If you are not a traveling theme park and roller coaster enthusiast, you may not understand the mind shift I had when I realized Six Flags: Great Adventure in New Jersey and Six Flags: Great America outside of Chicago share the same initials.
Prior to our August 2024 family road trip across the Midwest, I started to research Six Flags: Great America. And that’s when I realized both parks go by SFGA. When I ventured outside my local park Facebook groups and started asking about SFGA, people asked, “Which one?”
Oh. Yeah. The one in Chicago.
But wait, it’s not actually in Chicago. It’s roughly 45 minutes to an hour (depending on traffic) from the city center in a lovely little vacation town called Gurnee. Gurnee is also home to a Great Wolf Lodge, an escape room, a family entertainment center with trampolines and a ninja course, and more than 100 restaurants. (Read how I would spend 48 hours in Gurnee with kids here.)
It’s not just acronyms Great Adventure and Great America share.
Six Flags Great America and Great Adventure are commonly recognized as the franchise’s top parks, along with Magic Mountain in California, the original company’s flagship theme park with 19 coasters.
As most roller coaster fans and even the general public knows by now, Six Flags and Cedar Fair, the leading regional amusement park companies, merged this year. Even following the merger, Six Flags Great America will remain one of the top 10, and potentially top 5, Six Flags parks, although it will face intense competition to hold that spot.
As a lifelong attendee of Six Flags Great Adventure, what do I think about the Six Flags: Great Adventure vs. Six Flags: Great America debate?
Obviously, Great Adventure has an advantage being roughly an hour and 15 minutes from a city with more than 8.3 million people (New York). It’s also less than an hour from Philadelphia, with another 1.6 million people. Plus, it’s roughly two hours from Long Island, with another 8 million people. The Northeast is simply more populated than the Midwest, which will make Great Adventure more popular.
Cedar Point, Kings Island, and Six Flags: St. Louis are roughly five hours from Six Flags: Great America, but coaster fanatics might be willing to travel to any of these parks, depending on where they live.
The only Six Flags / Cedar Fair park in close proximity to Great Adventure is Dorney Park. Dorney is a great all-around park for little kids. You also can’t beat its outdoor water park.
Dorney Park is roughly an hour from Philly, 1.5 hours from NYC, and two to three hours from Long Island. But its coaster line-up doesn’t compete with legends like Kingda Ka, Nitro, or Jersey Devil at Great Adventure. For geography, Great Adventure has less competition and wins for accessibility for people around the country, with four international airports and several regional airports in driving distance. Chicago also has three international airports. Incidentally, Chicago’s O’Hare, New Jersey’s Newark, and New York’s LaGuardia were all rated in the top 10 worst airports in the country by Frommer’s.
So maybe just consider a road trip, anyway!
I loved the welcoming vibe at Great America. It felt cleaner than Great Adventure.
The layout was smart, making it super easy to get around. After two days, I only got a little lost (which, if you know me, is impressive)! The food choices and quality also exceeded Great Adventure, as did the service.
If you’re chasing pure coaster thrills, you’ll get more excitement at Great Adventure, Cedar Point, or maybe even King’s Island or Six Flags New England.
I’ve got to agree with Limitless Park’s take: “You could argue that better versions of each coaster can be found across the U.S.”
For example, Raging Bull was close to the fun of Great Adventure’s Nitro, but not quite there. And it doesn’t compare to Superman: Ultimate Flight at Six Flags New England, which is on another level. Goliath, the RMC, was also fun and we rode it several times. It’s not the same experience as SFNE’s Wicked Cyclone or Kings Dominion’s Twisted Timbers.
X-Flight stands out for me. It’s a wing coaster like Cedar Point’s Gatekeeper. Again, Gatekeeper is the better ride, but X-Flight stole my heart for the theming and fast line. We don’t have a wing coaster at Great Adventure, so it’s a novelty to me, and an enjoyable ride.
Because it’s not quite as scary as Gatekeeper, my son was willing to ride it, so that’s a benefit. He does need to give me back my X-Flight t-shirt, considering I offered to buy him one in the gift shop and he said, “No.”
Maxx Force deserves a shoutout as one of the park’s standout coasters and one of the top three.
American Eagle is a solid, 40-year-old wooden racing coaster we rode several times. The second train wasn’t running when we were there, but that didn’t detract from the thrill. It’s not that different from King’s Dominion’s Racer 75, which we have rode many times in a row because there’s hardly ever a line.
