HWFan

Once we are finished with the hypercoaster discussion , I wanted to get some opinions on what would you prefer to see at SFSL, a clone of SFDK's Superman or SFFT's Batman. Does anyone know the price tags for each? What do you think about capacity? Theme? Location? EDIT: Also, I always see a lot of unfamiliar usernames viewing the page. Even if you're from a different part of the country or have never even visited our park, I'd love to hear what you all think as well!

Here is how I see it. Think of all the things dealing with infrastructure, theming, Guest Service, basically anything besides rides, that would be nice to see updated/replaced/renovated. Now out of the hundred or so things on that list, create a list that is made up of full-out replacements/renovations of whatever it is with a price tag by each item. Then create a second list with the same issue but give it ten percent of the full renovation/replacement budget to pay for some paint or other smaller fix. Now you are given a huge budget, bigger than you've ever received for doing renovations. Even with a huge budget, the park really wasn't receiving a huge amount of money during the Shapiro years and the park is built with lots of stucco, plaster, and regular wood/paint. Contrast that with Holiday World. You can say that things there look much better in terms of some of the buildings, but 90% of their buildings are covered in plain old vinyl siding, which makes maintenance wayyyy easier. The Palace theater is looking better every weekend, and while you can't tell that the trim is no longer the original wood/plaster, the vinyl replacement will last years into the future. If you look at the park five years in the future, I think that, the way this trend is going, you will see a park that is absolutely beautiful and in almost pristine condition. The great thing is that the park is receiving the funds to do a lot of great work, but unfortunately there are some big ticket items (like the Palace renovation & new roof that has a mind-blowing cost) that need to be taken care of first. A lot of that kind of project doesn't end up getting green-lit until right before it's time to start a lot of the time, as you just do the best you can do and see what you have left. One thing I learned today, is that while the painters may have been going crazy touching up a ton of stuff all over the park, the painting crews can't actually start until February due to the winter, but they will be painting full time during the week until we get to daily operation at which point they will still keep painting throughout the summer, although they are more constricted when the park is open. Long story short: Lots of great renovation work on the way. The park is using every bit of cash it can, and besides just renovating the structures to be like they were, they are making them more durable to last better through the midwestern winters. I'm glad you like the updates, by the way! I like to think that my sense of humor brightens the updates for some, and that my sense of humor gets sympathy or pity from others.

I took a few pictures at the park yesterday as a Guest before my shift started. I got some good looks at the renovated store. Check out the floor. Not sure what they did, but it looks pretty cool. By the way, anyone else notice the large new propane tank across the midway from Moon Cars? Kinda a weird place to put more fuel for the cars, because that'd be such a pro-PAIN. Unless....the propane is part of next year's new attraction, "Doomsday Preppers: The Experience". Ok, I'll show myself out. Entrance to the shop from the exit of Shazam. I'm sitting at the point where the JLBM exit meets the Shazam exit. You can see the grey exit doors. The best picture of the interesting floor pattern. Lots of vintage posters and even a cool superman cardboard cutout. In the upper right corner, you can kinda see the light from the projector that projects a JL logo that spins in circles on the floor at the entrance. Hard to see when it's bright, but I'm sure it looks really cool at night especially. The Hall of Justice The queue looks ready! As you enter DC Comics Plaza from under the train bridge. Finally a true garage door. It's closed. Cuz the power, you're supplying...it's electrifying! (That's my best Paula wannabe hint making...I'm sorry. This was at 2:15 on a Saturday afternoon. Batman Plaza i waited 45 SECONDS(!!!!!!) for this pic....the things I go through to get pics sometimes. I'm a Six Flags martyr. You may remember Donna, the VP from Sally that I talked about a few pages back. Opening day, I convinced her to meet me in the park and talk to some Guests. Her passion was really evident. Here she is showing off the cape she won in that last pic. Oh, and if you notice, one of my shoes was partially off my wheelchair because he anticipation for JLBM was knocking my socks off (but I forgot to take off my shoe first).

