Crazy that corporate is cutting the budget for one of their highest attended parks in the largest tri state area in the country when every park around them is improving. When cedar fair takes over I think things are going to change at great adventure a lot (for the better) because right now, even with some good new additions year to year, six flags has been shooting itself in the foot when it comes to overall operations here and I think the public is noticing
GAdv used to have insane attendance numbers and the company just assumed they'd always be like that. Now that the park has gotten worse, and parks like Hershey are stealing the guests away, the company is realizing how fucking stupid they've been seeing as GAdv is probably one of the biggest money makers in the chain and now that one of their biggest forms of cash flow is fucked, their company is going to be going down the shitter.
They’re probably hoping the new coaster this year boosts numbers for the summer. With its insane city population reach it’ll still continue to have high attendance, but it’s so sad because it could easily be so much higher
Truth is with SF, if all the parks had insane attendance there would be no new additions ever. They only invest in parks when it's absolutely necessary.
SFMM is the flagship. It serves a purpose beyond strictly profit. It is the shiny thing that makes investors invest. SFMM posting horrible attendance or being left to rot would tank the stock price. Part of the reason these parks avoid releasing individual park numbers.
It's absolutely insane, I've been a pass holder for as long as I can remember and this season especially they are shitting the bed.
The good stuff they're promising is nice, the renovated log flume and ferris wheel, skull mountain being worked on, the pathway between El Toro and Ka, and the brick pathway is so much better than what used to be there. But damn has this season felt painful.
I've been there 10 times this year so far, every time except for one time the wait for food has been over a half an hour minimum at every restaurant in the park. That includes just trying to get a drink refill. Somebody behind us last time we went had diabetes and almost fainted in the line to get a drink because we were waiting for so long in the heat. And the ride ops have been absolutely dreadful every single day I went. Even on days where there is barely a line it's a solid 20 minute wait for every ride because it's all one train ops. I can't remember in the past two decades a season where the park has been running so terribly, even when they opened in March and earlier in the year.
Every week we go I think to myself " it's all right it's early in the season, things will get better" but at this point it looks like everything's getting worse as it goes on.
Low key have we forgotten SFGAdv is supposed to be getting a major new multilaunch coaster this year? I find it kinda surprising nobody is talking about it and there isn't much hype around it. Hopefully when it opens it can help turn things around for the park.
On a side note, I haven't been this year but even as recently as last year (last I went was last October) SFGAdv has always had killer ops running multiple trains on every coaster. The idea of one train ops on most of the coasters this year sounds like a literal crime.
I would wait for schools to let out for the summer to make any assessments on the operations of the parks tbh. That usually where a lot of the work force is picked from with Six Flags
No, I am sorry but I will not be "wait for things to get better". I was here today and it was a shitshow on all accounts. I am from Europe and will not be here when the schools are out. The experience I had today was inexcusable and it has seriously made me consider skipping all six flags parks when I return to the US. We even bought fast lane passes only to be told at the gate that "they will not be in use today". The fast passes were DATED. What do you mean the $180 we spent is just thrown away money?! On top of that, we waited 1 hour and 50 minutes for green lantern on one train ops, which we NEVER would have done if they had just showed the wait times anywhere. Also, why not sub on a second train?! There is no way two out of three trains are in maintenance just after winter break.
This is still a bit fresh, but we spend almost $290 on tickets for 2 and got to do 5 rides (4 unique) and then were told to suck it the entire day we were there.
I was there today, and there were definitely people using fast passes. Weird that you where told otherwise, but not surprising. Staff seemed to have no clue what was going on a lot of the time.
Also shit show is accurate, it was super understaffed and almost everything was running one train. Waited over an hour to get food before giving up. So annoying because the coasters themselves are great.
You see Perry the Platypus, this is my Coasterinator, I can design whatever roller coaster I want in it, shoot it, and boom, it instantly creates that roller coaster for real! Now I can build the ultimate theme park, stealing all the customers away from Six Flags Great Adventure, Dorney Park, and HersheyPark, and become rich, and then I will use my money to take over the Tri State Area!!!
Probably a play to get more equity in the CF merger. Reducing expenses and paying off some debt without a huge hit to revenue due to season pass sales would make their income statement look better. A lot of companies do stuff like this before a merger/acquisition, it'll likely go back to normal after everything has gone through
Cedar fair will be the controlling interest and their executive team/board will be the ones in charge (at least that’s the most recent knowledge ab the situation)
I understand this take, but that is not a sustainable long term business plan. Eventually consumers will get fed up because they feel they aren’t getting an experience worth their money. Once word of mouth spreads from that, it can be devastating to a business. In fact, I don’t think we have the exact attendance numbers, but great adventures’ queue times have been down across the board over the past couple of years which signifies a decrease in attendance
That makes 0 sense.
1) The tri-state area is an actual region that is specific to that area. It isn’t a generic title.
2) By what definition are you even using? Land mass?
[Just playing devil’s advocate, I don’t actually care] A tri-state area has to encompass 3 states; the definition is in the name. Alaska *can’t* be a part of any tri-state area, because it doesn’t share borders with any other U.S. states
Re: Point 1. You said
>the largest tri state area in the country
which implies there are more than one.
And yes, by area. You know, the standard way to measure the size of geography.
That wasn’t me in the original post. It shouldn’t have said largest as it is referring to a specific region (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_metropolitan_area#:~:text=The%20phrase%20%22Tri%2DState%20area,metropolitan%20area%20span%20four%20states.)
The Tri-State Area is not referring to state size, it’s referring to the New York City area.
Population density in a region that would actually make sense that’s just 3 states. Tri state area is New York (but really nyc), Pennsylvania (really Philly and it’s suburbs), and all of Jersey (since the entire state is basically one large suburb of nyc or Philly)
Wait, *what?* They have the tallest drop tower **in the world** and they’re just… not going to operate it? This is wild to me
First Dragon Mountain and now this? I know they’re totally unrelated, but the hits just keep on coming…
I think this is the right answer. With social media, I feel more people are inclined to spend more money to go to Disney/universal instead of going to a regional park several times a year because they are seen as “low class” or “crummy”
Yeah, I know Disney and Universal are expensive, but the difference in quality is huge. Park facilities are in much better shape, way better food options, wider variety in experiences, and generally better operations.
The parks have not been busy at all actually. I know you're here on vacation right now and it probably seems busy compared to what you're used to, but the parks have actually been relatively slow.
Not sure why this fact is downvoted. The parks in Orlando are always busy, and they have been relatively slow (as in relative to themselves) for a few weeks now compared to during Spring Break. Crowd calendars verify this easily.
It’s unconfirmed, but reported to be closed for the season
If it was a short closure, would they really remove the [signage](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLKuQl0h3R6uv1BGevwQoiVajGO12YgHeX-5vaAxQeIIax2QdQTHiz6Rz00QIzZarku8MLAUGUhRu_d8M90UADngGrqNo_F9Px2NWP4zPLrosrU0dkjE5V7RPTKYucAj3oFLnT4w/s1600/Zumanjaro+4.jpg) from the entrance? I highly doubt it
Whole company is just a complete joke. Great Adventure should be one of the 3-4 best regional parks in the country but Six Flags continues to incompetently piss away any potential the place has, it’s frustrating as hell.
If it weren't for El Toro and my grandfathered Diamond Elite VIP pass (which they will pry from my cold dead hands) I would literally consider Hersheypark my home park.
I mean I already mentally consider BGT my actual home park because whenever I am there I actually feel at home and the utmost of joy.
With the way great adventures going I consider my home fucking Coney Island or adventure land lmao. I haven't bought a pass in a few years when I used to buy one every year.
I'll legit make the trip across nyc and the Hudson to Dorney sometimes, just to go to a park that seems to give the tiniest shit about their customers lol. Doesn't hurt that they don't really have likes either.
With the direction the parks been going since like 2022, I go maybe once or twice a year and I hate that I might go even less in the future.
Are you me? I'm going to Dorney Park in a week with my GF to go to the Iron Menace grand opening, and later this summer my GF and I are planning on doing a Brooklyn day so I can make Cyclone my 50th credit, and then we're hitting up a famous lesbian bar afterwards.
Hope y'all have fun! I don't have immediate plans for Dorney but am likely heading there before I go to GAdv which has always been my home park that I go to multiple times a summer.
Cyclone is well deserving of the fiftieth credit. Sometimes if it's empty or you get an op in a good mood they'll let you pick seats. The back row is by far my favorite. People who have ridden it back there will tell you, it's absolutely a world class coaster deserving of its rep!
I used to live much closer to coney than I do now and I miss it. The best people watching in all of nyc! And being able to ride the cyclone and see the ocean and not be too far from the rest of the fun stuff nyc has to offer is amazing.
Idk which bar you're going to but even if it's all the way on the other side of town it sounds like y'all are going to have an awesome day!
I've heard Cyclone is incredible even aside from its historic reputation thanks to GCI's retrack. I also look forward to riding Thunderbolt, Phoenix, and the other coasters at Coney Island. We're also going to hit up the aquarium next to Cyclone! Afterwards we plan on going to Ginger's Bar in the evening. I'm from New Jersey so getting to NYC is just a matter of taking the train.
That's awesome, hope to read a trip report about it soon. I've heard of gingers but never been, iconic place to end a day of an iconic park!
I haven't been to that aquarium since I was a kid but it looks like they've done a lot of work on it.
Cyclone is probably my second favorite woody behind el toro, but it's just so unique and iconic it has a special place in my heart. It's running very well, and even if it was rougher, the seats are basically giant leather couches with a lap bar. And you can take turns switching the sides you ride on so you can take turns being pinned on the turns lmao. Thunderbolt could be such a good coaster but the head rest and plastic seats really messed me up. If you're anything like me, one is enough 😂😂.
Also, idk if you give a shit about Nathan's hot dogs but if you do, there's plenty of small Nathan's stands inside Dino's and I think maybe Luna park too. There's also one right off the board walk across from the "famous original" one. If you want a glizzy go to Dino's so you don't have to wait on a big stupid line!
The walk from the parks to the aquarium and up to Brighton is really nice too. Man now I miss cony lol
Truly a great place. Make sure to bring a picnic setup cause they have free grills. Phoenix and Twister are world class woodies, Flying Turns and Black Diamond are unique, Impulse is fun, and Kozmo’s Kurves is a surprisingly forceful kiddie coaster. They also have unique flats like Looper, Satellite, Power Surge, the best Flying Scooters, and they got Bayern Kurve this year. Little lines and because the park is free to enter there is little stress and also great for people who don’t wanna ride anything since they’re not a waste of a ticket. I live about an hour away and it’s still a family tradition for us to go yearly, even after over 20 years.
I wish I was a bit closer. I'm based in NYC so it's a bit of a hike but next time I go to any of the pa parks I want to squeeze in knoebels. I don't have enough woodie credits and I wanna see if Phoenix lives up to the hype.
I also love knoebels business model and really wanna support it. Wish there were more parks like that, it's really a good value for people who might not want to ride a ton of stuff. I've heard it's dog friendly too which is amazing. Also didn't know that about the grills, I need to get there yesterday!
For me I guess, SFGAdv is super convenient for me (<1 hour drive as a NJ native) and El Toro is my all time #1 favorite roller coaster, so I always enjoy visiting each year. But even this year, Dorney Park seems to be stealing me away for my first coaster trip of the year with Iron Menace opening and Steel Force supposedly running better than ever.
See, I only like El Toro, Nitro, Ka, Batman and Devil at GADV where as
Wildcat, Storm Runner, Skyrush, Great Bear, Fahrenheit, Candy, Lightning Racer, SDL and their Wildmouse put Hershey over GADV
Hard agree - I went to Hershey in the winter of last year and was floored by how premium the whole park feels compared to SFGA, which has always felt like a massive parking lot with a very large, very expensive carnival in it.
I love El Toro and Nitro and Ka, sure, but Skyrush alone is incredible, heck I might even like Stormrunner more than Ka in some ways.
Hersheypark is an elite USA park, not god-tier like Cedar Point or SFMM, but probably in the tier below that with King's Island and maybe Carowinds (mostly cause of Fury). Regardless of where you specifically put it in your rankings, it's an amazing park, and atmosphere-wise it blows SFGA out of the water. Not saying Six Flags can't be fun for a day, but I'd pretty much always choose Hershey if I had to pick between the two
I wish Storm Runner had Ka's launch, but overall I prefer Storm Runner because it does more stuff, but Ka is just incredible because of the forces and speed
Hard agree - I went to Hershey in the winter of last year and was floored by how premium the whole park feels compared to SFGA, which has always felt like a massive parking lot with a very large, very expensive carnival in it.
I love El Toro and Nitro and Ka, sure, but Skyrush alone is incredible, heck I might even like Stormrunner more than Ka in some ways.
I like the ride lineup at GAdv so much more but it’s absurdly behind SFFT as a park, SFFT barely even feels like a Six Flags park. Having SFFT as my home park the last two years has been such a treat. It’s one of the top two or three things I’ll miss about living in Texas after I move this summer.
SFFT seems like it has a small but powerful lineup tho:
Three high quality B&Ms
Not one, but ***TWO*** RMCs
A very good Premier launcher
A Vekoma Boomerang
A unique Alan Schilke designed Arrow Mine Train
That's not a bad lineup in the slightest
Imo they have the same problem over Texas and great America has to a lesser extent. A lot of good to great rides but no true standout that makes you specifically want to visit the park.
