Stay Solvent While Visiting Six Flags Great Adventure

Along with Mr. Six, emblem of Six Flags, Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, should come a new mascot -a giant vacuum cleaner for sucking the money out of your pockets. Prepared to be braced. But, with a little advance preparation, you may be left with more than lint in your pockets at the end of the day.

Be aware that the $50.00 or so that you will pay for your one day pass does not begin to cover all. In addition, you can expect separate admission charges of around $5.00 a piece for many of the deluxe rides, designed to captivate the relentless teenage hearts of your offspring.

Then there is the so-called flash-pass. For a mere $53.00 over and above basic admittance, the pass guarantees that you will actually be able to enter the hottest rides before you expire from old age.

Sodas and lemonades for roughly $4.00 a piece. Special refillable "commemorate glasses for $13.00 that offer a free refill for that day only, and hold out the promise of 99 cent refills forever after-that is if your scatterbrained offspring, the same ones who forget their umbrellas, boots and coats actually remember to pack this precious object.

Not to mention lockers. For a mere $1.00, the park will rent you up to 110 minutes in a dedicated locker so that you don't have to take your pocketbook on any of the coasters, water-flumes or Congo rapids. And, of course, each ride has its own locker. Try to skimp, and you may find yourself rushing half-way across the 2200 acre park, trying to beat the employee charged with tossing your things out.

Then there are the extras. Want to see 50 cent in concert? Pay up. An extra $20.00 if you please. Want to take a guided tour bus through the safari park? That is also available for additional charge.

Parking is extra. A candy bar is $2.00. All of this in a park that is supposedly bankrupt. They must have Bernie Madoff's accountants. So what to do?

If you are going by bus, leave plenty of time. I arrived a half-hour before the 9:30 am departure time for Port Authority Bus #308 leaving New York for Great Adventure, yet I made it to the terminal with less than 2 minutes to spare. Miss that bus and your trip will start tomorrow. Be advised, no refunds on that ticket either. Try to buy your bus ticket the day before, find a ticket machine, or leave at least an extra hour to stand on the very long lines, locate the appropriate gate for your bus and have a quick coffee or piece of cake. One less thing to buy when you get to the park.

Prepare yourself with the proper equipment. Begin by choosing a fanny pack or a drawstring bag that can be secured to your person so that you don't get nicked dollar by dollar for those lockers. Leave everything that could be damaged by water at home. That includes expensive cameras, delicate clothes, sound devices and so on. Water is ever-present at the theme park, from the eight-row "Splash Zone," at the dolphin show, to the rides themselves.

Dress appropriately. No bathing suits if you are not going to Hurricane Harbor. Great Adventure also advises you to leave the offensive tee shirts at home. Turning them inside-out is not an option. Leave the potty-mouth and undue aggression at home while you're at it. This is a public space where all ages and cultures must mix. Parents with small children mix poorly with threatening or pushy people -- you will be thrown out.

Consider taking a collapsible cup such as a camper might bring. This will allow you to fill up with water at the fountains when you first arrive and periodically at each restroom break so that you can skip the $4.00 lemonades or the $13.00 commemorative soda cups that bring back fond memories of when you had money.

You may want to refresh the smuggling skills you employed when you slipped that salami sandwich into the movie theater when you were in college and very broke. You will actually be searched going into the theme park, so be prepared to wolf it down in a rest stop before you enter the park, consume it on the bus, or slide it into a part of your body that would only get searched at Riker's Island.

Arm yourself with information. Make sure you have a map of the park and a schedule of all of the shows. Why pay for additional rides and other frills when you are entitled to see any number of excellent programs all-inclusive?

Consider avoiding the best weather or the most popular days. I went on a relatively overcast but temperate day and found that the line rides were nil, yet I witnessed teens lining up to pay $53.00 to get first access to rides that everyone else could enter 10 minutes later for free. If you don't insist on going with the pack, you can save big. And if you are the impatient type, at least stroll around the park for a few minutes to see whether you actually need to spring for that flash pass.

Carry aspirin. You will ache after walking for six or eight hours. Of course a single ibuprofen tablet is available in the vending machines in the ladies rooms for a mere 75 cents.

What do you do if you take all necessary precautions, and they still get you? Live a little. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff.

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