Great Adventure History page for Six Flags Great Adventure's Skycoaster, Dare Devil Dive:
Attraction Dare Devil Dive
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
SweetBabyJames
Conservative Coaster Connoisseur
Man, this is crazy. I really hope this havoc that is being wreaked at the park with all these rides leaving is laying a foundation for a prosperous rebirth. I hope... otherwise... "dare" I say, the park is taking a "devilish dive". Also, I am curious as to what they'll do with the DDD sign. I would love it if they auctioned off.
Also with DDD being removed and likely slingshot at this point, do we think the boardwalk will even be open at all in 2025? There is a lot missing and it is in need of a facelift.
Also with DDD being removed and likely slingshot at this point, do we think the boardwalk will even be open at all in 2025? There is a lot missing and it is in need of a facelift.
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Honestly shocked this didn’t happen sooner. DDD, the old 4D sim, Slingshot, and Great American Road Race make up a pretty decent plot of land that would be better used in almost any way.
SweetBabyJames
Conservative Coaster Connoisseur
It's fun to speculate. The games probably bring in a lot of revenue for the park, so if they completely overhaul the area, they'd want to keep many of the games or at most reposition them. As far as theming, it's anyone's guess,,, I'd personally like to see a continuation of the boardwalk theme but make it feel more like a seaside experience, kind of like Knott's Berry Farm's boardwalk, only with a Jersey Shore vibe.
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Adding that I fully expected this one to go when Cedar Point closed their skycoaster. If they won’t keep one at their flagship park with the current management, they’ve definitely crunched the numbers and decided these aren’t profitable (which isn’t too surprising considering how infrequently I actually see people on them).
I believe there’s a very real chance that within a year or so, no Cedar Flags park will have a skycoaster, maybe 1-2 at most that are outliers and actually have ridership.
I believe there’s a very real chance that within a year or so, no Cedar Flags park will have a skycoaster, maybe 1-2 at most that are outliers and actually have ridership.
SweetBabyJames
Conservative Coaster Connoisseur
I agree with this. It is sad, as I do enjoy the free falling experience without being in a rigid vehicle of sorts... I guess I'll just have to go sky diving for real.
Also, yes, sky coasters do take up a nice amount of land ideal for a sizable flat ride. Harley Quinn fit perfectly in the former sky coaster plot at SFA.
I figured this would be leaving eventually with the industry trend of removing Skycoasters, but it's pretty late in the game, and amidst an already obscene amount of ride demolitions, I assumed it had at least another year left in it.
All things considered, I thought it saw respectable traffic for an upcharge attraction and always provided a spectacle with riders flying over the carousel midway. Guests waiting in line for Houdini usually got plenty of enjoyment from watching it as well.
This was also the first upcharge attraction I ever tried at the park, back when they had discounts for it in the season pass coupon book. They had an employee at the bottom with a video camera (we still have that recording somewhere!). My favorite memory of DDD comes from being on a magnificent night flight right over the Glow In The Park Parade as it proceeded through the area.
Assuming they still keep the general motif in place, the Boardwalk area is probably ripe for a Power Splash or Ultra Surf eventually. The theming would almost be too easy.
All things considered, I thought it saw respectable traffic for an upcharge attraction and always provided a spectacle with riders flying over the carousel midway. Guests waiting in line for Houdini usually got plenty of enjoyment from watching it as well.
This was also the first upcharge attraction I ever tried at the park, back when they had discounts for it in the season pass coupon book. They had an employee at the bottom with a video camera (we still have that recording somewhere!). My favorite memory of DDD comes from being on a magnificent night flight right over the Glow In The Park Parade as it proceeded through the area.
Assuming they still keep the general motif in place, the Boardwalk area is probably ripe for a Power Splash or Ultra Surf eventually. The theming would almost be too easy.
With this removal, I’m beginning to think the large amount of removals is kind of the point. Rip off the band aid, get all the removals out of the way at once, that way we aren’t looking at a couple removals a year for the next 5 years.
The two unannounced ones, DDD and Cyborg, make sense in their own ways. Cyborg absolutely had to cost more in maintenance than it was worth considering it was down more often than not, and it provides an easier routing for Flash’s queue and exit. My guess is that they got a discount on DDD’s removal from contractors already on site and decided to get it out of the way rather than leaving it SBNO or having to staff it.
SweetBabyJames
Conservative Coaster Connoisseur
If rides are going to get removed, I'd prefer it all at once. While it stinks now, it does give me hope for the future. As the park builds its new brand, they'll be able to do so by adding attractions and themed areas with a blank canvas. It'll happen presumably without the removal of old attractions, and likewise, without that negative taste that comes with a positive addition.
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My thoughts exactly. They have a rare opportunity to reinvent most of the west side of the park with Boardwalk almost wiped out completely and all of Golden Kingdom’s land.