There was a lot of nastier weather days during the week this month, which is the reason why the Palace roof isn't quite done yet. I would guess that it is probably the same with JLBM. Plus, with a lot of the same crew members working on different parts of the project, there might be some that are finishing the inside before devoting their time to the exterior once the weather gets better. Idk but with JLBM, this weekend I'm just feeling like IT'S ELECTRIC *boogie woogie woogie*.

Anybody in the park or going to the park today? My shift starts at 3:00, but I was hoping to get a ride on Mr. Freeze and/or American Thunder before work. If anyone wants to meet, let me know!

Basically Spiderman....but better. It's a web spun from Spiderman's foundation with extra elements & improvements as well!

Speaking as someone who is helping plan that event from the side of SLCH and not as a SFSL employee, we are very hopeful that the park will have the ride open, but we're just waiting to see how things go in the next few weeks. Fun Fact: Dave Roemer is the sole person in charge of planning that event from the park's side. He is the only one who meets with the SLCH Foundation team about it and makes sure it is all good to go. It's a project that he is very fond of and sees to it personally that it is successful. When you're there, make sure to stop by and see if he's working in First Cone serving up some of the biggest waffle cones you've ever seen. Just don't ask him for a smaller one as you will be overruled. Should be another great event this year!

I think that there are probably multiple reasons that go into it, but as it is a rule at almost every park, there must be some good ones. One reason is just that a theme park's attendance is one of the most important business figures for a park. For Six Flags as a public company, if a lot of sketchy info regarding park attendance is being posted in different places, it could spook shareholders (like myself & my whopping six shares), especially when attendance can go down while the park is actually making more money due to increased spending per caps. This way, it allows the company to announce whether attendance is going up or down, in the form of a percentage figure, for the entire company at the same time as the other relevant information is announced as well. Plus, due to factors like weather & local politics, while one park could have attendance skyrocket during the first month, another could have attendance plummet. A description of this online could paint an inaccurate picture of the company online, even if the numbers themselves are true. Besides the shareholders, you don't want your competition knowing everything about you, even in such a friendly/fun industry. Also, there can be security & safety reasons as well. While we are lucky that there hasn't been any large-scale attacks on any domestic park, the Department of Homeland Security actually put together some pretty in-depth briefings for theme parks after 9/11. Theme parks represent classic America to a lot of people (although, they are starting to really expand all over the globe), and the fact that the Disney Parks were evacuated on 9/11, partly for the fear of being potential targets, there really isn't a reason to let anyone who could have malicious intent know about a park's specific attendance counts. I'm sure that there are lots of other reasons, and it always bothers me a bit when my curiosity about a park's attendance doesn't get answered. You also have to think that a park's capacity changes on a daily/hourly basis. As Hurricane Harbor would be the only thing that could come anywhere close to meeting capacity any time soon, you can think that the capacity is formulated by not just the rides & amount of space but also the amount of lifeguards on duty (that's a big one) and the amount of employees working the restaurants, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. It's really interesting and information that I don't even really know much about at all. Although, while we're on this topic, an article was posted on MiceChat yesterday detailing the capacity of Disneyland's rides: http://micechat.com/98999-disneyland-capacity-sponge/

^Things are definitely different now. Also, I didn't share such information for more reasons then I could get in trouble. The park has been good to me, so even if I was no longer an employee, I don't want to make them regret sharing any information with me. One thing I will say is that if anyone is or knows someone who is looking at getting a job at the park, Guest Relations is the best place to apply, if you like learning about the business and how it runs overall. Training includes marketing, loss prevention, and other department meetings/presentations to make sure that everyone in GR has at least some background in what's going on around the park. The marketing meeting this year specifically made me very optimistic for the future of our park & company. (We are still hiring if anyone knows someone who may be interested.)

