With three solid weeks of Dorney Park maps behind us, let’s set our sites on one of Dorney’s rival parks, Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. SFGAdv is no stranger to the Crapstravaganza, the first two weeks were dedicated to a 1998 brochure and a 1997 map respectively. This week we’ll be traveling back to 2003 with one of Six Flag’s sponsor laden maps.


Six Flags Great Adventure page 1
Here’s the cover, it features Superman: Ultimate Flight in mid-turn, an S:UF logo, some animals, Bugs Bunny, and a couple of people supposedly on Superman. But if you look closely, they look more like the ones that are on Batman: The Ride…quite the dichotomy!Now if you did in fact look closely, you’ll also notice that the man in the photo looks kind of odd. Elastic looking facial expression aside, it looks like he has one tooth in the front (probably not the case but the photo makes it look that way) making him look automatically moronic. Next, if you look at his chin, it looks like he has a stud piercing. He certainly doesn’t look like someone that would have that, especially with the stereotypical “dad” shirt. Where the hell do they get these people?


Six Flags Great Adventure page 2
These two pages were separated by some full page sponsor advertising, so I omitted the ads and put the pages together. With that said, there really isn’t a whole hell of a lot to see! There is a photo of Nitro’s first drop which looks much steeper than usual. I wonder where they took this picture as well, it seems like the only place to get it would be by hanging out in the woods next to the park. On the bottom, a lion roars at us along with two quick descriptions of the other two attractions at Great Adventure; the Wild Safari and Hurricane Harbor Waterpark.


tn_sixflags03_2
This page really has nothing of note aside from the multitude of shop, dining and games listings. It may come in handy when looking at the park map though!Many of the dining places are similar to what’s there now, but two of my favorites, Casa Del Taco and Wok & Roll (liked mostly for the name) are not there anymore. Casa Del Taco became a crumby pizza place and Wok & Roll went all corporate, being turned into the chain restaurant Panda Express.


Six Flags Great Adventure page 4
Here’s a complete ride listing for Six Flags Great Adventure as of 2003. Again, this page has little to see until we get to the park map. This page does feature an image of Superman Ultimate Flight however, but it’s either just a rendering or the one from SFoG. I wish GAdv’s version looked like that; then I could see how long the line is without having to walk down the path, through the building and out into the coaster’s infield section.Superman: Ultimate Flight at GAdv was a very highly anticipated coaster in 2003; I mean, a flying coaster? That’s unbelievable! While it probably still is a favorite among the general public, the coaster itself seems to be pretty lackluster in the eyes of many coaster enthusiasts. In my opinion it’s very short, has a low top speed, loads slowly, has a boring layout and has a perpetually long line.

Prior to Superman at Great Adventure, the spot was home to a section of parking lot. As a matter of fact, if you check out GAdv from Google Earth, you’ll see that the coaster was blatently plunked down into the lot!


Six Flags Great Adventure page 5
Here we have a listing of “spectacular shows” with a couple of dolphins smiling in approval. Several of these venues are now gone or left show-less such as:

  • Defunct:
    • Bandstand by the Lake
    • Bugs Bunny Land Theater
  • Standing but not operating:
    • Movietown Stunt Arena
    • Great Lake Grandstand

On the bottom is special events section listing some events like Fright Fest and the Winter Lights Drive Thru Adventure. Fright Fest is still going strong, seemingly even more popular than it was in 2003, while the Winter Lights event was scrapped soon after 2003.


Six Flags Great Adventure page 6
And finally we have the map!As I noted in one of the previous GAdv Crapstravaganzai, Six Flags maps aren’t exactly the best when it comes to drawing coaster layouts. Case in point, Batman & Robin the Chiller (#60.) Check out the layout on the Batman side; it just launches right into a hairpin turn!

Here’s a list of things to look notice with the numbers refering to it’s number on the map:

  • Viper (#86) is still around; it was removed in 2006 to make room for El Toro.
  • The Season Pass entrance was available to season pass holders. the section below it was also a season pass lot. They were both taken out in 2005 with the addition of Kingda Ka.
  • Chiller is gone
  • All of Old Country is SBNO; Spinmeister (#56) and Pendulum (#59) have been removed.
  • Stuntman’s Freefall (#61) is gone
  • Movietown Water Effect (#62) is also gone
  • As is Poland Spring Plunge (#66)
  • also closed are: Flying Wave (#71), Chaos (#69), Jumpin’ Jack Flash (#75)
  • Bugs Bunny Land is completely gone, replaced by Golden Kingdom.

Golden Nugget Bought by Knoebels

2/1 Edit: Added photos of the Golden Nugget Farewell Ceremony.

knoebels_logoSince the anouncement of the Golden Nugget removal, rumors have swirled that a mystery buyer has been looking into purchasing the 1960s Wildwood boardwalk icon.  Well it’s true folks, Amusement Today is reporting that Knoebels, a small amusement park in Pennsylvania, is the new owner of the Golden Nugget’s tracks and trains. Knoebels is well known for preserving and restoring older amusement rides namely the ‘Phoenix’ wooden roller coaster, ‘The Flyer’ flying skooters ride, and are close to finishing construction on a Flying Turns coaster. According to Knoebel’s Amusement Resort president Dick Knoebel, “I’ve always liked the Golden Nugget and we’re excited about bringing it to Knoebels but we are not going to rush the project. We want to be sure that it is restored in a manner that both acknowledges the ride’s past and looks to its future at Knoebels.”

