Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAdv) Discussion Thread

[Metsfan0618]

^That survey is just a universal survey for all the parks. I took that survey for all different parks and they were all the exact same. Could be Six Flags just getting a feel for new concepts.

[Ccron10]

If they are going for a Safari theme, they could go and build an attraction near Bizzarro's entrance and expand the midway a bit, but I have little confidence in this happening. Take out the stadium? That a big people-attracter since they have some pretty big names giving concerts in there. Ripping it out would not attract as many people per season.

What I could see them doing, but would be expensive, is extend the Kingda Ka path down to the base of the top-hat, re-use the old Safari Discover Center, add a third station to the Off-Road Adventure attraction to make it more into a transportation ride and increase capacity, open up a new theme area with two or three flat rides along with the drop tower added to the ride, and open up the old Golden Kingdom path link to make it more accessible. This would cost a couple million, but it wouldn't surprise me if they are willing to sink that much into a concept like this. Then again, they could instead remove Rolling Thunder, which would scale back this.

[MavRider518]

From Screamscape:

 

Six Flags put out an interesting survey for SFGAdv guests asking them to vote for the best sounding name for an “Africa themed, intense thrill ride”. They were to choose from “Kimanjo, Zumanjaro, Kimondo, Kushuku, or Shango”.    This alone seems to lock in the location that the park’s next major ride will go in somewhere on the new Safari end of the park, no matter if this is the rumored freefall ride or something else entirely. As for the names… while Six Flags failed to explain what any of them meant in the survey, running the names through Google and Google Translate has yielded some interesting and even amusing results.     Kimanjo is the name of a location in Kenya.     Zumanjaro comes up with no results at all and appears to be simply made up, as if they tried to put “Zu” in font of Kilamanjaro. Sorry… as the old Disney ads used to put it, Nahtazu!    Kimondo is another province within Kenya, but also translated from Swahili as the word for a Meteor or Shooting Star in the sky.    Kushuku translates from Swahili as “Skepticism”    And finally, Shango translates from Swahili as “Chlamydia”.  Ummm… yeah… they went there. Sorry… while Six Flags may end up starting a new Meme with that one, I don’t think we’ll be riding Chlamydia: The Ride anytime soon.My vote is for Kimondo… as a shooting star is a perfect theme for a massive freefall tower I think. 

 

 

I think that the safari area would be a cool place for a new attraction, but do they really have room? The best thing I can think of for the area is to remove the stadium and put something there. There is room for a decent sized safari themed area that can hold a record breaking drop tower and even a new coaster in the future that can go out away from the park over the water.

 

 

I'm sorry, but there is only one thing that comes to mind for me when I think of Shango.

 

Anyway, I kinda hope these names are for a drop tower. Lex Luther looks pretty cool out in California, but I won't be getting out there anytime soon. A trip to NJ might be easier for me.

[GigaG]

How bad is El Toro for overweight people? I'm overweight (for my short height.) I heard the ride is pretty horrible for overweight people. Just wanted to ask.

[larrygator]

How bad is El Toro for overweight people? I'm overweight (for my short height.) I heard the ride is pretty horrible for overweight people. Just wanted to ask.

 

It's fine for overweight people, not so good for obese people.

 

It depends on how flexible your spare tire is and how thick your thunder thighs are. I've seen people of all sizes fit. Some bitch that they get stapled while others are happy to fit. Some people have guts that led me to believe they would never get the lap bar low enough to register, but somehow they shifted some of their folds above the lap bar. I've seen other people that don't look too big have to do the walk of shame and that's when I realized they had thighs like the Michelin Man.

 

It all depends on how your weight is distributed.

[JerseyGirl81]

From Screamscape:

 

Six Flags put out an interesting survey for SFGAdv guests asking them to vote for the best sounding name for an “Africa themed, intense thrill ride”. They were to choose from “Kimanjo, Zumanjaro, Kimondo, Kushuku, or Shango”.    This alone seems to lock in the location that the park’s next major ride will go in somewhere on the new Safari end of the park, no matter if this is the rumored freefall ride or something else entirely. As for the names… while Six Flags failed to explain what any of them meant in the survey, running the names through Google and Google Translate has yielded some interesting and even amusing results.     Kimanjo is the name of a location in Kenya.     Zumanjaro comes up with no results at all and appears to be simply made up, as if they tried to put “Zu” in font of Kilamanjaro. Sorry… as the old Disney ads used to put it, Nahtazu!    Kimondo is another province within Kenya, but also translated from Swahili as the word for a Meteor or Shooting Star in the sky.    Kushuku translates from Swahili as “Skepticism”    And finally, Shango translates from Swahili as “Chlamydia”.  Ummm… yeah… they went there. Sorry… while Six Flags may end up starting a new Meme with that one, I don’t think we’ll be riding Chlamydia: The Ride anytime soon.My vote is for Kimondo… as a shooting star is a perfect theme for a massive freefall tower I think. 

