Warner Bros. Great America Resort

[The Chef]

Hello and Welcome to this topic!

Note: I chose not to place this inside the GM thread as this is much more then that, but if you all feel it should be moved, feel free.

This is a fantasy scenario I created for my own enjoyment on completely redoing and reworking many aspects of the park, and I wanted all of your opinoins, and also just to share it with you. Let me know what you think.

Warner Brothers Great America Resort

The Story
In the year 2012, Warner Brothers makes a strategic planning decision to get back into the theme park industry as a way to create cross-promotional synergistic campaigns for it’s new films.

Six Flags, Fresh off their 50th anniversary celebration, and having an enormously profitable and full fiscal year 2011, is looking for a way to get rid of their debt once and for all, to return the company to it’s former glory. It is, as they say a perfect marriage at a perfect time.

Warner Brothers took advantage of this, knowing that Six Flags had invested heavily in it’s parks for the 50th anniversary celebration, they turned to them first, to find large, profitable parks that they could make their own, without having the spend hundreds of millions building a park from the ground up. But they didn’t just want parks…the reason the Disney and Universal Parks are so successful, or so some Warner Brothers executives believe, is that it is complete brand immersion.

The goal is to get people to stay on property, to experience the Warner Brothers brand like never before, and to get them to come back to it, by providing them with an amazing experience and amazing service. To get them to come back to the parks and to get their loyalty in the cinemas when a new Warner Brothers franchise comes to the silver screen.

And so it begins. Warner Brothers made Six Flags an offer they couldn’t refuse, and purchased Six Flags Great America in Chicago, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in San Francisco, and Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, and created a brand new line-up of resorts to compete with the Disney and Universal brands. Vacation Destinations out of the ordinary. All three parks would close as soon as Fiscal November rolled around, coming off highly profitable Halloween Events, and it would be then that construction would begin. Each park had a goal to open by Memorial Day of the following year under the Warner Brothers banner, but heavy work needed to be done.

To create an immersive experience, you need to think of every aspect of the guest experience. So literally an army of designers, writers, managers, artists, contractors took a good long look at each of the parks, looking at what would stay…and what would go.

This feature will focus, of course, on the Great America park in Chicago, and it’s transformation from a large-scale regional theme park, into a vacation destination. When Warner Brothers is done with it, it won’t just be a theme park any longer, but a theme park, an indoor, and an outdoor waterpark, an entertainment, shopping, and dining complex, and a year round strip of upcharge thrill attractions.

This WAS Six Flags Great America. This IS Warner Brothers Great America Resort - Gurnee, Illinois. Stay Tuned…

[Paradise]

uh...ok? Why dont u just make a rct version? lol

[The Chef]

Because I intend to go further into details then any RCT park ever could. Lines and Curves are important to the design of any park and that's something you cannot achieve inside RCT. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great game, but when it comes to real park design it's not very practical.

The Master Plan - Part 1
The first goal of this plan, is to create total brand immersion, and how do you do that? By first expanding the property.

The first major expansion is the Warner Brothers Boardwalk Resort, a large resort wrapping around a man-made lagoon just East of Hurricane Bay. The boardwalk would feature shopping, dining, and entertainment and would be open year round. The resort itself would feature pools, a spa, several different kinds of suites, and many more amenities that I will touch on later.

The second would be “Warner Brothers Thin Air Water Park Resort” themed to an alpine skiing resort and home to a brand new indoor water park. This resort (whose name is just a working title for now) would be located in what is now the overflow lot. A small parking garage would also be added behind the new indoor water park to accommodate for the lost parking from creating the two new resorts as well as the new Attractions area I will mention in a moment.

The new attractions area would be located on the other side of the parking lot, near the retention pond, again I will touch on more details later, but this area would include a miniature golf course, various games, and relocated versions of the up-charge attractions from in the park. The highlight of this addition would be a brand new 200 foot Skycoaster located directly over the retention pond to give the illusion that you were about to fly right into it. It would be angled slightly toward the park so you’re view would be of the park itself, and not the ugly parking lot.

[Coaster Justin]

^ Thin Air?

Really?

[The Chef]

Like I said, Working Title.

[Coaster Justin]

How about "Snowball Bay" or "Avalanche Falls"

[The Chef]

It's not supposed to be Blizzard Beach like, more wilderness. I'm thinking of something with "Springs" in the title perhaps or "Peak" Like all the slides are down a mountain maybe. Anyway that area is still a work in progress.

The Master Plan - Part 2

Each of these new locations would be a connected by a brand new overhead trolley line known as the Edison Electric Rail. A two-way transportation service with stops at each of the Resorts, the new attractions park (name TBD) and the front entrance of the theme park. The Water Park (New Name TBD) would also be becoming a separate gate, but it would be right next to the theme park so no need for a station of it’s own.

Another way to accomplish the goal of brand immersion is to create as many brand experiences inside the park as possible, having cleared out the up-charge attractions, there is now plenty of room for expansion in the dry-park which would lead to several new attractions themed to Warner Brothers franchises in the next few years.

What Stays and What Goes

As the designers, brand managers, and engineers take a look at the park, the first thing they notice is the circular design. It is efficient, they think, in the way that no matter what way you go, it’s hard to get lost, but Southwest Territory is almost like a cancerous bulge, and the waterpark’s entrance being way out there doesn’t help either. So one of the first decisions is to make the water park a separate gate. And to add a path from between Music Hall and Firehouse into what is currently Yankee Harbor.

