We were invited to the park today to do a pre-season construction tour of the Green Lantern and the new Safari Discoveries center. We just wanted to thank Angel and the rest of her crew, Doc Rives and Trainer Dave, and park president John Fitzgerald for being there today to talk to us!


All of our photos from the tour are posted
on our Facebook page!
Now onto what we learned!
- Green Lantern will be open to season passholders on May 19-21st, and open to the public on May 25th!
- Green Lantern will be running all three trains as much as possible
- The yellow track on the Green Lantern does refer to the villain Parallax. It is part of a story that will play out on the queue and the ride. We were led to believe there will be some surprises in store for us when the ride opens.
- Ka will be running three trains on one side of the station. This will improve capacity by 10%!
- ErUPtion is gone, but will be replaced by a Slingshot in May
- The Spongebob theatre is now being used as a maintenance shed. For now at least.
- The cable cars have been repainted to match the new sponsor, Mars candy!
- Safari Discoveries is pretty much all of what's in the Golden Kingdom now. The tortoise area will (temporarily at least) house llamas and zebras. The shops have changed names to match the safari.
- The Temple of the Tiger stage stadium area will be open from 10:30-6 for people to sit and relax, talk to educators, see small animals, and watch the sea lions, who are now inhabiting the tiger stage
- You will be able to walk around the old tiger exhibit, which has been turned into an area to see over 20 different species of animals, from pythons to pigs, to bears, birds, and much more. There is even an aviary!
- All the play structures and rides in the Golden Kingdom are gone (I believe. We didn't walk over that way to be 100% sure).
- The tigers from Temple of the Tiger are in the safari, and you can see them if you purchase the new $24.99 Close Encounters safari tour. It sounds pretty neat, and I think I might try it out.
From our talk with John Fitzgerald:
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There will be no new flat rides this year. They are coming next season.
- Old Country will not be re-opened until the empty flat pads around the park are filled up.
- He seemed surprised when asked if Green Lantern would have a single rider line. After everyone said "yes" to "is that something we should look into?" hopefully he will think about it!
- There is a plan in the budget to repave/re-line the parking lot and safari lanes in the future
- They will think about a new season pass entrance
- I didn't quite catch this part, but I believe there will be places to store souvenir mugs on the coasters now?
- They want to bring some old nostalgia back to the park (one such example would be rebuilding the teepee)
- They want to find a way to bring more people to the safari, and bring everyone closer to the animals. Safari Discoveries is the start, but there are thoughts of stops in the safari where people could get out and go on walkways to see the animals, or maybe even a kite flyer leaving from Golden Kingdom to cruise over the animals.
- There is a possibility that all three parks (GA, HH, WS) will come under one "Great Adventure" banner and admission fee (in both tickets and season passes) in the future. Which would be a great idea!
- It's possible that in the future the parks will be more de-centralized from corporate and have more freedom to do things.
- They would love to have an on-site hotel, but there are issues with advertising when it comes to the other Six Flags parks in the area that are of concern. It was mentioned if a chain would like to partner with them and build a hotel, they would be all for it.
- There was talk about a possible RV-park, maybe log cabins on property. Nothing really concrete, sounded like a possible thought. And they would want to check with local RV campgrounds to make sure they don't step on any toes.
- The tigers are no longer in the Golden Kingdom doing shows due to safety concerns.
That's about all I can remember. We will be back in the park Saturday for opening day!
Some more photos:

