Rog's Report: Construction HQ

March 28, 2002

Work on ErUPtion is progressing. Also included in this update is shots of Rolling Thunder. Rog's Report - 3/25/2003

November 1, 2002

It is now official. Six Flags Great Adventure unveiled its plans for their 12th coaster; a state of the art B&M prone (flying) roller coaster. This will be B&M's 3rd flying roller coaster, with one located in England at Alton Towers and one in Georgia at Six Flags Over Georgia. The brand new Superman: Ultimate Flight at Great Adventure will be a clone of the one located at Six Flags Over Georgia. It will be 115' feet high, 2759' long; will reach speeds of 60 MPH, and will flip you over twice during the run. It will feature only the second pretzel loop in the world, and an inline twist. All of this facing down!

Great Adventure has been on somewhat of a roller coaster ride its self over the summer with the township about where to place the coaster. As reported 1st here on GAdv.com, the original spot for the new coaster was to be in the season pass parking lot, but soon we all learned that was not to be. In October 2002 land clearing began right beyond GASM, in the main parking lot, but now that everything is set and construction is on its way, it is just a matter of time before superman will fly.

On October 23rd I was at the press conference for Superman and found out some very interesting things about the new coaster while talking to Tim Black, GM of the park. First off I will give you a brief timeline of events from the press announcement, then I will get in to the key details of this report.

1. I got to Six Flags about 8:45 left early expecting traffic and hit none, so I guess it was to my advantage. I arrived first

2. It wasn't to hard to find where the announcement was there were blue and red balloons in front of the building.

3. When I entered the food service was still setting up the drinks and food in the back. I entered and they had already set up 3D renderings of the train and the layout, this is when I first realized it...there was only one station

4. Around 9:15 the upper management started to arrive all wearing superman jackets (which I may add were really nice). Until ten everybody really just stood around and talked.

5. Come 10:00 Tim Black the GM of SFGAdv was about to start and Mick Foley walked in (former WWF superstar) one of the presenters. Tim black began his presentation about the new ride. He talked most of the time and then the video, which can be seen, at Superman Information.

6. After the video and an explanation of the ride vehicle by Kristen Siebeneicher. Steve Urbanowicz talked about the extent of SFGAdv adding a brand new coaster, of this size.

7. Finally Mick Foley came up to talk about the "search for Heroes" essay contest. All details can be found by clicking here or visiting sixflags.com. Thus ended the press conference, and began a tour of what was set up for Winter Lights at that time.

After the press conference we had a chance to interview all the speakers who had presented. First I talked to Tim Black GM of SFGAdv. Here is the extent of the interview. I started out with the most obvious thing I saw in the video and pictures, that the station was only a signal station, not a dual like the other flyers out there. " I went down to Georgia and talked to Claude Bolliger, we came to the conclusion that with the dual station it really does not increase PPH (passengers per hour) by a lot," said Black. I guess the real problem will be if the ride keeps shutting down. I know when I was at Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure that X-Flight would use the 2 stations to its advantage. When one would break down they would open the other one, pretty ingenious. Great Adventure added one more row to the train to hold more people, which will compensate for the loss of train. This will make the back row a must for next year.

With the addition of Superman, walking to the front gate will take a little more time. You will now have to walk around the ride to get to the entrance of the park. Black said, "we will be building a sidewalk for people to walk on, but you still have to walk around Superman to get into the park." I think that is poorly designed as of now. What is the point of walking around the coaster to get in to the park? I guess when the park opens in April we will see if it was a smart choice. With that said it is obvious that Great Adventure is a very poorly designed park. All of the coasters are built on the outside of the park, with no room to build within the park...so we think. "There are always ways to build a coaster in the middle of the park." said Black. This is a little hint that park management does have plans to build within the park if necessary. My question is where? Finally, Rotting Lumber will be renamed this winter back to Rolling Thunder. Yes, the park has decided to do a massive rehab on Rolling Thunder...and it will be ready for the 2003 season. Coming soon I will have an interview with Tim Black, Six Flags Great Adventure General Manager and also check back soon and all winter for complete coverage of the rise of Superman.

Justin Rogers
2003 Construction Coverage Staff
To e-mail Justin, click here.

October 5, 2002

It's no secret now; in 2003 Superman will be landing at Six Flags Great Adventure, but the question is at what cost? This week Rog's Report will focus on three other aspects of the park for the 2003 season and a shocker. One, who and how will the new coaster be paid for? Two, Will anything else be added in the park for the 2003 season? And finally Will Boardwalk and Frontierland be connected finally? Hey don't forget about the shocker at the bottom of the page too.

In 2001, when Great Adventure decide to add Nitro, they knew the crowds would flock to Jackson, NJ from all over. The question they had was how to pay off the coaster and still make money. Easy in true Six Flags style they raised parking prices, and food prices to an all time high. But hey who cares, people still wanted to spend a quality day with their family, so they were willing to fork over $200 for a day. But will they raise all the prices again? A B&M coaster does not come with a small price tag. The new breed of B&M flying coasters are estimated to go around 15 million a pop.

