Then and Now: A Great Adventure Part 3: The Early Six Flags Years

    Hello everyone and welcome to blog three of this multi blog series looking at the history of Six Flags Great Adventure. If you haven't checked out the first two blogs you can view the first here and the second here. We left off at the end of the last blog where Six Flags had purchased Great Adventure and was ready to turn the park from just being a park in the woods of New Jersey to a powerhouse in the theme park world. It would take years for the park to become what it is today and the Six Flags era kickoff would signal the parks ultimate direction.

    1978 would be the first season that Great Adventure would be known as Six Flags Great Adventure. With new ownership the park would see quite a few changes. Several original attractions were removed from the park and new ones rose up to take their place. By the end of the 1978 season, Six Flags Great Adventure held steady at thirty five rides, but the thrills started to pick up. With change though came the loss of a few popular attractions. Enterprise, Dream Street Dazzler (originally called Pretty Monster in 1974), and Wild Rider (Wild Flower in 1975). Keep in mind that several of the attractions from 1975 were leased to the park with options to buy. Enterprise and Wild Rider were both cases of Six Flags simply not picking up the buy option. The biggest surprise though came with the closure of Big Fury. It isn't exactly known why Big Fury was removed from the park in 1978, but it's possible that it's lease had expired as well and Six Flags chose not to purchase the ride. 

    While the removal of Big Fury surely confused many park-goers it was quickly replaced by Wild Rider. Wild Rider, much like Big Fury was a cat and mouse style roller coaster that became very popular in the park. This was an interesting choice by Six Flags to bring in another cat and mouse style coaster as their popularity within larger theme parks was very much on the decline as they were more and more becoming known as fairground attractions. It's almost as if they upgraded the ride by replacing the ride? Much like Big Fury the individual cars looked like actual cars and the ride featured sharp turns and small drops. 

    In addition to Wild Rider, several new flat rides were brought in. Close Encounters (a Scrambler) and Monster Spin (a Monster Spin type ride) further increased the park's capacity. Alpen Blitz was closed permanently during the summer and by fall a walk-through Haunted House trailer too its place. Originally this attraction was only open at night, but due to it being overwhelmingly popular it ended up being open during the day as well. The attraction opened at the end of September, 1978 and was so popular that Six Flags decided to move forward with a more permanent attraction for the future. The house featured popular horror characters such as Dracula and a butcher scene. Similar to the terror trails of Fright Fest, ghouls would be in the house to frighten anyone who dared to enter. The attraction was temporary however and was removed after the season ended. 

East River Crawler, the sister to Monster Spin

    Perhaps the largest change to the park was the addition of it's first launch steel coaster, Lightnin' Loops. This coaster debuted to wild popularity and was located around where Batman stands today. Lightnin' Loops gave many people their first opportunity at experiencing inversions on a roller coaster. The train would launch from the station, go through a loop, climb a hill, stop, then do the whole thing backwards. Here is where Six Flags really stepped in. Rather than simply add this launch steel coaster, they stepped it up to get the first interlocking loops. Yes, Lightnin' Loops had two tracks that interlocked at the loops. Both tracks were able to launch at the same time, creating some really awesome looking images of the trains essentially circling each other. While the ride was able to do this, it was not a common occurrence. Unlike other dueling style coasters, Lightnin' Loops wasn't designed to be a race. Rather each track essentially operated as its own ride with the possibility that both could launch at the same time. As far as speed went, Lightnin' Loops would launch riders into the loop at forty five miles per hour to ensure the ride could get through the loop and up the hill to the next launch or station. 

    Lightnin' Loops will always be a major part of Six Flags Great Adventure's history. It blew riders away. It was the first time people in this area really could experience anything like it. It was one of the first ultimate thrill rides that Six Flags loves to focus on. During it's debut season it frequently had waits that exceeded an hour, tame by today's standards with some rides, but for the time.... That's pretty long. With this new coaster, Six Flags made a statement that the future would be quite thrilling for their newest park. 

    Along with the new rides came other new forms of entertainment. Firework displays would shoot off front the lake next to the fort at night. While these fireworks were small due to the location of where they were shooting off from, it gave visitors reason to stay into the night. Halloweekends kicked off for the fall as the park began it's Halloween celebrations with the main attraction being the Haunted House. Another new form of entertainment came in the Americana Music Hall where various stage shows would be able to take place. This theater continue to operate today as the Showcase Theater and is currently used for both Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park as well as various school arts competitions. All in all Six Flags's first year heading Great  Adventure was a success. While the number of rides didn't increase, the quality did and the thrill factor jumped substantially largely due to Lightnin' Loops. Other changes that were made in the park were certainly confusing to park goers at the time (lookin at you Wild Rider). Whatever the case, Six Flags's debut season in the park certainly did lay the framework for the future. 

    For it's sophomore year (1979), Six Flags had big plans in place for Great Adventure. As the park continued to grow and expand, Six Flags established a new area of the park adjacent to Kiddie Kingdom. This area would be known as Hernando's Hideaway. The area would have a southwest theme that included new rides, restaurants, and attractions. More changes would come in the form of additional rides around the park, new entertainment offerings, new animal experiences for the safari in the form of Australian animals and big cats (don't worry we will get to the safari in a later blog) and a miniature golf course. All of these new additions would continue to increase the park's capacity.

    Six Flags Great Adventure 1979 season would be one that goes down in history as one of the better in terms of growth and one that would have lasting impacts on the park in its attractions. The new Hernando's Hideaway area encompassed what is the modern day Golden Kingdom and Plaza de Carnaval. Many of the attractions that were built in this area are still operating today. The Hernando's Hide-a-Way arcade still exists as Fiesta Games. Goya Food Stand is now operating as Kingdom Gyro. The biggest of the food locations was La Cantina which is now operating as Macho Nacho. Another meaningful food change in the park was Fountain Hamburgers being renamed to Great American Hamburgers.

