Six Flags America (SFA) Discussion Thread

[carolinacaniac]

^ The Bizzaro style transformation would be much more logical than enclosing Joker's Jinx. What a Bizzaro transform requires is only a few concentrated (specific parts of the ride that is) modifications.

 

A Joker enclosure would require so many hundreds of thousands of square feet of metal siding (or whatever they would build it with), a decent amount of steel beams for the suport of the building, and all of the concrete that would be needed for the foundation of the building. Not to forget that they would also need to add a lighting system inside for the maintenance, as well as the sprinkler system that you mentioned. They would also have to redo the paths that go along side it as the building would require more square-feet of land to be built upon.

 

Sure a Joker's funhouse theme could be cool. I would like it, but to say that it makes more sense doesn't quite seem true. That and the noise I don't think is that terrible of an issue, it isn't as if it is deafening. They could have some plant-life that will help drown the noice, plus I am sure they will have music related to Thomas the Tank Engine playing in Thomas Town.

 

-Gary T.

[SFA Regular]

^ The Bizzaro style transformation would be much more logical than enclosing Joker's Jinx. What a Bizzaro transform requires is only a few concentrated (specific parts of the ride that is) modifications.

 

A Joker enclosure would require so many hundreds of thousands of square feet of metal siding (or whatever they would build it with), a decent amount of steel beams for the suport of the building, and all of the concrete that would be needed for the foundation of the building. Not to forget that they would also need to add a lighting system inside for the maintenance, as well as the sprinkler system that you mentioned. They would also have to redo the paths that go along side it as the building would require more square-feet of land to be built upon.

 

Sure a Joker's funhouse theme could be cool. I would like it, but to say that it makes more sense doesn't quite seem true. That and the noise I don't think is that terrible of an issue, it isn't as if it is deafening. They could have some plant-life that will help drown the noice, plus I am sure they will have music related to Thomas the Tank Engine playing in Thomas Town.

 

-Gary T.

 

Good point. But you have to think sometimes, both Kings Island and Kings Dominion did it for their Premier launch rides, so why can't SFA. The park has good enough space to do it. With Flight of Fear, you will notice that there is enough space from the actual spaghetti bowl and the wall of the building. Not only that but with (JOKER) there is a good bit of space from the actual ride and where people walk in Gotham City. The only major issue is how much space they will have to use over where the smoking are is. If the building stretches out that far, then the path to Superman has to be detoured a little bit, but not much.

 

But you don't need much space. The main thing is continuing the enclosed structure from the end of the tunnel, all the way past the break-run and then the station.

 

Here is a link that shows they have enough space from the spaghetti bowl to extend for a building.

 

http://www.coastergallery.com/SF/joker6.jpg

[B-RadG]

But you don't need much space.

But you need a lot of money.

Sure, Six Flags has the space to enclose Joker's Jinx, but they certainly don't have to money to build an entirely new building around a ride that operates perfectly fine outside. There'd have to be a way to keep it cool (metal + a sunny day + no means of keeping it cool = yeah...) which would cost a substantial amount. Six Flags could better spend less money on adding some new signage, on-ride audio, and some new paint. Generally speaking, don't new buildings require more permits, which also cost money? New paint and new trains don't require that.

 

Not that I don't like the idea of an enclosed ride, it's just not a great move financially when something much cheaper and much easier could be done.

[SFA Regular]

I have to agree, but lately the cheap financial things have been getting them blown away by competition. Kings Dominion did not need an (I-305) but they built one and they are going to get a bunch of money from all the people coming to ride it. They also did not need 9 haunted houses to please people for their haunted season but they spent the money and did it. You see, what the current management is failing to realize and that you have to spend money to make money. But enough about the rides, let's talk about the Fright Fest. A lot of people don't go to SFA's Fright Fest anymore. Reason is because there is nothing there that is signature to set the park apart from a normal operating day. When I went there for Fright Fest, it felt nothing different than being there on a regular day during the summer. They don't have 1 haunted house at all, and they have had so much time to build a new one. I would have even settled for an outdoor maze but they have done nothing to add that. (HAUNTED HAY-RIDE) is probably one of the most cheapest things they could do to bring people back for Fright Fest, but I highly doubt they will.

 

They tried doing a Haunted train-ride this past season. It featured reenactments from movies, but the one thing that did not make sense was the skit they did where (Michael Jackson) rose from the grave and did his thriller dance. This is where I think that the new corporate management has made things too family friendly. People were much happier with Fright Fest when they had (BRUTAL PLANET).

 

However, competing with competition is impossible with the current plan that Six Flags Management has set for this park. And I fear in recent years it may turn into a down fall for the park because it's competition, which our Bush Gardens and Kings Dominion are building thrill rides and getting loads of attendance from it. I'm hoping that our present for 2011 isn't just some (BIZARRO) make-over because we need something much better. And I've also heard talk about them possibly removing a ride in order to stick a new one it's place. I don't think that would be a good idea either because you still have the same amount of coasters. The park has plenty of land to build on, so use it to add to the collection.

[KDCOASTERFAN]

^I fully expect them to do some sort of Bizarro treatment on it at some point instead of adding a new coaster.

 

I doubt it,otherwise they would've done so last year along with SFNE & SFGRADV.

 

Shapiro said that within the next few years(not 2011) that a new new coaster would be installed for the "tween" market,my guess would be something small like a THBS clone but certainly not something like Chang since SFGRAM will most likely be installing it.

[SFA Regular]

I have two questions. What exactly does (TWEEN) mean. And the next question is what THBS is?

[larrygator]

^ The Bizzaro style transformation would be much more logical than enclosing Joker's Jinx. What a Bizzaro transform requires is only a few concentrated (specific parts of the ride that is) modifications.

 

A Joker enclosure would require so many hundreds of thousands of square feet of metal siding (or whatever they would build it with), a decent amount of steel beams for the suport of the building, and all of the concrete that would be needed for the foundation of the building.

-Gary T.

 

Think about the possibilities of Joker's Jinx becoming enclosed as a transformed Bizarro attraction. Screw the metal siding. Bizarro does everything wrong. Encase the ride in Saran Wrap.

 

 

Kings Dominion did not need an (I-305) but they built one and they are going to get a bunch of money from all the people coming to ride it.

 

1 - KD certainly did need I-305, their coaster collection was not strong.

2 - I-305 cost $25,000,000 - It is going to take 7-10 years to pay off the coaster if attendence rises 100,000 - 150,000 per year. KD might take in a bunch of money, but that money is not profit for the company. It will be used to pay off debt and interest on that debt.

Edited April 21, 2010 by larrygator

[CoasterLover]

I have two questions. What exactly does (TWEEN) mean. And the next question is what THBS is?

 

Tween: A child between middle childhood and adolesence, usually between 8 and 12 years old. (A blend of "teen" and "between")

 

THBS = Tony Hawk's Big Spin

[SFA Regular]

If Larrygator was agreeing with me on enclosing the ride then I'm all for it. But I'm confused on the saran wrap part. Second, I don't think a Tony Hawk Big Spin is going to help the park much. People will get tired of it very quickly. We need a new coaster for 2011. When it comes to Kings Dominion and Six Flags America, SFA has the weaker coaster selection. If the park had at least 3 or 4 more decent coasters, the park would be okay. But we have gone 1 year shy of a decade without adding any coasters.

 

The park could use a decent B&M coaster. Something like (MONTU) would be a great 2011 addition for the park. Not sure if I would want a (BIZARRO) theme for it, but maybe another popular Batman villain such as (RIDDLER) or (POISON IVY). The ride has some pretty neat inversions, so it would match the name well. Stick it right near Batwing or use some of the land that is over near the first helix for Superman. Add some nice theme, restrooms, games, and restaurants, around the ride and you have a neat addition for the 2011 season.

 

That's just my B&M idea. I have much more.

[CoasterLover]

Second, I don't think a Tony Hawk Big Spin is going to help the park much. People will get tired of it very quickly.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I've been on Pandemonium (the same model as the THBS clones) up at SFNE a bunch of times and I never get tired of it. It's certainly not the most thrilling coaster out there, but it is a lot of fun and therefore very re-ridable. Plus, despite the fact that it is several years old, Pandemonium still pulls in pretty long lines... I'd personally love to see a THBS clone at SFA and think it would be a perfect fit to what the park needs. Now that the chain seems to be naming rides/attractions after Mr. Six again, they could even call the ride "Mr. Six's Pandemonium" as the ride up at SFNE was originally named avoiding the confusion of having two rides at the park themed for Tony Hawk (if they called it Tony Hawk's Big Spin as the park already has the Tony Hawk's Halfpipe water slide).

 

I think, realistically speaking, a THBS clone would be MUCH more likely than enclosing Joker's Jinx or building a multimillion dollar, brand new B&M coaster.

[SFA Regular]

I do agree that we are more likely to get something like that under the current management that we have, but it won't go far. Most people who came to SFA over the years come there for Hurricane Harbor which in my opinion, (Premier Parks) management did their part in improving that. And second, they come there for the roller coasters which I will repeat that the park has not gotten in almost a decade, which is bad. Current the park is still doing good, but I will also add this it's nearest competition, (KINGS DOMINION) keeps getting better and better. Their attendance is so much higher on a regular basis, compared to SFA's attendance. SFA depends on 2 major holidays to make them money, which is (MEMORIAL DAY) and (4th of JULY) which the park does make big money on those two main holidays. But SFA does not get that high of an attendance on weekdays. They need rides in the park that are going going to grab people passing on I-95 and get them buying tickets. In order to do that, the management needs to focus on bigger attractions that will draw people in. Like I always say, you have to spend the money, to make the money.

 

If they don't want a B&M, why not get another (Premier) or (INTA) which is an American division of Intamin?

[nitrofan]

If Larrygator was agreeing with me on enclosing the ride then I'm all for it. But I'm confused on the saran wrap part. .

 

He was being sarcastic.

[KDCOASTERFAN]

If Larrygator was agreeing with me on enclosing the ride then I'm all for it. But I'm confused on the saran wrap part. Second, I don't think a Tony Hawk Big Spin is going to help the park much. People will get tired of it very quickly. We need a new coaster for 2011. When it comes to Kings Dominion and Six Flags America, SFA has the weaker coaster selection. If the park had at least 3 or 4 more decent coasters, the park would be okay. But we have gone 1 year shy of a decade without adding any coasters.

 

The park could use a decent B&M coaster. Something like (MONTU) would be a great 2011 addition for the park. Not sure if I would want a (BIZARRO) theme for it, but maybe another popular Batman villain such as (RIDDLER) or (POISON IVY). The ride has some pretty neat inversions, so it would match the name well. Stick it right near Batwing or use some of the land that is over near the first helix for Superman. Add some nice theme, restrooms, games, and restaurants, around the ride and you have a neat addition for the 2011 season.

 

That's just my B&M idea. I have much more.

 

Why would they add another invert when they have an SLC? I'll admit that SFA does indeed have a weak coaster collection with only now 6 adult rides to choose from(thanks to two face getting yanked) but they also need to start replacing the flats they've lost such as iron eagle,the enterprise,avalanche etc. because with every ride removal without replacement it only leaves even less to do than before(which wasn't much to begin with) & of course they do need a new coaster soon.

 

One reason why I stopped going after the 07 season was because too much focus was being given to the waterpark with each new ride addition,I could care less about new slides since I don't patronize the waterparks at either SFA or KD but the other biggest problem was the way the rides were being operated that also caused me to switch parks....namely the horrid way in which flashpass is misused by the superman staff & the mandatory requirement of lockers at select rides turning them in effect into "pay per ride" attractions.

[SFA Regular]

Alright, if they don't want to add a new coaster, why not add a bigger (DROP TOWER)? As I said in another post, it's such a good investment to replace an old (Tower of Doom) ride that doesn't attract a lot of people at all.

 

And I do agree with Flash Pass. I don't like it at all. I wish they had never made it. Kings Dominion makes everyone wait in line, which is the right thing to do. As for the flat rides, I agree with you. (Iron Eagle) was a good crowd pleaser. They need to replace it with something similar to (The Crypt) at Kings Dominion. With a stage being in it's place, they could stick it some where in Gotham City and give it a villain theme if they wanted. Or they could stick it over in Coyote Creek and give it some sort of Western theme, where you enter a dark mine and find the ride down there. Anything to expand the park further more.

