Danrarbc

My guess would be Condor possibly, Troika almost certainly not because it's significantly more programmable.

Not only do they still sell Condors they have a second generation model. Right along with the second generation Troika.

HITP would have probably done better financially if they decided to attempt to have less of the park open. As much as I loved having most of it open and I said that in this very thread that does mean they had to staff up all of those rides. I guess making it a separate ticketed event might have worked but I doubt near as many people would have attended.

The Fiesta Texas accounts have been averaging at least a post per day for quite a while (skipping a day here and there - but having multiple posts per day other days). Edit: Seriously though continuing along the lines of behind the scenes content. Imagine how differently people might feel about The Boss and their appreciation for the maintenance team if people were able to see just how much track work goes in to keeping it specifically running.

There are things that Jeff does that don't cost money that many other park execs don't do - or at least don't do near as much. For instance the transparency that's been brought up. It's 'free' for a park president to pull out a camera or their phone and take some pictures and drop frequent social media updates keeping park fans caught up with what's going on around the park on any given week. Another good example of this kind of executive is Tony Clark at Cedar Point. Now some parks don't have an exec directly doing this but they have an active social media presence reliably communicating with the main accounts. Fiesta Texas has the benefit of having both one of the more active Six Flags social media accounts AND Jeff interacting directly - but literally either one would be fine (if a park can't afford someone working social media this is where a full-time executive that can be active can go a LONG way). SfSTL hasn't posted since October 27th and that was about Rocky Horror and the last 3 days of operation. IMO there should be a social post at least 4 times a week in the offseason, with the media manager sticking around interacting in the replies for a decent amount of time after AND ready to go with a timely post participating in trends that are current (these shouldn't count against that 4 post minimum). We should be seeing updates on ride maintenance. What goes in to managing seasonal HR. We should be seeing carpentry highlighted. Q&As. There's way more that can be done to keep people engaged and informed and that just isn't being done - not with the main accounts and not coming from an executive. I'd like to see posts EVERY operating day and one every other weekday when the park is in weekend only operation too. There are enough employees and departments and individual duties and activities to keep this fed all year.

Well before the merger I already thought every park president should train under Siebert somehow. Unless he doesn't want an expansion of his duties in that way. But now Six Flags parks have access to the park and the chain that trained Jeff. They actually can set up a career path for that.

Oh this merger is absolutely terrible for anyone working for Six Flags' corporate office. That will be shutting down and the Sandusky and Charlotte Cedar Fair offices will be running the entire operation. That's the primary cost savings they'll realize here. But for park guests it's probably the best case scenario.

"Greater flexibility to invest in new rides and attractions, broader food and beverage selections, additional in-park offerings, and cross-park initiatives" "Leverage Cedar Fair’s recent park investments experience to accelerate the transformation underway across Six Flags’ portfolio" It certainly sounds like the plan is to roll the kinds of improvements Cedar Fair has been making at their parks over the last several years out to the Six Flags parks too. And to do so within 3 years.

This merger would raise some questions around what happens to certain parks. There are markets where both chains currently operate a park (and others that are in close proximity) - how on earth do they manage that situation? Would regulators require the combined company sell some parks to others in order to maintain some additional competition that will otherwise be lost? Is a sell off already part of the plan as that would help offset any capital spent on the deal?

Again? I'd be down if Cedar Fair leadership retains full power. Not so much if Six Flags ownership does.

In fairness the Six Flags CEO did reverse course last year and decided to increase capital investment. It's the reason all of the 2023 rides are late - all of the contracts were signed later than usual because it wasn't the plan all along. As for employment you see some cases where they're investing in systems to reduce the need for employees. Automating the toll plaza can add a handful more people to the to the workforce inside the park. Implementing the soda dispensers they're using in Six Flags Over Georgia can decouple the need for that service to be done at a manned food location. They should consider employee housing the way some Cedar Fair parks do it as well - it's easier to bring in migrant workers when you make the process easier for them. SFStL in particular is actually at a pretty big disadvantage just based on its location for employees overall though - the commute to the park is longer than many other parks in their respective cities and there's no way that isn't having some impact (this is the hardest thing to fix).

Six Flags tried to raise prices and the fanbase let them have it over it. Their 2022 was ABYSMAL in both attendance and revenue. They can't put the cart before the horse on this. They have to make the parks better first to justify a premium price. They can't just bump prices up to Silver Dollar City level and expect it to work all by itself that's what they attempted to do in early 2022.

I know a resident curmudgeon was quite critical of the line Rookie Racer had displayed in my visit. But even with two laps it is a relatively short cycle. And with the fast operations the trains allow and the fact that they actually have someone on the platform ensuring the trains leave full every cycle (for now) it is actually churning through riders pretty fast. The longest line shown in the video wouldn't have been more than a 40 minute wait or so. The actual set queue only starts around where the helix is so during normal ops this thing should rarely top 30 minutes. Quick note that the audio system is probably a pretty basic setup with audio less "following" the train and probably more just 8 different audio tracks mixed carefully to time up with the course. So as long as the wiring stays in shape it should hold up well. I'm assuming it is simply based on timing because I didn't really see any position sensors on ride.

IMG_1434.mov

Only missed summer by like a week. Rookie Racer opens this weekend.