Hey if you don't like roller coasters you're probably out of luck for the 2003 season at Great Adventure. The likelihood of them adding flat rides is slim to none, but there is always a chance. There are on couple of spots for flat rides at this time; Pirate's Flight and El Sombrero. Now on the rides that just sit there and collect dust, when are they going to get rid of them? Here is the list of rides; Evolution, Space Ship, Jumping Jack Flash, and Centrifuge G-Forge. I think there will be improvements to the park that mostly no one would see. If my memory serves me correct, there were a lot of markings for underground wires this year. I could see Great Adventure updating all the wires under the park, it has been 30 years don't forget.

Who hates walking from Scream Machine to Medusa? I know I do. Probably one of the worst designed parks in the world is Six Flags Great Adventure, and they just may have the last say. The location of the new coaster may just be the key to connect Frontier Adventures to Boardwalk. Now the obvious thing to do in a business stand point is connecting the ride entrance to Boardwalk and Frontier Adventures. Now your asking yourself how are they going to do that? Easy use the season pass entrance as a connection point from Frontier Adventures and have another path leading towards Boardwalk. As of now Six Flags has giving no indication that the season pass parking and entrance will be removed, so most likely they will move the entrance down a little towards Rolling Thunder and make more of an entrance plaza for all the pass holders.

Now, the shocker of the week. With the recent news of S&S power updating and changing their design of Thrillshot, Great Adventure may indeed get their thrill ride from the 2002 season, which was seen on the 2002 park map. But time will tell folks.

Justin Rogers
2003 Construction Coverage Staff
To e-mail Justin, click here.

September 25, 2002

In 2001 Six Flags Great Adventure and Six Flags Corporation, introduced Nitro, the largest roller coaster on the east coast, and in the Six Flags Corporation. As anticipated, the attendance skyrocketed from the previous year, making Six Flags Great Adventure among the top 10 for amusement park attendance. It was the only theme park on the list, which was, not open yearlong.

But soon after, in 2002, the attendance dropped sharply comparing it to last year. Six Flags Great Adventure was hurting from 9-11, and not having a "running" major thrill ride. The thrill ride slated for the 2002 season was Alcatraz: The Ride, an advanced Military Simulator made by i2star (the leading software group for the military). Although the ride was open for a preview during the 2001 season, it did not go over well with the public. I rode the Simulator and thought it had some potential, but the people in charge thought different. The ride was never reopened after the 2001 season, due to many people getting sick. Six Flags Corporation had a very hard task at hand. How to get the people back to Six Flags Great Adventure, one of the company's largest parks. There was only one way and that was to add a major roller coaster to the park.

During 2001-2002 Six Flags Great Adventure looked at many roller coaster types in production and already running. They narrowed it down to two types: Six Flags Great Adventures 1st choice was a 4th dimensional coaster that was in its prototype stage at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Although it looked promising it did not open on time and had many problems. Six Flags deiced not to push for a 4-d coaster. Instead they went for their second choice, which was a B&M Prone ("Flying") Coaster. They kept a close watch on AIR at Alton towers, and Superman: Ultimate Flight, which opened later that year. Both coasters did very well and had limited down time. Six Flags Great Adventure had found their 2003 coaster.

Now I am not going to get into the specifics about the coasters planning and approvals by the township, but I will give a brief layout.

1. Week of Aug. 26th Six Flags Great Adventure applied for administered approval for a new coaster.
2. On Sept. 10th they appeared in front of the planning board and gave plans for a new coaster. This is what was released at the time the coaster is 122ft tall, is located in the season pass parking lot, and is a clone of Superman: Ultimate Flight at SFOG. Only taller and faster. The Planning Board did not approve of the coaster at that time, due to little things that could be worked out by the next meeting. (Little side note: Six Flags mentioned something about another area in the park, where the coaster was originally going to be built. But the board rejected it)
3. The weekend of coaster celebration we got word that there would be an official announcement on October 23rd.
4. Sept. 24th Six Flags Great Adventure appeared in front of the planning board for the new coaster. Nothing changed about the coaster. And the board approved it!

Last week people reported sign about the new coaster as you enter the park, this is very odd by Six Flags they never usually advertise so early, and announce there plans. I think finally they are thinking like Cedar Fair and announcing it early. With the addition of the new B&M roller coaster, Six Flags Great Adventure will be the first and only park with 4 B&M coasters until Six Flags Great America opens their own B&M Prone coaster later that year.

Justin Rogers
2003 Construction Coverage Staff
"Rog's Report" is a new column for 2003 Preview. This feature will document the rise of Great Adventure's newest coaster. To e-mail Justin, click here.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions of Justin Rogers do not reflect those of this website, Great Adventure Source. Problems with any content in these editorials should be taken up with the writer.