prozach626

No offense, but that song and video of the childlike enthusiast supports my belief that maybe I'm starting to outgrow this... That's exactly the next step in our lives that we're looking for. We talk about it when we're at parks. I don't think the issue with most adults is the insecurity of what other people will think when visiting alone. I'd bet that for most it's the fact that not being with someone at a park would be boring. For that personal reason, I wouldn't consider it. The biggest thrill I have left is experiencing parks with my wife. In that aspect, the atmosphere of a park becomes just as important, if not more so, than the rides. Hence why Six Flags parks don't really cater to us, anymore. My wife and I were fascinated by Coney Island. There was an equal amount of adults as there were kids. I wish we'd had more than a couple hours so that we could hang out on the beach, eat a dog or slice of pizza, grab a beer on the boardwalk, and ride just a few rides. A place like that has a wide range of things to offer that can be experienced in small doses. Our desires of multiple re-rides on an intense ride themed to faded images of comic book characters are quickly going away. It actually kind of sucks losing interest in something you remember enjoying for so many years. It comes and goes, but I've increasingly felt it for the past few seasons. Interests change, I guess. You can't force it. These are just our personal experiences and we're hoping to eventually have the same experience that DILinator has.

Just pushing more advertising our won't do the trick. Six Flags is a local park. Holiday World is a destination. The two are hard to compare. Yes, Six Flags is larger and can offer more thrills and attractions. But, the people I know who go to Holiday World do it for cheap trips with their families, which is exactly the kind of experience they advertise and offer. You and the kids can spend a couple nights at the campground and visit a small, clean, and friendly family oriented theme park that entices parents with things like free sunscreen, free soft drinks, and free parking. It's a quick getaway that is always a hit with families. What a simplistically brilliant way of making families want to visit the park, since things like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, and Haloween are already intertwined with the concept of spending time with family and making great memories. You can't put Batman: The Ride up against that. It's not a fair comparison. Holiday World's advertisements here will be a lot more effective than our advertisements in Santa Clause. You have to change what the park is and change what it's known for in order to reach beyond the local area. But, that's not going to happen and regardless of what enthusiasts say, it doesn't need to happen. The park is making a sustainable predictable profit. There's no reason to change anything or add the abstract idea of what enthusiasts would consider to be a 'signature attraction.' I'm also not really sure how SFSTL vomiting deals all over my email inbox isn't advertising. "Come to our park next Wednesday, bring four people free, and receive a ten dollar bill just by walking in the gate."

^^^

Seriously, it looked terrible. The expressionless faces of the riders after the cycle finished was hilarious. There wasn't even a full cycle wait in the queue. On top of that, there were a few rows of sun exposed permanent spectator benches set up in front of the ride with not a single person sitting in them. I really hope we don't get one. I'm curious if Six Flags is satisfied with the outcome.

We don't have any kids, but actually we're going to start trying for our one-and-done child next month. There's no better time to start than while we're in Hawaii! We talk about how fun it will be to take our kid to parks and watch the transition from kiddie rides to riding a first big coaster. We're ready to move on to the next chapter. It will also feel a little less awkward in parks when we have a child with us...

I live 20-30 minutes from St. Louis, but we're in Illinois. Technically you could call that central Illinois, despite being in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. I'll play devil's advocate here. Most adults won't go out of their way to visit amusement parks and I really can't say I blame them after our last trip to SFGadv. I mostly saw two categories of people consisting of teenagers and families with young children. It's just starting to feel weird being in my mid 30's with no kids surrounded by these two groups. There's no doubt that we definitely don't fit in and I can really feel my wife losing interest in all this stuff. When we hit SFGadv and Canada's Wonderland last week we did so on a trip including Philadelphia, New York, and Toronto. Where as parks used to be the main focus of our trips, they're our secondary focus, anymore. Our more exciting personal interests have shifted toward local culture and sight seeing outside of parks. We get more out of it. I do think that there is a difference between Six Flags parks and Cedar Fair parks. I feel less out of place at CF parks, since their atmosphere and appearance are generally much nicer. Adults don't want to spend their time surrounded faded paint and poorly maintained areas, which is why we see more people like us at SF parks. CF parks also usually include patios and other places to relax or enjoy a drink while taking in the scenery and people watching. CF parks seem to focus more on the atmosphere and less on the rides. It's a turnoff for me to queue up in a comic book themed ride while the park blares teen pop music. Aside from just throwing more bars into the mix, SF seems to do a lot less to appeal to adults. There's nothing wrong with their strategy. It works. It just doesn't really fit into our interests, anymore. Most of my peers 'like' roller coasters. But, being so close to SFStl they don't know what a good park is. Also, our most modern ride is 20 years old. More than that, the focus of our peers is elsewhere. My friends are raising families and they don't have much spare time. Going to a place filled with rowdy teens and large crowds isn't appealing to them. Even the people our age without kids would much rather spend a relaxing evening having a couple drinks on their patios, going out somewhere nice for dinner, or if they're feeling adventurous, going to a baseball or hockey game. Doing what you're familiar with is relaxing, because you know what to expect. When our peers travel, they go to the beach where it's much more relaxing. All inclusive resort's are very popular destinations around here. Why? Because occupations and other obligations consume our lives to where when we have free time a lot of us need relief, not an adventure. Emily and I will still visit parks, but aside from spending a couple hours during the evening every once in a while at SFStl, or making a half day trip to SFGam with our favorite pizza and lounging at the hotel being 50% of our priority, we're going to kind of distancing ourselves SF parks after SFGadv. Parks like CP are different, but the majority of their advertisements still place emphasis on families with young children. That's their focus. Mid 30 years olds are not their market. My wife and I at the turning point now, where we're ready to start taking the steps to make that our focus, too. Her and I visiting parks alone is starting to get redundant, even when we visit new parks. There's nothing wrong with visiting parks as an adult. But, don't expect any more than a few exceptions of mature adults to share the same enthusiasm. We're hobbyists and this is a specific interest. Think of it as model building. MORE kids are into model building than adults. It doesn't make it unacceptable for adults to be into the hobby. But, don't expect more adults to want to build models with you. They've outgrown it.

