Six Flags/Safari, NJ---how nice is it?

[spima3]

Saw this on the local news and we have never been there, although we live in PA and it would be easy drive.
Is it clean? nice place to go? Tickets on the website are $49.99 for the combo for adults and $39.99 for Junior.
We won't go to Dorney in Allentown because we continually here how bad the crowds are, rowdy and the place is not very clean. Wondering if Six Flags would be worth it. Thx. lori

 

[liftn]

Hav not been there in a few years, but, safari is ok, rides are fun, lots of big rides. During the summer when school is out the crowd can get rowdy. With my younger ones I would not take them.

 

[ArielRae]

The park has gotten better over the years. The safari is ok I recommend going first thing in the morning or right before they close to avoid alot of cars. Also keep your window close or you may get an animal inside you don't want. I have seen it many times. They don't let the monkeys run looose around your car anymore which is a good thing. To much monkey damage was being done to cars. My card had the windshield washer nozzles riped off and the rubber around my back window torn off. I say give it a try but do expect heavy crowds.

 

[dpratt68]

We went last summer and loved it. We thought the safari was great. We are NE season pass holders so both safari and park were covered with our season passes. My kids are 10 and 12 and they wanted (and we did) to go back for a second trip thru the safari. They loved the rides but were bummed that King da ka was down when we were there. If you plan to do more than a day I would look into season passes. We only pay $65/season pass. hope this helps

 

[LisaNJ25]

You couldnt pay me to go there. I drive further and go to Hershey Park instead.

 

[msmayor]

You couldnt pay me to go there. I drive further and go to Hershey Park instead.

Second.

When the park first opened, I lived 20 minutes away and we enjoyed it when I was a kid.

It slowly changed once I got out of college, and seemed to go 'downhill'.

The last three visits we had made to the park we felt it was dirty (the parking lot was DISGUSTING!) and felt that the rowdy crowds were too much. Of course, having to pass through airport-style metal detectors were a detraction. Not sure if they still have those.

The final straw was when we witnessed a park guest allow their young son (maybe 6 or 7) drop his drawers and pee on a bush while standing on the walkway. They were literally 100 yards from the restrooms.

Right now, I live 45 minutes away and we, too, would rather spend the extra time and money to drive 2 hours and stay overnight at Hershey Park. Six Flags in NJ will never, ever see another dime from my pocket.

 

[Nienor]

The safari is nice if you remember to go before about 11 a.m. or during the week only. Otherwise there are way too many cars and it takes too long to get through the thing.

The weekend crowd at Great Adventures is no different from the weekend crowd at Dorney. I'd recommend trying to schedule a weekday visit. The park is much nicer then, even with the daycamps.

 

[java]

Oh Dorney is better in the "safer" category I believe. We avoid six flags like the plague. What about Knoebel's?
http://www.knoebels.com/

That is one of our favs. On Dorney the only part we avoid is the water area- the rest of the park is actually fun. My kids are 13,10,5 and 3 and while it's no Disney it isn't as horrible as six flags. imho.

 

[JeremyGNJ]

like others have said, it's a great park for roller coasters.

It does seem a little "dirty", but alot of that is because the park isnt "beautiful". Where many parks have lush vegitation and lots of flowers and such...if you're at Great Adventure and you look down from a ride, you mostly see dirt, and maybe some grass.

 

[MDTerrapin]

We went to Dorney Park a few years ago and loved it. We went during the week and had no problems and thought ir was pretty clean. The Six Flags in Maryland is awful on a general admission day.

Karen

 

[PatMcDuck]

Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ has gotten better in the last 2-4 years. It IS pretty clean, too. I live in the next town, my 2 older boys worked there for a few years each. We have had season passes on and off. My 16 year old daughter has one, she goes with friends (which is a little nerve wracking of course).

The biggest problem is probably the groups of lightly unsupervised kids/teens. Now all kids in groups get rowdy, but at G.A. you get big groups of kids from city recreation programs, camps, church groups, schools, etc. It is different from what I see at WDW; these groups split up at the park and their are no adults with them. Please, I do not want to scare anyone away; it is not THAT bad. If you have young kids, and go on the young kid rides, you would not even encounter these older kids. What do these kids DO? Well, they are loud, often the cursing is obnoxious, but the worst is probably the line cutting........ DH has been known to get some tossed out of the park if it gets really out of hand. (with the whole line cheering him on and co-signing the complaint).

I went to Cedar Point, and Six Flags Great Adventure has just as good roller coasters if not better. (you can't just go by the total #, quality counts). And GA was cleaner, and the smoking is more restricted. At CP I was amazed by all the smoking!

You will see a more diverse population at a park like Great Adventure compared to other parks, and different cultures have different traditions/standards....... which might explain the peeing thing (not that it is ok to me in any way, but kids in their underpants at WDW splashing in the sprinker things is bizarre to me too)

I say, go and you will have a great time! The safari is very good, but I stopped going on it years ago. I could not STAND all the people feeding the animals junk food thru their windows. Fruit is bad enough, but Doritoes and cheese doodles? Shame on Six Flags for letting it go on....

 

[Sleeping~Beauty]

You couldnt pay me to go there. I drive further and go to Hershey Park instead.

Agreed.

 

[QJ411]

You couldnt pay me to go there. I drive further and go to Hershey Park instead.

I agree, we live a about 45 mins away from G.A. now and we still wouldn't go.

Second.

When the park first opened, I lived 20 minutes away and we enjoyed it when I was a kid.

It slowly changed once I got out of college, and seemed to go 'downhill'.

The last three visits we had made to the park we felt it was dirty (the parking lot was DISGUSTING!) and felt that the rowdy crowds were too much. Of course, having to pass through airport-style metal detectors were a detraction. Not sure if they still have those.

The final straw was when we witnessed a park guest allow their young son (maybe 6 or 7) drop his drawers and pee on a bush while standing on the walkway. They were literally 100 yards from the restrooms.

Right now, I live 45 minutes away and we, too, would rather spend the extra time and money to drive 2 hours and stay overnight at Hershey Park. Six Flags in NJ will never, ever see another dime from my pocket.

Completely agree. Although, I will say that when DD turned 1, we did cave and took her to check out the safari and had we not found a deep discount code online prior to going, we would have never given it another try. But we got cheap tickets for the safari & park. We spent about 45 mins in the safari drive through (nothing that wowing...except the fact that giraffes come next to your car and sometimes lick your window...but so many people throw food or feed these poor animals stuff from their car, it's so wrong. A bunch of kids gave the giraffes candy or gummy worms or something when the safari ranger wasn't looking ), then about 1 hour in the park in the kiddie section and that was it. We high tailed it out of there.

I just don't know what it is. It seems like every time we go, we have some sort of issue, and the customer service is terrible, the employees just don't give a hoot. And one visit, (during my final straw visit before DD was born), I was standing there waiting for DH to order our lunch and the sky ride/tram (I forgot the name)that takes you from one end of the park to the other, someone threw a huge cup of soda as they were passing and hit right next to me, soaking my leg, I was mortified and I just heard roars of laughter from the tram above. That was not cool. An employee was standing 2 feet away and didn't even offer to give me a napkin to clean up.

IMHO, if you find a great deal, then give it a try just so you can say you tried it. But like PP said, they will never see another dime from me again.

We really enjoy Hershey Park (maybe not as much thrill rides, but the park itself is nice plus they have Zoo America) & Dorney Park (not that they're perfect...far from it, but we just take DD to the kiddie section and a couple of roller coasters for DH and we enjoy it.)

 

[Donnask8pro]

I also have to agree. We havent gone in years because of the problems with the Teens. It just doesnt seem to be for families anymore. Thats a shame.

 

[eliza61]

You couldnt pay me to go there. I drive further and go to Hershey Park instead.

3rd this sentiment.
I loathe, hate and despise Six flags, great adventures. The safari is nice but for the price for 4 people, no way worth it. we went 2X last summer and the parks are dirty & very crowded (I can deal with crowds) and if people think the folks who visit wdw are rude, the crowd at great adventures will make them look like Miss Manners.
Food is lousy and expensive.

I think one of the problems is, it is a popular destination for summer camp bus trips. Which means you have literally 1000's of unsupervised teens and young teens running amuck with little or no supervision. Generally they are told to simply return to the buses by X time.

 

[Stucas]

When I was growing up I lived about 20 min away so we had season passes every year. I always loved it. Its great for coasters and used to have a great little kids section (I know they got rid of the old section and made a new one but I haven't seen it)

However...

We don't go there anymore. 3 years ago at frightfest (the halloween parties, which are always crowded to the max and VERY dangerous with all the teens running around, people have been stabbed in the past) me and Dfi were getting onto Batman the ride and in short, due to operator EXTREME negligence, I had the worst expierence of my life where my seat wouldn't lock into position (not even the first click) and they never checked my seat and started the ride with me unstrapped and screaming . It did end up clicking to the first click by the time we got to the top before the first drop but I was freaking out so much I passed out. After we got off the ride we talked to the kid operating the ride and he didn't care AT ALL. Dfi finally got me over to the main office where I wrote up an incident report. The lady helping me was nice..but to say sorry she offered me passes to jump the line of any ride. HELLO DO YOU THINK I'M ABOUT TO GO JUMP BACK ON ANOTHER RIDE RIGHT NOW? I did get the kid fired which I could not have been more happy about, and we had thought about suing because they seemed so lax about it, like maybe it happens often, but decided against it because it would have cost me too much money.