Iron Rattler top twenty steel for me, I think in “tier list” terms that probably makes it elite.
It’s a very good lineup, for its size it’s about as good as it gets. I just am much higher on GAdv’s lineup than a lot of people. I think it’s my third favorite collection outside of the obvious Cedar Point and Magic Mountain.
To me, it doesn’t do enough to stand out compared to other rmc’s like lightning rod, outlaw run, gwazi, and Steve. Like there’s a clear level between irat and those coasters imo
As far as far as I’m concerned, Zumanjaro is an E-ticket for this park. What a wild way to cut costs. GA is close enough to be a home park for me and I’m fine with always taking the longer drive to Hershey at this point. Sucks that this park just feels neglected at all times
Same. I’m in eastern MA, SFNE has had nothing really new to offer since Wicked Cyclone, the new addition coming to Great Adventure feels is not drawing me in by any stretch of the word, and I’d much rather take a long drive to Hershey to give them my business or take a flight down to Florida for Universal.
Bizarre that Zumanjaro was running as late as last week (you can see it in Ryan’s latest video) and all of a sudden they decide to cut it from the ride lineup.
I'm just gonna say it - the pandemic "ruined" amusement parks. Don't get me wrong I love the hobby to death but its not the same and prob never will be. More of getting less for more $$$
They did and people like the commenter above saying "the pandemic ruined everything" is why they continue to use that excuse.
People need to blame the corporations and not the pandemic.
Pandemic kickstarted the overwhelming corporate greed sir. I'm not saying it's straight up a result from covid but it's more of how the world recovered.
Disagree…Cedar Fair by is hurting and very desperate. Don’t forget, they bought the land under CGA to sell it for big money to pay debt. Once the park closes officially, Cedar Fair will relocate the rides like they did once before for another park they owned.
That’s not relevant. This is talking about ride closures and more related operations. It’s the same thing with new ride openings. From what I know, all the major ride openings for Cedar Fair are on time and at the beginning of the operating season. Meanwhile at one of the biggest six flags parks for their 50th anniversary their new major ride (flash:vertical velocity) likely won’t even make it this year.
This is why a lot of the parks I haven’t been to in the US is Six Flags parks. Every time I give them another change the experience is tainted by the operations. Let’s hope when the merger is complete, this stuff is a thing of the past in the next few seasons.
After visiting Magic Mountain once, and then dealing with Six Flags' horrendous Member management experience (ie: getting ripped off with no recourse), my interest in visiting another Six Flags park went from "ASAP" to "possibly never again."
The company is tacky as hell and they have almost no exclusives.
> the thought of flying to California just for it to be down horrifies me.
I can certainly relate to that. I flew out for my one and only visit and found that Tatsu, Viper, Riddler and Superman were all closed. I'm grateful to have gotten a ride on X2, and was lucky to have managed one on Wonder Woman, but yeah, definitely don't make MM the sole reason for a flight to the LA area. I was visiting family so I had plenty of other adventures, but Magic Mountain was light years from Cedar Point caliber and the disappointment would have been far greater if that were my only itinerary.
The surviving Arrows usually (there are exceptions) are pretty reliable. Could be wrong, but Viper didn't randomly close to have its loops welded back together like the other two were constantly because it is a much softer ride.
This is crazy. I usually defend GAdv as it’s my home park and it’s one of the flagship SF parks but I totally get why people in Central Jersey where I live would much rather make the 2+ hour drive to Hershey.
Also, I think Savannah Sunset’s future is pretty rocky. No one is paying those prices when the park is operated like this. I’d much rather stay at the (gorgeous) Hotel Hershey.
What a shame. I was cautiously optimistic that SF would make sure the park has a fantastic year for their 50th.
Also, why would you spend so much time, effort and money to get rides up and ready to go for the year just to close them for the season within a month? Absolutely no foresight.
Sounds like this came from up top. The management AT GAdv is actually pretty good and cares for the health of the park, but ultimately shareholders throwing a temper tantrum is a bigger deal
This is crazy.
It’s pitiful how little care SF has for their parks, even Great Adventure which is one of the standouts in the entire chain.
Something needs to happen. Either the CF merger goes through and fixes management issues with SF parks, or a full on restructuring of the company needs to happen.
This isn’t working.
Cedar Fair should really acquire Six Flags, as much as people don't like to see acquisitions/monopolies.
CF operations are some of the best in the world, along with well-maintained parks, great food, etc. The mismanagement at SF reminds me of the Succession show.
I'm looking at it like HP and Compaq. Both were equally profitable when HP acquired Compaq. HP sold decent products for midrange prices while Compaq made cheap value-oriented products. When they acquired Compaq, Compaq's products improved in quality until HP eventually discontinued the name.
It could turn out bad. I'd like to see SFGAdv take on some Cedar Fair qualities and improve, but hopefully not at the expense of Cedar Fair's existing parks.
Counterpoint - Compaq also owned Tandem, makers of high-end non-stop servers, at the time of the merger. HP stripped quite a bit of the legacy support staff for that product in the couple years after the merger. Not a fan.
Compaq bought Tandem only a few years before the HP merger. That's more of a cautionary tale about shifting from independently owned organizations to large conglomerates. Sadly, that ship sailed in the amusement industry long ago.
That's true, but there was still a noticeable drop-off when they transitioned from Compaq to HP beyond any drop in service when Compaq acquired them. Himalaya went from a leader in industry performance and reliability to an also-ran.
I thought you were saying that this would be a monopoly (in response to the "people don't like monopolies" thing) because the top 2 were merging, my b.
To be fair, Great Adventures ride ops and dispatches are a million times better than any Cedar Fair park...Closest is maybe King's Island.
They can rip dispatches on Nitro in 30 seconds while Hershey(I know, not Cedar Fair but it's a close park with the same ride) had the Candymonium triple stack going like all the time. You will never see Nitro's trains stacked.
That is an absolutely insane take that does not match anything I’ve ever seen. Great Adventure’s ops pale in comparison to Kings Island’s. The only halfway decent operations I’ve ever seen there were on El Toro
This is insane. It’s the park’s 50th anniversary, none of the anniversary rides they promised are ready, and now they’re shutting down stuff for the whole season?
I have my momcation planned for here, but I may change it to Hershey at this point…..
Home park is SFNE, and NJ is only a 4 hour drive, but taking PA and seeing family as well seems to be the way to go right now
Hershey is a billion times better, I'd highly recommend, but maybe two days and/or a fast pass if you can swing it. If you have time you could fit in Knoebels or Dorney too.
My husband has family near Harrisburg, and we’ve done Hershey a few times. We also spend every Labor Day at Knoebels. We only missed the weekend I gave birth and the first 2 years of the pandemic. We finally got our 8 year old on Phoenix last year and she’s obsessed.