The Second observation is that some of the rides in the park are less then efficient, if they are going to attract the high numbers of guests they hope to attract they have no choice but to get rid of some attractions, and some are just plain outdated, so what goes? The first round of cuts include:

Iron Wolf
Both Flumes
King Chaos

However it is also announced that following the initial operating season, should things progress as planned, the following attractions will also discontinue operation:

V2 - Vertical Velocity
Giant Drop

What will they make room for? Several new themed areas and attractions, and re-imagined versions of old favorites. In this current working version themed areas include:

Independence Square
FuturePort
Southwest Territory
Buccaneer Bay
County Fair
Redwood Forest
Camp Cartoon
Gotham City
Scooby Doo’s Scary Swamp
Metropolis
Orleans Place

It seems like a lot, but really no extra midway is being added, merely re-themes of current areas, to create many smaller neighborhoods.

[Coaster Justin]

^

Surprised about No Looney Tunes Characters
Why not call the Waterpark "Deep Blue Sea"
Surprised Southwest Territory isn't called "Wild, Wild, West"


Can't wait for the Halloween Season.




I Have an Idea for Something Similar that I'm Gonna Do.

[The Chef]

I certainly never said anything about No Looney Tunes Characters, The plan is for all the kids areas to be combined into one massive kids area which as a working title is called Camp Cartoon. Warner Brothers is trying to re-launch the looney tunes franchise as they have been for quite some time (unsuccessfully but they keep trying) and the point of them getting into the theme park business in this scenario is to create cross-promotional campaigns for their franchises. There will be Looney Tunes Characters.

[The Chef]

What Stays and What Goes Part 2

And in with the new! Here is a list of In-development attractions for phase one of the re-themed park.

Terminator: Salvation - MACK launched coaster replacing Splashwater Falls and Daredevil Dive - Themed not just to the most recent film, but the entire Terminator Franchise.

Scooby Doo’s Ghostblasters - Sally Interactive Dark Ride replacing Johnny Rockets in Mardi Gras. Themed to Scooby Doo’s Most popular villains from over the years.

Bizarro - Vekoma Madhouse located behind what is now Pizza Orleans, themed to the Superman Villain.

Marvin the Martian in the Fourth Dimension - SimEx Iwerks Universal 4-D Seats added to Pictorium - Themed to the upcoming Warner Brothers Film “Marvin the Martian”

The Eagle’s Nest - Vekoma 80 Meter Giant Ferris Wheel Replacing Iron Wolf’s Station - a high profile attraction to lure guests to the back of the park. Featuring unique LED lighting to really light up the night and add some real energy to the back of the park.

The Entrance

The Biggest part of phase one of the construction involves moving some of the park’s facilities to best create a new Warner Brothers atmosphere. Right off the bat, Guest Relations, Stroller and Wheelchair Rental, the Pass Processing Center, the ticket booths, and entrance turnstiles are absorbed into a brand new “Welcome Center.” The Welcome Center would feature colonial architecture, including a recreation of the Independence Hall clock tower, pictured here:

http://www.opentravelinfo.com/north-ame ... dence-hall

In front of the Clock Tower would be a small stage, used for an opening ceremony each morning, where a family would be invited up to help open the park for the day, and then be given a Free Unlimited Exit Pass for the Day!

Upon entrance to the new Welcome Center, the first thing that catches your attention would be the various entertainment acts, including an A Cappella group singing classic American tunes, as well as a small swing band, and more. Instead of traditional ticket booths, ticket service locations are more like that of a luxury hotel, taking the barriers down between service agents and the guests. (An idea completely stolen from the Goddard Group’s concepts for Six Flags Dubailand, which can be viewed on the Goddard Groups facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=ho ... 332?ref=ts )

The building would also include many amenities found in a Resort Lobby, as it really is the Lobby to the park. Including various seating areas for families to wait while Dad purchases tickets. It would also include a brand new full-service restaurant “The Flame” a classic American restaurant using Lady Liberty’s torch as it’s inspiration, with a large wood burning oven in it’s shape at the center. In the mornings, The Flame would be used for character breakfasts, but it would also have lunchtime seating, as well as reservation-only dinner seating. The Flame is accessible to patrons from outside the park as well, and would be designed to quickly become an on-the-map restaurant for the area.

At the back of the welcome center is of course the park entrance, with turnstiles replaced by electric counters (the kind you might see at Looney Tunes Lodge, or at Disney attractions) the metal detectors would be located outside the building, so as to not spoil the Colonial theme of the building. One of the biggest features of the building would be large windows as well, so guests can whet their appetite watching Superman, Raging Bull, or the Carousel from the inside.

[Coaster Justin]

IDEA:

Instead of Calling the Vekoma Mad House "Bizarro" how about Calling it One of these:

Fortress of Solitude (Superman Themed)
Arkham Asylum (Batman Themed)

[The Chef]

I have plans for the fortress of solitude that I'll get into once I talk about the Metropolis Section, and Gotham City is located elsewhere in the park. It's not just a name, it's a ride experiance that I will get into more detail once I get to that section of the park.

[BLADE]

Are we going to see some more of this? It's good stuff!

[Galvan317]

Just want to throw it out there that Warner Brothers has their own destination in Spain, and they originally hired Six Flags to build/operate it, then subsequently fired Six Flags after a few years of the park failing.