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Six Flags Darien Lake (SFDL) Discussion Thread


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I think everyone is also forgetting the bigger picture: Six Flags did not buy Darien Lake. They bought the rights to operate it. That alone likely severely limits the amount of capital expenditure that is possible, let alone probable.

Probably not, Darien Lake is operated under a triple net lease. This means the operator pays for all capital expenditures in exchange for low rent payments. This is similar to SFOG and SFOT.

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Even if there are no major attractions and unrealistic additions added to the park, or even no rides for years, I will be happy to just see basic improvements to get the park up to the standards it is supposed to be at. Painting Mind Eraser’s god awful looking track, and Viper’s station, getting 2 trains running on Viper and RoS, and just overall better maintenance would be perfect and I honestly would take this over a new ride even if it means no new additions for 5 years. Sure, new rides are what will attract GP to the park, but as it has been said before in this thread, even the GP notice the 1 train operations, and poor maintenance. My GP family from out of town was shocked by the one train ops when they came to visit the park. It doesn’t go unnoticed by them. It needs to be fixed.

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We’ll see. If you start noticing stuffed Looney Tunes merchandise in the gift shops, SF will probably own it. I remember back in 97. It was an open secret among staff that Six Flags actually owned DL before it became Six Flags Darien Lake.

 

Again, you want to see bigger crowds. You need “major” attractions. They did it before, they can do it again.

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The last year of "old Six Flags" ownership, my family couldn't help but hear the employees say they were very happy that Six Flags was leaving. Sure, Six Flags invested a lot into Superman and the park at first, but then they stopped investing into the park and really cut back on staff and ride operations. Some people seem to forget about the employees rotating into different areas of the park and certain rides being operated at certain times during the day. This was during the Six Flags era. I remember seeing the Bugs Bunny breakfast host in the morning and then seeing her again in the theatre show, and then seeing her again at the character dance party around the fountain. Six Flags really cut back on staff during the last couple of years they owned the park. Even the games were operated by only a couple of employees who would have to move to the games that actually had someone who wanted to play. There were times when the entire kids area was closed due to lack of staff.

 

Please don't forget that it has taken over 10 years to just start to repair what Six Flags let deteriorate. The last year that Six Flags owned DL, Superman was not operating because the lift chain broke and Six Flags did not want to pay to repair it. Over time, people have forgotten just what Six Flags did to Darien Lake. We can only hope this doesn't happen again.

Edited by PATTYCAKES
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We’ll see. If you start noticing stuffed Looney Tunes merchandise in the gift shops, SF will probably own it. I remember back in 97. It was an open secret among staff that Six Flags actually owned DL before it became Six Flags Darien Lake.

 

Again, you want to see bigger crowds. You need “major” attractions. They did it before, they can do it again.

 

Premier owned it and bought Six Flags so that doesnt make sense...

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We’ll see. If you start noticing stuffed Looney Tunes merchandise in the gift shops, SF will probably own it. I remember back in 97. It was an open secret among staff that Six Flags actually owned DL before it became Six Flags Darien Lake.

 

Again, you want to see bigger crowds. You need “major” attractions. They did it before, they can do it again.

 

Premier owned it and bought Six Flags so that doesnt make sense...

 

When I started in 97, the word was that DL was either owned or being run by Six Flags even though it wasn’t made public.

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The last year of "old Six Flags" ownership, my family couldn't help but hear the employees say they were very happy that Six Flags was leaving. Sure, Six Flags invested a lot into Superman and the park at first, but then they stopped investing into the park and really cut back on staff and ride operations. Some people seem to forget about the employees rotating into different areas of the park and certain rides being operated at certain times during the day. This was during the Six Flags era. I remember seeing the Bugs Bunny breakfast host in the morning and then seeing her again in the theatre show, and then seeing her again at the character dance party around the fountain. Six Flags really cut back on staff during the last couple of years they owned the park. Even the games were operated by only a couple of employees who would have to move to the games that actually had someone who wanted to play. There were times when the entire kids area was closed due to lack of staff.

 

Please don't forget that it has taken over 10 years to just start to repair what Six Flags let deteriorate. The last year that Six Flags owned DL, Superman was not operating because the lift chain broke and Six Flags did not want to pay to repair it. Over time, people have forgotten just what Six Flags did to Darien Lake. We can only hope this doesn't happen again.

 

I can definitely vouch for that. I worked as a bathroom attendant in 97 and 2002. In 97 we might have had 1 or 2 bathrooms to clean. By 2002, it was 4.

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Thank you BWALL. I just found something that makes me think that Darien Lake will indeed be getting a new coaster next year. It will be call Superman : Ride of Steel VR.

 

 

Take a look at what Six Flags New England guests have been enjoying since 2016.

 

I can tell you right now, that my family will be planning a trip to DL next year if they convert Ride of Steel to VR.

This will be an awesome upcharge ride for DL and will make a load of money to help pay for another train.

(Fingers crossed.)

 

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Thank you BWALL. I just found something that makes me think that Darien Lake will indeed be getting a new coaster next year. It will be call Superman : Ride of Steel VR.

 

 

Take a look at what Six Flags New England guests have been enjoying since 2016.

 

I can tell you right now, that my family will be planning a trip to DL next year if they convert Ride of Steel to VR.

This will be an awesome upcharge ride for DL and will make a load of money to help pay for another train.

(Fingers crossed.)

 

 

It will also add mega long loading times and more down time.

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Thank you BWALL. I just found something that makes me think that Darien Lake will indeed be getting a new coaster next year. It will be call Superman : Ride of Steel VR.

 

 

Take a look at what Six Flags New England guests have been enjoying since 2016.

 

I can tell you right now, that my family will be planning a trip to DL next year if they convert Ride of Steel to VR.

This will be an awesome upcharge ride for DL and will make a load of money to help pay for another train.

(Fingers crossed.)

 

VR on a 1-train hypercoaster sounds like every enthusiast's nightmare, TBH.

 

When SFMM put VR on Revolution, it was running 5-minute dispatches, even with 2-train operation.

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This is great news, Darien Lake really needs this with all the ups and downs they have had since being sold by Six Flags. I visited the park a couple times after the sale and it just was never the same. SF wasn't always great but at least you could expect big additions, and now SF is in a better place than they were before.

 

I think they will start small for next season and progress from there, especially since they just added Tantrum for this year. Easy things first.

-- Rebrand Ride of Steel back to Superman.

 

Will they...? Will they really though? I think noooootttttt.

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Thank you BWALL. I just found something that makes me think that Darien Lake will indeed be getting a new coaster next year. It will be call Superman : Ride of Steel VR.

 

 

Take a look at what Six Flags New England guests have been enjoying since 2016.

 

I can tell you right now, that my family will be planning a trip to DL next year if they convert Ride of Steel to VR.

This will be an awesome upcharge ride for DL and will make a load of money to help pay for another train.

(Fingers crossed.)

 

 

This was only for part of the 2016 season. I dont even think SF did any rides this year with VR at any parks. I'd say they may have learned their lesson with it.

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I just want to point out to everyone who is complaining about the last time SF owned the park that it was a totally different company than it is now. That company technically went bankrupt and was taken over by a new board of directors which are now running a much better operation. The old Premier spent way too much to buy SF and hence put them in a terrible spot.

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There is a VR coaster at Canada's Wonderland. The guests are required to get their headsets ready before they get on the coaster. Adjusting and focusing must be done before in a separate line-up, so there is almost no difference in load times.

It sounds like, if SF ran their VR rides like that, operations would go much more smoothly than they did. At SFMM, there were TVs in the queue line, which told guests to put on their headsets before getting on the ride, and instructed them how to do so. The ride ops would then tell guests to take OFF their headsets when they were getting on the ride, and then put them back on. It took a ridiculous amount of time and confusion to dispatch each train because the right hand didn't seem to know what the left hand was doing.

 

I dont even think SF did any rides this year with VR at any parks. I'd say they may have learned their lesson with it.

SFMM is running DC Superheroes VR on Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom this year. It's slowing down dispatches a little bit, but not nearly as bad as last year.

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There is a VR coaster at Canada's Wonderland. The guests are required to get their headsets ready before they get on the coaster. Adjusting and focusing must be done before in a separate line-up, so there is almost no difference in load times.

It sounds like, if SF ran their VR rides like that, operations would go much more smoothly than they did. At SFMM, there were TVs in the queue line, which told guests to put on their headsets before getting on the ride, and instructed them how to do so. The ride ops would then tell guests to take OFF their headsets when they were getting on the ride, and then put them back on. It took a ridiculous amount of time and confusion to dispatch each train because the right hand didn't seem to know what the left hand was doing.

 

I dont even think SF did any rides this year with VR at any parks. I'd say they may have learned their lesson with it.

SFMM is running DC Superheroes VR on Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom this year. It's slowing down dispatches a little bit, but not nearly as bad as last year.

 

At Wonderland, VR guests are actually directed up the exit and have a area to put on the VR's at a calm pace, before actually getting on the coaster. The guests get on the coaster with the VR glasses already on and ready to go.