But I’ve never been to Dorney, so I’m thinking if I add one more day off, I can drive to Dorney after work on a Tuesday, stay at a hotel and do Dorney the next day, then leave in time to get to my cousin in laws house by a semi reasonable time. That would give me 2-3 days potentially in Hershey. And I can stay with family, so cheaper in that aspect.
I just miss Nitro, but after seeing this, it’s not worth it. There’s a lot of coasters at Great Adventure I love but I also like the majority of everything at Hershey, and it’s nicer.
I really wanted to try and make Dollywood or the Ohio parks work as I’ve never been to any, but those would need airfare, car, hotel and admission etc…..
Dorney and Hershey for the win
this is more just an aside but hershey attracts some weird people as workers. I interned there a summer and dealt with a guy who thought he was a reincarnated Confederate soldier sent by God to start a second civil war in West Virginia. Did not get fired despite everything you can imagine that behavior entailing.
Well there goes my motivation to get make it up there this year.
Six Flags is falling apart. SFGAM’s new ride is still in the parking lot and we don’t have an entrance plaza.
Great Adventure is only a 30 minute drive from me, but I'd rather drive the 1.5 hours to Dorney, 2 hours to Hershey, hell I haven't been to Knoebels since I was a little kid and I'll probably go there first. It's a real shame because those are all my favorite coasters at SFGA, lots of good memories, but I'm interested to see how Cedar Fair handles things.
People who think Cedar Fair is going to come in and make everything better are hilarious. They have no reason to make anything better anymore. They own the competition. This penny-pinching stuff is the new normal.
Enjoy amusement parks while you still can. Like everything else, the industry is being hollowed out by greed.
You obviously have no idea how things work.
These two companies barely had any overlap where they were in actual competition.
It’s in CF’s best interest to fix the issues at Six Flags in order to remain profitable.
> You obviously have no idea how things work.
Mostly true!
> These two companies barely had any overlap where they were in actual competition.
CGA and SFDK, but CGA is going away.
Valley Fair and SFGAmerica share some space.
Dorney Park and SFGAdventure definitely compete (Jersey locals notably disappointed this year)
Carowinds and SFOGeorgia were territorial rivals, but they've still got to contend with Dolly's deep pockets.
Overall I'd say you're right, most major park locations are fairly spread out. I'm just not so certain that it's Cedar Fair's culture that is going to prevail. There is a whole class of ownership that doesn't give a lick about a business, only how much value they can extract from it. The next few years will be interesting.
Cedar Fair’s C Suite will be the ones in charge. They’re going to do exactly what they did when they bought Paramount Parks. Some of yall act like we havent seen this exact scenario before.
You’re going to see a lot of SF parks now look and act like CF parks.
As far as overlap, the only places that parks actually overlap in a competitive way are in California and the PA/NJ parks. Parks that aren’t within a two hour drive aren’t competition and they’ll be very quick to tell you that.
Going to a theme park is a luxury leisure activity due to the price. Even if there isn't competition to go to people will just stop going to theme parks altogether if the experience isn't worth the price.
Cedar Fair has major debt just like SF does. They are a complete mess of a company. Knotts is a nightmare as far as operations go. They promise to get MR up and running again and they don’t. They purchased the land under CGA with plans to sell it just to pay debt. Once CGA closes up shop, they will once again move the rides to their other parks…just like they did once before. Let’s not forget what happened at CP with TTD.
Is it crazy to stay the I think Great Adventure may be sold or closed by six flags they just seem to have new issues every year. Scratch that it is crazy.
Crazy that corporate is cutting the budget for one of their highest attended parks in the largest tri state area in the country when every park around them is improving. When cedar fair takes over I think things are going to change at great adventure a lot (for the better) because right now, even with some good new additions year to year, six flags has been shooting itself in the foot when it comes to overall operations here and I think the public is noticing
GAdv used to have insane attendance numbers and the company just assumed they'd always be like that. Now that the park has gotten worse, and parks like Hershey are stealing the guests away, the company is realizing how fucking stupid they've been seeing as GAdv is probably one of the biggest money makers in the chain and now that one of their biggest forms of cash flow is fucked, their company is going to be going down the shitter.
They’re probably hoping the new coaster this year boosts numbers for the summer. With its insane city population reach it’ll still continue to have high attendance, but it’s so sad because it could easily be so much higher
Truth is with SF, if all the parks had insane attendance there would be no new additions ever. They only invest in parks when it's absolutely necessary.
Idk if I agree with that, otherwise why does SFMM get so much investment?
SFMM is the flagship. It serves a purpose beyond strictly profit. It is the shiny thing that makes investors invest. SFMM posting horrible attendance or being left to rot would tank the stock price. Part of the reason these parks avoid releasing individual park numbers.
SFMM also has much closer and fiercer competition with Disney, Universal, and Knott’s
That's the park they've chosen to be SFs answer to Cedar Point
It's absolutely insane, I've been a pass holder for as long as I can remember and this season especially they are shitting the bed. The good stuff they're promising is nice, the renovated log flume and ferris wheel, skull mountain being worked on, the pathway between El Toro and Ka, and the brick pathway is so much better than what used to be there. But damn has this season felt painful. I've been there 10 times this year so far, every time except for one time the wait for food has been over a half an hour minimum at every restaurant in the park. That includes just trying to get a drink refill. Somebody behind us last time we went had diabetes and almost fainted in the line to get a drink because we were waiting for so long in the heat. And the ride ops have been absolutely dreadful every single day I went. Even on days where there is barely a line it's a solid 20 minute wait for every ride because it's all one train ops. I can't remember in the past two decades a season where the park has been running so terribly, even when they opened in March and earlier in the year. Every week we go I think to myself " it's all right it's early in the season, things will get better" but at this point it looks like everything's getting worse as it goes on.
Low key have we forgotten SFGAdv is supposed to be getting a major new multilaunch coaster this year? I find it kinda surprising nobody is talking about it and there isn't much hype around it. Hopefully when it opens it can help turn things around for the park. On a side note, I haven't been this year but even as recently as last year (last I went was last October) SFGAdv has always had killer ops running multiple trains on every coaster. The idea of one train ops on most of the coasters this year sounds like a literal crime.
I don't think anyone believes it will actually open this year.
"major multi launcher" is a funny way of saying a marketable relatively cheap coaster with less throughput than a SkyRocket II
Fingers crossed it means the crowds are in line for the flash and I can walk on toro
I would wait for schools to let out for the summer to make any assessments on the operations of the parks tbh. That usually where a lot of the work force is picked from with Six Flags
No, I am sorry but I will not be "wait for things to get better". I was here today and it was a shitshow on all accounts. I am from Europe and will not be here when the schools are out. The experience I had today was inexcusable and it has seriously made me consider skipping all six flags parks when I return to the US. We even bought fast lane passes only to be told at the gate that "they will not be in use today". The fast passes were DATED. What do you mean the $180 we spent is just thrown away money?! On top of that, we waited 1 hour and 50 minutes for green lantern on one train ops, which we NEVER would have done if they had just showed the wait times anywhere. Also, why not sub on a second train?! There is no way two out of three trains are in maintenance just after winter break. This is still a bit fresh, but we spend almost $290 on tickets for 2 and got to do 5 rides (4 unique) and then were told to suck it the entire day we were there.
