Enchanted

The idea that no park can have trees is ridiculous. That's one thing Great Adventure had over Disney and Universal, it was a park in a forest. It was an exciting atmosphere you could not find in many other parks. Now there are several other parks with wooded atmospheres and Great Adventure has destroyed theirs. It was not something that had to be done. They did not have to cut down every tree within a one hundred foot radius of each ride. Rides built in a forest are much more exciting to ride than rides thrown on cement slabs, or fields of grass. The forest created an amazing atmosphere that was much more enjoyable than the parking lot-with-rides atmosphere the park has now. That's why they built it in a forest, instead of just buying an empty field to build it in. You can have exciting thrill rides in a great atmosphere. You do not have to choose between the two. You do not have to destroy the forest to have exciting rides, in fact they would be much more exciting in a forest. The decisions Six Flags has made that have destroyed the park were not necessary, from destroying the forest to destroying any semblance of theming. They have all just been stupid mistakes.

Yes, Cedar point is a theme-less park " filled to the brim with steel machines everywhere you look". That is my point exactly. Great Adventure is doing everything possible to become just as tacky. It works for Cedar Point because that is all that park ever was. It never was a theme park. It was not built in a forest. It was an amusement park built on a lake. Great Adventure was built in a forest for a reason. The forest makes a park more exciting than just a bunch of rides thrown in a parking lot. No one expects the park to be like Disney or Universal. It doesn't have to be. It can be something they can't, a park built in a forest. A thrilling park with many roller coasters. But cutting down every tree in sight and throwing those coasters on slabs of cement or fields of grass ruins what they could be, exciting coasters that run through forests. This was not necessary and was just plain stupid, destroying the greatest asset the park had, the forest it was built in. It is also not necessary to slap comic book characters on every ride and paint them all fluorescent colors that clash with everything in sight. They go out of their way to make the park tacky and obnoxious. It is not budget-related. It costs just as much money to paint rides obnoxious colors as it would to paint them colors that compliment each other and the park itself. Most of the park's problems have nothing to do with budget or limitations, they are just bad decisions made by some overgrown teenager with a comic book fetish.

Red, but maybe a little darker, like burgundy. The light color sticks out like a sore thumb in the forest and the whole area looks so dreary and dull.

Not just STOP, but UNDUE! It's just way too much already. Change Movie Town, which never made any sense anyway, into a superhero themed area and put them all there. Theme BIZARO western, as they should have done. Theme the new coaster to either blend with Dream Street or give the Lakefront an actual theme, but for God's sake, not superhero!

^Actually, I couldn't care less what other parks are doing. That is one of Six Flags problems. They are trying so hard to be Cedar Point without realizing they are destroying what they have and never will be Cedar Point, because what makes that park work as an amusement park is it's history as a lakeside amusement park. Great Adventure cannot create a history it never had. They need to stop trying to be something they never will be and make the park something unique and great itself, which it was when it opened. A theme park in a forest is an amazing thing. They destroyed the forest and made the park a mess of unrelated crap thrown around like someone just threw everything up in the air and cemented it down wherever it landed. The park has 3 african themed rides; An African Safari in the western section of the park, Zumanjaro in the Asian section, and Congo Rapids in a section without any theme. If you are going to have an African Safari and other African themed rides, why not actually have an African themed section in the park? Why destroy the only well themed areas by adding African themed rides where they don't belong? Make the Safari entrance near Nitro, give Nitro an African theme and make that part of the park Africa. The fact that other parks are doing stupid things is not a good reason for Six Flags to do so. The most successful parks in the country are ones with coherent theming, unique food, multiple show venues, rides and attractions for children, great roller coasters and thrill rides all in a pleasant atmosphere. These are well-rounded parks that appeal to all demographics. Six Flags has decided to market their parks only to teenagers and that is a recipe for failure. That is not a large enough demographic to sustain a park that size. Not to mention that even teenagers prefer rides with good atmosphere and coherent theming that blends with the rest of the park instead of rides thrown on cement or fields of grass with comic book characters slapped on the side of them. So yes, I am saying negative things about the park, because the park continues to do negative things. Whether or not other parks do so is of no concern to me. I have been going to Great Adventure since it opened. I love the park and am very disappointed by the way it has been destroyed and downgraded to a tacky carnival. So to get back on topic, give NITRO an African theme and make that area Africa.

