Six Flags Darien Lake (SFDL) Discussion Thread

[Haymaker]

^ chalk me up for an L.

Most of the shops that I frequent use Perry's for hard ice cream and Upstate for custard, so thats why I incorrectly assumed its how it was everywhere

[CNYCoasterguy11]

Took our first trip of the year to the Lake, and while some things were good, others were not.

First some good:

-lines were very manageable, I love going here on a Sunday. Low crowds and generally no groups. Coasters have some waits due to one train ops, but at most it's 25-30 minutes. No real waits otherwise, Ride of steel even had minimal waits.

- the park looked fresh in most spots, paint was good, areas cleaned up. Just a few spots looked kind of bad like where Heave Ho used to be. The kids area also needs a little TLC. 

- Predator and Mind Eraser were also running the best they have in a long time. Mind Eraser was actually tolerable with minimal head banging. Predator needs more Titan Track, I wasn't sure I would notice the difference but you really can, but honestly most of what hasn't been converted isn't too rough. I even considered a re-ride.

Now the Bad:

-Food is still slow and ridiculously over priced even for a big park. A walking Taco cost $14.99 and that's without a drink. Pretzels were over $8. The lines at some locations also were painfully slow.

-The teen demographic at this park always seems rowdier than other area parks we visit, nothing the Park can really do but it seemed like any kind of chaperone policy doesn't exist (maybe it doesn't yet). Scores of teens walking around alone.

-ive never seen this at an amusement park but for some reason Darien Lake thought those ridable animal scooters you see at the local mall would be a good idea in the park. A lot of people were riding them but you had to watch out as they did not care if they ran you over. Again lots of teens taking advantage of this, not a smart move as they really don't follow the rules well 

- Minor thing but we noticed Tantrum for whatever reason was only running one car and it severely impacted operations. Normal this ride gets a small line but moves efficiently. Now it slows to a crawl. Hopefully they haven't needed to cannibalize a car.

 

that was our first trip and other than some snags with our "legacy" membership we had a good time and enjoyed the day more than the bad things bothered us.

[Haymaker]

^ to piggy back on that... park is looking pretty clean overall. They put up a stockade under Viper to make the queue look cleaner. Motocoaster is still not up yet so we'll see what happens there. There's been quite a few game removals but thats not a big loss IMO. With that and some former ride areas it makes me wonder if theres a master plan for improvements coming, since alot of it is in the Rowdy's Ridge/Grizzly Run area. Thats a large chunk of land...

[Haymaker]

Hooks has had some overdue refurbishment and replacement, to include removal of the mini pirate ship

[anonymouscactus]

Some pricing updates:

- Water park now has an upcharge for regular tickets. Included with season passes. I  Believe other SF parks which used to have the waterpark included also implemented this last year or two? Now SFDL is doing it.

- $50/night "resort fee" for hotel stays (remember that is in addition to tickets which are no longer included) they say it pays for the laser show (lol) and for breakfast which is now included. It also doesn't require you to pay the upcharge for the waterpark with your hotel stay.

- 3% surcharge on all* in-park purchases, similar to SeaWorld/Busch

What a deal!

 

[Golddisk]

On 6/26/2023 at 7:12 PM, anonymouscactus said:

- Water park now has an upcharge for regular tickets. Included with season passes. I  Believe other SF parks which used to have the waterpark included also implemented this last year or two? Now SFDL is doing it.

The water park thing is interesting because tickets online have also been reduced to $35 on Mondays, and $40 on Wed-Sun. So realistically, even adding on the waterpark is only $45-50 which is actually cheaper than a day ticket in previous years. 

Waterpark admission is also included with group sales tickets and accommodations (hotel/campgrounds).

[Sk610]

I am seeing almost all the other SF parks making their announcements hoping SFDL has at least something coming this year.  They seem to be spending a good amount of money this year, so I am hopeful

[AmyUD06]

51 minutes ago, Sk610 said:

I am seeing almost all the other SF parks making their announcements hoping SFDL has at least something coming this year.  They seem to be spending a good amount of money this year, so I am hopeful

I would have assumed it would have been included in the, y'know, corporate-wide announcement that announced everything else....but yeah, you keep that hope alive.

[dnn2031]

If they did get anything high odds it'd be a replacement for Hook's like the other water play structures SF parks got this year. It's been high on the wishlist to replace for years due to age and was seriously floated as a possibility going into this year.

[abovethesink]

On 8/30/2023 at 10:51 PM, AmyUD06 said:

I would have assumed it would have been included in the, y'know, corporate-wide announcement that announced everything else....but yeah, you keep that hope alive.

I don't think Darien Lake is getting anything, but there is reason to suspect that the announcement wasn't all-encompassing for the chain. Discovery Kingdom, for example, has been teasing taking the park to "new heights" in 2024 and didn't have anything in the video.