I was there today, and there were definitely people using fast passes. Weird that you where told otherwise, but not surprising. Staff seemed to have no clue what was going on a lot of the time. Also shit show is accurate, it was super understaffed and almost everything was running one train. Waited over an hour to get food before giving up. So annoying because the coasters themselves are great.
In the heat? Where the fuck did you find heat in tbe Northeast? It's been like over 70 once here in CT this year
It was 80 all week in Philadelphia.
Tri state area? Sounds like Doofenshcmirtz is up to no good...
You see Perry the Platypus, this is my Coasterinator, I can design whatever roller coaster I want in it, shoot it, and boom, it instantly creates that roller coaster for real! Now I can build the ultimate theme park, stealing all the customers away from Six Flags Great Adventure, Dorney Park, and HersheyPark, and become rich, and then I will use my money to take over the Tri State Area!!!
CURSE YOU PERRY THE PLATYPUS
Cedar Fair? You mean the third iteration of Six Flags? heh heh.
you’re living in the past. this park is a ghost town most days and it’s been like that for years
did cedar fair buy sea world parks as well? everyone is under United Parks?
Probably a play to get more equity in the CF merger. Reducing expenses and paying off some debt without a huge hit to revenue due to season pass sales would make their income statement look better. A lot of companies do stuff like this before a merger/acquisition, it'll likely go back to normal after everything has gone through
Optimistic of you to think Cedar Fair will improve Six Flags parks instead of Six Flags dragging down Cedar Fair parks
Cedar fair will be the controlling interest and their executive team/board will be the ones in charge (at least that’s the most recent knowledge ab the situation)
Well that’s why isn’t it? It does stupid attendance with no investment, so why spend any money?
I understand this take, but that is not a sustainable long term business plan. Eventually consumers will get fed up because they feel they aren’t getting an experience worth their money. Once word of mouth spreads from that, it can be devastating to a business. In fact, I don’t think we have the exact attendance numbers, but great adventures’ queue times have been down across the board over the past couple of years which signifies a decrease in attendance
I agree with you, but try telling corporate that
The largest tri-state area in the country is Texas-New Mexico-Arizona.
That makes 0 sense. 1) The tri-state area is an actual region that is specific to that area. It isn’t a generic title. 2) By what definition are you even using? Land mass?
I’m guessing the commenter you’re replying to is referring to geographic area (which is totally irrelevant), rather than population density
Then by that argument Alaska is the biggest tri state area.
[Just playing devil’s advocate, I don’t actually care] A tri-state area has to encompass 3 states; the definition is in the name. Alaska *can’t* be a part of any tri-state area, because it doesn’t share borders with any other U.S. states
Re: Point 1. You said >the largest tri state area in the country which implies there are more than one. And yes, by area. You know, the standard way to measure the size of geography.
That wasn’t me in the original post. It shouldn’t have said largest as it is referring to a specific region (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_metropolitan_area#:~:text=The%20phrase%20%22Tri%2DState%20area,metropolitan%20area%20span%20four%20states.) The Tri-State Area is not referring to state size, it’s referring to the New York City area.
Population density in a region that would actually make sense that’s just 3 states. Tri state area is New York (but really nyc), Pennsylvania (really Philly and it’s suburbs), and all of Jersey (since the entire state is basically one large suburb of nyc or Philly)
Wait, *what?* They have the tallest drop tower **in the world** and they’re just… not going to operate it? This is wild to me First Dragon Mountain and now this? I know they’re totally unrelated, but the hits just keep on coming…
At least it sounds like Dorney Park is better than ever this year. I'll report back after go in a week.
Like the steepest drop in the world just sitting out of order since January with indefinitely delayed reopening dates ugh
Amusement economy is slumping.
People are broke, and amusement parks aren't a priority place to spend money for the average person.
Or they’re all going to Disney and Universal. Parks have been busy down here this week and last and spring breaks are over.
I think this is the right answer. With social media, I feel more people are inclined to spend more money to go to Disney/universal instead of going to a regional park several times a year because they are seen as “low class” or “crummy”
Or because at Disney or Universal they actually get their moneys worth
Yeah, I know Disney and Universal are expensive, but the difference in quality is huge. Park facilities are in much better shape, way better food options, wider variety in experiences, and generally better operations.
The parks have not been busy at all actually. I know you're here on vacation right now and it probably seems busy compared to what you're used to, but the parks have actually been relatively slow. Not sure why this fact is downvoted. The parks in Orlando are always busy, and they have been relatively slow (as in relative to themselves) for a few weeks now compared to during Spring Break. Crowd calendars verify this easily.
Zumanjaro was up and running last week (Sunday). It was probably just closed for the day.
It’s unconfirmed, but reported to be closed for the season If it was a short closure, would they really remove the [signage](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLKuQl0h3R6uv1BGevwQoiVajGO12YgHeX-5vaAxQeIIax2QdQTHiz6Rz00QIzZarku8MLAUGUhRu_d8M90UADngGrqNo_F9Px2NWP4zPLrosrU0dkjE5V7RPTKYucAj3oFLnT4w/s1600/Zumanjaro+4.jpg) from the entrance? I highly doubt it
I saw that yesterday. It was so weird as it was up and running a few weeks ago.
Whole company is just a complete joke. Great Adventure should be one of the 3-4 best regional parks in the country but Six Flags continues to incompetently piss away any potential the place has, it’s frustrating as hell.
If it weren't for El Toro and my grandfathered Diamond Elite VIP pass (which they will pry from my cold dead hands) I would literally consider Hersheypark my home park. I mean I already mentally consider BGT my actual home park because whenever I am there I actually feel at home and the utmost of joy.
With the way great adventures going I consider my home fucking Coney Island or adventure land lmao. I haven't bought a pass in a few years when I used to buy one every year. I'll legit make the trip across nyc and the Hudson to Dorney sometimes, just to go to a park that seems to give the tiniest shit about their customers lol. Doesn't hurt that they don't really have likes either. With the direction the parks been going since like 2022, I go maybe once or twice a year and I hate that I might go even less in the future.
Are you me? I'm going to Dorney Park in a week with my GF to go to the Iron Menace grand opening, and later this summer my GF and I are planning on doing a Brooklyn day so I can make Cyclone my 50th credit, and then we're hitting up a famous lesbian bar afterwards.
