Six Flags America (SFA) Discussion Thread

[airtime]

B&M

 

I know it is a concern of SFA management and they are desperately trying to improve train dispatching. However, I don't think the general public knows enough about park operations to understand dispatch intervals and hourly ride throughput. They do care about how long they are waiting in line. They don't say they need to be cranking more people per hour through this ride or they are only sending a train out once every 5 minutes when it should be going out once every 3 minutes. The comments I heard yesterday were "Dang, the wait is 90 minutes from this point" (except they were reading the sign at the ride entrance).

 

Wood Dragon

 

Anytime your going to be at the park, let me know I will be more than happy to meet up with you.

[Capitalize]

^First off, read the site posting rules, you're very much breaking them with your triple posting!

 

Secondly, calm down. You're obviously a park fanboy and refuse to see anything wrong with a park that has a lot of issues.

 

Thank You! The park is flat out piece of crap. Thats why I skipped 2 days ago and went straight to KD to ride Dominator and Volcano. Also I do care where the rides go if it breaks down. I would like to see other SF parks to improve instead of keeping the rides in one crummy park. Lastly no way in history should SFA be compared to SFGAdv for anything.

Except in that its much closer to my home and has far smaller crowds.

 

 

You obviously have your opinion of the place, thats fine, I have mine.

[KDCOASTERFAN]

^^Same with me. I always wanted to go to SFGADV but since gas prices shot up like that, I was lucky to even be able to go to Carowinds while I was at a family reunion in Charlotte. I havent been to KD or BGE because it's too far and traffic on 95 is terrible. I could take 301 but then I would have to merge onto 95 into that terrible traffic.

 

Exactly, going to KD is such a hassle because of 95. I keep saying that if SF would properly build up and maintain SFA people in the DC area would go there instead of KD. Save time and money by driving half the distance. People will choose KD over SFA because its a better park to spend a day at.

 

 

Also, SFA does fairly well with in the park spending. Most of the groups you see go in to the park will get at least one meal in the park.

 

Finally, SFGAdv is not competition for SFA and vice versa. I have NEVER met a single person in the DC area who ever had any intention of going to SFGAdv for a day. There's a reason we don't see any ad's or any information about SFGAdv in the area. The parks that compete for the DC area is SFA, KD, BGE, and HP to a lesser extent. SFGAdv is not nearly close enough to be considered.

 

Of course SFA & SFGRADV aren't in competition with each other because they're part of the same chain....now should SFA be sold to say Parc management for example that would be competition for SFGRADV because it'd be a totally different company running(and improving) the place.

[airtime]

They compete, not directly but indirectly. I'm sure there is alot of internal competition between each park. If SF were to dump money into SFA like they did SFMM SF could own the Northeast part of the United States. They would have a marketing area from Washington, D.C. to Maine. Perhaps another reason not to sell or close the park. That's easily 15 million plus people.

[Capitalize]

^^Same with me. I always wanted to go to SFGADV but since gas prices shot up like that, I was lucky to even be able to go to Carowinds while I was at a family reunion in Charlotte. I havent been to KD or BGE because it's too far and traffic on 95 is terrible. I could take 301 but then I would have to merge onto 95 into that terrible traffic.

 

Exactly, going to KD is such a hassle because of 95. I keep saying that if SF would properly build up and maintain SFA people in the DC area would go there instead of KD. Save time and money by driving half the distance. People will choose KD over SFA because its a better park to spend a day at.

 

 

Also, SFA does fairly well with in the park spending. Most of the groups you see go in to the park will get at least one meal in the park.

 

Finally, SFGAdv is not competition for SFA and vice versa. I have NEVER met a single person in the DC area who ever had any intention of going to SFGAdv for a day. There's a reason we don't see any ad's or any information about SFGAdv in the area. The parks that compete for the DC area is SFA, KD, BGE, and HP to a lesser extent. SFGAdv is not nearly close enough to be considered.

 

Of course SFA & SFGRADV aren't in competition with each other because they're part of the same chain....now should SFA be sold to say Parc management for example that would be competition for SFGRADV because it'd be a totally different company running(and improving) the place.

