Don't look now, but Medusa is returning to Six Flags Great Adventure this season, the New Jersey park announced today.
The first Bolliger & Mabillard floorless coaster opened with that name in 1999, but the park rebranded the ride as Bizarro in 2009. This year, Six Flags is going back to the Medusa name and giving the coaster a new look with Landscape Green track and restraints, Copper supports and seats, and Black Bronze train backs.
The park also promises a new Gold Rush-era backstory for the Gorgon that changes all who look at it to stone.
Medusa also will be one of four coasters to have a single rider queue this year, the park also announced, with Jersey Devil Coaster, El Toro, and Nitro also getting the bypass option. For park visitors paying to skip queues, the park's Flash Pass is moving from Q-Bot to mobile app-based Q Smart system this year.
Six Flags Great Adventure also will be rebranding the Safari Kids area as "Jr. Thrillseekers," where the Barnstormer will return for 2022. The park also will be renovating the Yum Yum Cafe and Granny's restaurants, as well as opening a Fatburger in Adventure Alley.
Finally, Six Flags Great Adventure will be introducing a Summer Vibes Festival that runs July 16 to August 14, featuring special food and drinks, plus live entertainment.
"Our largest range of enhancements in nearly five decades will focus on improving our guests' experience through technology, innovation, and renovation," Park President John Winkler said. "As the Northeast's premier family entertainment destination, we're laser-focused on providing incredible guest service in a beautiful, modern, and state-of-the art environment."
Six Flags Great Adventure opens for the season on April 2.
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When it comes to single rider lines, I'll believe it when I see it. Green Lantern has a single rider line, but it's rarely open, and even when it is, you have to be almost 15 minutes of wait time away from the station before you can split off into the single rider queue. SFGAdv has some of the worst managed queues in the chain, which is exacerbated because they have such a strong lineup of popular coasters, so I will take a wait and see approach if these mythical single rider lines actually come to pass.
I kinda liked Bizarro when it first debuted with all of the effects and on-board audio working. However, those days have long passed, and you're lucky if the flame effect fires within 5 seconds of finishing the dive loop. The DC villain theme was a bit out of place in the back corner of the park, but I thought they did some interesting work integrating the surrounding Western theme into the DC character. The station building still held onto its roots labeled as "Medusa Mining Company" with an upside-down horse, so the origins of the coaster were never fully removed.
It does seem like Six Flags is trying to plot a new course, but we've all seen this before from various executives who promise improvement but ultimately are held hostage by Wall Street analysts. I would certainly pay more for a better experience across the Six Flags chain, but history says these are nothing but a bunch of hollow promises.
I'm delighted to see the ride revert to the original name but will miss the blue and purple color scheme. As much as I welcome single rider queues (especially because most of my park visits are solo), Russell's points are well taken. The Joker has a single rider queue but it's necessary to go through 3/4 of the regular queue in order to access the single rider queue. The same applies to Justice League, so I'm not at all convinced that Great Adventure will be able to pull this off in a way which significantly reduces wait times.
I absolutely loved the original art logo and color scheme for Medusa. Is this not the same color green of Kraken/Tatsu now?
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This is a great move for the park. The reason SFNE's was rethemed was because similar to X it needed new trains, and they didn't want to just spend the money on them without getting some kind of return, so they rethemed and remarketed it. I feel like at SFGADV it just needed to be painted at the time, but they didn't want to spend the money on that without driving a return, so they went full Bizarro. It was awkward, forced, and ugly from the start. TBH whoever approved that retheme should have their head examined.
I know he had nothing to do with this but I hope the new CEO actually follows through with what he says he's going to and keeps his job long enough to do it. SF has major parks in the three biggest markets in the country, there is no reason for them to be so ****ty.