 

 

I think that the safari area would be a cool place for a new attraction, but do they really have room? The best thing I can think of for the area is to remove the stadium and put something there. There is room for a decent sized safari themed area that can hold a record breaking drop tower and even a new coaster in the future that can go out away from the park over the water.

 

 

I'm sorry, but there is only one thing that comes to mind for me when I think of Shango.

[attachment=0]papashango1.jpg[/attachment]

 

Anyway, I kinda hope these names are for a drop tower. Lex Luther looks pretty cool out in California, but I won't be getting out there anytime soon. A trip to NJ might be easier for me.

 

Hahaha! Love that you made a Papa Shango reference in here!

[larrygator]

Rolling Tnunder (at least the left side) has reopened to the public. I rode it last night and it rode AWESOME.

 

I rode it today and is running the best it has in years, but is not AWESOME. You get little pops of air and no jack hammering

[lazz717]

How bad is El Toro for overweight people? I'm overweight (for my short height.) I heard the ride is pretty horrible for overweight people. Just wanted to ask.

 

As somebody already stated, it really does depends on your actual dimensions.

I use to be close to 300 pounds and somehow I still managed to ride. They needed to help me put the restraint down but I still never had a problem.

 

If you don't think you are going to fit, just make sure you try out the test seat before you enter the ride. As long as the green light comes on you are good to go...

[larrygator]

Normally I just go to the park to ride El Toro. However, today I decided to head to The Safari Off Road Adventure when the park opened to check it out.

 

Overall I enjoyed the ride. We got very close to a lot of animals today. The tour guide was very entertaining stating fact in between ad-libbed jokes and scripted jokes. One kid on the bus asked why baboons were not part of the tour. Besides the fact that a baboons can gnaw or rip your arm off, the tour guide mentioned that he didn't think guests would like poop thrown at them. However, the ride op did hint that the park plans to incorporate the baboons into the park (not the safari) in 2014. So something may be happening in the area behind Kingda Ka (where the baboons are now housed).

The queue is well shaded, a good thing with the current heat wave.

Here's my vehicle

At times the truck uses the old paved safari road, but also does quite a bit of off-roading making the ride bumpy at times.

We are supposed to be animals but first we encountered deers and then this creature.

This poor guy was scooping up animal poop.

OK, now we're talking. I'm skipping pictures of all the lame animals.

OK, ostriches are lame, but this female was protecting her eggs. Male also watch the eggs, but we know this one is female because she has gray feathers. See I learned something today.

There are two water buffaloes in that water, they will spend practically all day in the water if given the opportunity.

White Rhinos. I already know why they are called "white" and the tour guide didn't share the info so you'll have to look it up on Google.

I used to think zebras were lame, but apparently they don't play well with others.

Hey Wes, the giraffes said hi.

At the halfway point can you disembark or return immediately. If you disembark there are two upcharge options. The Soarin Eagle zipline and the Giraffe Feed.

By the looks of it, not worth it to me.

In theory the giraffes are supposed to walk up to that platform to be fed. Even though the trainer was trying to attract the giraffes I did not see them approach the platform during the 15-20 minutes I was a Camp Aventura.

I think these are the same giant tortoises that used to be near Kingda Ka

There are other animals to see and even some animal parts.

This ostrich wouldn't move so we went further off-road to pass him.

Since lions pretty much sleep all day, I present sleeping lions in a large enclosure.

Brown bears, yeah!

And that tiger in the background is the real Kingda Ka.

Some of the Rolling Thunder trains are wrapped. Only the left side is open and it is running quite well after recent work. I rode in a non-wheel seat, pain free and with mild pops of air.

Edited July 21, 2013 by larrygator

[BDD27]

Honestly, while I am hoping for a coaster for 2014 I think a drop tower would be perfect. It would be something different than the usual elimination of flat rides. In fact I think they might finally be making a comeback. Drop towers are always park staples.

[michaellynn4]

I rode it today and is running the best it has in years, but is not AWESOME. You get little pops of air and no jack hammering

 

Hey, to each their own, but to me, for Rolling Thunder that's awesome. It is in no way "Skyrush awesome" or "El Toro awesome", but still really great compared to what the ride devolved into over the last few years. I've got so many great memories of this coaster from when I was a kid, I'm just glad it's in better shape so younger generations will hopefully love it too instead of just viewing it as termite food.

