Misc GA Mumblings

[DantheWoman]

50 minutes ago, coliwood_studios said:

I can say from personal experience that this isn’t the case.  I’ve stayed in the station and rerode Kingda Ka, Zumanjaro and others multiple times this year when able to, and never had any issues.

Not with Skull Mountain or Superman.

[The Master]

On 4/19/2023 at 12:03 PM, coliwood_studios said:

I can say from personal experience that this isn’t the case.  I’ve stayed in the station and rerode Kingda Ka, Zumanjaro and others multiple times this year when able to, and never had any issues.

 

I also was able to reride Kingda Ka when noone was in line for my row this year. 

 

Skull Mt has been a real mess so far this season. It has much longer lines than Kingda Ka. I assume this is caused by single train operations on Skull Mt while KK has been running two trains. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by The Master

[The Master]

Nitro was closed down again today, 04,23,23. 

[Coaster Guy84]

On 4/18/2023 at 2:53 PM, GAcoaster said:

With each successive management team from Time Warner onward, the maintenance budget and staff has been downsized and the park has never recovered properly. Things that other parks do to winterize and rehab the park no longer does. Look at Cedar Point- they have/had many of the same rides and they keep them in amazing shape. Every year their Ferris wheel has all the cars removed and rehabbed, then reinstalled before the park opens for the season-- it's the exact same wheel GA has but looks like new in comparison. GA used to do the same, but the lack of maintenance personnel and lack of budget means instead things only get fixed as needed rather than getting the preventative maintenance they should get. 

 

Part of the issue has always been GA's costs are higher than just about any other park because it is unionized, but it also been a bigger draw and made higher profits for the company than just about any park in the chain. 

 

I'll be curious to see if Kingda Ka gets similar modifications to Top Thrill Dragster since both are maintenance nightmares and bottomless pits of money for repair and upkeep. Supposedly the cost is about $5 million each year to keep KK running, so the ride has cost the park more than $100 million between purchase and maintenance over the past 18 years. Imagine what they could have done with that instead of dealing with Ka. If modifying it costs $10 million but it's cheaper to maintain and becomes a better and more reliable ride, maybe they update it? 

 

Reactive maintenance always increases your long term expenditures. Now I am not suggesting the park is compromising safety but given the recent events with El Toro you have to assume they are doing the absolute bare minimum to keep these attractions operating. El Toro's problems should have been caught before an accident occurred and preventative maintenance certainly would have helped.

 

 

With Kingda Ka it always surprises me how the park seems to consistently gets this attraction up and running. You would think they'd happily delay its opening until Memorial Day weekend to save on some operating costs.  I also think there is a chance they could revamp it like what Cedar Point is doing with Dragster however I think it would be another reactionary move if something major broke with Kingda Ka or hopefully (not) another accident. 

[29yrswithaGApass]

Looks like the Alphabet Garden, last seen at the Safari Exploration Station in 2010, will be back in the former remote control cars location behind the Big Wheel.  Click below to see the original display.  
 

 

[Swashbucklerfan16]

18 hours ago, 29yrswithaGApass said:

Looks like the Alphabet Garden, last seen at the Safari Exploration Station in 2010, will be back in the former remote control cars location behind the Big Wheel.  Click below to see the original display.  
 

 

Weird place to put it considering you would walk through a garden to see the letters, but I guess they made it work.

[Medusa42]

https://www.importgenius.com/importers/six-flags-great-adventure

 

1

CWQGNSZ230313694

E-SPORT ARENA ACCESSORIES

SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE

E-BLUE CORPORATION (HONG KONG) LIMI

2023-05-18

CHINA

[Sluggo77]

Guess something similar to what SFFT just opened is coming from the looks of that. 

[The Master]

The sign in front of the skyride has been changed. The new sign says nothing about the skyride opening Memorial weekend now. 

[29yrswithaGApass]

It’s definitely not gonna happen without cars! They haven’t updated the sign by Frontier Adventures yet. 
 

[The Master]

I would not be surprised if the skyride is quietly being mothballed.  

[Daved Thomson]

I would not be surprised if the land upon which the park sits has been sold.  I wouldn't put anything past the current Six Flags CEO!

[The Master]

Besides the skyride seemingly to remain closed for awhile, the park has several other issues going on. Nitro is frequently breaking down and line cutting is getting bad. Last trip I had 3 incidences of line cutting at Nitro, Skyscreamer, and Kingda Ka. In Kingda Ka's case, people were line cutting by pushing people in front of them out of the way in the station in front of employees who did nothing about it.

 

Sadly marijuana use is becoming increasingly common in the parking lot, although this problem is partly NJ's fault. Still its upsetting to see a pot tailgate party in the parking lot. Two trips ago saw a group of people in a large pickup bed and in a hatchback parked next to it getting high. The truck may not have even been their's. 

[29yrswithaGApass]

I have been seeing a lot of Hersheypark commercials recently on television but nothing for Great Adventure.   And no pamphlets or advertising for GA at rest stops or visitor centers.  Not exactly the way to  drive high paying attendance.  

[pashacar]

On 5/27/2023 at 12:56 AM, The Master said:

Besides the skyride seemingly to remain closed for awhile, the park has several other issues going on. Nitro is frequently breaking down and line cutting is getting bad. Last trip I had 3 incidences of line cutting at Nitro, Skyscreamer, and Kingda Ka. In Kingda Ka's case, people were line cutting by pushing people in front of them out of the way in the station in front of employees who did nothing about it.

 

Sadly marijuana use is becoming increasingly common in the parking lot, although this problem is partly NJ's fault. Still its upsetting to see a pot tailgate party in the parking lot. Two trips ago saw a group of people in a large pickup bed and in a hatchback parked next to it getting high. The truck may not have even been their's. 

