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.

 

Who knows, Great Adventure's theme park and Hurricane Harbor could be combined by the time AvatarLand opens in 2017!

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.

its not going anywhere but to a recycling center, anyone who attended ROTB this year is a proud owner of a section of track from the ride...

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.

well rolling thunders dead now...

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

It is kind of strange being able to talk about Zumanjaro after being "in" on the secret for quite some time.

 

While I am not surprised to hear of the disappointment around Rolling Thunder's removal, I am that it has consumed so much of this topic. Anyone who is familiar with the history of the park knows that rides and attractions are constantly added and removed from Great Adventure. Only six rides have had a longer run than Rolling Thunder's 35 years at the park and with the average coaster staying for only 12 years, Thunder had a pretty long life. As a Great Adventure history nut, I hate to see things removed from the park. If it were possible I wish we would still have every ride since 1974, but obviously that isn't realistic. Time marches on.

 

The decision to remove Rolling Thunder was not a random idea but instead a well thought out part of a multi-year plan for Great Adventure's future. I have known about its planned removal for over a year. Since 2011 the park has been putting in attractions that have filled voids in its ride line-up based upon feedback from its current visitors and the public who have complained that the park lacked certain attractions that lessened their chances of visiting or returning. For those that can recall not too long ago when the park was almost exclusively roller coasters and kiddie rides with numerous flat and family rides removed and not replaced, the park has come a long way in a short time to address those missings. We have seen a family oriented package of flat rides in 2012, an outstanding Safari experience in 2013, and now a world record setting thrill ride for 2014. Year after year they have listened to what people have wanted and their future plans will continue to enhance the park's offerings while appealing to a broader demographic.

 

Don't think of Rolling Thunder's removal as a simple swap out for another ride but as a key step in planning and building a better Great Adventure. We will get over Rolling Thunder's demolition just as we did with Lightnin' Loops, Scream Machine, and so many other rides. In the mean time we will just have to settle with our 415 foot drop tower. Poor us!

 

Outside of the coasters, the park has hardly any thrill rides except maybe Twister and Sky Screamer. There are people who don't like roller coasters.

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...

Close to 700 signatures, that's pretty good, too bad we didn't still have a few weeks.

That was intentional

It is still sad, but yes it is good to know that he feels that way about it, although he could just be saying that.

Honestly I dont think it matters to him, he already made his decision what else would he say? If the man had any care for history this would never have happened.

If you read his linked-in profile he states that he is a 'change catalyst'. This is all his doing.

Not too long before other rides go, bet u log flume is next.

I am in line for my last ride on rolling thunder, got my two older kids with me, beautiful weather. Wish it want the last ride, but a good way to remember it if it is.

and to me, getting sentimental over a roller coaster is normal.

you often seem to miss the point or blatantly mischaracterize.... Why are some coasters designated historic landmarks by ACEif it was not important? I think rolling thunder is nj's oldest wooden coaster, that means something

If you read the comments on the petition a lot of people are pissed off. Mark my words this will have longstanding ramifications, the petition will never go away. At some point the press will ask about it.

They should keep it open for frightfest, run it backwards. gives them time to reconsider and give a more open response to the community.

sorry but rolling thunder kinda has to go, it is old and umpopular. I bet if this petition gets passed, everyone will ride it alot the rest of the season but when 2014 comes around, noone will care about it.

I bet if they run the cars backwards again you would ride it, have you experienced that before?

Added this domain which forwards to the petition:

saverollingthunder.org

It is not too late, these things can pick up steam fairly quickly. Im kinda motivated considering they had this planned for a while and tried to bury the bad news in a major announcement. They can do zumanjaro without getting rid of rolling thunder.

I meant to say that the topic is (based on announcement) zumanjaro, rolling thunder, baboons, and cabanas.

Still think zumanjaro is neat, people will talk about it, but dumping rt without another transitional ride added is a bad idea.

Baboons and cabanas, what else can I say...

I hate to be a backseat admin, but if we could we please get back to discussing about Zumanjaro instead of giving our 2 dollars on the direction the park is going, that would be nice.