Six Flags Great America (SFGAm) Discussion Thread

^A few years ago, I went on the last Sunday in November... may only have been like November 2 or 3, but it was packed beyond belief. It was one of the very few times I got the park and left with out getting on a single ride. It really is hit or miss.

^I'm curious if that was the last weekend of the season that year, as opposed to the park being open throughout November, this year.

That was also a 70*F, sunny day. So the weather had a lot to do with it.

It's cold and drizzling. The security gates are over half full. This is going to be miserable....

It's cold and drizzling. The security gates are over half full. This is going to be miserable....

Make the best of it anyway!

Oh we did. We made the best out of our four hour day. Please help me to understand this, as I try to have an open mind. We got to the park before opening and it was low 40's drizzling, and pretty much miserable. HOWEVER, the weather got better throughout the day, despite our hour and a half warning that the park was closing four hours (1/2 day) early due to inclimate weather. Keep in mind all coaster were running all day and no lightning. The crowd seemed to be loving the station wait rides despite the last call fall event being laughable. It seems as if the park closed due to not being able to make a profit from the day while completely abusing the weather policy. It's 445 as I type this. The weather is the most warm it has been all day with a very slight drizzle. I feel like I had a total a six flags day. Almost every big ride had full trains, but only station waits. As I type this, five minutes south of the park, the roads are dry. I'm usually a rational person, but I feel like this is total Bullshit. I'll be that guy and compare SF to CF and say when I was at KI a month ago the park stayed open from 9pm to 12am despite total constant downpour with lightning. It's 53 and dry as I type this.

Please help me to understand this

No need, I think you've pretty much got it. Great Adventure does the same thing, closed for weather at Six Flags is code for closed because the park is losing money. They run basically all of their rides in all weather conditions aside from lightning or hurricane force winds and they will all day if they're busy but once it's clear that nobody is going to show up they'll close early and blame weather whenever possible.

I guess it's still better than the policy of a lot of Cedar Fair parks where they'll stay open but close every ride in a light drizzle or breeze even if crowd levels are absolutely enormous.

Well, that definitely makes me feel better, Bill. I was trying not to sound like an entitled coaster enthusiast. This again confirms why KI (probably not typical CF) is my favorite park. When it was an absolute downpour and we hadn't heard lightning for a while, we heard the coasters start testing again. We hurried quickly to beast just as a clap of thunder sounded, only to again silence the park. At least they tried.

I'm a little butt hurt, but it gave us an excuse to literally chug two beers and marathon the bull for the last hour. We capped the day off with American Eagle as a fun way to laugh out our Six Flags day. TR to follow... someday..

Double post worthy: we received free drink coupons and an upgrade at the Hyatt. Time to drink some beers and get some (non Wrigley ) Chicago style pizza.

$70 season passes = $70 season pass integrity. Sorry to hear you guys got cut short. If they aren’t gonna make enough $$$ that day, they close. I’ve been there in the summer during similar situations.

True, but how about the people who showed up who didn't buy season passes? Not sure if they got rain checks or not, which would be irrelevant in our case. Just seems like really shitty business practice to me. The park is a destination level park which was also holding an "event."

Guess I'm lucky they didn't close a couple Saturdays ago when I was there. The weather was dreadful and nothing had full trains but they stayed open. I guess fright fest played into that and since we left at 6 I don't know if fright fest attracted any more crowds.

True, but how about the people who showed up who didn't buy season passes?

I would think the park figures they can piss off a certain percentage of people... even if it wasn't a bring-a-friend-free day. They probably hand out a few comp tickets, too. I'm SURE the guest relations office was packed to the gills, and understaffed as always (including during the height of summer). People wait in that line for an hour with out reaching the counter, and leave pissed. I've seen so many people/families leave that place furious. But some keep coming back. Why? Well, the season pass is only $70... Even with that situation, there are many folks that live in Chicagoland and up into Wisconsin that will have nothing to do with the park; a similar situation with Magic Mountain.

Thing is, they could have hundreds of thousands of happy customers that would be happy to pay for fair priced season passes (the Cedar Fair rate is fair but still underpriced around $200, that's what I have in mind), but Six Flags has continually had bad service since the 90s. Sometimes I'll go to the park, and be shocked how good a crew or some employees are, but they are rare. The kind of service and integrity that is key to wonderfully-run places like Cedar Point and Holiday World - it's simply not a part of Six Flags culture. I wish they could turn it around somehow, but I think for now they are fine with how things run.

When Will Koch (Holiday World) was around, he often spoke about how important it is to treat your guests with the utmost respect and integrity. He would say something along the lines of 'if you treat them right, they will want to come back.' Maybe something about how if you treat people right, they will be happy to spend their money at your park. They will tell their friends and family to visit, etc. Six Flags figures there will always be a new set of 15-25 year old to market cheap season passes to. Someone could explain this a little better than me I'm sure... but that's my 2 cents.

I'm lucky being only 45 minutes away from Great America, I can zip up for a couple hours at night alone, meet friends for a while, etc. But I really feel for the people that bring their kids in an attempt to make a day out of it. That really has to stink. It's such a shame, this park and Magic Mountain (heck, many of the Six Flags parks) could be world-class. They have so much potential. I often call Six Flags the Wal-Mart of the industry; cheap and close, and they DO have lots of good stuff.. but the place can be an armpit and the service is usually poor to absolutely miserable. It's not the people that are working on the front line, it's the lack of training and all trickle-down from corporate/managers... They would rather make a bunch of quick money up-front (cheap season passes) than have long-term security. Astroworld is gone... Six Flags Ohio, man what a train wreck that was. Anymore?

When Will Koch (Holiday World) was around, he often spoke about how important it is to treat your guests with the utmost respect and integrity. He would say something along the lines of 'if you treat them right, they will want to come back.' Maybe something about how if you treat people right, they will be happy to spend their money at your park. They will tell their friends and family to visit, etc.

And Will was (and still is) absolutely 100% right. Look at Disney, Europa and Knoebels as good examples of parks that go out of there way to make sure that you have the best time possible.

Any park or corporate executive that has that "Well, there are more fish in the sea" attitude likely won't end up holding a job with that company once their shareholders start losing money because their customers aren't returning to buy their product.

Edit - I meant to mention that I was sorry to hear about your experience, Prozach...but yeah, free drinks, upgrades and good Chicago pizza would have made up for it a little bit. Hope to see that report sometime!

And Will was (and still is) absolutely 100% right. Look at Disney, Europa and Knoebels as good examples of parks that go out of there way to make sure that you have the best time possible.

I'd add Cedar Point as well; the rest of the Cedar Fair parks are probably close behind. Funny thing I realized about Holiday World a couple years ago. I was standing near the middle of the park and looked out over everything and Splashin' Safari... it's not the "little park in Indiana" anymore. It's a big park now! They did that by treating people with respect.

Any park or corporate executive that has that "Well, there are more fish in the sea" attitude likely won't end up holding a job with that company once their shareholders start losing money because their customers aren't returning to buy their product.

They switch around so much; old one out, new one in. They're business people - which is perfectly fine, but they don't seem like fans or have a passion for the industry.

Bummer to look at it from these angles, but it's the truth. Luckily for me, I still love my home park SFGAmerica, and still think it's the best in the chain.

I often call Six Flags the Wal-Mart of the industry; cheap and close, and they DO have lots of good stuff.. but the place can be an armpit and the service is usually poor to absolutely miserable.

Damn, I hate to dog on th SF chain, but I couldn't help but to appreciate that relevant comparison. There's a lot of truth there. Either way, just as you said, I'll be back despite the total BS call of screwing over hundreds of guests.

I made a TR which can be found in my new thread:

http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75409&p=1829456#p1829456

Damn, I hate to dog on th SF chain, but I couldn't help but to appreciate that relevant comparison. There's a lot of truth there. Either way, just as you said, I'll be back despite the total BS call of screwing over hundreds of guests.

Me too... and I go to Wal-Mart as well, after swearing off the place years ago. Here in Chicagoland, we used to hike the 2.5 hours to Indiana Beach in favor of Great America, but IB has seriously gone down the drain after the Spackman family sold it (2009?).

