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Giraffe encounters on an elevated walkway. The roar of nearby lions from a private veranda. Early morning game drives with elephants and rhinos. These experiences, typically reserved for safaris across the vast African continent, will soon be found at an amusement park in New Jersey, which also offers access to the world\u2019s tallest roller coaster.<\/p>\n Six Flags Entertainment Corp.<\/a>\u00a0is venturing into luxury hospitality, with a 20-room safari hotel slated to open on June 14. Located just 15 miles from New York City, inside the safari park at Six Flags Great Adventure, the\u00a0Savannah Sunset Resort & Spa<\/a>\u00a0will perch guests above Ankole cattle, wildebeests and black bears that roam the property\u2019s 350-acre African-themed expanse.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s first foray into luxury hotels comes amid its planned\u00a0$1.88 billion acquisition<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Cedar Fair\u00a0LP<\/a>, which owns 17 theme parks and 11 hotels, including Carowinds outside Charlotte and Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stays at Savannah Sunset begin at $599 per night during the summer season\u2014with a two-night minimum\u2014which puts it within range of\u00a0some of Walt Disney<\/a> World\u2019s most high-end hotels. Here, that will include modern conveniences such as avocado toast and Starbucks<\/a> chai lattes delivered to your canvas tent for breakfast, as well as tickets to Six Flags\u2019 parks.<\/p>\n That adds to the attractions already bringing thrill-seekers to this corner of New Jersey, where Six Flags operates 510 acres filled with 14 hair-raising roller coasters, the Hurricane Harbor water park and the aforementioned Wild Safari Adventure. At the latter,\u00a0guests are taken on 45-minute game drives\u00a0to see 1,200 animals from six continents. While Six Flags does not release\u00a0data for visitation to its individual parks, research from AECOM<\/a> tracking attendance at global attractions shows that the New Jersey complex\u00a0welcomed a\u00a0record\u00a03.5 million\u00a0guests in 2019; in 2022, the most recent year for which AECOM data are available, that number was more than 2.1 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n The new hotel is\u00a0a way to leverage the existing safari park for longer and more expensive stays, which in turn would drive spending in the rest of the parks.\u00a0While the suites are modeled after the camps in, say, Botswana\u2019s Okavango Delta or\u00a0Tanzania\u2019s Serengeti<\/a>, the layouts feature kitchenettes and Keurig coffee machines to cater to American families.<\/p>\n \u201cWe needed to really deliver things that were special,\u201d says Edithann Velez Ramey, chief marketing officer at Six Flags.<\/p>\n Six Flags\u2019 expansion into hotels comes at a critical time. This year\u00a0a survey of 3,491 US-based travelers<\/a>\u00a0by Bloomberg Intelligence showed that more than half planned to visit theme parks for trips of at least three days, the second-most-popular vacation choice, after\u00a0all-inclusive resorts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Courting visitors for multiple days is an advantage that such companies as\u00a0Walt Disney Co.<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Comcast Corp.<\/a>\u2019s Universal<\/a> have long held over Six Flags, which has historically been focused almost exclusively on day guests. The gap has only widened, as Universal Orlando Resort readies a trio of new hotels around the 2025 debut of its Epic Universe theme park, and Disney continues to refurbish and launch new accommodations for its loyal Disney Vacation Club members.<\/p>\n Until now, Six Flags has operated just one hotel:\u00a0Great Escape Lodge<\/a>, with 200 Adirondack-themed rooms surrounding an indoor water park in Queensbury, New York. Rooms start around $340 per night during prime summer weekends.\u00a0<\/p>\n The decision to experiment with luxury lodging was spurred by Chief Executive Officer Selim Bassoul, who took the helm in late 2021. It\u2019s his most ambitious move as he shepherds the company ahead of its merger. (The close is expected to take place by the end of June, though some analysts and antitrust experts anticipate regulatory delays.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Marketing chief Ramey says the glamping concept was part of a strategy that encourages higher spending. The question Bassoul was asking, she says, is \u201cHow do we do things that allow us to elevate the price\u2014and, by extension, revenues\u00a0and profit?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In lieu of competing with Florida\u2019s destination parks by building more attractions, Six Flags is using its proximity to the New York metro area as an\u00a0advantage. Offering safari-like accommodations without a trip to the airport is unique, but as a one-off hotel, it\u2019s a big idea that speaks to Six Flags\u2019 current performance gaps. According to research by Bloomberg Intelligence, the company\u2019s cash generation dropped in 2023 as per-person park spending decreased to $64 from $66, all while attendance remained lower than expected. Across all its 27 parks nationwide, Six Flags saw 22.2 million visitors last year\u2014still far shy of 2019\u2019s 32.8 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n Savannah Sunset Resort & Spa is loaded with intriguing features and amenities\u2014and also a heavy handful of contradictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nowhere else in the Northeast can you find rooms outfitted with genuine, handcrafted African wood furniture and vast savannah views. Daily giraffe feedings, made available exclusively to hotel guests, are the kind of thing some people associate with a bucket-list trip to Nairobi. An on-site restaurant, Mahaba Grill, will serve breakfast and dinner. Entrees, such as\u00a0lobster ravioli or slow-roasted short rib, cost from $25 to $40. An on-site spa offers deep-tissue massages with a wooden African rungu stick.\u00a0<\/p>\n\nA Company in Transition<\/h2>\n
What to Expect From a Six Flags Safari Stay<\/h2>\n