 

Another thing I will stress is that Fright Fest needs to improve.

Edited April 21, 2010 by SFA Regular

[nitrofan]

Alright, if they don't want to add a new coaster, why not add a bigger (DROP TOWER)? As I said in another post, it's such a good investment to replace an old (Tower of Doom) ride that doesn't attract a lot of people at all.

 

Why would they replace a perfectly good drop tower with a more expensive one when Tower of Doom works perfectly fine? Most people probably wouldn't know the difference anyway.

 

What SFA needs IMO is a family coaster like THBS, a B&M Floorless or Intamin Looper, and lots of flats. This could all easilly happen over the next 5 years.

[SFA Regular]

Reason why I said replace the drop ride is because it's not a crowd pleaser anymore. If anything, it doesn't really serve the park as much as it use to. It's a good and quick investment to replace it with something that is very similar such as a Drop Zone, and make it bigger. Drop Zone seats more people and is loads of fun. And for the record, a lot of people would notice the difference if they put something that big to replace it. Do you think people would stand there clueless as to why there is a tower ride that is seating more people than the ride that was in it's place last year???

 

Better yet, they could put it where the octopus ride use to be so that it can easily be seen from 214 Central Ave. With a good light display, it would look very pretty and appealing. Not to mention something that tall is a must do ride, in the night.

[KDCOASTERFAN]

Alright, if they don't want to add a new coaster, why not add a bigger (DROP TOWER)? As I said in another post, it's such a good investment to replace an old (Tower of Doom) ride that doesn't attract a lot of people at all.

 

And I do agree with Flash Pass. I don't like it at all. I wish they had never made it. Kings Dominion makes everyone wait in line, which is the right thing to do. As for the flat rides, I agree with you. (Iron Eagle) was a good crowd pleaser. They need to replace it with something similar to (The Crypt) at Kings Dominion. With a stage being in it's place, they could stick it some where in Gotham City and give it a villain theme if they wanted. Or they could stick it over in Coyote Creek and give it some sort of Western theme, where you enter a dark mine and find the ride down there. Anything to expand the park further more.

 

Another thing I will stress is that Fright Fest needs to improve.

 

They have a problem with that due to the maximum height for rides set by the county being 200 feet in height & KD's drop tower is 305 feet in height.

[nitrofan]

Do you think people would stand there clueless as to why there is a tower ride that is seating more people than the ride that was in it's place last year???

 

I think most people wouldn't even notice it seats more people. If you consider that the average guest goes to the park 1-3 times a year, most people probably aren't paying a lot of attention to the details of the drop tower. Some people even think Superman goes upside down.

[SFA Regular]

I do agree (Nitro) most people don't go there that often as us enthusiast do. And yea, I have heard some people say that Superman goes upside down. But enough talk about coasters. I don't want to beat a dead horse anymore. Lets talk about the future and past history of SFA's Fright Fest. Why is it constantly going down hill each year? Why won't they improve on it and give us some decent haunted houses and adding some fog in Gotham City around some of the rides. It would make it look totally spooky.

 

Any good ideas in mind?

[Jness3]

I was so dissapointed in the Fright Fest Six Flags had lat year. My friends and I got bored because there wasn't anything really scary there. They need to replace Brutal Planet soon. Also, they could at least of had the people in costumes walk around the whole park, when I went, they were only in the Coyote Creek section of the park, which is one of the smallest sections in the park. As for a new coaster, SFA needs one. Plain and simple, just SOMETHING new to attract people to the park. A Superman revamp would be nice too, but maybe just a tunnel with fog somewhere on the ride, no need for any theme or name changes in my opinion.

[Capitalize]

Reason why I said replace the drop ride is because it's not a crowd pleaser anymore. If anything, it doesn't really serve the park as much as it use to. It's a good and quick investment to replace it with something that is very similar such as a Drop Zone, and make it bigger. Drop Zone seats more people and is loads of fun. And for the record, a lot of people would notice the difference if they put something that big to replace it. Do you think people would stand there clueless as to why there is a tower ride that is seating more people than the ride that was in it's place last year???

 

Better yet, they could put it where the octopus ride use to be so that it can easily be seen from 214 Central Ave. With a good light display, it would look very pretty and appealing. Not to mention something that tall is a must do ride, in the night.

They don't need a larger capacity drop tower. Tower of Doom rarely has a line longer than a couple cycles with only two sides running - that's 8 people a cycle - the majority of the summer. When I was operating the ride we would have days where we would literally go 30 or more minutes without a single guest coming up to ride.

 

Given the other issues in the park, a new drop tower is low on any list of things I would like to see. If anything I wouldn't be surprised if we see ToD taken out in the next few years and not replaced by a new drop tower at all.

 

 

I do agree (Nitro) most people don't go there that often as us enthusiast do. And yea, I have heard some people say that Superman goes upside down. But enough talk about coasters. I don't want to beat a dead horse anymore. Lets talk about the future and past history of SFA's Fright Fest. Why is it constantly going down hill each year? Why won't they improve on it and give us some decent haunted houses and adding some fog in Gotham City around some of the rides. It would make it look totally spooky.

 

Any good ideas in mind?

Its going "downhill every year" because the haunted house burned down. SFA doesn't seem to care because before it burned down they became committed to the idea of providing a "family friendly" Halloween event. I would like to see haunted houses and a more scary Fright Fest, but the park decided to go in a different direction. So when/if I want to go to a scary Halloween event in this region I will be going to KD.

 

But I really don't care very much about Halloween events or haunted houses anyways.

[AndrewRnR]

Has anyone done or heard of someone doing SFA and KD in one day? It would be more like we would go to KD Friday night (in May) process passes, jump on a few rides, Saturday morning drive up to SFA do the major stuff, then come back to finish KD. Is that even feasible or just crazy?

[Capitalize]

^

That could work. I've always felt that doing both KD and SFA in one day was a bit much due to traffic between the two parks unless you didn't mind possibly missing a credit or two. I guess it would depend on how late Friday night you got started... If it was just in the later afternoon and you had a few hours it could work.

Edited April 22, 2010 by Capitalize

[CoasterGuy06]

^^That was what we did on KD's opening weekend. Hit KD on Friday, arrived at SFA at opening and hit all the coasters (going to Gotham City first), then headed back to KD. We were only at SFA about 2.5 hours, but that was with a couple of re-rides, picture taking, and a visit to guest relations.

[SFA Regular]

I was so dissapointed in the Fright Fest Six Flags had lat year. My friends and I got bored because there wasn't anything really scary there. They need to replace Brutal Planet soon. Also, they could at least of had the people in costumes walk around the whole park, when I went, they were only in the Coyote Creek section of the park, which is one of the smallest sections in the park. As for a new coaster, SFA needs one. Plain and simple, just SOMETHING new to attract people to the park. A Superman revamp would be nice too, but maybe just a tunnel with fog somewhere on the ride, no need for any theme or name changes in my opinion.

 

I agree with you too. But the thing that really disappointments me is that it would be very easy for them to set up good haunted house attractions but they choose not too. If you want to know what I think, I think the family friendly thing is going to be the down fall of the place. For those who have been to Kings Dominion's Halloween thing, you know what I mean. Kings Dominion's Halloween thing is so impressive that it's not even funny. They have 9 haunted houses and the crowds are so huge. There's are definitely not family friendly and they make loads of money. They don't charge you a penny to enter. You can keep going inside of them all day long because it's free with park admission.

 

Here are some cool idea I had for new haunted houses at SFA.

 

* Bring back the HAUNTED HAY-RIDE

* Add temporary tunnels on rides like Wild One and Roar. Fill tunnels with fog and spooky strobe lights.

* Put dense fog in the tunnel for JOKERS JINX.

* Use Two-Face old spot for a haunted maze with a western theme.

* Set up a new Brutal Planet and set it over in between Superman and Batwing.

 

What do you think. It's very easy to do and many people would return if they advertised it.