JJ2K

Dude its how the company plans their business model. Busch's/blackstone's model is that they have a few parks that need to appeal to a bigger population. Thats the same model as disney and universal. The regional model is you build a bunch that appeal to a smaller population. Once again youve scooted the issue to reaffirm something I said and were saying the exact same thing. This type of business model is not limited to theme parks either. You have restaurants that do the same. Applebees and tgi fridays have regional business models while cheesecake factory and pf changs have destination models. Same can be said for grocery stores. Shop rite is regional while wegmans is destination. When i say regional or destination im talking about the business model. And what your business model is determines how you run things. Six flags will run things more like cedar fair does because they both have regional models. Disney, universal and blackstone (busch) will run things similarly because they have a destination model. Now obviously universal and disney will be more extreme with it because their goal extends beyond the populational parameters of the united states. But make no mistake about it blackstone is right there underneath them in that respect their the lower rung destination model park. We're the higher rung regional model park

Im not saying there arent things that need serious work because there definitly are! But getting on here and bashing the park about not being a destination park...ie not doing things the busch way...which btw how is that going ever since they went public? Or about getting rid of rolling thunder. These things are done there over with! Am i upset rolling thunder will not be around OF COARSE but I had my final rides on her and like every ride out there I know theres an eventual inevitable expiration date. And unfortunately rolling thunder's is up. In fact we want to play busch comparissons how many people caused an uproar at the closure of bbw? Id contest a much more iconic ride than rolling thunder mind you. Not to mention it was replaced with a drop tower that was not built immediately on the same land...its actually quite a similar scenario! There were some but mostly people came to understand and we can be upset WITH the park that its time to bid farewell to an old favorite. Busch is a destination park. When your a destination you only build a few scattered out to appeal to a much larger population. When your regional you build a lot more to appeal to a more immediate area. And when great adventure opened it WAS meant to be a destination park that was warner leroy's vision. Unfortunately that did not pan out. We are a regional park now our goal is to appeal to our immediate area. Bgw's goal is to appeal to everything on the east coast north of georgia...thats not our goal. Lets push for more dark rides more shows and other things we need that CAN be done lets not harp on things we simply can't do right now

Id like to say that I never said Great Adventure was a substandard mess. All I am saying is its a regional theme park and I think people's ideas of themeing are setting the bar a bit too high for what we are. If you look at carowinds, kings dominion, valleyfair, michigan's adventure, worlds of fun...etc...etc we are WAY better themeing wise then them. I would know Ive been to all of them. Where exactly are we comparing to...busch?....Disney? Wrong comparissons we're not those kinds of parks

I hardly consider virginia beach or the historic town of williamsburg the middle of no where. Besides again i said six flags is not busch its a regional theme park not a destination park. And yes I do think it will be in the golden kingdom Ive discussed in depth different layouts of how the pathway could go so many multiple times but i have no doubt it will be in the golden kingdom. And yes i absolutely think an african theme fits the golden kingdom just fine. When you consider that at least 12 of the theme parks on the list are benefitting from being in an internationally sought out amusement park mecca...YES 20 is great. How many other parks can you say are doing better than great adventure that arent disney, universal or busch? Not very many. Go ask dollywood how much they would like to be in the same spot...and they have the awesome tourist town of pigeon forge and gatlinburg to benefit from and cant do it. ^i actually would like to say i think the park's landscaping team has been doing a fine job. Take a look around tango and tell me that isnt awesome there are spots like this throughout the park the problem is people dont remember it and then say they arent doing a good job

I could make this long and tackle everything you brought up but i wont. Instead Ill try and make this short and sweet. I actually understand completely where you are coming from as a passionate fan of Great Adventure. I was right on with everything you said not 3 years ago. I still wish premier had stayed in control because they got it right at the tail end! They recognized their opportunities and were looking to make distinctions between what were regional parks and destination parks in the chain. And wanted to make great adventure the first six flags destination park. Unfortunately for us as fans redzone got involved and went back to every park being a regional park and new management has continued to stress that they run regional theme parks. I understand your passion and thought process and if you look at my comments to moves the park has made over the years you'll see plenty of my bashing the park about them. But over really just the last couple of years I have crossed the threshold of looking at the park from a fan perspective to looking at the park from a business perspective. And now I look at what they do more from an understanding perspective than an omg you missed this opportunity perspective. As much as I wish for more I understand that six flags sees this park as a regional theme park and will make decisions based on that. As a fan I am very happy that since the end of redzone new management has given us things we really needed. During the redzone days we saw us just being added on to already existing ideas: Wiggles world, tdk, bizarro and tornado. All of those were additions really created for other parks and we were just added on. As a fan I am happy to see my park finally adding additions once again with Great Adventure in mind and created for Great Adventure. I understand your passion really I do but Six Flags is not Disney, its not Universal and its not Busch. Lets be happy were getting things designed for us now and rather than bash the park on things that can not or wont be changed instead push for things we can actually get and still need. Like shows and some dark rides In closing: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference"

