Seriously bad theme park days

[megametal]

I guess my worst trip would have been Hersheypark in 2003, and even it wasn't that bad. It was more what happened to our camp site while we were there for the free preview night before our full day in the park the next day. We got there, and 20 minutes later it started downpouring. Lightning, thunder, high winds, everything. The park people didn't even want people to go to their cars, but to wait inside the buildings or, in our case, under the shelter for The Whip. Apparently we were under a tornado warning.

 

Well, we ended up riding nothing that night, but we had some good conversations for two hours with other people in the shelter. Finally the let us out and it was still downpouring. The path to the park entrance is quite hilly from there, and the water was just cascading down the paths. We were soaked almost immediately. I didn't think of it as a bad day. I thought it was quite fun. It's still something I have fun remembering.

 

No, the bad part is when we got back to our camp site. We were tent camping. All our stuff was in the tent. Our stuff was about two feet underwater! So we got back and had no place to sleep but in a two door car, our clothes were all soaked, as were our sleeping bags and pillows and the few electronics we had back then. (My game boy was a goner.)

 

Still, I was laughing about it even then. I was going to Hersheypark, my favorite park, for a full day the next day. I wasn't going to complain.

 

 

Oh, and I've never noticed all those problems the people above mentioned about Hershey the three times I've been there. (1997, 2003, and 2008.)

[jynx242]

I've had a few "less than desirable" days at parks. Usually - park operations and attitudes (SFA) and sometimes, the places are just JAM PACKED. I can usually have a good time regardless...

 

Now, a crowded water park...HELL ON EARTH! Ugh...just rip out my spine and beat me with it.

 

David

[Josh Linn]

I've been very lucky at parks over the years. My "worst" day was really my fault and had nothing at all to do with the park.

 

I decided on a whim to go to Kings Dominion two years ago (about a 6 hour drive). I left around 5 AM...no sleep, nothing. I felt fine when I got there, which was around 11-11:30. Ridiculously small lines (I305 was a walk on), etc., but it was in the high 90's and the heat started getting to me big time. After riding 6 coasters I had a ridiculous headache, was tired, and was really dehydrated despite drinking water after every ride. I wanted to ride Grizzly before I left, but I had to pack it in and leave before I passed out. I made it about 20 miles on I-95 North before I started nodding off and had to get a hotel room for a few hours. That was brutal and rather poor planning on my part.

[Rai Fox]

^ Interesting. I figured I went late in the season, so maybe the employees were burned out, but hearing from a few different people now, it seems like what I experienced was the norm.

 

I think nearly every park in the country could learn something from how Knoebel's runs their park (and especially their coasters). I do realize that Knoebel's coasters don't have seatbelts and have a much lower height requirement, so there isn't as much work for the operators as far as some things are concerned. But still, the overall vibe for the employees operating the coasters there is that they work very quickly to send the train out. And at Hershey, it couldn't be further from that.

 

 

In my experience, the biggest difference with Knoebels' is simple. It's quite obvious that pretty much everyone working there loves the park and enjoys what they do. I go every year (will be there next week, can't wait!) and I've never been there and not seen almost everyone smiling and having fun, chatting with the guests...it never looks like they're just there for a paycheck, they always seem to really want to be there. I have so many stories of park staff there that have gone out of their way to just make things a little more fun, a little extra special....

 

...The campground staff offering to stay late to help my friends and I get set up when I told them I'd be coming in late at night. The coaster crews challenging people in line to help them try to break records for dispatch times. The ride op on the Epic Bumper Cars jumping into a spare car mid-ride to join in and cause chaos. Operators on Fandango teasing and joking with the riders and people in line. The crazy old guy running Satellite. ("So how crazy y'all want this? Dey tell me ta balance it all out, but I figgur' we put ya both in one end and see what happens!)...

 

I can only assume that some of it has to do with the way the management treats the staff; treat employees like people and not just gears to run the profit machine, and you get a lot more back from them. They also seem to hire from a different pool; it's not all just kids trying to make their first paychecks there, but a lot of people who grew up with the park, retired older folks going back for a "fun" job...just, again, all people that seem happy to be there.

