Daved Thomson

Like yourself, I often find myself going back over the images on this website looking for hints of long gone park features. I know you're looking for a better photo of the Kiddie Kingdom entrance arch, perhaps one where you did not have to read the entrance banner backwards. I use an excellent, yet inexpensive, image manipulation software for macOS called GraphicConverter. Using your photo from inside Kiddie Kingdom of the entrance arch, I simply created a horizontal mirror of that photo, showing the arch as it would have read as you entered Kiddie Kingdom. Unfortunately, the supports on the back of the letters remain, but you can now see the arch as it would have looked as you entered. Another hidden gem I just noticed, is the park's original parking tram circle at the original entrance to the Enchanted Forest. Your B/W aerial of Kiddie Kingdom shows it neatly hidden between Kiddie Kingdom and Fortune Festival/Goodtime Alley. The tram route became a service road following the move of the park's entrance to its current location. The service road and the tram circle (which acted as a sort of cul-de-sac for the two-lane road, with grass and trees in it's center) served the Security and First-Aid building and remained long into the 1980's.

This is a TOTAL nightmare and I am complete agreement with Harry regarding this issue. Their comparison to both MGM and Marriott's success when going this route, is meaningless. Customers of both of those brands are significantly different than those attending theme parks and neither of those brands offers either season passes, memberships, or requires an admission ticket to enter their properties. The whole scheme sounds to me like a company that's moving to sell its real estate assets, leading to the eventual closing of their parks. The man at the top made a huge mistake with his premium price/premium experience strategy and, personally, he should be sent packing. Why he was brought in to begin with, is beyond me. There needs to be an experienced theme park professional running this company, rather than some CFO turned CEO. He, along with this Land and Buildings proposal, clearly want to maximize their investments before checking out, rather than operating theme parks. GA is clearly the only park with significant real estate available for development, so Land and Buildings would be the real decider of which parks continue on as theme parks and which parks are sold-off for their real estate. Where's John Dutton when we need him!

Very sad to see this spotlight and agree that the time has passed so quickly. The irony in all of this is that it really didn't save the Safari, it simply saved them the expense of repaving it at that time. In fact, they lost the revenue provided from both the Conestoga Wagon when it operated in conjunction with the Arena, the TeePee as a merchandise shop, and the Safari as a separate gate. As sad as it all is, in reality, it took COVID and the State's government intervention in closing businesses of every kind for Six Flags to realize that the Safari was their only viable revenue stream. Just my thought, but the Safari attracts a very different demographic than the theme park and that difference has grown over time, as the theme park has become dominated by rollercoasters and eliminated (or severely diminished) shows. At the time, I think they thought adding multiple kiddie sections to the theme park would draw in families with small children that otherwise might have only visited the Safari as a drive-thru.

Another example of Six Flags' failure to maintain basic park infrastructure to the point that should they ever decide to use something again, it will not be possible because it has deteriorated so badly. I would hate to see the Great Arena demolished, but sadly, I believe the company has largely eliminated shows at it parks, and has left most of its show venues sitting idol for quite some time. Again, though, I keep going back to the CEOs desire to target guests and draw them to the parks for a premium experience at a premium price. Just don't see how it's possible if you are unable to sell the entire park experience as a result of having virtually nothing but rollercoasters and thrill rides.

I guess the question is whether the bridge serves the purpose of a bridge, or is it just there because they don't want to remove it because of the cost of doing so?

Spot on with everything you say. Either bring it up to as close to nearly new as possible or replace it with a new Big Wheel of at least the same height, keeping in mind that the replacement of the Flying Wave with Sky Screamer was really the replacement of a family ride with a thrill ride. Again, you can't sell a park to a broad demographic like families when 90% of your attractions are thrill rides/rollercoasters. Your advertising may bring them in once, but when they see the reality of the experience at that premium price, you're not likely to see them again.

Good question. Hopefully, the correct answer is the third picture.

Nothing that putting back the "You Ride Hard and Come Out Wet!" sign couldn't fix!

Is this a picture of the current Yum Yum Cafe interior? Wow! Anyone who had seen the original interior of the Yum Yum Palace would be sorely disappointed walking into this, which itself is even quite a step down from the interior of the Great Character Cafe. Things like this should never remain unfinished.

I think preventive maintenance at GA has always been lacking. Then when it comes to fixing something that has broken, it seems as if they put just the minimal amount of maintenance into it to get it operating again. The old band aid where, perhaps, stitches were actually needed.

This definitely looks like a reasonable attempt to make the building into a viable attraction once again.

Totally agree. His presence was something else. Until you saw him in person for the first time, I don't think you'd expect what you found. His height, like everything else in Texas, was big! I don't know if anyone makes it today to the top of a major company without a college degree. I think he truly had a love for Six Flags. I idolized the man in my youth, along the same lines of how I idolized Warner LeRoy and Walt Disney. Rest in Peace, Larry B.