I had very similar thoughts as the ones you've laid out. While the average attendance varies greatly over the course of the season, park attendance posting/spreading is one of the things that will actually get you terminated quickly. Most all parks keep it fairly secretive (for example, everyone with a radio at HW will cover it or mute it at the same time each hour, if they're in front of Guests, when they hear the attendance is about to be announced). I can't remember what the numbers are off the top of my head, but CW's Wonder Mountain Guardian, BGW's Tempesto, and even the new dark ride at Knott's Berry Farm would look far worse than your calculated capacity when you take in to account how huge those parks are. It's interesting that the park's predictions for the ride's wait time is approximately the same for very busy days and lower-attendance weekdays. The reason is that the longer wait a ride accrues, the less people get in line for that attraction. I'm sure there are coasters that you'll stop and ride if there is a less than 5 minute line, but if the line gets to be more than even 15 or 30 minutes, you skip it. Another great example is Disneyland Park or the Magic Kingdom. Neither park has a single attraction that can be ridden by every single Guest that visits in a day (especially during peak season), even with some attractions eating over 4,000 guests per hour. Compared to Scooby, this ride will be an increase, and even if there was always a 15min wait, I would say that easily half the Guests that visit in any given day wouldn't ride it at all. Finally, in any park with a high volume of season pass holders, that means that Guests who visit the park often may not ride it on super busy days, just waiting for slower times. Should you go immediately to JLBM first thing in the morning? Yes. Will it have a long lines pretty much all the time? Yes. Is the effect of its capacity on the overall park's operation as bad as it sounds? No. It's gonna be a fantastic ride. Just bring some patience, soak up the A/C while in (most, if the short outdoor queue is used that day) line, and enjoy the ride! There's also a psychological thing where if you don't wait at all for something, you don't perceive it as being as good.

A team member at Heroes vs Villians gave me an opening date of May 24th which I thought was odd because that's a Sunday. As far as full capacity, I was at the park this past Sunday and Batman and Ninja were both running two trains. The Boss was running at least two trains. The American Thunder was down to one train. I didn't see the other American Thunder train on the transfer track, so I'm guessing it's out for maintenance or some awesome Got 2 Be hair gel advertising wrap. YES! There is still hope for it to be open on May 21st! This is exactly why there is not an official opening date for the ride yet. Unfortunately it sounds like some team members are saying more than they are supposed to. Even if you tell yourself that it might not be open yet, you're still going to be disappointed when it isn't open that day. All I can say is, don't get your hopes up.....seriously....don't. And Sunday isn't really a weird day to open it, at least no weirder than any other day of the week. In this case, it's basically, "we're working our butts off to get the ride open as soon as possible" and while everything is still on schedule, testing just started at SFOT and will be getting started here soon, so a lot can happen. The media haven't even been given a tentative day or even a timeframe. Just be careful, as I don't want anyone to be disappointed or to plan a trip to the park until an official opening has been announced.

I was just on my way back up from getting lunch in the park (I'm working in the 702/admin building today), and the large garage door for the big maintenance building was open. I can honestly say I froze because of just how cool/bad***/incredible/huge the two newly-delivered ride vehicles look. They were wrapped in plastic and sitting on large wooden pallets with a lot of the wiring/electrical components exposed (under a layer of plastic of course). I took a couple pics, but as I've said before, if the park spends that much money on a ride, I want to make sure they are okay with me posting the pictures first. I'll know by 5:00 though! Also, thank you to everyone who posted their pictures, feedback, and trip reports from last weekend. I took Dave on here and let him read your comments/experiences. Finally, on a related note, remember that if you're planning on visiting the park any time this year, definitely send me a PM if you're interested in meeting up. It has been a beautiful weekend so far, especially with today being an absolutely perfect day to be in the park from what I've seen. I can't wait until I get a chance to ride a American Thunder & Mr. Freeze! EDIT: The park's PR department will get the privilege of sharing some pictures soon, which will be better as they can get some good angles and closeup shots.

^Thank you both for the good feedback. Here's a few pics that were taken the night before opening, especially for those who weren't at the park opening weekend. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. The offices for Operations (Admissions, Rides, Harbor, & Park Services), Retail (Merchandise, Games, & Food), and Security all have offices on the second floor directly above the shops in the front mall. The building in the pic above is interesting as you can always hear each train of the Boss going by right outside. Also, while this is rather random, I really believe 702 (the building name that is used among employees for it) is haunted. Okay, so just a warning, it's random story time. Feel free to scroll past the following paragraph: I didn't believe in ghosts, or at least I didn't believe one bit that the 702 was haunted, even though a lot of the long-time team members swore it was. I did know that in 2013 they actually changed some of the security procedures for the building because of some unexplained events. These would happen most to the switchboard operators summer Saturday nights & late night during Fright Fest. After 8:00 or 9:00, the operator would pretty much be the only person in the whole building, besides the possibility of someone coming in & out just to grab something for IT. During early October, I picked up a switchboard shift from 8:00pm-midnight on a Saturday night following my day GR shift. It was great because I only got about one call per hour with no calls after 10:30. However, due to security, emergency, and just general Guest-serving reasons, it is a position that must be staffed if the park is open. So I turned up the speakers in the ceiling, playing like 103.3fm, without the ability to change it. Then around 10:45, I started hearing some noise, like things moving around & doors opening/closing. I thought there was an IT guy there (the IT office is right behind & catty-corner to the switchboard). I eventually just went the five feet from the phone and realized that everything was locked up tight. I ended up searching the entire building, most of it pitch black, as I was sure someone was there. When I got to the other end of the building, I got the chills so bad and immediately heard a door slam. It was in a place that there would be no way that a person could have done it. I also checked with security, IT, and promotions/marketing later and confirmed that none of them were in the building. So it's now about 11:50 and Centerfold, the oldie but goodie, came on and as I grabbed the knob to turn it up a little (I had the volume almost silent because it had been commercials), I hear the words, clear as day, "Turn. It. Down. Josh." I flipped out, and grabbed my stuff, then went out of the building the long way, because my brain was telling me that someone had to be there, but just like before, nobody was there. As soon as the door closed and I was on the porch, I could barely breathe. My adrenaline was pumping so hard, and I had no idea what just happened. When it told me to turn down the music & said my name, I was in shock. It was insane. I had to wait a half hour before I could even really drive home. And that, kids, is how I met your mo...err...started believing in ghosts. You can think what you want, but that really was the weirdest/scariest experience of my life. But yea, sorry for the random story time. Onto more pics now! Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. If you look at the pictures of JLBM at SFOT, it very much feels like a huge industrial-type, plain old corrugated metal building with a giant Hall of Justice entrance facade stuck on the front. Besides being bigger overall, the JLBM building at SFSL will really look cool as a very cohesive themed facade. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. One random bit of info about the concrete (I know, this is so exciting ) is that the newer concrete sections that feature the square-cut-diagonally pattern isn't just normal concrete. It is a heavy duty, multi-layered material that is made to resist the strong roots from the huge trees in that area, which is why it had to be replaced anyway. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Even though the theme of the park has shifted since it opened in 1971, I think it's cool how there is still the plaque, commemorating the opening of Six Flags Mid-America. Below it, you'll see a small & much newer sign reminding Guests that all change thrown into the park's fountains is donated to charity. Finally, a pic of the Palace as it sports nice green shingles towards the end of it's extensive and extremely costly renovation. Hopefully you enjoyed this very nerdy, somewhat spooky, mini-update. It's time for me to get some homework done, but again, if anyone is visiting the park this month, send me a message if you want to try to have a small "meeting" for lunch or something. I know that Dave said if a few people wanted to meet for lunch, he would do his best (although his really busy schedule can change in an instant) to stop by and say hi. In case anyone was wondering, here are the hours for the dining pass, including the snack. I could be wrong, but I think that this is part of an initiative for different groups of team members to take ownership per se in keeping different areas of the park clean/nice. Painting the metal detectors. To allow more room in the area between the ticket booths & front gate, the four planters (give or take) were removed. As you can see, the planters were built right on top of the original concrete. Kinda interesting if you like boring stuff like me That night before opening, the fountains & park music playlist were both going strong. It was when the reality sets in. No crowds. Kinda beautiful. No? Okay, moving on... The concept art for JLBM. Another view of the renovated exit shop. Here's a peek at what the entrance to the newly renovated shop from the exits of JLBM and Shazam. This is actually the main park administration building, containing the offices for people like Dave, Finance, Promotions, Marketing, etc. A good look at the expanded seating area behind the Mr. Freeze entrance facade. The new stamped concrete that is replacing the wooden boardwalk in front of Miss Kitty's Saloon (shows start May 16th, by the way). What will become the exit of JLBM. The last couple years there was one of those big misty signs, but with the hill, slipperiness could be dangerous. So new sign. No misty...and of course JLBM!

Okay, so due to a hard drive failure, I wasn't able to spend time on TPR this weekend, but hopefully I'm not too late to respond to some questions/comments: I really do apologize for that. Guest Relations actually received upgrades allowing faster service over the off season, however the main thing last weekend was staffing. Normally you would've seen at least one or two people 'running the line' but it is the part of the season where the entire park is kinda squished for staff. At least from this point until we are back to weekends only, opening weekend is the lowest the staffing level will be for the season. Even next weekend it'll be better. I know my manager reads these forms occasionally (he might be reading them after this weekend) and he takes some of the criticism and tries to improve operations based on it. As far as the Facebook and Twitter pages, I think they could be used more effectively (They did use them really well today to help keep people informed of the situation and to promote JLBM) but I'm not sure exactly how all that is setup. They do replay occasionally on post but it seems to be mostly on Twitter. I remember my first season at the park an employee actually received a compliment via Twitter, I don't think it has ever happened again, but it was kinda cool. As far as I know, nobody from the communications/marketing departments reads the forums. I do take a lot of feedback and pass it along when I can. For example, my last tour of JLBM was with Dave Roemer & our director of food/retail/games who was responsible for the new dining pass options. I made sure to give him the positive feedback that the new options resulted in. My last big conversation on this was last June, so things very well could have changed. However, Facebook & Twitter is about 50% park and 50% corporate. Things are slowly changing to allow the parks to have more of an individual "voice" (think Paula and HW's Twitter/Facebook). At the same time, at least with Facebook, a lot of the posts are all based on the analytics from past posts. Off-season pictures or videos, like Dave did one year, were almost negatively received. Thus, there isn't as much of that anymore. You're absolutely right! The lighting is key, and the lighting designer, as I may have mentioned a while ago, was the lighting designer for the Disney castles, every ride at IOA & USF when the parks opened, in addition to plethora of other projects. He actually started his career as a lighting roadie with the Barenaked Ladies and remembers coming to SFSL for a show. This off season has seen the most investment in overall park renovation and infrastructure repair/expansion in at least a decade. The paint crew has had way more work than they can handle (in a good way). At 5:00pm on the Thursday evening before opening day, there were four guys repainting the metal detectors with black paint to make that area look as best as possible. There have also been things that you won't see like a significantly enlarged maintenance area, allowing for more efficient & easier maintenance of anything at the park. Similarly, a fair amount of new asphalt has been poured in the backstage maintenance area of the park. I would expect to see more painting and other renovations continue through the spring and hopefully summer. Why/how would it fail?? I am sure it will be a huge hit for the regular crowd. I am not convinced, however, if it is really what the park needs. We will see if it boosts attendance, time will tell. What the park needs is to have fewer broken things. Hannibarrels was the huge eyesore, and it's now tremendously improved. This can be nothing but good for them. It should save on maintenance costs vs. Scooby-Doo in addition to fitting the DC Plaza theme and really sealing the immersion there. I vote the park keep up this practice of replacing old, broken rides and at the same time renovating the whole ride area. The park really has improved over the course of the past 10 years, agreed. It will be interesting to see how Holiday World compares with SFSTL this 2015 season ... flashy new coaster vs flashy new dark ride. In terms of the park looking towards the future considering other parks in the same market like Holiday World, you can bet SFSL is planning the new rides, ticket/pass or other offerings, and general updates/renovations with Holiday World in mind. As Holiday World starts moving into the STL area with their marketing (I know there was at least a Mammoth billboard on I-55 last year, and most of the marketing has been part of an overarching "Visit Indiana" campaign), SFSL is going to really focus on shoring up deficiencies that visitors may perceive compared to HW. Not convinced if JLBM is what the park really needs? It's family focused and surpasses anything that HW can offer. Remember that even with HW's new coaster, that alone won't persuade the vast majority of Guests to visit HW. HW had a rather clever marketing campaign last season that came in the form of billboards reading, "GO BIG! Not far!" It'd be hard not to think about the Six Flags slogan of "GO BIG! GO SIX FLAGS!" It'll be interesting seeing how the next few years go, but the bottom line is that the majority of Guests that visit SFSL have never been to, don't plan to visit, and don't really know what/where Holiday World is. HW is an awesome park, but at this point, HW doesn't really pose much of a threat at SFSL's attendance for at least a season or two. Luckily for SFSL, they can use this time cushion to really strengthen any areas that may need work to compete with HW, and HW is doing the same (this year with Thunderbird, for example). Six Flags as a company has an overwhelming amount of data, very accurate data, that represents its markets, which it uses to strategically plan expansion. -------------------------------------------- Well that's enough typing for now I guess. Hopefully I was able to give some amount of insight to a few things, but this is still just my 'unofficial' view of things based on the information & trends I know. Either way, it should be a record-setting year for both SFSL & HW, which is great news for enthusiasts and everyone who enjoys the parks!

