 Things Are Looking Up at Six Flags Safari Great Adventure Celebrates Birth of Female Giraffe Calf Jackson, NJ — October 28, 2014 — Six Flags Great Adventure’s animal care team is celebrating the birth of an adorable giraffe calf at the Safari. Mika, a female reticulated giraffe, was born to first-time mom Noel Oct. 11 inside the giraffe barn. Mika is the Safari’s ninth giraffe. “Noel is a great mom,” said Jason Holloway, a safari supervisor who oversees the giraffe herd. “She began nursing right away. Mika is healthy and doing very well.” Holloway said that Mika stood within an hour of her birth and measured 5 feet 10 inches tall. 
Mika’s mother Noel was born December 2001. The calf’s grandmother, named Georgia, has been one of the Safari’s most beloved residents since 1993. Mika ventured outside the giraffe barn for the first time Oct. 21 under Noel’s watchful eye, and Holloway was there to capture the first moments on video. Guests will be able to see Mika on the Safari Off Road Adventure during the park’s closing weekend Nov. 1 and 2, and during the Grape Adventure Wine Festival’s Safari tours Nov. 8 and 9, weather permitting. 
Reticulated giraffes, also known as Somali giraffes, are native to northeastern Kenya, southern Ethiopia and Somalia. They possess a distinctive coat pattern featuring red-brown polygonal patches divided by thin white lines. Full-grown female giraffes stand approximately 16 feet tall and weigh approximately 1,800 lbs. Giraffe gestation lasts approximately 13 to 15 months, with typically one calf born. Mothers give birth standing up. Newborn calves typically stand approximately 6 feet tall. 
For more information on Six Flags Great Adventure, visit www.sixflags.com/greatadventure
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 Another week, another Twisted Colossus update. A bit more wood (?) / steel (?) has been added to the lift to replace what was damaged during the fire and we found a new spot to get some pictures while not breaking any rules or getting any of our employee friends in trouble. =) Twisted Colossus Construction on Twisted Colossus continues to steam along. While it may not look like much is happening week to week there is a great deal of work being done inside the structure. Once the work on the lift/drop is done they should start working on the outside part of the track which will make it a lot easier to see the construction.  Lets hope the remaining portions of the structure are going to get a beautiful white paint job to match what's been added. It looks kind of odd right now.  Lots of new pieces ready to go up.  Moving inside the park, I decided to take a spin on Goliath and managed to catch this spot to get some good pictures.   You can see some of the pre-lift in the picture below. If you'd like to see a good view of construction, just take a ride on Goliath, but please don't take any pictures from the ride as it's against park rules.  No new work has been done on the "Steampunk District".  I'd guess that work will begin in this area after Fright Fest as the Total Darkness maze is in the theater. Nothing in this area has been prepped for Holiday in the Park, so perhaps the entire area will be shut down after Fright Fest. Which is probably a good thing.  I did photoshop in some of the artwork in the picture above to show what the entrance to the area could potentially look like. Looks pretty good. I'm sure it will be a bit bigger than that, but I didn't want to distort the image too much.  Nothing new in the station area, but they were working on removing some more of the old Colossus track.   Doesn't really look much different from this angle.   Around The ParkNot really much else going on in the rest of the park. This is your VERY last weekend to visit Fright Fest for 2014. In fact, only Friday and Saturday. Hard to believe it's already over. You can see our full Fright Fest review here. We'll likely be there on Saturday night to say goodbye to all of our favorite monsters until next year .  Noticed these in a couple of the stores, and they seem to be a trend at a lot of parks now. They are "don't scare me necklaces". IMO, if you don't want to be scared, don't go to a Halloween event. Although things like this make a bit more sense at Six Flags than other parks since the park doesn't close in before Fright Fest starts. With all of the recent issues with people at Halloween Events, I'm guessing this will become more of the norm.  Because we do so many updates I don't always go into the park to ride stuff, although I do attempt to ride at least every coaster in the park once per year. There were only 2 I haven't ridden yet, Riddlers Revenge and Tatsu. (I haven't ridden Green Lantern: First Flight, but I don't count that as I'll never ride it again). So I decided to take a spin on Riddler's during my visit. I actually got a front-row solo ride. Something to be said about starting your day in the back of the park. Since this is a theme/amusement park site, guess I should include some coaster photos once in awhile. =)   Alright, that's going to wrap it up for this update. We won't have a Twisted Colossus update next week even if we do end up at Fright Fest as we'd only be going up in the evening. If anybody ends up at the park this weekend and would like to share pictures, feel free to contact us. We always give full credit for pictures. =)  Yesterday Six Flags sent out one of their "Advisory Panel Polls" and this one was exceptionally interesting. If there has been one complaint in the "Enthusiast Community" about Twisted Colossus, it was that on August 28 they announced that the theme for that area of the park would be "Back Alley". Nobody really knew what it meant, there was no artwork for the area, and for me (Gregg) who grew up with the park and went through years of "That place is overrun with gangs" talk (even though it's not) Back Alley just seemed like something that would remind people of that. So yesterday when we got the artwork below in the survey it was a pleasant surprise. The first image below is for the entire Colossus and Scream area. There are four names below, all which are better than "Back Alley". Take our poll and let us know which one you think is best.  