(Image credit: Six Flags Great Adventure)
Our guest post today is from a friend of The Sexy Armpit and former Progressive Boink writer Mike Fireball! Even though he moved out of Jersey and down to Florida, he still knows quite a thing or two about the Garden State…and theme parks! In this post he’ll tell us all about the exciting developments happening at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson NJ. Take it away Mike!
Quick! Guess where the biggest theme park in the entire world is.
If you guessed Florida — and of course you did — you are correct.
For now. Because by next summer, that honor will belong to the Garden State.
Last week, Six Flags Great Adventure announced plans to overhaul the Wild Safari area next door, converting it from a separate, extra-cost experience to an attraction inside the main park.
With the addition of the new “Safari Off Road Adventure” in 2013, Great Adventure will more than triple in size, effectively making it about 10 acres larger than the current largest theme park in the world, Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida.
“Safari Off Road Adventure will take you on the most intense, up-close animal experience of your life. First you will enter the amazing, fictional world of the Wilds Family, who have traveled the globe to bring the most interesting and exotic creatures to their home in Jackson, New Jersey. Once through the rustic loading station filled with artifacts from the Wilds’ global journeys, you will hop onto a rugged, open-air, Safari vehicle with 34 other explorers to begin your wild adventure.
“Skilled, informed drivers will drive you off-road and up close to the animals as they splash through ponds, climb hills, cross bridges and venture over rugged terrain.”
The expected title change is a bit bittersweet for me, as I moved from New Jersey to Florida 5 years ago, and have grown to love living in the Orlando area. But if Disney had to get beaten in the largest theme park department, I’m glad it’s a familiar place. Even if it’s the same place that shut down the Great American Scream Machine to make way for a stupid Green Lantern roller coaster.
Of course, it took a safari ride to beat Animal Kingdom. If you’ve ever been on the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride at the Disney park, it’s no wonder it’s the current largest single theme park in the world. It’s a 22-minute-long drive through what looks and feels like a vast African outback.
And just like Kilimanjaro Safaris, another big change coming to the new Safari Off Road Adventure ride is that private vehicles will no longer be allowed in the area. Guests will instead be driven by a tour guide.
It’s a smart move by Great Adventure, and one that will certainly make a lot of folks happy about not having to pay extra to pet a giraffe.
So enjoy your status as the soon-to-be home of the world’s largest theme park, New Jersey. But don’t get too comfy; you probably won’t be sitting in that seat for too long. Disney’s Animal Kingdom has its own plans to expand, with construction set for a new area based on the movie “Avatar” is set to start next year. By Eywa, the Mouse will have his revenge.
– Mike Fireball
Thanks to Mike for the guest post! Check him out at his Tumblr where he posts about pop culture, nostalgia, and all kinds of cool stuff: http://mikefireball.tumblr.com/ and on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/mikefireball