 

Then, the staff goes on to treat the park guests the same way...like people, not just walking dollar signs to wring money out of...they put in that little extra effort that makes all the difference...and the guests are happier, and treat each other better...

 

 

Treat people - employees, guests, or otherwise - with respect and courtesy, do what you love and be willing to go the extra mile to do it right, and be willing to go a few steps out of the way just to make someone smile.

 

Yeah, A -lot- of places, and people, could learn a few things from Knoebels'.

 

But I suppose I'm off topic almost by definition, going on about Knoebels' in this thread.

[Jerrykoala2112]

This also has to do with poor planning on my part. But I decided to take a 3 week road trip in July visiting random parks with my family back in 2009. It was down the east coast and the worst day happened at Six Flags Great Adventure. We got to the park before opening and there was already a huge crowd present. But we were able to get on El Toro, Bizarro, and the Mine Train with no problem. As soon as lunch time came around, it seemed like every ride had a 2 hour line, and some with over flowing queues. By the time we went to get flash passes, they were sold out, so we decided to see what we could get on. It took us over half an hour to get food, it was scorching hot, really humid, and it seemed like every ride we went in line for broke down. We waited 40 minutes for Great American Scream Machine before it broke down, and they forced everyone to leave the queue. At the time, I was pissed off at everything because El Toro was closed, and Kingda Ka didn't open all day. We left the park around 4 o'clock in the afternoon after only getting 6 credits. Later next year, they announced that GASM was leaving, which made me wish I rode the ride the day we went, but I was having a bad day.

 

I really looked down upon SFGADV until I visited with TPR as our add-on day to the North East trip last year. While it isn't my favorite park in the Six Flags chain, I was able to finally get on Kingda Ka and Flash Pass made everything more enjoyable

[packfanlv]

My thoughts exactly!

 

^^^ and this is why you stick to tours with TPR! Robb and Elissa know there stuff and take the time to do the research.

 

 

And if you're in NYC why the fudge would you go to Dunkin Donuts for a bagel!?!?!?!?

[Double0Kevin]

The worst day I've ever had was when I was 6 or 7, can't remember what year it was, but my family and I were on our way to SFDK, (SFMW at the time) and we got stuck in stopped traffic. After sitting in almost 2 hours of traffic, we arrive at the park, and the power is out. Why? Well, the traffic we were stuck in was due to a car hitting some power line, therefore, the park had no power.

 

I was at the park that day. We had just gotten in when the power was out. Park-wide power failures suck, especially for the employees who have to evacuate all the rides.

 

Worst day I've had at a theme park is every time I've gone to SFMM... nuff said.

[kelfsu]

Another poor planning story - a few friends and I decided to drive to Six Flags Over Georgia from Tallahassee back in 1997. We got slightly lost on the way there. Then we encountered a massive traffic jam as we got closer to Six Flags. While waiting in traffic, we hear on the radio that it is "Spring Break Special Weekend" at the park. Oops, we didn't plan on this.

 

 

When we finally got into the park, of course the crowds were massive. I think we maybe rode 3 or 4 rides all day. Every ride had really long waits. Then it stormed, we gave up and decided to leave - and spent the long ride back to Tallahassee in freezing wet clothes.

 

Oh well, at least I got a cool Marvin the Martian cookie jar to take home.

[MrSum1_55]

I have posted this story before, but I figured that this was the perfect thread to post it.

 

In one day, I was supposed to fly from San Jose to Newark, with a layover in Phoenix to head to SFGAdv the next day. Well, upon arriving in Phoenix, the plane was late, but I still made it on the plane in time. However, my baggage did not, as I found out upon arriving in Newark at 11 pm. Airport staff told me it would be sent to my hotel room the next day. Okay, so all I had with me was my jacket, wallet, and cell phone, and it was pouring rain outside. So, I got in the rental car at 12 am. On my way out the airport, I set out for route 9, followed by getting on the NJ turnpike to get the East Windsor. However, highway signage in New Jersey is about as friendly to an outsider as a lion is to an antelope that hasn't eaten in days. Also, the rain made street signs incredibly difficult to see, after getting lost several times, (being in the Newark area, leaving the car to ask for directions did not seem like a good idea) the 30-minute drive to the hotel took about 3 hours, with no traffic. So, I arrived at the hotel at 3 am, and woke up at 9 am the next morning, wearing the same clothes. Well, I figured El Toro would be worth all the trouble. I left for the park at 12 pm. Well, at the time, I knew very little about the city arrangement of New Jersey. So, I got lost again, this time heading the wrong way down the turnpike in for 30 minutes. Once I got turning around the right way, the other way took an hour, due to traffic because of construction, and the traffic dispersed right as I passed the entrance I was supposed to enter the highway at. So, I was finally on my way to the park.

 

So, it's 1:30 pm. I am finally pulling into the parking lot. I could first see Kingda Ka, which wasn't running due to rain. But, pulling in, I saw an El Toro train run. Yes! It was open! I couldn't believe my eyes! I would finally get to ride El Toro! So, I pulled up to the parking ticket booth operator. I paid my $15 for parking, and began to walk toward the entrance. I had been wearing the same clothes for the past 30 hours, but I didn't care! I was finally here! But, just as I was walking to the gate, I heard the following the announcement:

 

"We're sorry. We are now closing due to rain".

[tribar]

I don't know if this counts as seriously bad, but we were sure disappointed. In August of 2010, we took an East Coast trip to KD, BGE, Morey's, Knoebel's, SFGA, and finally:

 

Hersheypark.

 

I'd been looking to going to Hersheypark my whole life. And I came out a bit disappointed. When I go to a park, I'm judging it based on the rides and coasters, as well as how to park operates. It's hard to enjoy a park to its full extent when the operations don't live up to your expectations.

 

I can honestly say that I have very rarely experienced worse ride operations at any theme park across the country.

 

Nearly every coaster was constantly stacking trains, and employees worked at a lethargic pace. Fahrenheit was laughably running three trains, which the operators were taking forever to load. Trains were trains being sent out every 5 minutes or so with two trains stacked up behind the station every time. Often times, the train on its course would be finished and waiting, while the trains parks in the station was still releasing lap bars for the returning guests. Talk about slow!

 

Other rides such as Great Bear, which one would think is fairly high capacity, was reduced to slow, 5+ minute dispatches every cycle, due to the employees working ever so slowly. Heck, the air gates for the new riders rarely opened before the other train was stacked behind it.

 

In conclusion, Hersheypark has some decent rides, but with such poor operations on a busy day, it was a rather disappointing experience.

 

Skyrush looks like a world-class ride. But taking a look at the station, I have to wonder if they made the right choice to design it for single-sided loading/unloading. I can see the ride being a capacity nightmare, especially if they don't force guests to fill all four seats of each row. Combined with the bins for guests to store and retrieve their loose articles, and not being able to open the air gates until all previous guests have exited, I could see each cycle taking 5+ minutes.

 

Yes Skyrush is a mess and takes forever to load/unload and i hadn't thought much about it but the single sided loading/unloading. Heck i almost exited the train in the wrong direction. Add that to the fact that Fahrenheit was running two trains Sooperdooperlooper was and Lightening Racer were running one train (one for each side on LR) and the fact that every ride has 1 to 2 rows closed off for whatever reason makes it a very bad park for operatations. The only ride that didn't stack was Wildcat which dispatched pretty much right when the other train hit the brake run. However Skyrush and Stormrunner were the two best coasters i've been on and LR, Fahrenheit and Sidewinder (yes you read that correctly) were solid coasters so i enjoyed myself in the long run.

[Homer]

I consider myself grateful I have yet to experience a seriously bad theme park day.

 

The only bad experience I had was when I was on the TPR Midwest trip in 07 and it started raining at SFGAm. American Eagle closed down due to rain and I would have been on the next train if it didn't start raining. Since the group had to leave soon, I figure American Eagle wouldn't be worth being stranded in Gurnee on the night before a Cedar Point trip.

 

Later that night, things got kinda crazy-better when the power was out at the Hotel Breakers since a transformer near the park blew out during a thunderstorm. Awesome staying in the supposed "haunted wing" of the Breakers with just flashlights.

