Six Flags Darien Lake (SFDL) Discussion Thread

[DarienLaker]

Darien Lake needs a new kiddie coaster that kids under 48" can ride with their parents. I find it kind of a shame that Darien Lake has a kids only kiddie coaster, but no true family coaster for kids under 48" and their parents.

[CNYCoasterguy11]

So the family and I decided to use our Six Flags Memberships today and take a ride out to Darien Lake for the first time in about forever. As a reference this is the first time I have been here since Moose on the Loose was added. Honestly for all the negatives I read on the boards we had a pretty good time.

 

Sure a second train on the coasters would be nice but it wasn't really necessary, everything was either a walk-on or station wait. The rides were all running except the usual suspects of Pirate and Corn Popper, and they all felt to have really short cycles. Predator was also down for the day but the rest were all running.

 

I have to say the Rowdys Ridge area is nice and a solid family area, my daughter absolutely loved Moose on the Loose and the other rides nearby. It would be nice to have a better family coaster for those over 42" and under 48" though.

 

Viper was decent, only one head bang and it was after the butterfly inversion not during, I forgot how far the entrance and exit are from each other and how long it takes just to get to the station. Mind Eraser was pretty bad, it shuffled a lot, not necessarily head banging but it was not smooth by any means and appears to be showing its age.

 

Boomerang also is pretty rough even for a boomerang, compared to the one at Great Escape this one is worse, new wheels or not. Didn't bother with Motocoaster as it had the only real line, and tantrum was decent. My only issue is how short it is, but glass smooth none the less and the first drop is pretty good.

 

Ride of Steel is also starting to show its age, its not rough really but it definitely feels shaky, however the lap bars are much better than New Englands version. Either way it's still an incredible coaster and that first drop doesn't disappoint. Overall it was a good day and did almost everything. The one real knock I had with the park is the ridiculously overpriced food and drinks. A slice of pizza for my daughter alone was almost the same as the combo meal with fries. Like how is that even a thing? It was less than a dollar to add fries compared to just a single slice of pizza. And water is way more here than other parks we've been too, Hersheypark was cheaper, and the free water also tasted better than DL's.

 

Other than the overpriced food it was a good day and low crowds despite perfect weather. It's not a bad park, it just could use a little paint and fixing up here and there but it is what it is. If I didn't have a membership to Great Escape I probably wouldn't pay the ticket price for it but it isn't terrible by any means. Just know what you are getting into when you go, Disney it is not, but as far as Six Flags goes it's not that bad.

[DarienLaker]

I went to Darien Lake this past weekend and some part of the park were showing their age. I was disappointed by the one train operations and also the run down likeness of Sleigh Ride with, they didn't even run it backwards and Corn Popper and Tantrum weren't even opened, but I saw some workers on Corn Popper taking some lights off it.

[Haymaker]

^ Disappointed? Are you surprised? Youre talking like youre a first timer.

[dnn2031]

Boomerang also is pretty rough even for a boomerang, compared to the one at Great Escape this one is worse, new wheels or not.

 

The wheels aren't appreciably 'new' in like a design sense. Coaster wheels get changed fairly regular and re-coated. Usually about a set throughout the season and any marginal leftovers are likely to be changed during the rehab as they all get removed then. There has been a changeover the past few years from welded axle assemblies (like Mind Eraser) to machined ones on Boomerang, though. Don't know if the old ones had urethane pucks in them like Viper and ME for cushioning.

[Wagon127]

Something about boomerang this year is really bad. Or I'm just getting older.

[Haymaker]

Boomerang also is pretty rough even for a boomerang, compared to the one at Great Escape this one is worse, new wheels or not.

 

The wheels aren't appreciably 'new' in like a design sense. Coaster wheels get changed fairly regular and re-coated. Usually about a set throughout the season and any marginal leftovers are likely to be changed during the rehab as they all get removed then. There has been a changeover the past few years from welded axle assemblies (like Mind Eraser) to machined ones on Boomerang, though. Don't know if the old ones had urethane pucks in them like Viper and ME for cushioning.

 

Whats the deal with Predator and Pirate? Predator finally getting a mercy killing?

[SbSteveZ]

Something about boomerang this year is really bad. Or I'm just getting older.

 

Not gonna say it’s your age, or anything for that matter - but from my experience the DL boomerang is one of the smoother Boomerangs I’ve been on. Granted I’m a “ride in the front” or “ride in the back” guy on these rides, but I haven’t personally had any issues with the ride since they fixed the pneumatic system a couple years ago.

