ElvisLuv

Well there's a group still trying to to reopen it. I check in on the Facebook page from time to time Just s3 arch for Jazzland facebook and you'll find it.

2017 Definate: Busch Gardens Williamsburg/Water Country USA Six Flags America (via Gold SF pass) Morey's Pier Six Flags Great Adventure Six Flags St. Louis Maybe: Hershey Park Kings Dominion Six Flags Texas Six Flags Fiesta Six Flags Georgia Six Flags Great America Adventureland Lake Winnie 2018: Europe: Port Adventura Tibidabo Park Warner (maybe) Gardaland Cinecitta (maybe) Puy du Fou Efteling Phantasialand Europa Toverland (maybe) Disney Paris (maybe) I'd like to but doubtful. MIRABILANDIA Moviepark Germany Holiday Park

I have often thought the proliferation of Halloween season and now Christmas seasons was to keep a core work force employed year round. St. Louis is open the first weekend of November sans the Frightfest or Christmas stuff. One reason it is so crowded at these parks is the fact that they are open on Fri, Sat and Sun only. You get the locals and the folks like me a few hours off at the same time. I noticed that many ride ops folks were younger and likely in school, so they can't work past certain hours on weekdays regardless of their wages and that is a prohibitive burden on opening during school weeks when this season takes place. I'm sure a lot of those that called in are of the school aged variety and wages had little to do with it and it being more of a cramping their social agenda issue. This isn't Disney with full time castmembers at a park open 365. I knew the park was going to be slammed just like discount armband nite for the spin and pukes at the county fair is. I'm just amazed at the lines for certain things not rides. The line was shorter on the Star Flyer than for Turkey Legs at one point

Wow. That really sucks, but after 24 years of teaching in a middle school I cannot say I'm really surprised. I guess the only thing that might help is higher wages, bringing in (theoretically) higher caliber workers, but I assume that would have to be a corporate decision and obviously negatively affects the bottom line. Do you know if this is a problem across the boards at most Six Flags parks or is it unique to our area? We were at Great Adventure in July and they didn't seem to have as big an issue with too few employees in any venue but don't know if that is always the case or we just hit a good day with low attendance. It was a Tuesday when we were there. I'm not sure about all of the parks, but Chicago and STL both use boosters during FF to try and help fill in some of the gaps, but this too comes with problems as you are not going to have a very knowledgeable "employee" if they get trained and do their one and only shift all in the same day. As for the caliber of employees you are spot on about the wages. First off Eureka doesn't have that many teenagers wanting to work there, and those that do generally flock to the Aquatics and Entertainment departments, which are the highest paying for seasonal workers generally. The Rides, Games, and Retail also get quite a few of the "locals". The main problem is retention of the Culinary department which seems to be primarily teenagers bused in from north St. Louis. Of the over 700 hired throughout the season they have around 200-250 left roughly and will get around 50+ callins on some days, and if they do show up some of them try to get off as soon as possible without even finishing their shifts. A higher wage would definitely attract a higher caliber of employee and in the end would probably save them money as they wouldn't have to hold a new training class (Discovery) every couple of days. There are too many incentives to not work. Take this for example. My Brother runs a logistics outfit in Memphis, they need 3,000 seasonal workers to place in DCs in the Memphis area. These seasonal jobs will pay 12 bucks an hour for fairly low skill tasks, The DCs involved are huge brand names, Disney, Williams Sonoma, ATT, Nike, on and on. He is not alone, several others are looking for thousands of seasonal employees including Fed Ex, which predicting a record breaking year through it's Memphis Mega Hub. They can't find workers. Now if you have been in the Memphis area recently, you know folks need work but they will not do it. They are content on gaming the system and living at the level they are living at. The announced unemployment rate is a joke as so many have been without jobs for so long they considered out of the work force and not counted. Typically if you are worth something as a seasonal employee, they find a way to keep you full time and pay you more. This is another example, a contract brewer is having a dickens of a time staffing it's plant in Memphis. This was a Coors facility but they pulled out when merged with Miller, these folks bought it and brew a little of everything for all kinds of customers. They only run one side of the massive facility and would like to open the other side but: The brewery employed 277 people on Dec. 31. More would be employed there, but the company is having a difficult time finding and keeping skilled workers, Parke said. Instead, Blues City is paying a lot of overtime to the workers it does have. "So we work a lot of 12-hour shifts,'' Parke said. As a result, workers are averaging annual income of about $55,000 instead of the expected $41,000, he said. So, let's not moan about wages, 55,000 in Memphis is a very good living. Let's do some reflection on why so many aren't movitated to work period.

Yeah, although it's running intermittently (if at all) this late in the season. I actually haven't taken a good look recently to see if the cars are still on it. The pic I posted was taken Sunday afternoon from the ferris wheel, ran for the 5 hrs we were there.

There is absolutely no convenience factor to the food plan for Fright Fest. That was my point... why stand in line for an hour? If it's a Tuesday in July, I totally get it. We went to pick up our 2017 season passes. Since there are four of us, they were up graded to gold. All for 60 bucks a head with tax. We're planning on using the visit any park feature on our vacation to DC and Philly at America and Great Adventure. We plan on using the feature as well on short trips to Atlanta and Chicago. We bought one premium dining pass for 80 bucks just so we get the unlimited soda bottle that's good at all parks. Since our family already has coodies, we'll share the drinks. But, when I passed the Panda Express I counted a line of 50 deep to eat flavored exlax. There's just something absurd about that.