    The number of rides for the 1979 season further increased to 38. New attractions included a more permanent Haunted House. This time around the house was twice the size and was themed as more of a haunted castle, and went under the name of Haunted Castle Across the Moat. This time around the frights were bigger and also included a mirror maze. Another popular carnival flat ride, a Tilt A Whirl, as well as a new Enterprise further rounded out the flat rides in the park.When it came to flat rides, one left the park in the form of Supercat. 

The new Enterprise, later known as Spinmeister.

 The park also removed two kiddie rides and added four. Most importantly though, Six Flags Great Adventure debuted another history making roller coaster in the form of Rolling Thunder. 

    To fans of Six Flags Great Adventure, Rolling Thunder needs no introduction. Roller Thunder debuted as the largest ride in the park. It would be a wooden roller coaster with adjacent tracks that allowed riders on one track to race riders on the other. The tracks were slightly different, but were the same length of 3,200 feet. The ride stood at a maximum height 96 feet and featured a drop of 85 feet. While it may seem slow by today's standards, Rolling Thunder also debuted as the fastest ride in the park with speeds reaching fifty six miles per hour. One small special effect that existed in the rides debut season were bright lights that would flash to simulate lightning flashes and the sign outside the park would make thunder sounds. Rolling Thunder opened to wild popularity. Long lines for both tracks were not uncommon at all. The ride would end up going down in Six Flags Great Adventure history as one of most popular rides. It would get a few safety upgrades through the years, but for the most part Rolling Thunder would remain the same ride as when it debuted throughout it's lengthy life. Directly in front of Rolling Thunder would be the kiddie ride, Screamer, which was renamed Lil Thunder for the 1979 season. 

Roller Thunder before El Toro was built (1997)

Rolling Thunder post El Toro opening (2012)

    With Rolling Thunder and Lightnin' Loops leading the way, Six Flags Great Adventure was starting to make a case as quite the thrilling park. The park continued to both grow and expand. What was once a small family theme park in the woods was starting to transform into a thrill park. The 1980's would continue to see the park grow and debut more new rides, restaurants, and other forms of entertainment. With the early years of Six Flags Great Adventure now in the books, it was time for the company to push hard at making the park a powerhouse. Would the park flourish or would a series of disasters set the park back and ultimately cause Six Flags to question it's very existence? 

   Thank you once again for reading! For more information on the early Six Flags years of Great Adventure please visit greatadventurehistory.com. There is so much good information on that website that goes into the history of the individual seasons more than I am on here. They also have a really awesome spotlight on Rolling Thunder! The next installment of this blog series will look at the early 80's! 

Then and Now: A Great Adventure Part 2: Stepping Back and Six Flags Takes Over

    Hello everyone and welcome back to Then and Now: A Great Adventure. If you missed the first part of this blog series check it out here to get all caught up. This blog series is focusing on the history of Six Flags Great Adventure. Topics covered are major events for the park for a particular year as well as taking a look at the major rides that have come and gone. I also put a focus on rides and attractions that still exist in the park today! Without further adieu we pick up in 1975.

    Great Adventure had a first season that exceeded expectations. Despite all the successes Warner LeRoy was starting to see just how difficult designing and running a big amusement park could be. It was in this second season that he began to take a step back from the park and allow the investors to take more control of the parks direction. He remained the park's designer and creator, but the amount of hands on work he was doing had decreased in comparison to the 1974 season. Despite LeRoy taking a step back, 1975 would see incredible growth for the park as it added nine new rides (including one roller coaster....sort of...). Six new food locations would also open throughout the park (many of which still operate today). One attractions did not return for the 1975 season, that attraction was  The Happening (acrobat show) and the originally planned for 1974 Boats attraction was officially scrapped.

    The park itself continued to grow with a new area called Fun Fair!! This area hosted several of the park's new attractions and was located in the area that is now occupied by Movietown. Debuting in this area was a second, smaller, Ferris Wheel known as Panorama as well as multiple flat rides such as Enterprise (an enterprise style ride), Wild Flower (a Troika style ride), Super Cat (a music express style ride). Nearly all of the rides in thios new area were rentals and set up quickly. Despite not being anything special they all went a long way in increasing the park's capacity which due to it's increasing popularity, was super important at the time. Along with the rides Fun Fair!! offered two new food locations in the form of Hot Dogs! Hot Dogs! and Pizza Filling Station. Both of these restaurants operate today! Hot Dogs! Hot Dogs! is now under the name Mama Flora's Grill and Pizza Filling Station was Macho Nacho Express up until this season where it is now a quesadilla restaurant. Also new to the park was the Garden of Eaten which continues to operate today as the catering area.

    Prior to Super Cat arriving, Great Adventure had one of it's first big mysteries unfold. When the park reopened in the spring of 1975 a roller coaster by the name of Jumbo Jet was constructed. The coaster, much like many of the other rides in Fun Fair!! were rentals with an option to buy should the park want to. Many Jumbo Jet rides continue to operate at fairs around the world to this day. For unknown reasons though Jumbo Jet did not open with the park in 1975. It sat idle for weeks and then was mysteriously removed halfway through the season and replaced with Super Cat. The reason the coaster never opened to the public is unknown, but some park maps for the season had Jumbo Jet in Fun Fair!! while others featured Super Cat. While I do not have any pictures of the ride to show, here is a video of the same ride in Coney Island, New York.

    Another new area of the park debuted in this year. The area now encompasses the Boardwalk area, but back then it was smaller and known as Fortune Festival. This area featured games of chance that were cheap to maintain and raked in a lot of money for the park. The majority of the Boardwalk area of today sticks true to that theme as many games still line the pathway. The two food locations, Midway Treats and Fortune Festival Hot Dog continue to operate today under the names Boardwalk Steak and Fries and Garden State Grill respectively. With the additions of the new areas and attractions Great Adventure saw it's attendance for the season grow over 80%. 

