Six Flags Great Adventure 4/11

[coastakid]

So today my brother, his girlfriend, and I decided to take the 3 1/2 hour trek to Six Flags, despite the rain expected for the earlier hours of the day. Upon arriving, the cashier at the parking lot told us that the outside rides as well as Skull Mountain, and the Dark Knight were not open currently, and wouldn't resume testing until the rain passed. Knowing the rain was expected to pass and after just seeing the Great American Scream Machine being to test, we decided to pay the $15 and head to our parking spot to be greeted by no more than 20 cars. We surveyed the skyline quickly, seeing Nitro, and GASM with people, and Rolling Thunder Test, we headed into the park.

 

As we arrived at the ticket booths we saw the few people ahead of heading back to their cars. As we continued walking, we were stopped by the security guard, telling us that the park was closing at 12 pm due to the weather. Absolutely stunned, and the time being 11:45 am, we walked back to our car without refund of our parking, and drove 3 1/2 hours back home.

 

After first being unimpressed with opening day, today was no different,and my view points remain the same. Six Flags seriously needs to get their act together and begin becoming a tad bit more organized. I find it absolutely despicable that a park would close their gates within 15 minutes after the final decision with what appeared to be, Nitro, GASM, and Rolling Thunder running flawlessly, and to make matters worse, without refunding a person's parking ticket . Adding to the fact, I called earlier to make sure that the park was open and was told it was.

 

 

Does anyone agree?

 

 

-Jon

[ginzo]

Did you actually ask for a refund at the parking booth? I'm not clear on that fact. You could try contacting the park with your complaint.

 

It sounds like the turn out was extremely poor and they shut the place down so that they wouldn't lose their shirt by paying to staff an entire park for 20 car loads worth of people.

[coastakid]

^ When purchasing our parking ticket, we asked if it was refundable if the rides did not open and we were given the answer no.

 

 

-Jon

[Satchboogie3]

^I've never heard of a park closing at noon because of low attendance. I can understand if the weather was really bad (lightning) and was expected to continue, but almost always, the park will still remain open.

[coastakid]

^ It was lightly raining, and there was absolutely no threat of a thunder storm.

[jbarner14]

I feel your anger. I was there today and got a total of 7 rides in. 3 on Skull Mountain, 1 on Dark Knight, and 3 on El Toro. I was still riding on El Toro when I was told that the park was closing and had to get off.

 

I think the park closed more for the poor turnout than it did for the weather as it looked to be getting better when I left. I just checked the weather and found that its not raining there now, so the only explanation for closing would be the poor turnout. Oh well, what did you expect? Its Six Flags.

[coastakid]

I didn't even see El Toro run. I would have had my brother and his girlfriend wait in the car and just go with my season pass for 10 minutes if I knew it was open, although I am still incredibly mad.

 

 

 

 

-Jon

[jbarner14]

I didn't even see El Toro run. I would have had my brother and his girlfriend wait in the car and just go with my season pass for 10 minutes if I knew it was open, although I am still incredibly mad.

 

 

 

 

-Jon

 

Yeah, they ran it a total of three times. I was on every ride. We had to recruit more people to ride it before they would run it though. (Apparently it has to have 18 people on the ride at one time for "safety" reasons) It wasn't the most enjoyable ride, however, as the rain pelted your face.

[robbalvey]

While I understand your frustration, did you bother to read any of the reports from the last time there was bad weather at the park?

 

Had you asked here I'm sure everyone would have told you to not go to the park if the weather forecast was to be bad (which it was.)

 

I know you're upset, but I don't think you can put ALL the blame on Six Flags when it is obvious to me (and I live on the other side of the country) that you probably shouldn't make the visit (unless you litterally live 5 minutes away from the park and have a season & parking pass) if it's raining.

 

Just my two cents.

 

--Robb "Take a little bit of the blame on yourself..." Alvey

 

EDIT - Looking at the current weather radar below I'm assuming that large green mass of death is what hit the area earlier today? Had I seen that hovering over the park there is NO WAY I would have made a 3 1/2 hour drive to the park, especially if you'd been there for opening and seen what happens when it rains. Basically, if you are experienced with the parks rain policy, you should have known better and you can only blame yourself for making the visit knowing what could have happened. Yeah, it sucks that Six Flags closed the park, but if there were only 20 cars in the parking lot as you say, it means that the rest of the empty parking lot was smart enough not to go.

[Satchboogie3]

Has anyone ever heard of a park closing due to poor turnout? I think it's beyond ridiculous. It's like a restaurant closing for the day because no one came for breakfast. I've been to plenty of parks when very few people showed up and they ALL still stayed open... until the scheduled closing time.

 

I remember once being at SFNE on mothers day a couple years back, it was raining lightly all day and there were maybe 1 or 2 dozen people there. I was with a friend and we rarely saw any other visitors, yet most of the rides/coasters were open and the park didn't close early.

 

Last year Great Adventure had trouble and started to close earlier. When I visited the park, they closed an hour early... without advertising it. They just closed the rides at 9pm and told everyone the park was closed. Needless to say, there were a LOT of angry people, so the park decided to just hand out free tickets.

[Electerik]

^^ I don't know. I'm a big fan of going to amusement parks when it rains.

 

On the other hand, I don't normally go to Six Flags type parks. So maybe you're right.

 

In any case, I think the original poster is right to be upset. And hopefully will channel that anger into choosing to go to parks that actually care about their guests (or at least pretend to) in the future.

 

/Welcome to the Six Flags Haters Club! Might I suggest a trip to Holiday World?

 

[EDIT: Yeah, that weather map is pretty ominous.]

[coastakid]

^^^ I have been quite a few times to Great Adventure in the rain without the park closing early, and this trip was planned to be no different, as the rain was expected to trickle off during the earlier hours of the afternoon. There is also a topic, not sure whether it be this forum or GADV.com, in which a member from Boston asked the exact question, for the exact same day, and there was not one negative response.

 

I would typically take the blame for the dilemma if Six Flags were to have told me when I called that they were closing at 12 pm. They gave guests only 15-20 minutes from the time that they made the final decision to when they began telling people, to when the park closed

 

 

-Jon

[robbalvey]

^ It was lightly raining, and there was absolutely no threat of a thunder storm.

Are you a meteorologist? Do you know the operational procedures the park has to go through if it rains? Do you actually have any insight to why they closed early or are you just really upset and exaggerating the story because you had to drive 7 hours round trip to a park that ended up being closed.

 

That's what it sounds like to me.

 

Like I said, I think it sucks the park closed early because of the bad weather, but quite frankly if due to the bad weather only 20 cars worth of people showed up, I can totally see why they closed (not that I agree with it 100%, mind you, but I can understand it)

 

At some level they have to decide "Do we piss off 20 cars worth of people, or tough it out and pay our ENTIRE PARK STAFF for a full day JUST IN CASE the rain clears up?"

 

And then you have to assume that not ALL 20 cars worth of people will be pissed off, but even so, let's just say they are, and each car has an average of 4 for a total of 80 people, well, hmm..... I'm guessing from a business standpoint, this was the more financially smart move to make.

 

That's just my guess.

 

Again, you said you were there for opening day. You saw how the park operated in the rain. You said in your first post you knew there was supposed to be rain, so really the question is...

 

WHY DID YOU GO IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?!?!

 

--Robb

[coastakid]

^ It was supposed to trickle off by 1-2 pm, according to the weather channel... which it did.

 

 

-Jon

[robbalvey]

^ Did it? Because according to weather underground it still shows rain and that it will last until 6pm. With the possibility of 25MPH winds.

 

Jackson, New Jersey

Nowcast as of 4:41 PM EDT on April 11, 2009

Any leftover light rain or drizzle will be over by 6 PM. Skies will remain mostly cloudy as temperatures remain in the upper 40s to around 50. Northwest winds will average around 15 mph with gusts to around 25 mph.

 

Again, I'm not saying I 100% agree with the park closing early, but I'm looking at all the data (and I'm sure the park has even more information that we don't know about) and I can see why they did what they did.

 

--Robb

 

EDIT: Guy in another post from today said it was still raining at 2:30. Sounds like you're exaggerating a bit. I can understand why, I'd be pissed too...just try to understand things from both sides of the coin and know that your situation could have been avoided had to leared from previous experience.

[coastakid]

According to the Weather Channel, as well as Accuweather, the rain was intended to stop at 1-2pm, when I left my house a 8 am this morning. I called Six Flags mid-way through the drive to ask if the park was going to remain open, and I was still told yes. Why would I even consider turning around if I was told the park was open?

 

 

EDIT: I am talking to my friend who lives right outside of Jackson who I intended to meet at the park today, and he said the rain stopped 2-3 hours ago and it is currently sunny.

 

 

-Jon

[jbarner14]

^ And the park was open for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. The park had to have known the rain would stop later. However, they saw the very small turnout and thought, "We should just use the weather as an excuse and shut the park down for today so we don't lose too much money". It sucks from the park guests standpoint, but it is understandable from a business standpoint.

[Satchboogie3]

^I understand that they might have had a reason to close early, assuming the weather wasn't supposed to be awful all day, but that doesn't mean it was a good business move. If they closed because of the poor turnout... that is just a cheap decision. I immediately thought, "If it is raining all morning, but is expected to stop in the early afternoon, then there might be a decent amount of locals who might show up for the evening.)

 

Now, I agree that you really have to plan on things like this happening, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't still be upset about it. Personally, I think parks shouldn't ever close that early. What other type of business do you know of that closes very early because of a low turn out? I can't think of any. Casino's, restaurants, stores, etc. Even if there wasn't anyone there, they would still remain open.

 

I just believe that all business should be run with the customer as the #1 concern, not cutting costs, etc etc.

 

If it was in fact weather related, well, that's just the way it is. Most parks have some sort of weather policy where they will close certain rides or even the entire park.

[jbarner14]

^ Oh, I'm definitely not happy about it. I hadn't been to this park in years and was really looking for to getting the new credits. (I ended up getting 2 of the 3). I totally agree that its not in the best interest of a business to close early and kick its customers out. I was just stating what I thought Six Flags was thinking when they made their decision.

[coastakid]

^^ As does Great Adventure with the rain policy. I have been to the park a amount of times in the rain, downpours for that matter, and have been perfectly content with only a few rides being open. It just puzzles me why they would shut the entire park, seeing as the weather was indeed intended to clear up dramatically within the next hour or two.

 

 

-Jon

[robbalvey]

There are two seperate things going on here:

 

1. Park closing early - I know for a fact that park looks at the weather forecasts, the current weather conditions, the current park attendance, compiles all that data and then has to make a call as to if it makes sense to stay open or not.

 

The park doesn't use your friends current view outside their window, they use weather monitoring tools. And I just looked at the top three weather sites and they all mentioned rain in the area at least through the afternoon and high winds.

 

I can see why they made the call to close. It may have pissed off some people and it might not have been a decision I would agree with but I see why they did what they did.

 

2. Costakid complaining about this - Yes, I agree it sucks and I feel your frustration, trust me, I do. But I do think you knew enough about what could happen by visiting the park when the forecast wasn't great that I personally think you made a poor decision by driving 3 1/2 hours to the park when you KNEW the weather could be bad.

 

I feel that yes, be pissed at the park, but I think you could also be taking some of the blame yourself, not soley blaming Six Flags. If I were in your shoes I would have gotten up, looked at the forecast and went "Forget it, I got screwed over last week by visiting when the forecast was bad, I'll wait until the forecast is GOOD to visit again."

 

There were threads on here in the past week warning people NOT TO GO TO GREAT ADVENTURE THIS WEEKEND IF ITS RAINING!

 

Again, I think the tell tale sign is how few cars were in the parking lot. Clearly that tells me enough people knew NOT to go to the park.

 

I think you are pissed because you drove into the park, saw a couple of coasters running, saw that no one was there and went "YESSSSS!!!! We have the park to OURSELVES!!!" only to then find out it's closed.

 

Again, I feel your frustration, and I'd probably side with you a bit more if you had ZERO experience of what happens if you visit the park in the rain, but you just said you were there last week and you saw it first hand.

 

Why go back under similar conditions?

 

That's all I'm saying.

 

--Robb

[Satchboogie3]

It's because the park, as I've experienced it, is most concerned with cutting cost at all costs. Just about every time I have visited the park, they were doing something wrong, whether it was well understaffed/untrained (mid-season), opening rides late/closing early, etc. Now, I expect that from Six Flags, but that doesn't mean I have to be content with it.

 

I am fairly tolerable with parks. I was there opening day and, although I was disappointed that Nitro and Kingda Ka didn't open, I understood that Six Flags couldn't do anything about it, the weather didn't allow it. However, there were still a bunch of rides/coasters that weren't open and had nothing to do with the weather, but I still just accept that because its early in the season. Doesn't mean they don't need to do better.

 

Robb is right on. You can't expect to have a perfect day with bad weather conditions. You are always taking a risk when the forecast is rainy/stormy/windy.

[Electerik]

I just believe that all business should be run with the customer as the #1 concern, not cutting costs, etc etc.

 

I agree with this 100%. The "bottom line" includes money you're not getting from people who are never coming back.

[CHILLERLC1]

At 1pm on a fan site of the park I thanked someone for the update the park was closing. I agreed as I am on the one border of Jersey and saw the bad weather system was here as well. I understood with the rain.

 

This story is old about someone driving 3 hours and seeing the rain. In the summer of 2007 someone came from the south 3 hours and had the same thing happen to him. I told him he should have taken the weather into better account and I began reading the terms of the Season Pass. He lost his parking money too. I didn't have much sympathy. Our wills to plan and execute our trips seem much bigger than the good old Mother Nature. The park probably took into account: weather and people already there, numbers from parking.

 

 

Basically I agree with Robb who more eloquently got the point across.

At 2-3 I had to quickly brush something up on the front sidewalk through rain since I'm preparing for Easter tomorrow.

[nitro17]

I didn't even see El Toro run. I would have had my brother and his girlfriend wait in the car and just go with my season pass for 10 minutes if I knew it was open, although I am still incredibly mad.

 

 

 

 

-Jon

 

Yeah, they ran it a total of three times. I was on every ride. We had to recruit more people to ride it before they would run it though. (Apparently it has to have 18 people on the ride at one time for "safety" reasons) It was the most enjoyable ride, however, as the rain pelted your face.

 

I apologize for today man. I was just as mad that we had to close too, and I wish we could have ran it more than three times at least. (and I could have finished my training!) By the way, this is the kid who was talking to you at the end and asked about your TPR name.