Where doesn't it? From the moment you pull into the parking lot, instead of seeing the forest you used to see, all the trees have been cut down and all you see is towers of steel and gray warehouses.

I'd like to see the coaster with an actual theme. Unfortunately if Six Flags were to theme it, they would just slap a plywood cutout of a comic book character on it and call that a "theme". The park itself needs a theme, and then the coaster could be themed to match that. But that will never happen.

Well, another obnoxious, ugly, in-your-face roller coaster ad. That is not a park brochure. It does not portray the "park" at all, just the coasters. Even Santa is on a roller coaster. Only Six Flags could manage to make Christmas obnoxious.

Just what we need, for the park to look "higher tech". It already has been transformed from an enchanted forest to an industrial wasteland.

Attacking a discussion because you are not winning an argument is not productive. This is a very important discussion. It is about the future of the park, a park we all care about and want to see successful. The fact is that focusing solely on teenagers and young adults is going to be the downfall of the park. These people alone cannot sustain the business. This demographic does not have the disposable income that adults have. More importantly, and seemingly completely out of the understanding of Six Flags, is that you can appeal to ALL demographics. You can have thrill rides AND family rides in a pleasant atmosphere with shows and good food for adults. You do not have to alienate families to appeal to teenagers. Regardless of who the company wants to market the park to, it needs to be fixed. Before discussing expanding the park, the current areas of the park need to be utilized effectively. It is pathetic to have boarded up buildings, vacant buildings, walled off areas, and deteriorating rides and structures. Even teenagers find this unpleasant and unacceptable.

I have to agree that the company does not understand how to run a theme park, and the idea of a "thrill park" is doomed to failure. Thrill-seekers alone cannot sustain a park the size of Great Adventure, and everyone else is turned off by the obnoxious atmosphere. I went to the park for the first time this year a couple of weeks ago. As you approach the front gate you are blasted in the face by loud music. Whose idea was this?! They wonder why the park guests at GA are so rowdy and obnoxious when they make them that way. Theme park BGM ( background music ) should be just that, background music, not blaring loud pop music. To make matters worse one of the only sections in the park that could easily have appropriately themed music, Frontier Adventures, instead plays pop country music. "She thinks my tractor's sexy" is not a song that was sung on the frontier. It is not "Nashville Adventures" it's "Frontier Adventures". Something so simple and they don't understand it. Adding only thrill rides to the park makes the problem progressively worse every year. Skyscreamer, Zumanjaro, and El Diablo are not family flat rides, they are thrill rides. They appeal to the same limited demographic as roller coasters. Meanwhile the theatres sit dormant leaving nothing for adults to do in the park, except the safari which doesn't fill an entire day. In addition to the empty theatres there are dozens of other empty buildings littering the park, some with boarded up windows. It looks like downtown Detroit, not a theme park. The carousel looks like something picked out of the garbage. Everything needs painting. There are major problems facing the park and throwing in more thrill rides is not going to solve them. Bragging about the fact that GA is 19th in north America in attendance is crazy. It is the largest park in North America in the most densely populated area of the country. It should be #1. 19th is pathetic.

The park does have room to expand. It just costs more money to expand than to build on currently developed land. Six Flags just did not understand how they were damaging the park by building in the parking lot and cutting down the trees. Apparently the people responsible for park design decided the park should resemble a boardwalk amusement pier instead of a theme park. I do not know if it was because they really like the atmosphere of an amusement pier or if it was just a lot cheaper. Either way it was a stupid thing to do and permanently destroyed the forest and the atmosphere of the park.