Needless to say I’m very glad to hear this news; while the ride will no longer be present at the Wildwood boardwalk, it’s good to know that the ride won’t simply be put in the dumpster or left on the pier to decay longer. However, according to the Amusement Today article, Knoebels isn’t going to re-produce the old Golden Nugget as it was, so we’ll just have to see how it turns out once all is said and done.

And remember, the Golden Nugget farewell ceremony is this Saturday, Jan 31st at 12 noon on the old Hunt’s Pier in Wildwood, NJ. Everyone is invited.

Stubby News: 1/26

-Busch Gardens Africa in Tampa Bay, FL, is officially the state’s safest park reporting no ‘significant injuries’ in the 2008 season.  This is compared to 30 reported injuries at Walt Disney World and 6 at Universal Studios. Of course, maybe BGA defines a ‘significant injury’ as an amputation or something, in which case the park would rival Un-PC Park in terms of injuries!

Rumble!-Discovery Cove in Florida is offering guests special Valentine’s Day packages highlighted by a bottlenose dolphin serving up a personalized love note to one’s significant other. Let’s just hope their partner doesn’t fall for Flipper instead.

-Finally, while the WWE Royal Rumble occured last night, another rumble was going on at a Chuck E Cheese reseraunt in Manheim, PA over the weekend. Several adults, possibly arguing over which kid gets to go down the roller slide next, broke out into a battle royal leaving two hospitalized, one bloodied, and many embarrased.

For the past couple of weeks the Crapstravaganza has featured park maps from Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom. Well, the steady dosage of Dorney is about to end…but not before one last big ladle full for good measure! This week we’ll jump from Dorney Park circa 2001 to the 2006 version. And as an added bonus, instead of making you jump to a different page to see the article, I’ll just do it all right here! Bring on the scans!


Dorney06 page 1
Ok, here we go, we’re gonna do this…first we have the 2006 schedule for Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom. I refuse to tell the time machine joke yet again.

On the right is the front page featuring Dorney Park’s 2005 addition Hydra: The Revenge. Hydra is a smallish B&M designed coaster that navigates seven inversions despite its rather modest 105 foot drop. Actually some of its inversions barely turn riders upsidedown; I have to seriously challenge the coaster’s first ‘immelmen’ inversion as it’s more of an overbanked turn!

Hydra’s real claim to fame is the ‘jojo roll,’ a flat roll traversed immediately after leaving the station while the train is only rolling at 10-15mph. The roll is prominently featured on the front page along with some damn fine photoshopping to make the track look like it’s hanging in mid air; those tricksters…


Dorney06 page 2
Oh look, a show schedule, let’s see what they have…

  • Rewind: Fun show with retro music and dancing. Check!
  • Coast to Coast: Musicians play some of the biggest hits of all time. Check!
  • Party Time: The same as above only with ‘party song favorites!’ Check!
  • Peanut’s shows: Sing and dance the day away with the Peanuts characters! Check!
  • Laser Light Spectacular: Awesome 80s laser light show with cool lasers! *BUZZER*

The Laser Light Spectacular is finally gone! If Dorney had kept the laser light show until 2006, it would have been a complete and utter debacle.


Dorney06 page 3
Hey, hey, hey it’s HalloWeekends! It’s so much fun that it’ll scare the pants off you and you’ll have to be escorted out of the park for indecent exposure. I like how they have a special spooky font set for the events listed in the long description.

Make note that HalloWeekeds was sponsored by Mike and Ike, the most disgusting candy on Earth. I bet they gave that crap away during the trick or treating festivities as well; shoot, I’d rather get an apple with pins in it than a pack of those barf tablets.


Dorney06 page 4
Words.

Oh but wait…that stupid character is gone! Finally, Dorney realized that the chemically imbalanced knight had no real reason to be there!


Dorney06 page 5
Finally, we have yet another badly stitched park map; I swear, these big maps are a real pain to fit together.

Anyway here’s the changes to look for while reviewing the 2006 map:

  • No more Dinn Shuffling, Hercules is gone, replaced by…
  • Hydra: the Revenge is now on the map
  • Laser Light Show structure is gone, replaced by Meteor.
  • Screamin’ Swing has been fitted into the spot behind Wild Mouse
  • Skyscraper is gone, replaced by a big open space (future home of Voodoo/Possessed)
  • Revolution, a Chance made flatride, is added behind Thunderhawk
  • Wildwater Kingdom now has Wildwater Cove as well as Patriot’s Plunge, a three slide complex,located to the upper right of WC.
  • There’s some big ass open space to the right of Dominator with a Subway stand right in the middle. On the 2001 map, a large building resided there with multiple stores/eating places.
  • Joker is gone, replaced by restroom.

dorneydudeMain Article: Park Map: Dorney Park 2001

I like Dorney Park! It has a good balance of coasters and flatrides and their themeing doesn’t suck because they don’t even have a theme!  Last week we looked at a Dorney Park map from 1998; this week we’ll look into the future, all the way to the year 2000…uh, plus one year. A map full of bird claws and Dinn Shuffling awaits!