Oh, we didn't show up hungry, I made the most of my three free drinks at Drury and some Pappy's Ribs we had got earlier

We were there on Sat nite as well. No matter what year it is the ridiculous food and drink lines make me laugh. Folks with the dining pass willl throw away fun time just so they can squeeze every dollar they can from it. We opened and closed City Museum yesterday, I sat there on the roof just imagining what they could do with an old wild mouse or junior coaster up there. Praying Falstaff

We had Efteling, Phantasialand, Europa Park, Either Mirabilandia or Guadapark, and Port Adventura as must dos. We wanted to,hit up Puy du Fou even through it's really rideless. Now I want to squeeze in more around all our non theme park stuff, it's just too much. I begging g for Norweigian to found their way into the mid US for cheaper flights for more visits.

If they do this, I'll have to stop by since I'm already doing Efteling. And it's that Efteling is so close as to why I don't think it is. That is, unless it is not B&M.

(And make it a Diamond Back Rattlesnake!) While there's a few rattlesnakes in the Ozarks, Copperheads are much more common.

Viking's entry to river cruising on the Mississippi has been delayed. They have not been able to find a ship builder in the US to build their boats yet and they can not bring them over from Europe due to some law passed the early 20th century that made all vessels on the Mississippi be American built. There is one paddle wheel builder left it seems and they are currently under an exclusive contract. Viking would not be using paddle wheelers but that is a major builder off limits till it is done with their current contract. https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/15892-viking-s-u-s-domestic-waterways-plan-unveiled-in-trademark-filings.html http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/article_1bb98ca8-7aa7-11e6-a649-4faa395695df.html I still think Disney should get into Mississippi River Cruising. A 400 to 500 passenger boat geared to families with younger children is completely missing from the currently booming mix of options. The new MSC boat headed to Miami looks nice with a couple of over the side water slides in the mix, their new private island has been pushed back to late 2018 however.

So, Norweigian is building a big ass boat for Alaska cruises. Same class of ship that they are building as a China specific boat with go carts. Tight lipped on the features that make this Alaska specific. http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=7281

Sorry double post

Tulsa is a casino, I doubt it would happen. Johnny Morris had mentioned partnering with them on a potential redo of Mud Island in Memphis to compliment the Pyramid Bait Shop but nothing has come of it.

Remember that GCI that was proposed for (now defunct) Miracle Strip in PCB, this would be a good home for it and Mississippi needs a coaster.

The new Margaritaville Resort in Biloxi has announced expansion plans that will include rides! http://www.wlox.com/story/33318292/margaritaville-unveils-plans-to-expand-family-entertainment-center?clienttype=generic&sf37900053=1 Needs a woodie called Landshark

So Hefei is open and now Chongqing construction is underway? Been planning on a China/Asia vacation in 2020 after Europe in 2018. All these new parks are coming online between now and then and it's making route planning a bit difficult but it's looking like Being and hopefully the new Universal to Xi'an and Lewa to Chengde and Happy Valley to Chongqing and Wanda , Short Yangtze cruise to Liyang and then either Shanghai via bullet train through Hefei or to Changsha and Zhangjiajie the mountains Avatar was based off of and then to Shanghai and then Hong Kong. All that after 7 days in Japan. Gutterflower's posts have been very helpful.

This will not deter my visit for 2018 http://www.nltimes.nl/2016/09/08/terrorist-attack-at-dutch-theme-park-foiled-by-authorities/

Omg. That was awesome, yet crazy at the same time. You'd think the cruise line would know better than to travel that closely to a dock. . . Oh, wait. It's Carnival. Nevermind. Maybe the port shod have said,"Hey, that ship is too big to dock here." Considering the displacemen it could cause to get underway. But they wanted those 4,000 souls on shore to spend money. And what did the Concordia have to do with that story? Anyways the Vista is impressive to look at. Imax theather, that hanging pedal ride and decent water slides elevates Carnivals family game. Let's see, you got a Norweigian boat with a go cart track headed to China, a RC boat with an insane dry slide and pod thingy, a MCS boat headed to Miami with an impressive water slide complex that has two slides that extends past the side MCS has another on the way that claims to have an Amusement and water park features. I've actually seen a render of them having a drop tower like ride on a boat but it was just an idea. Who'll be the first with a legit roller coaster that goes over the side, possibly upside down?

For those that have been, is there seemingly enough room to add more rides on the inside or enough voids to have a load station inside for a mostly outside ride? Just trying to get a sense of whether this park can grow.

Mesa Verde, Meza Verde, Mesa Verde for cliff dwellings if you can make it one day.

Are they putting the "wings" on the trains, after seeing those settings around in that TR. I really would love to see those attached

According to the Facebook page, constuction of the actual park has began but rain slowed it down a bit. They are still holding the rides close to the vest.

I love the north rim. It's lots less crowed than the south rim, a1,000 ftm higher and view even better. The drive from the south rim to Cameron during sunset is stunning. The sun lights up the Painted Desert to the east. You get vies of the confluence area of th3 Colorado and Little Colorado and the Navaho Resort portion of the Painted Desert which is it's best part but extremely difficult to get to.