It may have taken longer than anyone wanted it to, but with the long-awaited opening of The Flash, New Jersey is now home to the first Boomerang (Sea Serpent) and Super Boomerang (Vertical Velocity) coasters in the United States!
I got my first ride in yesterday (Row 2) during the passholder ERT. This was a nice idea and the line was well managed. It was unfortunate that there was so much downtime - I doubt many guests with daily admission tickets got a chance to enjoy the ride. Between all that downtime, my singular ride, and the little bit of pent up anger I had from how the beverage refills were being handled yesterday (not great), it didn't feel fair to post my review last night.
Today was quite a bit colder, a little damp, and promised to be much less crowded - not an ideal day for the park's bean counters, but more than ideal for me! I spent only 3 and a half hours on the property and was able to ride twice more. Uptime was significantly better than yesterday; nearly perfect from what I heard from employees (which makes
@The Master 's situation above all the more unfortunate
).
I'll give my thoughts in sections, so people can skip the less interesting bits if desired:
Queue: Cyborg had some nice lighting around the ride area and The Flash benefits from this big time. The entry portion of the queue has a futuristic look to it with a neat sign, billboard explanations of the ride elements, and nice LED pillars. The building shown earlier in this thread doesn't seem to have much of a point at the moment, and serves a dual purpose of having very little on display and detracting from one of the cooler elements of the line - how close it gets you to the ride and the track. The new viewpoints that open up as you advance through the latter part of the queue makes the advance exciting. The staff seemed cognizant of this fact and didn't utilize the queue snake inside the building, they just had everyone shoot straight through. The recording explaining the ride's purpose and safety measures was well thought out and sounded authentic. The metal coverings that Green Lantern had once used to protect queuers from falling objects were refurbished with Flash logos and used strategically.
Wait: Separated from the queue portion for effect - the anticipated capacity nightmare is real. Line advancement takes a very long time. Even after getting to the ride lockers, the queue splits once again for regular riders and Flash Pass, with the latter having a marked advantage. With only one train running at a time, each instance of getting passed in line feels significant. Wisely, this ride was made ineligible for the 1X/visit "Skip The Line" perk that's included with some higher level season passes and memberships.
Vehicle: The vehicle is visually impressive and elaborate. It has a fantastic lighting package (this may not be fully appreciable until 4th of July weekend + Fright Fest because of the current amount of daylight and early closing hours, but it really does look stunning). Onboard audio is present (I recall hearing it on Saturday but not Sunday), and it brings a perfect sense of foreboding to the inside of the station. The restraints are stretchy and very comfortable - I was extremely impressed after my initial worries about how they would feel.
Ride: A sleeper hit if there ever was one. The launch out of the station is fun. Ascending the first vertical hill when going backwards gives a stomach drop feeling akin to the Buccaneer, which gets more pronounced the father back you sit. The hangtime on the first (and, accordingly, last) inversion is wild, wonderfully intense without feeling disagreeable. The speed increase and airtime hills that follow are well placed, and the airtime feels more profound because of the aforementioned stretchiness of the shoulder restraints. Because you'll be going over them both ways, those airtime hills will get you good at least once, whether it's on the way forward or back. The forces overall are great and frequently unexpected. A lot of rider reactions that I heard stemmed from subversion of their expectations - this is a unique and well executed experience. I don't think there's a bad seat on the ride, but having ridden rows 1, 2, and 12, the back was my favorite by far.
Overall: The Flash is a wonderful addition to the park's lineup. It's a shame that it opened in what's being (justifiably) considered a lean year for the park, because it's absolutely worth making a trip for. The other side of the coin is the rebuilding year potentially keeping the line more manageable - something that's very much needed for a low capacity ride like this one. Had it opened last year, I think positive word of mouth could have drawn in tons of people who might have been on the fence about visiting.
This one will no doubt be seeing a lot of repeat rides from me.