Needless to say we have not been back since and urge friends not to go either.They don't have a great record with safety anyways. Any place that doesn't care if I live or die due to their stupidity does not deserve my money.


-Lauren

 

[tiggerzpalz]

Well, I guess I am the lone person on this thread who disagrees. We are season pass holders and really enjoy the park. We have younger kids 6, 4 and 10 months and they love it. The kid areas for them are great and my DS6loves the intermediate roller coasters as well as Rolling Thunder. We go during the week and have no trouble with rowdy crowds or overcrowding. We pack a lunch, stick it in a locker, head out to eat it and then head right back in. I go with several friends and their kids and have a great time.

We live at the shore and see rowdier crowds at the boardwalk areas like Seaside and much dirtier environments.

 

[Ishy]

If you can make it a day trip midweek, get there first thing in the morning and enjoy - do it... I grew up with a seaon pass for many years and then didnt go back for 15 - even purchased a season pass a few years ago for my children because they showed interests (teens with friends going) and they used it twice. waste of money. There is an element of gangs that have caused problems and it is usually later in the day/evening- mostly on the weekend. Many people around here have season passes every year and take the little ones early in the day and love it.

I LOVE Hershey Park - I live 15 minutes from the Jersey Boardwalks, and 30 minutes from Six Flags and glady make a weekend trip to Hershy/Lancaster area.

If you children are young, like under 13, I would also suggest - Land of Make Believe in Hope, NJ - not many hotels around there but there is a nice campground nearby that have cabins and activities, pool, jaccuzzi for adults and fishing and square dances... that park also has a HUGE water park so the older kids are still fine, they have LOTS of kiddies rides and adventures, NO GANGS OF WILD TEENS AND ADULTS THAT WANT TO BE WILD TEENS, it closes at 5 - so there is no begging to stay until all hours of the night. I first went there back in the mid sixties, took my children there when they were little and a few times since when they opened the water portion... they loved it too.

We have been saving our money for disney trips - my daughter was CP 2005 and 2007 ... and we have gone down to see her for birthdays and holidays... this board helped me find good deals too - want to give credit...

I am sure you will have fun no matter.

 

[JKYlovesRuss]

We visited the safari last year (We skipped the park). We had a wonderful time. My pre-teen loved it as did hubby.

The park is nice. We visit every year for Fright Fest. They decorate it nicely for Halloween... We skip the park in the summer.... It is also getting way too expensive! and very crowded. We'd rather go to DISNEY!

Have you been to Camel Beach water park in the Poconos, PA? We go every summer.... Lots of fun for little ones!

 

[ArielRae]

When I was growing up I lived about 20 min away so we had season passes every year. I always loved it. Its great for coasters and used to have a great little kids section (I know they got rid of the old section and made a new one but I haven't seen it)

However...

We don't go there anymore. 3 years ago at frightfest (the halloween parties, which are always crowded to the max and VERY dangerous with all the teens running around, people have been stabbed in the past) me and Dfi were getting onto Batman the ride and in short, due to operator EXTREME negligence, I had the worst expierence of my life where my seat wouldn't lock into position (not even the first click) and they never checked my seat and started the ride with me unstrapped and screaming . It did end up clicking to the first click by the time we got to the top before the first drop but I was freaking out so much I passed out. After we got off the ride we talked to the kid operating the ride and he didn't care AT ALL. Dfi finally got me over to the main office where I wrote up an incident report. The lady helping me was nice..but to say sorry she offered me passes to jump the line of any ride. HELLO DO YOU THINK I'M ABOUT TO GO JUMP BACK ON ANOTHER RIDE RIGHT NOW? I did get the kid fired which I could not have been more happy about, and we had thought about suing because they seemed so lax about it, like maybe it happens often, but decided against it because it would have cost me too much money.

Needless to say we have not been back since and urge friends not to go either.They don't have a great record with safety anyways. Any place that doesn't care if I live or die due to their stupidity does not deserve my money.


-Lauren

I will tell you I worked at six flags great adventure for 6 years. (1996 -2001) I did rides for 4 years and Yes what happened to you does happen quite often. When you go to the park you have to make sure you are locked in cause you have young kids running the rides and many times they are playing around more then doing their jobs. I was the lead (manager) of the tea cups and caousel while I was there. There was no way you could get me to manage one of the coasters. To many problems there. I haven't been since I worked there but I understand from what I have seem in pictures and read they are turning the place around. It all went down hill when the original president of the park left and this young guy took over. I liked it so much better when the old itlaiian guy ran the place. He took care of the workers thus the workers worked better now it just isn't the quality you would expect.