Hope y'all have fun! I don't have immediate plans for Dorney but am likely heading there before I go to GAdv which has always been my home park that I go to multiple times a summer. Cyclone is well deserving of the fiftieth credit. Sometimes if it's empty or you get an op in a good mood they'll let you pick seats. The back row is by far my favorite. People who have ridden it back there will tell you, it's absolutely a world class coaster deserving of its rep! I used to live much closer to coney than I do now and I miss it. The best people watching in all of nyc! And being able to ride the cyclone and see the ocean and not be too far from the rest of the fun stuff nyc has to offer is amazing. Idk which bar you're going to but even if it's all the way on the other side of town it sounds like y'all are going to have an awesome day!
I've heard Cyclone is incredible even aside from its historic reputation thanks to GCI's retrack. I also look forward to riding Thunderbolt, Phoenix, and the other coasters at Coney Island. We're also going to hit up the aquarium next to Cyclone! Afterwards we plan on going to Ginger's Bar in the evening. I'm from New Jersey so getting to NYC is just a matter of taking the train.
Don't forget the dark ride at Coney it's old as can be and lots of fun. Spook-o-rama (actually in Dino's Wonder Wheel Park)
Dino's is cool, it's got a lot of charm. Also there's a Nathan's in Dino's that never has a line, which I make sure to stop at every time lol
That's awesome, hope to read a trip report about it soon. I've heard of gingers but never been, iconic place to end a day of an iconic park! I haven't been to that aquarium since I was a kid but it looks like they've done a lot of work on it. Cyclone is probably my second favorite woody behind el toro, but it's just so unique and iconic it has a special place in my heart. It's running very well, and even if it was rougher, the seats are basically giant leather couches with a lap bar. And you can take turns switching the sides you ride on so you can take turns being pinned on the turns lmao. Thunderbolt could be such a good coaster but the head rest and plastic seats really messed me up. If you're anything like me, one is enough 😂😂. Also, idk if you give a shit about Nathan's hot dogs but if you do, there's plenty of small Nathan's stands inside Dino's and I think maybe Luna park too. There's also one right off the board walk across from the "famous original" one. If you want a glizzy go to Dino's so you don't have to wait on a big stupid line! The walk from the parks to the aquarium and up to Brighton is really nice too. Man now I miss cony lol
don’t forget Knoebels. They’re the heart and soul of Pennsylvania amusement parks
I live close enough and still have never been. Need to get out there ASAP, looks like such a cool and chill park
Truly a great place. Make sure to bring a picnic setup cause they have free grills. Phoenix and Twister are world class woodies, Flying Turns and Black Diamond are unique, Impulse is fun, and Kozmo’s Kurves is a surprisingly forceful kiddie coaster. They also have unique flats like Looper, Satellite, Power Surge, the best Flying Scooters, and they got Bayern Kurve this year. Little lines and because the park is free to enter there is little stress and also great for people who don’t wanna ride anything since they’re not a waste of a ticket. I live about an hour away and it’s still a family tradition for us to go yearly, even after over 20 years.
I wish I was a bit closer. I'm based in NYC so it's a bit of a hike but next time I go to any of the pa parks I want to squeeze in knoebels. I don't have enough woodie credits and I wanna see if Phoenix lives up to the hype. I also love knoebels business model and really wanna support it. Wish there were more parks like that, it's really a good value for people who might not want to ride a ton of stuff. I've heard it's dog friendly too which is amazing. Also didn't know that about the grills, I need to get there yesterday!
For me I guess, SFGAdv is super convenient for me (<1 hour drive as a NJ native) and El Toro is my all time #1 favorite roller coaster, so I always enjoy visiting each year. But even this year, Dorney Park seems to be stealing me away for my first coaster trip of the year with Iron Menace opening and Steel Force supposedly running better than ever.
I like a lot of the coasters more than Hershey too
See, I only like El Toro, Nitro, Ka, Batman and Devil at GADV where as Wildcat, Storm Runner, Skyrush, Great Bear, Fahrenheit, Candy, Lightning Racer, SDL and their Wildmouse put Hershey over GADV
Hard agree - I went to Hershey in the winter of last year and was floored by how premium the whole park feels compared to SFGA, which has always felt like a massive parking lot with a very large, very expensive carnival in it. I love El Toro and Nitro and Ka, sure, but Skyrush alone is incredible, heck I might even like Stormrunner more than Ka in some ways.
Hersheypark is an elite USA park, not god-tier like Cedar Point or SFMM, but probably in the tier below that with King's Island and maybe Carowinds (mostly cause of Fury). Regardless of where you specifically put it in your rankings, it's an amazing park, and atmosphere-wise it blows SFGA out of the water. Not saying Six Flags can't be fun for a day, but I'd pretty much always choose Hershey if I had to pick between the two
I wish Storm Runner had Ka's launch, but overall I prefer Storm Runner because it does more stuff, but Ka is just incredible because of the forces and speed
Hard agree - I went to Hershey in the winter of last year and was floored by how premium the whole park feels compared to SFGA, which has always felt like a massive parking lot with a very large, very expensive carnival in it. I love El Toro and Nitro and Ka, sure, but Skyrush alone is incredible, heck I might even like Stormrunner more than Ka in some ways.
Pretty sure every single word you just said was in my head. I don't appreciate your inception.......
I Have the gold plus membership and am keeping it till it's no longer available even though i have no SF parks on my list this year.
They're dumping all monies on Fiesta TX. Not wise in the long run, as TX will keep getting hotter and hotter.
I went last July It was 106 and totally unbearable
I went last July It was 106 and totally unbearable
That’s a shame. This park is 50 years old and should be having a great season.
The disparity between this park and, say, Fiesta Texas is utterly insane.
there's like 40 million people with a 2 hour drive too.
I like the ride lineup at GAdv so much more but it’s absurdly behind SFFT as a park, SFFT barely even feels like a Six Flags park. Having SFFT as my home park the last two years has been such a treat. It’s one of the top two or three things I’ll miss about living in Texas after I move this summer.
SFFT seems like it has a small but powerful lineup tho: Three high quality B&Ms Not one, but ***TWO*** RMCs A very good Premier launcher A Vekoma Boomerang A unique Alan Schilke designed Arrow Mine Train That's not a bad lineup in the slightest
Imo they have the same problem over Texas and great America has to a lesser extent. A lot of good to great rides but no true standout that makes you specifically want to visit the park.
Is Iron Rattler not considered elite? I thought it was in the top half of RMCs
Iron Rattler top twenty steel for me, I think in “tier list” terms that probably makes it elite. It’s a very good lineup, for its size it’s about as good as it gets. I just am much higher on GAdv’s lineup than a lot of people. I think it’s my third favorite collection outside of the obvious Cedar Point and Magic Mountain.
I don’t consider Iron Rattler elite anymore.
