DirkFunk

Red Force has downtime. It'll probably have issues in August because its gonna be stupid hot. I saw it running two trains and it was a walk-on. A ten minute walk away in PortAventura, Furius Baco had a 90 minute wait posted. Once they give admission to everyone in the resorts starting on 6/24, the attendance should improve a bit. Honestly, its kinda offensive that I had to pay for it while people in peak season get it for free, but whatever. I probably won't be back for years. Or ever. Who knows.

Fractured Prune is an anchor of my visits to Ocean City MD. So delicious. Too bad the Michigan (!) location closed recently.

Quick Ferrari Land takes: -At least right now, no one is going. There's merch deals inside, the racing simuators (based on what I believe is RFactorPro) are free instead of upcharge, and the promotional pricing is being given to just about everyone. Onsite hotels will begin including admission there for a day later this week. This is great if you're around and want to ride their stuff endlessly. Unfortunately they only really have 5 rides and a show in beating hot sun. -Red Force is better than Kingda Ka, not as good as Dragster. Further back in the train the vibration on the bottom of the top hat is more noticeable. I don't consider it un-rideable. -Flying theater is solid. Standard Motion simulator got zero reaction from riders we were with. There's 3 pre-shows for the latter and another video in the load area. -Car ride seemed to be a disaster. People literally screwing parts of it together as cars were going around. Ours just died when we pulled up to the station. -Merch is expensive, but right now you can get a shirt and hat for 50 EUR, which is less than the list of just the shirt alone (52EUR). If they don't plan to double the number of rides ASAP, then they need to advertise that no one is in it to get people to go as an alternative to Express. JMHO. Also I'm concerned seeing the decrepit boat ride and several flats/restaurants being out of service that the resort has been investing heavy into the new gate and less into PortAventura (AKA where people actually pay money to go).

Yeah, I get why they do that, but it really negatively affects the ability of people with younger kids to go on the ride in spite of the systems being entirely safe for smaller riders. Dahlonega Mine Train has identical everything to CCMR and it's 42", for example. All of this to save a little money? Meh.

The Kennywood 2018 coaster has already gone in front of the zoning commission. That being said, no one knows officially who is building it though RMC's been the rumored party for awhile now.

Then why not go to St. Louis instead? It is literally on the route from Detroit to Dallas. SFOG-> Kemah is 12 hours of straight driving + 1 hour lost for change to Central time + time for food/bathrooms/gas. The only part of the loop you'd need to repeat might be a section of 94 in Michigan between I-69 and 23/275. That's not including the time needed to get to Georgia from Kings Island either, which is another 8 hours. That's 20+ hours of transit to pick up a season pass where there's a more convenient location to go anyhow. And you live 4-4 1/2 hours from Kings Island! Just go for a weekend! None of the Six Flags parks are two day parks if you have a QBot, but seriously, whether or not you spend 2 days at SFFT is really not the biggest concern on your schedule.

You're adding about 17-18 hours of driving in a two day span and making it damn near impossible to enjoy anything in Kemah or Galveston so you can credit whore at Six Flags Over Georgia. And you're doing that on a day where you're probably going to need a Q-Bot because there's just no way you're getting there at opening. Just get your passes at St. Louis. Save yourself and your family the trouble. Otherwise, it looks like you're not leaving any time for you or your family to see any sights in Texas. OK, I guess.

Hotels only for tourists. I believe there are some spots to buy it if you have a license provided from the government for home use, but that's a Dubai Dave question.

The internet sez Legoland California is $84. Buying a BGW ticket onsite is listed at $90. The Florida SEAS parks are more expensive too. But yeah, a pretty short list. And all of them are outfitted a little different than Coney Island. I'd probably be sufficiently satiated if I paid $100 for the card for my wife and I should I end up there, say, Sunday...