I'd add Cedar Point as well; the rest of the Cedar Fair parks are probably close behind. Funny thing I realized about Holiday World a couple years ago. I was standing near the middle of the park and looked out over everything and Splashin' Safari... it's not the "little park in Indiana" anymore. It's a big park now! They did that by treating people with respect.

I was actually going to add CP in there and you are absolutely right.

At least in terms of ride op's nailing it out of the park with their quick dispatches and overall enthusiasm for their jobs, they're about as good as it gets. I am sure that others would have qualms about the food service/quality, rain procedures and FL+ queue lines, but I myself consider CP in the top 5 parks that I have visited in terms of customer service/quality.

I really did enjoy HW, despite not caring for the wooden coasters too much (and not having beer). The water park, free beverages/sunscreen and friendly employees would make me return for another visit to try Thunderbird - as well as giving Voyage another shot (albeit in the front seat this time).

Sorry to banter off subject...now back to your SFGAm discussions.

I wish they could turn it around somehow, but I think for now they are fine with how things run.

I believe a lot of the problem especially in the Midwest is that they are essentially hiring temporary help at minimum wage (many of them foreign exchange student workers) they are basically getting the bottom of the barrel work force that have accepted that it's a 3 month temporary job, there is no desire for most of their employees to even try as they know the gig will be up in short whether they are employee of the month or the employee that gets written up every week, they won't be getting a raise or continued employment... Combine that with the fact that they deliberately under staff the place just adds to the misery... I mean seriously on a perfect 90 degree mid summer day with the capacity pushed to the limits most of the 'food and beverage kiosk' that are clearly designed to have 2, 3 or even 4 or more cashiers have a SINGLE teenager that is day dreaming about hanging out with their friends when they get off, acting as not only cashier but also as server and stocking person resulting in everyone waiting 30 minutes or longer for a drink refill...

And to add insult to injury the 'managers' are most just the lucky teenagers friends that got a different colored uniform so there is no accountability or supervision... There was a incident this summer where one of the ride operators, in one of the designated child areas appeared to literally be having a physiological breakdown, she was talking and yelling at herself, pounding her fist on the control panel repeatably and banging her head against the wall (and I mean literally she was hitting her head on the wall)... It was quite a scene that was quote disturbing so several adults including myself tracked down a so called manager to report what was going on, the result was the manager telling the employee she would take over ride control for a bit and that she should go on her break to compose herself, her break consisted of going over to one of the other ride operators in the kiddy area and continuing her antics for 15 minutes and then returning to work as if nothing just happened...

I was browsing around RCDB earlier today and noticed something interesting...

Apparently Vertical Velocity and Deja Vu both opened in 2001, although Deja Vu opened a few months after, due to problems I’m assuming. Did the park intend to open them at the same time? I just found that interesting since they are very similar ride styles, and Deja Vu has been gone for so long, I sorta forget the two rides coexisted for quite some time. What a strange move, to add two extremely similar rides from separate manufacturers in the same park during the same year. Did they market them together?

Sorry for the strange question. Some of Six Flags’ moves in the early 2000s really intrigue me...

^Yeah, that was a big mess. Billboards all over Chicagoland advertised "2 new coasters" with pictures of the 2. Deja Vu opened rarely with horrible and troublesome operations. It was kind of a joke if you actually found it open and even a bigger joke if you got to ride! I think there was even a lawsuit someone filed for false advertising (the opening of 2 coasters in one year).

^ If they want to file a lawsuit for fake advertising, wait until they see their new "coaster" next year.

^ If they want to file a lawsuit for fake advertising, wait until they see their new "coaster" next year.

It was kind of a joke if you actually found it open and even a bigger joke if you got to ride! I think there was even a lawsuit someone filed for false advertising (the opening of 2 coasters in one year).

For what ever reason, on my 4-5 visits from 2005ish to whenever it was removed, Deja Vu was open almost every visit except for one. Granted when it was open it would go down once every hour or two, but I got quite a few rides on it. I actually really enjoyed the ride. The backwards vertical lift was frightening in a good way. I found the rest of the ride really intense, but comfortable. It was also really intimidating and cool to look at. That thing generated a ton of screams. I found it a good compliment to V2, which was also very extreme for its time.