TR: Six Flags America

[Spideyfreak]

So yesterday I took a trip to Six Flags America with my friend and my parents. My parents dropped us at the gate, where we noticed that Suprman would not be operating (along with 7 other rides). We got in at 11:30ish and went in, got 5 Flash Passes, and then headed towards Gotham City. Joker's Jinx had only one train, so we did that first. We used 2 of our passes on that. After that, we were going to head towards Batwing, but it appeared to be down. So we headed towards Two Face and rode that. We then rode Tower of Doom.

 

It was now about 12:30 and my friend and I decide to get some Dipin Dots. Then we went to see the 1:00 Batman Stunt Show Spectacular.

 

Here is where the day goes down the tubes!

 

About 3/4 through the show, the audio effects went out. No big deal, the actors just finished the scene in silence and walked off stage. Then they announced that the park had experianced a power surge then and then a mommentary power outage and that they were not able to continue the show. So on our way out, the audio effects started working again (I found it funny hearing glass breaking and punching sounds with nobody on stage).

 

It was now 1:30, and as we walked through the park, we noticed nothing running and it was very, very quiet. Within the next hour, 1/2 of the flat rides were running and 2 coasters were also operating. We decided to use the remainder of our passes on the Wild One, but due to the extremely long lines, they were not accepting Flash Passes.

 

At around 4:00 we decided to call it quits and leave. On our way out, we saw 4 maintenance crew member standing around talking about noting related to the rides! (Typical Six Flags maintenance?) We were going to also drop by guest relations, but the "complaint" line was out the door and stretching across the midway!

 

So in 5 hours we got a grand total of 3 rides in. We spent about $140 for that day! The least they could have done is give us our $15 parking fee back. Now I will never go to a Six Flags park again. Overall the staff had pretty crappy attidudes, and to see maintenance just standing around was a huge dissapointment. Now I feel like taking my season pass, throwing it in the air and shooting it.

 

I know it is not the park's fault for the power problem, but the way the situation was handled was pretty bad. SFA is now on my "never again" list.

 

Has anybody else had an experiance similar to this?

[BarryH]

Was S:ROS open?

 

Well, considering yesterday was Saturday, I'm not surprised the park was busy. SFA isn't really a bad park. I nickname it "Attack of the Clones" because it has so many coasters that are clones.

 

Maybe if you went to SFA today or on a weekday, the crowds would have been lighter? I know, SFA isn't open on the weekdays in September...

[Shavethewhales]

Wow, I've only ever been to one Six flags park, and with all these horror stories I'm scared to go to more.

 

Wasn't Snyder supposed to change all this?

[CP_RULES]

Now I will never go to a Six Flags park again.

 

I think you are over reacting a bit. Sure this was unfortunate, but there are many Six Flags parks that are very good parks. Just becuase you had one bad day is no reason to say you will never go to a Six Flags park again. Id say atleast give it one more chance.

[TexTitan01]

^^ yes, and he's in the process of it. SFI was in debt by over a million (maybe billion...) dollars, that wont go away after just 1 season. If you really pay attention you can notice changes now, for example more shows and kiddie areas to make the parks more family friendly so as it wont just target thrillseekers; but it will probably take atleast 2-3 seasons for the debt to go away.

 

The way I see it, Six Flags America is the worst park, but also the park with the most potential. Its basically a blank canvas, with so much open space I'm sure half the rides that are in SF parks that go under will go to Six Flags America. Otherwise, yes the maintenance sucks, yes the PR sucks, but It wont suck for long

 

Spidey dont totally think you got jiped. It was a weekend crowd, there was a power outage, and you got fast passes, so its not like 140$ is that hard to spend. Also its not like you shelled 50$ into food while you were there. Atleast you got to ride SOMETHING. I was @ Six Flags Over Texas when they had a power outage and I was on Flashback when it valleyed. Now THAT, was a sucky day

 

-Tex

[larrygator]

We were going to also drop by guest relations, but the "complaint" line was out the door and stretching across the midway!

 

Sorry, but if you didn't complain at Guest Services (or at least send a complaint letter), I have no sympathy for you. Then again complaining at Six Flags Guest Services rarely results in compensation equal to the problem.

[SharkTums]

I understand your frustrations, but what did you expect the park to do? Magically realize you were pissed off and give you compensation? I bet they would have done *something* had you waited at guest relations, but on a crazy day like that they were probably so busy they can't go around randomly fixing everyone's problems.

 

I think there are far worse Six Flags parks out there than SFA!

[benzo41190]

I don't really like SFA....its a weird park. The rides there are good, but get no attention. Its almost like a black spot in the Six Flags management IMO.

 

Also....not to mention the 6'2" height limit for S: ROS

[eddie200330]

Funny, I had the same thing happen a few years back!!! All power was gone from the park and all the water was gone from the slides?? To the best of my knowledge it never came back that day and like you said the guest relations line was so long it would have been the next morning before we got through that mess. And if I remember right, it was @ the same time of day!!!

[cygnusx1]

I've been to SFA a few times. Even though I'm a lot closer to SFA than PKD, I still consider PKD my home park because SFA is that awful. The last several times I went to SFA, I remembered that hardly any of the rides were open, even in the middle of summer with decent crowds. I do know one family that has season passes there and actually likes it, but I don't intend to go back to SFA. I haven't been there since the first year it was Six Flags, and I've been to PKD annually almost every year except this year (I do intend to get a season pass for next year if they add anything good). I don't have much of a desire to go to any other Six Flags park now, except for Six Flags Fiesta Texas, which looks better than PKD too, not just SFA.

[robbalvey]

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what the park could do for you since you just "left."

 

I mean, it sounds like a series of unfortunate circumstances, yes, but if the park had a power failure, and from the timeline you posted it sounded like they DID get it resolved within the hour, you have to at least give them credit for resolving what probably was a pretty big issue.

 

My feeling is that had you stood in that line at Guest Relations, you probably would have at least got a refund on your FlashPasses, perhaps even your admission or at least received a comp ticket for another visit.

 

The park was also open until 8pm and you left at 4pm. Couldn't you have at least made the best of the situation and left to go get dinner at one of those places about a mile away from the park and then come back when perhaps all the craziness might have died down?

 

This part didn't make sense to me.....

It was now 1:30, and as we walked through the park, we noticed nothing running and it was very, very quiet. Within the next hour, 1/2 of the flat rides were running and 2 coasters were also operating.

 

At around 4:00 we decided to call it quits and leave.

 

So if nothing was running at 1:30, but most flats and some coasters were running within the next hour, what did you do between 2:30 and 4:00?

 

You're saying that NOTHING was available between that time? Doesn't quite add up to me.

 

IMO, you made two mistakes:

 

1. Visiting a Six Flags park on a Saturday and did NOT get there for opening (anyone here will tell you that would have saved you SO MUCH headache.)

 

2. You left on your own accord without going to Guest Relations.

 

We can all have a crappy day at a park, but IMO it sounds like had you made better personal decisions, your day could have been MUCH better.

 

That's just my 2 cents.....

 

--Robb

[YoshiFan]

I never heard of a park not accept Flash Passes because the line is too long. Isn't that the point of them in the first place, to bypass the lines? It is even worse since you paid for it.

 

I only live about 2 1/2 hours away from SFA but because of everything I read about the park and not being a SF seasonpass holder, I have no desire to ever visit the park.

[BarryH]

For those who are afraid to go to SF parks after seeing this TR, there are actually good SF parks out there. I feel that SF parks are like a box of chocolates -- you never know what you're going to get.

 

SFOT is the crown jewel of all the SF parks. If you want to see how to run a SF park well, go here! I went to SFOT when it was wall to wall people over Spring Break in March and I still managed to have a lot of fun. All SF managers should be sent to SFOT to see how that park is run. SFOG, SFGAm, SFGAdv, and SFFT are pretty good SF parks.

 

I wasn't too fond of SFMM, though. SFMM is like "the world's largest collection of poorly-run coasters!"

 

Still, SFA isn't that bad. It could be better, but not too bad. Just try to avoid Saturdays or holidays!

[savemagicmountain]

Thats a shame you say that because the least you can do is give it a chance. That was a bad situation you were in. I have never been to SFA but last time when we were not satisfied at SFMM we went right to the complaint department and they refunded our tickets so you can't really complain about the day that much because you really did nothing about it

[okinawaboy11]

I understand your frustrations, but what did you expect the park to do? Magically realize you were pissed off and give you compensation? I bet they would have done *something* had you waited at guest relations, but on a crazy day like that they were probably so busy they can't go around randomly fixing everyone's problems.

 

I think there are far worse Six Flags parks out there than SFA!

 

Elissa I love you for that last sentence. SFA really is a great park in terms of coasters and what not. Its just the operations that make it so...underestimated. Really you just chose a random date, no one can predict a power surge. Thats just bad luck.

[Spideyfreak]

Ok, maybe I was overreacting a bit. And I hsould clear some things up, cause to be honest my writing skills suck....

 

But still, we just waited around for almost 3 hours, and to see maintenance crew just standing around talking about their life story and not at any of the rides that were down? We would have gone to the guest relations line, but it was really long and their were small fights starting which resulted on security kicking people out of the park.

 

I've been to this park 3 times now and on all my visits the staff have been really crappy. So will I go to another SF park? Possibly, but I doubt anytime soon.