    By the end of 1975 Warner LeRoy's involvement with the park largely came to an end. New management had taken over and 1976 would prove to be a big year of change. The largest of these changes was to the park layout itself. For the first two seasons the park entrance was located pretty much where the Boardwalk area of today is. Guests would enter the Dream Street area looking at the Carousel and Big Wheel behind it. Starting with the 1976, the park entrance was moved to it's present location. Guests would now enter into the new Liberty Court and Avenue of the States area that has the fountain as it's centerpiece. 

    Along with a new entrance a slew of new kiddie rides were brought in and others were moved to where the previous park entrance stood in a new area called Kiddie Kingdom. Paths throughout the park were rerouted and expanded to allow for better guest flow and park capacity. The overall shape of the park took on it's modern day appearance as well. Still more changes came to the park in 1976 as the park added enough rides to get the total ride count up to thirty four. Included in this was one additional roller coaster. Lost between the 1975 and 1976 seasons were two kiddie rides and the Antique Car Ride that sat pretty much where the current entrance area is. 

    Some rides, such as Flume, saw name changes for the season as well. The eventual Sawmill Log Flume would know be known as Log Flume. Several other rides would see name changes as well during this season. Two new flat rides were added to the park in the form of Sidewinder (the only SideWheeler style ride in any park) and Musik Express (a Himalaya style ride). The new coaster, Alpen Express was a small coaster whose track was in the shape of a figure eight. The ride would make multiple laps around it's track and it's maximum height was under eighteen feet. The ride was situated nearby where Cyborg Cyber Spin stands now, but not quite where it stands... More on that later... 

    1976 would also see more construction of gift and food locations. The gift shops that line the way to the fountain today were first opened in 1976. The gazebo located just past the fountain also made it's debut in this season and has stuck around ever since. Despite just adding a few new rides and attractions, Great Adventure continued to grow and in 1977 something happened that would change the course of the park's future forever.

    The 1977 season only brought one new ride to the park. The ride known as Gondola was a one of a kind ride in the United States. Despite being new the ride was actually super old and had been around since around 1880. The ride was similar to that of a carousel and made for a very nice looking attraction (despite not being really popular) in the Fortune Festival area. During this season a new puppet show also debuted and some Marvel comic book characters would appear from time to time, but other than that the park was largely the same from the 1976 season. Behind the scenes though new ownership was taking over.

    The regional theme park company known as Six Flags would purchase Great Adventure during the 1977 season. Six Flags had already built three of their own parks by this time, but their business model had changed. Rather than constructing their own parks, they would focus on purchasing other theme parks to cut out all the construction work. This strategy worked wonders in Houston, Texas where Six Flags basically pulled a theme park out of the gutter. Six Flags would look to work the same magic here to turn Great Adventure into one of the biggest theme parks in the country, if not the world. With thirty five attractions already built and operating taking the park and turning it into something great would take many years.

    The Six Flags Great Adventure that we all know today would not exist had it not been for all of this early success. If it hadn't been for Warner LeRoy and his team blowing away all expectations of a theme park in the middle of the woods in New Jersey, this park would have probably failed. Many of LeRoy's ideas may have never come to fruition and Great Adventure may never had become the Dinseyland of the Northeast, but one of the most thrilling parks in the world had been born. As we continue on with this series we will see how Six Flags created a monster of a park that people both old and young have incredible feelings for. The next installment in this series will focus on the first couple years that Six Flags had control of the park. 

    I'm pretty much going to mention this at the end of each of these blogs. If you like what you are reading, please visit greatadventurehistory.com . They have so many more details on these early years as well as all kinds of pictures of rides like Gondola and Jumbo Jet. They do such an amazing job on that site and cover way more history of this park than I could ever hope to cover. So please, if you like what you see and read here, check them out. I promise you wont regret it! As always, thank you for reading and stay tuned for part 3: The Early Six Flags Years!    

       

Disney Announces Multiple Closures! (Catch Up Blog)

    Hello everyone and welcome back! Today's blog is a sort of catch up as some news did come out of Walt Disney World while I was working on the past couple of Six Flags blogs. Normally I would have jumped into a blog about the news, but considering none of it was all that surprising to me I figured it'd be okay to wait to react. On July 16th Disney announced that three attractions would not be returning to the parks. We all know that Walt Disney World is always moving forward so we can assume that these closures will pave the way for something new. The only problem with that is nobody really seems to know what Disney is going to do as they continue to roll back more and more projects due to covid-19.

    The first of these I don't anyone was surprised about is Stitch's Great Escape in The Magic Kingdom. The attraction had not operated since January of 2018 despite being labeled as a seasonal attraction. Stitch had been meeting guests in the building prior to the covid shutdown. Since the ride hadn't functioned in over two years I figured that it had long been taken apart and pictures surfaced online of the endoskeleton of the Stitch animatronic from inside the attraction. I'll be honest this comes as literally no surprised. Rumors have been around for a while that the attraction will be converted to some sort of attraction based off of the movie Wreck it Ralph. I'm totally fine with that. I personally enjoyed Stitch's Great Escape as I am one who enjoys creepy things like the ride was, but I get why it closed and I also get why it was so incredibly unpopular. I just wish I had a chance to go on it when it was still themed to Alien. Oh well. I'm sure whatever goes in that spot will be far better for the general public. Even if it's just a meet and greet.

     The second is the much maligned Primeval Whirl in Animal Kingdom. Prior to covid, the ride was operating on a seasonal basis, but basically the entirety of the summer closed. It reopened in September of 2019, but was frequently closed even after that. The spinning cat and mouse roller coaster was actually a pretty rough ride. It was fun and had a dinosaur/carnival theme to it (as does much of Dinoland USA), but both times I rode it I came off of it feeling like I got hit by an asteroid. The ride not reopening comes as no surprise to me, but without it, Dinoland USA is going to look even worse than it does now. Rumors will continue to fly about the end of the land as a whole, but my guess is that for now Dinoland  is going to continue to be that area of Animal Kingdom where people go mostly for one ride, Dinosaur.

