Six Flags Great Adventure: General Discussion

[Rob]

As one of Six Flags flagship parks (awful pun not at all intentional!) I think it deserves a topic of its own rather than being discussed in the Six Flags General Discussion topic. As we know they are getting Zumanjaro Drop of Doom on the side of Kingda Ka this year. However rumours are reveloping regarding a new coaster for 2015:

New Coaster - Rumor - (5/30/14) The early buzz for Six Flags Great Adventure is that the park may tap Rocky Mountain Construction to build another custom crazy creation like Goliath that will soon open at SF Great America, but bigger and meaner. The only clue as to the location is that our sources says that they would like for it to try and dive underground, traveling under 'the lake' at some point. If this is true, then look for this new coaster to go in the back of the park, perhaps near the old water-ski stands, or possibly over where the log ride sits. This also makes sense as the backside of the park could use a new major attraction, as almost every other new addition for the last several years has been placed either up front near the entrance (Superman, Green Lantern, Sky Screamer) or in the nearby north-east corner where we can now find Kingda Ka, Zumanjaro and El Toro. Off the top of my head the only new addition in the last decade to go elsewhere would be The Dark Knight indoor mouse coaster on the dead western side of the park where The Chiller used to be.

Great Adventure is definitely due a new coaster; their last brand new coaster was way back in 2008 and that was only a Mack Wild Mouse. They got Green Lantern (B&M Stand-Up) in 2011 but that was only a re-location of Chang. They have also lost a coaster this year following the removal of Rolling Thunder. So a new coaster for 2015 is surely on the cards.

Then RMC also seems to make sense. Six Flags clearly have a good relationship with them and are quite possibly buying them in 'bulk' with some discounts. They have two new ones opening this year. Six Flags parks seem to have had a very structured and cycled investment programme over the last fews years with similar rides being installed into their parks. Thrill coasters seem to be mainly either RMC or Premier.

This should be interesting to follow, we know RMC are capable of some quite crazy layouts!

 

[Rob]

First of all the good news; Zumanjaro is open at last! Bad new, the new operations of both it and Kingda Ka are now something that Merlin would be proud of:

While Six Flags Great Adventure managed to open their new Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom thrill ride this past weekend, built onto the side of the massive Kingda Ka coaster, all is not well in the park right now… or with either attraction. For reasons than I find hard to fathom, the state of New Jersey has put some serious restrictions on the operations of both rides, that is simply causing more harm than good. So be fore warned… if you intend to ride either of these… get ready for a LONG wait time.
The short story version is this… the state has decided that Six Flags can not run both of these rides at the same time, and is rumored to have gone so far as to require that the park link the ride control systems of each ride together so that there is no chance of it happening. Why? Because they are worried that either on purpose, or on accident, that loose objects from the riders on Kingda Ka may go flying into the riders on Zumanjaro: either horizontally during the launch towards and up the tower, or could fall down on them from the top of the tower. It seems that they felt the roof panel on the top of the Zumanjaro cars provided inadequate protection and the only way to protect the riders is to simply not run the rides at the same time. While it is a slightly different layout, apparently the lack of any problems with the similar Superman / Lexx Luthor combo ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain was not enough to convince them otherwise.
The resulting bit of insanity has caused very long lines as a result so far on both attractions as I’m told the operations go something like this. While Zumanjaro sits empty and idle, Kingda Ka will load and launch two trains back to back. Once they return to the station Kingda Ka goes into a hold and only then are riders allow to load into the Zumanjaro seats and then dispatch into a ride cycle. Once they land again and are removed from the car, Zumanjaro goes back into a hold mode and Kingda Ka can launch two more trains. Rinse… Repeat… and watch the faces of the park guests start to contort as the lines get longer and longer.
I can only hope that clear heads and look into this and solve this issue, as rides criss/cross over and under each other all the time and they’ve never been banned from running at the same time. The state obviously had no problem with El Toro running over the top of Rolling Thunder for all those years, so why the headache now?

