Today was one of the worst days of my life. I went to SFGAm today expecting to have a good time, but only to be given a day of massive power outages and no explanation by the staff. My day started at the park around noon. My church group from Memphis, TN are touring the city of Chicago for the week and Great America was part of the trip. When we get there, no direction was given to us as to where we should park our bus. They said that someone would be meeting us at a certain area, but no one showed up until around 20 minutes later. We were finally escorted to the bus parking station, got our tickets and the went into the park. Because the park was so crowded and we only had five hours to venture the park, I purchased a Fastlane pass (which was only $12) and went to our first ride of the day, Demon. Demon was cool (about a 20 minute wait) and then we went over to Deja Vu. When we got to the ride, we saw it in motion and when the ride went backwards for its finale, it stalled. The people were stuck on the ride and a lot of the crowd watched in shocked. I immediately got out of the line and went to walk towards the Ragin Bull. During my walk, I noticed that the Demon stalled as well. That's when I figured that it was a power outage in certain areas of the park. Anyway, I went to Ragin Bull, used my fastlane pass to avoid the long line and had a good time on that ride (lots of air time).
When I got off of that, I headed straight to Viper and noticed that the ride was closed. I walked around the entire park and saw that all of the rides were closed. The only rides that I noticed working was Bull and Giant Drop (until they shut those down as well). A lot of people in the park was wondering about the situation and no one could give us a good answer. Although the power outage was not Six Flags fault, I felt that they could have done some things to satisfy the customers. For example, they could have issued out free complimentary water to the guest since it was so hot and so much confusion out their. The park ops could have been spread out in different areas of the park to explain the situation and try to accomodate the guest. One thing that I thought was odd is that all of the rides were shut down, but all of the restaurants and games were still working (pretty interesting for those things to still be on and not the rides themselves).
After walking around, I really got hungry, so we stopped at this restaurant near S:UF and ate some chicken strips and some way too salty waffle fries. Around 2:30pm, the rides were working again so I headed to S:UF. Once again, I used my my fastlane pass and immediately got on the ride (2 minute wait). When I got off of it, the rides were immediately shut down all over the park once again. At this point, I was really upset. I walked around the park and saw that none of the rides were not in operation. So I went over to Hurricane Harbor and met up with my group. Some of them said that the water park was even shut down for a little while as well. I thought to myself this is totally ridiculous and that some form of compensation was needed. Because the rides were not in operation and a lot of the kids on the trip were upset, we decided to leave the park at around 4:30pm. Before leaving, I stopped by the fastlane pass shop and demanded a refund. The line in the building was pretty long because a lot of people wanted refunds as well. They gave me one (although I did use the pass twice). Then the leader of our group and myself went to the Guest Relations Office to ask for some compensation. They told us that they will give us complementary tickets and we told them that we were from out of town and that we can't just come at anytime. So we spoke with a manager and he said that we could write a letter to the headquarters stating our case and that we should receive a refund. We asked for that in writing about him stating that info to us and he gave us that info. We left the park at 5:00pm.
Once again, I can't blame Six Flags for the power failure but I do blame them for their lack of customer service. Some of the ride ops had an attitude when questions were asked about the situation. Also, I noticed that it wasn't right for the park to still admit people into the park while knowing that the rides were not working. If it wasn't for HH being their, a riot could have probably happened. A lot of people were mad and upset and the weather didn't help the situation. The sad part of this is that I was really looking forward to a good day at the park and all of this ruined my fun. I wish that I had the opportunity to just get up and go to Great America like the rest of you on this forum, but I can't. Memphis is about 10 hours away from Great America and I can't do that. Today was just the worst day ever and I hope that I never have to relive that.
That really sucked. Usuallt after a TR I can say "it looks like you had fun", not this time. I'm glad no riots started. Funny how restaurants were open
I know that the water is free with the cup and ice, but I think that instead of having to go in a line for it, they should have someone pushing a cart and handing them out as an alternative.
I wish your trip had went better, and it was just bad luck to go on a day the park lost power.
And while im no apologist for the park, i think under the circumstances they did as well as they probably could as this(luckily)doesnt happen often.
I would write a letter explaining the situation to management and hope you got the names of the people you spoke too to put in the letter and hopefully they can do something for you, but it is out of the parks control when power is lost.
The power went out several times throughout the day. If it even drops for half a second, every rides computer system will give a trouble message-even though things like games still work as soon as it comes back on. Maintenance has to reset errors, as ride ops can't for obvious reasons. Also, evacuating rides was obviously priority over reseting the flats that can be evacuated by ride ops manually.
I do have the names and I will email or mail the park my concerns and suggestions. The main thing right now is getting our money back. Once that happens, I will be content.
From the information I've heard it sounds like the park did the best they could. Ride ops not telling you what is going on is nothing new. They are trained not to tell you because you don't need to know. All you need to know is that the power went out and they don't know when it's gonna get back up, but they are trying their hardest to get it back up. Can you imagine being asked the same question 10s of times in less than an hour? It would get very annoying which may have been the reason for their short temper.
The park always has free water for anyone who asks for it, and personally I'm shocked they gave you a full refund for the Fastlane pass that you used half of. Sorry you had a bad day but I think Six Flags did about as well as they could.
Top 5 wood-5-Goliath 4-Ravine Flyer II 3-Phoenix 2-Voyage 1-El Toro Top 5 Steel- 5-Velocicoaster 4- Maverick 3- Fury 325 2-Steel Vengeance 1-X2 Coaster Count: 444
I know that I can't blame the park and that they did the best that they could to help make the situation better, but I guess that I'm just venting right now. I'll probably get over it when I'm back in Memphis on Friday. In terms of the fastlane pass, I was shocked as well. I was only expecting $6 dollars back instead of the full refund. Maybe a lot of people complained today and they did this to ease some of the tension that was occurring today.