These are the Twisted Colossus trains we saw in August. You'll also notice the sign says "Twisted Colossus", "Scream" and "Looking Glass Theater". Works for us.  They also had some artwork and a new name for the Magic Moments Theater. The names are ok, although "Gearworks Theatre" reminds us of the old Grinder Gearworks in Gotham (now The Flash).  Lastly, they added some artwork for trains, which we all thought looked great on the Aug 28 announcement, so not quite sure why they'd want to change it. We are guessing it's just for the actual car design, and they wouldn't actually be using a design for an existing coaster? Pretty sure these are the Wicked Cyclone trains and artwork with just "Twisted Colossus" on them? Do Not Like ...  They also included artwork for all of the existing RMC conversions or new coasters that are in operation at SF parks. Not sure why. Goliath  Medusa Steel Coaster  New TX Giant  Iron Rattler  So what do you think? Are you ok with the apparent "Steampunk" theme they are going with for the new area? It certainly seems to fit the theme and design of the trains we saw. What other things would you like to see in this new area other than what's shown in the artwork? Let us know in the comments below.  We hadn't planned on doing a Magic Mountain update this week, but I was in the area and figured I'd stop in and take a walk around the park. Unfortunately there really wasn't much change since last Saturday so that's why this is update 6.5. But upon looking at the pictures there were a couple of things that have changed, and we'll share them with you below. Twisted Colossus Doesn't look like much work has been done at the top of the lift, but there has been a LOT of work going on at the lower parts of the coaster. They do have to reinforce the existing lift and probably replace a great deal of wood in the process.   The crane was lifting pieces over the brake run and near the lift hill. Not sure why they didn't just get rid of this section of track already.  Track and wood  More support pieces. These are what have been placed on the lower parts of the structure this week.   They are doing some painting as well.   Really kind of surprised that Goliath was open today.  Inside the park, the bathrooms have a more evident board on them, although I still think there should be a sign directing people to the next closest restroom. Not everybody knows where it is (DC Universe or Fort Le John near Goliath for those of you who aren't sure). =)  More trees are gone  Not sure what these trees did to deserve this treatment, and really, not sure why they'd need to get removed.  The chain has been fixed. Don't break it again!!! =)  Obligatory track picture. Once some of these leaves fall (yes, we do have fall in southern California) we should be able to see the pre-lift section a bit better.  Most of the visible work this week has been done inside the station   At first glance while in the park today I could tell that you could see "more" in this shot from last week, but it didn't quite hit me why.  In comparing the above picture to the picture below from last week you can see that not only have all the air gates been removed, but the ride operator booths as well.   All of the track on the right side of the station is gone. Will be interesting to see how the station is redesigned. Shouldn't be quite as cramped as before. .  Almost looks like some track was removed in this spot, but we can't be sure.  ApocalypseThe only other thing from this week is that Apocalypse is back open. It didn't seem to be any better or worse than last time I rode (probably a month ago) but it was only running 1 train. The other was in the transfer track, but I couldn't tell if there was anything wrong with it.   No Trucks in the Zombie ApocalypseOne other very quick note, guessing they've had some work trucks heading into Zombie Xing and messing up some Fright Fest decorations?   And that's it for today's update. Unless some major construction happens this week, we'll have at least 2 weeks before our next SFMM update.  Welcome to our sixth Twisted Colossus update. Wow, six updates in just under two months. I can't imagine how many we'll have by the time this ride opens next Spring/Summer. Today we'll look at the track that continues to head up the lift hill, we'll also take a look at Apocalypse which had an incident on Friday. We actually have EXCLUSIVE video to share with you. We'll wrap up the update with a couple of notes about the rest of the park and our thought's on #Peptocopter ... Intrigued, well read on!! =) Twisted Colossus
Since our last update, track has continued to move up the lift hill making it's way almost to the top of the post-fire structure. 