What a joke! The throughputs of both rides must be dire because of this. Kingda Ka is already extremely popular and Zumanjaro will probably be too.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Was this thought up by the same moron who told Towers to encase half of Dark Forest in scaffolding?

 

[Ted]

I like it how they've left it until the very last minute. Surely, if they wouldn't have built Zumanjaro if it operates like this?! It's idiotic.

 

[Rob]

Apparently the state's decision is somewhat justified as the area where Zumanjaro is has always been a loose articles grave yard for those that have fallen from Kingda Ka riders. So it's potentially a stupid place to put a drop tower.

Also the operations of Zumanjaro are not really effected as it turns out they are actually allowed to load it when Kingda Ka is launching. The time it takes to load, check restraints etc is pretty much the same as it takes for Kingda Ka to launch twice so the impact is minimal. It is Kingda Ka that is suffering the most.

 

[Craig]

Apparently the state's decision is somewhat justified as the area where Zumanjaro is has always been a loose articles grave yard for those that have fallen from Kingda Ka riders. So it's potentially a stupid place to put a drop tower.

Also the operations of Zumanjaro are not really effected as it turns out they are actually allowed to load it when Kingda Ka is launching. The time it takes to load, check restraints etc is pretty much the same as it takes for Kingda Ka to launch twice so the impact is minimal. It is Kingda Ka that is suffering the most.

If that's the case it seems like a really backwards reasoning behind the changes. They allow people to be loaded along with staff in the area at the furthest point from the top of Kingda Ka when objects have the furthest to fall, yet won't allow the drop tower to be hoisted up when Kingda Ka is running? As for items being thrown out on launch, that seems a little far fetched considering other accelerators have never had issues, and you're hardly going to be able to throw anything on launch anyway!

Seems a shame this sort of thing wasn't all done with prior to the ride opening though, the possibility for falling objects was something that struck me as an issue when it first was announced.

 

[Maelstrom]

There is a retractable roof above the loading area, so protects riders while loading. Once loaded they hit dispatch and as soon as kingda ka has cleared the tower the roof retracts and ride starts.

The roof was reason for delay in the ride opening.

 

[Rob]

It's something they really should have considered during the planning stages. Putting a huge drop tower on to Kingda Ka may have seemed like a great idea and it's obviously been possible, but they really should have forseen the potential for these operational flaws. It is far from ideal, especially as Kingda Ka is possibly the most popular ride in the park. I hope they are working on some form of long term solution.

 

[Sazzle]

Wow. Sounds like a British H&S gone made situation! My personal feeling is to encase the Kingda Ka trains completely to prevent the objects being thrown out, and then wrap up the Zumanjaro riders in bubble wrap with protective head gear.

BOOM.

On a serious note, had the park known about this during planning, I imagine they'd have scrapped or seriously reconsidered the project. To reduce the running capacity of such a high profile coaster like this is not really a great way to build public relations with your guests :/. Unlucky!

 

[Rob]

Screamscape have posted a rumour regarding a potential 2016 coaster:

A series of photos posted to the "Six Flags Great Adventure Insider Updates" shows off not only the park's new El Diablo super loop under construction, but some Surveyor equipment elsewhere in the park which apparently is somewhere between the water tower and the Picnic Grove.
This is where things get interesting however, as one rumor for 2016 coming to light suggests that the park may be planning on adding their own B&M Launched Wing Coaster, similar in Holiday World's Thunderbird. According to the rumor, one line of thought may be to somehow reuse the old Chiller station structure for the new coaster (it's wide enough, as it did used to hold two side-by-side launched coasters) and maybe even have the coaster launch out and through the old Observatory structure, which is also still standing, with the rest of the layout running somewhere between here and the water tower area and back.
Sounds like a an interesting idea to me, as it would be nice to see this section of the park brought back to life again. We'll have to wait and see what other rumors develop this season.

Interesting. I would certainaly say that Great Adventure are due a new coaster in 2016, it has been quite a while. With El Toro an RMC wouldn't be quite right so the idea of a new B&M is an exciting prospect.