About the water part, I know that it's free and people can just ask for it. I just believe that on hot days (like today) that their vendors who pushes the carts or the greeters can pass out cups. The reason why I harped on this issue is because they did this at SF:Astroworld in Houston when I went there last month and I thought that it was nice of them to do that.
It sucks that you couldn't get on any rides, but you need to realize that the park did all they could to make you happy. It wasn't thier fault.
You say they didn't give you enough information. The power was out, how much more information did you need.
Did you want to know when the power was coming back? I know when I lose power at my house, I sure as hell don't know when it's going to come back on. Why would the park, or all of the employees for that matter know when the power was going to come back on? It comes back on when it's fixed, not much more too it then that.
You mention that the games and restaurants were open while the rides were still closed. You can't just plug in a rollercoaster and everything is ok with it. It's alot more complicated then a game or grill, and just can't be turned on and off.
Ice water as said above is free...bringing it around on carts? That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard. With the power on or the power off, no matter what you would be out in the heat, and if you can't stand being out in the heat you shouldn't have been at a theme park to begin with...at least not the theme park side.
I don't know what you were expecting them to do....did you want them to fly you back to SFGAm another day or something. Even then you would probably complain if they didn't hand out water on your flight....so face it nothing they did was going to make you happy about the way they handled it, because at the end of the day you didn't get what you expected.
That's life, sometimes you can't always get what you want.
All I have to say is that if your so freaking inconvienanced by a 1-2 minute wait in order to get a FREE cup of water, something they dont even NEED to give you, look for a freaking water fountain.
Wow, I'm sorry that you just happened to be at the park on the wrong day.
But you did contradict yourself somewhat in your post. You claim that Six Flags has the worst customer support, yet you stated that they gave you a full refund for your fastlane, and offered you tickets to Great America (which I would have taken and sold on ebay ). The manager also gave you in writing that you could write corperate and get a refund.
I am very sorry you had a bad day. But what you are failing to notice is that power outages are rarely if ever prevented. Especially at a place that uses as much power as SFGAM. Granted, I would've been bummed that the power went out, but you better beleve that those technicians and staff were running around like nuts where you can't see trying to fix that problem. They know that they have a full park of guests, and that most of them just want to get on some rides, so they are doing their best. I know you are upset because you live 10 hours away, and your SFGAM experience didn't go as planned, but just know the staff at SFGAM are very sorry for the inconvenience. Don't be mad, just understand.
As far as the water issue, its not that big of a deal to just stand for a couple minutes in line for some water. I do not believe that Great America should have people walking around and standing around to hand people water. These free drinks are only offered if you ask for them. The park also offers water fountains near each of their restroom facilities. Take a little drink from there. They do that so they don't have to hire more people, or waste staff to walk around handing out water. Also, the vendors who do walk around (popcorn,icees,lemonade and cotton candy) have enough on their hands. You throw in hundreds of cups of water, then their job is a lot harder.
Well once again I am very sorry you had such a bad day. But your anger and dissapointment with what happened I believe was a mixture of the hot temperatures and the fact that you just wanted to get on some rides. I hope you can get to SFGAM again very soon, so you can enjoy the park when it is normal.
Awww, i 'm sorry that happened during your trip down here. I didn't think it was that bad, i mean, it really cleared out the park, but that sucks that it happened during your trip down here. Sorry it sucked......
Before I leave to tour the city, I want to apologize for me venting and the comments I made. I only said those things because I was still upset about the situation. Now that I had a chance to clear my head and had a goods night sleep, I feel a little better about the situation. I really felt bad for the kids in my group. Some of them never been to a major theme park before and this was their first chance ever to gain that experience. I know that Great America did all that they could do to ease the situation and to make the customers happy and I do realize that the whole water topic was talked about out of anger. It just sucks that this happened and all I can do now is move on. I do plan on visiting Great America next year, I just hope that this experience doesn't happen on my next visit. Once again, I am sorry about this.
I think the park handeled it well. They gave out complimentery tickets and I bet you they were doing everything to get the power back on.
About the employees, there are probably some that have attitudes but you just have to ignore those people.
I'm sorry you had a bad day and I know you think the park didn't do what they could but belive me, they did everything they could. This is power, its not like they could flip a switch and turn it back on, its a way more complicated then that.
This is where I would usually put stuff. Can't think of anything right now... =/
I was there too, but I had a great time during those power outages, talking with all the ride-ops that I know and watching the 30 minute line to leave the park leave the park. I still managed to get on 10 of the 13 coasters, going on 14 coasters in total. It was a crowded day that turned into a moderate crowded day.
Universal Orlando Mechanical Engineer Marathon down, Goofy to go.
Actually they aren't supposed to give you ice. They probably won't give you a refund, because they state all over that they are not responsible for rides being closed for any reason or for weather. But I think that it was nice of them to give out free tickets, so maybe they will. I don't see why people would leave just because of rides being closed. You're lucky that you got on anything yesterday.
LC3 wrote:About the water part, I know that it's free and people can just ask for it. I just believe that on hot days (like today) that their vendors who pushes the carts or the greeters can pass out cups. The reason why I harped on this issue is because they did this at SF:Astroworld in Houston when I went there last month and I thought that it was nice of them to do that.
It seems like they try to keep the free water part a secret.
). The manager also gave you in writing that you could write corperate and get a refund.
They probably won't give you a refund, because they state all over that they are not responsible for rides being closed for any reason or for weather. But I think that it was nice of them to give out free tickets, so maybe they will. I don't see why people would leave just because of rides being closed. You're lucky that you got on anything yesterday.
