Six Flags America Review

Six Flags is one of the largest amusement park chains in the country. They are known for having incredible, thrilling coasters with innovative new ideas for rides every year. They have many parks throughout the country that all have something different to offer. However, Six Flags does suffer from inconsistency throughout its parks. 

There is a discrepancy between which parks many people consider to be the best and which ones are the worst. Typically, when you ask people which one is the worst, the park that is often mentioned is Six Flags America. 

Located in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, this park is my home park and is probably the park that I have visited the most (either this or Kings Dominion). So, my review is coming from someone who has visited the park a lot over the years. Is it really as bad as many people claim it to be? Well, let’s look at it.

Rides

When going to an amusement park, the most important thing to take into consideration is the rides. This is the reason you are going and spending your money. Six Flags America has a good amount of rides & rollercoasters that will pass the time enough. The park has 9 coasters and a bunch of flat rides. 

I love rollercoasters so that is what I spend most of my time doing. Unfortunately, this park’s rollercoasters are very underwhelming. The coasters include Superman: Ride of Steel, Joker’s Jinx, Batwing, Rajun Cajun, The Great Chase (A kiddie coaster), The Wild One, Roar, Mind Eraser, and Fire Bird. Superman: Ride of Steel is the only coaster in this group that is really good. 

It is an Intamin hypercoaster with a good drop and some good air time moments. It is really the only coaster, however, that I would ride a bunch more times after the first one. The other ones I can just go on once and be done for the day. Mind Eraser I may not even ride at all because it is one of the worst coasters I’ve ever been on. 

It is headbang city and could ruin your day if you get a bad enough ride. There are two wooden coasters, The Wild One & Roar, that both need serious updates, although The Wild One is over 100 years old so there is some charm to it. If Six Flags were to convert Roar to an RMC, this would seriously upgrade the coaster collection in the park. 

Many of these rides are in serious need of upgrades, anyways. The operations of most of these rides are terrible. I have never been to this park when everything was open or at least stayed open throughout the day. There have been countless times where I walk to and from each ride just to discover that they are closed or get in line and then leave the line because the ride shuts down. 

Batwing, more times than not, is closed. It should really just be put out of its misery at this point because it’s rarely open. Even then, if it is open, it isn’t great and suffers in comparison to B&M’s flying coasters. If Six Flags America is ever on the news, it is usually because a ride closed down and riders needed to be evacuated off. It is obvious also that Six Flags clearly doesn’t care too much about this park because it hasn’t received a new, state-of-the-art rollercoaster in a while. 

The last rollercoaster the park got was Rajun Cajun, which is a fun ride but is just a standard spinning rollercoaster that isn’t even original. It was just relocated from another Six Flags park to this one. Firebird opened in 2019, but it doesn’t really count since it is just a re-model of Apocalypse that changed it from a stand-up to a sit-down. Apocalypse was terrible, but Firebird is a mediocre rollercoaster at best. 

Also, the layout of the park is a bit odd. All of the good rides are crowded together in Gotham City, and then everything else is spread out. It isn’t a very big park though so it doesn’t take too long to get from one side to the other. There’s plenty of space to work with in the back of the park to maybe fit in a compact coaster, like an RMC Raptor or an S&S Free Spin. 

Outside of the rollercoasters, there are some fun additional rides. A couple of highlights include Wonder Woman: Lasso of Truth (a giant swing), and The Penguin’s Blizzard River, a raft ride where you basically just spin down a slide, but it’s pretty fun actually. New for 2021 is Harley Quinn Spinsanity, a pendulum ride that provides a big thrill but could make riders dizzy. 

If you have small kids, there is enough at this park for them. There is an area themed to Looney Tunes and one themed to trains. There are also two water rides, Shipwreck Falls, a log flume that gets you soaked, and Renegade Rapids, a rapids ride that really doesn’t get you wet at all, but is still an enjoyable experience. 

The park does offer Flash Pass to skip the lines, but you will absolutely not need it because there are never any lines. There is really nothing enticing about this park to coaster enthusiasts nor the general public that would make this park get too busy. 

Water Park

The water park is actually surprisingly good. There are a lot of good slides here and it is connected to the main park so it is included with your ticket. Some of the highlights here include Bahama Blast, Zoomazon Falls, Shark Attack Mako, Tornado, Halfpipe, and Bonzai Pipelines. 

There is also a wave pool, a lazy river, and a couple of children’s play areas and kid’s slides. This is definitely a great place to go if it is a hot day and you need to cool down after doing the rollercoasters. There are some days where I could just spend the whole day at the water park. It has a nice Caribbean theme to it as well to make it feel more relaxing.

Theming

The theming of this park is fine. There is a pirate area, which does very little with the theme, a Gotham City area, Looney Tunes, Thomas & Friends, the Wild West, a Mardi Gras section, and a colonial theming for the entrance. Like most Six Flags parks, this park does very little with its theming. 

Even the Gotham City area does close to nothing with the DC characters except for the name of the ride and the color of the ride. The section does play music from various DC movies, so as a big film nerd, I do enjoy that part of it. The Wild West area is themed pretty well, although I have no idea why Mind Eraser is over here.

 I’d say the best section is probably the Mardi Gras section as there is some more detail over here. There is even a random dance party that will pop up in this section that can be pretty fun. This park, unfortunately, just isn’t very pleasing to the eye. There isn’t a lot of bright colors, bodies of water, or even pretty foliage. It’s a bit dull.

Food

In terms of food, there is nothing really surprising here. There is a lot of your typical theme park food like burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, tacos, and chicken nuggets. I have never had a necessarily gross meal here, but never really anything outstanding. There are some brand names like Johnny Rocket’s, Rita’s, and Chop Six (basically Panda Express). 

Of course, it is all overpriced, but it’s an amusement park. Amusement park food prices are always ridiculous. You can buy a souvenir bottle, which will give you unlimited refills, but I recommend just taking your own water bottle and refilling it with water for free. They have a ban on outside food, but I have walked in with a full lunchbox, so try it at your own risk.

Service

For the most part, the employees at this park are good. However, I have had encounters with servers that have an attitude or are just clearly not in the mood to be working. Some employees are just clearly not interested in being there. That being said, I have also seen some of the most friendly and enthusiastic employees that I have ever seen at an amusement park. 

So, it really depends on who you get, but my experience is usually positive. Even though the rides break down a lot, they do usually open up pretty quickly, which can be frustrating because it’ll have you going back and forth.

Final Thoughts

I do think that Six Flags America is as bad as everyone says it is. The ride selection isn’t great, the rollercoasters are underwhelming, and the operations are awful. I have never been to an amusement park where the rides break down so frequently and are shown such little care from the park’s ownership. This park is in desperate need of an upgrade to bring it back to life. 

I will say that people do not often include the water park in their critique and if you like water parks, this park is pretty good. I recommend doing the rollercoasters first because you can get them done quickly, and then just chill at the water park afterward if you have time. 

It is still an amusement park so if you have never been, you can still have fun. I just do not recommend taking too much time out of your life to visit this park until it receives an upgrade.

Final score: 2.5/5