They know, but that doesn’t mean they care. CF is downsizing the park to match the lower attendance to improve short term profits. Its impossible for a single new ride to replace 8.
News Project 2027/Purple: Delayed “World Record Breaking Coaster" (Phantom Spire?)
- Thread starter Zachary
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They don’t want to run the park into the ground, just make it profitable again. It always has been a big profit center for Six Flags, but expenses were out of control and the park’s maintenance suffered from that for years. They are in a “rebuilding” phase.
This has been explained to @The Master like 20 times in every Great Adventure thread. They do not want to listen, they just want to be a doomer and complain about how the park will never recover. No room for nuance or long-term thinking on their end. I’ve given up trying to reason with them.
Downsizing isn't running it into the ground, but its very unfortunate and unpleasant. If they are trying to rebuild the park bigger, they have already self sabotage themselves servely. Last season was a disaster with ultra low guest satisfaction, poor operations, and topped off with the ride removals. Sadly this season is probably already lost before if even begins, and it will be difficult to recover from 2 bad seasons in a row. If they are rebuilding, they are rebuilding the park smaller. Hopefully it won't be smaller permanently.
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It’s understandable considering the track record of Six Flags in general and Great Adventure in particular for the past 20 years. Harry & I always tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope for the best with changes and decisions made, and sometimes that’s been hard as fans of the park. Harry told me almost three years ago the Parachutes were going in 2023, and the Skyride was going in 2024, and we hoped they would reconsider, but it wasn’t to be. Anyone who’s been a fan of Great Adventure feels a little let down by their recent decisions, but it’s a business and you have to look at it through that lens.
It’s not downsizing as much as “right sizing” for current attendance. They need to build attendance back up, but there’s a LOT to be done just to stabilize the operation after years of neglect. The park isn’t attracting 3.5 million guests anymore, closer to 2.5 million. Parks with that attendance level can’t sustain as many coasters and attractions as they had.
They want to rebuild that attendance and add again, but it’s not an overnight process.
They've also been doing those 3.5 million numbers with a staff pool that wasn't capable of operating all the rides reliably. Great Adventure has basically been run as a barebones operation since the Redzone days, especially after the 2010s bankruptcy, that still managed to make a profit unlike other parks in the Six Flags chain. The market's changed since the 1990s but Great Adventure used to do even better numbers with 45 less days on the operating schedule and 1/3 of the coasters in the park.
When I worked at the park from 2014-2017 I knew within a year that the things that management and execs were trying to get out of the park were unsustainable and that the park would need to downsize and retool itself to be successful in the future.
But all that started pre Red Zone, and even pre Premier when Warner ran the show. They cut maintenance budgets and operating budgets, yet grew attendance to almost 4 million with big investments in NEW attractions. I think the post Red Zone era of $7.5 million a year for new capital was what really hurt attendance. They should have been spending more and should have retired some things sooner as a one for one upgrade. Instead they tried to keep everything running on a shoestring maintenance budget and not add anything to really attract crowds.
The Parachutes, Daredevil Dive (upcharge attraction), Twister, and Cyborg were not popular attractions and their loss will be barely felt by most guests. Cyborg was barely open and had a lot of issues. The loss of the Skyway sucks, but after years of neglect what do you expect? At least they renovated the Ferris Wheel and Log Flume. Green Lantern was not a popular ride either, and Kingda Ka also wasn't as popular as it used to be... and costs a lot to maintain. It was more so a novelty at this point.
They are opening a new coaster in 2025 AND 2026 to make up the loss of 2 coasters, and I am sure they will eventually add some newer, modern flat rides in the future. Give them a chance...
Can add Zumanjaro to this list too realistically. Tallest drop tower in the world or not, the only time I ever waited more than 15 mins for it was when it had the VR headsets.
Cyborg had to have been one of the biggest maintenance headaches in the park, and there’s nothing surprising about removing the last of a ride model that was undeniably a complete failure.
The parachutes always had a long line whenever it was open so it was popular enough. The loss of the other rides will concentrate crowds on the few remaining rides. The Ferris wheel and flume were only renovated due to the previous management, CF would likely just have removed those too. The Flash was a low key coaster that was supposed to open in 2024. So its just a delayed coaster opening a year too late and overshadowed by the loss of KK. They are now acting that Flash is a defacto replacement for GL. Its very likely the park won't get additions for awhile after the 2026 KK replacement, assuming it opens on time. The fact they have not released what its going to replace KK indicates they know its going to be an inferior replacement.