Maybe that means it will be easier to fix then, but the park has two main power lines that come into it. One of the lines was completely replaced by Ameren over the offseason as part of the repairs they did. It's sad that the day had to end like that, but at least it was during the last hour and 45 minutes of the day. At the time that the power went out, all of the park's full-time management including Dave were all sitting in a conference room above the Main Street Market store for their daily meeting where they go over a lot of information (including a lot of the complaints/compliments that are received by Guest Relations. I wish I had been there just to see the reactions when the lights went out. Hope everyone was able to still have some fun today at least. Anybody know if it caused Mr. Freeze to valley? Thank goodness out of all the possible stories to feature as #1 on their homepage, Fox 2 News has their priorities straight. Just like how the media sensationalized the story of the Hulk at USF IOA had a train stop on the MCBR. At least we were able to make the media happy today...

Now this is completely speculation as I know nothing about SFOT's marketing team or strategy, but with the chance of delay even higher with prototype rides (Sally & the companies involved are the ones who used the word prototype, even though it may not seem that way looking at TF & SM @ Universal), it is sometimes best to wait until the ride opens or is close to opening too keep from just disappointing people. SFSL marketing is just starting to really kick off now it seems, based on the TV/radio commercials. SF is going to market the ride like crazy, especially with the great merchandising opportunities it brings. Also, just to comment on the Warner Bros. (who do the DC and Loony Tunes with SF) licensing question, Six Flags is the main thing keeping the Loony Tunes brand alive. Pair that with the countless number of super hero movies coming up and more Marvel characters entering theme parks around the globe, Six Flags is extremely important to Warner Brothers. A non-renewal of any licensing with WB would be a lose-lose situation....unlike the termination of the Tony Hawk & Evel Kinevel contracts that were dropped, for the better, a few years ago.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Just saw this and my mood just crashed. I know that the facilities in general, including some minor plumbing issues that did not affect any Guests, are really strained, understandably so, on opening day. It's like the Griesediecke Tower at SLU (the 16-story behemoth right off of I-64/40 with 'St. Louis University' on it) has a lot of issues on the fall move in days, with a couple floors temporarily losing power & random in-room fire alarms going off for a half hour (went off during my first shower there actually). No matter what though, it isn't something that is really excusable....for Ameren. But they won't be the ones losing business & being blamed for the resulting issues of the outage. Props to Elizabeth Gotway who continually takes the beatings without faltering the least bit. However, I think that this is a much larger Ameren UE problem as our marketing manager, who doesn't live too far from the park, told me this morning that her power was out so she had to shower at a friend's house. Even with the not-so-perfect weather earlier today, the park actually passed the original attendance estimate a little bit, which is made with perfect weather in mind. While I would plan for a crowded park tomorrow, the line to get in the front gate (even including the line to process & receive your cards) was never over 15min and after the first couple hours, wasn't any longer than a minute or two. Hopefully this power stuff gets fixed soon. I hate to say that I hope all of Eureka is out of power too so that people see it's a wider problem, but it might help get things patched up sooner. <--- That sentence is probably a perfect example of why I have needed to put in a reminder every once in a while that I do not speak for the park, but at least I'm honest! Just gotta Shake It Off like Taylor Swift says I guess. EDIT: Check out this video from Channel 5 KSDK for a look inside the ride: http://www.ksdk.com/story/entertainment/2015/04/03/six-flags-st-louis/25248131/

