I'm not normally a trip report kinda guy and I'm not gonna write a detailed breakdown of my day or anything, but after spending about 5 hours at Great Escape today, I definitely have some immediate thoughts... and possibly more to dive into at some future date too.
This was my first visit to Great Escape and I went in expecting a pretty small, historic, somewhat cute, somewhat charming park with a crappy ride collection and a pretty typical Six Flags employee base and audience. I came away believing that Great Escape is a pretty small, historic, very cute, pretty charming park with a crappy ride collection, great employees, and an audience comprised almost exclusively of young families. Perhaps most importantly, I came away believing that Great Escape has some of the best bones of any of the legacy Six Flags parks I've visited and I suspect that, in the right hands, Great Escape could be an absurdly successful, obscenely profitable park.
I know I visited in what is probably just about the peak tourism season for Saratoga Springs/Lake George/the Adirondacks/etc, but even on a Sunday, Great Escape was bustling—park paths were busy and family rides had some moderate lines—not uncomfortable crowds for sure, but there were definitely people in the park. It did not feel like a property that was lacking for guests today.
What really struck me though was the audience. This park was absolutely full of families—the guests looked like what you see at Dollywood, Dutch Wonderland, or Idlewild, not New England, Dorney, etc. This is THE audience parks dream of—and it felt like little was being done to actually capitalize on that audience at Great Escape.
Seeing things like the Alice in Wonderland walkthrough, the railroad's course, etc succumbing to the clear indifference/neglect inflicted by Six Flags was downright depressing. Great Escape is full of the remnants of absolute, ultra-charming gems that deserve SO much more TLC than they currently receive.
Perhaps one of the saddest things I saw today though was that I honestly think that, immediately pre-merger, Six Flags may have realized they had a wholly unique property with significant potential on their hands? Looking at Bobcat, THAT looks to me like it was the PERFECT Great Escape addition. Bobcat is excellently presented (the Bobcat on the sign moves?! there's sensor-triggered audio as you enter?!), the theme and coaster feels like it fits with Great Escape's vibe perfectly, and most importantly, it is perfectly aimed squarely at the industry's most profitable market segment—a market segment it sure looks to me like Great Escape enjoys a ton of existing demand from: families with kids.
Family rides broadly seemed to be big hits in this park. For instance, Blizzard, an indoor scrambler set to lights and music, had an overflowing queue. The swan boats had a full queue. The railroad was consistently cycling full. Meanwhile, more thrilling rides didn't seem to interest Great Escape audiences nearly as much. Comet ran mostly empty while I was back there. Steamin' Demon was running nearly empty, etc. Why previous ownership even attempted to drop thrill rides like Greezed Lightning and Adirondack Outlaw into this park, I sincerely don't understand. Both were closed all day and, frankly, given the uneven response to family rides vs thrill rides evident in the park today, I don't know that I'd stress too hard to keep them around if I were Enchanted Parks.
Since I covered Bobcat, I guess I'll run down some other rides I tried for good measure.
Canyon Blaster. What the hell is up with those (retrofit?) restraints? One of my worst Arrow Mine Train experiences just due to those bizarre, very-uncomfortable-for-me restraints.
Comet. Historic, great potential, great layout, needs track work. You put GravityGroup precut track on this thing like has been done for Grizzly at KD and this coaster could rocket up people's rankings. Its location in the park is awful, but the history and layout are both super strong and I hope to see it receive the love and care it deserves.
Flashback. Fine, run-of-the-mill, new train boomerang. Not offended by it being in this park honestly. Would be totally comfortable as this being this park's top-end.
Steamin' Demon. It's bad—vastly inferior to even the boomerang. It's sorta shocking how horrendously it tracks. You could replace this with almost anything and it would be an improvement.
Blizzard. Great. Must-do. Love indoor flats with lighting and audio effects and this one is no different.
Condor. Can't believe I finally got on a Huss Condor after years of trying and failing elsewhere. Now that I've ridden one, they can retire the model. It's sorta a snoozefest of a ride and assuming it is the maintenance burden everyone claims, it's an easy replace in my book.
