coasterbill

Remember when Six Flags took over and people thought it would be amazing and we all laughed at them for it? How is that going?

This is kind of fun. Mine is unimpressive in every way that something can be unimpressive... 3,626 miles. RC Racer at Disneyland Paris.

They have so many empty areas already. I expect this to be a straight budget cut. Will they replace it some day? Maybe... but I don't think they closed it for any other reason than it's an expensive ride to operate.

Jersey Devil update... Source: Six Flags Great Adventure on Twitter

So a few years ago they had 3 water rides and they removed all but the worst one? ... cool

Kingda Ka parks trains over there constantly. They also use it when they run 3 trains so that when the ride breaks every 2 cycles they can take any trains that had been dispatched but haven't launched yet and roll them backwards into the other station to unload them while they fix it so they can load 2 more trains and then break it again. They use the switch track all the time, just not during normal operation (though I would argue that the ride breaking is basically "normal operation"). If Golden Kingdom wasn't even open then I feel like it was closed for budget or staffing which is honestly kind of crap since it's an upcharge coaster event and that's your tallest and fastest coaster but it's also $5 so I mean... lol. If it doesn't open today then nevermind.

It's a fit for Cedar Point. It's also fit for like 50 other parks in America.

It's not. Every few years people see a test train launch while Zu is running and freak out. The rides will never run together.

I'm going to assume that part of that is that they always understaff their parks anyway and at this point they're just very efficient in that regard. It's a frustration that I have with them in peak season but it's also a skill that other chains just don't have and it often hurts them a lot (See: Cedar Point on a Halloweekends Friday being entirely unable or unwilling to run rides with smaller crews to ensure that they can open everything).

Hulk has the single rider line open and trains are being filled within rows to 100% capacity. You love to see it...

A few updates: The Temperature Check Tent at SeaWorld Orlando is gone. Social distancing has been changed to 3 feet For those following along, this is a 3 foot reduction from what the sign used to say but a 3 foot increase from the typical level of social distancing that has occurred at SeaWorld since reopening last year. The second part doesn't really matter since this will not be followed by anyone but it will probably raise their self-imposed guest cap if they even still have one which they probably don't and even if they do they never hit it anyway. Source

I'm not sure what the average is, but that's a totally reasonable number of people for a park of that size. Also, I haven't skimmed the conference call transcript and it may not even be online yet, but it was announced that year-round operations for dry parks is here to stay.

Bump... I skimmed the Q1 conference call so you don't have to. Here are some brief highlights. I highlighted some park-specific stuff for the uber-nerds that only care about that. - Total attendance for the quarter was 1.3 million guests, a 38% decline from first quarter 2019 which makes sense with covid restrictions and with two year-round parks in California (one with daily ops in 2019) being closed for the entire quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $46 million compared to a loss of $32 million in the first quarter 2019 (largely for the same reasons). One thing that bumped the numbers up was that Six Flags over Texas was not year-round in 2019 but that doesn't make up for California or capacity restrictions elsewhere. - They expect to be profitable in Q2 - They have an Active Pass Base of 4.1 million passholders, which included 1.7 million members and 2.4 million traditional season passholders at the end of first quarter 2021. The Active Pass Base is up 1% compared to first quarter 2020 and down only 9% compared to first quarter 2019. In short, they retained 91% of their passholder base through Covid which is kind of insane, especially since they've been charging a lot of them unlike uh... that other company. The number of paused memberships is around 5% right now. - They will continue to operate the Drive-Thru Safari in New Jersey as a separately gated attraction - Applying a pro forma allocation to 2019, admission spending per capita increased 17% and in-park spending per capita increased 14% compared to the first quarter of 2019. - When allowed to raise capacity restrictions by their respective states they do it quickly if not immediately. The Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia parks are already at 100% capacity. When more states allow it they will do it basically right away. (Just me speaking here: This means that the reservation system at those parks only exists to give guests the illusion that they are capping capacity. They are not. At all...) - They want to work on reducing wait times at food stands . They see this as a major problem and are ramping up staffing to deal with it. They're confident that they can reach desired staffing levels soon. Unlike other chains that are blaming all of their problems on staffing, it's not a major concern for them going forward.

The capacity cap is 13,000 guests. Loch Ness Monster and Tempesto are still closed because... reasons.

