coasterbill

I moved this discussion to the Six Flags over Georgia discussion thread because I honestly don’t know why it wasn’t here to begin with.

I'm so entertained by the thought of the hotel going "Hey everyone, I know you guys didn't notice but the people making the new trains for our coaster have no idea what the f*ck they're doing and they derailed 200 feet in the air and destroyed the catwalk that we would use to get to the train in the event of an emergency and... well... it f*cked everything up super bad. Anyway, the ride should be open in less than a month if it doesn't happen again. Get your tickets for only $19.00 per person or get a Scream Pass for just $30. Book now!

We were actually planning on going this weekend but when we learned we could just wait a week and have the same rides but also a baby Kangaroo it wasn't a difficult decision.

Sounds great!

You're joking, right?

I think the thing to remember is that this year has taught them how to make money with an incredibly low amount of guests based on adjusting staffing, closing a lot of things and driving up in-park-spending. They operated all summer with a guest cap of 1,000 and made money doing it and based on the ride lineup this seems to be similar in scale. I expect this to succeed and I expect it to send shockwaves through the industry just like the Christmas events have. If they make money with this then I feel like it's only a matter of time before parks like Sesame Place (which I guess is the only seasonal park left in the chain) and parks in the Six Flags chain try it too.

I honestly didn’t even get everything in the update post, it’s crazy how many things the park announced. It should also be noted that St. Patrick’s celebration seems poised to be the new “opening day” of the full park which is two weeks earlier than in the past which is also awesome news but that’s probably subject to change with covid and also not official so I didn’t add it in the post above. Personally I’m thrilled with all of this. Thrilled...

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Announces new Special Events and Year-Round Operation New! Winter Weekends (Jan 15-24) This ALL-NEW limited-capacity January event is sure to delight. Stroll through villages filled with tons of beautiful lights at night, brave the thrills of thirteen rides including three roller coasters and Sesame Street® Forest of Fun™, encounter unique animals not normally featured at the park, participate in special kid activities, and view a spectacular fireworks finale on Saturday evenings. See more animals than ever before during Winter Weekends! During the event, guests can enjoy the following animal experiences: GUEST ANIMAL AMBASSADORS include capuchin monkey, baby kangaroo, lemur, serval, gray fox, vulture, crested porcupine, alligator, plus much more. Guests will be able to see and learn about these amazing animals. TRAINER TALKS featuring animal ambassadors that call Busch Gardens Williamsburg home, including Clydesdale horses, blackface sheep, gray wolves, birds of prey, border collies and reptiles. PARTNER KIOSKS around the park offer guests the opportunity to hear first-hand how these wildlife champions and animal advocates are making a difference every day. From education, to conservation, to research, these partners will share how you can join in the cause to support nature. Saturday Night Fireworks Cap off your Saturday Night at Busch Gardens with a spectacular fireworks show! Fireworks begin at 8:30 PM on January 16 & 23. New! Mardi Gras (Jan 29-Feb 28) Guests won’t have to travel far to indulge and get in the New Orleans spirit as Busch Gardens will let the good times roll with an ALL-NEW limited capacity special event, Mardi Gras. Visitors will be transported to where the “Big Easy” meets big thrills as they stroll through eight decorated villages filled with mouthwatering Cajun food, cocktails, and immersive live entertainment and music. Thirteen roller coasters and attractions, including Sesame Street® Forest of Fun™ will also be available for guests to enjoy. Mardi Gras will be offered Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, Jan. 29 – Feb. 28. Winter Ride Lineup (Now - Feb 28) Alpengeist* Verbolten* InvadR* Finnegan's Flyer™ Busch Gardens Railway Li'l Clydes Le Catapult Kinder Karussel Der Roto Baron Der Wirbelwind Prince Elmo's Spire Oscar's Whirly Worm Grover's Alpine Express *Please note that colder temperatures or inclement weather conditions may impact ride operations during the event.

Yet another great move by Six Flags... strange times.

That’s true. This might be a nice positive PR story to put everyone in a good mood to kick off the new year.

Yeah, there's no way they would make a statement on this. Why would you?