    The third attraction that is closing is the nighttime show Rivers of Light. I wish I was surprised about this. I'll be honest. I never sat down and watched Rivers of Light. I watched it on Youtube and read a ton of reviews that seemed to echo what I felt just from watching the show online. That being Rivers of Light looks nice. The music is great, but it sorely lacks the show that all the other nighttime shows at the time provided. I'm not even talking about the fireworks either. I totally understand that fireworks will never work at Animal Kingdom and for good reason. The entire history of this show though is basically that it was never enough. It was never good enough. It needed to be changed (and was multiple times even after debuting). So it does appear that Disney just decided to pull the plug on it and cut some more losses. I cannot imagine Disney not coming up with a replacement show. Before covid there were rumors of the show closing in favor of something more along the lines of EPCOT Forever. I think something like that could work well. Of course there couldn't be fireworks, but the kites, fire, water effects, and hey perhaps even some drones could create an impressive show that wont freak out the animals.

    So that's what has not returned to Walt Disney World. Again, none of these really come as a surprise to me. The most surprising is Rivers of Light, but again, not really a surprise to me. I don't really see Stitch's Great Escape or Primeval Whirl as big losses to the parks by any means. Rivers of Light does leave a bit of a hole for Animal Kingdom that won't be really seen until the nighttime shows kick back up again. Time will tell what if anything will replace these attractions. It's pretty safe to say though that nothing is going to be imminent. When the time does come though I'm sure Disney will come up for something to replace all three of these attractions. As always thank you all for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!

Six Flags Great Adventure Review 7/18

    Hello everyone and welcome to another Six Flags Great Adventure review blog. Today's trip was a bit more rocky than my previous trip, but overall it was still a fun time in the park. The temperature in the park today was in the low 90's with a higher heat index. It is going to be the cooler of the days this weekend which partially prompted today as the day to go. As far as the reservations went, again I had zero problem getting one and there was no issue getting preferred parking reserved either. I arrived at the park a little after 11:00am for my 11:45am reservation. The lot was more full than my previous trip, but still very empty for a Saturday in July.

     The visit got started off on a pretty rough note. Security was a disaster. The biggest issue was that there was one medical person managing the entirety of the security queue. I give her credit for trying, but there was an overwhelming number of people ducking under ropes, stepping over them, and just pushing past other groups. Social distancing was completely non existent and I honestly felt like it was even crazier than a normal day at the security checkpoint. I can't say I ever remember seeing such chaos in the security line at Great Adventure. When I was leaving the park it looked like the same situation was still going on. Just large unruly groups bulldozing through everyone else. I'm not one to complain normally, but I had to talk to guest relations about the situation. It was to a point where it just didn't feel safe and that someone could have gotten hurt or a fight could have broken out. Why the park had just one girl from medical keeping watch of that entire line I have no idea.

    Another hiccup I encountered getting into the park was at the gate. The person looking at my reservation claimed my reservation was only for one person. I showed her my confirmation for two people in my email and she accepted that. I call it a hiccup since last time my reservation wasn't asked for at the gate considering it was scanned at the parking lot. It wasn't a big deal at all, but after dealing with the craziness in the security line I really just wanted to get into the park and relax.

Pretty sure all but the last note here were ignored by many during this visit.

    Overall, crowd size was small but certainly larger than last time in certain areas of the park. I walked through the Boardwalk area to the now open Kingda Ka, through the Wild Walkway, to El Toro, around through Frontier Adventure and by the lake encountering relatively small crowds. By the time I got back over by Joker though the crowd was certainly starting to build. As the crowd built so did the lines and so did the lack of compliance to the rules. Compared to last time, there was a lot and I mean a lot of people not wearing masks (basically the all had them around their necks). There was basically no staff members enforcing the mask rules either. Only in the Wild Walkway did I hear a staff member actually ask a group to put their masks on. Also, queue lines for Skyway, The Dark Knight, Harley Quinn's Runaway Train, and The Joker all appeared to disregard the social distancing markers on the ground. At the same time, the lines for Big Wheel and Sky Screamer were much smaller and more spaced out.

Still very light crowds by Big Wheel around 2pm

Sky Screamer didn't appear to be very busy today

    So from a safety standpoint my overall thoughts are this. The security line was a mess, the ride queues appeared jammed, and there were a bunch of people not wearing masks. That said, the crowd was not large and there was plenty of space to keep away from other groups while walking around. Six Flags needs to step it up a bit in the security area and need to get the people that were walking around doing mask checks last time back out in the park doing that. I can't imagine the state isn't eventually going to crack down on the park if they continue allowing what is going on there to happen.

Twister undergoing a test run after a breakdown. The ride did reopen.

    So what was new this trip? Believe it or not a couple things! Last trip I had missed a new gift shop that opened on the right hand side of Main Street called Adventure Kids. It's a nice little gift shop that has a variety of Looney Tunes merchandise and some DC Comics merchandise as well. One of the more random, yet fun items in the shop are rubber ducks that are in various forms. For example there is are rubber ducks that look like turtles, red pandas, hammerhead sharks, dragons, and much more. Really random, but kind of fun I'm not going to lie. Another thing I noticed was that over by the entrance to Frontier Adventures there is now an edible cookie dough stand. Unfortunately it was not open during my visit so I couldn't try it out. Also new this trip is Kingda Ka being open. Last time you couldn't even get close to the ride due to a construction wall that was put up. Zumanjaro however remains closed.

This needs to open like yesterday.

Zumanjaro remains closed... Thanks El Toro train for the photo bomb.

