Are we saying Good Bye to Great Adventures Greta

Text removed... don't cut and paste stuff from other sites in its entirety. You don't own it, and neither do we. It's the Internet... link it! -J

oops!!!

http://screamscape.com/html/six_flags_great_adventure.htm

It ruined my girlfriend's day on Memorial Day. We were all well and good until we rode it in the late afternoon; we were doomed from then on. I think its time has passed and I say good riddance.

Also, Chang to Great Adventure makes a million times more sense than Chang to Great America. That move was always a head scratcher.

I am not exactly happy about this decision if it comes out... this really should be an offseason project, not during the year, plus you dont even know how much area is left after the removal of chiller plus the other 4 flat rides behind the dark knight coaster... stand up coasters are a bit out of date and it really isnt what the park needs... plus i love the great american scream machine because it was more than just a smooth steel coaster which the park is full of. Also hey i think rolling thunder needs to go first because of its horific screaching sounds, gasm is still in decent shape in my opinion if they could retrack one or two spots

Think about GASM with a setup like Phantom's Revenge - but keep headrests. Would be a great ride, and light years more comfortable and ride-able. Re-brand and market the ride, etc....

The Premier coasters have become very popular with GP and enthusiasts alike, since changing from shoulder bars to lap bars.

I'm going to try to get to the park 1 more time before it closes. I'm surprised they are closing it so early since the ride could probably be dismantled within a few weeks and it probably wouldn't take more than the offseason to get the ride removed, set up the area for Chang and then start to construct the ride, test it, get approval for opening by the end of March or early April. It would have been nice to maybe close it on Labor Day like Big Bad Wolf last year. The park also supposedly isn't going to announce the closing ahead of time.

CoasterDemon said:
The Premier coasters have become very popular with GP and enthusiasts alike, since changing from shoulder bars to lap bars.

If we keep saying it, louder and more frequently, with any hope eventually the parks will listen... ;)

You'd think so, Gator...

He is talking about the Great American Scream Machine, a 1989 Arrow 7-looper at Six Flags Great Adventure. I agree, Greta is a rather obscure nickname that is used by very few enthusiasts. I've seen it referred to as GASM more often than Greta.

It sounds like GASM will close around July 1st and Chang will be set to open in 2011.

It's the Great American Scream Machine.

I guess all these people who like it are invisible; I didn't see a line for it once in the last two years. :P TAER IT DOWN. It might not fit our coasternerd aesthetic but the GP doesn't dig it and being rough and painful, it sticks out like a sore thumb among all the Beemer goodness in that park.

Greta-Gre(a)t A (merican blablabla)...

Jeez folks, its just a nickname.

Edit: for the record, I waited in line as long for GASM as I did for Skull Mountain, the Mine Train, and Rolling Thunder. They're all old rides, they don't command the lines that rides in the last 10 years or so do.

Batman's nearly 20 years old and still gets a line. It's only 4 years newer than GASM and smaller to boot. The public has spoken.

I don't think anyone would be adverse to Rotting Lumber going anywhere but the other two are kid rides and not really comparable. And on a busy day last year I waited 20 minutes for Skull Mountain. :P

They'd better not touch Skull Mountain. That ride is awesome.

Oh, I'd boycotte the park if they got rid of Skull Mountain.

My point, though, was that just because there isn't a line for a ride isn't reason alone to get rid of it. I really in the end don't care if GASM goes, I liked it, but I also like Chang. A lot.

That's true, because if they went by that logic, Magnum might have gone by the wayside already. :)

Chang's an OK ride, but in the end it's still a stand-up, and stand ups are just "meh" in my eyes.

Wow, Greta = Scream Machine? I have been going to Great Advenure for 21 years and have never heard that name. Anyhow, What is this business about Chang at Great Adventure? Didnt Great America just have a meeting about zone variances or someting another?

See, if I had my druthers (and I know this means minutiae) i would set Premier on GASM (lapbars and retracking) and give it the "Bizarro rebirth"!

I don't think putting Phantom's Revenge style cars on GASM would give the ride we've come to expect from Phantom. Headbanging isn't the only problem with Arrow loopers. The cars shuffle in the track. When you go through a loop you feel the "push-pull" back and forth of the train. Putting lapbars wouldn't help with getting your head slammed into the headrest. ;)

There are many folks that would be upset with Rolling Thunder being removed, myself included. The ride could be very good if they maintained it properly and replaced the skid brakes with magnetics so they could grease the track and not worry about the trains failing the "slide test" in the brake shed. If you ever catch a ride on the yellow train on the "left track" (think it's that side) shortly after/during a good rain, you'll get a very good, airtime-filled ride. The potential is there!

I always thought the ride at SFGAdv was correctly abbreviated to GASM-II, to distinguish it from GASM at SFOG. :)

At one time I was a keeper of the abbreviations list for r.r-c...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I actually liked GASM at SFGAdv. (Argh, too many abbreviations!) Yeah, it was a rough, painful ride, but it had a cool layout and a crapload of speed. I love how high those loops are! I thought it was slightly less bangy than I remember Shockwave being, another ride I loved and dearly miss. It'll make me sick if they scrap this one like they did Shockwave, but I know that is probably it's fate.

So from 2001-2011:
Nitro, Superman, Kingda Ka, El Toro, the Dark Knight, Bizarro upgrade, and now Chang...

SFGAdv fans are spoiled