I feel bad because this is all I post about lately but no... if a park has the ability to open and there's demand and they choose to stay closed then they're dumb. Period. Be creative and figure it out. Busch Gardens Williamsburg, SeaWorld San Antonio and Sesame Place are aggressively pushing out their calendars. Six Flags is doing everything they can to open in some capacity absolutely everywhere and always opens right away as soon as they get the green light from the state. Cedar Fair is the only company that thinks the best way to run a theme park company in 2020 and 2021 is to crawl up in the fetal position and do their best to never actually open their business (Okay, I guess Parques Reunidos is doing the same thing but they're the worst company ever so that's to be expected). Cedar Point is always understaffed. They need to figure it out. Nobody is saying that they need to be running both car rides on opening day but I'm sick of acting like this park is competent when year-after-year they have no staff but on a day where they have to close B&Ms for staffing they run a crew of about 20 people on Top Thrill Dragster when Six Flags runs Kingda Ka with a quarter of that ("but it would need to be reprogrammed"... okay, so since this happens every year then maybe it's time to do that) . Figure out how to get more staff or get better at running your park with less staff. Nitro was running last weekend with 3 operators with one of them grouping, running Flash Pass and checking 18 seats and they weren't stacking. Is that ideal? No. Is it better than saying "Well, it's almost Memorial Day and we're right on Lake Erie but it just makes sense from a business perspective to not even make an effort and have to credit our passholders for a few months in 2022 and end up giving them 2 1/2 years for the price of one even though Six Flags managed to bill the majority of people every single month that they were closed because they promised to give away an extra skip-the-line-pass each visit once they reopened... a benefit that cost them essentially nothing. I'm sorry all I've been doing lately is bashing Cedar Fair but they deserve it.

They'll survive just like they survive in Northern California where they run a seasonal schedule and a limited-ride Christmas event for absolutely no reason while letting the competition stay open year-round and run circles around them. It's not like they won't be just fine but they're letting the competition continue to find new revenue streams in quarters where they were never profitable while they sit around and either do nothing or do something totally half-assed.

Yeah, this has me leaning towards a full park opening at the beginning of March (so two weeks earlier than normal) and maybe some winter event until then. I feel like I need to stop dabbing on Cedar Fair so I won't say a word. I'll just wave to Kings Dominion as I drive by on the way to Busch Gardens for the next 6 months before they finally get around to opening on the 4th of July or whatever.

Where there is smoke... Link

Correct me if I’m wrong but year-round operation is brand new for them, right? In that case, we have no idea.

The Holiday in the Park drive through has been extended again through the 17th.

You know what? You just reminded me: Honorable mention to Shamu’s Christmas Miracles for best theme park show of all time. It was simultaneously the greatest and dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in a theme park and I loved every second of it.

A few years later I still feel uniquely unqualified to answer this because I just don’t watch a ton of theme park shows unless I’m at a park that’s known for having really good shows. It’s also kind of complicated because there are so many different kinds of shows and they’re hard to compare. Example: I love Happily Ever After and Sea Lion High but those are just entirely different things. How do you compare those to eachother? Usually the only theme park shows that I go out of my way to see are nighttime spectacular type shows and animal shows. I actually think that Happily Ever After is the best thing at Magic Kingdom period and I feel the same way about Illuminations at Disneyland Paris. Aside from that, the SeaWorld animal shows are all good. The Busch pet shows were great but... you know. Lol As for shows that I really like that are totally out of our element, Academy of Villains was great and that should come back, Moteurs… Action at DLP was cool, Dollywood’s Christmas shows can be really solid and that Bourne Stuntacular show was crazy cool (though it’s more of a showcase of awesome tech than anything else). There are probably more but those are what comes to mind first.

I don’t think you’ll have a problem. Weather is iffy the rest of the week. Even on the busiest HITP days the lines are usually short the first few hours of the day and the last hour or so before closing.

Cedar Fair is dumb: part 3,472 Meanwhile... at regional parks that decided to not close right before a Holiday week And down the road from Kings Dominion...

Maybe Intimidator wouldn’t valley if they would turn off even one of the 837 trims that line the track. As for them closing the ride just because it “almost valleys” with riders on the previous cycle... that’s adorable. The person at the Nitro panel just has to take a deep breath, remember that “mama didn’t raise no bitch” and press the dispatch button again (it’s in the operations manual just like that I think). PS: That said, I don’t expect every park to do that. Still, does this even matter? These are the highs as far out as the forecast go. Carowinds is in Charlotte, not Barrow, Alaska. We just spent a week there. It was unseasonably cold. It was still not cold. It’s going to be almost 60 degrees today. Stop. Even if they kept their own dumb policies they could run anything they wanted almost every day for the next nine days... well, except they can’t because they’re closed for the holiday week because Carowinds is gonna Carowinds.

Phoenix is the most obvious one for me. I feel like half way through that ride most first-time riders are probably wondering what everyone else is smoking.

I don’t know why they were open this week mid-week but I’m really not surprised that the place was dead because nobody would expect them to be open. Glad you had a nice visit.

The only strategy you need since you can get on every coaster without waiting with Quick Queue is that the train is making you exit at the next stop right now and is running at half capacity so if you want to take it to see the animals then make sure you board from the train station near-ish Cheetah Hunt (I think it’s Nairobi?) It’s not on Quick queue so you may wait like 30 minutes or so.