[The49er]

A few years back, my family went to Disneyland in November/December. There was not much significant about the trip except it seemed like all of the rides closed at one point or another. Thankfully, I think we went on all the major coasters.

[cal1br3tto]

Recently, I visited three parks that were closed due to rain, IN A ROW, within two hours. One of them even had rides running and opened their gates for about a minute before closing. Then I ended up at a chain park on a Saturday afternoon.

 

I've had a decidedly bad day that I don't talk about anymore because I am now on good terms with the park. Plus, I fear that unrefined enthusiast behavior on my part may have played a small role, and I don't need to draw any attention to that!

 

Otherwise, whether it's due to luck, a positive attitude, or the current state of the industry, I generally have mostly-to-completely good experiences at parks, with some mediocre ones mixed in here and there.

[VACoasterdude]

My worst day at a theme park was a KD a few years ago and it was entirely my fault. My daughter and I went for ACE's Summer Conference. After checking in, I took her to the Waterpark for the afternoon. We had changed into our swimsuits at the Waterpark and as we were changing back into our street clothes to head to the ACE dinner, I noticed my car keys were missing. I usually tether my car keys to my jeans in some manner as I am very paranoid about losing them on a coaster, but on that day I didn't. I checked our backpack, around the ground of the changing room and asked several employees if they found a car key to no avail. We walked to my car to see if I left the key there, no luck, KD customer service, no luck and we checked with KD security/lost & found, no luck.

 

From KD customer service I called Acura road side assistance (my cell phone was locked in my car) and was told they could dispatch a lock smith to get me into my car for free, but I would have to pay to have a new key made they said $150+. Decided to wait to see if someone turned in the key later that night (it was only 6:00pm and the park closed at 10:00pm).

 

Went to the ACE dinner and ERT later that night, I mean what could I do, no point in ruining the whole trip, right? As we were leaving the park around midnight, saw the Security Guard who I talked to at the lost & found earlier walking towards customer service. She saw me coming and shook her head anticipating my question. My heart sank as visions of hanging out in the KD parking lot until 2am or 3am waiting for a locksmith to arrive and hearing the rant my wife would give me when we got home ran though my head. The Security Guard then told me, "No one turned in car keys, the only thing someone turned in was this," and she showed me my Acura smart key! What a relief. Apparently, two guys found it at the Waterpark earlier that day, and were walking around with it until the left the park when KD closed! Someone was watching definitely watching over me!

 

Regards,

 

RIP...

[HowieP]

Well back in 2007 I went to Islands of Adventure, well into three rides (Hulk, Dr. Doom, and Spider-Man), and while in line for Spidey, the rides closed because of a storm coming in. Sure enough when we circled the entire park, a big rainstorm came in and wouldn't stop! It went on all day. What made that worse was it was my first time at IOA.

[Erik Johnson]

And if you're in NYC why the fudge would you go to Dunkin Donuts for a bagel!?!?!?!?

 

That is an excellent question.

 

I think the worst park day (or partial day) I ever experienced was at Six Flags America (of all places) a few years ago. I stopped there with some friends on opening day while en route to Great Adventure. It took forever to get one guy's pass processed, and he needed every credit in the park. Well, he got Wild One--that's it. To top it off, one of our group was evaced off of Joker's Jinx, and park security and local cops had to drag some pervert out of the Superman line (he was groping teenage girls).

 

To be fair, this is the only "bad" day I've had at that park, but I haven't been back since.

 

At least I finally did get my Joker's Jynx credit! Yeah, I would have to agree with Chuck that was a pretty horrible Park day. The worst was how horrible they were running the flash pass line for Superman. After an hour wait, we gave up.

[thomas2]

No mention of Fuji-Q yet?

 

[Schrecken]

The worst day I ever had at a park was at SF Great America last summer. It left an extremely bad impression on both myself and a friend who accompanied me that day. The park was incredibly crowded that day, so much so that some of the locals we spoke with were also aghast at how overloaded the park was. Walking around (in the heat, no less) was like navigating Times Square on New Year's Eve - imagine the busiest city streets in the world and that's about what it was like.