Fair enough. I did say to my knowledge since 2000 because thats when i became a coaster enthusiast and followed this stuff. So i was not aware of 1996 considering I was 10 years old in 96. Its impressive that their highest attendance was in 96. Your right that DCA has failed to meet disney's goals for attendance figures but your wrong if you think its not making it into the top 10 because it is!!! In fact as of last its not only in the top 10 US attendance its #11 in the world! And I don't think you understood what i meant when i said how many parks were at a location because you only proved my point with what you said. Im saying wdw is 4 parks! Yes 4 seperate gate parks! That means that, thats 4 spots being taken up in the top 10 attendance figures in the USA...get my point? Then you have 3 seperate gate universal parks total. Etc, etc. It will always be extremely difficult for gadv to surpass their attendance figures because these places are in international theme park meccas AND are open year round. Very few people from across the ocean or even from south america are flyin in to jackson, NJ just to see great adventure. Location is everything and it surprises people a lot of time to know that knott's has always been cedar fair's highest attended park since they owned it. Cedar point has rarely been able to even come close to it. In fact knott's is probably the most screwed over park in the history of parks being apart of a chain. Because cedar fair has benefitted from that money from knott's but invested most of it into cedar point with only moderate investments into knott's. You got me on the '96 thing but what I said wasnt really wrong I did make a point to say since 2000 but that i thought it was unlikely it would have been higher during the WB days. Lets not forget it was still warner bros not time warner at that time too

Sway is needed in every structure that high. Including a stand alone drop tower. If you design a rigid structure that high the stress of the wind without the structure beig able to move at all would create severe issues. The drop tower would have to be designed with sway in mind just the same so im certain theres no issue here.

I clearly said cedar FAIR And honestly i dont get the uproar in the naming? What exactly is the golden kingdom's theme to everyone? I feel the african zumanjaro name works great...ive always seen kingda ka as being somewhat africanish so i dont get the uproar in that at all i think it fits Also someone was talking about when was the last time great adventure was in the top 10 attended parks in the USA. Im sorry to tell you but to my knowledge it never was! The highest i ever remember it getting since 2000 is 14 which was the year we got kingda ka. And the years before premier when WB owned the park great adventure wasnt that big so i doubt it was ever higher than that. You have to remember the orlando and LA parks are always going to be in the top 10 and that takes up a considerable number of spots. Wdw is 4 parks, disney in california is 2 parks, you have the 3 univeral parks total and then you have seaworld orlando. Right there is your top 10 and i didnt even bring up busch gardens tampa or knotts which both get overflow traffic from being so near to those areas. As of last great adventure was still number 20 which after the redzone years is pretty good

Then why did you quote me saying ka would reopen by monday when you said this... As a WDI hopeful trust me i completely understand the want gor themeing. But the truth is only so many parks can keep to a strict themeing policy it costs major mulah to be able to do that. Disney, universal and busch lead the way in that area. But regional theme parks (which are what SF parks are) dont have the resources to keep to that strict themeing enterprise. They try as much as they can but if its millions of dollars cheaper to get a pathway to the safari from the frontier than from the golden kingdom...frontier is where its going. You can knock six flags for themeing all you want but in all honesty six flags does a heck of a better themeing job than cedar fair! And both chains get along just fine without keeping to that strict themeing regimen. Great adventure is the most profitable park in the entire sf chain it is going NO WHERE anytime soon nor will the loss of rolling thunder cause it to fall from that pinnacle

As far as constructing zumanjaro i see the hard work done by the end of the offseason enough so that ka can open in time for opening day. But putting in the motor and chains and all that for zumanjaro wont happen until the season starts. Zumanjaro still wont open til memorial day weekend but ka will open in time for the season. Thats what i think will happen.

Ka reopened today but what do i know...

^i would love to see a GCI at our park as well but im not certain thunder's spot is the right place. You already got el toro there so quite honestly a GCI in chiller's spot would be perfect i think. I think too many people are looking at chiller's old spot and defining the thought of a new coaster strictly to what chiller's area was...keep in mind the possibilities are endless in that area. Theres a lot of room to work with from where spinmeister used to be all the way to parts of the picnic grove they could use. You can always move pathways around in different directions very easily. For instance it would not surprise me at all if the entrance to the picnic grove was moved to where freefall is and have people walk around the back of showtime theatre to get to it...thats not something thats very hard to do and that makes all of the pathway open to use from showtime to spinmeister's lot ....or an entrance to the picnic grove from right where spinmeister's lot is would do the same thing. Theres endless possibilities with that area. When and if SF ever decides to build in that area what they'll do is have the coaster designed first and then fit the pathways in and around it. Dont let what are current pathways restrict your vision of a coaster...pathways can always be worked out one way or other

^im pretty sure he just meant a fresh paint job of the same color. But i still see it as very doubtful.....possibly but idk i just dont think so.

Like i said ka will reopen before monday...i say some things without giving the full details because i cant always say more. But ka will reopen by monday or before. Unless i say "i think" whatever im saying is coming from inside knowledge . I dont say anything on a wim

Ka will reopen before labor day monday