I'm really late to the game on the long conversations taking place. I was on a 9 day trip to Philadelphia, SFGadv, NYC, Toronto, and Canada's Wonderland. (shameless brag) As far as the brief tourbillion mentioning goes, I hope that's not the case. I saw one operate at SFGadv. I wanted to take a look, since it seemed like such a cool concept that I thought would provide great visuals. Emily and I sat there for at least five minutes waiting for the ride to cycle. The operators, despite being typical unmotivated operators, seemed to have a lot of complications when loading. I'm not sure why. Once the ride did cycle it wasn't that entertaining to watch. I heard no screams, no laughter, and none of the typical howls of excitement. When the ride stopped, a very short time later, most looked dizzy or bored. Seriously. An endeavor is more entertaining to watch and from all of the usual guest howls, it seems much more fun. It's good to hear Tidal Wave is coming back. Given what seems to be SF's recent business strategy I'm sure we'll get something. I can only wish that whatever we get comes with some refurbishment of the general area it's in. On another note, Emily and I still need to get to the park this year. Due to several factors I'm not sure that will happen.

I was at the park today, too. Why not Anti-anxiety medications?? Good luck.

I couldn't find any definitive information, but do you have to buy a pass to get into the park? Or, do you have the option to buy an unlimited wristband or tickets? We pretty much only want to ride Cyclone a couple times and walk around. We're going to head there Monday. I know if we do decide to go the wrist band route we'll buy ahead of time online. Do we have to print tickets or can they scan or look at an email? Any suggestions? I've heard parking is a problem. We also plan on getting a hot dog from the original Nathans.

OMFG that's great, Kim!!

You guys are acting like Tidal Wave is going anywhere except backwards, with the new for 2020 Tidal Wave Reverse Splash. If you don't think that's a bid deal then you clearly haven't contemplated the likelihood of fireballs added next to the drop. Similar to when David Freese was a first ride on Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast, Jake Allen is going to promote the ride since his career has also gone backwards.

Hey guys. Just to let you know, I have inside information on what the park is getting next year. It's not going to be in all of the places where it makes sense not to be located. It's also not going to be a roller coaster where evidence of preparation would already likely have been seen. I can't tell you what it is. I'm risking my career just to provide you guys with a little worthless conversation. Also, what I know can change in an instant so I really don't know what the new addition will be even though I already know it but you don't know it but I know it but I can't let you know what it is that I know that I may not really know because no one knows if it will change and I can't let you know who I am or they will know and I know I'll be out of a job just to let you know I probably know nothing but I want pretend to keep you in the know. Please pay attention to me.

Sorry I was a little harsh. I think you kind of 'did it wrong,' though. There are a lot of good options at the park. You just have to follow the advice of frequent visitors and go during off hours to eat and go to the right places. Sucks, since you're a long way away from any decent park and you didn't have a stellar experience. I've been to parks before where I really wasn't impressed, but on my revisits I change up the formula and get a much better outcome. I know you were there to ride, like you said. But, it can really change the overall experience to invest a little more time in all of the things that will make the memory more positive. Little things like food and stopping to relax and taken in the atmosphere can really make a big difference. Every bit counts. I'm not sure how deep you are into the hobby at this point, but I think a large portion of us focus less on riding and more on the bigger picture the longer we do this. I hope you have a better experience next time around.

