There was quite a bit of discussion surrounding this on the State of the Park thread, so I thought I'd make a dedicated space for it.
It seems like most folks expect a revitalized Golden Kingdom in the next 10 years or so, but do they really need to put it in the same spot? In my ideal scenario, the current Golden Kingdom gets turned into an expansion of Plaza del Carnaval to go alongside a Vekoma family coaster (I'll take suspended or BBM style) in the next five years, and then the Northern Arena/Medusa corner of the park can be turned into the new Golden Kingdom, which would include a revamped station for the safari.
I am starting to believe that GD will return as early as next year!
2027-we see the return of the wild walk way with animal exhibits and entertainment in the area. All starting with a new festival in the spring. This will be announced in the offseason! We will see the merchandise stores reopen bringing life back.
2028- Safari off-road Adventure gets relocated from frontier adventures to a brand new entrance portal inside the golden kingdom and some theming enchantments are seen. We can get this along with the drop tower in boardwalk. This is not a new ride just relocating existing ride and entrance.
2029-We see a major rollercoaster in GD either a thrill coaster in KA spot or family coaster. We can also see a children’s area with kiddie rides (relocate safari kids rides to make room for future camp snoopy) , jungle gyms, water play feature to complement new coaster.
There was quite a bit of discussion surrounding this on the State of the Park thread, so I thought I'd make a dedicated space for it.
It seems like most folks expect a revitalized Golden Kingdom in the next 10 years or so, but do they really need to put it in the same spot? In my ideal scenario, the current Golden Kingdom gets turned into an expansion of Plaza del Carnaval to go alongside a Vekoma family coaster (I'll take suspended or BBM style) in the next five years, and then the Northern Arena/Medusa corner of the park can be turned into the new Golden Kingdom, which would include a revamped station for the safari.
They can expand plaza de carvel on former super loop and rolling thunder queline plot of land to that new connecting walkway that was built a few years ago. No need to expand it so much into golden kingdom. I don’t want to see frontier adventures theme go away, it’s too iconic and has potential also with the concert hall and safari off road plot for new attractions! Yes, the safari station seems to be better in its current location cause won’t be a far trek driving thru old KA spot all the way down and is isolated. But it will be much better in the long run and would fit thematically much better in golden kingdom having an entire safari jungle animal area of the park just for the safari which will highlight it as a major component of the park as mentioned before.
We can also see a children’s area with kiddie rides (relocate safari kids rides to make room for future camp snoopy) , jungle gyms, water play feature to complement new coaster.
I was envisioning Frontier adventures remaining as a themed area, and it would transition to Golden Kingdom just after the bathrooms next to the fort.
As it stands now, there’s barely any theming after that point anyways, so I don’t think frontier adventures would really be losing its spot in the park.
Whatever they do, it's going to require a multi-year plan similar to the Boardwalk simply because there's so much that needs to be done and simply not enough cap-ex space do to it all at once. I've seen people make the comparison to Jungle X-Pedition @ Kings Dominion before, and I think it's a very fair one.
I actually went to the park the day they opened it - went with some college buddies and walked around. I remember being VERY impressed - at the time, it was a level of detail we hadn't seen invested into the park before. Always was curious about what the other "area re-imaginings" were that management team had in store for the park.
I got a idea, plaza de carnival takeover the entrance/dream street part of golden kingdom while the golden kingdom where kingda ka/theater is becomes a secret jungle base area that has a new station for safari off road adventure (think jungle x pedition but with mix in with wild safari) and in that area, a new coaster that bears the ka name in its place (and maybe have mack rides make it, something like that launch coaster from suzhou forest)
I got a idea, plaza de carnival takeover the entrance/dream street part of golden kingdom while the golden kingdom where kingda ka/theater is becomes a secret jungle base area that has a new station for safari off road adventure (think jungle x pedition but with mix in with wild safari) and in that area, a new coaster that bears the ka name in its place (and maybe have mack rides make it, something like that launch coaster from suzhou forest)
I actually would like to see that part of the golden kingdom be replaced. It was always out of place even when the pathway was open connecting it. But either way, not much can really go there ride wise so it’s not the biggest deal if they leave it for now.
