When is SFGAdv going to open the drop ride and Kingda Ka?

Nitro was the only coaster that's ever caused me to grey out, and it was on the aforementioned upward helix. Actually it was grey, fade to black. I woke up somewhere coming off the flat spot and felt like I'd been dreaming.

I liked the ride a lot, though, (mind altering is ok with me...), and had to remind myself that it wasn't as new as the other hypers that were popping up here and there. The thing I though was tacky was the view of the Jersey junkyard there to the right as we went up the lift. I took it as just another Six Flags eye-roller.

So the new drop ride is supposed to open July 4th? Six flags made the decision to close Kinda Ka, the tallest coaster in the country, and one of the park's major attractions, for about half of their operating season. Is that perfectly fine?

How many people do you think have been disappointed that the new drop ride and one of their major coasters were not open when they were there this year so far? I'm just one of those people.

It's apparent that the park's management simply do not care if their patrons are happy with their experience or not. I contacted the park with my concerns. They simply do not care enough to even apologize to me and offer some kind of copied and pasted explanation.

I am not going back anytime soon. It was too expensive of a visit for me to not be able to trust that they will even WANT to have all the major attractions open. Hundreds-of-dollars went from my pocket to their bank account. Why couldn't they open Kinda Ka for part of the day? I did not see one person working on the construction of the new drop ride. I didn't see anything going on there at all. Any kind of sincere explanation would have been a decent start.

^^ yeah i hear you on the kingda ka closing. When I305 was down last year, KD had it right there on the front page of the website. Very decent of them. I learned of KK being down on weekdays before we left, so we went up earlier sunday to get there in the evening and got a thrill pass for Sun & Mon. We were able to ride KK Sunday night (opened at 4pm i believe) as our last ride, waited about an hour to ride it. At the very least, the park should let you know the main attraction is down. But then again, why are they going to go and do that if they just want your money, which the $25 parking fee illustrates nicely. (or $35 if you prefer to park within the same zipcode) Seems like ever since parks have started with the fun passes where you can come back all year, parking has gone through the roof! So you end up paying anyway....

LostKause said:

Six flags made the decision to close Kinda Ka, the tallest coaster in the country, and one of the park's major attractions, for about half of their operating season. Is that perfectly fine?

If we assume the ride will have a life of 40 years, you're talking about it being closed for 1.25% of its useful life. Not sure why that's such a big deal.

How many people do you think have been disappointed that the new drop ride and one of their major coasters were not open when they were there this year so far?

Not enough to be relevant in the long run.

Something tells me Krause isn't the biggest fan of SFGAdv. Not sure why I get that impression...it's just a gut feeling or something.

Vater said:

Something tells me Krause isn't the biggest fan of SFGAdv. Not sure why I get that impression...it's just a gut feeling or something.

I don't blame him for having the feeling he has towards SFGadv. Everything he writes is dead on. At least I know other people aren't drinking the SFGAdv kool aid.

Right. The fact that I've enjoyed myself during all three of my visits (yes, there were closed rides every time) means I'm "drinking the SFGAdv kool aid."

Kool-Aid® can be refreshing, and obviously something you only drink when you disagree with someone. It's the only explanation.

I had a great time at Six Flags Great Adventure, but I still noticed some of the issues present, including the one Krause pointed out regarding KK. Batman: The Ride had the hottest, most claustrophobic and stinky tin can of a queue. I can't believe they would think it's a good idea to have guests wait in there especially on a hot summer day. A/C was not working at our lunch spot. There were some very poor ride ops at some major coasters, notably Nitro, which also was in need of attention cosmetically at least. Still, overall it is a pretty nice park with decent theming and relatively clean, just not on the level of Hershey or BGW for cleanliness, landscaping, food, and friendliness - but i didn't expect that really. I'll go back for sure, and would recommend to any friend that enjoys coasters.

I DO think that if they're going to have an attraction down for an extended period of time, it should be posted on the SF website. I don't think that's too much to ask. However, I think this wouldn't even have been a problem if they had started the construction earlier. They got hit so hard with weather that I'm sure it really messed things up for their timetable, but I think the timetable was messed up to begin with. That is on them for sure, but I don't think the whole park or chain is crappy just because they made mistakes. Every park and every chain makes mistakes. There are a lot of good things about Six Flags as well. I guess I just don't get 'em in a twist over these things.

Gotta agree with Bunky: At least put it on your website. Let people decide if Great Adventure minus KK is what they want to do. There is nothing "wrong" with having rides closed b/c new ones are being built. Nor is there anything "wrong" with deciding that the park isn't worth the $$$ without KK. Or that it would be better to schedule the trip for when it is open.

As an aside, is there some kind of regular schedule that Ka is open? If so, the park should note that on their website, too.

Gotta admit, I laughed at the idea of SFGadv Kool-Aid. In what world do enthusiasts say good things about Six Flags?

I wish I lived in that world because the only Six Flags drink that seems to exist in the online community is Haterade.

djDaemon said:

If we assume the ride will have a life of 40 years, you're talking about it being closed for 1.25% of its useful life. Not sure why that's such a big deal.