The outside of the ride is by no means a valid measurement of the work going on inside. The facade is something that can be done extremely quickly and easily compared to the more technical stuff. If you saw the pictures inside the JLBM at SFOT during their recent media tour, the ride at SFSL is in very similar shape in terms of completion level. The banner may say summer now, but that's most likely just a 'better safe than sorry' mentality. The "spring 2015" talking point is still the one being followed by the park's team members (hopefully), as the estimated opening date has not changed in the last couple months at least. Because I am pretty much the opposite of anonymous and that it isn't worth possibly losing my job over, I believe a user or two posted the target date previously in the thread. I just got back from the park, and when I left, it was beautiful following a pretty chilly morning. I have a bunch of pictures from yesterday as well as general updates on things in general. I'm hoping to take some of the SFOT JLBM media tour pictures to illustrate what the ride is looking like, but with KSDK & Fox 2 News being in the park this morning, I'll see if they might have a thing or two already. I got to spend the last three hours of my shift just going around the park to talk to different Guests about how their day was going and collecting email addresses for a special survey or two. What was really cool was that for the last 30min, Donna, the VP from Sally Dark Rides, came down and accompanied me. You could really see her passion for what she does while she explained the ride to the Guests, many of whom, knew nothing about it or Transformers/Spiderman. I convinced her to play one of the games after she saw a new cape she liked. That right there is why I love my job. Getting to make sure people are having a fantastic time (including fixing any problems they have run into), especially while goofing around the park with one of the top dark ride manufacturer executives in the world, is a privilege I am very thankful for. She leaves for Texas on Tuesday where she will be for three weeks now that they are going to start heavy testing on the ride there. This way, the team in STL will have lots of time to finish things up and make changes after learning from any issues that could possibly show up in TX.

For anyone who is going to be there opening weekend, instead of Guest Relations like usual, I'll be helping out our short-staffed Marketing & Promotions teams. I'll be in front of the park talking to Guests & administering surveys from 9:30-3:00 every day of the weekend, so if you see me, feel free to say hi. Now, if you'll be there on Friday or Saturday, if you're interested maybe meeting for lunch at JB's Smokehouse, across from the new ride, it might be fun to enjoy some BBQ while talking about the park and the amazing details going into the new ride. If you're interested, send me a message, and we'll get it all set up. While I can't promise anything, I'll see if one of members of full-time management has time to stop by. I am also tentatively working from 3:00-7:00 Friday & Saturday with sampling team at the park exit, so I'll have an hour break that I can take whenever it works best. We'll work it out through messages though, and it doesn't necessarily have to the JB's either. Hope to see you there!