And to make matters much worse was the incredibly poor way in which the park was handling those crowds. I put the lion's share of the blame of the often rotten day I had there on the park's operations. I know that parks can't control weather or how many people will show up on a given day but they surely don't have to do things that make it ten times worse.

 

The biggest problem was the way that they were doing the fast pass thing - I've been to many SF parks and other parks (including DL & DCA) that have such systems and I swear I have never seen such a mess as I saw at Great America. What they were doing was stopping the main line (the non FP people) for 15 minutes or more while waiting for a tiny trickle of FP users to show up (and then making them wait there until the time was up before allowing them to enter the cue). All other parks that have a fast pass or something similar just let the pass holders merge into the front of the moving line when it is their time to ride (at least that is always the way it's been based on my own experiences). They don't go and hold up the main line forever just to let a dozen people cut to the front. Imagine if they stopped all the traffic on Interstate 95 for 15 minutes while a dozen cars could get off the HOV lanes and re-enter the highway! Well, very soon you'd have a back-up that would stretch for miles and miles to say the least. All that did was to grossly exacerbate an already bad situation. Imagine waiting in line for over an hour to ride Whizzer!

 

Worse yet, we spent the whole day - open to close - and only got to ride little more than half the coasters there. I could see where SF Great America might be a nice park if not for heavy crowds and poor line management, but I swear it will likely be a cold day in hell before I ever go back there. The only tiny silver lining in that black cloud is that at least I can still do one of the coasters I missed - I live about an hour from SFA and so there's one missing credit I can get one of these days.

 

The only other bad experiences I've had were due to weather events like storms and extreme heat, which the parks can do nothing about.

[rcdude]

The absolute worst day I have ever had at a park occurred at Knott's Berry Farm on Veterans Day weekend 1999.

 

For as long as I can remember, Knott's has had a promotion for Veterans Day. Currently, the promotion allows a Veteran and one additional person free admission, plus the ability to purchase discounted tickets for additional members of their party and it is good all November (until Thanksgiving). However, it used to be different, allowing more free admissions and lasting only a weekend. Since my grandfather is a Veteran, we have gone almost every year for the promotion for as long as I can remember, and usually it was a good day at the park. However, in 1999, we were forced to attend on Saturday instead of the usual Sunday.

 

When we got to the park, it was clear the day would be filled to the brim. The line to enter the park stretched past the entrance to the chicken dinner restaurant, and this was around a half-hour before opening. Once we entered the park, there was nothing but lines, lines and more lines. I remember only going on three rides that day: GhostRider (which was new and had a 3 hour wait stretching all the way to the photo shack), Jaguar (at least an hour wait, it filled up the entire pyramid), and the Timber Mountain Log Ride (close to an hour, the line started about as far away as possible in the permanent queue). I know some other members of my party did Boomerang and Windjammer Surf Racers (neither of which I rode at the time), and I declined a ride on Kingdom of the Dinosaurs due to a 45 minute wait (this was before the modifications, so capacity was relatively high). I don't think we did anything else that day, because by dinner time we were all tired of waiting and left the park.

 

I have been back almost every year since, either on a Sunday or a weekday (and even on Veterans Day itself), and have never encountered unusually large crowds, but I think the combination of a major new coaster (GhostRider had been open less than a year) and Saturday crowds combined to create an unbearably crowded day. I have to think that day was partly responsible for the expanison of the promotion to a full month, as the change occurred a year or two later.

[Jerrykoala2112]

The worst day I ever had at a park was at SF Great America last summer. It left an extremely bad impression on both myself and a friend who accompanied me that day. The park was incredibly crowded that day, so much so that some of the locals we spoke with were also aghast at how overloaded the park was. Walking around (in the heat, no less) was like navigating Times Square on New Year's Eve - imagine the busiest city streets in the world and that's about what it was like.

And to make matters much worse was the incredibly poor way in which the park was handling those crowds. I put the lion's share of the blame of the often rotten day I had there on the park's operations. I know that parks can't control weather or how many people will show up on a given day but they surely don't have to do things that make it ten times worse.

 

The biggest problem was the way that they were doing the fast pass thing - I've been to many SF parks and other parks (including DL & DCA) that have such systems and I swear I have never seen such a mess as I saw at Great America. What they were doing was stopping the main line (the non FP people) for 15 minutes or more while waiting for a tiny trickle of FP users to show up (and then making them wait there until the time was up before allowing them to enter the cue). All other parks that have a fast pass or something similar just let the pass holders merge into the front of the moving line when it is their time to ride (at least that is always the way it's been based on my own experiences). They don't go and hold up the main line forever just to let a dozen people cut to the front. Imagine if they stopped all the traffic on Interstate 95 for 15 minutes while a dozen cars could get off the HOV lanes and re-enter the highway! Well, very soon you'd have a back-up that would stretch for miles and miles to say the least. All that did was to grossly exacerbate an already bad situation. Imagine waiting in line for over an hour to ride Whizzer!

 

Worse yet, we spent the whole day - open to close - and only got to ride little more than half the coasters there. I could see where SF Great America might be a nice park if not for heavy crowds and poor line management, but I swear it will likely be a cold day in hell before I ever go back there. The only tiny silver lining in that black cloud is that at least I can still do one of the coasters I missed - I live about an hour from SFA and so there's one missing credit I can get one of these days.

 

The only other bad experiences I've had were due to weather events like storms and extreme heat, which the parks can do nothing about.

 

I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad day at SFGAm, but the line management is actually really good. It's hard to explain, but they way where they hold the line to let FP Users through doesn't make the line move any slower. You still wait the same amount, it is just that you wait in the same spot longer, than standing - walking - standing - walking. Because as soon as they let the line go, the station is nearly empty.

 

I wanna say pre-2008, SFGAm wouldn't hold up the line, and coaster stations were a mess. Viper's for example, has a fairly large station, and you couldn't tell what row everyone was in line for. Now, with they way they hold the line, you can clearly see what row you can wait for, with only 2 people waiting per row, rather than 10-15 people.

 

I do understand your frustration. Different Six Flags parks have different ways of operating their Flash Pass, and I know SFGAM's can be a hassle. But I do like it because it leads to the stations not being crammed with people.

[RoCo]

I'm very grateful to say that I've never had a really awful time at any amusement park, but the worst day I've had was entirely my fault. Way back in the late '80s, a group of us decided to go to Magic Mountain on a Saturday in July. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It was hotter than blazes, and the park was crammed - CRAMMED - with people. We spent 8 hours there, all of that time waiting to get on three rides.

 

Have not made, and will never make, that mistake again.

[Coastinmiller]

My worst theme park day was actually a whole weekend. We had planned a quick weekend trip from PHL to DET for Michigan's adventure. We were to fly out of PHL around 6pm. Well after the plane came in, it needed maint so they got another plane in. The flight crew's time had expired so they had to get another flight crew. Finally made it off the ground around 1am. Landed in DET and drove straight to the hotel, got to the hotel around 4:30. After a quick catnap, hit the park at opening. I honestly can't remember the date when we went but OMG was it packed. 2hr for Shivering timbers, 1+ for all the other coasters, thunderhawk was still not there yet. The mouse was easily a 2 hr wait. We did one lap on all the coaster and left exhausted from the flight and the day. The next day was going to be a quick stop at fun spot IN before heading back to DET for the flight. It was supposed to storm that day, but was not yet raining. The park was closed and they were not going to open it b/c of the rain. Back to DET, no problems getting on the plane, but of course without fail gate delay in PHL. Very frustrating weekend to say the least. Thankfully haven't had one like it since.

[Schrecken]

The worst day I ever had at a park was at SF Great America last summer. It left an extremely bad impression on both myself and a friend who accompanied me that day. The park was incredibly crowded that day, so much so that some of the locals we spoke with were also aghast at how overloaded the park was. Walking around (in the heat, no less) was like navigating Times Square on New Year's Eve - imagine the busiest city streets in the world and that's about what it was like.

