When Thomas Town closed forever at the end of the 2010 season, the park was left with an obvious hole. Sure, Thomas Town wasn’t located in the best space, but it still was a nice area and it was missed all during the 2011 season. Would putting water slides in this space be a better use of the area? I think so. I think it would be the perfect use of space for a Riptide Bay-like expansion. Here is why…

The first and most obvious reason as to why adding a Riptide Bay-like expansion in Thomas Town’s spot is the fact that the water park hasn’t seen a big expansion since the addition of Typhoon – Water Coaster in 2005. Any new water park expansion would be well received by guests and it would help spread out the guests since Hurricane Harbor is always crowded.

Also, at the Nor’Easter event, park president John Winkler mentioned that this space is already zoned, therefore it would make adding new attractions in this area that much easier.

Another reason why adding a water park expansion to Thomas Town’s spot would be because it opens up the possibility to a new Hurricane Harbor entrance at the front of the park. Now would the park actually open up a new entrance there is the question, but it sure does make sense. Why would they not want to open up an entrance there? Well, we talked about it when we talked about adding a path to the South End; by having guests flow through the Rockville games, there is a higher chance of guests spending money.In my opinion, making the entrance to Hurricane Harbor right at the entrance to the dry park just makes more sense in the way the park flows. If you catch my drift.

Now what about attractions? The main attraction at Great America’s Riptide Bay was this slide complex that you see above. I don’t think SFNE needs the two free fall slides, but the SuperLoop slides would be nice to have. Six Flags St. Louisis getting a slide complex this year named Bonzai Pipeline’s. Bonzai Pipeline just has the two looping slides.

Six Flags New England could also add a set of mat racers on the same complex and we would have one awesome slide complex. Both Six Flags St. Louis and Six Flags Great America have a mat racing slide complex named Wahoo Racer. Considering the park already has Wahoo’s Tiki Bar, I think that would be a nice fit. To eliminate any confusion with Lake Compounce’s new Riptide Racer, which is a ProSlide KrakenRacer, SFNE would probably have to opt for an OctoRacer, as seen in the photo to the left.

John Winkler also expressed interest in the King Cobra water slide that Six Flags Great Adventure is getting this year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that pop up if we see a water park expansion into Thomas Town’s location. I would also expect to see a Surf Rider.

King Cobra, coming to Six Flags Great Adventure in 2012

Lastly, our Hurricane Harbor is lacking places to shop. I noticed this when I was viewing the 2012 park map. Currently, the only place to shop is Monsoon Marge’s – a small gift shop at the entrance to Hurricane Harbor. If Hurricane Harbor does expand into the former Thomas Town location then I would like to see at least one big gift shop and a smaller shop pop up. Since this would be on the opposite end of Monsoon Marge’s it would be a no brainer to expect at least one pop up.

Wahoo’s Tiki Bar is also at the other side of the park, therefore I would also like to see a 5 O’Clock Phil’s at this side of the park.

I can’t think of many reasons why a Hurricane Harbor expansion wouldn’t be good for the Thomas Town space. The only con I can think of is the neighbors and the loss of parking spaces. Some neighbors complain that Typhoon is too close to the street because they hear people screaming on it. With an expansion, Hurricane Harbor would move closer to the road.

Hook’s Lagoon

When it comes to parking spaces, I would assume that an expansion would use part of the preferred parking lot. So it will be disappointing to have those spaces be taken away. If the expansion is stellar than that would make up for it. Now I’m just starting to ramble. Back to the point…

The more I think about it, the more I think of why this would be a good move for SFNE. The reason Thomas Town failed was because of it’s location. It was a dead end spot with three rides. Like mentioned above, if SFNE ever decides to have a Hurricane Harbor expansion they can have a new entrance to Hurricane Harbor right there. That eliminates a huge dead end for the park.

Commotion Ocean

What would you like to see in a Hurricane Harbor expansion? You can discuss what you’d like to see in the comments below. Or, we also started discussing this on our forum, you can click here to be taken to the first post of the discussion.