You're really starting to become the unofficial Paula of SFStL on here and that is a compliment. Given your screen name, I hope you get what I mean. Every Six Flags could use more employee's like you (not to say there isn't any) who care about their job and care about the customers. Thanks for keeping us updated on all that is going on with the park. I wish you and everyone at SFStL the best of luck this season. Hopefully, one day, all of your guys hard work will be rewarded with a state of the art steel coaster (not to say JL isn't a state of the art ride, but honestly, no new ride matches a brand new roller coaster) and you won't have to get on here and read all of our comments complaining about it. First off, that is probably one of the best compliments you could have given me, but it made my day as Paula & Holiday World's 'corporate culture', if you will, is what I base my personal attitude on working at a theme park on. I started emailing Paula when I was around 8 years old I guess (there's even a Holiblog post that was made out of my first email to her on March 29th, my birthday, of some year). Theme parks need to be staffed with thousands every year, and to a lot of the employees, Six Flags is/was their first employer. While it's by no means anywhere near jobs like first responders, heavy construction, or other dangerous/hard jobs, it isn't always a walk in the park . It can be extremely hot, long hours, handling complaints with tact and grace, etc, so while there are a lot of amazing team members out there, the season can break you down on some days making them not the most obnoxiously enthusiastic/friendly (of course, if they are rude, let us know because there's not really an excuse for that at all). "This is our hyper coaster" was a quote that was said a few times during our training. At this point, I am honestly more excited for this ride than I would be for a hyper, but if we did get a huge steel coaster, I would get bored without reading the negative posts. The Holiday World Forum can be almost obnoxiously positive sometimes, so I like a little drama in my forums. Justice League HQ may get a little update here or there but nothing notable that I'm aware of. This area will need all of the dining/retail capacity it can get. Unfortunately I don't have an answer for you about the snack right now. However, the times will be in the dining pass menu guide, available at Guest Relations, Season Pass Services, and hopefully all the restaurants. The reason behind the changing times the last couple years was due to Fright Fest only. Because of the very drastic hour changes during those days, the lunch and dinner hours were just pushed back one hour (I believe). That is the only time the hours were different, and I would expect the same this year. However, I will try to get the information on that this weekend. Sorry about that. I'm extremely excited for the Joker. He looked extremely lifelike at IAAPA, and that was without any lighting effects or fog. Is he going to do the same speech that was shown off there? I'm not exactly sure if it will say the same thing, with parts of the video/story of the ride still being changed here and there by Sally to keep making it better. You will be shot with his smoke cannon thing though. When your vehicle stops in front of him, he will be right there, eye level with you. It'll be great!

Both animatronics are already installed in their spots. The encounter with the Joker is going to be absolutely jaw dropping.

I'll be back with more pictures and lots of commentary soon (I am using this post as a place holder to edit in the pictures later). Unfortunately, one of our long-time park directors lost his sister, so please keep their family in your thoughts/prayers. He is one of the best directors, being the main one behind the continuing expansion of Fright Fest & really listens to Guest feedback, with his habit of stopping by GR at the end of the night to ask us what people have been saying, good or bad, about whatever, to get some overall feedback before also going through the individual Guest feedback that is in the system. He's a great guy, and its great to see the great teamwork by management to make sure everything is ready, even if one major piece of the puzzle needs some time off. It honestly is a great place to work overall. Anyway, I'll try to finish posting the pictures, commentary, ride update, and answering whatever questions/comments you have when I return from the wake. I hope you've enjoyed the pictures thus far! -Josh R.

On Saturday, with hundreds of team members in the park for training, management decided to throw us a great BBQ rather than having to go off-site or pay for our food. It was definitely appreciated by everyone. Instead of being the sponsor for the go karts like they had in the past, O'Reilly's is the sponsor of the Moon Cars season that includes some nice throwback 'Memory Lane' signs/accents. My supervisor made fun of me for getting so excited when I saw the Oceaneering trailer.

The old wooden boardwalk in front of Miss Kitty's Saloon was replaced with some really nice stamped concrete. This in addition to new colorful accents on the facade, even though the paint was in okay condition, are really great to see!