Home > New Jersey > Six Flags Great Adventure > Rolling Thunder

Rolling Thunder
Website: Six Flags Great Adventure Homepage
Ride Type: Wooden Coaster
Ride Status: Running
Average Rating: 3.3333
TPC Overall Rank: #349 out of 2933 rides.
Reviews: 94
Last Review: 8/20/2008 8:14:00 PM
In User Top 10: 22 times.
User Tracker Count: 296 times.
 

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3 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up colugino on 8/20/2008 8:14:00 PM
When I was younger and scared to death of roller coasters (early 80&#39.s I think) Rolling Thunder had one track with the car going forward and one going backwards. I remember my uncle dragging me through the line to go on the backwards train and me screaming bloody murder until I wiggled my way loose and ran away (luckily it was hot and may arm was sweaty! LOL). I hadn&#39.t been to SFGA for years afterwards. When I went back at the end of high school I was telling all my friends about it and we walked up and there was no backwards track. Not to mention there was only one track running. At that point the ride looked so rickety that we decided not to ride. Years later I did finally ride it... yeah, had to call the chiropracter after that one! I have definitely been on better, smoother roller coasters. If you want the fear of &quot.am i going to fly off the track&quot. then this ride is for you!

3 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up phoenix on 7/28/2008 12:33:00 AM
My latest experience on Rolling Thunder has an equal amount of pros and cons. The day I rode, both coasters were up and running and were able to race most of the time. My group knew of its roughness before we decided to ride it, but afterwards, I didn&#39.t think it was any rougher than other woodies similar to it. I was closer to the front of the train and some of my friends rode towards the back and had a rougher ride. The music in the station &#39.Rollin, rollin, rollin&#39. was a nice touch until its repetition became somewhat annoying. Part of the reason for the long wait in the station was because of how slowly the ride attendents loaded and unloaded the trains. While the ride seems a little shorter than most (it is an older ride) it seemed the majority of the time we spent on the train was waiting for the other trains to dispatch so we could pull into the station to unload. That&#39.s how bad loading time was. The ride itself was good. Our train was ahead when we got on the lift hill, but the other track (right side) has a faster chain and so its train went over the hill first. Close to the top of the lift hill is a set of old fashioned double loud speakers in which the &#39.Rollin, rollin, rollin&#39. song could be heard faintly. This ride mostly consists of bunny hills as most woodies do. The tracks are not side by side and are not identical, but symmetrical in some spots. When one goes up the other goes down. The trains meet up again at the end and there is no winner identified by the ride as there is with Hersheypark&#39.s Lightning Racer. To me, which ever train stops first is the winner, but even the losing train is a winner because its passengers get longer ride! This is a good first coaster for those just trying them out. There was just one thing about this ride I couldn&#39.t figure out. While waiting in line for El Toro there were several ear splitting airhorn blasts that sounded like it was coming from RT. We thought is was to let the operator know that the chain lift had stalled and needed to be reset. Does anyone know what the airhorn blast is for? Oh, and just for the record, our train won!

5 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up coasterwom on 5/28/2008 8:48:00 PM
This wooden coaster is a good classic coaster and should get higher ratings on this site in my opinion. It is a wood out and back racer built by William Cobb and Don Rosser. It was built in 1979. It is 90 feet tall and has a 85 foot drop. It is 3,200 feet long. Rolling Thunder has two completely different courses within its dual layout. This out & back offers two different ride experiences when the racer is in full operation. When I visited the park it was a fun and rerideable ride. The first hill and drop is incredible. This is followed by more hills which deliver alot of airtime. This is a must ride if your an enthusiast. When I visited it was located next to Viper and it fit in nicely with the coaster line up. I hope they never tear this coaster down its a classic and I like the old woodies. It has a large capacity and a long ride duration. When I visited the park it had nice scenery around it also.

2 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up coasterf42 on 5/14/2008 3:42:00 PM

This gets a three for lameness, not for roughness. Some hills had a hint of floater air, but most were simply void of any airtime whatsoever. I love the old-fashion look to it, and the out-and-back layout is a style that I have no complaints about. The single position lap bars, and sweet smell of chain-lift grease brought a smile to my face-as did the view of the awe-inspiring El Toro just a few feet to your right. The ride just didn’t deliver any thrills however, and was admiringly a bit jarring at the bottom of a few hills. PS: Do they ALWAYS play Rawhide in the station?

