6 Flags Summer
For the first year since my daughter was born (2005), I'm skipping Pennsic. Last year was so much fun being in Royal and doing so many things, that anything after would be a let down. That's reason one. Reason two is that this is the 40th Pennsic, so larger, grander, more crowded, more testosterone... Yuck. Lastly, I'm no fan of the current Royals so I just wouldn't feel right helping them to "win", but it would just feel wrong fighting against the East as well. So all told, better just to stay out of it. I figured Rozi wouldn't mind giving it a miss, as she often asks "Do we have to go to Pennsic?"
Since Pennsic is usually our big Summer vacation, we've opted for tiny mini-vacations along the way. As part of that, we got ourselves season passes to 6-flags. They are good at all the 6 flags parks across the country. We got them early, and honestly they were a great price.
So far we've gone to three, and here is my review of them.
6 Flags New England. Closest to home for us, about 75 minutes away. It has plenty of rides and a water park. The layout of the park is decent with some of the roller coasters spanning a chunk of the park. Rozi's the biggest roller coaster fan, followed by my daughter (6 years old), then me, then in the distant rear, my son. He hasn't really caught on to the whole adrenaline rush thing. So there is a lot of whining and complaining as we "force" him onto various rides. Most often he loves them and wants to go on again, but later. However, frequently we can't get convince him to go on the more fun ones. My daughter is also too short to go on the real high thrill rides, but tall enough to go on some of them. So it's still pretty fun. The water park was well laid out and a real blast. We spent a lot of hours in there. We've actually been pretty luck spacing out our water park time, as none of us have walked away with any "real" sun burns. The whole park was a *little* crowded, but over all they had reasonable wait times for the rides we chose.
6 Flags New York. Located near the Glenn Lynn event, it's an "older" park. Not near any big cities, so a lot lower volume of people, thus no long wait time for anything. The rides don't seem as 21st century. The parking lot is *way* smaller than some of the others. However, it was an amazing time. Specifically because it's a bit smaller and less crowded we had a very relaxing, easy going day. Typically within 3-4 hours we've had enough and are ready to get out of the park. However we got there shortly after it opened in the morning, and stayed nearly until dusk. The most awesome part of the park, was that the max height requirement was 48", which meant my daughter could go on *everything*. The biggest downside of the park, was a poorly designed and run water park. It was split into two, and kind of annoying having to go back and forth between them.
6 Flags NJ. Pretty big. Three separately gated parks. The theme park, was typical 6 flags, but much larger than the other two (at least that was our impression). A well laid out water park. Lastly, they had a drive through Safari. This park was annoying. The way it was broken up, meant our 6 flags season pass was only good for the theme park. Secondly, although there were shuttles between the parks, it was still annoying to park in one and then shuttle back and forth to the other. The way the park was laid out, it gave the impression they were actually trying to prevent you from easily getting from one area to another. Lots of "alcoves" with attractions. You had to walk deep into them and retrace your steps to get back out. Also, most of the rides did not allow "loose articles". The other two parks made allowances for this, and you could put your stuff down off to the side before getting on the ride, then pick it up after. Not here. Don't even get in line if you are holding something. Even a fanny pack. It must fit in a pocket, or you can't get in. This wasn't just on the high speed modern ones (we couldn't go on those because of height restrictions), but even the old coasters and the "medium thrill" rides. I could easily tuck a small bag under my legs without an issue. Heck they made me remove my baseball cap on a tiny "kiddie ride", that was like a small coaster. Oh, most of those rides had lockers nearby where you could rent them for a $1. However, we probably wanted to go on at least 10 rides that had that restriction, some more than once. It really pissed us off. Fortunately we had planned to go there two days in a row, so the second day we got there early and made sure we carried *nothing* with us, then hit as many of those rides as we could fit in. Water park was OK, but there was a fairly long wait for just about anything. The other parks were better about that. Lastly we paid the big bucks (our splurge for the summer) and got a VIP private tour of the Safari. It was awesome. The guide took us around to private areas, drove right up and fed animals directly from the car, got out and saw some up close and personal. It was just amazing to took about 3 hours (typical drive through is around 60 minutes for the normal one)
We may try to hit the local 6 flags again this summer, with coupons to get others in for free. However, I think we've already gotten our money's worth.
