teacherkim

Hmmm.....that totally contradicts the email they sent out to the passholders. Perhaps right hand and left hand need to talk more often? Wonder where the truth lies?

Sure! Why not? There are lots of teachers who work there over the summer and retirees that take a job there. I keep telling my son that it's going to be my retirement job when I'm done teaching since I will only be 53. He wants to work there as soon as he's old enough and not thrilled with the idea of me being there too

They didn't have a map or list on there yet (or on the web site) but there was a little article about riding Eagle during the Holidays. The only other rides that were mentioned was Freeze and Colossus, but I would be very surprised if Mine Train wasn't open. It was last year and it's a draw for the littler ones that are coming to see Santa and such.

Just got the newsletter/passholder announcements email and it indicates that they will have Eagle open for HITP.

I have always thought this and put it on every survey. I mean you paid for a certain quantity of meals/snacks; why can't you use them whenever you want? And like you I think it would help lines. Particularly at events like FF when everyone is trying to eat all at once (after dinner starts and before the haunts open). I kind of assume the reason they don't do this is so you don't use it for friends. For example, if we come to FF at 4 in the afternoon because we mostly want to experience the park in the dark, we are not going to have 2 meals and a snack. If we could use those meals anytime, it would be easy to treat a friend that doesn't have a DP. The question is: Are they really losing that much money? Would someone mooching off a friend spend the money if they didn't have that opportunity or would they just stuff their face at Steak n Shake before/after a visit? I mean if they were willing to bring in food trucks it shows some willingness to give up profit for happy visitors. . We went to the park again yesterday as my oldest was in from college for the weekend and my wife and I were discussing the same thing. Wouldn't it be better to have happy/satisfied customers that can eat whenever they want and spread the lines out throughout the day then force the times. We waited in food lines for at least 30-45 minutes for each meal yesterday. Granted this was one of the busiest days I've ever seen the park, but the funny thing is, once dining hours were over at 8:30 the park seemed to clear out slightly. If the hours were extended to one hour before closing, do you think more people would stay in the park and possibly spend more on games,etc. Al though I must admit, not many games were open yesterday, it seemed like they must have put games employees in food service positions, not sure this is even possible with health requirements, but seemed like the only explanation in not having games open. The other thing we've learned is it doesn't seem like the enforce the times too hard when busy as we ordered lunch at about 4:40 and dinner at about 8:45 both after the designated cut offs. As far as arriving at the park after X time, why not just post guests arriving after X will only be allowed one meal and snack. Quite honestly some of the snack options could be a meal for a light eater. The pretzels are huge, I believe a turkey leg is now a snack upgrade, or the half and half at Johnny Rockets could hold someone over. I think they are maybe a little lenient during FF on the times due to the huge crowds. Variation of the ride rule; you know if you are in line by the end time they will let you use it. You can replace a meal with a snack anytime, of course, win/win for the park. As much as I would like to think they want good customer service I'm afraid the reality probably is they are only going to really care about happy/satisfied customers if they think people will not return or not buy the dp's due to wait times and restrictions.

I'm guessing your are spot on. Wonder if that is why they weren't around this year. Or were food trucks there these last couple of weekends. We were at FF the second weekend so early on but I sure didn't see any trucks then. I thought it was a really nice addition when they have had them.

I have always thought this and put it on every survey. I mean you paid for a certain quantity of meals/snacks; why can't you use them whenever you want? And like you I think it would help lines. Particularly at events like FF when everyone is trying to eat all at once (after dinner starts and before the haunts open). I kind of assume the reason they don't do this is so you don't use it for friends. For example, if we come to FF at 4 in the afternoon because we mostly want to experience the park in the dark, we are not going to have 2 meals and a snack. If we could use those meals anytime, it would be easy to treat a friend that doesn't have a DP. The question is: Are they really losing that much money? Would someone mooching off a friend spend the money if they didn't have that opportunity or would they just stuff their face at Steak n Shake before/after a visit? I mean if they were willing to bring in food trucks it shows some willingness to give up profit for happy visitors. Speaking of......I didn't see any food trucks this year when we were there on the 7th. Did they decide not to do it this year? And if not, is it because it cut into the bottom line too much? The answer to that may be why they have the designated times? Or they are just being kinda douchey and hoping lots of people won't ever use all of the meals designated to them, thus increasing their profit on each dp. Or some combo of the above. You need to know something about bulk food prices and the profitability of the food service industry to even begin to decode their reasons. What they are charging for a hamburger fries and drink most likely costs them in bulk, as they buy it, about $2 to $3 max per meal. They charge $12-$15. I have eaten out there on nearly every visit this year (about 8) and I have maybe cost them $25-$30 in food and drinks in about 10 meals. (Deluxe dining pass $85) I like the convenience of not having to have any cash or money on me when I visit and can stop in whenever and not worry about paying for anything. I cannot even fathom the actual cost of bringing your family of 4 to the park without passes and dining in park for a full day. Gotta be close to $500. Can't imagine a lot of the crowd is of this variety. I mean $20 to park your car, that is truly a rip off, and that's with no parking lot shuttle to at least bring you to the gate. Season and dining passes are their bread and butter,and controlling costs and cutting them is how they keep their margins high enough to stay open. another 2 cents Kevin Oh I get that. And I know that bulk soda is extremely cheap because they buy it by the keg. I like the convenience of the dp too. I was just trying to think out if there would be a huge cut for them by eliminating the time restriction. There is no doubt they make a huge profit on food and bev!

