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Six Flags Great Adventure Interview: Kristin Siebeneicher
Six Flags Great Adventure Interview: Kristin Siebeneicher / By: Clint Novak, Wednesday, January 26, 2005 -
One of the most talked about coaster’s for the 2005 season is Kingda Ka. Some time in April this coaster will take its seat as the tallest, and fastest roller coaster in the world. Kingda Ka’s new home is Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.

Clint Novak talked with Kristin Siebeneicher, Public Relations Manager at Six Flags Great Adventure, about the new coaster, and the themed area surrounding the new coaster. You can hear the interview here.


Clint Novak: Hey what’s going on its Clint Novak from In the Loop, and Ive got Kristin Siebeneicher the Public Relations Manger at Six Flags Great Adventure, How are you doing today Kristin?

Kristin Siebeneicher: I’m doing great and how are you?

Clint: I'm fantastic. You guys are getting an awesome roller coaster this year?

Kristin: We are. We are so excited to have the world's tallest and fastest coaster coming to New Jersey. Its so exciting

Clint: It’s a good feeling. Are you a coaster fan? Are you going to ride the Kingda Ka?

Kristin: I can't wait. I started getting winged on coaster when I was really little. We would take our little Grizwaled family vacations and to all the theme parks. That is where my love for coaster began. This is the ultimate. We have such great coasters anyway like Nitro, Medusa, you name it we’ve got it. But this thing is just going to blow it out of the water.

Clint: All right well why don’t you tell us how the construction is going and how the weather is holding you back.

Kristin: Well everything has been moving right along despite the challenging weather. We just got about 15 inches of snow. Work was able to continue on the ground. We have been really focusing on the tower for so long, really working to get that 456 foot tower complete and we were battling with the wind. Its really sensitive to work that high in the air. You have to be really careful. It’s a 5 MPH wind on the ground it could be 15 to 20 MPH wind in the air, and that is a safety situation. We took our time, and any day it was to windy we would focus on the ground, and that kept us on schedule. So even though the toping off was a little later then we hoped, the construction is still on schedule. We were able to top off the coaster on January 13, and we are still moving right along. The parts we are working on now is the final pictures of track in the station and launch area. There probably only about 2 to 3 more pieces and then the entire track will be complete

Clint: All right. Rumor has it trains are already arriving on site. When are you going to do the pull thro?

Kristin: Well that should be coming really soon. We have a few sections of the first train in. We don’t expect the rest of the trains in for quit some time. But the pieces here we are going to use for the pull thro testing and that will be the first level of testing of all the testing we do. That testing will state in a few weeks

Clint: Now for people who are already planning there trip to see Kingda Ka, Its not going to be opening when the park opens this spring. Is that correct?

Kristin: That's correct. We start our 32 season on march 25th. The theme park and safari will open that day along with the golden kingdom as a whole. As you may know our golden Kingdom is our brand new section that is themes as a lush tropical jungle. Its going to have three key components. The corner stone is Kingda Ka, there is no question about that. That’s our offering for thrill seekers. We also have great attritions for the children and the whole family. The two other attritions fallings jungle land witch is a great new section for the kids with 5 new rides and a big play stricter and then Temple of the tigers. This is a truly spectacular tiger exhibit and dazzling show. I think people will be floored when people see what we have in store for them. We have not released about all the details that are going in to the Temple of the Tiger. But when you here it you will be really amazed. So were looking forward to a march 25th opening. We are going to be doing previews of Temple of the Tigers, And then will follow with Kingda Ka opening at late April, at most early May. So were defiantly targeting a spring opening, and hoping that we really stay on track and that mother nature cooperates

Clint: Every roller coaster has a different way of going about giving away the first seating of the first train. What do you guys have in store for that?

Kristin: We have a lot of ideas that were currently working through, we have a great marketing team and we are trying to figure it out to see what the best way to have the first ride. We don’t have an exact way yet but we really want to make a splash. So what ever we do we want to make it a splash

Clint: Ok diving in to the internet chat rooms to pick the minds of coaster fanatics around the world, I have come up with a question that even I am interested about this. Kingda Ka is a little different then mort rocket roller coaster in that after the top hat hill there is another hill about 100 feet?

Kristin: It will be 129 feet.

Clint: People are wondering where the braking of the ride will start.

Kristin: There will be breaks on the down side of the hill. I am sure this will get mixed reactions, but defintely that hill will make this ride different from any other similar type coasters. It's something we really excited about. We hope they wont critics the brakes because its kind of a necessity for the train to stop going in to the station.

Clint: You don’t need to stop it. A lot of people would love to keep going.

Kristin: That’s right. Let's go around again.

Clint: Well thank you very much Kristin for taking the time out of the day to chat with us about this.

Kristin: Thanks Clint. I really appreciate you having me on. I really hope people keep them selfs up to date off the construction project on www.sixflags.com.

Clint: All right we are going to keep you in the loop here at In the Loop with what else is going on with Six Flags Great Adventure as those releases come out.