much of the park is clones of things I have ridden I'm not so sure it is worth it.

It's not too bad to get to if you have a car and you're staying in the Boston area.

[Tom]

She was just too scared to go on Catapult.

This park is just so awkward. Either you got lucky or they have improved their operations since I went because it was such a mess. Regarding Bizarro, best in the world is of course subjective but what you do get is a very fun set of airtime hills, helices, great pacing and good length with no MCBR or trims (I think?!). If you disregard UK restrictions, if we got something like it here it would be praised to high heaven.

Classic. I can still hear her voice saying 'Oh my gaawd f*ck Catapult'

I think I did get lucky; I think they were expecting it to be busier than it actually was so they had staff at main gates of rides and enough to actually run the rides efficiently. I think more staff = less workload per member overall = happier staff = better guest experience. And equally more staff = smoother and faster operations = better guest experience. It was just very relaxed and sounding ridiculous, the staff being polite and a few asking where we were from/how our day was going puts it a lot higher than the majority of other theme parks I've been to!

Hmm yes. There is a trim really near the end but without it you'd probably fly out of your seat on the final bunny hops I would've thought no MCBR would mean low throughput, but due to the trains having seatbelts there was a little bit of stacking sometimes. I don't blame the employees though.

[Benin]

Deja Vu <3

Panda Express <3

Good to see a review of a park people rarely hear about... And horray for over-hyped Intamin rubbish!

[spurs-fan94]

This reminds me of my trip to the US...great to hear others times over there.