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Postby CoasterRiderSC on May 23rd, 2022, 3:51 pm
The parking lot (main) definitely looks much better!! Time will tell if they are serious about cleaning up the park (physical structures and the image)
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Postby ProfessorPiggos on May 23rd, 2022, 9:52 pm
CoasterRiderSC wrote:The parking lot (main) definitely looks much better!! Time will tell if they are serious about cleaning up the park (physical structures and the image)


Yup, I definitely agree with the image part. Especially last year there were way more fights than usual, that really needs to be reversed if they want to try to be a more family-oriented park.
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Postby SFGAM__man on May 23rd, 2022, 10:46 pm
I can't speak on whats been going on the last few weeks because like I said I am refusing to go again this year, but I have known enough maintenance people at SFGAm over the decades to hear the same thing over and over again every winter. "We don't have enough people, we're not gonna make it, [x and y rides] are going to open with one train" etc etc. But then in the month before the park opened they would work overtime and/or call some summer maintenance workers in early to help them get the rides ready and everything would always open with at least two trains. One train ops at SFGAm was totally unheard of up until a few years ago. It's absolutely disgusting to me that they are fine with running one train on literally all of the major coasters instead of hiring more people and/or paying overtime to have the rides ready. If it was like one coaster then i'd be more understanding, but what has happened the past few years is totally inexcusable. Making people wait hours just because they wanted to save some money in labor is a totally insane business move to me, if an enthusiast like me is refusing to back and give SF money think of how many GP are doing the same thing. There is no point in going if you're just going to walk around all day looking at lines and saying "that ones too long because of one train....that ones too long because of one train...that ones too long because of one train" and end up leaving in disgust.

Also when it comes to fixing things up anyone who knows how business works knows that's more about spreading money around over the fiscal years than weather. They get a certain amount to spend in each fiscal year, do what they absolutely need to do + whatever they had planned as part of their long term refurb plan, and then horde whatever is left until the very end because they are afraid they're going to run out, then at the end of the FY rush to spend whatever is left. Landscaping of can't be done if its going to be freezing cold out, but they could have absolutely repainted the queues/railings and stuff before the park opened for the year, or they could have painted them sometime in this century which would be a big improvement over the way they look now.
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Postby Coaster Justin on May 24th, 2022, 4:14 am
ProfessorPiggos wrote:
CoasterRiderSC wrote:The parking lot (main) definitely looks much better!! Time will tell if they are serious about cleaning up the park (physical structures and the image)


Yup, I definitely agree with the image part. Especially last year there were way more fights than usual, that really needs to be reversed if they want to try to be a more family-oriented park.



I'm not trying to be mean, But I think raised admission and reducing the amount of discounts might fix the fights.

*Also Six Flags, Revamping Camp Cartoon into Bugs Bunny Boomtown with 4-5 new rides might help the family image too
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Postby CoasterRiderSC on May 24th, 2022, 8:48 am
Coaster Justin wrote:
ProfessorPiggos wrote:
CoasterRiderSC wrote:The parking lot (main) definitely looks much better!! Time will tell if they are serious about cleaning up the park (physical structures and the image)


Yup, I definitely agree with the image part. Especially last year there were way more fights than usual, that really needs to be reversed if they want to try to be a more family-oriented park.



I'm not trying to be mean, But I think raised admission and reducing the amount of discounts might fix the fights.

*Also Six Flags, Revamping Camp Cartoon into Bugs Bunny Boomtown with 4-5 new rides might help the family image too



Justin - I totally agree with you about raising admissions and ditching the Free Friend Days (see my post above).
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Postby CoasterDemon on May 25th, 2022, 7:59 am
There was nearly a fight that started in the (half mile long HELLLOOOOOO six flags) exit from Raging Bull. A group of young folks were going at it, we moved over to let them pass... then it started again on the midway.

A big mess, and my 2 friends and I had to have a little stealth to get through it... it kept spreading and following us. Not fun, even for a full grown adult man. I've had enough violence in my life, it doesn't have a place at an amusement park (neither does pay-to-cut, but that's another topic.)

The bottlenecks at nearly every single ride exit - begetted with turnstyles at said exits (they belong at the station entrance), six flags courts to this behavior.

Everyone paying the same price to get it for equality while inside is the way to go. It's smart for them to raise the price, they've been giving away the entrance for decades.
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Postby CoasterRiderSC on May 25th, 2022, 8:37 am
CoasterDemon wrote:There was nearly a fight that started in the (half mile long HELLLOOOOOO six flags) exit from Raging Bull. A group of young folks were going at it, we moved over to let them pass... then it started again on the midway.