As for chances, they had one last year and they pissed it down their leg. Now they are pissing the other leg which doesn't leave me much faith in them. That is besides what they did to Dorney.
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I am still very hopeful for the future of the park. Again, Great Adventure is in a fantastic geographical location, has good historical value and still draws a large attendance (even if its not what it was at its peak). They cut lots of costs this year in preparation for what's next; sustainability. Cedar Fair focuses on the guest experience more than legacy Six Flags which is what this park needs. I am honestly excited to see what the future holds.
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The previous management was a joke and the reason why the park is in the current state it's in. I have more faith in the new management to put this park back on a better trajectory. CF has made some pretty good improvements to the old Paramount Parks, and the legacy CF parks are typically run pretty well.
From a marketing perspective, it makes no sense to announce the new ride now... and they have already teased that we are getting a record breaking launch coaster in 2026 to replace KK so you can't say they haven't released anything. They will announce it this summer and then use it to help drive season pass sales for 2026.
We don't know what will happen beyond 2026 yet but the park has plenty of coasters already - they are adding one in 2026 and El Toro is getting a major re-tracking from Intamin in 2026 as well. After that, the park could use some flat rides... it's likely a flat ride package could come in 2027. I wouldn't expect another coaster until 2028 or beyond, and that's reasonable.
Dorney is night and day better than it was when I first went in 2012 or so. Cedar Fair worked hard through the 2010s to bring their standard up above Six Flags, and they succeeded in my eyes. My experiences at Dorney, KD, and KI have all been overwhelmingly better than almost any Six Flags park I’ve been to.
It sounds like you’re conflating change with deterioration in a lot of these cases. And if you’re gonna bring up “bad” clientele as a reason for Dorney losing favor with you, please save it. Those complaints always have a weird classist undertone that I don’t feel like entertaining.
I wish I could be that optimistic but I am not and I explained my reasons. Even though some like Pantsmith don't listen, ignore them and just call anyone who isn't optimistic names and ridicules instead of providing an actually response.
I agree that previous management was bad, but so far CF has been worse. The 2024 season was not even a joke, it was a disaster. My main experience with CF is with Dorney and they really let that park decline which is why I stopped visiting in 2019. Its nice they got a new coaster finally but I still see they have lackluster reviews for operations, cleanliness, etc, which gives me concerns. The park has been on a downsizing trend since Redzone and CF has accelerated it.
As for the 2026 coaster, the details they revealed are vague. Moreover, they are missing time to build up hype for it.
I agree the park has enough coasters but its lacking in basic flats now. Frankly it didn't have enough to fulfill a day last year before this round of closures.
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The merger happened in July 2024 so I don't think it's fair to blame CF for the 2024 season issues. Let's see how 2025 goes and then we'll have a better assessment. This year will be the first full year under the new management. Even though several rides were removed, we know for sure that:
- The Flash is opening in 2025 (on opening day)
- Several food/refreshment upgrades are coming in 2025 (including renovation of Yum Yum and Granny's)
- Multi-record breaking launch coaster for 2026
- El Toro is getting some re-track work this year, and then starting in 2026 a multi-year re-tracking by Intamin
Five years seems like the timeframe for completing a turnaround, however we should all expect to see immediate improvement in operations, upkeep, and overall experience for 2025. If not they will have made all the removals and increased pricing for nothing and REALLY lose their core fans.
They better include re roofing many of their buildings. Last Dec during HITP, the Dark Night station was almost awash with puddles from roof leaks. It was pretty gross looking with deep ponds under the ramp.
You know... The more I see images of Alpen Fury, the more I hope KA's replacement is a big ass sprawling multi launch rather than a tall ass tower coaster. Boy to see a super unique ride just going all over the place would be a great way to greet guests at the park. A taller ride similar to Batman Arkham Asylum's would be nice just with a unique non IP theme.
Yeah, I’m honestly in the boat of “don’t care how tall it is.” It’s not the early 2000s anymore, it doesn’t need to tower over the park, it just needs to be good.