Six Flags St. Louis (SFStL) Discussion Thread

[SteveStL]

It's sorta goes back to the notion 'Corporate Hates STL'.   I think Hate is a strong word and don't agree with that sentiment, I believe 'Ignores' or an 'After Thought' is more appropriate.

[prozach626]

Nah man. They hate us. They have SFSTL urinal cakes and toilet paper. I'm pretty sure they killed the woodworking guy. (Seriously though. Murder jokes aside, he may be dead.)

[Danrarbc]

Looks like the landscaping budget was being saved for fall plants.

 

The park had a fairly light crowd for a Fright Fest on Friday. Finally made it on Catwoman immediately after Freaks Unleashed with ~30 minute line - went right back up to over an hour shortly after so great timing. The ride is great and the crew was chewing through the line was fast as the ride would let them - I was seriously impressed. Didn't ride anything else but it felt like coasters were on one train due to the intervals I saw.

As for the mazes. The corn one seems improved this year though it was super under staffed. Slaughterhouse has definitely been changed - cage scene has either been deleted or just wasn't working on Friday, but it was well staffed and the area under the building is being used as part of the maze this year. The Christmas maze is in fact using the Moon Car area - it could use another actor or two but it's actually got potential, the biggest issue is there are two long empty walks during the maze where it really feels like they ran out of time building it out. I liked it better than the SFOG Christmas maze. Oddball's is just sad at this point.

 

Scare zones seem to be scaled back this year though. Only the clown area seems to be full size and staffed. Gnawlins' name change also coincides with like 30 feet less scare zone. The zombies area is WAY shorter but it was moved a bit to where Tsunami Soaker is so at least the bathroom isn't inside the zone anymore. They removed everything from the old UPS van and repainted it, not sure they're even going to use this on busier days or even how they could use it.

 

Also the freaks didn't ride in on the train. Not sure if they just didn't want to deal with wet rails due to the rain or if the train is already down for winter. But it's always a disappointment when they don't have the Freak Train.

Other than the mazes being mostly staffed well and having new signs for them the rest of Fright Fest feels scaled back. Like almost to HallowFest levels in the scare zones. I really really hope that's due to Friday staffing, slightly smaller zones can still work if they have enough actors but there were literally only three zombies. 

 

[castaway_kid]

3 hours ago, Danrarbc said:

 

 

 

PS: Rocky Horror Picture Show is literally just the DVD being played inside the Palace Theater.

Its the DVD plus a cast of 10-15 people performing the full show as well on stage with the movie playing behind them.

[bert425]

1 hour ago, castaway_kid said:

Its the DVD plus a cast of 10-15 people performing the full show as well on stage with the movie playing behind them.

which is what RHPS is all about anyways for the experience.

so good for them.

the audience should participate as well. . .assuming folks know the lines/moves.. . so that can make a really fun time.

[prozach626]

I'd rather ride The Boss completely sober for an hour and a half.

Anyone else pretty stoked about snow cone weekend next year? They should have the stand on the remaining portions of the go kart track to get some use out of it. I was debating on renewing our season passes for next year, but this event is very persuasive. Good move taking a year off from attractions and focusing on things like this.

[teacherkim]

On 9/26/2022 at 4:02 AM, Danrarbc said:

Looks like the landscaping budget was being saved for fall plants.

 

The park had a fairly light crowd for a Fright Fest on Friday. Finally made it on Catwoman immediately after Freaks Unleashed with ~30 minute line - went right back up to over an hour shortly after so great timing. The ride is great and the crew was chewing through the line was fast as the ride would let them - I was seriously impressed. Didn't ride anything else but it felt like coasters were on one train due to the intervals I saw.

As for the mazes. The corn one seems improved this year though it was super under staffed. Slaughterhouse has definitely been changed - cage scene has either been deleted or just wasn't working on Friday, but it was well staffed and the area under the building is being used as part of the maze this year. The Christmas maze is in fact using the Moon Car area - it could use another actor or two but it's actually got potential, the biggest issue is there are two long empty walks during the maze where it really feels like they ran out of time building it out. I liked it better than the SFOG Christmas maze. Oddball's is just sad at this point.

