Theme Park Discussion / [TR] Six Flags New England - July 11, 2022

I know people don’t seem to do these anymore (or maybe people haven't started going to parks again due to the pandemic), but here’s a shot at one since I enjoy reading other people’s reports.

We’re on vacation in New England visiting family and friends, and we (let's be honest, mostly I) decided to head to Six Flags New England to break up a long day of driving between northern Vermont and eastern Massachusetts. Our group consisted of myself, my wife (Courtney), our 4 year old (Victoria), and our 2 year old (Ellie). We got to the parking lot about 11:05am (slightly after opening at 11am) and entered the park at about 11:30am. The kids wanted on the carousel, so we hopped on for a family ride to kick things off.

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Next, we headed over to the DC themed area on the right side of the park, and while the kids got their faces painted, I grabbed my first new credit of the day, the Joker. I didn’t know what to expect since I’d never been on a freespin before, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I don’t understand the need for the hate. I can see them as a fun little addition for any park that needs a little something extra.

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After the kids faces were all painted, Courtney and I took turns riding Riddler Revenge, the park's SLC. I’ve only done one other SLC in my life, the Great Nor’easter at Morey’s Piers, and I didn’t find it that bad. However, this one was pretty terrible in comparison. Courtney called it the worst coaster she’d ever been on. The worst part was the brake run, which simultaneously gave you whiplash and a thrashing to the back of the head. Thankfully I saw this beforehand and prepared for it by pushing my head backwards into the seat as hard as possible, which avoided my head leaving the seat at all.

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Then, Courtney took on the Joker while I looked on with the kids. After that, we both took turns getting on Batman - The Dark Knight, the B&M floorless. Ops pissed me off a bit on this one. I asked where the big person seats are, and the woman directed me to row 7 for some reason. I didn’t see any signage and didn’t think there were any of those seats in row 7, but I went with it thinking the op understood what I meant. As I expected, there were only normal seats in the row. However, the bright side of this situation is that I was able to fit in a normal person seat, albeit a bit uncomfortably. In any case, the coaster was alright, probably middle of the pack of the B&Ms I’ve ridden. The interlocking corks and all the other self interaction were cool, and I enjoyed the coaster overall.

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The kids were hungry by this point (about 1pm), and so we grabbed some lunch having largely completed that half of the park. After eating our chicken tenders, hot dogs, and fries, we headed over for some kiddie rides to keep the kids happy. As we waited for a car ride, we witnessed a ride op flipping off another ride op at an adjacent ride. Not sure why that needed to happen, but it was pretty awkward to witness especially in the kiddie ride area of all places.

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After some kiddie rides, we headed towards Superman the Ride, one of my most anticipated rides of the park. Up until this point, Courtney was pretty unimpressed with the coasters so far, and was thinking whether we were just really spoiled by going to Hersheypark weekly. However, I expected Superman to be up there with our HP favorites, and that’s exactly where it ended up. Both Courtney and I got to ride in the back row, which was downright incredible over the first drop and over every airtime hill. My only complaint is that this thing hurt my thighs more than Skyrush ever has.

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Having picked up a Superman nanocoaster from the gift shop at the exit (my goal is to grab one from each park I visit), we headed over to the family coaster, Catwoman’s Whip, to see if Victoria wanted to ride. She almost rode, but decided against it at the last second. Instead, I ended up riding by myself. It was honestly a pretty fun coaster and I’d totally ride it again.

Having booked my 49th credit in Catwoman’s Whip, I wanted to make big number 50 my first ever RMC, Wicked Cyclone. We headed that way, stopping to get the kids on some kiddie rides on the way. I was a bit nervous about fitting in the RMC seat, but as I got in the test seat and was able to close the restraint, I got super excited and was ready. My god, I now understand why RMCs get the reviews they do. This thing was awesome, easily my number 1 in the park. The drop and first turn were fun, but I think everything that followed blew my mind. I cannot believe the little pops of airtime you get at completely unexpected times, the rolls in the support structure, all the head choppers, just an awesome ride. I cannot wait to get the chance to ride more of these beasts.

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After Courtney rode (raving review from her as well) we did some more kiddie rides, and we made the decision that I could probably get the rest of the credits I needed to complete the park if I wanted to since we had plenty of time left in the day. Next up? Great Chase, the kiddie coaster. Victoria wouldn’t ride it with me, but the height requirement was low enough that we were able to get Ellie on it. She honestly took it like a trooper, without any tears or any scared faces, and told us she liked it afterwards. A future enthusiast is born!

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Courtney and the kids sat down and had some drinks while I went and rode Flashback, the boomerang. Honestly, with the older trains, the headbanging, and the roughness, this thing should just be torn down. A credit is a credit though…

After this, we grabbed Pandemonium, the spinner, which was a nice fun ride. Thankfully, the 20 minute wait for everyone else was almost non-existent thanks to the single rider line. While Courtney and the kids grabbed some ice cream, I ran over and got Gotham City Gauntlet, the wild mouse, which was fine, but doesn’t need to be spoken about any more here.

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Afterwards, we got some more kiddie rides in before heading to Thunderbolt for our final ride of the day. Honestly, I was expecting a classic PTC woodie, but I’m used to Comet and Phoenix, which have been meticulously maintained and still run pretty well. This was not that. Rough in a bad way, paint peeling everywhere, and only one train ops with two rows closed off for maintenance reasons. Ops were also horrendously bad. Coaster had maybe two redeeming moments of airtime, but that wasn’t enough to make up for the rest of it. 

All in all, it was a good day. Got 11 new credits, Ellie counted her first coaster, it was a good way to break up a longer day of just driving, and we all had a good time. Park was better than I was expecting given how everyone talks about Six Flags parks. I liked the left half of the park better, without all the half-assed DC theming. In my opinion, theming should be full-on immersive or basically none at all, and I think that’s why I liked the non-themed areas better. Ops could have been better overall, and I’m still amazed that you could be in a New England forest next to a river and surrounded by trees, yet still not have any shade anywhere.

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My coaster ranking for the park would be something like this
1 - Wicked Cyclone
2 - Superman
3 - Batman
4 - Joker
5 - Pandemonium
6 - Catwoman’s Whip
7 - Great Escape
8 through 11 in no particular order - Thunderbolt, Gotham City Gauntlet, Riddler, Flashback

Awesome review and a great read!

Glad you and the family had a good time.

i think people still do ptrs! I love reading them too, good stuff. been wanting to get to sfne for ages

Ha, I found SFNE one of the more disappointing SF parks I've visited. Maybe I expected too much but yeah... not so much atmosphere besides some spots. The superhero area is plain ugly. 

Superman and Wicked Cyclone are awesome, topnotch coasters. But without those, I wouldn't recommand a visit to this park. Batman is one of the few Beemers who really didn't do anything to me, boring ride but a good step up coaster for kids I assume?! The SLC was rideable but not enjoyable despite the new restraints. Still a shaky ride.

I hate the Freespin coasters a lot... The uncertainty of not knowing when you'll go upside down and when you do, it's slow... Basically just a topspin in coaster format. 

I also had some problems with their operations... They were so slow! At Batman the second train almost always had to wait in the brakes before the station, queue wasn't that long but barely moved. And when someone barfed in a Wicked Cyclone train when we were waiting at the gates ready to enter, it took them ages to clean up. While they were with like 5 staff members in the station. Ofc it has to be cleaned, but as a former ride OP myself, that just took way too long to do that...