A big mess, and my 2 friends and I had to have a little stealth to get through it... it kept spreading and following us. Not fun, even for a full grown adult man. I've had enough violence in my life, it doesn't have a place at an amusement park (neither does pay-to-cut, but that's another topic.)

The bottlenecks at nearly every single ride exit - begetted with turnstyles at said exits (they belong at the station entrance), six flags courts to this behavior.

Everyone paying the same price to get it for equality while inside is the way to go. It's smart for them to raise the price, they've been giving away the entrance for decades.



Yes, get rid of the useless turnstiles at the exits! Cedar Point has large gates that open (and some rides have 2 exits) to allow for faster exit. Viper is probably the worst ride to exit as people tend to linger on the exit ramp
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Postby Sven18 on May 26th, 2022, 8:36 am
SFGAM__man wrote:I can't speak on whats been going on ...


You should have really stopped the rant at that point. I have been highly critical of SF for years, can see past posts. The notion that Bassoul is all "talk" etc..is contrary to facts. He's literally done more in the 6 months in taking steps to improve aesthetics, atmosphere, etc.. than has occurred in the last 5 years combined. The improvements are across the chain. He is also doing what people like me & other critics have said for years, raising prices. He sees another 30% increase possible to get the parks to the price level he wants & ear their peers in the industry. You might want to actually listen to the conf calls on his plans, they are ambitious & if he succeeds would potentially transform the chain from the discount chain & the low quality of experience chain. He has stated clearly they will have reduced attendance & want it, for higher prices. He has prepared Wall Street to not be so "tuned" into attendance purely, look at the quality of the attendance. Case in point, he cited in 2019(last normal ops year), they had 3million non paying guests*that's about 10% of the total) via promotions..ie..bring a friend free days. He is killing that channel , as he claimed most of these people spend little, while they clog of the lines & reduce the quality of the experience for paying customers.
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Postby SFGAM__man on May 26th, 2022, 9:33 am
Way to butcher what I said to fit your narrative. I have been saying for over a decade SF should raise its season pass price and stop the giveaways, that was common sense and has nothing to do with anything. The problem is the guy became CEO last year and this year the parks are total crap. SFGAm (and all other SF parks) #1 problem is they need more maintenance people. Did he allocate money for more maintenance people? If he did why was everything running one train? Why do all the queues look like crap?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAvGNcHEbpU&t=5s
Look at the paint, its chipped all over the place. Look at the railings, they are supposed to be blue but they are brown. Look at the landscaping, its completely filled with weeds. The signs with the characters are so washed out from the sun you can't even read them. Also for the first several weeks the park was open this ride was running one train.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QszcYxMHXU
Almost every piece of theming and show effect is broken (except for the drip sound). The fan doesn't spin, the music isn't working, the railings are supposed to be black but they are also brown with rust. The wheel covers once again aren't on the one train that is running (I realize this was filmed on a slow day, when I went a few weeks ago this was running 1 train with an hour+ wait).

I've been to every SF park multiple times, every CF park, every Sea World/Disney/Universal park, many of the Merlin parks...these kind of problems are not normal, they are exclusive to Six Flags. You don't go walking through CP or Sea World thinking "man that landscaping looks like crap" and "wow these handrailing's are all rusted out and need to be repainted" its just normal maintenance that they do.
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Postby Coaster Justin on May 26th, 2022, 10:24 am
The thing that needs paint the most is Skull Island

The Skull is starting to look human


And if we're comparing paint: Top Thrill Dragster wasn't repainted from 2003-2014
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Postby Sven18 on May 27th, 2022, 8:09 am
SFGAM__man wrote:Way to butcher what I said to fit your narrative. .

Your several rants speak for themselves & your ridiculous narrative that SF hasn't made improvements & is trying to. People are commenting across the chain on the improvements in aesthetics, maintenance, cleanliness, etc.. I have family or friends near at almost every SF park. As you like to say, "anybody that knows business", knows these things are a process & not going to be all fixed in one off season. The CEO appointed in November was supposed to fix everything by April..Lol. The whining about 1 train ops is silly , don't go early in the season, especially in weekend only phase. Regional theme parks are never fully staffed at this point.
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Postby SFGAM__man on May 29th, 2022, 2:45 am
I went to SFGAm "early in the season" every year since 1994 and nothing ever ran one train "early in the season" until like 2015. The one train ops don't have anything to do with understaffing of seasonal front line employees, it takes the same amount of employees to run two trains as it does to run one. It have to do with having not enough full time maintenance people. The park has less maintenance staff now than it did 30 years ago and that's with more rides and a waterpark.

I don't know how you can watch those videos and think that's acceptable for such a cash cow park like SFGAm, on their most popular rides that thousands of people wait in line for every single day, to look that bad, and for that long. I understand the CEO came in and can't change things overnight, if SFGAm doesn't have enough maintenance people to do these things they could easily call in contractors to do them. This money is a drop in the bucket. If I were the CEO and watched those videos the first thing i'd do is get on the phone with the GM and say "if you don't have the staff to do this then get on the phone with some contractors right now." I got a notice from my HOA that my house was faded and needed to be painted, so I called a licensed contractor who came and painted it. It was painted a week later. Painting is relatively unskilled labor. It can be done quickly. Are Superman, Batman, Raging Bull etc not popular enough to make this a priority? I've seen CEOs come and go over the decades and they all come in saying the parks suck and they are going to be the one to fix everything. Not seeing it. That's great for you that you are, but my vists this year have been literally the most frustrating visits in my 30+ years of going to the park.

Note i'm not saying his strategy is not going to work long term. If he actually sticks with his plan of fixing up the parks and not giving away the gate then yes of course its going work long time. But once again these are all the same things several other CEOs have said, but then when push came to shove after a year or two of not meeting their quarterly profit numbers they all reverted back to the parks being crappy. Also when Mark Shapiro was CEO his first two years he fixed things up way more and at a way faster rate than what i'm seeing from Selim Bassoul. I sincerely hope this time its different.
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Postby SFGAM__man on May 29th, 2022, 3:43 am
Update: look at SFGAm's home page right now, what do you see? Big sale for season passes, $70 and that includes parking. So it took ONE MONTH of lackluster attendance for the new CEO to change his mind and start giving away the gate again :roll:.
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Postby Sven18 on May 29th, 2022, 4:34 pm
SFGAM__man wrote:I went to SFGAm "early in the season" every year since 1994 and nothing ever ran one train "early in the season" until like 2015. The one train ops don't have anything to do with understaffing of seasonal front line employees, it takes the same amount of employees to run two trains as it does to run one. It have to do with having not enough full time maintenance people. The park has less maintenance staff now than it did 30 years ago and that's with more rides and a waterpark.

I don't know how you can watch those videos and think that's acceptable for such a cash cow park like SFGAm, on their most popular rides that thousands of people wait in line for every single day, to look that bad, and for that long. I understand the CEO came in and can't change things overnight, if SFGAm doesn't have enough maintenance people to do these things they could easily call in contractors to do them. This money is a drop in the bucket. If I were the CEO and watched those videos the first thing i'd do is get on the phone with the GM and say "if you don't have the staff to do this then get on the phone with some contractors right now." I got a notice from my HOA that my house was faded and needed to be painted, so I called a licensed contractor who came and painted it. It was painted a week later. Painting is relatively unskilled labor. It can be done quickly. Are Superman, Batman, Raging Bull etc not popular enough to make this a priority? I've seen CEOs come and go over the decades and they all come in saying the parks suck and they are going to be the one to fix everything. Not seeing it. That's great for you that you are, but my vists this year have been literally the most frustrating visits in my 30+ years of going to the park.

Note i'm not saying his strategy is not going to work long term. If he actually sticks with his plan of fixing up the parks and not giving away the gate then yes of course its going work long time. But once again these are all the same things several other CEOs have said, but then when push came to shove after a year or two of not meeting their quarterly profit numbers they all reverted back to the parks being crappy. Also when Mark Shapiro was CEO his first two years he fixed things up way more and at a way faster rate than what i'm seeing from Selim Bassoul. I sincerely hope this time its different.

You're crying about 1 train ops, something you claim has been since 2015, You're silly & whining to whine. Parks run 1 train when crowds are low &/or not to kill their staff when, it's at low levels. Maybe you should go work at the park as maintenance. FYI, you do know it's really hard to get workers everywhere. You can post all your videos, & I will say it again since it seems beyond you, everything isn't going to get fixed in one off season. If "these are the most frustrating visits in my 30+ years of going to the park. " . STOP GOING! Somehow it seems you get off on whining & pretending they are making no progress on repairing things & improving aesthetics.
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Postby Sven18 on May 29th, 2022, 4:43 pm
SFGAM__man wrote:Update: look at SFGAm's home page right now, what do you see? Big sale for season passes, $70 and that includes parking. So it took ONE MONTH of lackluster attendance for the new CEO to change his mind and start giving away the gate again :roll:.