I have always thought this and put it on every survey. I mean you paid for a certain quantity of meals/snacks; why can't you use them whenever you want? And like you I think it would help lines. Particularly at events like FF when everyone is trying to eat all at once (after dinner starts and before the haunts open). I kind of assume the reason they don't do this is so you don't use it for friends. For example, if we come to FF at 4 in the afternoon because we mostly want to experience the park in the dark, we are not going to have 2 meals and a snack. If we could use those meals anytime, it would be easy to treat a friend that doesn't have a DP. The question is: Are they really losing that much money? Would someone mooching off a friend spend the money if they didn't have that opportunity or would they just stuff their face at Steak n Shake before/after a visit? I mean if they were willing to bring in food trucks it shows some willingness to give up profit for happy visitors. Speaking of......I didn't see any food trucks this year when we were there on the 7th. Did they decide not to do it this year? And if not, is it because it cut into the bottom line too much? The answer to that may be why they have the designated times? Or they are just being kinda douchey and hoping lots of people won't ever use all of the meals designated to them, thus increasing their profit on each dp. Or some combo of the above.

I think you are exaggerating the seriousness just a bit. I mean I'm almost 50, a woman, go out in public in a swimsuit, sometimes at SF water park where I regularly run into my middle school students......why would a nipslip be that much worse, it's just a body part that we all have. See plenty of guys with their butt cracks out and they don't seem to care.

We ran into the stinky mess by Spinsanity too, It seemed more like a sewer backup to me. Personally, I'm ok with them getting rid of the hayride if it frees up more scare actors for other venues. I've always loved the idea behind Camp Killamore but thought they needed more people and there did seem to be more this year. It's really hard to make the hayride more than just a dark ride through the woods unless you have a lot of people along the route, which they never did. Would rather they have one less haunt and the others be more intense with more people.

We attended an ACE event at the park this past Saturday. Great 2 hours of ert on Thunder, Freeze, Eagle and Boss. Got Haunted House passes and a nice buffet back in the picnic grove. There were several groups back there so they also had some scareactors ready to go early and they made the rounds of the pavilions while we were eating. Did get to do something we've never done before.....won a raffle to ride the train with the freaks when they come out for the nighttime activities. We felt kind of special coming in with the monsters! Crowds were heavy as you would expect for FF but not the insane 2 hour waits that I have seen as you get closer to Halloween. The main show in the Palace theater was typical theme park quality but a fun spoof of Rocky Horror. Honestly, if you are looking for the show to blow you away you will always be disappointed, but it had a lot of cute jokes and we just rolled with it and didn't worry a whole lot about the quality of the singing. Embracing the cheesiness is the only way to go! Just as the train was pulling out. This zombie moved in quick which is why my son is on the verge of cracking up

We were there yesterday (after it being closed all day Sat for what I also assume was a private event) and the waits were very short with many things being a walk on. And that was a BFF day. I really don't think any day will be crowded now until FF starts.

I asked several people in line if they saw how it happened, but those around us had all walked up after the fact. If there is an employee out there that knows what happened and can spill the beans; I'm dying to know. It was around 3:30 on Sunday 9/3.

Well slightly chilly (by water park standards) temps and partly cloudy kept no one away, lol. It was pretty packed at Splashin Safari and I'm guessing they have the usual post school start water park/pool issues with not enough staff as a couple things were shut down. Lines were averaging a good 30-45 min. OF course it was a holiday weekend, not complaining, I knew it was a risk. But I think if we make any day trips next year, which is a 6 hr round trip we will make sure to go on a weekday to get the most bang for our buck; so to speak. Rode the 4 coasters before we left. Took us about 2 hours to get all 4 in between 4 pm and 6 pm. And then the boy waxed poetic about Thunderbird. All. The. Way. Home. Did see 2 things I've never seen before. Wildebeest valleyed. Twice. They had to shut it down, evacuate the stuck , and evacuate the stuck raft. And somehow a woman managed to be on one of the rafts in between the get off and get on point. Where only the boats go under the little gate. I haven't a clue how she managed that, walked up to get in line as they were hauling her but out with a ladder and everyone in line was clapping.