 

 

I really don't think that is the case. You will never see a particularly large number of people in the DC area willing to make a 3-4+ hour drive both ways to go to an amusement park for a day, no matter what park it is. SFA and KD compete for that market. BGE and HP attract people making slightly more extended trips. If you gave someone the choice between driving through all those toll roads for hours to spend a day at SFGAdv and drive all the way home that night, or go to KD or SFA, the vast majority is going to go with KD and SFA.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

Fact: Cedar Fair has fewer parks to worry about than Six Flags.

 

Fact:(Revised)

Not including water parks, Cedar Fair Owns and operates:

 

California's Great America

Knott's Berry Farm

Valleyfair

Worlds Of Fun

Kings' Island

Cedar Point

Canada's Wonderland

Dorney Park

King's Dominion

Carowinds

 

Park Count:10

 

Six Flags owns and operates:

Magic Mountain

Discovery Kingdom

Fiesta Texas

Over Texas

Over Georgia

Great America

Great Adventure

New England

America

La Ronde

The Great Escape

 

Park Count:11

 

So ONE less park allows Cedar Fair to run circles around Six Flags operations?

 

Fact: Cedar Fair has generally much better operations than Six Flags.

 

Fact:(revised)Um, I think we've all established that by now and at this point seems repetitive

 

Conclusion: Six Flags needs to sell off parks to a point where they can run the ones they want to focus on as best as they possibly can be run.

 

I think I heard this somewhere before...

 

 

Bolliger & Mabillard wrote:

I've said this time and time again, Six Flags manages too many parks

 

Truth is, these all seem like excusing poor operations. If you don't compare Six Flags to like products, how can you expect them to compete with them?

[KDCOASTERFAN]

Just thought I would put in my 2 cents.

I'm from New Jersey, I've been to quite a few parks, and honestly, i see nothing wrong with Six Flags America. It could just be because the only time i go is during the spring or fall, but the people there seem friendly in general. I even went to the public relations building on my way out and wrote how much I appreciated the Wild One crew. During my visits the only problems with stacking seem to be S:ROS and Batwing, but every park seems to have those few bad crews.

I will agree with someone before, that the park is actually really nice. But after you go under Wild One, that's where it kind of tappers off to be just.. flat land with rides on either side and a long walk of nothingness just to get to them.

The only problem I have with the park is that it seems to be suffering, the same way Geauga Lake did. It was going well and then they stopped adding attractions to it. Then I'm sure SF management says "Hey, attendance is on a decline there and it's not making us so much money, lets focus on the better parks instead."

It does kind of confuse me why the company hasn't tried to work on the park since it has 3 major metropolitan cities to get guests from (Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C.). My feelin about the park, is that it's just a few short additions away from being a destination park. like cleaning up the pathways to make the park more round, add "That big ride", and just general tweaks here and there.

 

Burke & Co. can be blamed for that because they ran the chain so far into debt that they figured the only way to make money was to "beef up" the three large market parks starting in 2002.Basically if your home park wasn't SFGRADV,SFGRAM or SFMM than you weren't getting any rides,and even if you did get a new ride on the occasional off year it would've been a mediocre one at best because they were pumping the major capital into the above mentioned three parks leaving no capital remaining for the rest.

 

Remember when they built those 18 coasters in one year?(2001) well they spent an awful lot of capital doing so & just weren't able to make up for it so 2002 marked the beginning of the end of Premier park's strategy to "flag" every theme park in existence here in the states.

 

Now I'd hate to see the park go the way of SFAW or GL & if only they'd improve the place by adding new rides instead of removing existing ones & change their policies,especially the lockers & flashpass then maybe I'll return sometime.I'd been a passholder there from 1998 through 2007 but with the way things have been going recently I decided not to renew for 2008 & the way it looks now there might not even be a park left in a few more years.

[airtime]

More and more parks are adding a flash pass type of system. SFA's is one of the more affordable ones at $15. Dollywood last year, Busch Parks are working on one this year. I wouldn't be surprised if Universal doesn't start charging for theirs at some point, GE is a money making machine.

