Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv) Discussion Thread

[John Knotts]

Jay Thomas has said that the modern flat ride can be almost as expensive to add as a full blown coaster. So you're not going to see parks "add flats" as people like to casually say. You may see a park add one here or there over several years, but the days of the flat ride "package" is over.

[Capitalize]

Yes I am complaining about my home park despite the "great coasters" we have......

All i am saying is that my perception was that we was 2nd in the chain to Magic Mountain and instead of taking down coasters to put in new ones I never understood why they just don't expand the park.... get more flat rides, tweak and save existing coasters, put up some damn theming and stop taking down popular coasters....

 

I no longer live in New York but still go yearly... I live in Washington DC and lets not even get into how SF treats SFA when it is in competiton with Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens.... there is a reason people that they were suffering from a financial crisis, it was because us "fans" stop going as regularly as we do.

Popular coasters is a key word, in all my visits to SFGAdv (6 or so total) I never waited more than 10 minutes to ride GASM. Believe me, whatever major attraction (Chang more than likely) is replacing GASM will be an improvement. In any event SFGAdv has easily one of the top 3 coaster collections I've experienced personally so they are very well off with or with out GASM.

[terdferg]

i agree there is not much to complain about GADV, but this is the GADV discussion thread correct? comparing elitch gardens to GADV is just dumb. When people complain about GADV, they compare it to Cedar Point or other parks that are of similar size and attendance figures. And when these comparisons are made, Great Adventures weakness is obvious, lack of flats (and water rides imo)

[BXSteele]

Hey guys it was just my view..As u have the right to voice urs about what I had to say

I am glad u think my home park is one of the best in the U.S., but I don't and think they could be doing a MUCH better job... that is all...

 

more flat rides... better theming... yes I will agree more water rides.... and improve what u have (like the new restraints on Intimidator at King's Dominion...man GASM could have used something like that)

 

and i do understand that its a BIG problem but if the people stop coming then there goes the food sales, game sales etc.......

[larrygator]

All i am saying is that my perception was that we was 2nd in the chain to Magic Mountain and instead of taking down coasters to put in new ones I never understood why they just don't expand the park.... get more flat rides, tweak and save existing coasters, put up some damn theming and stop taking down popular coasters....

 

For years Magic Mountain battled Cedar Point for the most coasters but I no longer percieve them as top dog in the chain.

 

Outside of Chiller, I can't think of another popular coaster leaving SFGAdv. Viper and GASM popular? Unless all their riders were invisible I didn't see it. In recent years SFGAdv got El Toro, Kingda Ka and Dark Knight. Even if people want to quibble about Dark Knight it fills a need for a mid-size family coaster.

 

Before I get to the other improvements you suggest, I think SFGAdv has made very impressive strides in park cleanliness and professionalism of the staff in recent times.

 

Expanding the park - costs money and permits are needed. Much of the land SF owns is protected wetlands and the process to expand is not an easy one.

 

More flats - costs money, but hopefully relief will arrive soon

 

Saving old coasters - sometimes the upkeep costs are not worth it the save old rides. It costs money to staff and maintain. As long as the removed coasters are not popular it's not a problem, especially when replaced with newer coasters.

 

Theming - you can't have everything unless everyone agrees to higher ticket prices to pay for it. But since we are on the topic. Golden Kingdom - one of the best themed areas of any park. Plaza de Carnavel doesn't look that bad (Alhtough it would be nicer if Tango ran and they left in Rodeo). They added one of the best themed Wild Mouse's and people poo-pooed all over it.

 

It just very difficult to theme extreme coaster. Once people ride them a couple of times, the theming becomes an annoyance, delaying them from getting to the coaster quicker (I.e. : Terminator Salvation, Flight of Fear)

With limited funds, I think SFGAdv is fighting and winning many of the correct battles.

[cfc]

^I agree with Larry--GASM was hardly a popular ride. I remember Joey and I actually using a Qbot to get our GASM credit a few years ago, and it actully took longer to get on the ride using the bot than it did to wait in the regular queue.

[Capitalize]

^I agree with Larry--GASM was hardly a popular ride. I remember Joey and I actually using a Qbot to get our GASM credit a few years ago, and it actully took longer to get on the ride using the bot than it did to wait in the regular queue.

