Disney California Adventure
vs
Six Flags Great Adventure

Disney California Adventure and Six Flags Great Adventure queue about the same on a typical day - 26 minutes against 25 minutes across 21 and 23 tracked rides. Pick on travel time or on which rides you actually want.

See both right now Compare other parks

01 · On a typical day

What you would normally queue.

Averages across recent weeks, so one broken ride or one wet Tuesday cannot decide it. This is the comparison to plan a trip on; the live figures below are the one to act on today.

Disney California Adventure and Six Flags Great Adventure compared on their typical recorded queue times
Typically	Disney California AdventureUnited States	Six Flags Great AdventureUnited States
Average wait per ride	26 min	25 min (best of the two)
Rides with recorded waits	21	23 (best of the two)
Longest typical queue	Radiator Springs Racers70 min	THE FLASH™: Vertical Velocity49 min
Shortest typical queue	Jessie's Critter Carousel5 min	Buccaneer9 min
Average ride uptime Share of opening hours a ride is running	75%	91% (best of the two)

Averaged across every ride at each park with recorded waits. A ride that never opened is left out, so a park is not flattered by counting a shut ride as a queue of zero.

02 · Right now

Both parks, this minute.

Live queue times at both parks. These fill in as soon as the page loads, and keep updating while you are here.

Disney California Adventure and Six Flags Great Adventure compared on live queue times
Right now	Disney California AdventureUnited States	Six Flags Great AdventureUnited States
Average wait right now	-	-
Rides open	-	-
Opening hours today	-	-
Longest queue	-	-
Shortest queue	-	-

These keep refreshing while this page is open. A closed park posts no waits, so its rows read as dashes rather than zeroes.

Verdict, on a typical day Disney California Adventure and Six Flags Great Adventure queue about the same on a typical day - 26 minutes against 25 minutes across 21 and 23 tracked rides. Pick on travel time or on which rides you actually want.

03 · Choosing

Which one is your day out.

Every line here is earned by one of the figures above - nothing is a generic sentence with a park name dropped into it.

Pick Disney California Adventure if…

Queue length will not decide it: both parks average around 26 minutes a ride
Radiator Springs Racers is on your list - it is Disney California Adventure's longest typical queue at about 70 minutes, so it is the one to do first

Pick Six Flags Great Adventure if…

Queue length will not decide it: both parks average around 25 minutes a ride
You want more to do: 23 rides here have recorded wait data against 21 at Disney California Adventure
You would rather not find rides shut: Six Flags Great Adventure's rides run 91% of opening hours against 75% at Disney California Adventure
THE FLASH™: Vertical Velocity is on your list - it is Six Flags Great Adventure's longest typical queue at about 49 minutes, so it is the one to do first
You want Six Flags Great Adventure's own character - the rides, theming and atmosphere described below

04 · The parks

What each one is.

Six Flags Great Adventure

Six Flags Great Adventure sits in Jackson, New Jersey, and has long been one of Six Flags' flagship coaster parks. The line-up is exceptional: El Toro (one of the world's top-rated wooden coasters), Nitro, Jersey Devil Coaster, Superman: Ultimate Flight, Batman: The Ride, Skull Mountain, and Green Lantern stand-up. Kingda Ka was the park's signature ride until its closure; a Safari Off Road Adventure drive-through exhibit also operates on the property.

NJ and NYC school holidays, Fright Fest and US summer weekends drive huge crowds. Weekdays in May, September and October are dramatically calmer. Check live queue times for El Toro and Nitro on arrival - they build up fast - and use our crowd calendar to pick a midweek visit for shorter waits across the whole coaster line-up.

Six Flags Great Adventure live queue times

05 · Questions

Disney California Adventure or Six Flags Great Adventure?

Which is better, Disney California Adventure or Six Flags Great Adventure?

On queues there is nothing in it: both average about 25 minutes a ride on a typical day. Disney California Adventure has 21 rides with recorded waits against 23 at Six Flags Great Adventure. Six Flags Great Adventure also runs its rides more reliably - 91% of opening hours against 75%. So pick on travel time, or on which park has the rides you actually want.

Which has shorter queues, Disney California Adventure or Six Flags Great Adventure?

They are level. Disney California Adventure averages 26 minutes a ride on a typical day and Six Flags Great Adventure averages 25 - close enough that the day you pick matters more than the park. See Disney California Adventure best time to visit and Six Flags Great Adventure best time to visit to pick a quiet day.

Can I visit Disney California Adventure and Six Flags Great Adventure in the same trip?

Yes - both parks are in United States, so a two-park trip is realistic over a long weekend. Split the days so you start at whichever opens earliest and drive to the other in the evening.

How many rides does each park have?

See the tables above for ride counts - or jump to Disney California Adventure and Six Flags Great Adventure for the full ride lists.

Is Disney California Adventure bigger than Six Flags Great Adventure?

By rides we track waits for, Six Flags Great Adventure is the bigger day out: 23 rides against 21. Acreage matters less than how many you can actually get on, which comes down to queues and opening hours.

Then pick
the quiet day.

Both parks have a crowd calendar with six weeks of forecast and the best day left to go.

Disney California Adventure calendar Six Flags Great Adventure calendar Compare other parks