 

I can’t believe I’m defending a boomerang. Oh well.

[SbSteveZ]

Didn't bother with Motocoaster as it had the only real line

 

Looks can be deceiving my friend. A line down the ramp is only about a 3-4 train wait as they don’t allow the queue to build up in the station, which if all goes well is about a 10-15 minute wait.

[Haymaker]

about conditions at Fantasy Island

Customers complain about broken rides and closed concessions.

LOCAL 11 seconds ago

Author:

Kelly Dudzik

Published:

9:22 PM EDT July 15, 2019

Updated:

11:13 PM EDT July 15, 2019

GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. — It's the busiest time of the year for Fantasy Island on Grand Island, but not every guest is leaving the park with a smile on their face. From broken rides to closed concession stands, many viewers have been reaching out to us with complaints about conditions at Fantasy Island.

 

 

"It's not worth it," says Mara Walker. "I regret having the season pass. I wish we would have invested in one in Darien Lake. More rides."

 

The Walkers just got season passes for Fantasy Island last summer and visited the park for the first time this season Saturday.

 

"Disappointing to say the least," she said. "The rides were down. The ones that were open, you could see that they were beat-up and stuff. It's not enjoyable, and you're like why am I here? It doesn't look safe anymore."

 

After two hours, they were done with their visit.

"I like the swings, that was down," says David Walker. "Like she said, the Crazy Mouse, that was down. A lot of the vendors, they were down."

 

Hundreds of viewers responded to 2 On Your Side’s social media posts Monday sharing similar stories. Matt Brennan visited the park July 7 and took several photos showing various rides down, and closed concession stands.

There were also issues last summer when the Wave Pool was closed. Fantasy Island's parent company, Apex Parks Group in California, said it would open this year and it has.

 

2 On Your Side got a written statement from the parent company saying it has spent millions of dollars upgrading the park. It also says every ride except Gondola Wheel is scheduled to operate this week. We also got an invitation to check out the park for ourselves sometime later this week.

 

The Walkers just hope all those rides are working next time they visit.

 

"And we didn't have much fun because all my little rides that I wanted to go on were down, too, so I didn't have much fun," said Antonio Walker.

 

2 On Your Side is scheduled to visit the park to get video of the conditions there Tuesday afternoon. The Director of Marketing is working on arranging an interview for us.

[SbSteveZ]

^ Channel 2 looking for a story, Season Passholders looking for 15 minutes of local fame, one unfortunate theme park.

 

Remember that time last year where they shut down the wave pool and completely refurbished it because it wasn’t up to NYS specifications and this same channel ran a story saying that it was unfair to the passholders and they should get refunds for the 2018 season? I sure do.

 

Now here we are one year later. The Gondola Wheel is down for another extensive refurbishment because that thing was on its last legs, and other rides are breaking down as they normally would / some are closed for staffing like any other theme park yet folks wanna complain because it’s what folks tend to do best.

 

I think the best thing about it is the larger park with a similar amount of ride closures and food stand closures and everything is getting zero bad press. I’m glad that this is the case, because it really isn’t newsworthy, but it just goes to show how ridiculous people can be. Especially since in both this year and last years story the interviewees both said “might as well just get a pass to Darien Lake next year, it’s a bigger park”

 

Keep in mind that a season pass for Fantasy Island is about $36, where as the Season Pass for Darien Lake can run ya anywhere from $78 to $222 depending on the level you choose. You get what you pay for and that’s especially the case between these two parks.

 

Fantasy Island is a small park that was family owned for over 50 years before Apex stepped in and began bringing the park up to code. Darien Lake is a bit of a different story thanks to Six Flags, Premier and Herschend (as well as the wonderful land leasing folks who made development of the park extremely difficult, love those guys). DL has over 1,000 acres of property, Fantasy Island, not so much.

 

TL:DR - Customers go to FI and get exactly what they pay for, therefore they are upset and going to complain to the news.

[Haymaker]

Of those Herschend probably did the most and had plans for more, but didnt last for whatever reason.

[dnn2031]

Herschend did make offers to buy the property outright, but allegedly there was an insurmountable gulf between what CNL wanted and they offered. Don't know if they weren't interested in continuing to lease or just were further outbid when CNL sold the property to EPR.