Well, first off, if you haven't bought tickets yet, don't, because they might fall in price further to like $5. It really did a couple of years ago. Second, yes, it can be that bad. It might be the very worst park in the nation. That someone hasn't been killed there recently by an operating ride is literally thanks to dumb luck and the magic of modern medical science.

There are forums and sites devoted to points churning. If you don't know what that is, then probably learn soon. The most basic advice possible is sometimes best: -If you are a healthy adult under the age of 50 and living in the United States of America, travel insurance is almost always a waste of money. Period. It is intended to protect you in the instance of cancellation based on a set of criteria that is frankly difficult to meet. If you've never spent real time reviewing contractual language in your life, spend a little before checking off "yes" on any travel site's insurance offer. The reason they love you to buy it is because it is free money and requires an enormous number of hoops to clear in order to see it pay out any sum, if they will at all. -Stick to a single hotel chain if possible and not churning, and take advantage of promotions that offer free nights. No brainer. -See if your employer or an organization that you're part of participates with any specific travel partners. I can't tell you how many times I've reaped the benefits of this in rental cars because of my employer's relationship with National and Enterprise. So, so many. -The absolute cheapest trip you can book is the one you book and research yourself. This isn't for everyone. I know it. I get it. But there's no commission to pay on a trip you book entirely on your own. You can go anywhere anytime and eat anything because you plan it, you book it, and you pay for it. The second you have a tour guide of any kind, YOU WILL PAY A PREMIUM. You may like this a lot! You may not want to plan minutae! Lots of people don't. But if you want the cheapest trip possible, you have to throw yourself into it headlong. No two ways about it.

If they decided to stagger it and commit to X number of rides and restaurants being open for opening/preview weekend with that being announced in advance and reduced ticket prices, absolutely. I would have no issues with it whatsoever. I would even be OK if they chose to run those for two or three weeks further out than they currently do. Opening day is opening day. If you go to a Major League Baseball game and your local team only fielded 8 players for the starting lineup stating, "hey, its opening day, what can you expect?" you'd be a little frustrated, right? Same here.

I look back at notes and I see the same things over and over. Gemini ran one side for opening day last year and in 2015. This year it wasn't even running. 2015 was particularly hideous; I recall Millennium Force cycling empty seemingly forever because, again, they didn't get their test rides in for the year before the gates opened. MaxAir didn't make the bell in 2016 or 2011. And that's just rides that didn't open at all. Tons open late or with limited trains (sometimes with ride vehicles parked on the ground next to the attraction). I can't openly blame them every year: 2013's weather was middling for example. But then again, they closed every single coaster in the park except Wicked Twister on that Sunday. Even Woodstock's and Jr. Gemini. They actually had to think about whether or not to open Wicked Twister to have something because they were afraid it might valley, though at some point common sense prevailed (derp, it valleys by design) and it did. Do I have a platinum pass? Sure. I still drive about 360 or miles round trip to go there, often pay tolls at least in one direction (if not both), and usually stay overnight when I visit. For me to keep going back for opening when they don't seem to care about having a fully functioning park is kinda a big deal to me. So I wait....

Their job is to run a theme park. That means they get their rides certified and attract employees to work for them. If I fail at the tasks or objectives of my job/project, I lose my funding and job. They can just make excuses. To be even more pointed: they don't consider this a failure in spite of providing me, the customer, a subpar experience for the same money. If I don't seem empathetic, there are reasons.

That's why millennium wasn't open on pass holder preview night in 2015. My guess would be because of the water park construction? Couldn't test the ride until a certain part of construction was finished This stuff happens every year. That's why I stopped going to opening weekend. If they can't bother to get the park operating the way it should be, I can't bother to spend money with them.

My point here is really that this is easy to nitpick to death. "Park operators must follow the manufacturer's guidelines" is the classic sort of old wives tale that becomes part of historical fact when it isn't. It isn't in ASTM guidelines. There are some states which indicate this in their bylaws (OH), others which don't (NJ), and some which have no regulation whatsoever (AZ, KS).

