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Why Does Everybody Hate on Six Flags?


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This company took my wife, stole my children, and put me out of work! I worked as a manager at a DQ in Atlanta until Goliath at SFOG came out. Everyone and their mama rushed over to the park, and DQ has had to close since. We even offered Blizzards for $.50! NOTHING! I started boycotting the new coaster, but some, what shall we call them, "inner city youth" beat me up when I protested. Now I sell crack out of the back of a Wal-Mart, still struggling to pay my own bills. DAMN Six Flags! Damn all those greedy bastards straight to HELL!

 

In all seriousness, I don't think there are many people who hate Six Flags. I don't get your question. My only problem with the company is that they overuse names and spend all their money until they're broke.

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This company took my wife, stole my children, and put me out of work! I worked as a manager at a DQ in Atlanta until Goliath at SFOG came out. Everyone and their mama rushed over to the park, and DQ has had to close since. We even offered Blizzards for $.50! NOTHING! I started boycotting the new coaster, but some, what shall we call them, "inner city youth" beat me up when I protested. Now I sell crack out of the back of a Wal-Mart, still struggling to pay my own bills. DAMN Six Flags! Damn all those greedy bastards straight to HELL!

 

Sounds like everyone in my town..

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Ok you can hate on Six Flags for a lot of things, but hating on them for reusing names when practically every other chain does it is NOT a good reason to hate on them.

 

Disney does it. Uni does it. Cedar Fair does it and they do it for their major attractions too.

 

Transformers, Revenge of the Mummy, Drop Tower, Flight Deck, Windcrapper Somethinghawk, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

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Sponsorships for cars in NASCAR, arenas in the NBA/NFL/MLB, and eventually jerseys doesn't require nearly as much effort as it sounds.

 

Sponsorships in modern auto racing are required to race unless you're willing to fund out of your own pocket as an ego trip. Sponsorships on amusement park rides aren't necessary to keep the lights on.

 

I'm not going to argue about Six Flags' methods of bringing in corporate sponsorship vs. that of Disney and whether or not they're equivalent. It's been covered. Yes, parks are going to seek sponsorship and corporate partners. They will look to continue finding new ways to bring those messages to people at the park. I'm sure Cedar Fair reintroducing TVs to queue lines is intended in no small part to do that. Six Flags is getting singled out because the overt and crass nature of their in park advertising is unique in the industry.

 

As far as you standing by your belief that Six Flags is a "budget option": this is the internet and I'm not likely to convince you of anything. Lagoon is not a budget option in my mind either. If you're on a really tight budget in Utah and you're taking your kid out for some fun, you'll probably take them to some low rent nickelcade or a FEC where the cost of Lagoon's parking can get your kid a bunch of tokens and a round of mini golf. You aren't buying season passes (unless you're getting one for your kid and planning to use it as an alternative to day care) anywhere, regardless of how it compares to Disney's pricing.

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Ok you can hate on Six Flags for a lot of things, but hating on them for reusing names when practically every other chain does it is NOT a good reason to hate on them.

 

Disney does it. Uni does it. Cedar Fair does it and they do it for their major attractions too.

 

Transformers, Revenge of the Mummy, Drop Tower, Flight Deck, Windcrapper Somethinghawk, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

 

like someone has already pointed out, theres a difference between naming two indoor roller coasters themed to space flight "Space Mountain" and having a massive wooden roller coaster and Giant Inverted Boomerang share the name "Goliath". While the other chains have SIMILAR rides share names as a way of being indentifiable to people going to different sets of parks, Six Flags has completely unrelated rides share names due to lack of creativity. To me thats not the biggest deal in the world, but it goes to show how much Six Flags actually cares about making a unique amusement park experience which is evidently very little.

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I think it's because Six Flags is viewed as the Walmart or the Spirit Airlines of the amusement park industry. It looks good on the outside, but when you get there, it's disappointing. Everyone that plans on going to a Six Flags park believes that they will have a great day, and that they'll be able to ride everything they want, but when they get there and see the high food prices, rude employees, and ungodly long wait times, they realize that their original beliefs are far from the truth. I must admit, on my first visit to a Six Flags park (Great America), I expected a smooth experience, but now I've learned my lesson. Train wrapping, annoying queue line videos, and generally subpar facilities hurt the experience more. I think that Cedar Fair parks are much better because they actually care about customer satisfaction and and a good experience. For example, my home park (Valleyfair) has relatively nice employees, a much nicer park environment, and much shorter wait times (well, probably that's because VF isn't as well as some other parks out there). Overall, I'll take Cedar Fair over Six Flags any day of the week.

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like someone has already pointed out, theres a difference between naming two indoor roller coasters themed to space flight "Space Mountain" and having a massive wooden roller coaster and Giant Inverted Boomerang share the name "Goliath". While the other chains have SIMILAR rides share names as a way of being indentifiable to people going to different sets of parks, Six Flags has completely unrelated rides share names due to lack of creativity. To me thats not the biggest deal in the world, but it goes to show how much Six Flags actually cares about making a unique amusement park experience which is evidently very little.

 

Goliath pretty much seems to be the only name that the chain likes to throw around for random rides. While I agree it doesn't fit on an inverted boomerang or a mid-sized B&M invert, it pretty much fits every other coaster with that name. I can't think of any other name off the top of my head that's shared with completely unrelated rides. The superhero names maybe? But those can fit just about anywhere.

 

Cedar Fair likes to throw the Hawk suffix around a lot on the most random rides. Thunderhawk, Firehawk, Skyhawk, Steelhawk. Not to mention the whole Drop Tower, Flight Deck, Boo Blasters (which is a hilariously bad name IMO) thing. Those are about as generic and uncreative as it gets when it comes to naming rides.

 

Even then SF still has some pretty creative names. Tatsu, Kingda Ka, El Toro, Raging Bull, X-Flight, etc. They even have some pretty creative renames too (Apocalypse, American Thunder, etc). I'd say they're on par with some of the more creative CF names.

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^Medusa, Superman Ultimate Flight, Green Lantern: First Flight, Bizzarro, etc.

 

I agree with you that there are definitely cool names for some Six Flags rides, and Cedar Fair can get sloppy as well. I guess the difference between the two is consistency. If Titan at SFOT was called Goliath, it would make more sense than the new SFGAm ride to be called Goliath.

 

But yes, I totally agree Flight Deck is an awful name lolol

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Ok you can hate on Six Flags for a lot of things, but hating on them for reusing names when practically every other chain does it is NOT a good reason to hate on them.

 

Disney does it. Uni does it. Cedar Fair does it and they do it for their major attractions too.

 

Transformers, Revenge of the Mummy, Drop Tower, Flight Deck, Windcrapper Somethinghawk, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

 

Again, it doesn't count if they're the same ride or almost the same ride, in that case why shouldn't they have the same name? I don't believe any ride was named Flight Deck when it opened. Still have yet to hear an example as gratuitous as that lovely unique coaster in Illinois being named Goliath.

 

No this is not that big a deal, but no one can tell me any other chain has anywhere near as many awful examples when it comes to naming major attractions (Boo Blasters is not a major attraction). Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom. Why drop of doom? Because their other big drop ride across the country is Drop of Doom, and it might sell more T shirts. Weak.

 

The superhero names maybe? But those can fit just about anywhere.

 

Dude, they only fit anywhere because SF makes them fit anywhere. Does it make any sense to have a DC themed ride out past the mine ride, across the park from all the other DC theming (Bizarro)? No, of course not. SF doesn't give a crap about what makes sense or gives a park a sense of order and flow. They just jam their shitty DC crap in wherever they want because it sells T shirts.

Edited by Dr. M
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Ok you can hate on Six Flags for a lot of things, but hating on them for reusing names when practically every other chain does it is NOT a good reason to hate on them.

 

Disney does it. Uni does it. Cedar Fair does it and they do it for their major attractions too.

 

Transformers, Revenge of the Mummy, Drop Tower, Flight Deck, Windcrapper Somethinghawk, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

 

Again, it doesn't count if they're the same ride or almost the same ride, in that case why shouldn't they have the same name? I don't believe any ride was named Flight Deck when it opened. Still have yet to hear an example as gratuitous as that lovely unique coaster in Illinois being named Goliath.

 

No this is not that big a deal, but no one can tell me any other chain has anywhere near as many awful examples when it comes to naming major attractions (Boo Blasters is not a major attraction). Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom. Why drop of doom? Because their other big drop ride across the country is Drop of Doom, and it might sell more T shirts. Weak.

 

The superhero names maybe? But those can fit just about anywhere.

 

Dude, they only fit anywhere because SF makes them fit anywhere. Does it make any sense to have a DC themed ride out past the mine ride, across the park from all the other DC theming (Bizarro)? No, of course not. SF doesn't give a crap about what makes sense or gives a park a sense of order and flow. They just jam their shitty DC crap in wherever they want because it sells T shirts.

 

 

My question is... What is worse reusing Goliath for every "marquee roller coaster even if they are not the same" or copying the same rides in multiple parks? (Like Disney does with "Magic Kingdom" style parks and a lot of their rides)

 

One thing you can't say about Six Flags is that each one of their parks isn't different. (for better or worse.)

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Ok you can hate on Six Flags for a lot of things, but hating on them for reusing names when practically every other chain does it is NOT a good reason to hate on them.

 

Disney does it. Uni does it. Cedar Fair does it and they do it for their major attractions too.

 

Transformers, Revenge of the Mummy, Drop Tower, Flight Deck, Windcrapper Somethinghawk, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

 

Again, it doesn't count if they're the same ride or almost the same ride, in that case why shouldn't they have the same name? I don't believe any ride was named Flight Deck when it opened. Still have yet to hear an example as gratuitous as that lovely unique coaster in Illinois being named Goliath.

 

No this is not that big a deal, but no one can tell me any other chain has anywhere near as many awful examples when it comes to naming major attractions (Boo Blasters is not a major attraction). Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom. Why drop of doom? Because their other big drop ride across the country is Drop of Doom, and it might sell more T shirts. Weak.

 

The superhero names maybe? But those can fit just about anywhere.

 

Dude, they only fit anywhere because SF makes them fit anywhere. Does it make any sense to have a DC themed ride out past the mine ride, across the park from all the other DC theming (Bizarro)? No, of course not. SF doesn't give a crap about what makes sense or gives a park a sense of order and flow. They just jam their shitty DC crap in wherever they want because it sells T shirts.

 

 

My question is... What is worse reusing Goliath for every "marquee roller coaster even if they are not the same" or copying the same rides in multiple parks? (Like Disney does with "Magic Kingdom" style parks and a lot of their rides)

 

One thing you can't say about Six Flags is that each one of their parks isn't different. (for better or worse.)

 

Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, etc are true destinations. People often save up for their entire lives to take a vacation there. Having marquee attractions be cloned between coasts is a benefit to the vacationers who want their trip to Disney but can only afford to make it to one coast in their lifetime.

 

Six Flags is just a regional theme park to give people something to do in the summer...not even in the same league as Disney. Cloning rides at Disney is a benefit to the consumer. While you could argue the same about Six Flags, Boomerang isnt an icon in the same way Pirates of the Caribbean is...so its not like them cloning Boomerangs everywhere is actually giving guests from both coasts some amazing opportunity to ride an amazing attraction...its just them being lazy and cheap to boost their coaster count.

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^Medusa, Superman Ultimate Flight, Green Lantern: First Flight, Bizzarro, etc.

 

Alright let's get the superhero thing out of the way first. Superheroes can fit just about anywhere and still work. You could easily change Storm Runner or Top Thrill Dragster to Incredible Hulk, Flash, or Avengers and with a few props and signs, it would still fit. Same with villians. It doesn't matter where they're placed or if they follow any theme at a Six Flags park. Kings Dominion has a bobsled and a NASCAR themed ride in the safari area for crying out loud. Most of the other Cedar Fair parks are a mishmash of random theming too. Even CGA has a jet-themed ride in the Orleans area of the park.

 

As for Medusa, I personally love the Medusa name. Plenty of rides are named after Roman/Greek mythology. You've got Hades, Zeus, Apollo, Hydra, plus plenty of others. I don't see how it can't fit on any other ride.

 

Deja Vu is a weird one, but I actually like that name. It's original enough, even if GAdv did stick it on a random flat. Since none of the Deja Vu clones exist as Deja Vu, I'll say it's original.

 

I actually like Mind Eraser as a name. It's just too bad there's too many coasters with that name out there.

 

I like the Zumanjaro name. I could care less about the Drop of Doom tagline, but it's really growing on me.

 

And that brings us back to this.

Still have yet to hear an example as gratuitous as that lovely unique coaster in Illinois being named Goliath.

 

Great America's Goliath is the biggest of its kind. It breaks a few records. I think it fits. I actually dig the Goliath name anyway. As with Mind Eraser, I wish there weren't as many coasters with that name.

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My question is... What is worse reusing Goliath for every "marquee roller coaster even if they are not the same" or copying the same rides in multiple parks? (Like Disney does with "Magic Kingdom" style parks and a lot of their rides)

 

One thing you can't say about Six Flags is that each one of their parks isn't different. (for better or worse.)

 

I don't really have a problem with SF cloning rides to fill out each park's coaster collection, and if it's a cloned ride then there's no reason it shouldn't have the same name as all the other clones. I enjoy Batman every time I go to SFGAdv, the fact that there's thirteen or whatever other Batmans across the country doesn't detract from my enjoyment of it.

 

But big unique coasters should have big unique names, and fit in with the theming of the area of the park they're in. And different coasters of wildly different coaster types should not share the same name. Every coaster named "Goliath" is a missed opportunity to come up with a better name. No it doesn't really detract from my enjoyment of the ride, but it's still lame.

 

^Medusa, Superman Ultimate Flight, Green Lantern: First Flight, Bizzarro, etc.

 

Alright let's get the superhero thing out of the way first. Superheroes can fit just about anywhere and still work. You could easily change Storm Runner or Top Thrill Dragster to Incredible Hulk, Flash, or Avengers and with a few props and signs, it would still fit. Same with villians. It doesn't matter where they're placed or if they follow any theme at a Six Flags park. Kings Dominion has a bobsled and a NASCAR themed ride in the safari area for crying out loud. Most of the other Cedar Fair parks are a mishmash of random theming too. Even CGA has a jet-themed ride in the Orleans area of the park.

 

As for Medusa, I personally love the Medusa name. Plenty of rides are named after Roman/Greek mythology. You've got Hades, Zeus, Apollo, Hydra, plus plenty of others. I don't see how it can't fit on any other ride.

 

Deja Vu is a weird one, but I actually like that name. It's original enough, even if GAdv did stick it on a random flat. Since none of the Deja Vu clones exist as Deja Vu, I'll say it's original.

 

I actually like Mind Eraser as a name. It's just too bad there's too many coasters with that name out there.

 

I like the Zumanjaro name. I could care less about the Drop of Doom tagline, but it's really growing on me.

 

And that brings us back to this.

Still have yet to hear an example as gratuitous as that lovely unique coaster in Illinois being named Goliath.

 

Great America's Goliath is the biggest of its kind. It breaks a few records. I think it fits. I actually dig the Goliath name anyway. As with Mind Eraser, I wish there weren't as many coasters with that name.

 

I'm not sure why you're trying so hard to defend them. Whether or not the names that are getting recycled are good names is beside the point. SF isn't recycling them because they're good names, they're recycling them because they don't want to pay to trademark another name, they're woefully uncreative, they refuse to take risks, and they don't trust their parks to develop any personality of their own. You love the name Medusa more than they do, to them it's just an asset. I'm not sure what you see here that's worth defending.

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The only people that complain about pointless things like this are us enthusiasts. The average person(you know, the 99.9% of six flags paying customer base) does not care or probably even know if another six flags park 700 miles away shares a name of a rollercoaster.

 

Other than a few slow operations(and this happens at almost every chain park), I have not had a bad experience at a six flags park that left a bad taste in my mouth or caused me to not want to return. Some of the six flags parks I have been to have been as clean, if not cleaner than some Disney parks I have been to. I have even seen the security guards picking up trash while doing there rounds. I have been to several cedar fair parks where the ride operators were slow as turtles and could care less about getting people on the ride(even on there cell phones) and dirty areas. This stuff can happen at ANY theme/ amusement park....not just six flags.

 

We have been to most of the amusement parks in the states, and I can say that all parks have a downside and a upside. It just depends on how you look at things. It just seems to me that some people have a bad experience at a six flag park, and then they paint them all with the same brush or go to the park just looking for something negative to complain about.

 

Are some six flags parks better than some?...Sure, but that does not make some of them "bad" parks.Just different experiences. I have had great times at six flags America for example. It's not the most glamorous park in the world, but we had a blast riding superman and also enjoyed a funny western theamed show. We even talked to an sf employee while waiting in line and she asked how our day was going.

 

And so what if they are using the same names to save money. It makes perfect buisness sense. They pay a LOT of money for the rights to use the names for a reason. Cedar fair parks use the peanuts, universal uses Marvel, six flags uses loony tunes, and busch uses sesame street. They are well known to people. Again, 99.9% of people could care less about the same names being used. Do you go to Mc Donalds and not order a big mac because other Mc Donalds have a burger with the same name?

Edited by thrillrider
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Simple, I see people ragging on Six Flags and I figured the chain has enough rides with cool and original names, why not defend them? Especially when Cedar Fair is just as big of a victim of sharing ride names and ride logos with other rides and coming up with completely uninsipired, soulless names.

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"What part of a train wrap "takes you out of the ride experience?" Is the ride "less thrilling" or "less exciting" because there is an ad on the side of the car?

I guess I just don't see the difference between "hair gel ad" on the train and "plain red/yellow paint job" on the train. It doesn't ruin it for me. I feel bad that it does for you." -----------

 

It's not so much that it takes away from the ride experience, but that it negates the atmosphere and cheapens the experience of a day at the "park". I think "hair gel ad" on the train is a cheap, un-creative way to move my thoughts away from where I'm at, and guiding me sadly towards consumerism, money, buy buy buy buy, and the idea I'm at a carnival about to ride something ran by Skinner Amusements. I don't see a ride being sponsored by GE, and a ride with ads slapped all over the ride vehicle as the same evil.

 

I hope in the future, my groundbreaking concepts like Depends! The Ride! Or, Target: Bulls-eye Drop!, become the norm. I'd rather ride a fully funded advertisement, than being subjected to shoddy money grabs. It's so cheap and gaudy! I have no problem with a small local park, or a carnival using ads like this.

 

Advertising by design is made to draw your attention. My friends, that is the problem. I want to be immersed in the beauty of the park, the trees, the midway, the rides, dumb knickknacks - not this weeks Best Buy ad. I think it symbolizes a lot of things that are wrong with modern culture, and the times we live in(I know that taking it rather far, but that's really how I feel when I see that sort of crap)

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So under that mentality, you can't have fun at concerts, sporting events, or any other activities that involve advertising.

Yep, like I said you can't please everybody. So they are just going to have to suck it up.

Mostly everywhere you go, your going to see ads. I don't know why it is a big deal.

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This has been mentioned before, but after heading up to SFA opening day today, I just would like to mention that of their 8 coasters (excl. the kiddie coaster, incl. Ragin Cajun), Ragin Cajun was not open (which is a separate discussion), Roar never opened, and the other 6 ran 1 train the ENTIRE day. Apocalypse had a 15-20 minute wait midday, and the second train sitting on the transfer. Same with Batwing. I waited over 75 minutes for Batwing during 2013 FF with 1 train. Unless the train needs to be serviced, there is no reason or excuse to have it sitting on the transfer with a FULL queue.

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