Marriotts Great America vs. SFGAm

[LaTiNoObSeSeDSFGAm]

Now I dont know if this topic was discussed before but just bare with me aightz? What you like better SFGAm or Marriotts basing on scenery, rides, etc. Not I havent been to Marriotts ( because Im 15 lol ) but from the pictures I think the scenery is nicer than SFGAm I mean yeah its nice now but look at the pictures from opening day big difference my opinion I think the trees cast to much of a shadow on the park. But whatever is your opinion. You know that SFGAm wins for the rides.

If you go to Greatamericaparks.com and click to "whats new with the site" scroll all the way down till you notice an ariel view of the Gurnee entrance of Marriotts Great America. Did you notice that were they collect the ticket stubs now, the building is not there nomore that its just stands ( something like that ) my bad for not being clearly on what I want to say.

[w00dland]

I would say that there might be about 3 or 4 people on these forums that could actually comment on first hand experiences. Based on stories and pictures I like Six Flags now. I'm a coaster dork, not a park dork. We have much better coasters now then we did back in the day....

[FParker185]

I'm around 90% park dork, so I'll have to say MGA for looks, though I missed it by a few years. As for when I've been going to the park, the end of the Time Warner era was the best.

However I do believe SFGAm attained relative perfection 1997, after 1997 it was just such a sharp downward spiral and we are left with what's left of what was once a world class park, so really, I'm not sure, park looked cooler during MGA, but in the 90's the ride count caught up to the looks of the place (without the theme's being to degraded), in 1998 a whole 1/4 of the park was really messed up by the new kids area and the reconfigured Yukon Territory for Looney Tunes Natinal Park.

[greatamerica2003]

Marriotts Great America

Marriotts is in the hospitality business. Therefore they were better and running an entire immersive experience.

1. They had great food. Angelos used to be called Captain Morgans, and they had a full seafood menu. Now everywhere is Dippin' Dots and cheeseburgers. Seafood? Nowhere to be found.

2. Employees. Marriotts tended to hire college-age kids for summer work. They were more mature, and FAR more pleasant to come in contact with. They also wore they costumes for their specific themed area.

3. Rides. Now I know there were not as many rides back then, but they were very well maintainted. Small things that haven't carried over, like steam-engine sound effects on the railroad.

4. Atmosphere. Wonderful themed music, costuming, and themed-area specific foods and rides all contributed to the great experience. Other things like parking lot trams and a GAS STATION out by the tollway sign within parking lot boundaries gave the guest everything they wanted and needed.

When MGA was built, it really was on-par with a Disneyland type park. Subsequent ownership changes have changes many things since then.

I do agree with the above post that the "Golden Years" of Great America were between 1995-1997. Time Warner ownership was a boon for the park. Money for capital expenditures, and additions of new rides BUT STILL keeping a lot of Marriotts theming and charm. Being owned by an entertainment company was a good thing. Look at the other chains that are owned by major entertainment companies. Disney, Universal, and to some extent Paramount. All very nice parks.

Enough Said.

[twixmix0303]

I'm not disagreeing with anyone, but one thing I'd like to point out is the fact that the industry itself has changed. Remember, Six Flags parks are not along the lines of Disneyworld or even Universal. They are regional parks and focus more on thrills than hospitality. I do agree and have noticed before that Six Flags seemed to have been in a downward spiral since the late '90s. I like the older Six Flags, but obviously times are changing:
- Ride technology is becoming much more prevalent, so more emphasis is being put on rides
- People are traveling further, so SFGAm and all other Six Flags parks are becoming less and less of destination parks like Disney (except for enthusiasts like us )

[Mr. D.T.]

Would you take theming over the ride quantity? I think so.

I never remembered Angelos used to be a seafood restaurant. That sounded kind of interesting. Pizza Express used to be called Fisherman's Pier. Now what most of the park sells is some kind of food you can get in another section of the park or in a different restaurant, probably the grocery shelf. Tell them we need seafood restaurants again.

I can remember when employees in Yukon and Southwest wore wardrobe which fit the theme of the section. Why they ceased it is beyond me.

Certainly this teaches a valuable lesson: Never try to measure a park by the number of rides, but by the quality of the theming.

Now that you brought this up, I'll have to recite this:

R.I.P. Shockwave, Power Dive, Cajun Cliffhanger, Sky Whirl, and Hay Baler. I hope Ameri-Go-Round finds a better home.

[greatamerica2003]

I'm not disagreeing with anyone, but one thing I'd like to point out is the fact that the industry itself has changed. Remember, Six Flags parks are not along the lines of Disneyworld or even Universal. They are regional parks and focus more on thrills than hospitality. I do agree and have noticed before that Six Flags seemed to have been in a downward spiral since the late '90s. I like the older Six Flags, but obviously times are changing:
- Ride technology is becoming much more prevalent, so more emphasis is being put on rides
- People are traveling further, so SFGAm and all other Six Flags parks are becoming less and less of destination parks like Disney (except for enthusiasts like us )

I don't doubt that the industry had changed. That change in ownership in Six Flags was the beginning of the downward trend.

[planea380]

Marriotts Great America

Marriotts is in the hospitality business. Therefore they were better and running an entire immersive experience.

1. They had great food. Angelos used to be called Captain Morgans, and they had a full seafood menu. Now everywhere is Dippin' Dots and cheeseburgers. Seafood? Nowhere to be found.

2. Employees. Marriotts tended to hire college-age kids for summer work. They were more mature, and FAR more pleasant to come in contact with. They also wore they costumes for their specific themed area.

3. Rides. Now I know there were not as many rides back then, but they were very well maintainted. Small things that haven't carried over, like steam-engine sound effects on the railroad.

