YoshiFan

I was very surprised to find out the wristband with coaster option was over $30 and that didn't include the Haunted Mansion. I had always heard the park referred to as the opposite of the big parks in terms of pricing, but that was a lot more than I was expecting since you can get into Great Adventure or Dorney for a few dollars more. They pay to ride prices seem ok though, nothing compared to Morey's where the big coasters are almost $7 a ride.

Great pictures, that dolphin slide looks awesome

Wow, I never knew the ride had lap bars

The 3 Point Challenge will probably be very popular. The one at Dorney always has a crowd and almost always has someone playing. At $5 a try and not many winners (if SF has a similar scoring system), it should be very profitable for them as well. Should be interesting to see if they use an awesome grand prize to try to get people to play like a Wii and also having a prize for the high score at the end of the season (at Dorney it was an IPod)

I am working on a bunch of games right now: PS2- Family Guy PS3 - Tony Hawk's Project 8 DS - Theme Park PSP - Hot Shot Golf Open Tee Wii - Carnival Games and MLB Power Pros

^^ It's the definition of a tourist trap. I stopped there a few years ago as a rest stop. All the rides were closed, and didn't appear they had been used in a while. Not that I would have trusted the safety of the rides anyway. After we walked around for 5 minutes, we wanted to leave. The funny thing was in one of the buildings (might have been a hotel), there was a wedding taking place.

I'm also going with Clementon Park. I can't believe they haven't shut down yet.

Yeah it's amazing how fast they are building the ride. It seemed like it took a long time for it to go vertical but now they are catching up. I wish it would be May already!

Ok Robb, I'm done with the thread unless someone questions something like the price of food that I had mentioned, I just wanted to explain myself when asked how I got to that price.

Here's how I got $50 a meal: 4 slices of pizza at $6.49 each, 4 drinks at $3.49 each, 1 side item like fries or breadsticks to split, $4.99. That's $44.91, times 7% sales tax, $48.05. I was off by $2.00. I don't think that is that much food for 4 people. I can also use Johnny Rockets as an example, 4 smallest size burger meals (I think it's 1/3 pound), $9.99 each, that's $42.75 with tax not including drinks or anything else

I am targeting Six Flags because I feel like they are worse then other parks in terms of trying to empty your pockets. They have the highest parking, food and drink prices and the VIP combined with flash pass just adds to it. There were those rumors of the no re-entry policy to get you to spend more in the park (and it was even on the SF web page for a short time). Then there was the problem at SFNE with that law trying to get passed to make it illegal for anyone else but SF to charge for parking. Would I go to those parks that were mentioned? Probably but only on a day where I could avoid lines and line cutting (unless it was very minimal), Disney being the exception since everyone can use Fast Pass. Dollywood doesn't seem as bad since the price for Q-Bot is much more reasonable but I still don't like it.

I saw it myself last year. I didn't see one person with a flash pass entering the ride and they kept the car blocked off every time I was at the ride (4 times over a 6 hour visit) Then why do you even care or are posting in this thread in the first place? Because even if SF doesn't want me there, I still am visiting the park so I care because it affects my visit to the park.

Spending more money at a restaurant or on an airplane seat doesn't affect the experience of those who chose to spend less. Yeah those who spent more will have a nicer meal or flight but it won't stop those who don't from having a nice time. Flash pass does, as non flashpass users get on less rides at the expense of those who bought flash pass I just don't understand why it is so accepted that flash pass is ok. 10 years ago, no parks had it and everyone was content waiting their turn then all of the sudden Six Flags decides they can charge for this service and most don't seem to have a problem. If a store tried it, where for $5.00 extra on a busy Saturday during the holiday season you could skip to the front of the checkout line, people would be furious. Something else to consider about capacity is how they block of certain rows on coasters for flash pass. Skull Mountain seats 28 riders, one of the middle cars is blocked off for flash pass even on days when the park is dead. Now if there is a line and no one from flash pass is riding, that car goes out empty each time. That's 1/7 of the train not being used which makes the line longer than neccessary. The cost is more signifcant than $20 - $30 a person, especially if you go for gold flash pass, gold for 1 person is $71! With more people, the cost goes down but even with 4 people it's around $50 a person. So for a family of 4 it's, $160 admission, $200 flashpass, $15 parking, $100 food ($50 a meal) for a total of $475 and that doesn't include playing games or buying any items from stores. I know it could also be said if I hate flash pass so much I shouldn't go to a park that has it. My answer to that is I won't visit on days where there are a lot of flash pass users. I bought a Great Adventure season pass this year because of the $59.99 special price (underpriced, I know). I will use it in April especially on weekdays in April, and weekdays in May, where the park will hopefully be dead. Once it gets into the summer season, I might visit once or twice on a weekday but there is no chance I'll visit in August or during Frightfest. Had there been no flash pass, I'd probably visit more since lines would be shorter overall but I'm probably not the type of person SF wants visiting their parks anyway since I refuse to pay $6.49 for a slice of pizza or $4.99 for a soft pretzel and only spend money in the arcade (and that's only because I have no arcades near me and they have games that I can't find anywhere else)

I am 100% against it As mentioned, they can purposely run 1 train on rides to get more people to buy it and make the line longer I also don't like how the park is basically selling your place in line. If I cut in line, I'd be thrown out of the park, yet I am suddenly allowed to break park rules and cut the line because I gave the park some more money. I know some will say it's not cutting as you are just holding your place in line but if you get in another line while waiting for your ride time you are in 2 lines at once which isn't possible normally and with gold flash pass, you can get 4 rides in the same time it takes a non flash pass user to get 1 ride What happened to everyone being equal in a park? Is it right that a family who saves all year to take their kids to the park and can barely afford admission then has to be cut in line the whole day? I'll use Kingda Ka as an example of why the system is horrible. It normally can run 4 trains, one day in 2006 they were using 2 trains. With so many flash pass users 1 entire train was devoted to flash pass most of the day. Then on the non flash pass train, 2 rows were devoted to VIP users. That means on a ride that could accomodate 72 riders at full capacity and was only at a maximum of 36 riders at half capacity, only 14 seats were available to non flash pass or VIP users. 14 seats a cycle, even every 3 minutes is 20 x 14 = 280 riders an hour I know it will never go away because it makes the park so much money and I hate how it's being spread to other parks.