 

You don't strike me as an individual that uses a locker. Perhaps I'm wrong. Why do you care even if you don't use a locker? The lockers are cheaper this season, $1 for two hours. Seems like a small price to pay to ensure someone isn't trampling, stealing or accidentially taking it. Then again, the past few weekends, the park has been so short staffed the locker policy wasn't enforced.

 

It seems to me everyone is jaded on SFA for one reason, the staff. That is the constant hang up. Which would you do next season add a new ride or dump the money into staffing? To tell you the truth, no matter what they did, I don't think anyway would be happy.

[astroworldfan1]

Fact: Cedar Fair has fewer parks to worry about than Six Flags.

 

Fact:(Revised)

Not including water parks, Cedar Fair Owns and operates:

 

California's Great America

Knott's Berry Farm

Valleyfair

Worlds Of Fun

Kings' Island

Cedar Point

Canada's Wonderland

Dorney Park

King's Dominion

Carowinds

 

Park Count:10

 

 

You forgot Gilroy Gardens in CA.

 

-Tatum

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^Gilroy Gardens is operated under contract, and not owned by Cedar Fair, so that's why I did not include it.

[astroworldfan1]

^ Oh. I see! Sorry!

 

-Tatum

[KDCOASTERFAN]

More and more parks are adding a flash pass type of system. SFA's is one of the more affordable ones at $15. Dollywood last year, Busch Parks are working on one this year. I wouldn't be surprised if Universal doesn't start charging for theirs at some point, GE is a money making machine.

 

You don't strike me as an individual that uses a locker. Perhaps I'm wrong. Why do you care even if you don't use a locker? The lockers are cheaper this season, $1 for two hours. Seems like a small price to pay to ensure someone isn't trampling, stealing or accidentially taking it. Then again, the past few weekends, the park has been so short staffed the locker policy wasn't enforced.

 

It seems to me everyone is jaded on SFA for one reason, the staff. That is the constant hang up. Which would you do next season add a new ride or dump the money into staffing? To tell you the truth, no matter what they did, I don't think anyway would be happy.

 

The lockers are required for the rides that use them so there's no getting out of it unless you either leave loose items with non riders,or simply skip the ride alltogether.

 

SFI can easily add a new ride & additional staffing to SFA,it's just that they simply have chosen NOT to do so because they prefer to dump that extra cap ex into the parks that they really care about & unfortunately SFA simply isn't one of them.

[robbalvey]

Wow...I just read the last 3 pages of this thread and I honestly feel dumber.

 

I really think most of you all need to know a bit more about how theme park operations works before you post about it.

 

Try working at a park for a couple of years, perhaps even get yourself promoted to lower or middle management, then come back here and post again.

 

I won't bother to point all of the stuff that's wrong about what has been said, because that would take a long time and be fairly pointless...just like the last few pages of this thread up to and including this post!

 

--Robb

[Wood Dragon 1988]

I've never seen this sense of urgency from any Six Flags park, and I don't think America will be the one to turn it around.

 

Go to Six Flags Great Adventure. From all I've seen myself, and heard from the past few years, that is one park that knows how to keep the lines moving.

 

More and more parks are adding a flash pass type of system. SFA's is one of the more affordable ones at $15

 

Just curious, what exactly is SFA's Flash Pass Deal this year? I saw several people riding rides multiple times while I was waiting in the same line yesterday. I tried to ask an employee, but the Flash Pass booth in Gotham City appeared closed when I was there.

[airtime]

Five tickets to ride any of the flash pass attractions. Which I believe include Any of the coasters, Skull Mountain and Penguin's Blizzard River. Tickets can be purchased at any Ticket Window, Main Street Service Center and on busier days, Gotham City Service Center.

 

I think the reason why they are so much more popular now is they started selling them at each of the ticket booths outside of the park as add on option.

[SFAfan#1]

SFA could be top notch park if the park fixes the smaller things first. We need some more foliage/theming in Gotham City. After they fix up the scenary in Gotham, then maintain all of the rides so that they wouldn't break so often, then we can start talking about new rides. For next year, I'd expect to see something small like a new restaurant or game.

[Jcoaster]

From what I hear Gothem city, is more like Ghetto city.

[SFAfan#1]

From what I hear Gothem city, is more like Ghetto city.

 

hahahahahaha

your not effin funny so please STFU

I made this thread to talk about the positive things about SFA. You've probably never even been there so you don't know what the flip your even talking about. I'm trying to change the subject of 10 pages of bashing the park and try to bring up the positives and your not helping.

[Jcoaster]

From what I hear Gothem city, is more like Ghetto city.

 

hahahahahaha

your not effin funny so please STFU

I made this thread to talk about the positive things about SFA. You've probably never even been there so you don't know what the flip your even talking about. I'm trying to change the subject of 10 pages of bashing the park and try to bring up the positives and your not helping.

 

Damn dude don't get all worked up. I only speak the truth, And I have been to the park, but left because it started to rain, and my parents wanted to leave.

[Capitalize]

^First off, read the site posting rules, you're very much breaking them with your triple posting!

 

Secondly, calm down. You're obviously a park fanboy and refuse to see anything wrong with a park that has a lot of issues.

My bad with the triple posting. But I don't see how I need to calm down. All I said in any of those posts was pointing out that given the proximity of SFA to me its the best option as I only care to ride coasters and SFA has a good collection.

 

Although this is a long thread, I have in the past explained what issues exist in the park and proposed solutions to those problems (having worked at the park and spent season after season visiting countless times, believe me I know there are problems as I see them and experience as much as anybody), so your insulting generalization is entirely false.

 

From what I hear Gothem city, is more like Ghetto city.

 

hahahahahaha

your not effin funny so please STFU

I made this thread to talk about the positive things about SFA. You've probably never even been there so you don't know what the flip your even talking about. I'm trying to change the subject of 10 pages of bashing the park and try to bring up the positives and your not helping.

 

Damn dude don't get all worked up. I only speak the truth, And I have been to the park, but left because it started to rain, and my parents wanted to leave.

 

All you've contributed to this thread is ridiculous statements that have no bearing on "truth". I don't see the point in continuously posting trite negative thoughts while not bothering to provide any kind of explanation or solution to the problem. It just seems kind of useless imho.

 

And apparently your basing all your posts on hear-say and a supposed visit where you left early because of rain?

[SFAfan#1]

From what I hear Gothem city, is more like Ghetto city.

 

hahahahahaha

your not effin funny so please STFU

I made this thread to talk about the positive things about SFA. You've probably never even been there so you don't know what the flip your even talking about. I'm trying to change the subject of 10 pages of bashing the park and try to bring up the positives and your not helping.

 

Damn dude don't get all worked up. I only speak the truth, And I have been to the park, but left because it started to rain, and my parents wanted to leave.

 

You know you've been an ass this whole time saying stupid stuff about the park, I was just the first person to say something about it. But your not worth me getting banned so this convo is over.

Anyways, does anyone else wonder what SFA is going to do for Fright Fest since Frightorium (the only haunted house left) burned down?

[Jcoaster]

I have been saying that the park is headed downhill. How is that a lie. You guys are just Fanboys. Guys like calm down, I ok maybe I have not been in the park for more than a hour, but basing it on hearsay from 50 other people that say the park is horrible, means one thing, its horrible.

[astroworldfan1]

He is entitled to his own opinion of the park, get over it. I agree with Jcoaster, you're being just a little "fanboyish".

 

-Tatum

[SFAfan#1]

The new subject for this thread is Fright Fest 08! Nobody cares about mines and Jcoasters (not astroworldfan) arguement. It was over yesterday but now its really over so start talking about Fright Fest/whatever else about SFA!!!

[Capitalize]

I have been saying that the park is headed downhill. How is that a lie. You guys are just Fanboys. Guys like calm down, I ok maybe I have not been in the park for more than a hour, but basing it on hearsay from 50 other people that say the park is horrible, means one thing, its horrible.

 

That makes perfect sense. Why bother coming up with an original opinion based on experience...

 

 

Bring back Zamboora or whatever the attraction with the gorilla was called...