    In my last blog I commented on the lack of food options in the park. It appears as though many food options have since returned. At Metro Grill, where I last called out a lack of a menu, the specialty sandwiches have returned! I'll probably get the jerk chicken sandwich on my next visit to the park. Macho Nacho over by El Toro also appeared to be operating with a more normal menu as well. At Totally Kickin Chicken in the Boardwalk section there continues to be just chicken fingers and the two Chinese food places in that building remain closed. Best of the West over by the Sawmill Log Flume also remains closed. Speaking of closed attractions though...

I just want my pulled pork and mac n' cheese bowl...

Specialty sandwiches are back at Metro Grill! Ignore the guy with his mask down...

    The Sawmill Log Flume itself remains closed and missing track pieces. Congo Rapids also remains closed due to social distancing concerns. Justice League Battle for Metropolis, Houdini's Great Escape, and Cyborg Cyber Spin are also closed for the same reason. I still cannot figure out why Cyborg isn't able to run yet the Twix sponsored Twister is. As far as Justice League goes, I've heard that it will not be opening this season at all and if that's the case I assume that means Houdini will not open either as they are both indoor attractions. As mentioned, Kingda Ka is now open however Zumanjaro Drop of Doom remains closed. There is now signage outside the park entrance announcing that Jersey Devil's opening is pushed back to 2021. Something I forgot to mention  in my last review is that the platform for El' Diablo is still standing behind construction walls.  This is the second season the ride has not been in the park.

Due to covid-19, Jersey Devil will debut sometime in the 2021 season

    Overall this was a mixed bag of a Six Flags trip. Was it fun? Yes. Was it frustrating at the start of the visit, yes. I gave Six Flags a lot of praise for the job they had done in my last review, so it does disappoint me a bit to say they need to really step it up in certain areas. I understand the park is understaffed. I understand that large groups are hard to control, but what was happening in that security line all day simply cannot happen. Somebody is going to get hurt and I'm not even talking about any associated covid risks. I just mean some kid is going to get ran over. The staff need to feel empowered to ask people to wear their masks correctly.  I'm not a stickler for masks. I get that a lot of people are though. I also get that it's a park mandate that should be enforced. We are lucky that the park was even allowed to open and that ability to be open can quickly be taken away again if people aren't willing to follow the rules.

    With that I give this trip a C. I was able to enjoy myself and the park itself is still pretty clean and the workers are doing their best to keep it that way. However much of the social distancing protocols seemed to have gone out the window already whereas other theme parks (Walt Disney World and Universal Studios) have been able to maintain those protocols. If the crowd was larger I'm pretty sure I would have just left for the day. That's about all I have for this trip. I will go back again, however my attention now shifts to an impending announcement about Hurricane Harbor.

    Thanks as always for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!

Bo the cheetah as seen on the Wild Walkway

Then and Now: A Great Adventure Part 1: The Early Years

    Hello everyone and welcome to the first installment of Then and Now: A Great Adventure! This blog series will be taking a look at and celebrating the past of Six Flags Great Adventure. To set the background, Six Flags Great Adventure is located in Jackson, New Jersey. The park opened as Great Adventure in 1974 and was purchased by Six Flags in 1976. Today the park is home to thirteen roller coasters and a total of fifty eight attractions. The big three coasters of the park are the wooden roller coaster known as El Toro, the launch roller coaster named Kingda Ka, and the steel hyper coaster named Nitro. Throughout the years the park's rides have set world records, been the source of controversy, and cemented themselves in the theme park history books. The park today still has call backs to it's roots and several attractions form 1974 are still operating today.

    Great Adventure was opened on July 1st, 1974. In the opening season, the park's creator Warner LeRoy was very much involved in the day to day operations. The park got through it's first season with twenty two attractions, but only two of them were roller coasters. The two coasters were Runaway Mine Train and Big Fury. Runaway Mine Train is a steel roller coaster that many visitors of the time refer to as the first big roller coaster. By today's standards the ride is pretty small and even considered a family ride, but it is still pretty rough and the final hill is pretty intense as it can make riders pop up from their seats. The ride is still functioning in the park today and while it has received some technological upgrades to the brake systems, the ride remains largely the same as it was back when the park opened. Today Runaway Mine Train operates under the name Runaway Train. It is located in the Frontier Adventures section of the park.

    Big Fury opened late in the opening season and quickly became a fan favorite. The coaster was a cat and mouse style coaster featuring frequent small drops and tight turns. It was situated to the right of Giant Wheel and gave each side of the park a roller coaster. The ride itself featured individual, four person cars as trains. Think the current cars for The Dark Knight if you're having a hard time picturing it. The cars themselves though were made to look like actual cars of the time. From the time it opened until the time it closed, Big Fury was considered the craziest roller coaster in the park.

    Alongside the two coasters, several other important rides opened in the park's opening season. The first is the already mentioned Giant Wheel. Giant Wheel remains in operation today under the name Big Wheel. When it debuted the ride was touted as one of the tallest Ferris Wheels in the world. The wheel stands at a whopping one hundred and fifty feet. Throughout the years the wheel has gone through many changes (mostly relating to safety), but the ride is still the same ride that existed in the same exact spot in 1974.

    Another ride that would stand the test of time is the Carousel. Today the ride is in some serious need of some love, but it's certainly worth noting that it is another opening season attraction that remains today. Yet another long lasting ride was the Flying Wave. This swing attraction would last until 2008 and was situated by Giant Wheel and Big Fury. Eventually it would meet it's demise in a big big way (not a bad big though). Two more rides have managed to stand the test of time and strangely enough they are neighbors to Runaway Mine Train. 

