Six Flags Great Adventure (also known as Six Flags Great Adventure Resort) is a amusement park and resort complex in Jackson Township, Ocean County, New Jersey, between New York City and Philadelphia. Owned and operated by Six Flags, it includes an amusement park, a water park named Hurricane Harbor New Jersey, a safari park named Wild Safari Adventure, and a glamping resort named Savannah Sunset Resort and Spa. The park is located adjacent to Interstate 195, along Monmouth Road (County Route 537).
The complex first opened to the public in 1974 as simply Great Adventure, under the direction of restaurateur Warner LeRoy. The park was acquired by Six Flags in 1977. Hurricane Harbor New Jersey, an adjacent water park, was opened and added to Great Adventure in 2000. In 2012, Six Flags combined its Great Adventure park with its Wild Safari animal park to form Six Flags Great Adventure & Safari. The park is now the second-largest theme park in the world, following Disney's Animal Kingdom.
History
Warner LeRoy era (1974–1977) In 1972, entrepreneurial businessman Warner LeRoy developed concept plans for the Great Adventure entertainment complex, proposing seven parks be built within the complex: an amusement park, a safari park, a stage show and performance venue, a floral park, a sports complex, a shopping district, and a campground with a beach/water park and stables. His proposal also included plans for hotels, which were connected to the parks and could be reached by boats, buses, a sky ride and/or a monorail. LeRoy wanted his parks to flow naturally through the forest and lakes, capitalizing on the back-to-nature movement of the era. He chose a property in Ocean County, New Jersey which was then owned by the Switlik family, in an area centrally located between the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. The property on County Route 537 had easy access to the newly constructed Interstate 195, which connected Central New Jersey to the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 95) and would eventually (in 1981) connect to the Garden State Parkway.
Since the park's opening, it has been served by its own in-house emergency services, consisting of the Fire Department (Ocean County Station 58) and Emergency Medical Service (Ocean County Squad 80). LeRoy collaborated with Hardwicke Industries, who had previously built safari parks in Canada and Europe. Together, they set out to open the seven parks in stages over a five-year period. After a 4,500-guest invitation-only soft opening on June 30, 1974, the Great Adventure entertainment complex opened to the general public on July 1, 1974. The total cost to build the park had been about $10 million. At the time of the opening, only the Enchanted Forest area and Safari Park were operational, with elements from five of the other planned parks being used to create the Enchanted Forest.
The Enchanted Forest was designed and built to look bigger-than-life. The Big Balloon was a tethered hot-air balloon that loomed over the park's entrance and was the biggest of its kind in the world. The Log Flume was the longest log ride constructed in the world at that time and was accompanied by a giant "Conestoga Wagon", an over-sized log cabin restaurant called "Best of the West" and a huge Western Fortress, in the park's Rootin' Tootin' Rip Roarin' section. The Giant Wheel (now Big Wheel), then the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, and the Freedom Fountain, then the largest spraying fountain in the world, were located at the opposite end of the park. One of the few smaller-than-real-life attractions was an outdoor walk-through attraction called the Garden of Marvels. It used working G-scale (o-g scale) LGB trains and boats among models of American landmarks and 1/25-scale recreations of European castles.
This miniature village was an idea taken from LeRoy's proposed Over the Rainbow floral park. A tree filled with snakes, a carousel, antique cars, koi pond, children's playground (called Kiddie Kingdom), petting zoo (named Happy Feeling) and a restaurant named Gingerbread Fancy (now Granny's Country Kitchen) were also borrowed from the floral park concept to create a section of the Enchanted Forest. This section created the park's main midway named Dream Street.
Shoppe Lane was named after a proposed "shopping extravaganza" park, which LeRoy had designed for the property. It lent its large open squares, huge fountain (Main Street Fountain), street performers (clowns and stilt walkers) and shops to the Enchanted Forest. Fairy Tales was the name of a shop that opened with the park in one of the over-sized bazaar tents. It sold stuffed animals and toys, including Superman merchandise. Other influences from LeRoy's proposal would surface in the years to come.
Neptune's Kingdom was a concept for a lakeside aquatic show park. From its design came Aqua Spectacle, which featured dolphin performances and high dive shows. Later called Fort Independence, the venue stood from 1974 until its demolition in 2015. Neptune's Kingdom was designed to run the length from Runaway Mine Train to Northern Star Arena, but most of its influences appear in the park's Lakefront area.
Rootin' Tootin opened with Runaway Mine Train on the grand opening on Independence Day. A small compact coaster named Big Fury opened later in the season. The Skyride connected two ends of the park with stations in Rootin' Tootin and Dream Street. The double skyway ran originally at the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair. The Great Train Ride was a small train ride that brought guests through a loop of the woods, rather than to a destination of another gate. A small handful of spin rides were located in the Strawberry Fair section.