I only hope they get one of these demo crews to finally take out the Great Arena for future expansion during all this, because unfortunately we’re never seeing another show in there and it’s really become an eyesore.
I only hope they get one of these demo crews to finally take out the Great Arena for future expansion during all this, because unfortunately we’re never seeing another show in there and it’s really become an eyesore.
Reddit is bitching about this like it’s on par with losing Ka or even Green Lantern.
Skycoasters are gimmicky overpriced eyesores that often waste huge plots of land. I hope they’re all removed. To me this makes the purge more worth it.
Skycoasters, slingshots, and go karts at SF parks can all die. This isn’t a fun spot
Skycoasters are gimmicky overpriced eyesores that often waste huge plots of land. I hope they’re all removed. To me this makes the purge more worth it.
Skycoasters, slingshots, and go karts at SF parks can all die. This isn’t a fun spot
I don't know, I kind of enjoyed the annual scavenger hunt hinting at which thing would be the next to go... (Pictures 3-5 below!)
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
That said, this does open up a potential world of possibilities - I'm just hoping they can make the most of it (right now, I have no confidence in the corporation to do that).
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
That said, this does open up a potential world of possibilities - I'm just hoping they can make the most of it (right now, I have no confidence in the corporation to do that).
Reddit and Facebook have been nothing but sour and melodramatic about the whole situation. I get it, unannounced closures (especially coasters) are shitty, but the doomposting is truly getting annoying at this point.
The company is clearly aware of what Great Adventure has been, can be, and should be. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t see work being done so quickly. The amount of delusion I’ve seen saying that “Cedar Fair is still bitter that Kingda Ka stole TTD’s records” is absolutely ridiculous. They do not give a shit about this in 2025, and probably didn’t in 2005 either considering until Ka opened, it was kinda expected that someone would take their record shortly after.
It’s nice being able to come here and have actual grounded conversations about this hobby, my immediate family is really the only other way I can do that lol.
The idea of a “games area” like the Boardwalk is kind of a thing of the past. Half of the games are gone and some aren’t used anymore. I’ve noticed at SeaWorld they’ve gone from a games area to random games scattered in the park— I assume they found the make more money that way.
I keep likening it back to a sports team purging bad contracts and rebuilding. When a team isn’t winning, a new GM is gonna come in and cut the crust off: purge shitty contracts from the old team. Sure you’re gonna suck for a year or 2, but you get to build the team your way, without any of the previous regime’s mistakes weighing you down. Sometimes you have to cut a washed up fan favorite, and that sucks, but it’s for the best in the long run.
That being said, losing the Skycoaster is like cutting a bench player nobody cared about or is gonna miss.
Redditors and Facebook(ers?) are way overreacting to this and some of the other removals. At least new Six Flags has direction while the old chain felt like it was treading water
That being said, losing the Skycoaster is like cutting a bench player nobody cared about or is gonna miss.
Redditors and Facebook(ers?) are way overreacting to this and some of the other removals. At least new Six Flags has direction while the old chain felt like it was treading water
It’s honestly wild how much conversation about the park’s future DDD has started. This is a ride I’ve thought almost nothing of for almost 20 years and yet its removal due to its proximity to so many other removals raises a ton of questions.
The new Six Flags doesn't seem to have a direction. The 2024 season was a complete mess and all this gutting is likely just downsizing the park to a lower and cheaper to operate tier. Its all just cost cutting, not some grand plan to rebuild the park into a Disney tier park. When Wonderland Pier closed down Gillian claimed one of the reasons is that NJ is a royal PITA with inspecting and clearing rides for operation, pretty much always coming back demanding more fees. If there is truth to Gillian's claim that NJ squeezes park operators hard, then SF may be saying screw it and permanently downsize the number of attractions in GAdv to reduce excessive NJ fees and costs.
I given up hope that the park will ever see its ride count return to what it was before Shapiro's ride gutting which was a start of a string of gutting that has continued to this day. I remember when the Eastern flume was taken out, all the park forums claimed ohh its gonna be replaced with a awesome new coaster. Shapiro and co really care for GAdv and fully know its potential. Then he put in fucking Wiggles world as a replacement LOL. Just like with the Shapiro era, many of the rides being removed now will either likely never be replaced with anything or replaced with something lame like Wiggles World 2.0.
Personally I am not that upset about DDD itself being removed. But SF is overdoing ride removals and is quickly burning through what little goodwill they had left. Perhaps my joke in the Cyborg thread really isn't that far off and that they want GAdv to be a rideless, or a ultra low ride count park. Maybe they plan to move the park away from rides to something else? Perhaps we should start a thread discussing what rides could be the next victims of project Accelerate. There will probably be more gutting at GAdv next year too.
Nobody has thought anything of it for 20 years; people are just looking for things to be upset about instead of being upset about the numerous other things to be upset about