SFGAm TR 4/11/08 park closes after 2 hours!

[tsalas08]

Well I knew there was a chance the park could close for weather, but I gave the park a call and asked them whats up. The lady at guest relations ASSURED me they would be open all day, I even asked if they might close early, she said no unless there is thunder storms. So me, my friend, his girlfriend, and his little brother drive down (2 hr drive there) and we get there its sprinkling, but its not horrible, we got first dispatch on viper and re-rode. Get to raging bull and got on the second train of the day. Then they tell us they're closing the park at noon, but would be giving free passes on the way out. so we book it to hit up demon and batman(keep in mind we had 45 minutes left.) We ride demon and then race all the way across the park...and batman is CLOSED with 30 minutes left. already upset with guest relations about saying they were supposed to be open, we head to superman, ride three times then leave because the park closed. I head up to guest relations because I have a Season pass - a lot of good the complementary pass does me. Now I don't expect a refund for the gas, and I understand they may need close, but the least they can do is offer food vouchers or exit passes but they wont do ANYTHING for us. I ask to speak with a supervisor after dealing with the host at GR and he tells me they are all unavailable and in a meeting. well I see a SUP on the way out and speak with her and she basically tells me the same thing. I can't tell if I'm overreacting or not, but when their employee ensures me they will not close, I expect them to partially compensate me for my troubles. All I'm asking for are some food vouchers or exit passes noting big but the park wont do anything for someone who spends a decent amount of money there weekly. I was really disappointed in them this weekend when I usually am fairly pleased with their service. here is the kicker, the winds were lighter than opening day and and the rain cleared up as the park closed. $40 is a lot of money and I wouldn't have gone if i wasn't assured by THEIR employee they would remain open.

 

Some people mentioned paying for parking at 11:20 then being told at the gate that the park was closing at noon.

 

Also I sent a letter to SFGAm:

To whom it may concern-

 

As a season pass holder, I decided to head down to the park with another pass holder along with two guests. We live about two hours away, so we decided to check with your guest relations to ensure that the park would be operating for the majority of the day. The lady on the phone ASSURED me that the park would be operating for the majority of the day, unless it were to thunder storm. Unfortunately, we were there for 30 minutes before they announced the park closing.

 

I can understand that the park wishes to close for the safety of their guests; however, not only did the weather clear up, but we also incurred a $36 dollar charge in gas to drive there and back. I appreciate the parks offer of a complementary pass, but the pass is useless to me as I don't need one to enter the park.

 

I choose to speak with guest relations about the matter, but the employee, Steven, was fairly rude and offered no apologies or alternatives. After asking to speak with a supervisor, he informed me that none were available, they were all in a meeting. However, I spotted one immediately after turning around and leaving.

 

I asked if it was possible for the park to offer exit passes or meal vouchers for our time and expenses, politely explaining that the free guest passes were useless to us, wasted based on a decision that came from information received from your employees. She told me that they will not do so, and compared the park closing to an airline delay due to weather. If the park wishes to offer the same customer service as an airline, then I certainly will not be spending my money with your park in the future, nor will I continue to recommend your park to my co-workers, friends, and family, if Six Flags cannot offer something as simple as meal vouchers for our troubles.

 

I greatly appreciate you assistance in this matter and look forward to your acceptable and timely resolution.

 

Regards,

 

*full name*

[Revolucion]

Dude, why not take the free pass and sell it?

 

It does suck that you made a drive for nothing, though.

[YoshiFan]

^ That's what I was thinking when reading the post, you could probably get $30 for it on EBay easily.

[EastCoastn07]

I understand the person at guest relations told you the park wouldn't close, but the fact that weather is very unpredictable, you can't really blame them. You said there was a chance that the weather was going to get bad, you decided to take the chance to drive down to the park even though there was a chance that the park would close. While working at Kennywood today, the park actually closed down at 2 pm due to the inclement weather. The park was initially supposed to close at 7, then it changed to 5 and finally they just decided to close it at 2. If Six Flags is anything like Kennywood, operating times can change due to numerous reasons, not just weather. If the weather is crappy and there's not a lot of people in the park, they might just choose to close down the park so they don't actually lose money from operating costs. The cost of giving a few hundred people in the park a free ticket to come back another day is a lot less significant than losing tons of money with having to pay the payroll as well as the cost of operating all the rides and concession stands. I understand you are very upset, but you just can't take someones word as an assuring factor in deciding to come to the park because the weather is very unpredictable and decisions can be changed several times if park officials feel they'll lose money keeping the park open instead of inviting visitors to come back another day. My only suggestion to you considering you live 2 hours away from your park, is that if there's a chance the weather is going to be bad, don't go. I only say this because having someone tell you the park will definitely not close is really iffy considering things can change in an instant if conditions get bad enough.

[dpxtreme]

I would've also taken the free passes. You can't expect a park to give you more than a complimentary ticket if the park shuts down due to weather. If I were Six Flags, I would've done the same thing and only give comp tickets and not give meal vouchers.

[SharkTums]

I think we've all been through this.

 

I've seen all chains of parks do this. (Some with no comp tickets offered!)

 

Yes it sucks, but reading your report you got on a CRAP LOAD of stuff! 7 Coaster Rides on a day where they closed at noon says a lot.

[tsalas08]

Did I make the decision to go when it was raining, yes, but SF said the park would remain open, and any weather forecast told you the rain was to be done before 1 and the weather was mostly cleared up by closing. People who live in/ stayed in the area said the weather remained fine the rest of the day.

 

Mostly I was(keyword was) upset based on the fact that they closed due to attendance but blamed it on weather(attendance was lower than 1000). I did waste $40 dollars to go for 1 1/2 hours, and while I did get a crapload of rides in for that amount of time, I would have much preferred a busier day with more time spent enjoying the park.

 

I do hope they choose to exchange the pass for something more useable for the huge misinformation and the rudeness from guest relations (that's a longer story), but I'm not going to dwell over it. I'm still going to go there next week and I'm still going to have a good time.

 

A lot of other people missed out an more than I did - for example a busload of people from Michigan down for that day only! Many other people paid for parking but were then denied entrance.

 

With the weather cleared up by noon and free passes for mothers day, I'm sure that attendance would have rose.

 

Thanks for the suggestion on selling off the ticket - that'll definantly help cover the cost.

 

Tracy "Hates sitting in his car for four hours" Salas

[ScubaSteve442]

I was in the park yesterday as well. I didn't drive as far as you, but seriously.

 

Mother's Day traditionally has ultra-low attendance at amusement parks. If there were less than 1000 guests in the park (and it sure looked that way from what I saw) then they would have been losing money hand over fist to keep the park open. I think I've heard they need some 13,000 guests to enter the park for them to break even on the cost of opening.

 

With all the problems SFI is having, I'm not surprised that a decision to close was made so quickly.

 

Oh, and while your call to Guest Relations was a smart move, the person you spoke to on the phone is probably way down the totem pole, having no say about whether the park will stay open. Conversely, I suspect that they are trained to say anything to get you to the park regardless of anticipated weather or attendance.

[ginzo]

Conversely, I suspect that they are trained to say anything to get you to the park regardless of anticipated weather or attendance.

 

I really hope this is not the case. It's this same short-sighted, make-a-buck-right-now approach that got them entangled into their present financial mess.

[mcjaco]

I think we've all been through this.

 

I've seen all chains of parks do this. (Some with no comp tickets offered!)

 

Yes it sucks, but reading your report you got on a CRAP LOAD of stuff! 7 Coaster Rides on a day where they closed at noon says a lot.

 

I was thinking the same thing.

 

In the future, make sure to get the names of who you spoke too. That way they know you talked to someone there, and they can confirm it.

 

I'd say you got a lot of good rides in, and there's not much to complain about. If you knew the weather could close the park, then you're kind of asking for trouble. We had gusts up to 50 mph yesterday, so this shouldn't have been that big of a surprise.

[tsalas08]

I'd say you got a lot of good rides in, and there's not much to complain about. If you knew the weather could close the park, then you're kind of asking for trouble. We had gusts up to 50 mph yesterday, so this shouldn't have been that big of a surprise.

 

The winds were well below opening day (where all but Raging Bull opened) the rain stopped as forecasted and the temps were much higher than expected the night before. All signs pointed to a great afternoon.

[Hercules]

Sure they said that the park would be open, but weather is unpredictable. Not to mention, it was just someone from guest relations. It wasn't an official, or a weatherperson for that matter. I would give them a pass here. I mean, you got a lot of stuff out of it. Just chalk it up as a loss, sell the pass, and move on with it.

[tsalas08]

I'm not upset, anymore, But the weather was predicted to get better, and it did even before they made the decision to close at noon. Thats the only point im trying to get across.

[VivaLaVibora]

You are absolutely right about that person saying it was going to be open on the phone. They should have said instead that since the weather doesn't look that great, that there is a chance that the park could close.

 

I had a problem at another park in which the park closed 2 hours earlier than it said, and it bugged me a little bit, but I understood why. The crowds were light, and it closed earlier. I asked this one worker what time it was going to close, and I think she maybe said 7 pm, but than they close it at 5 pm. However, if I would have asked the worker at the ticket booth, she might have known the exact time when it's going to close.

 

The problem is this with both amusement parks. They base whether the park opens, or closes based on people. They would leave any amusement park open from open to close if those parks were 3/4 filled of people, or even a 1/2 filled of people.

 

So they check the lines at the front of the park when entering it, and they wait until a certain time to see is that enough people for us to be open. If the lines aren't that great like normal, than they might cut some hours out of the park. I think they really need to decide before the park opens whether or not to open it at all. When I see all this rain on the forecast, it's a slow time of year, and it's cold along with being windy outside, just don't open the park. There just isn't going to be a huge turnout with all those factors.

 

If it was July, and there was rain on the forecast, more people go just for the fact that it's that month of the year. Wind is a good thing for a hot day in July. Wind isn't that great to the coasters, but the people like it better than being in 95 degrees, and sweating.

[mcjaco]

The winds were well below opening day (where all but Raging Bull opened) the rain stopped as forecasted and the temps were much higher than expected the night before. All signs pointed to a great afternoon.

 

As I live 8 miles south of the park, I can tell you I thought the weather sucked all day, and the highest wind gusts were later in the afternoon.

 

Last summer when Paul and I stopped by Little-A-Merrick-A, the weatehr was horrendous. We we two of five people in the park, and they still were supposed to be open another two hours. The GM came around, asked us if we were there strictly for the credits, because she wanted to send everyone home and close up early. Obviously, it's not quite the same, but both of us understood why. The economics of the situation didn't make sense to keep it open.

[Jew]

Going back to what Rich said in the other thread about the SFA incident: "there are three sides to every story: the accuser, the accused, and the truth."