4. Atmosphere. Wonderful themed music, costuming, and themed-area specific foods and rides all contributed to the great experience. Other things like parking lot trams and a GAS STATION out by the tollway sign within parking lot boundaries gave the guest everything they wanted and needed.

When MGA was built, it really was on-par with a Disneyland type park. Subsequent ownership changes have changes many things since then.

I do agree with the above post that the "Golden Years" of Great America were between 1995-1997. Time Warner ownership was a boon for the park. Money for capital expenditures, and additions of new rides BUT STILL keeping a lot of Marriotts theming and charm. Being owned by an entertainment company was a good thing. Look at the other chains that are owned by major entertainment companies. Disney, Universal, and to some extent Paramount. All very nice parks.

Enough Said.

I decided to make a post and further ellaborate...The Marriott Corporation has allways been a company who has had their game on tap par. One of the few Hospitality/Service companies that believe in this crazy idea known as The customer comes before the money. Disney used to have it they do not anymore...Paramount Parks has it down...Marriott Hotels still has it down amazingly. The are a hotel chain that takes care of your every need no matter how much money you have or what type a room you are in. One of the few hotel chains that have a concierge for everyone and their is allways someone on staff....how many hotel chains will order you a pizza at 2am and deliever it to your room. The Marriott's Great America venture was a very successfull one while they owned the park. They created two destinations that people wanted to go to, showed them a good time, created customers for life, and made a profit. The service industry theese days is soo in the hole right now, almost everycompany have a computer answering your calls, or someone in India does. Marriott stills has humans answering calls and while contributing to the American Economic System through jobs. If the park was still owned by Marriott you would see the greatest service on the planet, the Great America Parks would be full fledged destination parks running year round (yes it is possible.)

When i see Great America under the Six Flags name, I see so much potential down the drain. It is not the Park Management Team's fault it is the dumb asses at corporate. The only way out the mess of corporate is Six Flags going under, and I realy hope it does. Six Flags is the United Airlines of theme parks....Give it up boys your Screwed! In my honest Opinion Marriott probably has had second guesses about selling the parks, maybe not Santa Clara but definitly Gurnee.

"Dave I am really disliking the profanity filter....making me modify my post ."DJ

[Mr. SFGAm]

In 1998 a whole 1/4 of the park was really messed up by the new kids area and the reconfigured Yukon Territory for Looney Tunes National Park.

I don't think that the kids areas took away from the theming of Yukon at all. I think they blended the themes nicely with the "national park" and forest themes of the kids areas. I think the year of definate theme deterioration was 2001, with V2 and Deja Vu just being plopped down without even a thought to the theme of the respective area.
I think that alot of the Marriott years have managed to survive the years, especially in the Hometown/Carousel/Yukon/Orleans areas. Yankee Harbor and to some extent County Fair, are lost causes as far as Marriott theming goes.

[SIC COASTER]

Disney used to have it they do not anymore...Paramount Parks has it down...Marriott Hotels still has it down amazingly. The are a hotel chain that takes care of your every need no matter how much money you have or what type a room you are in. One of the few hotel chains that have a concierge for everyone and their is allways someone on staff....how many hotel chains will order you a pizza at 2am and deliever it to your room.

Marriot Hotels are indeed #1 in the chain of hotels for customer service ( just learned that at the meeting I just had at work)

[greatamerica2003]

I beg to differ on the Disney comment. I am always treated very well when I am down there. While I don't think they have "lost it" I think that the downturn in the economy has hurt everyone in the theme park business.

And using Disney and Paramounts as comparisons to Marriotts isn't very fair. Marriotts was in the resort/hotel/hospitality business AND they just so happened to own 2 theme parks.

Disney and Paramount have their roots in the entertainment business. Those are two very different company structures. Granted Disney owns quite a few hotel properties, but they got their feet wet making cartoons and movies.

[Ilovthevu']

I'm more for rides. I think Mariott did a better job with flats such as Triple Play, Orbit, East River Crawler, Sky Whirl (wasn't bad), Hay Bayler, Big Top (Richochet), Whirlgig, Fiddler's Fling, two carousels (not bad for being carousels), and rest aren't that bad.

I'm not saying that the flats today are terrible, but I think Marriott really knew what companies to pick for them, and the types

I think SFGAm is above them on rollercoasters though with additions of V2, D Vu', BTR which spread to many, many parks, SUF, and so on. However, its real hard to compare the two because of the different generations.

For theming, my thing is that I consider rides more important than theming for the fact that people are actually riding the rides. Yes, theming is good especially when theming makes sense to people, but if I were to theme a "junky" ride people would still not want to ride the ride no matter what.

I like SF's theming better (not for rides), but for areas. I think Mardi Gras, and SWT are the best themed, and they were put in when the "new SFGAm" was introduced. That's enough for me.

[Danhockey04]

About the theming, I have to disagree, I think Mariott did a much better job at that. SF did theme Mardi Gras, but did not theme SWT. SWT addition was planned while Mariott still owned the park. They drew out all the plans and created the theming, exactly how it is today, but without raging bull and Viper. Mariott also did a great job to the other parts of the park, but SF ruined them, it isnt SF's fault, I blame Premier.

[Mr. D.T.]

Thanks for telling me that SWT was themed by Marriott, cause I was gonna say that SF themed it.

I do like the Mardi Gras section with the new rides, and I agree it needed an improvement, but the theming is just OK. But not as bad as the Hawaiian theming in Yukon at KidsFest. The decorations don't fit in a section originally made to look like a Canadian village so I say it's the exact opposite of Hawaii! In addition, the Hawaiian soundtrack is downright cheap and corny. It sounds like they planned it the last minute. Bobby McFerrin, Elvis, and Santana don't fit in the soundtrack. While 'