SFA Regular

Well, I had an idea that could get the parks feet wet before we just add a big coaster. I was trying to take into consideration that less people could be attending SFA right now, based on the economy. If things are worst in 2012, they may not get the return on it that they were expecting. Of course their expectations on money return for such an investment should be spread over a longer period of time, give or take the condition of our economy. But check out this next idea I have. Now here is where I get back to an old idea. I still think it would be a cheaper investment in this economy to remove Tower of Doom and install a Drop Zone Tower in Gotham City. Yea the park could use another monster to top Superman, but wouldn't a new drop tower get SFA's feet wet before we add another rolling monster? Again, it's only a suggestion for a 2013 attraction. They could just fill Tower of Doom's old spot with a few flat rides while the new monster tower is in Gotham City. The flats, would be family oriented so that nobody gets neglected.

Where are all the enclosed rides? Enclosed rides? I've mentioned putting Joker's Jinx inside an enclosed dark building, but people tell me it's too expensive; so I stopped suggesting it. To get back on topic, they could easily start improving Fright Fest this coming season. The board of directory mentioned they wanted to get Six Flags parks back to it's former style of Fright Fest. I feel that's a good place to start this coming season. Two-Face's old spot could easily be used for a huge tent. Inside, they could install walls and all different types of props for whatever type of theme they want. They could also remove the tables and stuff from the Pavilion area and set up walls for a rather sizable maze. I would even shut off the lamp post back there, so that's it's dark. Only lights back there would be a few lamp post and lights from the line queue and maze. There are other areas, they could use but I don't want to name them all in this post. To make guests even more happier, the haunted mazes would be free with park admission. Sense KD and SFA was being compared, why not start right there. Guests would appreciate it more in the long run if they were treated to good quality mazes with no additional charge. If the mazes are actually good, guests will continue to buy park tickets or season passes each year and return.

Shouldn't be too bad.

I wouldn't add a Zac Spin to SFA, neither would I add one to KD. It's just not the style of the two parks. It's on the lines of unique, but if you asked more people from SFA or KD, what they wanted they would probably vote for B&M Invert. Don't get me wrong, you could add a zacspin coaster, but look at what KD has. KD gained a suspended top spin ride, while we lost Iron Eagle and replaced it with a stage. KD has an intamin suspended launch coaster, while we only have Mind Eraser as our suspended Intamin. KD has an indoor premier launch compared to our struggling Joker's Jinx that experiences roll backs and valleys. They have a 305 ft Intamin sky coaster compared to our 205 ft Intamin sky coaster. They have a B&M coaster, compared to us not having one at all. We use to be able to say that we had two Vekomas; one being a suspended invertigo while the other being a flying dutchman. We still have the flying dutch-man but it's always been a maintenance problem. The only thing we can say we have are cheaper prices and better water park than KD. As for the Fall season. Our Halloween theme does not compare anything to KD's sense Cedar Fair bought them. Those who have been to KD's HAUNT season, knows what I mean. I'm not saying that SFA has to try and out do every attraction that KD has done, but they need to address the areas in where KD has succeeded.

Actually no, that was the past me. I'm aware that the economy has got things on a struggle and that it's hard for theme park companies to take gambles on these big coaster attractions. Therefore, I have came up with a lot of other smaller ideas that would work. One could say that the company doesn't want to invest in SFA, which could be a reason why we have not received spanking new attractions. But if you look at it, we went through management changes. Look at the history. When Burke was CEO we received Two-Face, Joker's Jinx, Superman, Batwing, Penguins Blizzard River and Hurricane Harbor. When Danny and Shapiro took the seat, they replaced our former GM Janet Porter and brought in Terry Prather from SFNO. He later on left and went to BGE and now is president of one of the Sea Worlds. When Shapiro was at the seat, all he did for other parks were ride revamps. So when you look at it, we weren't neglected that much. We lost a couple of rides like Two-Face and Iron Eagle, but the new board can easily replace them. It just felt that way because of the economy. Summer of 2010, Shapiro and Danny were kicked off the board and we received Alexander Weber as interim CEO. Now Jim Reid-Anderson is our CEO and Alexander Weber is chairman if I'm correct. We aren't being neglected at all. The new board of directory is trying to learn the parks. So basically it all comes down to transition.

Rather than fitting a compact B&M coaster in there, they could make that whole area into a sub-theme section. I would call it Ship Wreck Cove. Rather than adding a coaster, they could add something like Tomb:Raider Fire fall, but with a haunted pirate theme. That would be the main attraction for this sub-theme section. Other than the ride, there would be games, shops and restaurants. I personally feel, that big amount of space can be used for a lot more than just one small compact coaster. I would much rather them save the high investment and try and add a B&M in Gotham City for 2013. Maybe then, will they complete the park in a loop. Sense I normally get smashed for thinking up this imaginary coaster ideas, I figured this would be better. The suspended top spin, Pirate themed ride, would serve as a replacement for Iron Eagle. That way we get one of our lost attractions back and a cool theme area with games and shops with it. If done right, both families and teens would be happy.

I actually remember shareholders grumbling over Six Flags's investment in the smaller parks. Burke was accused of neglecting the big parks, specifically Great Adventure which provided the impetus to approve "Nitro" and "Superman Ultimate Flight". It's easy to get upset at Great Adventure, Great America, and Magic Mountain taking the lion's share of CapEx. These parks bring in 2/3 of all Six Flags's income however, with Great America being the most profitable at the time. While Six Flags doesn't break out individual park figures, analysts speculated how "flagging" impacted overall performance, and wanted Six Flags to abandon their vision. It's not feasible to expand each park into a property larger than its market will bare. For whatever reason, Six Flags America can't break through the ceiling of being ran as anything but a small park. I don't think that property will ever grow unless the Koch Family or Ed Hart runs the place. Six Flags invested big time in the former Adventure World initially. The park just didn't perform well enough to warrant further major investments. You are correct in this post. The best thing the smaller parks had going for them was Burke. That's one of the reasons why we have the current rides that we have. If he hadn't of invested in our park before he lost his job, we would barely have anything right now. Until this very day, I thank Burke for Superman, Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, Batwing and Hurricane Harbor. Moving on now; SFA's case is very rare. We have proved that we can bring in big crowds, so why do people think we can't break the ceiling? The company has to realize that they must add in order for people to come. People are not going to flood the park before the company agrees to build something. The people have to see something before they pull money out their pockets to spend there. They could have easily rolled the dice on this park by adding Chang, but once again they sent it to Great Adventure. SFA would have received it's big crowds again if people saw a brand new coaster. Tiburon is right. This doesn't just go for SFA, but a lot of the other small Six Flags parks as well. As much as guests would love them to, the company is not going to turn these smaller parks into mega parks. I feel that the best bet they have going for them would be for Six Flags to sell them and Burke and his company to buy them. I personally feel that if Six Flags put SFA up for sale, Burke would buy it and continue his plan to expand it. He already owns a water park in Virginia and he bought back Wymont Lake. SFA would be his Great Adventure.

Sorry, I forgot about Penguins Blizzard River. Does't get people as wet at Renegade and Shipwreck Falls, so I miscounted. My mistake. As for a path to connect the three themed sections; that's possible. Unless they wanted it to whip around the turn of Wild One near Skull Mountain and connect it to Whistlestop Park. As for the River Battle ride, that's possible. I doubt they want to pay money to fill in a sunken area. Not really expecting them to build anything major either. If it's going to be a ride, it could easily be plenty of space for a mouse coaster and a few other smaller flats. Normally, I would bring my imagination up for them to build something thrill related in it's place; but I've disregarded all that with SFA. I have to agree with coasterNERD on this one. It will probably be room for something like Buccaneer battle. It's the easiest thing for them to do.

I have to agree a lot with this post. They should definitely be adding, rather than removing. My guess is that they have had so many problems with the Skull Mountain is the past, that they just want to remove it. And it's not just losing a ride, it's losing a water ride. Other than the attractions located in Hurricane Harbor, the park will only have Ship Wreck Falls as a water ride. Even though Skull Mountain had it's problems, the park could still market that it had two water rides in the dry side of the park. As for what they are adding, I'm predicting they will add a variety of small attractions in there. Skull Mountain's course sit's a good amount of space. They could add on more to the family experience.

Perhaps SOMEONE will bring up the question of why the park has been passed over for a coaster time & time again over the last decade & given an answer as to when the next major addition will be made at the park? Not to start a rant, but the answer to that question will probably be an "I don't know". The park keeps going threw new GM's so they probably won't know. The only person that would have an answer for that was Terry Prather. He worked under the Dan Snyder and Shapiro stint. I once asked him if he would be able to convince Mark Shapiro to relocated Batman: The Ride from Prather's SFNO, and he replied back saying "I'm really trying to convince him". Prather is now the president for one of the Sea World parks.

I'm happy to hear this. I'm a fan of Kieran Burke. He did good in adding popular attractions to Six Flags parks. Him and Gary Story will do very good with this water park. The Virginia Beach area is in need of a decent theme park area. Other than the beach, I normally go to motor world or walk threw some of the haunted houses. A good water park with state of the art attractions, will attract more people.

Thank you for posting this. I want to say it's sounds similar to the Florida version. But the way you described it, made it sound like it was launching at top performance. Hmmmm, now you got me thinking. Maybe when I first rode it back in 2005, it was just a hit or miss. Maybe they just had it launching at top performance. And sense it has been 5 years sense then, technicians have done all types of stuff to it. So that pretty much answers it. By the way, how is Battle Star Galactica doing?

Yes. I figured if it pushed you back into your seat, then it operates at top performance. The Florida version no longer does this anymore. Back when I rode it in 2005, you heard the LIM's slightly jerked the train when he said "Your Souls". Once he got to the word "MINE", the train trusted up to 40 mph pushing you back into your seat. Now it lags in power and feels as if your going up a slightly faster mall escalator. That's all I wanted to know.

There is a strong pull but like all magnetic launch rides, the car reaches top speed about 1/2 way up on the hill. I've recently been on a backstage tour of the Singapore RoTM, if you've got any questions feel free to ask away Sure, I have tones of questions about the Singapore Mummy's performance. Reason why I ask is because the launch of the Florida version has gone down a great deal. Not sure why, but the launches aren't nearly as fast as they use to be. Does the launch on the Singapore Mummy give you a strong pull on the launch hill? Or does it kind of feel as if it's struggling to pull you up?

I'm sorry if that was a bad post. I did not mean for it to be. I actually tried to keep that one professional. I mentioned the company a lot and how they could do it. I was not ranting in anyway. I apologize if I broke a rule. I won't do it again. I apologize.

If Six Flags Entertainment wants to become more of a theme park business, they have to start treating it like one. That starts with individual imagineering teams for each park. I did admire Mark Shapiro's idea of making Six Flags parks, more on the theme park scale. I give him credit for trying, but he didn't have a lot of money and time to work with. This is something for the new regime to consider. Investing in imagineering is a major plus in putting your parks on the theme level scale. Sense, Six Flags does not have the money that Disney does, it would be on a much lower level. Six Flags Entertainment could easily buy a company like (Technifex) and expand on the staff. Technifex has done numerous themes for rides, animatronics, special effects and so much. Expanding the staff of that company would make it possible to design a whole themed area for a theme park. I think thats the direction that Six Flags Entertainment should shoot for. Now getting the financing for an investment like this can be difficult. But Stark Investments gave Six Flags a tone of money, so why not find one that can invest us in creating an imagineering division? Once the imagineering staff is in place, each park that Six Flags owns would get a team. Of course the big parks like Great Adventure, Magic Mountain, Over Texas and Great America would get their teams first. Depending on the rate that an investment group can give them, determines how many more expansion teams can be provided for other parks. Once a park receives an imagineering team, it is smart for Six Flags to post marketing advertisement inside that specific park so that park guests will know that the company is making a significant investment in the park. I believe this is possible and can be achieved if Six Flags puts their minds to it. Disney did it, so why can't six Flags do it on a smaller level. As the company gains more profit and attention from newer investors, the level at what the teams perform at would increase. Bigger projects could be done and every park would get updates quicker.

Can I ask a question about the Mummy ride in Singapore? Does your Mummy ride launch hill have a strong pull on it? Or does it kind of lag in true speed when your on the launch hill?

They were really good with line jumping the times I visited this year. Even having local police lead the offenders (who became rowdy and aggressive) from the park in handcuffs. In another note, I got an e-mail asking me to rate Fright Fest. I gave it pretty low ratings. I mean there were a few decent scares, but when you only have two mazes, one of them shouldn't be upcharged . I hope there are some improvements next year for Fright Fest. I don't expect the park to upgrade to a HAUNT or Howl-O-Scream type event within a year but for starters: -NO UPCHARGHE MAZES!!!111oneoneone!!! -More mazes. Maybe just one more? Please? A lot of the buildings in Southwest Territory have potential. -More Scare Actors on the path. I saw three roaming the entire park. That'd be my start. Hell, cross off the last two, JUST NO MORE UPCHARGED MAZES! Good post. I agree on the no upcharge for mazes. I think they should be free with park admission/season pass. KD gives you a good collection of quality scare mazes, free with park admission. But let me get on to an idea I had for the company as a hole. Has anyone ever thought about Six Flags Entertainment breaking their task up into teams? For example, there would be a team that specializes in rides, a team for games, a team for shows and a team for Fright Fest attractions. Almost like Disney imagineering, but on a semi-level. Each team would be given a number of parks that they have to design stuff for. This would eliminate this whole debate about how certain parks get treated better than others. For example, if Six Flags were to brand a scary maze attraction, numerous versions of that maze would be made for every park, if they had the space for one. Same thing goes for the rides. If Six Flags start some type of Arkham Asylum dark ride, different versions would be made for every park, depending on the space they had. To sum up what I just said, this idea would be to help the board of directors. Sometimes I feel the lack of creativity comes from there being over worked and not having any real knowledge on what makes a park good. Even Ed Hart mentioned in his interview that "It's all about the rides". If the board of directors are simply over worked and are lacking in creativity, how much attention do you think a park like SFA is going to get? I'm beginning to think this park would benefit more if it were owned by an independent guy like Ed Hart. Maybe individual attention would benefit SFA more.