 

[Rob]

Six Flags Day is still a little while off but we are well into Six Flaga rumour season. Great Adventure have given us the biggest indication yet of what they are looking into getting next year, as reported by Screamscape:

An interesting survey was sent out to some fans of Six Flags Great Adventure in the past 24 hours, asking their opinions on adding an S&S 4D Free Fly Coaster to the park, just like the new Batman coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. The survey named the coaster Hyperdrive, and claimed it would "thrusts you into a totally immersive, high-speed adventure", "loaded with special effects and cutting edge construction."
The response to this ride at Fiesta Texas has been huge, with the guests loving it. My only concern about adding Hyperdrive to Six Flags Great Adventure would be the lower capacity that comes with this ride at a park with normally such high attendance numbers.

I really hope they don't go for this! Although it is something different to what the park currently has to offer I feel that, as such major coaster park, they are due a bigger thrill machine!

 

[Tim]

I thought S&S Free Fly and 4Ds were completely different rides. The 4D Free Spin is what the other Six Flags has. The Free Fly would mean this:

But I'm sure that's not what they meant.

 

[Rob]

It may be a case of confusing wording, here is exactly what the survey states:

Although saying that, this is the 4D Free Spin on the S&S website.

Screamscape have provided a further update on this:

For anyone wondering, and for everyone who sent this tidbit in… Six Flags has sent out surveys to many people that allow you to pick your regular Six Flags park, and apparently all, or nearly all, will ask your opinion of adding an S&S 4D Free Fly coaster to your local park, so the survey about Hyperdrive itself for Six Flags Great Adventure doesn’t mean it is going there.
That said… I have been getting rumors over the past week, before hearing about this survey, that the S&S 4D Free Fly coaster was being seriously considered for SFGAdv… I just didn’t believe it in enough to post about it at the time because of the low capacity problem. Meanwhile, one of our sources did provide us with another clue about the SDGAdv installation proposal, claiming that this version would be a little different from the prototype built for Fiesta Texas. This second version would actually be about 20 feet taller, a little longer and would revise the loading platform to include cars moving through a continuously moving loading platform to help increase capacity and keep things always moving.

 

[Rob]

As expected, Six Flags Great Adventure are getting a new S&S 4D Freespin in 2016 with the quite awful name of Total Mayhem.

The ride will be the most unique and intense attraction in park history, featuring one-of-a-kind magnetic technology and unique swiveling vehicles to deliver a sensation you've never experienced before.

On this new unbelievable adventure, you'll soar outside the confines of the track in wing cars facing other riders. You'll take an elevator-style lift straight up 120 feet in the air. When you reach the top, you'll begin to tumble head-over-heels, free-falling down two beyond 90-degree raven drops and experiencing at least six weightless flips.

When you see what other Six Flags parks have got in recent years then I can't help but feel Great Adventure deserves so much more. Yes it already has a world class coaster line up but so did Magic Mountain and look what they've had in the last few years.

I suppose the positive is that it is a long overdue new coaster that is different to other coasters in the park.

 

[Sammy]

In an update to this, Six Flags have tweeted this morning:

@SFGrAdventure: #THEJOKER is wreaking #totalmayhem @sfgradventure & has taken over our new #coaster for 2016! Who's ready?

This was rumoured last week, reported by an enthusiast to Screamscape who had seen purple and green track at Great Adventure. Now confirmed by Six Flags, Total Mayhem has a new name an colour scheme!

 

[Jordan]

Still a terrible coaster!

 

[TheMan]

Hideous.

 

[Rob]

It is Six Flags Day again, and one of the more interesting of a fairly boring list of announcements is that Six Flags Great Adventure will be getting an ABC Tourbillon called CYBORG Cyber Spin:



These have always looked quite good so it is pleasing to see them making an appearance in major parks. Six Flags Over Texas are also due to get one of these.

 

[Danny]

Their announcements just seem to get blander as each year goes by.

 

[MakoMania]

Their announcements just seem to get blander as each year goes by.

Nah, this year definitely tops last year when we only got S&S 4Ds for coasters, I'm dissapointed there are no Justice League dark rides this year, they are great!