Six Flags Surveys Meal Options

[CardCraze]

I think I might be a bit late here, but I just received an e-mail for a survey from Six Flags about meal options. It looks like Six Flags is surveying meal options.

 

All-Day (One Day) Meal Pass

 

The first idea we want to ask you about is an All-Day, All-You-Can-Eat Pass. This is a special pass that would let one person eat as much as they want for one full day at the park. Here are a few things to know about this program:

 

You can eat as much as you want, all day long.

Only 3-4 restaurants around the park are be included

Each of these restaurants serve a good variety of classic theme park food

Each time you go through the line, you can pick up on entree, one side and one dessert

The program would not include drinks.

 

All Season Long Meal Passes

 

The second (and last) idea we'd like to ask you about is a dining pass that would let you eat at the park every time you visit, all season long. If you were, for example, to buy a 2012 All-Season Meal Pass you could use it to eat every time you visit the park, from spring until the park closes in the fall.

 

There are a lot of different ways we could configure such a pass, so in order to get it right this is where we are going to ask the bulk of our questions today.

 

Here are the key attributes of such a pass that we want to get your feedback about:

 

Number of locations where you can pick up food: Does it matter to you whether you can eat at every restaurant in the club, or whether you can just eat in the Picnic area or Passholder Club?

 

Food you get each time you go through the line: How important is it that it includes dessert each time you go through the line? Or a snack?

 

How frequently can you get food? How important is it to you to get food as often as you want? Is it OK, for example, to be able to get food once an hour? How about a pass that guarantees you one meal per visit?

 

Are drinks included? How important is it that the program includes drinks? What if it came with a souvenir cup that you could refill for only 99 cents anytime you want all summer long?

 

How early (and how late) can you get food? Is it enough to be able to use your pass only during lunch time, or does it have to be available from opening to closing of the park?

 

Price: How much are you willing to pay?

 

Click NEXT to see how you would rate a few different versions of a possible All Season Long Meal Pass:

 

Option 1 Season Long

 

Option 2 Season Long

 

Option 3 Season Long

 

 

Could be nice to see this added... though I doubt more food would make it better food.

[Skycoastin Steve]

All you can eat $hit still means you're eating $hit.

[chadster]

^

[WFChris]

I think ending the food benefit at 2pm is stupid. Who on earth would want THAT? Most annual passholders arrive well after 2pm.

 

Unlimited food should be available until all food is closed. Isn't that what UNlimited means?

[beatle11]

It's definitely a good idea, but I'd like to see a place like Knoebels do something like this.

[disneyfan1313]

Am I reading this right? So they want to offer food once an hour (or possibly less) each time you visit in a year for only an extra $50-70?

 

Even with the lowest quality slop this will be difficult to break even on with most guests. Figure food cost on a burger /fries / desert meal is $3-4 minimum not including labor and lets say someone averages 1.5 visits to get food each visit. Thats $6 a visit. So after 10 visits it is a money loosing proposition. The type of guests who would buy this probably eat MORE than that and visit MORE frequently than 10 times in a season.

 

Am I missing something?

[rcdude]

I like the meal plan idea, but I don't think any of the current proposals sound that great. I wouldn't want anything that didn't include drinks, didn't include full meals, or is only valid at one location, and all three of the proposals have one or moreof those. Here's what I think would be good:

 

Each Time Through the Line You Get: 1 of everything per visit

 

Park Locations Where You Can Eat: Minimum 4 Different Restaurants

 

How Often You Can Get Food: 2 Entrees + sides per visit, unlimited snacks and drinks (1 per hour)

 

What Drinks are Included?: Unlimited drinks during the day (1 per hour)

 

Hours You Can Get Food: Opening to Closing

 

Price: $50-75

 

I doubt they'll actually do something like this, but if they did I might consider it. I rarely have two full meals when I visit (both due to price and food quality), but over a full season it might be cheaper to have a meal plan.

[Mechanic]

I could see the lines for food being simply ridiculous if they only offered the unlimited option in the picnic areas for a limited amount of time. Of curse, then they could sell a FlashPass upgrade that covered the food lines as well.

[cal1br3tto]

I wouldn't do this, as I almost never buy food at parks. But it's good they're seeking input from those who feel they may benefit from the convenience and/or potential savings. I think being as all-inclusive as possible would be ideal.

 

What I really love is unlimited free soda and water automatically available to every guest, as at Holiday World and Lake Compounce. Much better than being forced to purchase overpriced drinks, rely on unsatisfying fountains or tiny free cups, or share with others. Sometimes I find myself actively missing this at the countless parks that don't offer it.

[disneyfan1313]

I have to take the other side of the fence here and say this is an INSANELY good deal. Think about it - a combo meal type thing with desert at a six flags park is easily in the $12-$15 range. That means this will pay for itself after 4 uses. Sure the food is crap, but it seems to pay for itself very quickly. Compare it to the meal pass at Universal Orlando which is $29.99 for ONE DAY and does not include drinks.

Edited October 31, 2011 by disneyfan1313

[gisco]

The problem I see is if you had it at various restaurants then a group might have one person get the meal deal and share. So instead of everyone eating a full meal, one person could go visit a restaurant every hour and share through out the day.

 

Having it at a picnic area could stop this but than who wants to head to one spot in the park every time you wanted something to eat. It would also cut down on variety.

[SoCalCoasters]

Me and my dad found the All You Can Eat pass at BGT to be very useful.

 

We must have used it to buy 12+ waters throughout the day, and that alone payed off the price of the Meal Wristband.

[UniverseHollywood]

I can't stand the entire food system at Six Flags, and only ever buy soda or Freshers lemonades. If you ever saw how they go about preparing (or lack-thereof) the food at the park, you'd probably feel the same way.

 

Everything, even pretzels or chicken strips, are ridiculously crappy. On top of that it requires me to waste my time standing in an inefficient line to pay exorbitant prices, from crappy employees who don't care about the quality of what I'm eating. I also can't imagine how terrible the lines and food quality would be if people had "all you can eat" passes. It just sounds gross.

 

I'll just leave the park and go to Claim Jumper for the same price, thanks. Hell, I can even enjoy a beer!

[Jew]

^You're actually the type of person they are targeting with this. I'm sure they are aware of the fact that many of their pass holders opt not to spend money inside the park on food, since I am guessing the majority of them are locals. Getting those people to pay $40-60 for something they wouldn't normally spend a dime on seems like it could be a profitable idea for them, as I can imagine that for everyone one person who does eat their monies worth, there are 10 more who won't.

[The SETGO Guys]

The problem I see is if you had it at various restaurants then a group might have one person get the meal deal and share. So instead of everyone eating a full meal, one person could go visit a restaurant every hour and share through out the day.

 

Having it at a picnic area could stop this but than who wants to head to one spot in the park every time you wanted something to eat. It would also cut down on variety.

 

I've seen this happen before, (My family used to get two meal passes at Universal and share the food) they seem to not care. Also if dad gets a meal pass, he will go to every restaurant multiple times to get his money's worth.

 

Personally, I like the concept, and I have used the meal pass (By myself on my own money) at BGT and Universal several times. For Six Flags to be successful with it though they need to make it an all day pass. Having a meal pass that only works (a one day pass) for a limited amount of hours (Lunch) defeats the purpose of buying it. Likewise, if I don't get the meal-pass on that visit to the park (or if I'm at Disney to eat in a real restaurant) I'll just have a snack in the park and get fast food outside the park later (Saving 10 bucks).

 

I do like the idea of a Seasonal Meal Pass, for that I think it would be reasonable to add the hours on it. (As most of the members would most likely be pass-holders and if they were able to come eat WHENEVER for free,that might get crazy) I also do like the idea of one restaurant for Passholder members or an exclusive "club".

[Rollercoaster Rider]

If I were to decide things (I know, scary) I'd let season passholders get 5 all-you-can-eat deals in the Picnic areas (Cedar Fair Fans know what I'm talking about) free. Just to increase the sale of Season Passes.

 

 

I also hope that if you get the meal pass, it's a same pass as a Season pass. Having 2 passes would be pointless IMO.

[coasterbill]

I love Option 1 and I would definitely pay for it. The one thing I don't get is why they would only do it until 5PM. Why not just do it all day? That's idiotic.

[asimowalk]

^ It probably has to do with the staff... Including an hour for setup and an hour for clean up, that's a full 8 hour shift. They won't have to hire an extra employee to split a longer shift between two.

[coasterbill]

Good point. Why don't they just do 3-4 restaurants and let you get as much as you want? (Once per hour) a hybrid of the 2 ideas that doesn't require them to hire extra people? They could even charge a little more for it.

 

Having it end before dinner time just seems a little strange.

[larrygator]

No solution is going to work for everyone here is an idea that is simple and could work.

 

My local minor league baseball team has a $20 meal plan. You get a wristband and can go through the line as many times as you wish, but can only get one from Entree/Snack/Drink each time through the line:

Entree: hot dog, hamburger, grilled chicken sandwich, fried chicken sandwich

Snack: Bags of Chips/Popcorn

Drink: Can of Soda/Bottled Water

 

The food is already cooked (no cooking on premises) and in wrappers, there are multiple carts throughout the stadium (separate from the food stands so that lines move) and freshly cooked food is delivered to each stand on a need basis.

 

Parks could determine their final pricing, locations of carts and the logistics of drinks (how many people are already going to have refills cups anyway). From a business standpoint you also limit the availability of the carts to prime hours 11AM - 6PM.

 

Is is going to make everyone happy, NO! But the goal is to appease as many people in the simplest manner.

 

So in my opinion Option 2 would be great for me, although would like to see the end time extended beyond 2PM. It's really not a season long meal deal, it's a season long lunch deal.

Edited November 1, 2011 by larrygator

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

I don't see why it matters if we can get food unlimited times in the day. People don't need that much food and jacking up the price to include unlimited food will just prompt people to get more food that they don't need and won't finish, and it will just be a waste.

However, I would be interested if it included unlimited drinks. 8-12 hours at a park becomes really thirsty work. Honestly, food and drinks often cost more for my family than our ticket into the park. Sure the park food is crappy, but it's convenient especially when we're sore and tired.

One huge thing I love about our TPR trips is that lunch is included in the price so I really only need to worry about dinner/snacks when figuring the additional costs of the trip. If I was getting a season pass and knew I'd visit more than twice, I'd definitely be interested in a meal pass.

 

I think it would be beneficial for Six Flags to make some kind of meal pass, but I think they're going about it the wrong way. This is what I think would be best:

 

--All season

--1 or two meals a day, a side with each meal, and one dessert for the day

--Unlimited drinks (I'd prefer not having this mean a promotional cup that I'd have to lug around all day, but it'd be better than no unlimited drinks)

--Meals can be redeemed at any time of the day

--Price $40-$60

[YoshiFan]

Whatever they decide, if it is reasonably priced and not limited hours I will consider getting it. Since getting a Great Adventure pass in 2008 and going to the park 59 times from 2008 - 2011, I have eaten in the park twice because I am not willing to pay the prices they charge for food. A burger and fries is $10.99, add a soda for $3.49 and it's over $15 with tax. I almost always eat right outside the park at WaWa and can get a sandwich, a bag of chips and a soda for under $6 and sometimes plan my trips to the park so I am not in the park during meal time or can wait until after I leave the park, like if I am going from 5:30 to 10:00 like this past Sunday, I had a late lunch and ate dinner after I got home. With a meal plan, I'd probably stop doing that and eat at the park every time I am there.

 

I know season passholders have a reputation of not spending money in parks, but I do spend money on arcade games and will occasionally buy some souvenir when they have discounted items.

[coasterbill]

What they should really do is combine this with the Season Pass and come up with a stupid name for it like the "VIP Season Pass" or the "Platinum" season pass. I wish they'd include drinks but they won't because I think the whole idea of this is to make people buy drinks. If they're smart they'll have a bunch of free popcorn or anything else that absolutely requires a drink. If you get a free crappy Pizza slice and a 5.00 soda they're still making money and you paid more for the meal plan up front.