You can reserve as many days as you want. We reserved a ton in the winter and then if the weather didn't cooperate we would go in and cancel the ones we didn't plan to use so other people could have them.

Sad news, the park is reopening soon. (May 22nd)

Was it ever really an “operating” attraction? That seems a bit generous.

CLP with Blue Streak is also not enticing if it makes you feel any better...

Yeah, it’s been closed for budget since the park reopened last year. I mean “because of Covid” as they say. They run the one at their San Diego park but though so I guess they just don’t care if their west coast guests die of covid by riding the best ride for social distancing ever invented.

Oops. Good call on Sand Serpent. I literally forgot that it existed.

Two full days at this park is a ton of time to go at a very leisurely pace. You don't need any strategy at all but yes, optimal strategy is probably Cheetah Hunt > Cobra's Curse > Scorpion and then just do whatever. In reality I would do Cheetah Hunt > Cobra's Curse > Montu since it's right there and will be a walk-on > Falcon's Fury if it's open so you can ride it before it breaks > Scorpion and then do whatever. Also, keep an eye on the Quick Queue prices. They tend to be cheap at this park. Even if they're higher now they may drop day-of, and I'd even check on the booth by the entrance because sometimes their prices don't match the website anyway. If you have two full days just do every exhibit, they're all good. Also look into some behind-the-scenes animal tours. Some are shockingly cheap. My best advice is not to zig-zag, this park is a giant massive loop so just hit things as you come to them. Other random tips: - Take the train from the Nairobi Train Station to see the animals. - Back row, closest to the unload side is the magic seat on Kumba. - Back row, closest to the load side is the magic seat on Montu. - The queue for Stanley Falls is the 7th layer of hell if the switchbacks are open and it's worth buying Quick Queue for that ride alone if it's hot, which it will be. My only other advice is that as much as I love this place I'm not entirely sure you need two full 10-10 days unless you just really want to take it easy and I'd probably recommend spending that second day at an Orlando park.

Passes expire a year from the first date that you use them (unless it's longer because there's a promotion going on). They are not tied to the calendar year. The first 2 weeks of December are an amazing time to visit Orlando but keep that on the down-low.

My advice for everyone who balks at the price of a one day ticket (considering you basically have to park-hop) seems counter-intuitive but it's to get an annual pass (I know how stupid that sounds but hear me out). The Seasonal Pass has no benefits except for park admission but it's 349.99. A one-day ticket on most weekends is $187 or sometimes more so the pass pays for itself in less than 2 visits (aside from consecutive-day combo tickets or mid-week visits during the slowest time of the year). They also frequently run promotions where you can get additional months added on to your pass for free. We got ours last October and it's good until some time in January of 2022. Sure, this pass has blackout dates but only a few select Mardi Gras concert days that you can work around. The other blackout days are days where no intelligent person would want to be caught dead in Orlando anyway if they didn't live there (Christmas Week / Spring Break / July... the hottest month of the entire summer) That said, when we renew one of us will get the preferred pass for the free parking and in-park discounts and one will keep the seasonal pass. That's the move if you're going to travel with friends or a significant other.

Weird how Six Flags had the exact same problems to contend with and figured it out at all of their parks... I'm not going to be as hard on BGW as I've been on Cedar Fair. They also opened all winter and threw the maintenance schedules for a loop and back when they finalized details for this event the park hadn't been as crowded. People got vaccinated fast and the demand rose very quickly. That said, how many people would it honestly take to open Loch Ness and Tempesto? The answer at Six Flags would be like 7 or 8 people total. Nobody would question it if the water rides, Skyride, the indoor ride and Rhine River Cruise were closed and they probably would assume Mach Tower was broken. The Flying Machine... . nobody cares but also doesn't it need like 1 staff member and someone to cover breaks? lol At this point it just seems weird to keep those rides closed if staffing is really the reason why and if they really can't find 10 people even by using less staff to run the rides currently running then maybe... I don't know... pay people more to work there?

Wicked Cyclone hasn't declined. Sometimes at the end of the ride it runs slower based on weather / time of day or whatever (all coasters do this of course but it's a pretty noticeable difference with this one) and that's been true since the day it opened but even then I've never had a bad ride on it.