I know a lot of people don't like the Green and Blue track, but it does really look good up against the white. 
Some more wood or steel or steel that looks like wood has been stacked up. 
Looks like these pieces have been configured to go on the lift, possibly replacing the parts that burned? 
Speaking of the fire, does anybody else think it's odd that they haven't cleaned up some of this, painted it or replaced some of it? Maybe that's coming? 
Moving inside the park, a close up of one of the track supports. As you can see, things have yet to be tightened which will happen once the entire track is complete. 
A close up of two track pieces. If you can count, you can build a coaster. Ok, it's not quite that simple. =) 
The chain at the exit was down ... while tempted (because those pictures would be awesome) we resisted going back here. We did let the park know and we assume there is a chain here now. They probably should put more up during construction. 
A look at the lift from inside the park 
A close up of the lift ... not sure if this is soot from the fire, but you'd think they'd clean up 36 years of dirt and grime before installing new track. Maybe some rain this offseason will take care of it. We could sure use it here. 
ApocalypseUnfortunately, Colossus isn't the only wooden coaster we need to talk about in this update. Apocalypse "Valleyed" on Friday afternoon and apparently caused some damage to the track. Reader Antonio sent us the following video and this was a minute or so after the initial incident as the coaster was still coming to it's final resting place. 
While we don't expect the park to put up a "the ride broke" sign, something other than "Annual Maintenance" would be nice, as it's obviously not that. 
That said, hopefully this incident will allow them to give the ride a nice rehab because it surely needs it. Once we hear anything about a reopening date for the ride, we'll let you know. 
Around The ParkA few things going on around the rest of the park, some good, some not so good. But let's start off with some good. We saw this new food offering near Full Throttle. Looks like it's just around for Fright Fest. I would have tried it, but I was solo and since I'm starting my training for the LA Marathon, I'm not sure eating this all by myself would have been the best idea. =) 
Some readers on our Facebook page were VERY quick to point out the Pepto Bismol ad at the bottom of the sign, which is probably needed after eating this. Which made this sign near Jet Stream very funny. While we get the need to do ads in the park, having people think of getting sick in an amusement park is probably not the best idea. 
It's not quite as bad as this ad from 2012 for Payday/Car Title loans though. 
Speaking of Jet Stream, we have to give some kudos to the park as they actually have been doing flume work on Jet Stream during the week over the past month or so. While it's not all done yet, you can certainly tell the difference while riding, and see the difference in that there aren't as many leaks in the flume these days. 
Now they just need to systematically take the boats for a complete refurb as they are still VERY bumpy, and kind of ugly. The wheel's are in desperate need of replacing on all of the boats. Too bad we can't just get a new fleet of boats. 
Lastly a couple of pet peeve's ... first, this is how the trash cans in the parking lot looked upon our arrival at about 2:30pm on Saturday. Obviously this isn't all from Saturday and probably isn't even all from Friday (which wasn't very busy). Which probably means the trash, at least some of it, had been sitting out since last weekend. Sadly this isn't the first time we've seen this, and with the bee problem they have in both parks you'd think they'd address this. That said, we did see the trash crew coming and emptying the trash cans ... although isn't that something that should be done after the park closes or before the park opens rather than at 2:30pm on a busy Saturday? We'd like to do our part to keep the park clean, but if there is nowhere to put it, it's kind of hard. 
Lastly, the drink stand between Tatsu and Roaring Rapids. This is probably the most narrow portion of the "main" walkway around the park, and probably one of the busiest, especially on hot days. A) Would it hurt the park to actually think ahead and put up a queue for the drink stand? This happens pretty much every weekend. They've got plenty of temporary queue fences as they use them for Fright Fest. Although this particular location could use a permanent one. B) Would it hurt these guests to think "Hey, I'm blocking up the main walkway, maybe we should take it upon ourselves to move out of the way". Either way, it needs to be fixed. 
That's going to wrap it up for this update, I know we keep saying we don't know when our next update will be, but I really don't know when it's going to be. I've been at SFMM each of the last 4 or 5 weekends, so I'm thinking a break may be in order next weekend. Of course, if there are major changes on Colossus that could change those plans. =) Be sure to check back tomorrow as we'll have a full update from Universal Studios Hollywood including Wizarding World, Springfield and Fast and Furious. We'll also have our look at the LA Haunted Hayride on Wednesday. Thanks for reading ... Gregg |
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