I think doubleb went on a bad day. Every time I have gone this year, the lines have been running very efficiently. The groupers do a good job and the SRQs are all really fast. I have also never experienced what you've said about security. They have started to set up corrals in front of the metal scanners to help control crowds. Its a lot better than it used to be without them. As for food, I hear ya there. I got JR's the other day and my patty was literally the size of a "brown n serve" sausage. I took a picture and emailed it to guest services with a complaint and they called me and offered a meal voucher. If you are really concerned about everything, send a "carpet bomb" email to corporate. While it might not solve things, it will at least make it more likely to be read than if it was sent to SFGam.
cliffhanger wrote:I think doubleb went on a bad day. Every time I have gone this year, the lines have been running very efficiently. The groupers do a good job and the SRQs are all really fast. I have also never experienced what you've said about security. They have started to set up corrals in front of the metal scanners to help control crowds. Its a lot better than it used to be without them. As for food, I hear ya there. I got JR's the other day and my patty was literally the size of a "brown n serve" sausage. I took a picture and emailed it to guest services with a complaint and they called me and offered a meal voucher. If you are really concerned about everything, send a "carpet bomb" email to corporate. While it might not solve things, it will at least make it more likely to be read than if it was sent to SFGam.
It wasn't even doubleb, he just found a rant on TPR to shove in our faces. Don't read too much into it(although there are some valid concerns in there).
Your response is why SF is the way it is. You Homers will take the abuse and still show up and SF knows it. Thus SF makes no effort for quality operations, food service, etc..
SFGAm actually gives more rides yearly than any other park in the chain. Rue le Dodge is leading the company in capacity for flat rides in the company and raging bull is leading the company in capacity for roller coasters. Also great America is leading the company in increased rides given over 2016. We are and have always been the best park in terms of ride operations. Even magic mountain and great adventure although have much longer operating seasons do not give as many rides in a year as our park. Bad food service is chain wide so by owning a pass you are also taking the "abuse" from six flags as all parks are pretty much on the same level in terms of food service.
Guy_With_A_Stick wrote:It wasn't even doubleb, he just found a rant on TPR to shove in our faces. Don't read too much into it(although there are some valid concerns in there).
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My bad, I guess I should have read more carefully. My points still stand though.
SFGAm actually gives more rides yearly than any other park in the chain. Rue le Dodge is leading the company in capacity for flat rides in the company and raging bull is leading the company in capacity for roller coasters. Also great America is leading the company in increased rides given over 2016. We are and have always been the best park in terms of ride operations. Even magic mountain and great adventure although have much longer operating seasons do not give as many rides in a year as our park. Bad food service is chain wide so by owning a pass you are also taking the "abuse" from six flags as all parks are pretty much on the same level in terms of food service.
This is blind loyalty. Great America is my home park and I will support them not matter what stupid decisions the management makes.
The rant is ridiculous, yes, but it does make some valid points that I've learned to deal with over the years. They can improve....and man, I hope they do.
sfgam1976 wrote:SFGAm actually gives more rides yearly than any other park in the chain. Rue le Dodge is leading the company in capacity for flat rides in the company and raging bull is leading the company in capacity for roller coasters. Also great America is leading the company in increased rides given over 2016. We are and have always been the best park in terms of ride operations. Even magic mountain and great adventure although have much longer operating seasons do not give as many rides in a year as our park. Bad food service is chain wide so by owning a pass you are also taking the "abuse" from six flags as all parks are pretty much on the same level in terms of food service.
Link to the source of these claims.
Ask at NCC or a Q&A if they are true. Or go stand at every flat ride at every park and every coaster at every park and count the riders for an entire day. It's not blind loyalty the park had said these things in the past.
Absolutely, Great America is not perfect. One of the biggest problems is the amount of time it takes to get into the park at the beginning of the day. It has to be the worst entertainment entrance policy anywhere. It was perfect for so many years, and than some higher up person decided to not open the gates until 10:15 am which just backs up everyone. Those gates should be open at 9:45 am every single day. I don't know how you can run an amusement park getting an average of at least 15,000 / 20,000 people a day, and have them waiting to get into the park at 10:15 am.
Can someone name another entertainment facility in which it could take 20 - 45 minutes to get into that place? Chicago Cubs / Chicago Bears / All State Arena / Field Museum / Museum of Science and Industry / Shedd Aquarium / Art Institute / United Center. If it took that long to get into any of those places, people would stop going to all those places. Yet, the customers of Six Flags just deal with that type of garbage. It's ridiculous that they get away with it. On Memorial Day, the line to get in stretched all the way to the waterpark season pass gates +.
The most it should take should be 10 minutes. That's it!
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
doubleb wrote:Quality rant by TPR thrilladdict for all you Homers "I'm really starting to wonder if Six Flags is even capable of fixing the long standing issues...."
I like how you just cherry-picked this person's post. Here's a link to the original: http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewto ... tart=11190 In fact, you cut out the beginning of the sentence to make it sound more negative than it is.
"In summary I had a very fun day at the park that was justifiably marred by some amazingly bad operations and I'm really starting to wonder if Six Flags is even capable of fixing the long standing issues."
Next time just post a link to the original, or at least format your quote properly with an ellipsis.
doubleb wrote:SFGAm actually gives more rides yearly than any other park in the chain. Rue le Dodge is leading the company in capacity for flat rides in the company and raging bull is leading the company in capacity for roller coasters. Also great America is leading the company in increased rides given over 2016. We are and have always been the best park in terms of ride operations. Even magic mountain and great adventure although have much longer operating seasons do not give as many rides in a year as our park. Bad food service is chain wide so by owning a pass you are also taking the "abuse" from six flags as all parks are pretty much on the same level in terms of food service.
Link to the source of these claims.
Ask at NCC or a Q&A if they are true. Or go stand at every flat ride at every park and every coaster at every park and count the riders for an entire day. It's not blind loyalty the park had said these things in the past.
So you have no source and as expected you are petulant that you can't back your claim with facts.[/quote]
They are easily verifiable. Just wait and see when Raging Bull gets a million riders this year and watch as Nitro which is the only ride that could beat it does not get a million riders first. I'll check back on this in July/August. We have 4 B&Ms which are the highest capacity coasters you can buy, demon which runs 3 trains, Viper which is a high capacity ride, American Eagle, and many high capacity flats. Name another Six flags park that still runs 3 trains on their arrow and still has a racing wooden coaster. If you just look at our ride collection compared to others you can see that it is true. You can notice we are the only park that celebrates million riders as the other parks don't hit these milestones!
Last year's annual attendance was about 3 million. The park is open for about 5 full months(May, June, July, August, and weekends in April, Sept., Oct., and Nov. all add up to about 1). That's on average 600,000 guests per month. (Maths unavailable to public view). Assume 15 - 20 Million riders per year.
Now let's just all calm down and get back to our everyday lives.
btw, if you all want to, there's a 'Foe List' where you can ignore all messages from any member you put on it.
Last edited by Guy_With_A_Stick on June 8th, 2017, 7:33 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Last year's annual attendance was about 3 million. The park is open for about 5 full months(May, June, July, August, and weekends in April, Sept., Oct., and Nov. all add up to about 1). That's on average 600,000 guests per month. (Maths not available to Public View). Assume 15 - 20 Million riders per year. Now let's just all calm down and get back to our everyday lives.
btw, if you all want to, there's a 'Foe List' where you can ignore all messages from any member you put on it.
Those are wild assumptions with a 40% margin of error 1OM, which makes any conclusion statistically nonsense. Your Homer made claims that are not supported by facts from any source and remains adamant in them, The reason he has no proof is he made it up b/c he's a GAm Homer!
Wild assumptions?
3 Million visitors from the last TEA Report:
removed from public view
I will admit that I did assume some things, but they are quite justifiable since these are May Statistics. As you have stated numerous times, Summer months are a LOT more crowded as well as Fright Fest. Not to mention that North Side has significantly less high-capacity rides than other areas.
Now take your name-calling way of rejecting our opinions back to TPR. You're not wanted here.
Last edited by Guy_With_A_Stick on June 8th, 2017, 7:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I love how you keep calling us out on our 'lies' despite us presenting you with facts. Do you have any form of evidence that proves that we NEED new flats? Or that Giant Drop is an inferior drop tower? Or that Kings Dominion and Carowinds are better parks? Maybe you should stop presenting your opinions as facts and make your addition to the conversation meaningful.
Also, it's not a 40% Margin of error. If you're looking at a 40% margin of error, the 10 Million figure(which is backed up 100% by math and statistics) would be anywhere from 6M to 14M. The 15M figure would see anywhere from 9M to 21M, a 20M figure would see anywhere from 12M to 28M, and a 25M figure would see anywhere from 15M to 35M. I'm not sure what your base number was, but it certainly isn't a 40% margin of error. A 25% margin of error based on a 20 Million figure would give you the answer of 15-25 Million, though. I will say that's still a relatively large margin of error, but it's much more reasonable than your made-up 40% number. I gave the assumption of 15-25 Million riders because I gave May statistics from an area of the park with less rides than the other 2 areas. The other sections have more rides, which means more riders. The other months have significantly higher attendance figures, which also means more riders. An extra 5 million riders is rather justifiable if you ask me(or anyone here for that matter). The 25 Million figure isn't as justifiable, I will admit, but I still wouldn't doubt it.
Now please, leave this forum. Nobody here wants you. All you do is call us 'GAm Homers' and start arguments. The Wahoo Racer thread was meant to speculate on its closure and a possible water coaster. You came along and tried turning it into an anti-Republican thread. There are numerous members here who support both major parties(and are quite open about it), but we respect our opinions and leave it at that. You call us out by saying our opinions are wrong, saying that your opinion is better, and saying we're delusional and unwise. Once again, I am asking you to leave us be. Go back to your own forum and talk about our park there. We don't want you here.
Last edited by Guy_With_A_Stick on June 8th, 2017, 7:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Last year's annual attendance was about 3 million. The park is open for about 5 full months(May, June, July, August, and weekends in April, Sept., Oct., and Nov. all add up to about 1). That's on average 600,000 guests per month. Last year in May, North Side(Mardi Gras thru Hometown) gave 535,000 rides. Multiplied by 3(areas that the park is split up into), that's about 1,605,000 rides for the whole park. But here's the thing, that's just for North Side, which has significantly less high-capacity rides than the other 2 sides. Assuming this, we can bump the number to about 2 Million riders per month for the whole park. Multiplied by 5, that gives on average 10 million riders per year. Additionally, that's just for May Ridership. The number is going to increase to account for the increased attendance for Summer as well as Fright Fest. Given this, we can assume ridership anywhere from 15 - 25 million riders.
Now let's just all calm down and get back to our everyday lives.
btw, if you all want to, there's a 'Foe List' where you can ignore all messages from any member you put on it.
Those are wild assumptions with a 40% margin of error 1OM, which makes any conclusion statistically nonsense. Your Homer made claims that are not supported by facts from any source and remains adamant in them, The reason he has no proof is he made it up b/c he's a GAm Homer!
Wild assumptions?
3 Million visitors from the last TEA Report:
I will admit that I did assume some things, but they are quite justifiable since these are May Statistics. As you have stated numerous times, Summer months are a LOT more crowded as well as Fright Fest. Not to mention that North Side has significantly less high-capacity rides than other areas.
Now take your name-calling way of rejecting our opinions back to TPR. You're not wanted here.
I don't really care if people think these stats are made up you can confirm them for yourself by asking at an Acer event or at NCC, collecting your own data next time you visit, or just not care at all. You could post the exact ridership of every ride at every park in the chain since 1950 and he would not be satisfied. He's asking for proof of something that no park publishes and he knows we can't produce without posting information we shouldn't. Obviously 15 coasters, great family rides, and a rich history are not enough to make this guy enjoy his time at the park he would rather spend his time at Michigan's Adventure. I shouldn't have fed the troll. Any other doubters just look at the ride collection at other parks. We have many high capacity rides and run 3 trains on rides where it is possible while parks like MM have Full Throttle, Superman, only run 2 trains on Tatsu, Goliath, X2, Riddler's, etc... I have not visited a SF park that blows me out of the water like Cedar Point but I have visited other CF parks that are on a similar level of six flags. But I still maintain we have the best ride operations with GADv being #2 (but they have lockers and we don't). Most of us just want to have a conversation and speculate we know not everything we say can be verifiable with facts some of us just talk to people who know the facts. this guy just wants to state how terrible the park is over and over and anyone who enjoys the park is an idiot.
doubleb, there's not a lot of point to continue bringing up past problems with the park. If someone goes there, I do think it's important that they write about all the problems/obstacles, etc in their trip report. People invest a lot of time and money to go there and often drive great distances only to have a miserable time because of Six Flags' business practices. Six Flags is a corporation. A corporation that continually pushes the boundaries of how much bad conduct they can get away with and how many people they can cram in. That said, there are apparently millions of people who could care less about how horribly they are treated. A lot of that is social-media driven. People who bought into the Goliath hype train 3 years ago and just want the recognition from their peers on Facebook when they post their pics and status updates. That's as much or more of an incentive than the rides or theme park experience for a lot of people I'm willing to bet. It seemed that many, many people we knew were going to Great America for the first time in years just so they could brag about how they went on the mighty Goliath on Facebook.
I've been checking the rides times for our park and various other ones like Magic Mountain, Great Adventure, SFOT, Sea World Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa, and a couple others. Just like last year, SFGAM seems to have the most consistently long lines out of everyone. At Magic Mountain, Tatsu will read 35 min and our Pretzelman will be at 90. That was the other day. There's always at least some walkups or near walkups most days at the other Six Flags parks. The wait times posted right now are pretty bad. Eagle 55, Batman 35, Goliath 130, Giant Drop 20, Justice League 70, Raging 70, Pretzelman 70, Joker 55, V2 55, Viper 35, Whizzer 55, X-Flight 55, Demon 20. This was not the case any other June except this one. When I started going regularly in 2012, there were days in late Summer and Fright Fest that had very reasonable lines. These ride times are deceptive. Sometimes they forget to change them when the line is gone or there will be a million flash passers and the actual wait time is double or triple what's posted.
Now it's looking like Six Flags has accomplished their most likely long-term goal of cramming so many people into the park that you'll need to buy a Season Flash Pass just to have a reasonable wait time except on rare days when the park has 20,000 people instead of 50,000.
I think most everyone that posted regularly on TPR is gone. There were a few years ago. I remember some of them had a major problem with the Goliath hoardes. Most of what I see on TPR nowadays is people from out of town asking for info. I've probably set some kind of record for amount of written trip reports between the two Great America forums, so, I don't have any real agenda other than to give an opinion. My goal is to have as much fun as possible. Six Flags's goal is to make as much money as possible. Our interests are starting to conflict-a lot. It's tough to say what I'm going to do for the rest of the season. It looks like lines are going to be horrendous every day unless there's some rain or something. It used to be that the last hour of operation was like extended ride time and I could go just for that hour and hit several things, but that's been gone for 3 years too. Well, we'll see what happens.
The intention of me making this thread was to have rants from what YOU have experienced in the park, not what other people have. And if it's from other people, why don't y'all use a reliable source like jiggidy, not freaking tpr...
To cool the fires here, which is a little out of my character, I heard from the TV intercom in line yesterday some announced ridership numbers. The 2016 total ridership at the park surpassed 16 million, about 1.7 million of which was on the Raging Bull, which is still pleasantly overperforming btw. More surprising is when it proclaimed that the Dark Knight "neared" half a million riders. I know that the app always registers TDK as having quite a line, but how is that even possible? The GP are weird.
Anyways, while RB did host a similar number of riders last year as Millennium Force at CP, I sincerely doubt that its total ridership significantly surpassed that of Nitro at GAdv, or Tatsu and possibly X2 at MM which are both known to have long lines even on slow days which is something you can't really say of RB.
maxwellt wrote:Guys, this is that bbd dude that ruined the forums a few months ago, look at his username, doubleb...and the other guys name was bbd...............
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We already knew that. I'm seriously unsure as to how(and why) he keeps coming back