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I’m not sure if it was mentioned on this thread or not, but does anyone know what is wrong with Pirate? I was at the park today, and realized that it has been down every single day this year from what I have seen. I am wondering if age is becoming a major issue and that a replacement to a newer model may be necessary, as it doesn’t look like the Twister situation from last year with the overhaul, but instead looks like pure downtime with little to no repair work done to it. Anyone know what’s going on?

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Just curious, has anyone else who has visited the park this year noticed Vicki from Viper? She is probably one of the sweetest people you will meet, and she never fails to put a smile on everyone’s face while in line for Viper. I can’t be the only one who has noticed her as she is one of the only excellent and thoughtful ride ops in the park.

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Even if there are no major attractions and unrealistic additions added to the park, or even no rides for years, I will be happy to just see basic improvements to get the park up to the standards it is supposed to be at. Painting Mind Eraser’s god awful looking track, and Viper’s station, getting 2 trains running on Viper and RoS, and just overall better maintenance would be perfect and I honestly would take this over a new ride even if it means no new additions for 5 years. Sure, new rides are what will attract GP to the park, but as it has been said before in this thread, even the GP notice the 1 train operations, and poor maintenance. My GP family from out of town was shocked by the one train ops when they came to visit the park. It doesn’t go unnoticed by them. It needs to be fixed.

 

I have to agree with this, I would take no new rides within 5 years over general improvements, staffing improvements and 2 train operations on coasters that need 2 trains and basic maintenance improvements and general park upkeep. I am not saying every coaster has to get 2 trains for next season and all of this has to happen overnight, its obviously going to take time to bring the park up to speed. The GP absolutely does notice the 1 train operations especially when they have been to other parks where the line actually moves for the major coasters. They also need to improve on crowded days where the park absolutely fails. DL's customers are mostly repeat customers who come from local areas to visit the park whether they buy a seasons pass or they make one visit per season and they need to do something to keep the locals coming back for more and that is not necessarily adding new rides.

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Even if there are no major attractions and unrealistic additions added to the park, or even no rides for years, I will be happy to just see basic improvements to get the park up to the standards it is supposed to be at. Painting Mind Eraser’s god awful looking track, and Viper’s station, getting 2 trains running on Viper and RoS, and just overall better maintenance would be perfect and I honestly would take this over a new ride even if it means no new additions for 5 years. Sure, new rides are what will attract GP to the park, but as it has been said before in this thread, even the GP notice the 1 train operations, and poor maintenance. My GP family from out of town was shocked by the one train ops when they came to visit the park. It doesn’t go unnoticed by them. It needs to be fixed.

 

I have to agree with this, I would take no new rides within 5 years over general improvements, staffing improvements and 2 train operations on coasters that need 2 trains and basic maintenance improvements and general park upkeep. I am not saying every coaster has to get 2 trains for next season and all of this has to happen overnight, its obviously going to take time to bring the park up to speed. The GP absolutely does notice the 1 train operations especially when they have been to other parks where the line actually moves for the major coasters. They also need to improve on crowded days where the park absolutely fails. DL's customers are mostly repeat customers who come from local areas to visit the park whether they buy a seasons pass or they make one visit per season and they need to do something to keep the locals coming back for more and that is not necessarily adding new rides.

 

Do we really need to continue to beat this dead horse?

 

58a.jpg

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Even if there are no major attractions and unrealistic additions added to the park, or even no rides for years, I will be happy to just see basic improvements to get the park up to the standards it is supposed to be at. Painting Mind Eraser’s god awful looking track, and Viper’s station, getting 2 trains running on Viper and RoS, and just overall better maintenance would be perfect and I honestly would take this over a new ride even if it means no new additions for 5 years. Sure, new rides are what will attract GP to the park, but as it has been said before in this thread, even the GP notice the 1 train operations, and poor maintenance. My GP family from out of town was shocked by the one train ops when they came to visit the park. It doesn’t go unnoticed by them. It needs to be fixed.

 

I have to agree with this, I would take no new rides within 5 years over general improvements, staffing improvements and 2 train operations on coasters that need 2 trains and basic maintenance improvements and general park upkeep. I am not saying every coaster has to get 2 trains for next season and all of this has to happen overnight, its obviously going to take time to bring the park up to speed. The GP absolutely does notice the 1 train operations especially when they have been to other parks where the line actually moves for the major coasters. They also need to improve on crowded days where the park absolutely fails. DL's customers are mostly repeat customers who come from local areas to visit the park whether they buy a seasons pass or they make one visit per season and they need to do something to keep the locals coming back for more and that is not necessarily adding new rides.

 

Do we really need to continue to beat this dead horse?

 

 

 

58a.jpg

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