The Demon was a surprisingly fun family coaster for kids 42 inches and up. It was unlike anything I’ve ever ridden and the cave added an extra thrill.
We skipped Batman because the lines were long; it looked like a clone of the one at Great Adventure, albeit with fewer inversions.
Here’s the thing: Most of the larger coasters at Great America can be found in other variations in other parks. My sentiments on day one echoed those of Limitless Park. I told my husband, “It’s got a solid line-up of coasters but they are all things we can find better someplace else. They are like ‘good enough’ but not amazing. But all together, the park is just a lot of fun!”
In short, Great America may not have the best coaster line-up, but it has a few unique rides, a fun and friendly vibe, a park-wide train ride with some fun scenery and a pretty good food line-up. So, let’s continue focusing on the good.
I wish we had more time in the park to enjoy everything it offered. The train through the park wow’ed me, with a skeleton-themed visual story as we drove through. We waved at riders on coasters and reIaxed with our popcorn. I love a good amusement park train ride and this is one of the best I’ve experienced!
Justice League: Battle for Metropolis was almost exactly like the Six Flags: Great Adventure version, with just enough differences to feel like we had stepped into a parallel universe.
We enjoyed a few rounds on the Winner’s Circle Go Karts at the end of the night when everyone drives like maniacs. It was a fun course! (Note: There is an upcharge.)
Being at a new-to-us park, the kids got swept away in the excitement and rode the second level of the Columbia Carousel and hopped on the DC Super-Villains Swing more than once. If we had more time at the park, they probably would have wanted to try all the flat rides.
Another thrill was Whizzer, a classic landmark kiddie coaster that spirals down 70 feet at a speed of 45 miles per hour, perfect for kids. The Six Flags website says this coaster has been around since the park opened in 1976 and is one of just two of its kind left in the world. We rode this in the last half hour of the night at the kids’ request; I wanted to watch the fireworks show, instead.
The line was surprisingly long, but it worked out. I got to check another “magical moment” off my theme park bucket list; for a few brief moments, I watched fireworks while I was riding a roller coaster!
The food choices and quality at Great America put our home park to shame. Six Flags Great Adventure tends to be lackluster when it comes to food. We often jump out of the park for McDonald’s, pizza, or (when I have my way!) heroes at Wawa. Food options outside the park have expanded with the new complex across the street from the park. I’m hoping it may encourage the park to up their game, but it’s still mostly fast food you can get anywhere, like Taco Bell and Popeye’s.
The County Fair Food Court at Great America was jam-packed with options, including Blue Ribbon Turkey Legs, and burgers or chicken strips at Thrill Burger. I’m a fan of Macho Nacho at Great Adventure; it’s the one place I know I can get a filling, low-carb meal.
While we didn’t try it at Great America, I’m sure it offered the same generous portions and high-quality Tex Mex tacos, salads, and nachos. Great America also has two Johnny Rockets locations and several places to grab quick snacks.
Sure, you can still save money venturing outside the park. The town of Gurnee has a ton of quick-service, fast casual, and family dining options. But if you choose to eat inside the park, in my experience, it’s better than most!
On our last night, before meeting up with my husband and son at Whizzer, my daughter had her heart set on pasta for dinner. Tucked in the DC Universe area of the park, we stumbled upon Steelworks Pub, a building unlike any I’ve seen at any other Six Flags park.
There, we found buttered pasta (for her), a meatball sub and beer in a souvenir glass (for me) and the friendliest staff I have ever encountered at a Six Flags park anywhere. They even replaced my leaking season drink cup without any questions. I’m not sharing their names, lest they get fired for providing a truly premium experience and handing out drink cups to Platinum Members, willy-nilly.
As we were strolling through the park, I said to my family, “If we lived in this area I could see loving this park as much, if not more, than Great Adventure.”
From the food to the service, there was so much to appreciate. The top coasters had longer lines than I expected, but we didn’t splurge on Flash Passes and still never waited more than 45 minutes.
It has a great location, less than an hour from Chicago and in a suburb with plenty of hotels and lots of other activities for kids and families. (We can’t say the same for Great Adventure!)
Six Flags Great America doesn’t appear to be doing Holiday in the Park so if you missed the fall activities, including Fright Fest and Octoberfest, you’ll have to wait until next year. But it’s a park worth the wait. It hasn’t won my heart over the OG SFGA (Great Adventure) but I can’t wait to go back!
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