Since Pennsic is usually our big Summer vacation, we've opted for tiny mini-vacations along the way. As part of that, we got ourselves season passes to 6-flags. They are good at all the 6 flags parks across the country. We got them early, and honestly they were a great price.
So far we've gone to three, and here is my review of them.
6 Flags New England. Closest to home for us, about 75 minutes away. It has plenty of rides and a water park. The layout of the park is decent with some of the roller coasters spanning a chunk of the park. Rozi's the biggest roller coaster fan, followed by my daughter (6 years old), then me, then in the distant rear, my son. He hasn't really caught on to the whole adrenaline rush thing. So there is a lot of whining and complaining as we "force" him onto various rides. Most often he loves them and wants to go on again, but later. However, frequently we can't get convince him to go on the more fun ones. My daughter is also too short to go on the real high thrill rides, but tall enough to go on some of them. So it's still pretty fun. The water park was well laid out and a real blast. We spent a lot of hours in there. We've actually been pretty luck spacing out our water park time, as none of us have walked away with any "real" sun burns. The whole park was a *little* crowded, but over all they had reasonable wait times for the rides we chose.
6 Flags New York. Located near the Glenn Lynn event, it's an "older" park. Not near any big cities, so a lot lower volume of people, thus no long wait time for anything. The rides don't seem as 21st century. The parking lot is *way* smaller than some of the others. However, it was an amazing time. Specifically because it's a bit smaller and less crowded we had a very relaxing, easy going day. Typically within 3-4 hours we've had enough and are ready to get out of the park. However we got there shortly after it opened in the morning, and stayed nearly until dusk. The most awesome part of the park, was that the max height requirement was 48", which meant my daughter could go on *everything*. The biggest downside of the park, was a poorly designed and run water park. It was split into two, and kind of annoying having to go back and forth between them.
6 Flags NJ. Pretty big. Three separately gated parks. The theme park, was typical 6 flags, but much larger than the other two (at least that was our impression). A well laid out water park. Lastly, they had a drive through Safari. This park was annoying. The way it was broken up, meant our 6 flags season pass was only good for the theme park. Secondly, although there were shuttles between the parks, it was still annoying to park in one and then shuttle back and forth to the other. The way the park was laid out, it gave the impression they were actually trying to prevent you from easily getting from one area to another. Lots of "alcoves" with attractions. You had to walk deep into them and retrace your steps to get back out. Also, most of the rides did not allow "loose articles". The other two parks made allowances for this, and you could put your stuff down off to the side before getting on the ride, then pick it up after. Not here. Don't even get in line if you are holding something. Even a fanny pack. It must fit in a pocket, or you can't get in. This wasn't just on the high speed modern ones (we couldn't go on those because of height restrictions), but even the old coasters and the "medium thrill" rides. I could easily tuck a small bag under my legs without an issue. Heck they made me remove my baseball cap on a tiny "kiddie ride", that was like a small coaster. Oh, most of those rides had lockers nearby where you could rent them for a $1. However, we probably wanted to go on at least 10 rides that had that restriction, some more than once. It really pissed us off. Fortunately we had planned to go there two days in a row, so the second day we got there early and made sure we carried *nothing* with us, then hit as many of those rides as we could fit in. Water park was OK, but there was a fairly long wait for just about anything. The other parks were better about that. Lastly we paid the big bucks (our splurge for the summer) and got a VIP private tour of the Safari. It was awesome. The guide took us around to private areas, drove right up and fed animals directly from the car, got out and saw some up close and personal. It was just amazing to took about 3 hours (typical drive through is around 60 minutes for the normal one)
We may try to hit the local 6 flags again this summer, with coupons to get others in for free. However, I think we've already gotten our money's worth.