The Fun Fair area debuted in 1975 with several new spinning rides, a smaller Ferris wheel, and a Schwarzkopf Jumbo Jet roller coaster. The coaster never opened and was removed at the end of the season. A second flume called the Moon Flume was built by Arrow Dynamics to ease crowds on the Log Flume. It was built on the opposite end of the park and the station turntable is used for the stage of the Wiggles show today. The Fortune Festival was a new game section that was located where the Boardwalk section exists today.
LeRoy's original vision for the amusement park featured many dark rides. Although Man, Time and Space, The Keystone Cops and (Alice) Down the Wishing Well (among others) never came to be, the Haunted Castle Across the Moat, which was added a few years later, took its cue from the rooms and monsters of the Hotel Transylvania.
In the early 1980s, the park's entrance was moved to a new central location, which is still in use today. It was designed with an outer mall called Liberty Court, and its Federal style architecture was influenced by the celebration of the United States Bicentennial. An inner mall called Avenue of States was adorned by fifty state flags in the central corridor. Six flags remain on Main Street today. The name Enchanted Forest was changed to Great Adventure, by which name the park complex is still known today. The Strawberry Fair and Fun Fair names were discontinued and the attractions in these areas became part of the newly named Enchanted Forest section. More spin rides, "yummy yummy" food, shows, games and the Safari became a part of "the greatest day of your life". The park became a major attraction with dozens of rides, shows, and several steel roller coasters. The Big Balloon, Happy Kid Ride, The Gondola, Pretty Monster, and Super Cat were the first attractions to be removed from the park before new ownership made big changes.
Penn Central / Bally's / Westray Capital era (1977–1992) In 1977, construction began on a steel looping shuttle coaster called Lightnin' Loops, which was removed in 1992. In late 1977, however, the park was purchased by Six Flags, a regional theme park company then owned by Penn Central, which had large stakes in the Philadelphia and New York City regions. Six Flags added rides found in bigger theme parks such as the wooden coaster Rolling Thunder in 1979, The Buccaneer (a swinging ship from Intamin), Roaring Rapids (now Congo Rapids, an Intamin river rapids ride), Parachuter's Perch (now Parachute Training Center: Edwards AFB Jump Tower, an Intamin parachute ride) and Freefall (later Stuntman's Freefall, an Intamin first-generation freefall), all before the park's tenth anniversary.
1980 saw very few changes. In 1981, the park added a water ride called Roaring Rapids (now Congo River Rapids), in 1983 a freefall ride, and in 1984 a roller coaster called the Sarajevo Bobsleds. Also in 1984 the park closed and removed Lil' Thunder, a kiddie coaster, keeping the total coaster count to four.
Eight teenagers, including four students and one graduate of Franklin K. Lane High School, lost their lives in a fire at the Haunted Castle on May 11, 1984, sparking controversy over the safety of such attractions. After the incident, new fire safety laws were passed for amusement park fun houses and dark rides.
1986 saw the addition of a second looping coaster and the park's fifth roller coaster, Ultra Twister, a design known for its spiral inline twists. The ride was built next to Rolling Thunder, partially taking away the area's western theme. Another water ride called Splashwater Falls (which became Movietown Water Effect in 1992 and has since been removed) was added in which riders rode in a large boat that was pulled uphill and then down a steep waterfall, soaking riders. The new addition was made after attendance at the park had lowered following the Haunted Castle fire, and the park realized new additions were needed to keep the park alive.
Attendance dropped even further when an accident occurred on the Lightnin' Loops roller coaster in 1987. A teenage girl was thrown from the train because she was seated on the wrong side of the shoulder restraint. After the accident, new safety features were added not only to Great Adventure's roller coasters but also to roller coasters around the world. Once again, Great Adventure set both a bad and later a good example for the amusement park world. However, the accident caused the park's attendance to drop. Attendance was so low, in fact, that in 1987 rumors began to spread that the park would close in a few years. At the end of the season, the park was slated to get a new multiple looping coaster, but by the end of the year it was decided that Six Flags Great America would get the coaster instead, since Great Adventure was not seen as a good investment. At the end of 1988, the park was about to lose its license to sell food, and attendance was so low park management realized a big new addition was necessary.
In the spring of 1988, it was announced that the park would indeed get a new coaster. Sarajevo Bobsleds was removed to make room for The Great American Scream Machine, which opened in April 1989. This coaster had multiple loops and for a month was the tallest roller coaster in the world and brought the park back to a total of five roller coasters. The Scream Machine was removed in 2010 to make room for the new Green Lantern stand-up coaster.
In 1990, as part of a ride rotation program, a stand-up looping coaster called Shockwave was added to the park. Shockwave had previously operated at Six Flags Magic Mountain. However, Ultra Twister was removed at the end of 1989 and sent to Six Flags Astroworld for the 1991 season, keeping the park's coaster count at five. In 1991, the park added a huge complex of "dry" waterslides. While guests got wet on them, they could ride these with regular clothes or swimsuits. These slides were themed after the rivers of the world. Roaring Rapids, as well as the second flume ride in the park, were incorporated into this complex. Roaring Rapids became Congo Rapids, and the Hydro Flume became Irrawaddy Riptide.
Time Warner era (1990–1997)