 

This is unfortunate but by no means unique to GA, SF, or NJ. I just spent two days at Kings Island, a better-run park in pretty much every imaginable way, and there were still people walking around with lit blunts, and I even had kids  smoke weed behind me while we went up the lift hill of The Beast.

[nbadude44]

Good news everyone!

El Toro was testing yesterday, It will probably be re-opening soon (maybe this weekend?)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuMKlhrvqks

[pashacar]

^Glad to hear that, for sure. I was getting ready to have to wait for ‘24.

[The Master]

The smoke really kept crowds low today at the park. Many of the school trips were cancelled which caused the low attendance today.

 

Moreover, I saw they are doing strange changes to Houdini's queue. They have converted the old overflow queue under the ramada into a VIP lounge and took ouf the old pathway by the fountain which is still operating. Between that and removing the fountain in Batman's queue, I wonder if this is some new safety move? 

 

 

[pashacar]

^ That is funny, I didn't put two and two together that they'd killed both queue fountains within a few weeks of one another. I wonder if it's just cost-cutting.

[The Master]

The Houdini fountain is still in place and is running water, just the walkway has been rerouted away from it and a hedge blocks guest access to it. This is why I am thinking the Houdini walkway rerouting away from its fountain and the Batman fountain removal are connected. Since they are keeping the Houdini fountain I don't its a cost cutting move but maybe a safety move to prevent drownings? Both are/were located in more secluded spots of the park. Either way its still sad to see decorative features like fountains be removed or walkways rerouted in more boring paths.

[29yrswithaGApass]

The covered Houdini queue house has been converted to a VIP garden. The queue for the ride has been rerouted and cuts directly to the set of queue bars outside the pre show entrance via a new direct route from the pathway in front of the house paralleling the side of the building.  The new figuration makes the queue house used for the VIP lounge more secluded with less foot traffic around it.  

[Tower]

On 5/31/2023 at 9:11 PM, 29yrswithaGApass said:

I have been seeing a lot of Hersheypark commercials recently on television but nothing for Great Adventure.   And no pamphlets or advertising for GA at rest stops or visitor centers.  Not exactly the way to  drive high paying attendance.  

 

The park has sadly seemed very unserious about actually maintaining a good image over the past several years, it doesn't surprise me anymore.

 

The honest truth is that attendance rates will always be good due to the park being located right in between NYC and Philly, and Six Flags naturally hasn't seen a point in investing heavily into it like they have for parks like Fiesta Texas that don't have anywhere near the number of people living in their surrounding areas like we do. 

 

I hope something changes one day, I used to be insane about wanting coasters but now I just want the park to actually look nice and they haven't been able to even do that right. It's a big shame.

 

 

[BillyG]

15 hours ago, The Master said:

The smoke really kept crowds low today at the park. Many of the school trips were cancelled which caused the low attendance today.

 

Moreover, I saw they are doing strange changes to Houdini's queue. They have converted the old overflow queue under the ramada into a VIP lounge and took off the old pathway by the fountain which is still operating. Between that and removing the fountain in Batman's queue, I wonder if this is some new safety move? 

 

 

The ramada?

[Daved Thomson]

5 hours ago, Tower said:

 

The park has sadly seemed very unserious about actually maintaining a good image over the past several years, it doesn't surprise me anymore.

 

The honest truth is that attendance rates will always be good due to the park being located right in between NYC and Philly, and Six Flags naturally hasn't seen a point in investing heavily into it like they have for parks like Fiesta Texas that don't have anywhere near the number of people living in their surrounding areas like we do. 

 

I hope something changes one day, I used to be insane about wanting coasters but now I just want the park to actually look nice and they haven't been able to even do that right. It's a big shame.

 

 

I think your idea that "attendance rates will always be good due to the park being located right in between NYC and Philly," might might be a little short sighted.  Great Adventure's location between those two markets has always represented a greater pool of potential visitors to draw from. If you think about it, those two markets combined means GA enjoys the largest population within a 100 mile radius of the park to draw from (29.6 Million People) than any other U.S. park.  The U.S. park with the next highest population within a 100 mile radius is Magic Mountain (that is about 11 million fewer people within the 100 mile radius of it).  Despite the smaller population of Magic Mountain's 100 mile radius, its attendance versus Great Adventure has, at times, led that of Great Adventure.  Great Adventure's expenses to operate and maintain the park far exceed those of Magic Mountain and the other Six Flags parks, as a result of caring for thousands of exotic animals year-round, fewer operating days overall, maintenance costs, and some departments that are unionized, resulting in higher labor costs.  Even if GA and Magic Mountain drew the same number of guests each season, the profitability of Magic Mountain would likely be higher.  So, in a sense, Great Adventure's attendance must exceed that of any other park in the chain, especially if the bulk of the park's revenues are derived from attendance, in order to operate profitably.  I don't know this for sure, but I have to think that Great Adventure's break even point has always been higher than any of the other parks in the chain.  While some other parks might operate profitably with only 1 million visitors, it might take Great Adventure a minimum of 2 million to do the same.

 

Otherwise, I fully agree with you that I used to love new coasters all the time.  I just wish they didn't come at the expense of regular maintenance and upkeep of the park's landscaping/appearance/grounds.  I hope something changes, sooner rather than later.

[The Master]

14 hours ago, BillyG said:

The ramada?

 

Houdini's queue used to have a ramada, a sun shade structure over it's rarely used overflow queue. This year the park has converted that ramada to a solid roof structure and turned the former overflow queue into a VIP garden lounge along with rerouting Houdini's queue.