April 5, 2011 Great Adventure hosted a wonderful pre-season tour that showcased some of the latest changes around the park.  Thank you to Angel, Jenn, and Kevin from Public Relations, John and Mike from Operations, Doc from the Safari Park, and park president John Fitzgerald for taking the time out of their busy schedules to welcome us.
The Green Lantern's track has been completely assembled and is running a little ahead of schedule!  The park will have a media event on May 19th and will open the ride from May 19th to May 21st exclusively for season pass holders.  The ride will open to the general public on May 25th.
The Green Lantern will be running three trains with adequate staff to allow for the quick loading and unloading of the trains.  Currently the trains are being prepped in the now vacant simulator theater building.
Safari Discoveries looks fantastic!  This new attraction, which replaces the Temple of the Tiger area will include numerous animal exhibits including a walk through aviary.  Elsewhere in the Golden Kingdom, Balin's Jungleland has been completely removed (except for Splash Water Oasis) and walled off.
While at the stadium in the Golden Kingdom, the park's staff were on hand to take questions from everyone.  Some highlights from the Q&A session revealed that we can expect new flat rides next season as Great Adventure starts to fill in some of the vacant ride sites.  A bumper cars ride was named as an example, which would be located near the Big Wheel on the site of the former Traffic Jam ride (Bumpers I).  John commented that reopening the Old Country might be done at a later date, but only after the empty ride sites have been filled.  Other topics included how to make the Safari more attractive and up to date as far as the types of experiences offered, how building a hotel might negatively impact the other "local" Six Flags parks, and a new approach to promoting and ticketing all three theme parks as one destination under the "Great Adventure" name.
Across the park, two of Great Adventure's original attractions have received handsome paint jobs making them look vibrant and new!  The Skyride now features multicolor cars, each patterned after one of the classic M&M candies colors.  Also, the Tornado (Fantasy Fling) is now bright red with yellow lights and padding to match the colors of its new sponsor, Tornado snacks.
Once again, a big thank you to the park!  Great Adventure opens this Saturday April 9th.  Be sure to visit and check out all the latest and greatest additions and changes.  It is going to be a GREAT season!