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SkyScreamer and King Cobra : stars of the summer

season at Six Flags Great Adventure

Update : 16/09/12 - 17h33 Published by Marc Lacombe the 11 September 2012, New.

This season, Six Flags Great Adventure - located in Jackson, NJ, between New York and Philadelphia - once again got major investment to the parks with the addition of SkyScreamer, Adventure Alley and King Cobra..

SkyScreamer

After the order for 2011 of two Star Flyer tower rides - an aerial flying chair attraction manufactured by the Austrian company Funtime -, Six Flags renewed the successful operation in 2012 with an order for 3 additional copies, one of which extends now the list of family rides at Six Flags Great Adventure.

Called SkyScreamer like in the other Six Flags parks (with the exception of La Ronde in Canada, due to the presence of a competing ride with the same name), the ride here is 240 feet (73 meters) tall. The 16 sets of chairs (with 2 seats per set, for a total of 32 riders by cycle) spin at 40 mph (65 kph) causing the chairs to swing out in a 100 feet (30 meters) diameter around the tower. The ride offers then a 360 degrees view on the park and surroundings.

To launch this thrilling attraction, Six Flags Great Adventure invited members of the American Coaster Enthusiast (ACE) and dressed them up as Elvis for the grand opening on may 17th 2012. NewsParcs was also present and was able to ride a relaxing, popular and particulary fun attraction that was missing in the park. The view is amazing and riders listen to a great soundtrack during the ride, thanks to speakers that are installed on the tower.

Adventure Alley

SkyScreamer is located inside a brand new family area named Adventure Alley, where the park also installed two new family rides (Deja-Vu and Fender Bender) and moved another (Air Jumbo). Deja-Vu has a musical theme, old park logo stickers on the cars and is an Eli Bridge Scrambler that was moved from American Adventures near Atlanta, GA. Fender Bender is a brand new set of bumper cars from Bertazzon and Air Jumbo a classical flying elephant rides that used to be located near Kingda Ka and originally came from The Great Escape park.

We had the chance to talk with Paul Gould, the marketing director for Six Flags Great Adventure and he explained us the choice of attractions for this new Adventure Alley area : "We did a lot of surveys and our guests told us they wanted rides that they could ride together, as a family. We already have two huge kiddie areas, but those are rides the kids do alone and the parents watch. So, we listened to them and decided to do a new retro style area and we filled it with family rides."

King Cobra

The Hurricane Harbor outdoor water park also received a new attraction with the arrival of a Polin Waterparks tube slide design: the King Cobra. Introduced on the market during the IAAPA Asian Attractions Expo 2010, King Cobra is a unique water slide which has been designed to look like a giant cobra with a decoration imitating the colored scales of a snake's skin and a snake's head as the final element of the ride.

King Cobra’s unique configuration enables two tubes to race through a circular path with twists, turns and surprises through enclosed and open sections of the slide at speeds up to 51 kilometers per hour (32 mph). The ride’s finale features a sudden, 8 meters (25-foot) plunge at a 50-degree angle with riders racing until the heart-pounding finish as they appear to be swallowed by the massive mouth of the cobra.

It is the first King Cobra to open in North America. There are currently around 10 in operation around the world.

Ongoing investments

Opened in 1974, the park became Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGADV) in 1978, one year after it was purchased by Six Flags. Since then, the operator has done constant investments into what is today one of the most important regional theme park in the US.

The park indeed has benefited from a lot of world's first and prototypes, starting in 1978 with the opening of what was a revolutionary ride: Lightnin' Loops, two Launched Loop from Arrow Dynamics with interlocking vertical loops.

In 1981, SFGADV opened Roaring Rapids, the second River Rapids in the world. Intamin designed the ride and it is currently the oldest operatiing model of its kind in the world. In 1989, it launched Great American Scream Machine, an Arrow Dynamics Mega Looper that held the world record for tallest and fastest roller coaster for two weeks (the ride was removed in 2010 for a new attraction).

SFGADV followed with the first Inverted Coaster on the east coast in 1993 (Batman: The Ride, a Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) Inverted Coaster) and the first Floorless Coaster from the same manufacturer (Medusa, which became Bizarro in 2009 with the addition of special effects and on board music). In 2000, the park offered a full package with the opening of a third gate, the Hurricane Harbor water park. It is today one of the most popular in the area.

2005 and 2006 were the most important years in the park history with the back to back additions of the world's tallest and fastest steel coaster (Kingda Ka, with a 0 to 128 miles per hour (0 to 206 kmp) launch in 3.5 seconds and 456 feet (139 meters) tall top hat). That was followed by what is currently the tallest and fastest wooden coaster in the United States (El Toro, with a 176 feet/54 meters first drop at 76 degrees at 70 miles per hour (115 kph)). Recently, the park opened a relocated B&M Stand-Up Coaster that comes from Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.

That long list is far from over. On august 30th 2012, Six Flags Great Adventure announced the transformation of its safari into Off-Road Safari Adventure. Visitors will leave the Frontier Adventure area aboard one of the 17 large trucks for a safari where they will see over 1200 animals! On the other side, Hurricane Harbor will open Big Wave Racer, a multi-lane Proslide KRAKENRacer.

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. - Funtime - Polin - Waterpark - -

Written by Marc Lacombe

Marc Lacombe Reporter » Contact Us
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