The Flash (Six Flags Great Adventure) Media Day Review and 2025 Season Preview

The Flash: Vertical Velocity's is a very photogenic coaster.

All set? All clear! 👌🏼 Aaron here bringing you a two-for-one special with a media day review for Six Flag Great Adventure’s The Flash: Vertical Velocity and a 2025 season preview for Six Flags Great Adventure.

I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the media day event for The Flash: Vertical Velocity with my dad, and we had an absolute blast. I will use this article to briefly discuss the event and then dive into my thoughts for the 2025 season and future over at Great Adventure. You can also read my full in-depth review of The Flash: Vertical Velocity. With The Flash being the first super boomerang in North America, I wanted to give it the attention it deserves and thought a full article highlighting the coaster would be the best way to do so.

The staff at Great Adventure did a great job welcoming everyone for the media day event. We were rewarded with a well-run day that gave us all ample opportunity to get our rides in on The Flash. As this was the only ride open for the event and a model of coaster with capacity concerns, I was not sure what to expect, but the staff and camera crews nailed the dispatches and we rarely waited more than 2 minutes or so to get on. I ended up with around 15 rides and my dad got about 13 in. The coaster was just as fun the first ride as it was the final ride we each took.

My expectations for The Flash: Vertical Velocity honestly were not that high. I figured it would be something that on a normal day at the park I would likely skip on, especially if there was a substantial line. Without spoiling my full review too much, I will say this thing absolutely exceeded my expectations. It is an absolute must ride, and on slow days in the park will be something worth lapping a few times if you can. Again, check out my full review to find out exactly why!

The staff was another highlight of the day. As I mentioned, they were flying through the crowd, but on top of that, they were having almost as much fun running it as we were riding it. The staff members throughout the park were happy to talk to us and had a lot of good things to say about the merger and optimism about the park. They were also very open and honest with answering questions. I wasn’t asking too many hard hitting questions, but there didn’t seem to be any attempts to shroud things in secrecy, including the reason for the delays with The Flash opening and the closures of the rides within the park.

An unnamed, but delicious new drink to be offered this year.

The two biggest opportunities I saw with the media day for Great Adventure were around the food and the opportunities to buy merchandise. The invitation mentioned opportunities to try new menu items, however we were not able to find them anywhere. There is a pretty solid chance this was a me issue, I was throughly distracted by riding a roller coaster, but more clarity on where to find the food would have been nice. We did get to sample a new drink they were still working on a name for, which I included a photo of above. It was an alcohol free drink made with orange juice, grenadine, and lemon-lime soda. It was really good, so if you see it on the menu when you are in the park give it a shot! The only other disappointment of the day was that we were not able to purchase any merchandise for The Flash. There was a great display of all of the new apparel, and quite a few of the items were great looking, but there was an issue with the point of sales system so no purchases could be made. The staff was as disappointed with this as we were.

The highlight of the day of course was getting to ride the first Vekoma Super Boomerang in the United States, and only the second one in the world. Getting 15 or so rides in really allowed me to thoroughly experience and review the new coaster. We got to hangout with a lot of really cool people like Michael from Hallowed Thrills, Clint and Katie from Katie’s Coasters, and Tori from T-Rose Bunny’s Adventures. There were a lot of American Coaster Enthusiasts members there as well and we enjoyed the time we got to spend with them too. The roller coaster enthusiast community is a great group of people. If you see any of them when you are out and about at parks I highly recommend saying hi, most of them would love to chat with you. That was one thing I definitely learned with this being my first media day event.

Aside from getting a ton of rides in, we also got an awesome experience with being evacuated from the ride. This was both my dad and I’s first time being evacuated from a coaster and on top of that, it was after a rollback, which was almost as exciting as getting to ride the coaster. After the stall following the swing launch we hit the double up before the diving turn and immediately knew something was up. There was an audible “ohhhh” from the entire train, which was definitely part of the fun of being on a coaster with all enthusiasts. Once we realized we were not making it up the second part of the double up the entire train started to cheer and we were all yelling in excitement about the rollback. The Six Flags staff was well prepared and got over to us quickly, promptly, and most importantly safely, getting us off the ride before swing launching the empty train back to the station. There is something unique about sitting on a valley-ed roller coaster while 100+ enthusiasts stand at a far off fence jealously taking pictures of you. It was an awesome experience.

Overall, with this being my first media day I really did not know what to expect. Six Flags Great Adventure did a fantastic job hosting us and providing a great experience for everyone in attendance. The excitement around the new coaster and upcoming season along with the future of the park was noticeable with each staff member. I for one am looking forward to this future and sincerely feel the park is heading in the right direction.

Six Flags Great Adventure 2025 Season Preview:

Moving into my 2025 season preview, I want to give a little more insight as to why I feel the park is heading in the right direction and why I have optimism around the future of Great Adventure. I will talk through some of the changes to the park, the atmosphere and appearance, and then finish up with my thoughts as an all park passport owner who lives relatively close to the park.

First I would like to address the elephant in the room, a fitting expression when talking about the parks former tallest coaster. It is really weird being in and around the park post Kingda Ka removal. Anyone who has attended Great Adventure since 2005 when Kingda Ka was built is going to notice the significant difference that is made when removing a ride that can be seen literally anywhere in the park. This is purely speculative, but I think the removal of Kingda Ka is a necessary evil to allow the park to move forward. Removing a ride that was challenging to keep running and required substantial financial and human resources will allow the park to redirect these resources into improving the park experience across the board. While it is a major disappointment to see an iconic roller coaster like Kingda Ka go, if this is a turning point for Great Adventure as a park, the pain of the removal will reap major rewards moving forward.