    Runaway Mine Train's track runs around a large western style fort. The fort itself was originally planned to be a lookout point for guests, but it never came to fruition. Instead it houses not only Runaway Mine Train's station, but the newly opened Sky Ride as well. The original version of Sky Ride featured green supports and bright colored cars. The supports blended in fairly well with the heavily wooded park, but the cars themselves were painted super bright to stand out against the sky. Warner LeRoy felt that this would give an added wow factor to guests looking up at the ride from the ground. The ride transported guests from the then Rootin' Tootin' Rip Roarin' section of the park to the Dream Street section of the park, just like today. The ride of today features new cars and is know known as Sky Way. Meanwhile, another ride and restaurant popped up across the way. 

    The Best of the West Barbecue and Flume both opened as well during the opening season and continue to operate today.  Flume opened up a few days after the park opened for it's first season and quickly became the most popular ride in the park. It was the perfect escape for the summer heat. The ride itself was one of the longest log flumes in the world. Even at such a young age the park was striving for the biggest attractions in the world. The length of the ride is about five minutes and features a forty or so foot drop. Yes that's smaller and the drop itself is certainly less steep than Disney's Splash Mountain, but for 1974, this was a pretty big deal. Log flumes were pretty much all the rage and it was something that Warner LeRoy wanted in the park from the beginning. Flume continues to operate to this day under the name Sawmill Log Flume and the Best of the West Barbecue continues to serve barbecue under the name Best of the West. 

    The park opened with a variety of other rides and attractions as well. Many of these rides, such as Antique Cars, only lasted for one to a few seasons. Some, such as Matterhorn weren't even originally destined for the park, but due to delays with Big Fury they were brought in to fill the gap. Of the five children's rides that opened with the park, three of them (Cars! Cars!, Roundabout Boats, and Dune Buggies) lasted into the early 2000's. 

    Speaking of food, the opening season featured three sit down restaurants. All three of them continue to function in one capacity or another today. As mentioned, The Best of the West Barbecue is still a barbecue place. The other two were Gingerbread Fancy and Yum Yum Palace. Gingerbread Fancy continues to function as Granny's and Yum Yum Palace is now Yum Yum Cafe. Other original food locations are also still in existence today such as Eat! Eat! now being Mama Flora's Cucina. The structures are mostly still all the same as they were back in 1974. 

    The park opened with seven gift shops. Of those seven, four continue to operate today in one form or another. All of those four are the circus looking tents between the now Boardwalk area and Golden Kingdom. They currently house Flags, Attitudes, Boardwalk Games, and Big Top Terror Trail (operates during Fright Fest only). 

    Despite the park only being open for exactly five months it had already exceeded expectations. The crowds were larger than expected and Great Adventure had already began having a big impact on the entertainment industry in the area. In addition to all of the rides and food locations, several stadiums/arenas/show areas were also constructed. Aqua Spectacle was constructed on the lakefront to host dolphin shows, Great Arena would be host to a variety of shows, The Happening building featured acrobats, and Bandstand was also constructed. Of those structures only two remain in the form of Wilderness Theater (Bandstand) and Northern Star Arena (Great Arena).

    With the framework laid for the future Warner LeRoy would take more of a step back and let the investors have more say in the park. Over the next couple years the park would see incredible growth that culminated in an even that would change the park forever. Stay tuned for the next installment of this blog series as we explore the years leading up to and including the year that Six Flags got involved in the park. I really hope you enjoyed the start of this series. If you want more details on the history of Six Flags Great Adventure please check out greatadventurehistory.com. They are an incredible source of information on all things history of Great Adventure. They have way more than what I will be going into in this blog series. They also have a plethora of old photos from the park as well so if you want to see rides like Big Fury, head on over there and check them out! As always, thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon! 

The Magic Returns to Walt Disney World

    As we all know by now, the Walt Disney World Resort has reopened its gates to visitors. Both Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are open to everyone while EPCOT and Hollywood Studios are working on their phased reopening strategies. The parks are vastly different though now then when they closed. I'm going to go into some of that and also put some links to videos of things going on in the parks. Since I haven't witnessed the parks first hand I can only go off of what I am seeing in these videos. I understand that things can be different at different times so if I see an area with a crowd I am well aware that that doesn't mean there is always a crowd at that location. Anyway... Lets get right into it.

    Both Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom now feature attractions with plexi dividers in queue lines as well as social distancing markings on the floor. Many of these social distancing markerss extend well beyond the normal queue length for these rides. For example, at The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in Magic Kingdom, the social distancing spots for the ride queue all the way into the normal meet and greet area next door to the ride. Across the way, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train's social distancing extended queue extends basically around the mountain. Right now there seems to be no use for them since the crowds have been low, but obviously Disney is anticipating some large crowds in the near future.

    From what I've seen mask wearing hasn't been a major issue. Of course you have people trying to wear it incorrectly, but I haven't seen it as a huge problem in the videos. Disney has banned those bandanna/neck guard looking face covers. I'm fine with that. I never understood how a bandanna really does much of anything to protect anyone, but hey that's just me. As expected there are currently no traditional character meet and greets. That said characters have appeared in cavalcades and in Magic Kingdom they have also been seen on the rooftop of Country Bear Jamboree and the platform of the Main Street Train Station. Animal Kingdom also has a cavalcade that takes place on the river within the park which is pretty nice. The biggest downside I've heard is that routine maintenance apparently wasn't high on the priority list. For example, the Tomorrowland People Mover has been closed since before the shutdown. Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress has audio missing in sections, and busted speakers in others. Splash Mountain also has broken down frequently since reopening. Speaking of Splash Mountain...

    The frenzy that the eventual re-themeing of Splash Mountain has caused an enormous spike in all things Splash Mountain. The ride is seeing some of the highest wait times in the parks, the gift shop line is so extensive that there is a virtual queue for it. People are literally buying out the entire shop and throwing stuff up on eBay for insane amounts of money. The hilarious side to me is this. There is no closing date for Splash Mountain. The ride is going to apparently be around for the near future and that means so will the merchandise. In fact, Disney debuted new merchandise for the ride today. It's going to be interesting to see what happens to all those eBay listings as the park continues to restock Splash Mountain merchandise. Personally I wish Disney would put limits on it like they did original Frozen merchandise to stop the eBay garbage from happening.

    Overall it sounds like the first two parks have opened up on a pretty good note. Feel free to check out the following videos that will highlight some looks into the parks. Stay tuned here though for more thoughts on the park re-openings and the first installment of Then and Now: A Great Adventure coming real soon!

Six Flags Universe What If and a Series Announcement: (Six Flags Great Adventure)

    Hello everyone and welcome back. It's been a few days since my first visit of the season to Six Flags Great Adventure. The day was a ton of fun and I am certainly excited for the new things making their way to the park between this season and next. One of those things is a new gift shop called Six Flags Universe. Now I know chances are very high that this shop is going to be nothing special and will basically be selling the same stuff that you can find in any of the other gift shops in the park. That's got me thinking though.... What if that wasn't the case. What if Six Flags Universe ended up being something really neat?

    Six Flags has theme parks all over the country and have a ton of different and unique rides. Many of the parks have a history that extends even further back than Six Flags (in Great Adventure's case the park opened in 1974, but wasn't acquired by Six Flags until 1977). What if that history was celebrated more? The thought came to me as I was in the Main Street Market. Along the wall you can see pictures of attractions both current and past as well as a small timeline that shows the year that certain rides debuted. What if that theme was expanded on and celebrated? The building in which Six Flags Universe will be situated in is plenty big for a hybrid gift shop/museum. No there wouldn't be any exhibits (you can't jam a roller coaster train in the building), but to have more photos and details on highlighted rides would be neat. Six Flags Great Adventure is one of the most well known parks in the world for the amount of world records the rides have broken.

    What if there was a section celebrating Kingda Ka? Have some information on the wall and sell the merchandise for the ride. What if we took a small step back and celebrated the failed Batman and Robin: The Chiller for being the first of its kind and have some merchandise for the defunct ride? What if there was a section that celebrated the rides that have been there from the beginning in Runaway Train, Sawmill Log Flume, Big Wheel, and the Carousel? I find it incredible hard to believe that people wouldn't gobble up those nostalgia items in a heartbeat. I mean pretty much anyone I talk to still references Bizarro as Medusa. How cool would it be to see Medusa shirts for sale or even The Great American Scream Machine whose loss is still lamented and it's replacement is still despised (Green Lantern). What if the merchandise expanded beyond Great Adventure and featured merchandise from the more popular rides at other parks, say X2 from Six Flags Magic Mountain for example? One final neat little touch could be that there is a television in the store that runs through the years of Great Adventure advertisements. It'd be really neat to see them all from past to present as the park opened new rides and debuted big events like Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park. 

    Do I think that will happen. Absolutely not. I fully expect to see another generic Six Flags gift shop selling the same random "I'm with her" shirts, DC Comics stuff, not Six Flags related plush toys, and basically anything else you could find in any gift shop. Which honestly would be kind of a shame considering all of the Looney Tunes and Hannah Barbara merchandise in the old store was a nice change of pace compared to the rest of the park. So my dream of Six Flags Great Adventure paying homage to its past and present will probably never happen, but that doesn't mean that it cannot be celebrated right?

    You may have noticed a hint popped up a few days ago that something was coming to this blog (the background perhaps?). Starting very soon I will be kicking off a new series called Then and Now: A Great Adventure. This will be a lengthy multi blog series celebrating the history of Six Flags Great Adventure. This will not be a blog marathon and I will continue to blog about all things Disney  as well, but for a while Six Flags Great Adventure (which is my home park) will be getting a little extra loving. Stay tuned for that series kickoff coming soon, but first there is more to blog about! Today marked the reopening of The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. I've been reading all kinds of reports and watching all kinds of videos that have me all kinds of hyped to blog about it. So thanks for reading and stay tuned cause the next blog will be coming real soon!

Six Flags Great Adventure 4th of July Review!

    Hello everyone and welcome to my review of my first trip to Six Flags Great Adventure for the 2020 season. Today marked the official opening day for the park with its new safety and health protocols. Overall I had a blast at the park and it was certainly nice to get back there and get on a few rides as well. In this blog I am going to highlight a lot of the safety measures that are in place as well as some new stuff I saw in the park.

    Before even getting into the park there is a problem that I want to point out as for the past two days it has become a big deal as the day wears on. That problem is the traffic getting into the park. More specifically the traffic trying to get to the safari. Six Flags currently only has the main entrance operating which means that all park and safari guests are going in the same entrance. The problem is as the day wears on that line backs up heavily as people cut each other off and jockey for position in the lines. When I left the park today the line to get into the park extended to the Wawa which is over a mile away from the park's parking lot. Six Flags does have signs stating Hurricane Harbor and Safari guests keep left, theme park guests keep right. Even in the morning when I got there though, people were all over the place.

    From the time you get out of your car and enter the pedestrian walkway you see social distancing markers on the ground. There are a couple security and staff members along the way reminding folks to maintain their appropriate distance and to get their mask on before getting up to the security queue. Security was fast and I mean fast. We never stopped walking. You pass through two tents, one I'm assuming has a thermal camera to make sure everyone's temperature is normal. The second has highly sophisticated bag/metal/probably temperature scanners. This was by far the fastest I've ever gotten through security and the crowd in the line did a good job adhering to the rules.

    Once in the park there was an immediate change. The Looney Tunes gift shop has been completely gutted and is in the process of being replaced by a store called Six Flags Universe. From the looks of it though, it is nowhere near ready to open. Another change in the not so main street area is the Johnny Rockets building by the main fountain is getting a major overhaul. The Johnny Rockets signage is currently down as well so I'm not exactly sure if that's what it is still going to be when it reopens.