I recall seeing that during most of my visits, there would be a 0-1 train wait for most rows while a long stretch of q-bot users waited on the exit path for their ride.

[medusa99]

There was nothing wrong with gasm at all. The park has tons of spare parts for the ride. The blue train was just redone and everything on it is brand new. The park had new lift motors and evrything. And there is nothing wrong with the structure of the ride. There is only one reason why this ride is being removed and that is through put.

 

And as for the park not having any flats that is true. The park has more kids rides then it has coaster/flats and every year the flats are comming out. It is sad to see a major park that dose not have bummper cars. Music express. Swings. I worked at the park as an rides supervisor for 5 years and not having flats hurts the park alot. When i worked there there would always be 14000 + people in the park at a time now they are lucky if they hit 14000 in a day. When i worked there there was more rides and shows and every thing was packed. Now there is a lot less rides and people and every thing is still packed if they even did a good day every one will complain about the long lines. This park needs flats and they need them bad!

[redfoot12]

All I have to say about Great American Scream Machine is that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I won't miss it and Chang looks to be a great addition. I don't know why anyone would complain about losing a mediocre to terrible coaster for a what's been a proven crowd pleaser.

Edit to add:

If this were one of my home parks (KD or BGW) I'd let them take out these rides for Chang:

Loch Ness Monster

Anaconda

Hurler

Shock Wave

Avalanche

 

The above are all rides that I have some nostalgia for but can recognize the fact their time may be up.

[mdcoaster14]

Just got back from my first trip to SFGAdv. All I have to say is WOW. My home parks, SFA and KD, have nothing on this park. Unfortunately the couple I went with where not coaster people but by the end of the night we finally got them to go on some, so i didn't get to ride superman: UF. King Da Ka was out of comission all day except for the last hour the park was opened, i got the last two rides of the night. I'm sure this is going to start a fight but i liked KIng Da KA better then Top Thrill sorry cedar point fans. El Toro is freaking sweet, nitro rocked my face and bizzaro is fun as hell, glad the fire wasn't working cause it was so damn hot that day. Lines were not long at all, longest wait was only 45 min for bizzaro. You have actual restaurants with good food, polite patrons and ride ops that enjoy there job and make you want to act "crazy go nuts". Unfortunately they did nickle and dime me to death but that seems to be a recurring theme throughout SF parks. You all up there in that area are extremely lucky to have such a great park I pray SFA gets the much needed love that this park has and gets. Im planning on going back in Oct. for their Fright Fest, is it worth the trip????

[CoasterPrince]

Nitro rocked your face...cool.

 

Gadv's Fright Fest is a lot better than a normal day at the park. There is so much more to do. I didn't get to see everything last year because there were too many shows. Dead Man's Party has to be the best show in the Industry and LakeFront Graveyard (if done like last year) is woth every second. I also hear their running Ka backwards for Frighht Fest this year.

[thrillrider]

Any new pictures of the demo yet?

[mdcoaster14]

Nitro rocked your face...cool.

 

Gadv's Fright Fest is a lot better than a normal day at the park. There is so much more to do. I didn't get to see everything last year because there were too many shows. Dead Man's Party has to be the best show in the Industry and LakeFront Graveyard (if done like last year) is woth every second. I also hear their running Ka backwards for Frighht Fest this year.

 

king running backwards!!!!!!!!! Im in. I havnt been to any of the SF Fright Fest and im excited to see how they do it.

[DiveMachine]

found this on Coasterfusion.com

Why Scream Machine Is Being Removed

We all know that The Great American Scream Machine was built in 1989 and with age comes repair. This coaster isn't your Runaway Mine Train Ride that only reaches a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour. Scream Machine is a seven looping 60 mph beast that has areas of the track where the train is a rockin' & a rollin'. Well with that rockin & rollin comes needed repairs. We have confirmed that the REAL reason GASM is coming down is not because of low throughput, or lack of parts, but more along the lines of track cracking that almost occurs on a weekly basis. Maintenance & mechanics would weld over already welded areas of track each week and eventually it couldn't be done anymore.