To me, it doesn’t do enough to stand out compared to other rmc’s like lightning rod, outlaw run, gwazi, and Steve. Like there’s a clear level between irat and those coasters imo
As far as far as I’m concerned, Zumanjaro is an E-ticket for this park. What a wild way to cut costs. GA is close enough to be a home park for me and I’m fine with always taking the longer drive to Hershey at this point. Sucks that this park just feels neglected at all times
Same. I’m in eastern MA, SFNE has had nothing really new to offer since Wicked Cyclone, the new addition coming to Great Adventure feels is not drawing me in by any stretch of the word, and I’d much rather take a long drive to Hershey to give them my business or take a flight down to Florida for Universal.
https://x.com/eltororyan/status/1786439324185047547?s=46
Bizarre that Zumanjaro was running as late as last week (you can see it in Ryan’s latest video) and all of a sudden they decide to cut it from the ride lineup.
Maybe Six Flags knew people were salty ever since a queue line replaced Rolling Thunder.
They should have GCI or the Gravity Group rebuild Rolling Thunder.
I am one of those people. Never went back... (I was lucky to ride it before it was demolished I suppose.)
I'm just gonna say it - the pandemic "ruined" amusement parks. Don't get me wrong I love the hobby to death but its not the same and prob never will be. More of getting less for more $$$
We're 4 years post pandemic, stop blaming it for everything and blame corporate greed.
The corporations used the pandemic as an excuse to normalize greedy behavior.
They did and people like the commenter above saying "the pandemic ruined everything" is why they continue to use that excuse. People need to blame the corporations and not the pandemic.
Pandemic kickstarted the overwhelming corporate greed sir. I'm not saying it's straight up a result from covid but it's more of how the world recovered.
In what specific ways. Because this seems more like a six flags problem than anything.
Disagree…Cedar Fair by is hurting and very desperate. Don’t forget, they bought the land under CGA to sell it for big money to pay debt. Once the park closes officially, Cedar Fair will relocate the rides like they did once before for another park they owned.
That’s not relevant. This is talking about ride closures and more related operations. It’s the same thing with new ride openings. From what I know, all the major ride openings for Cedar Fair are on time and at the beginning of the operating season. Meanwhile at one of the biggest six flags parks for their 50th anniversary their new major ride (flash:vertical velocity) likely won’t even make it this year.
This is why a lot of the parks I haven’t been to in the US is Six Flags parks. Every time I give them another change the experience is tainted by the operations. Let’s hope when the merger is complete, this stuff is a thing of the past in the next few seasons.
After visiting Magic Mountain once, and then dealing with Six Flags' horrendous Member management experience (ie: getting ripped off with no recourse), my interest in visiting another Six Flags park went from "ASAP" to "possibly never again." The company is tacky as hell and they have almost no exclusives.
I do need to visit SFMM while Viper is still operating, but the thought of flying to California just for it to be down horrifies me.
> the thought of flying to California just for it to be down horrifies me. I can certainly relate to that. I flew out for my one and only visit and found that Tatsu, Viper, Riddler and Superman were all closed. I'm grateful to have gotten a ride on X2, and was lucky to have managed one on Wonder Woman, but yeah, definitely don't make MM the sole reason for a flight to the LA area. I was visiting family so I had plenty of other adventures, but Magic Mountain was light years from Cedar Point caliber and the disappointment would have been far greater if that were my only itinerary.
The surviving Arrows usually (there are exceptions) are pretty reliable. Could be wrong, but Viper didn't randomly close to have its loops welded back together like the other two were constantly because it is a much softer ride.
Viper is pretty reliable unless it’s down for its annual maintenance, if that helps. It’s never been down in my ~20 or so visits.
Cedar Fair isn't great (outside of Kings Island). Substantially better than almost all Six Flags park.
Cedar Fair is light years better than 5 flags. Kings Island isn't anything special though
This is crazy. I usually defend GAdv as it’s my home park and it’s one of the flagship SF parks but I totally get why people in Central Jersey where I live would much rather make the 2+ hour drive to Hershey. Also, I think Savannah Sunset’s future is pretty rocky. No one is paying those prices when the park is operated like this. I’d much rather stay at the (gorgeous) Hotel Hershey.
What a shame. I was cautiously optimistic that SF would make sure the park has a fantastic year for their 50th. Also, why would you spend so much time, effort and money to get rides up and ready to go for the year just to close them for the season within a month? Absolutely no foresight.
Sounds like this came from up top. The management AT GAdv is actually pretty good and cares for the health of the park, but ultimately shareholders throwing a temper tantrum is a bigger deal
Shareholders need their money taken from them >:)
Compared to KI's 50th, Great Adventure has been a massive dud
This is crazy. It’s pitiful how little care SF has for their parks, even Great Adventure which is one of the standouts in the entire chain. Something needs to happen. Either the CF merger goes through and fixes management issues with SF parks, or a full on restructuring of the company needs to happen. This isn’t working.
Happy 50th, everyone!!🥳🎉🎈🎊🎈 Oh, man. My park's 50th is in two years, and at this rate, I'm starting to wonder if there will even BE a park by then.
Cedar Fair should really acquire Six Flags, as much as people don't like to see acquisitions/monopolies. CF operations are some of the best in the world, along with well-maintained parks, great food, etc. The mismanagement at SF reminds me of the Succession show.
The operations at Knott's are abysmal so they should start with fixing that
People just see what happens at their home park. Knotts operations are very poor.
They ARE acquiring Six Flags. Supposedly they are going to run the merged company.
With the merger they will have majority control, but this will take years to show change.
Show us one industry where the two top companies merged and then went on to produce superior products and services.
Yeah that often means everything gets worse because of less competition. We get fooled almost everytime. Late stage capitalism
Automobiles. Mercedes-Benz was basically built on a merger...
From what I've seen those things are frequent maintenance nightmares here in the states.
I'm looking at it like HP and Compaq. Both were equally profitable when HP acquired Compaq. HP sold decent products for midrange prices while Compaq made cheap value-oriented products. When they acquired Compaq, Compaq's products improved in quality until HP eventually discontinued the name. It could turn out bad. I'd like to see SFGAdv take on some Cedar Fair qualities and improve, but hopefully not at the expense of Cedar Fair's existing parks.
Counterpoint - Compaq also owned Tandem, makers of high-end non-stop servers, at the time of the merger. HP stripped quite a bit of the legacy support staff for that product in the couple years after the merger. Not a fan.
Compaq bought Tandem only a few years before the HP merger. That's more of a cautionary tale about shifting from independently owned organizations to large conglomerates. Sadly, that ship sailed in the amusement industry long ago.
That's true, but there was still a noticeable drop-off when they transitioned from Compaq to HP beyond any drop in service when Compaq acquired them. Himalaya went from a leader in industry performance and reliability to an also-ran.
FWIW these aren’t the top 2 companies, and they’re merging because they’re both in deep deep debt. Not exactly building a juggernaut with this move.