You'd need to ask Rob Decker why it is seat belts have been added to every single ride in the chain except trains and some flumes.

If I had to bet money on the original poster's question, it would be the mid 80s and onward and has everything to do with insurance costs.

Don't quote me on this being fact, but the urban legend I always hear is that Disney always lists themselves as the manufacturer of their rides. If that's the case, they can make their own rules. Other parks are bound by what the manufacturers themselves say has to be done. If that were the case, then we'd see the same alterations across all rides instead of on a park-to-park or chain basis and the same exact safety procedures everywhere in the world. See also: Cedar Fair & Seat belts, European parks use of "self restraint check".

Knowing that at this point, almost any rain shuts down 3/4 of the rides and wind does the same, I wouldn't waste my time going if the weather doesn't look anything other than "generally perfect".

Depends how much time you've spent at the park before. For me living within a few hours drive and going 3-4 weekends a year for many years now, I love to go but I hate opening weekend. Crowds are sometimes huge, weather is unpredictable, and staffing is low. Historically they don't have a bunch of rides up and going, half the food stands are closed up, and as much as I look forward to going to the park, it usually feels...subpar? I'm planning to head there for the second week of ops (they need all the time they can get) and then again in perhaps late June. By then everything is generally clicking and going well and will be through into the second week or so of August.

Six Flags has discussed raising ticket prices on recent calls, but I stress this again (I do it often): there is not actually a correlation between increased profit and increased re-investment. In fact, steady profits disincline major capital investment because there is little need to do so, and encourage more minor changes. This is also why in spite of discussing increasing prices, Six Flags' corporate office is discussing decreasing the percentage of revenue to be reinvested into the parks for annual capex.

I don't think Bill said that it was the sole or primary driver for that decision. And perhaps they do have those announcements, but they can't count that money as part of "Project 600" until the check is cut. Also the idea was brought in specifically on the call as "water park acquisition" and discussion of buying/leasing water parks vs. theme parks was probably 10:1 in favor of water parks. It seems pretty clear that they are really looking at water parks.

I entirely get the rationale. The issue is that unless the park is fairly well established and built out, it won't have much of a fan base to generate that season passholder increase without significant capital investment. In which point, you might as well start building more indoor rides at existing parks and extending the season. Bill is right: it isn't that Vietnam falling through caused them to make this decision, it is that they're starting to hit the wall in terms of growth with their strategy. They can't increase season pass purchases by another 40% over the next 5 years without having more gates. It isn't possible. But those gates cost money, which is money they don't have, which is money they need to borrow. And they'll need to borrow a lot of it to buy/lease established parks with visitor bases or if they buy smaller parks that need capital expenditures. And to be frank, there ain't a helluva lot of them any more. They ran probably half of those places out of business. Water parks as complements to their own dry park offerings make the most sense. Maybe they can take over a couple of struggling parks out there like Alabama Adventure, Sea World San Antonio or Mount Olympus that fit this bill, but we aren't on the verge of some great new wave of Six Flags dry park acquisitions.

Bill is killing this thread. I barely need to say anything. I will point out a few things: -There's been an explosion in the indoor water park market across the US, but Great Wolf Lodge lost a ton of money and wound up being bought up on the cheap by Apollo. That business model rides with the success of attached hotels, and Six Flags' capability to operate hotels is at best suspect. -Hotels can be enormously profitable enterprises. However, hotels are not integrated into the Six Flags corporate structure well at all. That's a lot of internal stuff that needs to be created in addition to the actual physical hotels. Also, there's no actual evidence of market demand for a Six Flags branded hotel anywhere. I think water parks would be the wise thing to invest in and I'm sure they already know that. I have no idea why Six Flags would buy FECs or really small parks. I can't for the life of me picture how buying a Castle Park or Clementon is going to do anything for them without significant investment in new rides and attractions those places have no room for.