I think this is a mild improvement over Chapek, but I'm really not of the opinion that Iger was ever any type of godsend for the company either. In fact, I think he is the brainchild behind the exploitation of the company's newer intellectual property and cloning of attractions at the expense of new attractions for the domestic parks that are truly innovative and unique. Notice Tokyo Disneyland, which generally does not purchase attractions that are simply clones of attractions from other Disney parks. Disney has no financial interest in this property and it routinely gets ratings stronger than the other Disney properties everywhere.

Interesting... If the beatification Capex has changed to attractions and rides, you'd think the target market would also change from those willing to pay a premium price for a premium experience to those simply wanting new rides, regardless of who those new rides attract. For me, it merely confirms the guy at the top has no idea what he's doing, other than throwing a lot of "hall Mary's" in the final quarter.

So the original firm selling out of the location pays the original construction costs for the location as well as costs to lease the location for some period of time (anywhere from 1 season to "n" seasons), and a percentage of their sales at the location? Those are pretty hefty upfront costs for the first firm doing business out of the location. Subsequent firms selling out of the property probably had it a little better. That is, of course, unless the location required substantial modifications to sell the new tenants merchandise, which I'm assuming the park would charge them to complete. I wonder if the park offered some minimum attendance level for the season before taking a percentage of the locations sales.

I fully agree that transportation rides in parks (like the sky ride) or getting a ride from the car to the park (parking lot trams) or a ride around the park (trains) are expensive to operate, acquire, and maintain. But, eliminating them does impact the type of guest willing to go to a park, just as the elimination of shows and attractions does. I'm specifically referring to the older crowd. If these companies claim to want to draw customers willing to pay a premium price, they must provide a premium experience. Even Disney is beginning to feel the effect of ever increasing prices while cutting back on the basics. As you mentioned in another comment, Sea World operated parks continue to operate Sky Rides and Disney installed the Sky Liner. Both companies seem to have a better grasp on preventive maintenance throughout their parks. Six Flags doesn't seem to believe in preventive maintenance, preferring, instead to wait until something is truly broken before fully fixing it or, more often than not, throwing a band aid on it or simply eliminating it.

Great spotlight and easily my favorite of the roadway signs for the park. Interesting little tidbit about the Lightnin' Loops version of the rainbow sign. Just speculating here, but I'm thinking the two signs were not produced by the same sign company. The Lightnin' Loops version of the rainbow does not use the correct font for Six Flags. It also incorrectly utilizes four stars before and after Six Flags, rather than 4 stars before and 4 1/2 stars after. Six Flags proudly began adding versions of the new logo to many of the park's ride vehicles and merchandise/souvenirs. They had to work pretty hard to fit Six Flags above Great Adventure on the log flume boats, but they somehow succeeded and managed to use the correct Six Flags font.

Could very well be a factor in a park largely paved in concrete, especially if someone is using some sort of salt mixture to make the route safe for vehicles to drive-on. Somehow, though, I'm not willing to give that much credit to the man at the helm's thought processes or his willingness to listen to someone at the park level that may have advised him of such an issue. I just don't see a lot of logic in his decisions or his willingness to listen to the rational of far more tenured theme park professionals.

Loving these picts from the parks earliest days. They really reinforce the park being an escape from the outside world. Interesting that, at least in this picture, there are very few buses in the lost. The only buses I see, and I assume they are not parked because of their tandem order, are about midway vertically, on the left. I'm thinking they're in line to either exit the park or heading toward the return road.

It doesn't promote a premium experience in the slightest. In fact, it further detracts from whatever experience you, personally, feel you're getting.

Do you happen to know if this was the first season or first concert that guests were required to pay an upcharge fee to attend the show?

Just some thoughts on the Arrow-Huss car included in the Lightning' Loops file. The chassis on that car is a much newer design than that of Lightnin' Loops cars. At some point, perhaps, the park may have been looking to replace the two Lightnin' Loops trains. The seating position on that car seems to be higher than that for the LL cars. You really stepped down into the cars on Arrow's looping coasters. And, as we know, Lightnin' Loops was designed and built when Arrow was still in Mountain View, California. I know it was called a merger when Arrow-Huss was formed, but in reality, Huss purchased Arrow from Rio Grande Industries. As we all know, Arrow-Huss went bankrupt only about 5 years after the "merger." When Arrow emerged as Arrow Dynamics and moved to Utah, I have to believe the sale of their Northern California properties did some serious replenishing of their bank accounts. The cars on all of three of their Six Flags megaloopers and other loopers produced by Arrow Dynamics reverted to the same design utilized on their original loop coasters.