Winter Adventure 2015 at Six Flags Great Adventure!

[TTD03]

Just got home from the Winter Adventure event at Six Flags Great Adventure today and I had a blast! We were scheduled to have a tour of the park but due to weather conditions, and the fact that 4 people slipped in the parking lot, it was canceled

Lots of interesting info came from today about the park's upcoming season and beyond...

Here's a few pics that we could get. The parking lot was closed and since the tour didn't happen, not a ton of pics.

It's a "coaster"! Get it? Great gag gift that Six Flags handed out to us before their presentation!

I won a mug in the door auction!

Here's some highlights of Great Adventure's presentation

• When Zumanjaro was planned to finally open, and the inspectors didn??????t show up, was a huge disaster and the executives hit the bottle that night.
• Shake it off is the new theme song for Six Flags Great Adventure
• Large backlash from community about whether El Diablo it was a ??????coaster?????? or not. They get it, you the coaster enthusiasts don??????t love everything, they don??????t love everything. They just let some things, like this ??????coaster?????? debate slide by.
• There is a reason behind the small flat rides and not more coasters. You can??????t build a 20 million dollar ride every year. When Great Adventure did, you go bankrupt. (I did not make that last part up, the Great Adventure PR lady really said that.)
• Larger audience to work with, not just coaster enthusiasts which is why smaller rides like this need to be built.
• Aside from all the Hate about the new ride, they got a lot of support from season pass holders with kids that will love this ride.
• El Diablo will now be located where Rolling Thunder queue and ride area was, not in the Golden Kingdom as originally intended.
• Holiday in the Park is now a very possible reality for Great Adventure. No definite answer yet. But they want to beat the competition by having most of the park open WITH COASTERS!
• Funny comment, The presentor said ??????Before I shut up?????? very untypical language on behalf of a corporation
• State did not show up for Zumajaro which caused the media day to go haywire.
• The reason SF didn??????t call out the state on it was they need to keep a positive relationship with the state because in the end, the state makes the decisions whether the ride opens or not, so no point to bash the state.
• This is also the reason they don??????t talk about other parks, so that they don??????t ever possible get backlashed if something goes wrong at that other park.
• On media day, they had to send home the Today Show and Good Morning America, which both payed around 6000 dollars each to be there.
• A video from Six Flags hinted that Great Adventure gets it, it??????s time for Batman Backwards, but no official word yet.
• People want a coaster coaster coaster every year, but can??????t do it because it doesn't go for a large enough audience and it is too hard financially
• Goal for Holiday In the Park would be to have as many rides open as possible, including rollercoasters
• Lots of meetings have occurred about Holiday In the Park
• Holiday In the Park would be a weekend thing
• It would be most likely in November-Beginning of January
• State has not changed position on Zumanjaro and Kingda Ka, they still cannot run together.
• State made the park put in the safety roof that retracts when zumanjaro is going, and then goes back up when it is not.
• Other options were considered including plexi-glass, and a cage, none of which were incorporated
• State??????s issue is the possibility of articles falling from Kingda Ka onto Zumanjaro riders and station
• Zumanjaro gondola that pulls the cars to the top went up on November 2nd, 2014, and has been there ever since. They are still there because Maintenance says it is safer so that the ride can??????t accidentally connect to the cars and pull them up.
• El Diablo scheduled to open on Memorial Day, but could be earlier. It is completely for marketing. People are not thinking Six Flags in april, so it is more marketable for end of May.
• In Park Wi-Fi is not even a possibility at this point
• Season Dining to include snacks now. A snack might be instead of a meal, or it might be in addition to the 2 meals.
• A Six Flags National dining existed at some point, but no longer is available for purchase
• Park would rather see a new ride come every year than have one big ride come, then have a year with nothing new, and then a year with something big come and so on??????
• Park despite not looking land locked, it is kinda, because of the lake and some of the unused land is marshy, so not buildable on at the moment.
• Park put Kingda Ka in the freshly paved parking lot from the year before, proving that they were landlocked
• Ever since the park opened, the park never turned a profit until 2010.
• Years that big coasters like Nitro were installed, the park was in debt.
• Park has turned a profit every year since 2010.
• Premier bankrupted the park because of the back to back coasters. IE Nitro, Superman, Ka, Toro
• Park now has figured out how to turn a profit, and a large coaster cannot be purchased and disrupt that
• Park now has to be cautious, park spent a lot of money on Zumanjaro, so now they are going cheaper on El Diablo
• Hopefully next year is a bigger ride.
• Kingda Ka cost 50 million in original building costs and maintenance in 2 years.
• El Toro cost 20 million bringing the total amount of money the park spent just on these 2 rides was 70 million. Helping the park lead to bankruptcy.
• Park is aware of the buildings and exteriors needing fixing, but it??????s all about money, which is why they are reluctant to fix it.
• Coasters will get painted eventually.
• Parking lot not paved because it costs 10 million
• Park won??????t do it because that 10 million is a waste on no new visible capitol, from a business perspective is not good.
• Parking lot will have to be in pieces before they will replace it
• Lot of cost in shutting down and reopening the park
• El Toro has pieces of track taken out of it, actual pieces taken out for maintenance.
• It??????s always a struggle for the park, money is always the issue

This is the majority of what was told throughout the day from Six Flags.