 

What "New Attraction" Is Coming For 2011

Remember the rumor that we had posted about Chang from Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom coming to Six Flags Great Adventure. Well we are happy to confirm this rumor is TRUE! Chang will in fact find it's new home at SFGAdv in GASMs' old spot. The lift hill will hug the lift hill of Superman Ultimate Flight. So the area of preferred parking lot that is never used should be coming up at any moment.

 

What About Those Rumored Flat Rides

Remember when we also stated the park would be receiving a bundle of flat rides for the 2011 season? Well we can also confirm that the park will be installing close to ten flat rides from Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. As of right now, no details were provided to us about the specific flat rides. We were also told that a new swing ride would also be finding it's way over to SFGAdv. Now for those of you who don't remember, Great Adventure did have Fantasy Wave and it seems they will finally be getting this back, but brand new!

What do you guys think?

[davisal771]

^ehhh... there were more deserving parks.

[thrillrider]

The only 2 rides that are six flags is able to keep from Kentucky kingdom, is chang and the mouse coaster.

 

You can read about it here....

http://louisville.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2010/07/26/story2.html?b=1280116800%5E3696121

 

Not sure about 10 flats going to the park, but they already have several flats sitting unused right now.

[Coasterfusion]

There is also a new saying being thrown around at the park;

 

"More Rides, Less Lines"

 

From the fancall we had with Mark Shapiro, plans for a bundle of flat rides were already in place prior to Weber coming into office. As far as not taking rides from Kentucky Kingdom, if parks are so secretive with what is leaked about rides, don't you think there might be some sort of agreement about that.

 

Like we are going to take these rides from there but only say we were allowed to take 2, so that there is no competition that knows about it....

[CoasterPrince]

king running backwards!!!!!!!!! Im in. I havnt been to any of the SF Fright Fest and im excited to see how they do it.

 

That was a...um..joke. I think it's illegal to run Kingda Ka backward.

 

More rides, less lines could mean anything. It's a new saying of More Flags, More Fun. The new commercial says More Coasters, More Fun...does that mean Gadv is getting more coasters?

[medusa99]

I wonder if they are going to remove all the low stuff and just knock over the lift all in one piece and chop it up on the ground. If they take it down piece by piece it may be unsafe to keep parachutes and twister open during lift removal do to how close it is to gasm. Six flags has used explosives before to take down rides. Its quick and easy. And i would love to watch it!

[SLY]

Can anyone tell me how crowded Valleyfair! generally is in the second week of August (mid-week?)

 

Is 5 hours enough time to get all the credits and ENJOY the park?

[robbalvey]

There is also a new saying being thrown around at the park;

 

"More Rides, Less Lines"

Are they flashing back to the late 90s or something?

[djbrcace1234]

Six flags has used explosives before to take down rides. Its quick and easy. And i would love to watch it!

 

Sounds like a way to make a quick show profit out of it.

[DiveMachine]

There is also a new saying being thrown around at the park;

 

"More Rides, Less Lines"

Are they flashing back to the late 90s or something?

looks like it, although this seems like a good decision for now(GADV NEEDS FLATS), we all know what happened to the war on lines rides. As someone with Gadv as their homepark, I'm not going to watch the past 10 years again.

These are the flats we lost over the past 10 years:

-Rodeo

-Taz Twister

-Flying Wave

-Fly Me/Spongebob/Etc.

-Scrambler

-Evolution

-Pendulum

-Musik Express

-Autobahn

-Tango

-Freefall

-Water Effect

-Chaos

-Jumpin' Jack Flash

-Spin Meister

-Time Warp

-Pirates Flight

Edited October 23, 2010 by DiveMachine

[CHILLERLC1]

The Double Inverter was named Time Warp. I believe it was a Huss Jump 2, a rare Huss we had on the site of the current paintball shooting gallery building.

[RollingRunner]

^^ Correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't some of those rides still on property in the boneyard? Maybe 2011 will see a new life for these old flats, if they can still run that is. Alot of the old flats from the 1999 expansion had some pretty bad downtime and maintenance issues, so hopefully SF can invest in some better and more reliable flats for this rumoured package. Above anything, the Old Country area needs to re-open soon with the Autobahn and Express.