 

Scare zones seem to be scaled back this year though. Only the clown area seems to be full size and staffed. Gnawlins' name change also coincides with like 30 feet less scare zone. The zombies area is WAY shorter but it was moved a bit to where Tsunami Soaker is so at least the bathroom isn't inside the zone anymore. They removed everything from the old UPS van and repainted it, not sure they're even going to use this on busier days or even how they could use it.

 

Also the freaks didn't ride in on the train. Not sure if they just didn't want to deal with wet rails due to the rain or if the train is already down for winter. But it's always a disappointment when they don't have the Freak Train.

Other than the mazes being mostly staffed well and having new signs for them the rest of Fright Fest feels scaled back. Like almost to HallowFest levels in the scare zones. I really really hope that's due to Friday staffing, slightly smaller zones can still work if they have enough actors but there were literally only three zombies. 

PS: Rocky Horror Picture Show is literally just the DVD being played inside the Palace Theater.

You are right about there only being one train operations on the coasters. According to the ride op that lives in my house it has been that way for most of the summer. They were told as FF progressed ops would go up to two trains, we will see if that comes to fruition or not. Staffing continues to be an issue but crowds were definitely light for the first weekend. Apparently they topped out at only 5000 guests on Sunday. Hopefully, crowds will get better. While no one wants insane lines, the park does need people to show up. I mean this is usually their big money maker event for the year. My experience has been that the crowds tend to grow steadily each weekend the closer we get to Halloween AND a major school district in the vicinity of the park has no classes on Monday (it's a teacher meeting day) so that might make next weekend a bit busier.

[Danrarbc]

Crowd levels so low single train ops still result in station waits during Fright Fest?

 

Selim is doing a wonderful job. Good CEO there. Good lord he's going to kill the company.

[teacherkim]

 

20 hours ago, Danrarbc said:

Crowd levels so low single train ops still result in station waits during Fright Fest?

 

Selim is doing a wonderful job. Good CEO there. Good lord he's going to kill the company.

Yeah, I don't think chatter amongst the employees is, ummm, favorable.  They did switch over to two train ops last night. At least I know they did on Boss, but probably on everything else since crowds tend to grow as the further into FF we get. Hopefully, stays that way.

[CP_RULES]

On 9/30/2022 at 6:12 PM, Danrarbc said:

Crowd levels so low single train ops still result in station waits during Fright Fest?

 

Selim is doing a wonderful job. Good CEO there. Good lord he's going to kill the company.

Yea but each one of those people invested their life savings to go, I’m sure the station waits made it a Disney experience for them.

[prozach626]

Life savings?...

[CP_RULES]

^Costs more to visit the park than ever before with nothing to show for it. I am saying that’s the reason there are no lines. A “Six Flags Day” costs as much as a Disney day. At least they had no lines.

[prozach626]

Woah. Stay in your lane dude, because clearly you haven't seen the new façade on the bathrooms by JB's, or the new flowers planted. I'm also pretty sure Disney doesn't have a snow cone day.

Last, and certainly not least, Disney doesn't have a historical carousel.

[teacherkim]

16 hours ago, prozach626 said:

Woah. Stay in your lane dude, because clearly you haven't seen the new façade on the bathrooms by JB's, or the new flowers planted. I'm also pretty sure Disney doesn't have a snow cone day.

Last, and certainly not least, Disney doesn't have a historical carousel.

Actually it does. The Disneyworld carousel was originally PTC #46 "The Liberty Carousel", made the rounds at several parks, Disney bought it in 1967 when it was 50 years old and spent 4 years refurbing it, stripped the horses down to the wood and made each one unique..................sound familiar 

[CP_RULES]

7 hours ago, teacherkim said:

Actually it does. The Disneyworld carousel was originally PTC #46 "The Liberty Carousel", made the rounds at several parks, Disney bought it in 1967 when it was 50 years old and spent 4 years refurbing it, stripped the horses down to the wood and made each one unique..................sound familiar 

What are these “facts” you bring to the conversation? I don’t like them, I’ll pretend they are fake news.