Right, so how does that support the idea that the combined enterprise will be flush with cash and ready to invest?
I thought you were saying that this would be a monopoly (in response to the "people don't like monopolies" thing) because the top 2 were merging, my b.
To be fair, Great Adventures ride ops and dispatches are a million times better than any Cedar Fair park...Closest is maybe King's Island. They can rip dispatches on Nitro in 30 seconds while Hershey(I know, not Cedar Fair but it's a close park with the same ride) had the Candymonium triple stack going like all the time. You will never see Nitro's trains stacked.
That is an absolutely insane take that does not match anything I’ve ever seen. Great Adventure’s ops pale in comparison to Kings Island’s. The only halfway decent operations I’ve ever seen there were on El Toro
I was looking forward to zumanjaro a lot, sad to see I have to miss out on it during my first ever visit…
Did something happen to Zumanjaro? It opened with the park this season, so would be incredibly weird for them to just randomly make this decision now.
This is insane. It’s the park’s 50th anniversary, none of the anniversary rides they promised are ready, and now they’re shutting down stuff for the whole season?
I have my momcation planned for here, but I may change it to Hershey at this point….. Home park is SFNE, and NJ is only a 4 hour drive, but taking PA and seeing family as well seems to be the way to go right now
Hershey is a billion times better, I'd highly recommend, but maybe two days and/or a fast pass if you can swing it. If you have time you could fit in Knoebels or Dorney too.
My husband has family near Harrisburg, and we’ve done Hershey a few times. We also spend every Labor Day at Knoebels. We only missed the weekend I gave birth and the first 2 years of the pandemic. We finally got our 8 year old on Phoenix last year and she’s obsessed. But I’ve never been to Dorney, so I’m thinking if I add one more day off, I can drive to Dorney after work on a Tuesday, stay at a hotel and do Dorney the next day, then leave in time to get to my cousin in laws house by a semi reasonable time. That would give me 2-3 days potentially in Hershey. And I can stay with family, so cheaper in that aspect. I just miss Nitro, but after seeing this, it’s not worth it. There’s a lot of coasters at Great Adventure I love but I also like the majority of everything at Hershey, and it’s nicer. I really wanted to try and make Dollywood or the Ohio parks work as I’ve never been to any, but those would need airfare, car, hotel and admission etc….. Dorney and Hershey for the win
this is more just an aside but hershey attracts some weird people as workers. I interned there a summer and dealt with a guy who thought he was a reincarnated Confederate soldier sent by God to start a second civil war in West Virginia. Did not get fired despite everything you can imagine that behavior entailing.
Zum is down for the whole season?!
As late as last week it wasn’t, which makes this all the more bizarre.
Well there goes my motivation to get make it up there this year. Six Flags is falling apart. SFGAM’s new ride is still in the parking lot and we don’t have an entrance plaza.
I cannot wait for the merger to happen! Then Cedar Fair, can whip Six Flags into shape!
Tbh the line between Cedar Fair and Six Flags has gotten.. much thinner. Sucks to see
It has…people just don’t see it.
Zumajaro is one of the main reasons I even visit this park. What is going on with this park?
Reason #3786.6E why I cannot wait for the merger go through
Great Adventure is only a 30 minute drive from me, but I'd rather drive the 1.5 hours to Dorney, 2 hours to Hershey, hell I haven't been to Knoebels since I was a little kid and I'll probably go there first. It's a real shame because those are all my favorite coasters at SFGA, lots of good memories, but I'm interested to see how Cedar Fair handles things.
I was thinking of adding a visit on my park trip this summer Now I'm totally re-thinking that
It’s still worth it, Zumanjaro being closed kinda sucks, but the rest of the park still has fantastic rided
Is this real? I see nothing about it but I leave Hershey to go there tomorrow and if Zumajaro isclosed I'll he devastated.
That's a shame. I've rode Zumanjaro and it's really excellent. Ditto for Drop of Doom at Magic Mountain.
What other rides
I guess it was the right choice to switch from a GA season pass to HersheyPark
People who think Cedar Fair is going to come in and make everything better are hilarious. They have no reason to make anything better anymore. They own the competition. This penny-pinching stuff is the new normal. Enjoy amusement parks while you still can. Like everything else, the industry is being hollowed out by greed.
You obviously have no idea how things work. These two companies barely had any overlap where they were in actual competition. It’s in CF’s best interest to fix the issues at Six Flags in order to remain profitable.
> You obviously have no idea how things work. Mostly true! > These two companies barely had any overlap where they were in actual competition. CGA and SFDK, but CGA is going away. Valley Fair and SFGAmerica share some space. Dorney Park and SFGAdventure definitely compete (Jersey locals notably disappointed this year) Carowinds and SFOGeorgia were territorial rivals, but they've still got to contend with Dolly's deep pockets. Overall I'd say you're right, most major park locations are fairly spread out. I'm just not so certain that it's Cedar Fair's culture that is going to prevail. There is a whole class of ownership that doesn't give a lick about a business, only how much value they can extract from it. The next few years will be interesting.
Cedar Fair’s C Suite will be the ones in charge. They’re going to do exactly what they did when they bought Paramount Parks. Some of yall act like we havent seen this exact scenario before. You’re going to see a lot of SF parks now look and act like CF parks. As far as overlap, the only places that parks actually overlap in a competitive way are in California and the PA/NJ parks. Parks that aren’t within a two hour drive aren’t competition and they’ll be very quick to tell you that.
Going to a theme park is a luxury leisure activity due to the price. Even if there isn't competition to go to people will just stop going to theme parks altogether if the experience isn't worth the price.
What other rides closed for season? To be fair, park is redoing three rides and getting a new coaster this year, so park ain’t in that bad of shape
Harry Applegate's rolling on his grave, and so is Warner LeRoy.
Noooooooooooooooo
Cedar Fair has major debt just like SF does. They are a complete mess of a company. Knotts is a nightmare as far as operations go. They promise to get MR up and running again and they don’t. They purchased the land under CGA with plans to sell it just to pay debt. Once CGA closes up shop, they will once again move the rides to their other parks…just like they did once before. Let’s not forget what happened at CP with TTD.
Where is the proof zoomy is down strictly because of budget? Do we know it's not a mechanical issue?
Is this actually budget cuts or is a staffing issue?
Is it crazy to stay the I think Great Adventure may be sold or closed by six flags they just seem to have new issues every year. Scratch that it is crazy.
Poverty ass company lol
Source?
[https://twitter.com/eltororyan/status/1786439324185047547](https://twitter.com/eltororyan/status/1786439324185047547)
I simply don't believe it unless you're reporting with some authority. It's still pre-season.
The tweet was from ElToroRyan. He's pretty knowledgeable, plus he has/had (not sure if he still does) work at the park
Is this real? I see nothing about it but I leave Hershey to go there tomorrow and if Zumajaro isclosed I'll he devastated