Add more family rides. It seems like all they are adding is kiddie rides and coasters. For example at Great Adventure I would add antique cars and family flats. Flats also cost less than coasters. Why is Great Adventure getting a coaster (even if it's only a wild mouse) when in the past 10 years they have added Medusa, Nitro, SUF, KK and ET plus 2 family/kiddie coasters. I would lower prices. Parking would be reduced to $10, bottled drinks would be reduced from $3.50 to $2.00. I would add a free form of Flashpass like they and Universal used to have, it would be more limited than regular Flashpass but I think it would cause less people to get annoyed about the paid Flashpass. Finally, I would change the admission pricing. $59.99 gate price is ridiculous but so are the half price days. I'd set admission at around $44.99 with constant $5 off coupons (since people like to think they are getting a deal) to a real price of $39.99. I'd also raise the price of season passes. Buy a day, get a year for free has got to go and $34.99 - $59.99 passes are ridiculous. I'd charge $79.99 for the smaller parks and $99.99 for the larger parks and charge $20 rather than $45 for a parking pass.

No beverage containers allowed but I bet they'll gladly sell you $3.50 bottled drinks from the vending machines in the lines. No reason they can't have the sliding lockers at the station like other parks (where the cubby spots are open during boarding but when the other train is in the station, a door is slid over them so people from the other train can't get to your stuff)

I don't mind advertising but I still think SF takes it to far, I mentioned the timeshares in an earlier post, here is a picture of what I am talking about: http://www.amusementpics.com/SFGAdvNotesFall2007/091607-005.jpg And the picture someone posted a few posts up with the ads in Plaza Del Carnival is a perfect example of how similar it is to what I mentioned earlier about the timeshare ruining the theme of Fantasy Forest. A few in park ads like Starburst, or a ride sponsorship ok, but I feel like SF is taking it too far and bombards you with ads.

It sounds interesting, I would have liked to seen the original even more though. I enjoy seeing what people thought the future would be like 50 years ago. Disney Channel used to show stuff like that late at night, I remember one show about the highway of the future that showed a car that drove itself. Plus they showed old Disneyland shows. So much better than the shows on the channel now.

They are more accomodating than a regular seat on an invert or floorless. I am able to buckle the belt myself on those type of rides but barely. On SUF, I can get the restraint down to the second level/second click. I think the cutoff would be if someone can not fit in a regular invert or floorless seat and has to use the larger seat but are only barely not able to fit in a regular seat, they would fit in a flyer seat.

Great Adventure has a bunch of rides sponsored by companies. Bumper Cars (possibly being removed) are sponsored by Geico, Nitro was sponsored by some A&E show etc. I really hate all the advertisements in Six Flags. Last time I was at Great Adventure, they had time share people set up in the park as well as other advertisers. Kind of takes away from the theme, since it was in the Fantasy Forest with giant birthday candles, ice cream and cake themes. I'd be happier about if if they passed the savings onto us, like how if you agree to use some web service providers always displaying ads, you get a discounted rate but since SF is the most expensive on admission (other than destination parks), food, drinks and parking, that doesn't seem to be happening

The McDonald's near Great Adventure is like that as well, close to $6.00 for a medium value meal. Thankfully the McDonald's near Dorney and Hershey are cheap and have the dollar menu including a soda free refills for $1.00 I'm guessing most of the stuff in that book is probably common knowledge or stuff you could learn easily by going to a deal website.

I don't know why but for some reason I was picturing the ride launch towards Monster. Anyway, it will provide some cool views while waiting for Laser.

Great Adventure and Dorney both have an "all items are $10 or less" shop. I'm not sure if other CF and SF parks have them but they can have bargains. At Dorney I got a T-Shirt for $5.00, normally $16.99 (and still $16.99 on their website) and they had candy bars for $0.65. In the vending machine they were $1.50. $0.65 is even less than most supermarkets and stores like Rite Aid and CVS. When eating in the park, look for combo deals. At Subway in Dorney, a regular size sub is $4.xx. You can make it a combo with 2 cookies and a soda for $3.00 more. A soda is $3.00 by itself. So you get a sub, a soda and dessert for under $8, not bad for park prices If you are at a seashore park, try to find food/drinks elsewhere. In Ocean City, NJ, the drinks at Playland are $1.50 and candy bars are over $1.00. Literally right next to the park is a 99 cents store that has 20 oz sodas for 99 cents and king size candy bars for 99 cents. As for playing games, I actually find some park arcades to be less than other arcades. For example, the standard in my area is 3 songs of DDR for $1.00. Dorney offers 3 songs for $0.50

The original pier with GNE and the pier with the Golden Nugget ride.

Agreed 100%. The coaster is only going to have an optimal capacity of 850 an hour, which is never going to happen. Add a virtual que system and it's going to make the line ridiculous. Even worse is a ride like Rollersoaker, capacity on that is about 350 an hour (3 cars dispatch every 2 minutes), that line will be 2+ hours with virtual que added. Flashpass is one of the reasons I have avoided going to SF on a regular basis among other things (bad operations, high prices), and I hate the idea of this being added to other parks.