This was an awesome day and I can't wait to be back for opening day on April 3rd, 2015!

Wow can't believe they were bankrupt

TTD03 wrote:

[*]People want a coaster coaster coaster every year, but can??????t do it because it doesn't go for a large enough audience and it is too hard financially

Unless you're Six Flags Magic Mountain.

[TTD03]

^ Yea I asked about that, they shrugged, and said they have a bigger budget and the fact that they are open year round helps them make the money back.

All very interesting. From a business standpoint, it fascinates me seeing what kind of decisions these people have to make with what they have. It's easy to get fed-up with parks that don't buy $20 million spotlight coasters every year, but these parks have like 50 things on their annual to-do list, and they can pick like 3 or 4 of them to take care of. Must be hard... can't wait to be there one day =D

[TTD03]

^ She said it is a challenge they face... every day.

I would enjoy hearing presentations like that on so many parks, ugh. The challenge is so invigorating haha.

Interesting trip report. This one really lets you see the park's perspective on a lot of things. As great as another huge coaster at SFGAdv would be, it just doesn't make sense to add them all the time. Besides, Great Adventure already has a terrific coaster lineup that most enthusiasts would envy. Good to see that the park is doing well overall. I really want to visit this park one of these days, especially for El Toro .

[mkingy]

Great report TTD03

Us enthusiasts often get carried away with wants without looking at it realistically - it's almost a catch 22 for some theme parks. They get called "money grabbing" but then are criticized for not investing in high cost attractions when they're just trying to break even / turn a profit / recover from huge losses! This certainly gives us a sense of perspective!

[TTD03]

Yea,
I got the feeling that they are looking for something bigger for 2016, but it might not be a coaster.
So if they follow their pattern, it would be 2018 for a new coaster?

It's a bit far for that I think.

2018 is going to be way too far. then they run the risk of people not wanting to come because they feel like they've done it all. Hell, I'm local to GAdv too and I already feel like that. I only went twice this year (as opposed to 10+ times most other years) because I've literally been on all of those rides dozens and dozens of times. I understand that we are of a certain demographic here, and also that it's always money, but I don't see how they could wait until 2018 for an actual new coaster. I mean I get it, they need to be able to turn a profit and afford any ride they want to put in... but 2018 would be seven years since the last coaster installation and 12 from the last really new one. Not to mention their last new installation was basically a bust. Green Lantern is often as dead as GASM was.

Even if Premier screwed them because of the early 2000s purchase-party, they also caused the public to be expecting a new coaster installation every so often. The past few years has showed everyone that it simply can't happen as often as it did, but twelve years is an unconscionably long gap for a major amusement park.

What I can see is Batman Backwards for 2016, and maybe a new major ride for 2017. That would still be 8 years which is really pushing it regardless of the money situation, IMO. While there are other parks that sometimes go these really long stretches without a new coaster, they are usually a) the smaller and less-visited parks in the chain or b) are part of an entire resort area with other attractions and things to spend money on, like CP.

[Paradox]

I still wish they had Batman and Robin still. That ride always looked amazing even if they did get rid of the rolls.

It was crap when it first opened but once they removed the OSTRs it was my favorite ride in the park of that era. It was still great without the rolls but I was so sad when they chopped them out.

[TTD03]

Anyone notice my comment about Holiday in the Park?

[Coasterkidmwm]

Hearing that the park is landlocked by the marshes doesn't surprise me. Does it have the same serious insect issues CP has at night?

deere839 wrote:

Wow can't believe they were bankrupt

I can totally see it taking a look at how they managed their parks during those day. They opened great new rides, but their parks were awful. They were dirty, with bad maintainance, poor operations... Sure people would come to the park to see the new ride, but they wouldn't come back.

I don't know Great Adventure specific case, but they opened and ran Parque Warner in Spain. Well, Superman's posters/pictures in the queue were in english. Hey, our first language isn't english ya know? Most of people doesn't speak english you idiots. It's such a dumb decision. I mean, how would you Americans or Britishs would feel if they were to opened a park in your country and wrote things in japanese?