TRY TO KEEP UP! Those are not sale prices it's the exact same prices they have had since the New Pass System was revealed. It's classic marketing many do, pretend the regular price is a sale, to make people think they got a deal.
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Postby CoasterRiderSC on June 4th, 2022, 3:38 pm
I'm truly hoping the new Park President can "Make Great America Great Again"!!
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Postby Sven18 on June 9th, 2022, 8:20 am
Six Flags is going to annual pass system.................................................................... So they are keeping the 3 tiers of thrill, extreme, ultimate however it's good for 12 moths from time of purchase & not 12/31 of year purchased. Prices also went up, Thrill is $115(from $80), Extreme $175(from $170), Ultimate $350(from $300)
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Postby CoasterRiderSC on June 9th, 2022, 9:02 am
Sven18 wrote:Six Flags is going to annual pass system.................................................................... So they are keeping the 3 tiers of thrill, extreme, ultimate however it's good for 12 moths from time of purchase & not 12/31 of year purchased. Prices also went up, Thrill is $135(from $80), Extreme $175(from $170), Ultimate $350(from $300)


Thanks for the update. Where did you learn this?? Any changes to meal passes?
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Postby Kubman34 on June 9th, 2022, 9:11 am
CoasterRiderSC wrote:
Sven18 wrote:Six Flags is going to annual pass system.................................................................... So they are keeping the 3 tiers of thrill, extreme,
ultimate however it's good for 12 moths from time of purchase & not 12/31 of year purchased. Prices also went up, Thrill is $135(from $80), Extreme $175(from $170), Ultimate $350(from $300)


Thanks for the update. Where did you learn this?? Any changes to meal passes?
It’s on the website now. The Thrill pass shows $115. No changes to dining. All levels can be split into 12 monthly payments
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Postby Sven18 on June 9th, 2022, 12:24 pm
Kubman34 wrote:
CoasterRiderSC wrote:
Sven18 wrote:Six Flags is going to annual pass system.................................................................... So they are keeping the 3 tiers of thrill, extreme,
ultimate however it's good for 12 moths from time of purchase & not 12/31 of year purchased. Prices also went up, Thrill is $135(from $80), Extreme $175(from $170), Ultimate $350(from $300)


Thanks for the update. Where did you learn this?? Any changes to meal passes?
It’s on the website now. The Thrill pass shows $115. No changes to dining. All levels can be split into 12 monthly payments

Sorry typo on the thrill price. Yes, it's 12 payments, it's basically the replacement for the memberships that they stopped selling. Meals still the same, though on the last conf call SF mused about meal plans possibly coming back eventually in a new form. Surely less benefits, from what's happened thus far. Parks are having some of the good food options already removed off the plans
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Postby ProfessorPiggos on June 9th, 2022, 3:25 pm
Kubman34 wrote:The Thrill pass shows $115.

Ugh, that $49.99 renewal deal I got is seeming cheaper and cheaper than ever. Not looking forward to pricing next year.
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Postby CoasterRiderSC on June 9th, 2022, 8:33 pm
So if the pass lasts 12 calendar months, there's no hurry to buy it in early Sept or November then..
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Postby Sven18 on June 10th, 2022, 10:07 am
CoasterRiderSC wrote:So if the pass lasts 12 calendar months, there's no hurry to buy it in early Sept or November then..

Exactly, SF will likely do like SEAS & run discounts which are when people least need to purchase. People with current 2022 passes are good till 12/31/2022 & unless they want to go to one of the all year parks, they do not need to purchase till the park opens May 2023.
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Postby Sven18 on June 15th, 2022, 10:48 am
UPDATE: The current prices for the new annual passes is the sale price, All SF sites are saying that prices go up July 1st. So to summarize the Thrill, Extreme, Ultimate were $80, $170 & $300 as a season pass, they just last week went to annual pass for $115, $175, $350 respectively & July 1st they are increasing again. They needed to increase prices after years, a decade in reality, of under pricing. However, SF is likely being way to aggressive in the price increases over a short period. Last fall the lowest passes were $60 to $80 depending when purchased, memberships last fall annualized for the monthly payments were around $80, $100, $145 & $220 .
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Postby Jodon on June 15th, 2022, 11:48 am
While I think it's a good long term strategy to raise season/annual pass costs, the current pricing stragey is a bit alarming to me. Most of those passes are more money than the similar pass at a Cedar Point (the current Summer pass being the only exception).

The past passes were WAY undervalued, but I do not see this pricing structure to be a net positive for a while. The new pricing assumes a more premium product and I feel that unless some drastic changes happen with staffing and upkeep of the park, not to mention new flagship rides, a lot of guests are going to feel cheated. I understand that the new CEO is making some good changes to the appearance and comfort of the park and that a lot of these changes won't happen over night, but it feels a bit greedy/out-of-touch to raise prices this drastically so suddenly, in the middle of the operating season.
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