[necoastergp]

I was at the park for the first time in 3 years on Saturday and the Nitro (rode 3x) stacking of 3 trains is horrible. Most times they wouldn't even check the restraints for the loaded train until the 3rd train hit the brake run, ugh. Bizarro was the same way. El Toro (rode 4x) is still by far my favorite woody but I thought the operations were a little slow my first couple rides, unlike my past visits. I rode skyscreamer for the first time (once during the day and once at night) which was my first experience on a star flyer vs a wind seeker which I rode at CP, I enjoyed skyscreamer much more than wind seeker (bounces too much) although you can't beat that view on CP's. Rode GL for the first time (4th stand-up, RR, Mantis and SW @KD) got in a good ride in the 3rd row no head banging but it was still, meh. Rode KK once its amazing how much rougher imo it is than TTD but I still enjoy it and rode Superman, Batman, Congo, Log flume, Sky ride and Skull Mountain each once. Just missed parachute jump for the first time as the winds picked up as we were next in line. I rode the Safari around 6 and enjoyed it much more with the guide and the off roading opposed to the self-guided drive through although we didn't stop at Camp Adventura was closed for the day. All the animals were awake and visible even the Lions, also like Larry mentioned the guide on my tour said they were building a new habitat for the baboon's to be incorporated next year although she made it seem like in the Safari, I guess we'll see soon enough. We had a gold flash pass and started riding about noon and left at 9, the crowds were moderate-heavy with the biggest lines at the Safari and the two water rides based on the flash pass times. I still really enjoy this park and love going back a three year hiatus was long enough after going 7 years in a row.

[crazywolf88]

So it seems the triple stacking wasn't a one time thing after all.

[BDD27]

So, I thought I would post my first trip report. It is from 2011, but nonetheless it was right when green lantern opened.

Here is my first gl photo

It was about an hour wait with a breakdown, but It was my first standup

I hope this ride stays around for awhile longer

I have to say Bizzaro is boring to me it has nothing to offer

Arrow Coasters are becoming rare...Sad its my favorite coaster company

Required shot

All I can say is this ride was done right

Lift shot

Batman, still great after almost 20 years

And ill leave you with my favorite shot of the day another gl

That was a great day got on everything, but best of all was el toro during the fireworks. Hope you enjoyed my first photo trip report!

[larrygator]

So it seems the triple stacking wasn't a one time thing after all.

 

Not when it is mentioned by various people visiting on different days.

 

also like Larry mentioned the guide on my tour said they were building a new habitat for the baboon's to be incorporated next year although she made it seem like in the Safari, I guess we'll see soon enough.

 

I'll beleive my tour guide since I think it is easier to incorporate it into the park by building an enclosed area humans could walk through versus building something a truck could drive through. I could be wrong but it sounds like this trouble.

[mikeykaise]

Chang errr... Green Lantern looks good as ever, I wonder if Ed Hart could cut a deal with Six Flags to bring it back to Louisville, I know I know, its a pipe dream but a guy can dream can't he?

[larrygator]

I took my usual Sunday morning visit to the park today. Got there a little earlier to get ahead of the parking booth and metal detector fiasco. However, getting there early only made the parking booth situation worse. I stayed to the far left for Lane 1 which there is the line for Season Parking Passes. Not only was it closed but but Lanes 2 and 3 were closed so you had Lanes 1,2 and 3 trying to merge into Lane 4. What a clustertruck. This is 25 minutes before the park opens.

 

No issue with the metal detectors, I had mostly intelligent people ahead of me. However, the express line to season pass holders into the park early didn't open until 10:22, eight minutes before the park. I barely got ahead of the masses and barely made it on El Toro's first ride. Rode six times without leaving the train and 5 more walk-ons for 11 total rides. It was overcast and even drizzing in the AM, keeping crowds light.

 

Then I walked across the park and stopped for SkyScreamer, I really like Star Flyers. Good thing I rode because I could see from SkyScreamer that Nitro's station looked empty and did not see train's cycling. If was still drizzing, but I would think if lightning was in the area, SkyScreamer would have closed. It appeared other coasters were running. Not sure what was going on.

 

Rain started getting a little harder so I stopped to eat. Went to Granny's Fried Chicken for the first time in 15 years and tried their Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese. They chooped up two chicken strips and tossed them in buffalo sauce to top the Mac & Cheese. It was tasty and filling for only $8.99; I would get it again. Coca Cola had an air conditioned tent set up outside Granny's with free coke and some interactive videos games. The sign made it appear that it was there all summer, but I don't recall seeing it previously.

 

I rarely spend more than 3 hours at the park and the rain was still coming down so I left. But I consider 11 rides on El Toro a good Sunday morning.

[coasterbill]

Then I walked across the park and stopped for SkyScreamer, I really like Star Flyers. Good thing I rode because I could see from SkyScreamer that Nitro's station looked empty and did not see train's cycling. If was still drizzing, but I would think if lightning was in the area, SkyScreamer would have closed. It appeared other coasters were running. Not sure what was going on.

 

It was something mechanical, they had people walking the lift until it finally opened around 1:00 with 2 trains.