[prozach626]

On 10/4/2022 at 12:45 PM, teacherkim said:

Actually it does. The Disneyworld carousel was originally PTC #46 "The Liberty Carousel", made the rounds at several parks, Disney bought it in 1967 when it was 50 years old and spent 4 years refurbing it, stripped the horses down to the wood and made each one unique..................sound familiar 

Ah. Well, that explains the large crowds. Good to know we can expect SFSTL's to be down for eight years. The worst part about it  being down was probably the limited offerings for other guests. You wouldn't think Disney would have tolerated an eyesore near other abandoned construction sights and halfway demolished rides. Who would have thought?

[bert425]

^ Primeval Whirl sat rotting for a while. . right in the middle of Dinoland.

[teacherkim]

And the entire center of Epcot has been a giant dirt construction pit for how long now? As well as the fact that they shut down Tron construction and left it halfway done for awhile, which also meant the train has been out of commission that entire time. The site isn't abandoned, just a very long project; but no where near the glacial pace of Disney construction projects.

It will be done when it's done. How long we gonna play this game?  

[prozach626]

How long will we play this game? Well, the answer is likely at least another year. Realistically? Probably more, because STSTL is rotting, apparently almost as much as Disney.

[SteveStL]

Comparing Disney to SFSTL is like comparing Washington Univ to St Louis Community College.  The point here is, Disney completes projects and when they are finished it is spectacular.  With SFSTL, there are no guarantees projects will finish, and if they are it is usually a mediocre event.   Did the accessibility ramp to the Screamin' Eagle Station ever get finished???

[coasterbill]

24 minutes ago, SteveStL said:

The point here is, Disney completes projects and when they are finished it is spectacular.

 

(I mostly agree that these two parks do not belong in the same conversation, but lets not get crazy)

[teacherkim]

12 hours ago, SteveStL said:

Comparing Disney to SFSTL is like comparing Washington Univ to St Louis Community College.  The point here is, Disney completes projects and when they are finished it is spectacular.  With SFSTL, there are no guarantees projects will finish, and if they are it is usually a mediocre event.   Did the accessibility ramp to the Screamin' Eagle Station ever get finished???

Well I wasn't comparing SF to Disney on a park to park basis, I was comparing two similar projects involving the same ride type that followed the same timeline to show that it was not out of the ordinary.

Also, comparisons between them are proportional to the money and attendance at Disney versus SFSTL. My point was that all of this "discussion" has stemmed from a complaint that SFSTL is committing some major sin in taking several years to properly refurb a historic carousel, which was the plan from the beginning, and the implied claim that no other park would take that long and it's pointless and no one cares and yada, yada, yada. I have simply been refuting that claim.

Also, as pointed out Disney doesn't hit a home run every time. I mean Tron is really just a clone. An elaborate clone perhaps but how long have they been working on it? 4 years now? Why is it taking so long? If Covid shut down is the answer to how slow it is going then why isn't that a good enough reason for the SFSTL carousel. Compare that to Velocicoaster which was also built during Covid and I think took something like 2 years and if you have not experienced it is beyond spectacular..................all I'm saying is that in my opinion the scope and timeline of the carousel project at SFSTL isn't as out of the norm as is being suggested.

 

[teacherkim]

14 hours ago, prozach626 said:

How long will we play this game? Well, the answer is likely at least another year. Realistically? Probably more, because STSTL is rotting, apparently almost as much as Disney.

Ok, but if you hate it so much and it is so rotten; why do you keep going on about it and posting. Boycott and be done with it already. 

Nothing either of us says here will affect the progress. Accept it or don't.

Calling a truce for the weekend, I have to get up and drive to KI tomorrow.

[bbmchl]

19 hours ago, teacherkim said:

Compare that to Velocicoaster which was also built during Covid and I think took something like 2 years and if you have not experienced it is beyond spectacular..................

 

I agree with Kim.  Velocicoaster is beyond spectacular!

 

Mike

 

[Danrarbc]

On 10/6/2022 at 8:58 AM, SteveStL said:

Comparing Disney to SFSTL is like comparing Washington Univ to St Louis Community College.  The point here is, Disney completes projects and when they are finished it is spectacular.  With SFSTL, there are no guarantees projects will finish, and if they are it is usually a mediocre event.   Did the accessibility ramp to the Screamin' Eagle Station ever get finished???

The answer to this question is no.