I don't say this because I have a problem with english or something like that. I just say it because it's so illogical that I can't understand it. However, thanks to things like that, I understand perfectly why they went to bankrupt.

Just one last thing, please, not more backwards Batman clones. Don't ruin such a good layout... (yeah, I don't like going backwards...)

Disclaimer: I would still like to go there to ride El Toro... And probably I would go everyday if I could after that. But I don't think non enthusiast people would think like me.

Edit: BTW, great report TTD03! I got so carried away with the discussion that
I forgot to say it

TTD03 wrote:

Anyone notice my comment about Holiday in the Park?

They're really considering doing Holiday in the Park at Great Adventure? If they have it, I hope it works out for them, but considering the climate the park is in, running the rides might be a challenge, especially in December and Early January.

Nah no insect problems at all fortunately. I don't even remember being bitten by a mosquito at night there. A wasp one time didn't like that I was riding El Toro with my back on his seat though...

I also really miss Chiller, particularly with lapbars and the rolls. Got to ride once front row the day before it crashed...I think that was one of maybe 2 times I'd seen the ride without a line. I would've ridden a bunch more times but I happened to be with a friend that day who didn't want to ride because it didn't seem safe to him. On one hand, he was right, but on the other hand it's too bad I didn't get to enjoy the short line more since it was so uncommon. On the third hand, at least I got one last front row ride in before everything changed the next day.

[Dirk_Ermen]

TTD03 wrote:

1-There is a reason behind the small flat rides and not more coasters. You can??????t build a 20 million dollar ride every year. When Great Adventure did, you go bankrupt. (I did not make that last part up, the Great Adventure PR lady really said that.)
2-Park would rather see a new ride come every year than have one big ride come, then have a year with nothing new, and then a year with something big come and so on??????
3-Ever since the park opened, the park never turned a profit until 2010.
4-Park has turned a profit every year since 2010.
5-Park now has figured out how to turn a profit, and a large coaster cannot be purchased and disrupt that
6-Hopefully next year is a bigger ride.
7-It??????s always a struggle for the park, money is always the issue

1: It's pretty obvious that a park can't build a huge coaster every year. No themepark in the world isn't that profitable that they can afford a 20 Million Dollar Coaster on a yearly base.
2: This is probably the best tactic to deal with profits and finances best. A big ride once every x-amount-of years and in between that some smaller rides/expenses.
3+4: I'm not surprised by that. Spending yearly tons of money on only new stuff without putting attention to the upkeep of the rides eventually costs more than guest satisfaction. What would you like? See every year a new recordbreaking coaster, but the current rides breakdown all the time and are closed more than they are open a season. Or a top coaster once every 3-4 years with some smaller investments and everything operating fine with hardly any downtime?
5: So, If I read it like that. They are now using the money for upkeep and guest satisfaction instead of blasting it all on a giant ride. Sounds like the profit they still make is very little or they don't know how to safe up money for a large coaster.
6: I wonder what a "bigger ride" is according to Six Flags. Since in the previous statement they said they can't really purchase a large coaster.
7: This pretty much goes for any themepark. They need to weight out all options before making big yearly investments. I know from a study here in Europe that a large investment pays off roughly 3 years when it comes to increase of visitors. I don't know in the US but I think it would be somewhere around the same.

hopefully the chrismas thing does happen it would probly close a few time but it might work and BTR backwards sounds awesojme I wish a park in florida did a ride backwards

Amazing note taker! Its even more impressive that they managed to start turning a profit when they did when you think about the recession hitting hard at the same time.

[rcmaniac25]

Great notes TTD03!

Finances aren't unsurprising, little comments like the PR being very blunt tells me this was a very casual chat.

Not sure about Holiday in the Park, as another person where SFGA is a local park, the potential chance to say "hmm, I might go this weekend" and then that weekend decides to be the one weekend where it's 20 F while every other day was 50-60 F, means that it would suck and not go over well. How many people do you need to turn off before you realize that it wouldn't be profitable during fall/winter? I'm at an amusement park, not a ski resort. I'd like to not dress for the ski resort at the amusement park.

I feel like I'm the only one who completely missed the Zumanjaro stuff. I didn't know anything about it. So it doesn't even run?

[TTD03]

Thanks everyone!
Yea Zu runs, but when it runs, KK cannot,
So to share, KK launches 2 trains, then Zu runs, then KK runs 2 trains, and then Zu runs, and so on.

[rcmaniac25]

Hmm, I can see that... though it seems like a waste.

[TTD03]

rcmaniac25 wrote:

Hmm, I can see that... though it seems like a waste.

Overall, it's a great ride, and I love it, but it does make me miss KK short lines.