It does, I have used it at SFMM and SFGAdv AND if you get the dining pass this weekend you will get an upgrade to Gold which also makes dining good at every Six Flags park. I have used that at other parks as well.

Thanks! I'll let you know how it goes.

Guess we are making a day trip from St Louis tomorrow to have one last chance at the water park for the summer. Still going to be a bit chilly in the am but looks like the temps should be warming up for the afternoon. Hope the water's not too chilly after the hurricane rain you got yesterday.

Agreed! I noticed the new plantings this year as well. Wasn't sure if it would be the same for others as I am into gardening and flowers and always look at that kind of thing. Noticed several cleaned up roofs as well.

Hmmm....well I wonder what the sign on Thunder River is for then. Sure makes it seem like some sort of haunt is going in there. Although my son was there yesterday and said it didn't look like they were working on anything inside the ride sight. They have used part of the queue for when the line backs up for Blind Fury before but I wouldn't think there is anything to prepare in that case that would warrant them closing it early. And I would think they will have some sort of show in the Empire Theater to replace the hypnotist.

OK, those of you who frequent HW, we're thinking of a day trip Labor Day weekend (probably on Sunday, try to beat the church people) Are the crowds down a bit now that school is back and people aren't traveling as much or am I completely kidding myself that the water park won't be insane Labor Day weekend?

Weather was fine, cloudy, but dry and in the upper 70's by the time this happened in the afternoon. Had been wet and cold the day before but it was running fine all morning. My son thought your second explanation about the lift chain stopping just enough to slow it down but the power outage was on Sunday and this was on Monday and like I said it was working fine in the morning. Doesn't mean there was not a power outage on Monday, just that we never witnessed one. We had gotten off Eagle and were cutting back through kid's area when we came upon the situation; and everything around it was working fine. Maybe just some malfunction on the lift hill?

We were at the park today. Fairly light crowd, said RIP to Highland Fling, and witnessed these guys having a bad day on Pandemonium. Not sure what caused this to valley, we only came upon the aftermath. And the rescue effort Maybe a park employee knows what happened. A nice surprise is that it seems they have been working on cleaning up the various roofs you can see from some of the ride lines. And I noticed today that many planting areas that in previous years were basically empty were nicely filled in with flowers! As someone who gardens a lot, the flowers look really nice this year (I hadn't really been in the main part of the park since very early in the summer). Other than Pandemonium, reduced capacity in the afternoon on JLBM, and Thunder River having no water in it everything else seemed to be running well today

Hahaha! I can believe it! We have them in Virginia too so I'm used to them but they absolutely sound like a rattlesnake. The incident was comical and I think I would have pissed my pants had I not known what it was. This one was not only massive in size but also in perversion... who smacks a lady in the dark on a wooded mountainside at 11PM right in the crotch and then goes for the back door?! I mean really! I have a lot to report on our day at Dollywood yesterday. It was so beautiful out that I was snapping away all day and have some good pics to post too. Might have time to type it up in a bit but not sure so I'll leave you with this: PUT ALL YOUR CRAP IN THE BINS ON RIDES! My SO's wallet went flying out of his buttoned pocket on LR yesterday 20 minutes after we arrived at the park and has not been recovered yet. Something else got lost as well (Bert knows - don't spoil it!) but that second item was eventually located. It was quite a memorable day for many reasons and despite it all, we can't wait to go back. I told you, they are demonic, lol!! Schools in St Lou start mostly the week of the 14th. I'm sure that is what is affecting the closures. As much due to loss of all the teen employees as reduced attendance. SFStl calendar coincides precisely with the 2 biggest districts in west St Louis county.

I remember the year the 13 year swarm and the 17 year swarm coincided here in St Louis. You literally could not hear someone standing right next to you over the noise. Got pelted with them trying to mow the yard under a big tree. Thankfully it was before the days of youtube so my leaping about and frantically trying to disentangle a dozen or so cicadas from my hair was not immortalized for eternity. And the periodic swarms are demonic looking things with red eyes.

Well having been to the water park a few times this year I can tell you that the speed slides have been closed a lot, or open late, or only 2 of the 3 are open or some combination of those. I was thinking staffing issues. But a couple weeks ago my son and his friend rode the 2 that were open and they both had red, scratched up backs from the slides and decided once was enough. When 14 yr olds decide it's rough, then it's probably becoming a somewhat unpleasant experience. I haven't been on those slides in a few years (no mom pushing 50 needs the atomic wedgie said slides produce) but I don't remember them being that rough. So, I wonder if they are in a situation where the slides need to be completely overhauled and they are just choosing to replace. Bonzai pipeline is a similar type thrill slide so they would be more or less covered. And.........I have to say water coasters are great fun!