And to make matters much worse was the incredibly poor way in which the park was handling those crowds. I put the lion's share of the blame of the often rotten day I had there on the park's operations. I know that parks can't control weather or how many people will show up on a given day but they surely don't have to do things that make it ten times worse.

 

The biggest problem was the way that they were doing the fast pass thing - I've been to many SF parks and other parks (including DL & DCA) that have such systems and I swear I have never seen such a mess as I saw at Great America. What they were doing was stopping the main line (the non FP people) for 15 minutes or more while waiting for a tiny trickle of FP users to show up (and then making them wait there until the time was up before allowing them to enter the cue). All other parks that have a fast pass or something similar just let the pass holders merge into the front of the moving line when it is their time to ride (at least that is always the way it's been based on my own experiences). They don't go and hold up the main line forever just to let a dozen people cut to the front. Imagine if they stopped all the traffic on Interstate 95 for 15 minutes while a dozen cars could get off the HOV lanes and re-enter the highway! Well, very soon you'd have a back-up that would stretch for miles and miles to say the least. All that did was to grossly exacerbate an already bad situation. Imagine waiting in line for over an hour to ride Whizzer!

 

Worse yet, we spent the whole day - open to close - and only got to ride little more than half the coasters there. I could see where SF Great America might be a nice park if not for heavy crowds and poor line management, but I swear it will likely be a cold day in hell before I ever go back there. The only tiny silver lining in that black cloud is that at least I can still do one of the coasters I missed - I live about an hour from SFA and so there's one missing credit I can get one of these days.

 

The only other bad experiences I've had were due to weather events like storms and extreme heat, which the parks can do nothing about.

 

I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad day at SFGAm, but the line management is actually really good. It's hard to explain, but they way where they hold the line to let FP Users through doesn't make the line move any slower. You still wait the same amount, it is just that you wait in the same spot longer, than standing - walking - standing - walking. Because as soon as they let the line go, the station is nearly empty.

 

I wanna say pre-2008, SFGAm wouldn't hold up the line, and coaster stations were a mess. Viper's for example, has a fairly large station, and you couldn't tell what row everyone was in line for. Now, with they way they hold the line, you can clearly see what row you can wait for, with only 2 people waiting per row, rather than 10-15 people.

 

I do understand your frustration. Different Six Flags parks have different ways of operating their Flash Pass, and I know SFGAM's can be a hassle. But I do like it because it leads to the stations not being crammed with people.

 

I have seen other parks that keep people out of the station on some or all of the coasters (MF at CP is one I can think of off the top of my head and it does help avoid log jams inside of the station and confused people milling around trying to figure out where they are going to sit) but at least on some of the coasters at SF Great America I swear they were stopping the line way, way back from the station. It was most obvious on Viper and S:UF, where on Viper they held up the line at least a good hundred feet or so from the actual station (can't remember if they were also keeping people out of the station itself as is done on MF). Perhaps the ride ops were ill-trained or just plain lazy over on Viper but I'm sure that they were doing more over there than just holding the line back for the station to clear before letting another group come in. On S:UF they were holding the line at the bottom of the stairs, but still it seemed like an inordinately long time (given the high capacity of most B&M coasters, B&M flyers load much more quickly than Vekoma flyers ususally) if they were just allowing the station to clear out.

 

The last time I rode MF the line was very long (about an hour or more) and they were only holding people back maybe 5 minutes at most for the station to clear. Or, maybe at SF Great America perhaps the ride ops were just extremely slow at loading rides that day and they really did need 15 or 20 mins to clear a station of people...

[Bryce]

Once I was stuck at Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom for about 30 minutes. There was too many people, it was atleast 90 degrees, and we couldn't move. All of the lines were over an hour long, even for the A and B ticket attractions.

[mtavenger55]

Went to Six Flags Great Adventure opening day this year. Waited an hour & a half for Nitro, then a two hour wait for Green Lantern. That did it for me. Probably the worst day at a theme park in a long time. There was also Haunt at Dorney last year. My group waited a long time for the few attractions we got on in the beginning but towards the end of the night crowds lightened & everything was a walk on the last hour of the park so it ended up being a good night in the end.