The chairlift. Pleasant. Worth doing.
The railroad. Wildly underutilized asset and a depressing reminder of what could/should have been with the ride past Jungleland, Alice, etc.
While I didn't ride them, observing the swan boats and the little car ride up front, those also appeared to be depressingly underutilized assets. The industry is full of examples of how to theme up and present these ride types well. Zero attempt at either pursuit—theme or presentation—remains today at these small leisure-type rides at Great Escape from what I could tell.
If you clicked on my head in RollerCoaster Tycoon and read my thoughts from my day today, only about 10% would have dealt with the mediocre rides. 90% of my visit was spent encountering and subsequently pondering the immense degree of unmet potential I saw around every corner of this property. Some legacy Six Flags parks were aggressively gutted of their charm and history. That really doesn't seem to have happened at Great Escape. Things were abandoned, neglected, and left to rot, but, presumably because the park never really saw enough investment to really screw much up, the park is still full of absolutely, positively invaluable, historic, immensely charming bones.
This is a park BEGGING to be saved—BEGGING to have its history and charm highlighted, restored, and financially capitalized on. All it will take is an interested, motivated, and just even ever so slightly liquid park operator to really turn Great Escape into an immensely special place. I really hope Enchanted Parks can provide that life raft. I may write more about what all I'd like to actually see changed in the future, but for now I'll close my thoughts there.
In conclusion, I was very taken by Great Escape as a piece of history, as a property, and as what I sincerely believe could be a stunning, immensely successful, highly nostalgic family theme park. Yes, the major thrill rides suck, but they just honestly don't even feel like they have a home at this park.
If you're an adult who can go to Idlewild, Dutch Wonderland, etc and have a good handful of hours, I think you'll find value in Great Escape—it's sorta like a family park that randomly has a couple mediocre-to-bad, out of place thrill rides. I probably wouldn't tell the average coaster thoosie to make time for Great Escape, but for anyone who likes sorta weird, historic, family parks, I think it's well worth a stop.
This was my first visit to Great Escape and I went in expecting a pretty small, historic, somewhat cute, somewhat charming park with a crappy ride collection and a pretty typical Six Flags employee base and audience. I came away believing that Great Escape is a pretty small, historic, very cute, pretty charming park with a crappy ride collection, great employees, and an audience comprised almost exclusively of young families. Perhaps most importantly, I came away believing that Great Escape has some of the best bones of any of the legacy Six Flags parks I've visited and I suspect that, in the right hands, Great Escape could be an absurdly successful, obscenely profitable park.
I know I visited in what is probably just about the peak tourism season for Saratoga Springs/Lake George/the Adirondacks/etc, but even on a Sunday, Great Escape was bustling—park paths were busy and family rides had some moderate lines—not uncomfortable crowds for sure, but there were definitely people in the park. It did not feel like a property that was lacking for guests today.
What really struck me though was the audience. This park was absolutely full of families—the guests looked like what you see at Dollywood, Dutch Wonderland, or Idlewild, not New England, Dorney, etc. This is THE audience parks dream of—and it felt like little was being done to actually capitalize on that audience at Great Escape.
Seeing things like the Alice in Wonderland walkthrough, the railroad's course, etc succumbing to the clear indifference/neglect inflicted by Six Flags was downright depressing. Great Escape is full of the remnants of absolute, ultra-charming gems that deserve SO much more TLC than they currently receive.
Perhaps one of the saddest things I saw today though was that I honestly think that, immediately pre-merger, Six Flags may have realized they had a wholly unique property with significant potential on their hands? Looking at Bobcat, THAT looks to me like it was the PERFECT Great Escape addition. Bobcat is excellently presented (the Bobcat on the sign moves?! there's sensor-triggered audio as you enter?!), the theme and coaster feels like it fits with Great Escape's vibe perfectly, and most importantly, it is perfectly aimed squarely at the industry's most profitable market segment—a market segment it sure looks to me like Great Escape enjoys a ton of existing demand from: families with kids.