 

We had a great day at the park today despite all outdoor coasters closing around 6:30 due to lightning and never re-opening. Six Flags had every ride staffed and ready to re-open but the lightning never let up. We still got a ton of rides in including Kingda Ka which was down most of the day since it can't operate in the rain but opened for a few hours. Every other ride operated despite the rain until the lightning started.

 

One thing I found interesting was that when it was storming and every coaster was closed, Batman the Dark Knight and Skull Mountain were walk-ons. We got 2 rides in a row on Skull Mountain without getting off when it was one of only 2 coasters in the park that were operating... pathetic.

[TyRush]

One thing I found interesting was that when it was storming and every coaster was closed, Batman the Dark Knight and Skull Mountain were walk-ons. We got 2 rides in a row on Skull Mountain without getting off when it was one of only 2 coasters in the park that were operating... pathetic.

 

People always seem to either leave the park or hide cause they might melt from a drop or two.

[NEPA_Girl127]

Hi everyone!

 

So I am planning a trip to SFGAdv in August. I am so excited, the last time I visted this park was probably 15 years ago. I will be at the park either Wed Aug 21st or Thurs Aug 22nd. I am planning on getting to the park shortly after it opens, which rides should I hit up first? I am hoping to avoid insanely long lines by going on a weekday. Also, what are some of the tastier food options in the park? Is there any food stand/restaurant that stands out from the others. Thanks for the advice!

[KingdaKaDude1]

Hi everyone!

 

So I am planning a trip to SFGAdv in August. I am so excited, the last time I visted this park was probably 15 years ago. I will be at the park either Wed Aug 21st or Thurs Aug 22nd. I am planning on getting to the park shortly after it opens, which rides should I hit up first? I am hoping to avoid insanely long lines by going on a weekday. Also, what are some of the tastier food options in the park? Is there any food stand/restaurant that stands out from the others. Thanks for the advice!

Hit up El Toro or Kingda Ka first, and Granny's is the best for food save Green Lantern for later in the day the line at around 5-6 are 20 minutes

[Parallax]

Hi everyone!

 

So I am planning a trip to SFGAdv in August. I am so excited, the last time I visted this park was probably 15 years ago. I will be at the park either Wed Aug 21st or Thurs Aug 22nd. I am planning on getting to the park shortly after it opens, which rides should I hit up first? I am hoping to avoid insanely long lines by going on a weekday. Also, what are some of the tastier food options in the park? Is there any food stand/restaurant that stands out from the others. Thanks for the advice!

 

I'll be there on August 22nd as well. For food and restaurants, there aren't any stand out ones in my opinion, but if you want to play it safe and have some good food, Johnny Rockets is the way to go. If you are able there before opening (I get there like 2 minutes before they open) go straight to El Toro. You will be able to get in at least 3 or 4 rides before a line starts to form. After that hit Kingda Ka. The rest is pretty much up to the lines. Nitro should hold a 30-45 minute line all day, but at night you can get a walk-on. Green Lantern and Superman are going to have a constant 2hr + wait, so wait until night to ride those because then they are only about 20 minutes each. The rest of the coasters will average between 5-30 minutes usually. Bizarro and the Dark Knight having the shortest and Batman usually having about 20 minutes.

 

 

On to the topic of 2014. I had a cool idea for a Nightwing themed coaster to go where The Chiller once was. Not saying any of it will happen, I just wanted to share my idea. Premier Launched coaster named Nightwing that starts where Chiller was, goes out over Nitro and back. Rename Movietown to Gotham City. There's two things to market now, new coaster and "new" area. You will open up the path around Nightwing to fit in more places to eat, giftshops, and maybe even a flat ride somewhere.

 

The old Batman show building would have to be removed, but that's it. I started to make my layout idea in NoLimits. The track isn't exactly to scale, but it's close.

 

Launch - highspeed turn into - Norwegian Loop - Zero-G Roll - Giant Corkscrew - (To be added: Overbank, airtime hill under the cork, some quick turns, a few bunny hills, and then a turn into the brakes.)

 

 

 

If you aren't familiar with Nightwing, he is the original Robin who changes his ways and becomes a hero instead of a sidekick. http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11111/111111473/2947942-4304625018-night.png

 

 

Updated the train concept to feature a better logo.

 

Track would be that light blue color, supports would be black.

 

 

(sorry for that long post, haha)

Edited August 2, 2013 by Parallax

[TyRush]

^Sounds good to me!

[EastCoastKid]

^^ That looks like it would be awesome! That side of the park could definitely use some revitalization (especially Nitro's queue - but that's an entirely different rant). I'd love to see this built... so let's hope they have something equally as exciting up their sleeve. *crosses fingers and toes*

[Vonni]

That is an awesome idea! I love everything about it! I've been wanting a new coaster on that side of the park for some time now. Really needs some new life to it.