^Yeah, I'm sure by the time the 90's his it would have been pretty much impossible to keep that gravel arranged. Damned MTV kids...

When we went they had a time set aside for happy hour where you could get a draft beer and Crab Fries for $10. I highly recommend this.

Troll or not, I don't give a shit. I'm not paying attention to him in reference to this subject. We'll see what happens in August.

Where's a good place near SF to grab a somewhat quick meal and a beer for dinner? For lunch, do they have wraps or anything remotely healthy in the park? We like to eat at least somewhat clean for lunch and we don't care as much for dinner.

^So basically stopping Diamondback at the block makes the second half ride like Intimidator at Carowinds?

If you look at the volume of people purchasing food at the festival events opposed to the volume of people in the park there's no comparison. The festival events are not practical for most families and younger people don't care about them. So, you're looking at way less people split up among a fraction of the guests. Try this strategy with the entire park and it's going to fail. All of the restaurants were packed when we visited in June and the longest line I saw at the food festival stations were maybe a few people deep, if they had any line at all. They're also serving about sample size portions and simply collecting coupons. I have to think that events like this are more geared to bring people in the park than to make a profit off of food. Most importantly: People praise Steel Vengeance, but they bitch about parking, bitch about Fast Lane customers, bitch about merchandise costs, and bitch about food. Where does the money to build these large attractions come from? There's a lot more to making money than the cost of admission. You can't cry about the food and then say, "What kind of 20 million dollar coaster do you think Cedar Point will get for their 150th anniversary?" I feel like a lot of this goes back to Robb's spot on "Don't be a Theme park idiot" post in reference to purchasing food. Kid of like waiting in line for 30 minutes to buy burned chicken strips. If you're into this hobby and expect anything other than some of the aforementioned experiences then you're not good at adapting. We like going to Cedar Point because they're one of the few large corporate parks that actually offers some diversity from dry pizza and stamped hamburgers. I named six different examples just off the top of my head where Cedar Fair has 'stepped up their game' over other parks. If you're expecting anything else then pack a cooler lunch.

I'm sorry, but I don't believe the line was at a dead standstill for 30 minutes waiting for someone to get change for the cash register, while you and other customers just stood there. If that actually did happen and you stayed there for 30 minutes then that sounds like a ridiculous decision. Credit card? And who the hell over 15 years old actually expects any theme park chicken strip to be good? Of course they do. They serve 20 people per day. Unless you're new to going to amusement parks I don't know what type of standard you would expect? Disney? At Cedar Point you have the already discussed options of Famous Dave's, Melt, Chickies and Petes, and Pinks, none of which are bad. You can also go in Breakers where there's a hibachi grill, Perkins, and a TGI Fridays. The park has 2 Starbucks!!! What 'standard' are you looking for? Maybe I'm so confused because I'm trying to figure out these supposed low standards coming from a guy who decided to pass up all of the aforementioned choices to stand in line 30 minutes for burnt chicken strips.

People are comparing Melt to other restaurants like you can afford to be that picky in a park. It's really good quality food for being located where it is. This isn't downtown Cleveland where you have an abundance of choices. I probably wouldn't choose Melt above other restaurants in Cleveland, but when you're in a corporate park like Cedar Point it's definitely something to be thankful for. That's why 'I get' Melt. I'm not sure how anyone could be very judgmental of a full service non-chain trendy restaurant sandwiched in between a chicken fingers shack and a pretzel stand. If any other less than perfect above average restaurants want to open in Cedar Point I won't complain.

There are pictures and videos circulating from outside of the manufacturing plant of blue colored track similar Lightning Run at Kentucky Kingdom. It's not quite as bright but it looks like a true blue. It should provide a nice color variety of track throughout the park and skyline. I'd posted a picture of what I thought was a small support installed... but I'm pretty sure it was a crapper. fail. Plenty of concrete footers being poured. Mostly are a at the brake run.

You mean 'could' like if it had no riders and a crew from Disney, with no seat belts and air gates, right? Not even the Halsey music blasted throughout the station and ride area could get SFGam teenage ride operators hustling for 90 second dispatches. Combine that with one out of every twenty American riders not fitting in the restraints and I'd say your 3 minute dispatches are exactly what you can expect.

One would look nice there. Most of the other areas of the park are at least somewhat nice, but that area sucks bad. It's been a dead zone for as long as I can remember.

I don't know why everyone assumes that Maxx Force will be cloned. People said the exact same thing about X-Flight being the new Batman clone.