^ Thanks Larry. I have to say, your a true friend. After watching the videos, I am very impressed on what Mr. Hart plans on doing with the park. He told the truth and nothing but the truth. "It's all about the rides". He mentioned the rides they added to make the park successful, and then he mentioned what Six Flags didn't do and it resulted in the park closing. Even though, this is not my home park, I can't wait to see what Mr. Hart does with it. Within time he will probably put it on a new level of entertainment.

I suppose your implying that I sound like a broke record. But to tell you the truth, that was a legit question. Maybe you didn't know that Shapiro and Dan Snyder are gone and that the company has a new regime. So it sparks question as to what will come for most of the parks. So once again, it's up for debate as to what will come for SFA. Will we wait three years before seeing anything, will we be sold, or will the new regime add some rides to our park.

Can someone tell me what Mr Hart plans on doing to revive his theme park?

What year do you think, Six Flags America will start seeing a lot of corporate attention? We saw sparks of attention, on and off with Shapiro. Then finally he starts showing major interest by adding the biggest Thomas Land in the chain. How long will we have to wait before the new regime gives us attention? If we do get attention, what will we receive? Will he do the same thing Shapiro did and add to our water park? Will we began to see attention immediately?

Exactly. I'm not saying that it has to be a huge dark ride, but it could be used for something along the lines of an indoor attraction. The reason why I said tie it in with Gotham City is because Thomas Town will soon be chancing it's theme. An idea I had for Thomas Town would be to change it into a Gotham theme, with stores, games and maybe some flats. If they turned Skull Mountain into an indoor DC Comic themed ride, the exit would lead guests right out the back of the building and into the Thomas Land/Gotham City themed area. I don't want to go off into a tangent about ride ideas, because I'm trying to keep it about theme and improvements for SFA. As for the Thomas Land area, they should consider buying some new flats. I have the perfect idea for swinging ride. Take a look at this ride. We could pick it up for dirt cheap. Even though it doesn't seat that many people, it swings you high enough and looks appealing in the night air. It would fit well in the Thomas Land area. Watch the video.

I had a small idea for Skull Mountain/Typhoon Sea Coaster. Every time I look at that ride, I get the feeling that it could easily be turned into a decent indoor attraction. Where it becomes a small indoor coaster, special effects pirate show or an all year haunted house; it could be used for something. I believe it's had it's days as an out water ride. The only real theme you get from it, is where you are inside a few of the tunnels and looking at it from a distance to observe to skull face. Other than that, there is nothing unique about it. Let's also keep in mind that, Skull Mountain and the swinging pirate ship across from it are the only two pirate attractions for that area. Roar is a bit of a stand alone theme and should be tied in more with Coyote Creek. Then down from that you have Ship Wreck Falls. Here is a small idea I had in mind. Make Shipwreck Falls and Roar apart of the Coyote Creek theme. Retire Skull Mountain as a water ride and make it a full indoor attractions for something DC Comic related. That way it could be tied into Gotham City. Think of something Joker related. In the link I am posting, scroll down to the 5th picture of the coaster kart inside of warehouse. Think of something like that inside a transformed indoor Skull Mountain with nice theme. http://www.gamesradar.com/f/what-we-already-know-about-batman-arkham-asylum-2/a-20091215121615570047/p-2

Well lets not turn this into an SFA topic. Lets talk about all the Thomas Town's in the chain. Depending on the type of area that they are in, will determine the theme they get. In my opinion, thats the best way to do it, so that it doesn't look out of place. A lot of SF rides have that image. A lot of this was caused when Premier Parks purchases properties, put their name on the front entrance and added the Batman name to their attractions. This is why Six Flags is more of an amusement park, than a theme park. Theme parks, actually have themed attractions and areas, where the rides match their surroundings. To become a theme park, they have to start building actual themed attractions. Shapiro started this on a small level with The Dark Knight indoor coasters. Were they over hyped? Yes. Were enthusiast fooled by the commercial? Yes. But it was the first step, for moving Six Flags into a theme park business. I'm surprised Shapiro never made any changes to Skull Mountain at Great Adventure. Anyone could have looked at that and said (BAT-CAVE).