Family rides broadly seemed to be big hits in this park. For instance, Blizzard, an indoor scrambler set to lights and music, had an overflowing queue. The swan boats had a full queue. The railroad was consistently cycling full. Meanwhile, more thrilling rides didn't seem to interest Great Escape audiences nearly as much. Comet ran mostly empty while I was back there. Steamin' Demon was running nearly empty, etc. Why previous ownership even attempted to drop thrill rides like Greezed Lightning and Adirondack Outlaw into this park, I sincerely don't understand. Both were closed all day and, frankly, given the uneven response to family rides vs thrill rides evident in the park today, I don't know that I'd stress too hard to keep them around if I were Enchanted Parks.
Since I covered Bobcat, I guess I'll run down some other rides I tried for good measure.
Canyon Blaster. What the hell is up with those (retrofit?) restraints? One of my worst Arrow Mine Train experiences just due to those bizarre, very-uncomfortable-for-me restraints.
Comet. Historic, great potential, great layout, needs track work. You put GravityGroup precut track on this thing like has been done for Grizzly at KD and this coaster could rocket up people's rankings. Its location in the park is awful, but the history and layout are both super strong and I hope to see it receive the love and care it deserves.
Flashback. Fine, run-of-the-mill, new train boomerang. Not offended by it being in this park honestly. Would be totally comfortable as this being this park's top-end.
Steamin' Demon. It's bad—vastly inferior to even the boomerang. It's sorta shocking how horrendously it tracks. You could replace this with almost anything and it would be an improvement.
Blizzard. Great. Must-do. Love indoor flats with lighting and audio effects and this one is no different.
Condor. Can't believe I finally got on a Huss Condor after years of trying and failing elsewhere. Now that I've ridden one, they can retire the model. It's sorta a snoozefest of a ride and assuming it is the maintenance burden everyone claims, it's an easy replace in my book.
The chairlift. Pleasant. Worth doing.
The railroad. Wildly underutilized asset and a depressing reminder of what could/should have been with the ride past Jungleland, Alice, etc.
While I didn't ride them, observing the swan boats and the little car ride up front, those also appeared to be depressingly underutilized assets. The industry is full of examples of how to theme up and present these ride types well. Zero attempt at either pursuit—theme or presentation—remains today at these small leisure-type rides at Great Escape from what I could tell.
If you clicked on my head in RollerCoaster Tycoon and read my thoughts from my day today, only about 10% would have dealt with the mediocre rides. 90% of my visit was spent encountering and subsequently pondering the immense degree of unmet potential I saw around every corner of this property. Some legacy Six Flags parks were aggressively gutted of their charm and history. That really doesn't seem to have happened at Great Escape. Things were abandoned, neglected, and left to rot, but, presumably because the park never really saw enough investment to really screw much up, the park is still full of absolutely, positively invaluable, historic, immensely charming bones.
This is a park BEGGING to be saved—BEGGING to have its history and charm highlighted, restored, and financially capitalized on. All it will take is an interested, motivated, and just even ever so slightly liquid park operator to really turn Great Escape into an immensely special place. I really hope Enchanted Parks can provide that life raft. I may write more about what all I'd like to actually see changed in the future, but for now I'll close my thoughts there.
In conclusion, I was very taken by Great Escape as a piece of history, as a property, and as what I sincerely believe could be a stunning, immensely successful, highly nostalgic family theme park. Yes, the major thrill rides suck, but they just honestly don't even feel like they have a home at this park.
If you're an adult who can go to Idlewild, Dutch Wonderland, etc and have a good handful of hours, I think you'll find value in Great Escape—it's sorta like a family park that randomly has a couple mediocre-to-bad, out of place thrill rides. I probably wouldn't tell the average coaster thoosie to make time for Great Escape, but for anyone who likes sorta weird, historic, family parks, I think it's well worth a stop.
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