I actually would like to see that part of the golden kingdom be replaced. It was always out of place even when the pathway was open connecting it. But either way, not much can really go there ride wise so it’s not the biggest deal if they leave it for now.
Ok, throwing out there a concept/dream I likely know will never happen. I somewhat alluded to it in the State of the Park thread, but this is much more fleshed out in a more appropriate spot.
Qualifier in now: I'm not hyper aware of exactly where everything is in the Safari area, so if I marked over something important, understand I am thinking some things would be relocated or was unaware of it's importance.
So in the concept, the current Plaza del Carnival would take over the existing Golden Kingdom space, and grow the Plaza more. Inside the dark blue circle is where I would future plan some form of water coaster to cover for the fact that Saw Mill Log Flume is a big part of my plan.
New Six Flags Gate: I don't have a great name at the moment. Maybe something like Great Safari and play on the names being similar. The whole concept for me would be that this "Great Safari" gate would be more of a family friendly park with one whole area fully committed to young kids. This part would also include the current animal and Safari trek area.
Light Green: This would be my internal gate between Great Adventure and Great Safari (ok I like that on the whim name). My plan would be that all passes get the ability to jump back and forth, but daily tickets would be individual for each park with a park hopper add on. The blacked out area would be pathway that is eliminated in this split off.
Yellow: I know this is a large area, but it's kind of needed to get back to where the park would be. So this is my entrance plaza. I envision something highly themed, sort of a bazaar like fair and animal enclosure area similar to Uni's IoA entrance plaza. I wanted this here so that the main entry would be just off the parking lot at Bakunawa's spire, keeping it relatively closer to the parking lot. The split around Medusa would enter you into the main parts of the park.
Light Blue: Frontier Adventure would become part of Great Safari. The major changes here would be updating all the theme elements to feel new, Medusa becomes a rattlesnake themed coaster to fit the new park, and the old amphitheater comes out to make way for a small flats package. In reality because this area is largely kept intact, it doesn't really need much.
Orange: This is now my Golden Kingdom successor in name and theme. I intentionally want this set along the lake (and expanding down along it more than my screenshot shows) because I would want a small theater stage and area right along the lake. At dusk every night I would envision a show going on there celebrating the day. In this area is where we would have a significantly younger skewed ride set. I'm thinking more like what you would see at Sesame Place or Lego Land. A small kids coaster and plenty of flats. The centerpiece would be a two-story 'fantasy' merry-go-round filled with mythical creatures of the world stylized in a fun an inviting way. This would also be where the Safari Off Road Adventure would now launch from.
Purple: This would be the final land of the initial build out. Called and themed as "Night Jungle" this area would take on a darker tone than Golden Kingdom. I would like to think of this as the area for kids who aren't ready for high thrill rides. Slightly more intense flats, an enclosed dark ride themed to creatures of the jungle night, and a family multilaunch coaster stationed in this land would be the highlights. This area would remain heavily wooded and shaded to help play into the darker jungle theme.
Brown: This area is something I'm unsure about from not sure what's in here standpoint. But it would not be part of the initial build out of the Great Safari park. It would be my future expansion plot for this new park. Ideally I would like to keep the park small to start out as it is more kid/family oriented and focused, so IMO smaller is actually better to start with. My concept for the future of this space would be more of a SE Asia inspired safari land.
I know this is sorta out there and pie in the sky thinking, but I really feel if SF wanted to play their cards right, they would make this area a multi-day theme park resort. I don't know what park or two you could pick between Texas and out west where you have access to space or big enough park that the water park and a kid friendly gate could be split off, but it would be cool to see a few multi-day visit parks in the chain. The added thing with this being a multiday park is that they should work with a hotel operator that would run an on property hotel. Have the campsites still in tact with some glamping options, a more budget friendly option, and a better upcharge.
I figured that was part of something. It’s been so long since I’ve been in the safari area I couldn’t remember what it was. Would there be enough space to relocate or build something potentially better for them?
Honestly, I can’t think of any better placement. It seems like the park can’t either, as that area has never been part of Off Road Adventure and surely they’d want what was previously the big finale to be included in some capacity if it was feasible.
If they do relocate them, they better relocate the GASM loop too lmfao
