As I mentioned last week, I visited Six Flags New England, Lake Compounce, and Quassy all in one day. Today I will review a little bit of Six Flags New England, including their two newest coasters. My sister had never been to the park, so we opted to get the Gold Flash Pass in order to get on every coaster and be out of the park by about 3:00 or so, so we could get to the other two parks before they closed (and it ended up being a wise choice).

We started with Goliath, the transplanted Vekoma “Giant Inverted Boomerang” model that used to be at Magic Mountain as Déjà Vu. We were assigned to sit in the front seat on the third train of the morning. The ride began after we were strapped in by the totally unnecessary seatbelts and the shoulder harnesses. As we began to turn vertical, the ride shook and jiggled, and it was then I knew that we had broken down. As this ride is famous for, we were stuck on the lift not quite vertical for a few minutes before being lowered into the station.

After a few test runs, we were allowed back on for a successful ride cycle. I must say that this is my favorite of any of the “Boomerang” style rides from Vekoma. It is very exciting and forceful, and there is minimal head banging that some of the other models have a bit more of. The ride was originally supposed to have newer trains, but the old trains still run, with the new ones not expected to arrive until next season.

Next we rode Flashback, the regular “Boomerang” that is located just across the midway from Goliath. This is one of the rougher models I have been on and probably my least favorite out of the ten I have ridden. After that we headed towards Cyclone. Just three years ago I rode this ride and thought it was pretty decent despite a bit of roughness. This time, the part of the ride with the topper track was the most enjoyable, while the rest of the ride was almost too rough to enjoy and lacked a lot of the airtime it had just a few years ago. I hope that more is done to this ride to improve its quality in the coming years.

After Cyclone came a good spinning coaster in Pandemonium, where we skipped about a forty-minute line with our Flash Pass. I wish this ride was just a bit longer, but I also wish more parks had coasters like this, as it is a fun ride that is often forgotten about. The cars often spin a bunch! After a spin on Great Chase to get my sister the credit, we skipped about a thirty-minute line or so at Thunderbolt, where we sat in the back seat. While not quite as rough as the Cyclone, this ride could still use a little work, or at least a new paint job. The ride itself is pretty fun though with some good airtime especially on the double down in the middle of the ride. Hopefully Six Flags will turn its attention to these wooden coasters to restore them to some previous glory.

At this time, my sister’s track record reached 97, so we had two more rides to do before riding Bizarro as her 100th coaster. First up was the coaster with what is probably the longest name in coaster history, Gotham City Gauntlet: Escape From Arkham Asylum. Why such a long name was chosen is beyond me, but the ride is a standard “Wild Mouse” coaster that has a few road signs and factory items that enhance the experience a bit. The cars are nicely decorated as well, with each car being dedicated to one of Batman’s rivals.

We took one spin on Catwoman’s Whip, the Zierer family coaster before heading to Bizarro for the first of three rides on it for the day. Being her 100th coaster, my sister and I decided to wait for the front seat. Airtime is the focus of this ride from start to finish. Hill after hill of airtime is present with some neat twists and turns mixed in. The on-ride audio is now a mix of rock and rap songs instead of the dialogue of superheroes and villains. We rode again later on in the day in the back seat, which provides just as much airtime, and a nice little pop on the drop as well, and on our third ride we opted for the third row, just to get in another ride.

The last two rides to do were Batman and Mind Eraser, both of which had thirty-minute waits or so. Interestingly enough, Batman’s station still says Batman: The Dark Knight, as well as the ride operators referring to the ride under that name, yet park signs, the Flash Pass, and park maps call it Batman: The Ride. I wonder if this is because an indoor Dark Knight Coaster was originally planned for the park before being scrapped in favor of a different park to receive it, and then the park never bothered to change signs and what not back since most people call it just Batman anyway.

At any rate, it is still a good, intense floorless coaster, although I was a bit surprised at how much it rattled. It did not subtract from the ride a whole lot, but it didn’t have the silky smoothness that a lot of B&M rides have. The trim brake just before the zero-g-roll also takes a bit away from the speed and intensity, but overall it is still a fun ride.

Last was the dreaded Mind Eraser, what I think is probably the most painful of the numerous SLC models I have been on. It bangs you around from start to finish, and I found myself holding my head tightly against the right side of the harness to reduce to roughness a little bit. It is worth a ride for the credit, but now that my sister and I have both ridden it, it’s much better to grab an extra ride on Batman than to ride that thing.

Overall it was a good visit. I got to re-visit one of my favorite steel coasters in Bizarro, and my sister got to ride eleven new coasters to put her over the 100 coaster mark, with Bizarro being her new favorite coaster for all of three days until she rode Skyrush. Stay tuned later this week where I will talk about our short 90-minute stop at Lake Compounce so we could grab a few rides on the incredible Boulder Dash!