While Kingda Ka was the headliner of the removal of course, there were a few other removals that were all a bit of a mixed bag. Green Lantern, the former Bolliger & Mabillard stand-up coaster was also removed. The loss of Green Lantern, despite it essentially being in the parking lot when it was standing, was naturally much less noticeable than Kingda Ka. I do not have much to say about the coaster, and while it is always a least a little sad to see a coaster removed from a park, there are not many people overly disappointed about seeing a nearly 30 year old unpopular model removed. I think Green Lantern had a solid layout and would have been a good candidate for a floorless conversion, especially at a regional park. However, I also understand from a cost perspective this may not have been financially responsible.

Of the non-coaster removals Parachute Tower was the ride I was most disappointed to see go. It was another iconic ride, similar to Kingda Ka, and at 250 feet right near the main entrance it was noticeable that it was gone. That being said, it did suffer from capacity issues and there is potential that it will have a worthwhile replacement, or allow the park to use that space for their new coaster coming in 2026. Twister and Cyborg Cyber Spin were also removed, I personally feel like Huss Top Spins, like Twister, are more fun to watch than they are to ride, but Twister also had reliability issues. It would be hard to argue that Cyborg, an ABC Rides Tourbillion, was anything but a failure of a ride model. With the removal of Cyborg both of the Tourbillions that have been built are now defunct. I think this was a wise removal, as it allows The Flash: Vertical Velocity to dominate the Metropolis area of the park and gives that area a much less cluttered appearance. It also barely operated, so removing a consistently not running ride from a park is never a bad idea.

In talking to staff and listening in on other conversations, my take away for all of these removals is the park is deciding to take a small step backward in 2025 and willingly taking the criticism for doing so to push for a better park experience in the future. The goal was to remove older, sometimes less popular, and sometimes less reliable rides to allow the park to start to invest in more modern and dependable attractions. The Flash: Vertical Velocity certainly falls into the modern category and hopefully it will also be reliable. Another change we were able to get some insight into was the safety of the park, which is a major focus this season. The security teams are focusing on making the park experience more enjoyable for guests with a renewed focus on line jumping and unruly guests. The security staff intended to firmly enforce their line jumping rules with immediate removal for line jumpers and those who create a scene or are combative will be banned for a year. We were also told that holding a spot in line is considered line jumping. If they sufficiently enforce these rules it will go a long way for the park experience, as line jumping is becoming a huge issue, especially at parks who take it lightly.

The security staff also gave us insight into the slightly controversial chaperone policy, which they also appear to have a renewed focus on. The key point we heard was that unattended teens may be asked to leave. My interpretation of this is that teenagers who are not causing trouble will not have any issues, it is the unruly, obnoxious, and disruptive teens that will be removed from the park. If this is how it is truly enforced then it is a perfect approach, as it gives the teens who are just there to enjoy the rides a chance to avoid being lumped in with their peers.

Overall these conversations really gave us great insight into the atmosphere in and around the park this year. I was curious to see how the merger impacted staff morale and it was clear the staff was energized and excited for the season. Almost every staff member we talked with said the merger has brought a new and optimistic energy back to the park. There was also noticeable work put into the appearance of the park. We were limited to the front entrance and Metropolis, but these areas were noticeably cleaner and the buildings were in great condition. There was a new sitting area near The Flash gift kiosk, which I included a photo of above, that was beautiful and if they maintain it well, will be a great spot for guests to take a break in the park.

I will touch on this more in my review of The Flash: Vertical Velocity, but one area that was a bit lacking was the queue for the new coaster. I hope that at the time we rode it the theming was just not complete. The ride mostly had an empty queue, including a metal building, however there was some signage and in-station audio attempting to build a story around the ride. It loosely explains that the ride is an experiment to break a speed barrier allowing the machine to enter “hypertime” before reaching a recall point (the reverse portion of the ride) and coming back to reality. If themed well, it is a pretty fun and creative story for the ride. I do not think we will ever confuse it for a Universal attraction, but with some theming to this back story it could be executed well.

I am optimistic about Six Flags Great Adventure and the future of the park. I think the merger has served the park well thus far. The Flash: Vertical Velocity is a great addition to a very good lineup. With single day tickers available as low as $39, it is worth the price of admission just to take a ride on the new coaster along with a lineup still featuring 12 coasters including El Toro, Nitro, and the only Super Boomerang in North America. Additionally with season passes as low as $69 and the all park passport available as low as $195 ($85 for the gold pass and $110 for the all park passport) the merger creates great value for amusement park enthusiasts in the area. There are 5 other parks the passport grants access to all within four and a half hours of Great Adventure, including Dorney Park, King’s Dominion, Six Flags Great Escape, New England, and America. The all park passport will give you opportunities to ride Dorney’s 2024 new addition, Iron Menace and the all new Rapterra at King’s Dominion. For the families with young thrill seekers, it will also let you check out Six Flags Great Escape’s awesome looking 2024 new addition, The Bobcat, and the soon to be complete family multi-launch Quantum Accelerator at Six Flags New England. The all park passport truly is a phenomenal value for those in and around the Tri-state area.

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