[SaraAB87]

^ Channel 2 looking for a story, Season Passholders looking for 15 minutes of local fame, one unfortunate theme park.

 

Remember that time last year where they shut down the wave pool and completely refurbished it because it wasn’t up to NYS specifications and this same channel ran a story saying that it was unfair to the passholders and they should get refunds for the 2018 season? I sure do.

 

Now here we are one year later. The Gondola Wheel is down for another extensive refurbishment because that thing was on its last legs, and other rides are breaking down as they normally would / some are closed for staffing like any other theme park yet folks wanna complain because it’s what folks tend to do best.

 

I think the best thing about it is the larger park with a similar amount of ride closures and food stand closures and everything is getting zero bad press. I’m glad that this is the case, because it really isn’t newsworthy, but it just goes to show how ridiculous people can be. Especially since in both this year and last years story the interviewees both said “might as well just get a pass to Darien Lake next year, it’s a bigger park”

 

Keep in mind that a season pass for Fantasy Island is about $36, where as the Season Pass for Darien Lake can run ya anywhere from $78 to $222 depending on the level you choose. You get what you pay for and that’s especially the case between these two parks.

 

Fantasy Island is a small park that was family owned for over 50 years before Apex stepped in and began bringing the park up to code. Darien Lake is a bit of a different story thanks to Six Flags, Premier and Herschend (as well as the wonderful land leasing folks who made development of the park extremely difficult, love those guys). DL has over 1,000 acres of property, Fantasy Island, not so much.

 

TL:DR - Customers go to FI and get exactly what they pay for, therefore they are upset and going to complain to the news.

 

There is no way fantasy island is up to code, if you haven't been following, the whole park is a train wreck (quite literally, as the train has died numerous times this season) and Apex is running it into the ground. A similar thing is happening at Indiana beach. The "new" rides are just castoff rides from Indiana beach. They are the rides Indiana beach is done with. Yes the pass is $40 but they were charging $40 for a one day ticket as well plus $7 parking earlier in the season which is more than the price of the pass. If you bought the ticket for $34.99 online they still charged you $7 for parking, again putting the one day admission ticket at a higher price than the cost of a the pass. This is a pricing scam. Right then and there everyone should know its a park that is not worth going to. A theme park that runs well is NOT one that uses a pricing scam to lure in customers. They basically con every customer into buying a season's pass, this is why everyone buys the pass and why they sell so many. I have never seen a park do this ever. Prices may have changed since I last researched this. Now they raised the parking price to $8 and I heard you will have to pay for parking every time you come if you are just buying a pass now, if you already have the seasons pass you can still get free parking but who knows how that will change next season. There are no discounted tickets around town that I could find, previously our credit union offered tickets for something like $18 each and a lot of local businesses and workplaces also offered cheaper tickets.

 

Darien lake is more expensive, but I have to say one thing, you won't die at that park. Its only a little bit more expensive anyways. Fantasy island just reeks of a death trap, its the only time I would actually say NO, its not safe to go on those rides. No Darien its not the best park in the world but they have some standards at least. They won't completely disappoint you. Most of the rides will be open when you go there. You will get your one day's ticket worth or your Season's pass worth. With fantasy most of the rides have been closed for the last couple weeks. With theme parks I would rather pay more for a better experience. Like anything else, you get what you pay for. Some things are worth paying more money for a better experience and this is one of them. A $40 price tag in this case for a theme park's season pass is TOO low, when you pay too little for something that regularly goes for higher dollars elsewhere, you feel like you are paying for crap. If I am going to pay for a theme park experience, I am going to pay more for a better experience even if I have to forgo going to a theme park for a couple years to save up to go to a better one, paying too little feels like I am intentionally paying for a poor experience which in general is not a good use of money.

[DarienLaker]

I haven't been to Fantasy Island in years, but with all this talk about how trashy the park has became makes me think that Fantasy Island should close after this season.

[SbSteveZ]

^ Channel 2 looking for a story, Season Passholders looking for 15 minutes of local fame, one unfortunate theme park.

 

Remember that time last year where they shut down the wave pool and completely refurbished it because it wasn’t up to NYS specifications and this same channel ran a story saying that it was unfair to the passholders and they should get refunds for the 2018 season? I sure do.

 

Now here we are one year later. The Gondola Wheel is down for another extensive refurbishment because that thing was on its last legs, and other rides are breaking down as they normally would / some are closed for staffing like any other theme park yet folks wanna complain because it’s what folks tend to do best.

 

I think the best thing about it is the larger park with a similar amount of ride closures and food stand closures and everything is getting zero bad press. I’m glad that this is the case, because it really isn’t newsworthy, but it just goes to show how ridiculous people can be. Especially since in both this year and last years story the interviewees both said “might as well just get a pass to Darien Lake next year, it’s a bigger park”

 

Keep in mind that a season pass for Fantasy Island is about $36, where as the Season Pass for Darien Lake can run ya anywhere from $78 to $222 depending on the level you choose. You get what you pay for and that’s especially the case between these two parks.

 

Fantasy Island is a small park that was family owned for over 50 years before Apex stepped in and began bringing the park up to code. Darien Lake is a bit of a different story thanks to Six Flags, Premier and Herschend (as well as the wonderful land leasing folks who made development of the park extremely difficult, love those guys). DL has over 1,000 acres of property, Fantasy Island, not so much.

 

TL:DR - Customers go to FI and get exactly what they pay for, therefore they are upset and going to complain to the news.

 

There is no way fantasy island is up to code, if you haven't been following, the whole park is a train wreck (quite literally, as the train has died numerous times this season) and Apex is running it into the ground. A similar thing is happening at Indiana beach. The "new" rides are just castoff rides from Indiana beach. They are the rides Indiana beach is done with. Yes the pass is $40 but they were charging $40 for a one day ticket as well plus $7 parking earlier in the season which is more than the price of the pass. If you bought the ticket for $34.99 online they still charged you $7 for parking, again putting the one day admission ticket at a higher price than the cost of a the pass. This is a pricing scam. Right then and there everyone should know its a park that is not worth going to. A theme park that runs well is NOT one that uses a pricing scam to lure in customers. They basically con every customer into buying a season's pass, this is why everyone buys the pass and why they sell so many. I have never seen a park do this ever. Prices may have changed since I last researched this. Now they raised the parking price to $8 and I heard you will have to pay for parking every time you come if you are just buying a pass now, if you already have the seasons pass you can still get free parking but who knows how that will change next season. There are no discounted tickets around town that I could find, previously our credit union offered tickets for something like $18 each and a lot of local businesses and workplaces also offered cheaper tickets.

 

Darien lake is more expensive, but I have to say one thing, you won't die at that park. Its only a little bit more expensive anyways. Fantasy island just reeks of a death trap, its the only time I would actually say NO, its not safe to go on those rides. No Darien its not the best park in the world but they have some standards at least. They won't completely disappoint you. Most of the rides will be open when you go there. You will get your one day's ticket worth or your Season's pass worth. With fantasy most of the rides have been closed for the last couple weeks. With theme parks I would rather pay more for a better experience. Like anything else, you get what you pay for. Some things are worth paying more money for a better experience and this is one of them. A $40 price tag in this case for a theme park's season pass is TOO low, when you pay too little for something that regularly goes for higher dollars elsewhere, you feel like you are paying for crap. If I am going to pay for a theme park experience, I am going to pay more for a better experience even if I have to forgo going to a theme park for a couple years to save up to go to a better one, paying too little feels like I am intentionally paying for a poor experience which in general is not a good use of money.

 

You do realize people have in fact died at Darien Lake right?

 

Fantasy Island’s whole thing with their Season Pass is that it “costs the same as a one day admission ticket”

 

$36 for daily admission, $8 for parking

-or-

$36 for the whole season, Free Parking

 

Darien Lake is a little steeper but they have more options thanks to Six Flags. However, they’re still promoting the season memberships and pricing them to sell.

 

$35.99 online Summer Sale ticket, $20 parking

$73.99 explorer pass, $20 parking

$88.99 gold season pass, free parking

$7.99/mo gold membership, free parking

$9.99/mo platinum membership, free parking

$12.99/mo diamond membership, free preferred parking

$18.99/mo diamond elite membership, free preferred parking

 

Not to mention most of those deals come with access to all Six Flags parks.

 

The point being, again, you’re paying a LOT more to go to Darien Lake, and you’re getting a lot of the same issues that people complain about fairly regularly both in park and on sites like this one.

 

How people expect a park that is in massive need of renovation and rehabilitation to be profitable and successful when they’re practically handing out season passes is beyond me. But that’s part of my point. Fantasy Island has seen renovations and will likely continue to moving forward, Darien Lake will as well but likely at a more accelerated pace as the company that owns DL has a lot more money to spend than Apex likely does.

 

I’ll be curious to see if anything really “shocking” comes out of the Fantasy Island visit either today or next Tuesday or whenever it was actually scheduled, but I won’t hold my breath.

 

Fantasy Island has always kinda sucked. Y’all expect that to change overnight?

[SaraAB87]

^ Channel 2 looking for a story, Season Passholders looking for 15 minutes of local fame, one unfortunate theme park.

 

Remember that time last year where they shut down the wave pool and completely refurbished it because it wasn’t up to NYS specifications and this same channel ran a story saying that it was unfair to the passholders and they should get refunds for the 2018 season? I sure do.

 

Now here we are one year later. The Gondola Wheel is down for another extensive refurbishment because that thing was on its last legs, and other rides are breaking down as they normally would / some are closed for staffing like any other theme park yet folks wanna complain because it’s what folks tend to do best.

 

I think the best thing about it is the larger park with a similar amount of ride closures and food stand closures and everything is getting zero bad press. I’m glad that this is the case, because it really isn’t newsworthy, but it just goes to show how ridiculous people can be. Especially since in both this year and last years story the interviewees both said “might as well just get a pass to Darien Lake next year, it’s a bigger park”

 

Keep in mind that a season pass for Fantasy Island is about $36, where as the Season Pass for Darien Lake can run ya anywhere from $78 to $222 depending on the level you choose. You get what you pay for and that’s especially the case between these two parks.

 

Fantasy Island is a small park that was family owned for over 50 years before Apex stepped in and began bringing the park up to code. Darien Lake is a bit of a different story thanks to Six Flags, Premier and Herschend (as well as the wonderful land leasing folks who made development of the park extremely difficult, love those guys). DL has over 1,000 acres of property, Fantasy Island, not so much.

 

TL:DR - Customers go to FI and get exactly what they pay for, therefore they are upset and going to complain to the news.

 

There is no way fantasy island is up to code, if you haven't been following, the whole park is a train wreck (quite literally, as the train has died numerous times this season) and Apex is running it into the ground. A similar thing is happening at Indiana beach. The "new" rides are just castoff rides from Indiana beach. They are the rides Indiana beach is done with. Yes the pass is $40 but they were charging $40 for a one day ticket as well plus $7 parking earlier in the season which is more than the price of the pass. If you bought the ticket for $34.99 online they still charged you $7 for parking, again putting the one day admission ticket at a higher price than the cost of a the pass. This is a pricing scam. Right then and there everyone should know its a park that is not worth going to. A theme park that runs well is NOT one that uses a pricing scam to lure in customers. They basically con every customer into buying a season's pass, this is why everyone buys the pass and why they sell so many. I have never seen a park do this ever. Prices may have changed since I last researched this. Now they raised the parking price to $8 and I heard you will have to pay for parking every time you come if you are just buying a pass now, if you already have the seasons pass you can still get free parking but who knows how that will change next season. There are no discounted tickets around town that I could find, previously our credit union offered tickets for something like $18 each and a lot of local businesses and workplaces also offered cheaper tickets.

 

Darien lake is more expensive, but I have to say one thing, you won't die at that park. Its only a little bit more expensive anyways. Fantasy island just reeks of a death trap, its the only time I would actually say NO, its not safe to go on those rides. No Darien its not the best park in the world but they have some standards at least. They won't completely disappoint you. Most of the rides will be open when you go there. You will get your one day's ticket worth or your Season's pass worth. With fantasy most of the rides have been closed for the last couple weeks. With theme parks I would rather pay more for a better experience. Like anything else, you get what you pay for. Some things are worth paying more money for a better experience and this is one of them. A $40 price tag in this case for a theme park's season pass is TOO low, when you pay too little for something that regularly goes for higher dollars elsewhere, you feel like you are paying for crap. If I am going to pay for a theme park experience, I am going to pay more for a better experience even if I have to forgo going to a theme park for a couple years to save up to go to a better one, paying too little feels like I am intentionally paying for a poor experience which in general is not a good use of money.

 

You do realize people have in fact died at Darien Lake right?

 

Fantasy Island’s whole thing with their Season Pass is that it “costs the same as a one day admission ticket”

 

$36 for daily admission, $8 for parking

-or-

$36 for the whole season, Free Parking

 

Darien Lake is a little steeper but they have more options thanks to Six Flags. However, they’re still promoting the season memberships and pricing them to sell.

 

$35.99 online Summer Sale ticket, $20 parking

$73.99 explorer pass, $20 parking

$88.99 gold season pass, free parking

$7.99/mo gold membership, free parking

$9.99/mo platinum membership, free parking

$12.99/mo diamond membership, free preferred parking

$18.99/mo diamond elite membership, free preferred parking

 

Not to mention most of those deals come with access to all Six Flags parks.

 

The point being, again, you’re paying a LOT more to go to Darien Lake, and you’re getting a lot of the same issues that people complain about fairly regularly both in park and on sites like this one.

 

How people expect a park that is in massive need of renovation and rehabilitation to be profitable and successful when they’re practically handing out season passes is beyond me. But that’s part of my point. Fantasy Island has seen renovations and will likely continue to moving forward, Darien Lake will as well but likely at a more accelerated pace as the company that owns DL has a lot more money to spend than Apex likely does.

 

I’ll be curious to see if anything really “shocking” comes out of the Fantasy Island visit either today or next Tuesday or whenever it was actually scheduled, but I won’t hold my breath.

 

Fantasy Island has always kinda sucked. Y’all expect that to change overnight?

 

Yes I know that people died at Darien Lake, but it certainly was not due to mechanical issues with rides. There are issues with both parks, but literally everyone in WNY is talking about the issues with fantasy island. Shut it down before someone gets seriously hurt or dies.

 

At least with Darien there is more of a price difference between an individual ticket than a season's pass. Its still a better experience than Fantasy island. There was a brand new ride added, an old ride removed and Fantasy island only got 2 children's rides that Indiana beach didn't want anymore.

 

I am assuming most people on Grand Island have enough money to take their kids on a vacation to a better park rather than go to either Darien or Fantasy. The people buying the passes are doing it because their kids can go swimming and its close to home.

 

Its also in a tough spot, they are targeting low income customers that can't afford Darien Lake. I am not sure if this is a business model that will ever work, no matter how cheap the seasons pass gets or the price of the admission ticket. A park obviously needs to make money to survive, even if they are selling passes that is only a one time payment. These people also aren't paying the parking fee and could go every day of the season if they want to. If there is a haunt event in fall they will get free entry to that too. I don't think season pass holders spend money in the park either, they don't buy food because they go for a couple hours and leave and either eat before they leave or go somewhere else to eat after or eat at home, especially if they are low income customers, people who don't have money don't spend money in the park. A park can't survive if they are selling passes and no one is spending any money there.

 

For a low income customer to spend $40 per person is a lot of money for the target base. But I honestly feel like they are devaluing their park by charging so little for a pass. Because they are doing this people see it as cheap and not worth going to. Marty charged like $70 for a pass and offered discount tickets around town or online. I think this was a better business model. But Apex wants those pass sales.

[SbSteveZ]

^ what rides specifically are so bad that people are at risk of death or serious injury? You know the state does checks on these things right?

 

Darien Lake’s Ride of Steel has had one death and two other ejections from when it was new. That I’m aware of there have been no deaths reported on any of the attractions within Fantasy Island, which is why I’m wondering where all this death trap nonsense is coming from.

[Golddisk]

A park obviously needs to make money to survive, even if they are selling passes that is only a one time payment. These people also aren't paying the parking fee and could go every day of the season if they want to. If there is a haunt event in fall they will get free entry to that too. I don't think season pass holders spend money in the park either, they don't buy food because they go for a couple hours and leave and either eat before they leave or go somewhere else to eat after or eat at home, especially if they are low income customers, people who don't have money don't spend money in the park. A park can't survive if they are selling passes and no one is spending any money there.

 

Most parks actually prefer to sell season passes over day tickets so that they can get repeat visits from those guests and therefore repeat spending. You're right that not everyone is going to spend money in the park, but most people will on something whether it be food, merchandise, games, rentals, and upcharge attractions.

[volcano]

Sara, thank you for your feedback. We met in 2017 when we invited local coaster enthusiasts to enjoy the park, eat lunch and discuss Fantasy Island’s future. Since our acquisition of Fantasy Island in 2016 we have invested millions in upgrades and repairs to the park's attractions and infrastructure. We are proud of the work completed and will continue investing to improve the park for our Guests. I am sorry to hear you are disappointed. All of our rides and water park attractions, with the exception of the Gondola Wheel, are open and running consistently. We are wrapping up an extensive 6-month renovation project on the Gondola Wheel and expect that ride to open this weekend.

 

We think our season pass represents a tremendous value. In addition to new attractions, we have added several new special events, including a Food Truck Festival, Declaration Celebration (WNY’s largest July 4th celebration), KidsFest, Oktoberfest and Halloween Horror. We extended the operating season through Halloween. We also introduced an All Season Dining pass, an offering that is now an industry standard and keeps the park affordable for our Guests. It's important to me that we keep our prices low, despite annual minimum wage increases in NYS.

 

We consistently exceed our third-party safety audits. This includes unannounced lifeguard audits, insurance inspections, ride consultants, manufacturer reviews and annual examinations from the New York State Department of Labor, who regulates amusement rides in the state of NY. We are proud of the park and hope you will continue to join us. We are a smaller, family-oriented theme park with a classic CCI coaster, a great collection of family attractions and thrilling rides such as the Mind Warp.

 

SbSteveZ, thank you so much for the positive feedback. Please let me know if you plan on visiting the park so I can introduce myself and say hello in person!

 

Have a great evening! And now back to your regularly-scheduled Cuda Falls discussion (one of my childhood favorites!)

 

-Chris Kearsing, Fantasy Island GM

 

edit: Another thing I forgot to mention. Not only is your $36 season pass valid all season at Fantasy Island, you also receive free admission to all of our parks, including Indiana Beach (you should see what we've done with the place), Sahara Sam's Oasis (indoor/outdoor water park next door to Diggerland...just outside Philly in NJ...it's seriously awesome. Go check it out. It's free with your season pass), Big Kahuna's Water & Adventure Park in Destin, FL and 12 FECs including Boomers! (no, we aren't the same people who tore down the wooden coaster, relax) and Speedzone. Apex Parks Group

DougMJr (Marketing Director), Dana (AGM/Director of Maintenance), Chris (GM), Logan and Michael (enthusiasts) at our 2017 enthusiast event.

New front gate signage (2017)

Mega Disko

Double Dare Falls- one of our large restoration investments in 2018! This slide complex was originally installed in 1984. While most parks have removed similar attractions, we decided to restore the slides and re-open them last season. Once mass-produced, to my knowledge there are only 3 other similar complexes left in the USA- Conneaut Lake, Whale's Tale (NH) and Enchanted Forest Water Safari in Old Forge, NY.

Silver Comet- WNY's best wooden coaster! Celebrating 20 years of thrills this season.

Town Square at Fantasy Island.

Crooked House in Fairy Tale Forest.

Fantasy Island front gate photo opportunity.

Flight- WNY's first giant swing ride. You can see both downtown Buffalo and Niagara Falls at the (ahem)... Apex!

Western Town signage (added 2017)

Mind Warp- WNY's most thrilling attraction!

Max's Doggy Dog Coaster (enthusiast friendly! Come get the credit!)

Canoes- classic attraction!

Mind Warp- the only permanent Technical Park Loop Fighter in North America.

Crazy Mouse- Zamperla Twister Coaster.

Fairy Tale Forest- re-invented children's area added in 2018. This themed area pays homage to the former Garden of Fables from the 1960s.

Crankshaft Cruisers- Family classic!

New water park entrance added last week. We have 7 water park attractions for both families and thrill-seekers!

Edited February 19, 2020 by larrygator

[Haymaker]

^

[AmyUD06]

What kind of strange world has this thread become when we have a GM from a park who registered almost TWELVE years ago making his very first post an advertisement for a park that this thread isn't even about?

[volcano]

Ha, great point. Long time reader, first time poster. I figured this was a good opportunity to showcase some of the improvements we have made to the park. We love enthusiasts!

 

Also...would you expect anything else from this thread? Don't you have to take a shot each time I say Cuda Falls?

[SaraAB87]

I have something super funny to post here about cuda falls and I don't really know where to post it so here goes

 

I found this Tops grocery bag lying in my basement a while back with a Cuda falls advertisement, I tried putting the bag on ebay for laughs but it didn't sell so now I am keeping it. I hope the picture loads.

[Haymaker]

What kind of strange world has this thread become when we have a GM from a park who registered almost TWELVE years ago making his very first post an advertisement for a park that this thread isn't even about?

 

Fi doesnt have (or need) its own thread that I know of