If Marriott still owned the parks...

[jonrev]

If they still had them, here's what I think the park will look like today:

Gurnee:
Tidal Wave would still be there
Some Hotel would be added.
Edge may of still been around
No Batman the Ride or Superman Ultimate Flight
No Viper
No DeJa Vu
Sky Whirl would still be around.
Shockwave may of never come.

Santa Clara:
Triple Wheel would still be around.
G.A.R.R. would still be there
Edge may still of been there.
Whizzer would of stayed.
The theming would not of been destroyed.
Yankee Clipper would of been there.
No Top Gun
Triple Play would still be there.
Centrifuge would still be Fiddler's Fling.
American Eagle instead of Grizzly.

What do you think would have happened if they were'nt sold?

[xxlatinogueroxx]

Well you never know exactly what would happen with the rides. Why wouldnt they have Batman The Ride...the ride is a classic and famous for bringing a new generation of coasters. However the theme will be alot nicer if Marriott owned the park.

[that_guy]

I believe that Marriott would have kept the parks more family oriented but still would have added coasters and kept theming throught out, but I do believe that Marriott would have had to take some rides out. Theme parks can't stand still, unless people kept a very high attendance to every ride they wouldn't take them out but of course that never happens. Overall I think that Sky Whirl and the Yankee Clipper would still be in both parks for longer than they lasted (excluding Gurnee's Yankee Clipper) If Marriott was still in charge.

[JW65]

I think the food choices would have been of a higher quality if Marriotts still owned the parks. Due to trends with newer style roller coasters at other parks, etc, I think Marriotts would have installed these same types of coasters in the two Great America parks. Trends change with the times. The commercials to advertise the parks would be more glitzy as the SFGA commercials are today. So, we might still have some of the original theming that came with the parks when they opened, but overall, there would have been some of the same kinds of renovations that Six Flags and Paramount have put into the parks over the years. With Santa Clara, in particular, I doubt those changes would have been so drastic.

[Bush985]

I never had the experience of Marriot's Great America, but I do know some of the rides that were removed in the SC park would most likely be gone none the less, not because the park just wanted to rip them out, but because of high maintenance costs, and lack of parts.

On that note, I would of loved to work for a Marriot owned park. It would of been a very unique and fun experience I'm sure. As for Food, I could only imagine that the food would be much better, as Disney is much better than most parks some would argue.

It would be interesting to see how different the parks would be if Marriot still owend the park, but in some terms Paramount/King Entertainment/etc... Might have been a blessing for the SC park, and vice versa for the Gurnee park. Who knows if they would of made it all this time.

-RD

[Shockwavegirl]

They wouldn't have made it this long. They were going belly up from almost the very beginning. Marriott is a hotel company and wasn't truely prepared for what it took to run an amusement park....that's why they only lasted about 8 years. But then again...the same thing could be said for the various owners of the Six Flags Corp. But since Marriott owned hotels and the 2 parks, selling the company would have been selling a lucrative hotel buisness with it, hence they only off-loaded the parks.

[dth1971]

If Marriott still owned Great America, the Farrell's, Roy Roger's, and Hot Shoppes restaurants would still be in the park. And they would have put in a Marriott owned Bob's Big Boy restaurant in the park.

[ewilson]

The parks wern't losing money for Marriott's in the fact that the parks were in the black. Marriott's was losing money in the finacial aspect because the investment return on hotels was higher than what the parks were bringing in. They could build 3 Marriott hotels for what they could sell the park for, and pull in more gross revenue.

I learned this from when I got my hands on a stockholders report that was lying in the offices a couple of years before the parks were sold.

[Mr. D.T.]

If they still had them, here's what I think the park will look like today:

Gurnee:
Tidal Wave would still be there
Some Hotel would be added.
Edge may of still been around
No Batman the Ride or Superman Ultimate Flight
No Viper
No DeJa Vu
Sky Whirl would still be around.
Shockwave may of never come.

What do you think would have happened if they were'nt sold?

What about the beautiful bridge which used to connect to Orleans Place from the Picnic Grove. It's too bad they had to take it down for a mouse. And the wooden log bridge connecting from Claimjumper's to New England Cafe is inaccessible except on the V2 line.

Another wild guess is that Klondike used to sell a lot more than just ribs, chicken breasts, briskets, and burgers. They used to sell grilled chicken in all portions, such as legs and breasts. And the ribs may have been grilled as well. I don't remember Klondike much.

And I'm sure that the cheesy Main Gate soundtrack would have still been there to irritate guests. But I'm very happy with the current one.

[Great America Guy]

Shockwave may of never come.

I remember reading somewhere that Great America got Shockwave at the last second. What I read, was that Great Adventure was supposed to get SW, but I guess that park was really in deep trouble after the Lightning Loops accident happened in 1987. Six Flags decided to send SW to Great America on short notice, which is why it ended up in the parking lot with no landscaping. Whether this is true or not, I don't know.


Maybe if Marriott still owned SFGAm, we'd still have rides like Delta Flyer/Eagle's Flight, Sky Whirl, Yukon Yahoo, and Tidal Wave.

Maybe we'd still have parking lot trams, and we most likely wouldn't have gotten that tacky Space Shuttle America.

[jonrev]

What happened on Lightning Loops?

[steven]

My understanding of the reason for Gurnee getting the Shockwave at the last minute rather than Six Flags Great Adventure (SFGAd) had nothing to do with Lightning Loops. Rather, as I recall, the park was having some high-profile bad publicity over unruly crowds and some violence. Because Shockwave would have been a draw to the teenage crowd and the park wanted to build its image as a safe and family-friendly park, the big steel coaster was sent to IL and Looney Tunes land or something like that was what got the emphasis the following year at SFGAd instead.

Regarding the Lightning Loops accident, a girl was killed. According to the story, she was hesitant about whether to ride or not. Apparently she got in and out of the car and then got in again -- outside of the over-the-shoulder restraint, which was in the down position. The train was launched and she fell from the ride. That said, please remember my gentle discouragement of getting into discussions about accidents on this forum. Thanks.

Steven

[GAcoaster]

Yes, that season was particluarly bad for SFGAdv, starting with really bad crowds on Easter Sunday and Labor Day (people with guns and knives), which resulted in the metal detectors being installed at the Front Gate. After that, the Lightning Loops accident (19 year old jumped onto a train that had been dispatched and was thrown to her death), and then a week later a guest suffered a broken leg when the Sarajevo Bobsled car they were boarding dispatched.

SF corporate decided to send Shockwave to GAm instead, and replaced the park's GM with the GAm GM, Ray Williams. The next season saw a clampdown on security, and the new attractions added were a Condor and Bugs Bunny Land instead.

After that "good" season, it was decided to add GASM, which is a slightly taller version of SW. Originally, GASM was going to get the name Ninja, but after some problems at SFMM with Asian gangs, it was decided to call it GASM instead.

[jonrev]

And yet SFMM sill got a ride named Ninja. Didn't that Condor at SFGAdv end up at GAm in later years?

[GAcoaster]

I think it did. And of course the Srajevo Bobsled came to Gurnee as Rolling Thunder.