sfgalocal

Really like the rolling thunder pic, I did not realize that there was a hill in the background until I looked at it again. Sad to see it go.

I drove in sat night 26th at 9 pm then left. Regular parking was closed, hh was used as overflow, but that lot was full, we were guided to park on grass at hh. Could not believe crowds pouring in. Fortunately I live really close, so I just decided to drive through lot and go home. Was able to enjoy next morning with much smaller crowds(15 min for kk) , but it quickly started to crowd by noon. Had to leave early, so missed ff this year

I was there yesterday(10/20) as well as two weeks ago(10/6) for the morning/ afternoon of ff only. We came back yesterday because we decided not to process our new passes on 10/6 -the lines were ridiculously long that day. Luckily, the season pass processing was short in the morning yesterday. It looked like they had both of them running. With our 3 year old, we had fun with the characters in Halloween costumes and kiddie rides. However I was disappointed with the park on both visits. The tables by la cucina were all filthy at lunchtime - seemed like they were not cleaned from the day before. We tried riding tango, the operator was ignoring us while he was on the phone. When I asked him what is going on, he was like 'ughhh, the ride is not working.' he was really a joke. The previous visit we did shows for the kids. not kidding on this - a pig that was part of prof SlithersShow got away from behind the set, the actors had to get him and pull him back with another official looking animal handler looking in disbelieve. The new kiddie Halloween trail was a waste of time. I dont like ranting on sfga, but the park operationally is getting worse. I plan to hit ff Friday night for myself, hopefully it will not disappoint.

Good point. I have seen people mention this (moving hh) in this blog. However I am not sure how credible that is or even why that is something sf wants to do, do not understand justification of such a major expenditure.

This section of AK that will be Avatarland was supposed to be Beastly Kingdom, but was never built due to budget cuts (the choice was either Beastly Kingdom or Dinoland, Dinoland won) The concept is similar to Beastly Kingdom, just different fictional creatures. Not a fan of Avatar btw, but happy for anything to make AK more than a half day park. Another note - this should put AK back as world's largest theme park...

Very cool ride. I did not go to sfga the years the ride operated, so I had no idea how much better that section of the park looked then than it does now! Curious - does sf have the engineering capability to design/modify rides today or is all of that outsourced to external firms/manufacturers? I wonder if sf has any 'imagineers' like Disney.

Why is it that the few folks who were part of ROTB get this privilage not die hard RT fans? This is one of those pr spins that is a disingenuous bunch of bull (excuse the pun). sfga should have done something separate for RT, even it was an online request for a piece of history. The fans deserved it. But of course that would have drawn too much attention to RT's removal, which I am sure is not what they wanted.

Technically it is still standing. Not sure what it means but it is still there. Why they closed it way before breaking ground is beyond me...

Really liked the parade, was one of the things that paralleled the Disney experience. If you you have young kids and have been to Disney then I think that you know what I am talking about. I was bummed when it was cut out. This is one of many examples of sfga mgmt focussing on teens/thrillseekers not an imaginative/family experience.

I have to disagree, el toro was the kiss of death for rolling thunder. Dont get me wrong, I love both rides. El toro is the best woodie that I have been on, but rolling thunder was a great ride to enjoy especially when racing. I think sfga did not do enough to maintain rt, improve queues / cars to reduce wait times. With a more modern design people wood tend to choose el toro, they could have done more to promote/ develop that area. If more was done then they clearly would have complemented each other.

Unless there was a major undisclosed problem(which I doubt because sfga kept rolling thunder open and running for 10 days from the announcement) I see no reason shutting it down and letting it sit idle for the rest of the season. I would only hope that they are reconsidering their decision, possibly looking at other options with the zdod queue, and keep rt open. Again just hope... And by the way I am still just as p@&&%d about rt removal as I was 3 weeks ago - I actually had a conversation with my wife about whether or not we should renew our season passes(we have 5 of them), this was never even a thought in prior years. If there was another waterpark closeby, the answer would be no. However, hh is very convenient, we go there often, so we are leaning to renew

I was there and rode great white day before labor day. Best parts were going under boardwalk at start, view of ocean. Ride was smooth, but stop was abrupt. after rolling thunder I think this is nj's oldest wooden roller coaster

I was a good citizen and kept my rolling thunder comments on the other thread, but since you brought it up... I find your comparison of Rolling Thunder to other defunct rides and attraction a bit disingenuous. Rolling Thunder was much more than that. The ride was an icon, and a darn good thrill ride that can be experienced by the family (it caters to a much larger ride base than Zumanjaro). Rolling thunder was in a unique category, not sure why Six Flags let it rot and not market the hell out of it. It was a wooden twin track roller coaster. According to the roller coaster db (rcdb.com) there are currently over 3400 roller coasters in the world. Do you know how many wooden twin track roller coaster now exist? 12. There are only 8 in the US. Before Rolling Thunder, when was the last time a twin track wooden rollercoaster closed? 1968. Rolling Thunder is a fairly unique attraction I would think. I really don't think SFGA will ever build another twin track roller coaster. I assume it is more expensive to build a twin track wooden rollercoaster than to maintain one it has. I think it would have been a better investment to maintain & market it, heck maybe ride it backwards to give it that unique experience. But of course I don't have inside info like you so maybe you can explain how this is bad idea. The other thing you mentioned that didn't make sense - if getting rid of roller thunder was part of a multi year plan, why give 10 days notice? Why not tell the public earlier in the summer, let people get in their last ride? I think this is really a slap in the face to the loyal (probably older) fan base, short term thinking. There is article on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooden_roller_coaster) on wooden rollercoasters has has a relevant quote: "Wooden coasters are also becoming less marketable in today's media-driven advertising world. Superlative advertising in which the "biggest", "tallest", or "fastest" ride is what brings in crowds often cannot apply to new wooden roller coasters, especially since a large majority of record-holding rides are steel. Amusement parks are always looking to add attractions that can be presented in commercials and ads as incredibly tall, fast, or extreme, which eliminates many wooden roller coasters." I am not trying to spoil the party for Zumanjaro (I call it Zum-of-Doom), I think it is great addition. I looked forward to it. I plan to ride it. GA has a notable history with Freefall, which was a widely popular ride that closed after 2006 season (I think). Zumanjaro fills that void that has been left open for 7 seasons, although again I think it is targeting a much narrower demographic. For me, dumping Rolling Thunder just changed things on so many levels. Your characterization of Rolling Thunder in a 'wind of change' spin is disingenuous. The ride was the heart of the GA experience, yes it aged, but it (and the loyal fans) deserved better.

According to the sfga website there are 12 rides at max thrill - what definition are you using?

If you read the comments in the petition, there is still a strong bond to rolling thunder to folks outside of this forum. A lot of it is history, personal experience, a lot of it is also the fact the ride is irreplaceable in its category (aka starter thrill ride?), some of it is strong opinions about how good of a ride it is when riding smoothly. A lot of this has been rehashed here several times. If I were a Six Flags executive, and I was paying attention to this, I would at minimum hold off on irreversable actions (such as demolition) until I I was sure that this is something that needed to be done. Of course, I am hoping wiser minds prevail at Six Flags and find a way to preserve rolling thunder while increasing the ride footprint in the park. Maybe review costs one more time, do another survey. Remains to be seen, rt is still there, so hoping...