Note: This ad amuses me as El Diablo is featured at the top of the page... El Diablo left Six Flags Great Adventure at the end of the 2018 season...

    The biggest and most obvious change is the area near Nitro where the Jersey Devil Roller Coaster can now be seen both through the trees and above them as well. Sadly the signage for the ride now states that the coaster will be opening in 2021. I'm not exactly surprised about this. The park is lucky to be open right now to begin with. That and the ongoing construction delays due to covid has it making sense to me for the ride to be pushed back. Another big change comes at The Wild Walkway where the Sea Lions now take center stage, the new cheetahs are easy to see and gorgous, and the new coatis are really cute and fun to watch. There was one staff member hanging around the walkway answering questions and making sure nobody was harassing the animals.

The Top of Nitro

Part of Jersey Devil near Congo Rapids

Another part of Jersey Devil visible from the theater in Looney Toons Seaport

Construction appears to still be halted on Jersey Devil

See ya in 2021 Jersey Devil

    It could be just for now, but it could be a sign for the season, but the food offerings in the park appeared to be extremely limited. I was hoping to pick up one of the yummy jerk chicken sandwiches from Metro Grill or a pork roll and cheese sandwich, but neither of them seem to be in the park right now. Pretty much every place had a limited menu consisting of fries, burgers, chicken tenders, or pizza. There is a new fish n' chips stand over by Nitro and the Macho Nacho by Batman and The Dark Knight is now a quesadilla stand.... Though I've heard rumors they aren't serving quesadillas yet... Many food stands as well as the Fill the Thrill snack and drink stands were closed. With the park not being overly busy it was okay, but if the park gets more crowded they're going to have to open some of those stands up because the lines elsewhere are going to explode.

Cheetahs just lounging in the shade

Bonnie and Clyde (coatis) make a serious case for cutest animals in the park

Just doin some diggin

Gettin a sip from the bucket.

 

    Speaking of things being closed. Several attractions were closed and look like they are going to remain closed for the time being. The signs all basically say it's due to covid-19, but I'm not really buying all of that.  Justice League Battle for Metropolis, Zumanjaro Drop of Doom, Kingda Ka, Congo Rapids, Sawmill Log Flume, Houdini's Great Escape, Slingshot, Dare Devil Dive, and Cyborg Cyber Spin were all closed during my visit. The teacup ride was originally closed, but eventually opened. I can tell you for a fact that the Sawmill Log Flume is closed due to a piece of the flume missing as opposed to social distancing related reasons. Zumanjaro being closed makes sense since it has a very small capacity to begin with let alone trying to social distance on it. Kingda Ka was seen testing multiple times throughout the weekend which makes me wonder if that's having more of a mechanical reason for not being open. Cyborg Cyber Spin being closed was odd to me since Twister is open. Twister has a higher capacity I believe, but given the history of Cyborg, I wonder if it was having mechanical issues as well. The other rides being closed all made sense under the social distance reasoning. Yes Justice League could operate with one party per car, but the blasters are very high touch points. Houdini and Congo Rapids have guests sitting very close to one another. Dare Devil Dive and Slingshot literally have staff strapping guests in so they're out for sure.

Shortest log flume ride ever

    So what's the good and the bad when it comes to safety? The good from what I saw far outweighed the bad. The crowd was pretty light throughout the day though the larger rides did have a lot of people in them. From what I can see the groups were doing a decent job at maintaining six feet from one another. The spots on the ground certainly helped with that. In the case of The Dark Knight Roller Coaster they were basically letting one party into the building at a time. There are social distance floor markers, but there was no line so it was just easier for the staff to let one group in. Cleaning teams were everywhere. Rides and dining areas were being sanitized frequently. I didn't go on a ride and think it was disgusting at all.

Sanitizing about to being at Harley Quinn Crazy Train, hand sanitizing at the gate of every ride.

Sterilizing going on on the right. Note the crowd level between 12 noon and 1pm.

Signage everywhere

    So what's the bad. In one word. Masks. Six Flags states that masks are mandatory for all staff and guests unless in designated mask break areas. During my visit I saw a few staff members walking around with their masks either below their nose or even under their mouth. There was a decent number of guests who were also walking around with their masks in a similar fashion or just not on at all. For the most part the staff did their best in asking people to put the masks back on or raise them, but sadly many of them were ignored. Also, if the whole staff isn't wearing them correctly how do you tell guests to wear them correctly? It's a tough place for the staff that are doing it right to be in, but luckily I didn't really see anyone give a staff member a hard time outside of just outright ignoring them. Overall though the number of people correctly wearing masks far outweighed the number of people not. The crowd level being so light also made it easy to avoid people who weren't following the rules.

    This trip to Six Flags Great Adventure I have to give a solid B+! Given the situation we are all in it was a pleasant surprise to see the park and its staff doing all they are doing to keep people safe. The number of rides being closed didn't really surprise me at all, though I think some will open up as the season goes on. The food situation is one that I hope improves, but I see why they are keeping it limited. It's an easy spot to cut expenses right now and the company as a whole is hurting. That said the number of food locations is going to need to increase if the park gets busier. The park was clean and the staff were, for the most part, doing their best to make sure that all the new guidelines were being adhered to. I even have to admit that the staff was the friendliest I have seen at Six Flags in a long time. Pretty much everyone seemed happy to be there again. We will see if that lasts, but I certainly want to give that shout out now as it is warranted. It was a solid first trip back to the park and I'm looking forward to going back. 

Joker from Harley Quinn Crazy Train's queue

Slingshot remains closed due to covid-19

    That about wraps up my first review blog for the season at Six Flags Great Adventure. The whole experience from making the reservation to getting into the park to the park itself was painless and a lot of fun was had. I recommend trying to get your reservation early and getting to the park early for lighter crowds and to not have to deal with the crazy traffic backups the safari seems to be causing. As always, thank you all for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!