4 Rating
+1 Rating Rate Down Rate Up biosciking on 1/29/2007 12:06:00 AM
Waiting in line, I thought I was in for a less than spectacular experience with Rolling Thunder. Running just one train on any wooden coaster leads to a pretty miserable wait, and this one inched along slower than I could have thought possible. At about six minute intervals or so, the dispatching of a train was marked by a hideous screeching of wheels on track, as said train turned from the station to the lift hill. Reviews on this site make the coaster sound pretty bad, and it had an overall worn-down appearance. To make a long story short, I was not in the most receptive mood for this ride by the time I actually got to board. However, it surprised me. The screeching wheels and decrepit look of the ride were just marks of an old-fashioned, classic coaster experience. The long queue time followed from a long ride time, so that at least in part made up for it. And the ride itself was quite good. Plenty of ups and downs with good negative gs, and several turns with good lateral gs. This is a racing coaster, and while it was of course not racing, I think it looked pretty cool, with the side-by-side tracks sort of leap-frogging each other rather than traveling directly next to one another. I dont know what the status of the two tracks here is, but I imagine if it ever does race, it would provide an even better ride. As the train returned to the station, I was noticeably happier than I thought I would be, and certainly happier than I had been prior to boarding. Had it not been for the ridiculous wait time (and maybe the fact that this coaster has the misfortune of being located right next to the new king of wood coasters, El Toro), I may have given Rolling Thunder a 10.

2 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up Got_it on 11/2/2006 5:14:00 PM
I had been on the road for a long, time, I had been to Kennywood, Lakemont and Hershey, this was my last stop. All of said parks have a great line up of wood coasters. I had yet to meet a wood coaster I hated. Then I got on Rolling Thunder.I always try to give wood coasters the benefit of the doubt, no matter how bad they may be, but I just cant on this one. This is my first time I ever thought about something else besides roller coasters while I was still one it! I was not around for when the park was not owned by Six Flags but Im sure it was much better then. The layout looks like it would be fun, but it just has no speed, and it doesnt race. I mean comeone Six Flags step up and help this old woodie Its a RACING coaster!. Ugh as of right now I wouldnt care if it just fell over and by the looks and sounds of it, its not too far off.


3 Rating
-1 Rating Rate Down Rate Up EltoroLuva on 8/27/2006 1:22:00 PM
this ride is very bad. the line is incredibly is slow and not worth it. double as bumpy as scream machine. very boring.

5 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up Penguin 35 on 8/9/2006 4:15:00 PM
Why is this ride so underrated? I believed this was a great ride! So what if this ride was sort of rough, it doesnt ruin the ride for me! About every woodie is at least a little rough anyway...

2 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up fergusonat on 8/3/2006 3:37:00 PM
I will begin by saying this ride was by far the worst wooden roller coaster I have ever had the displeasure to experience. The first drop rose my hopes, however, as did the presence of buzz bars. The rest of the ride was horrendous, however. Rolling Thunder consists of a series of brutal hills with no airtime. Loading times were horiffic as well. Basically just a worthless ride. If I was El Toro, Id be insulted that I was built next to such a load of crap

4 Rating
+1 Rating Rate Down Rate Up jdale on 10/4/2005 5:04:00 PM
Im glad that RT is now part of the new Plaza del Carnival. You get a great view of El Toros twister section and hills. But RT is another story. The first drop is great, and the secondary hills deliver some decent air. The turn at the far end isnt too special, but at least some more fun hills follow. And I like how the train slides around that turn before the brakes. Yeah, I know its bumpy and loud. There is a device called earplugs, you know. They were of use for me today. Unfortunately, theres only one train running on the ride as of now. Dont expect the lines to move too quickly. Seeing this ride with Viper wasnt much, but a bigger wooden coaster right next to it looks way better. Brown and white. As for restraints, theyre pretty basic. Just a single lapbar with a tight seatbelt. For the rides 27th year, it aint bad nowadays.

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