The overwhelming majority of park patrons don't think this way. If I bought a season pass this year expecting to ride something new being promised to me as a passholder, not having that ride (and another popular coaster) available for almost half the season isn't good.

I'm not saying that having two rides down is cause for dusting off the pitchforks. I think that most of the displeasure comes from the way Six Flags has handled this situation from a PR standpoint, not the fact that the new ride didn't open on time. If a patron knows that those two rides will be down, it's disappointing but you can plan accordingly. All Six Flags really needed to do is say "these two rides will be down until the new drop ride is ready" and leave it at that. If you see Kingda Ka running then great -position it as a bonus. Every report I've seen thus far, however, indicates that Six Flags didn't do that, instead leaving the masses to guess if it was going to open or not and leaving it vague. People are much more understanding if you're upfront about bad news.

I've been to most of the Cedar Fair and Six Flags properties in the US in the last three years. I think that Six Flags has come a long way in the last few years as far as their employees being friendly and ride operation efficiency. Having said that, I typically have a more enjoyable time at any of the Cedar Fair parks than I do at Six Flags properties. There are exceptions (Great Adventure is better than every Cedar Fair park except Cedar Point, Valleyfair and Michigan's Adventure are by far the least enjoyable IMO due to their limited size and ride selections). Operations are typically far superior at Cedar Fair properties. Too many days at Six Flags have just left me feeling less than satisfied and like something was off. Great Adventure is the exception. I always have a good time there, and when their Ops are good it's one of the best handful of parks in the country.

Gary Dowdell said:
If I bought a season pass this year expecting to ride something new being promised to me as a passholder...

But here's the thing - did they promise or otherwise guarantee pass holders anything specific? I'm going to guess that somewhere, on some form or whatever you signed, is language that states that not all attractions will necessarily be available at all times, etc.

Pass holders weren't promised anything beyond access to the park and whatever attractions they were able to open on any given day given whatever circumstances exist at the time.

I was looking forward to going this year no matter what happened. I have become accustomed to a major ride and attraction being down since, Cedar Point has put Dragster in.

Sure its a great ride for the people that visit one time a year when they get to ride it and it stinks when the ride is down. Now I am not one of the said people I mentioned above. I go enough to catch it a few times a season for a ride.

When I went to SFGadv, I had known both rides would probably be down. Honestly, I was most looking forward to El Toro, something about it being a great wooden roller coaster had me more excited for it than Kingda Ka. Having rode the Dragster many times over the years gives you the general experience of Kingda Ka. So, I wasn't too disappointed, considering the reason is construction on another ride, well it happens that things wont work out your way all the time. I was the type of guy back when I first joined this site that would get upset when a ride was down when I traveled many miles to a given park. Somehow, you get used to unexpected misfortune when you do this as a hobby.

I can see LK's problems with the whole day being a much more detrimental cause as to why he doesn't come back. A ride being down may have not killed the whole day, but what the park has open and what they are willing to do in other areas is what makes you want to come back. This factor alone can make you access your whole decision of coming back in the future maybe to get that ride ridden because the park offers something to you other than just a said ride that makes you want to come back.

Lastly, BTW as bad as this sounds if you do a little searching on the Six Flags Great Adventure site by clicking on these said two rides is the only way they let you know they would not be operating until at least late June as of my visit.

BTW, I guess my prediction was way off.

MagnunBarrel said:

Lastly, BTW as bad as this sounds if you do a little searching on the Six Flags Great Adventure site by clicking on these said two rides is the only way they let you know they would not be operating until at least late June as of my visit.

Ha! That's the best part. In spite of all the complaining, the site does tell you Kingda Ka is temporarily closed.

https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/attractions/kingda-ka

djDaemon said:
But here's the thing - did they promise or otherwise guarantee pass holders anything specific? I'm going to guess that somewhere, on some form or whatever you signed, is language that states that not all attractions will necessarily be available at all times, etc.

Pass holders weren't promised anything beyond access to the park and whatever attractions they were able to open on any given day given whatever circumstances exist at the time.

Mostly true. (I don't see any TV ads with that disclaimer)

Still, why shouldn't they post it on their web site? If it helps customers plan their visits, isn't improved customer satisfaction good for business?

Remember, this unavailability is due, not to weather or mechanical, but due to a deliberate choice on the part of the park,

Captain Hawkeye said:

Still, why shouldn't they post it on their web site?

You mean like this:

https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/attractions/kingda-ka

I don't think the promise of anything or fine print excusing them from that promise is relevant at all. The issue is that they have a $25 million attraction which is not serving guests. Obviously from their perspective, it's not a huge deal. I assume there's a wide spectrum of guest opinions on how much that affects a given visit. I'm not going to speculate on how many people fall in the "entire trip was ruined" category and how many fall into "What's Kingda Ka?"

Lord Gonchar said:

Ha! That's the best part. In spite of all the complaining, the site does tell you Kingda Ka is temporarily closed.

But it's not right on the home page, at the top.... who has time to do all the clicking to get to the page about the ride? :-)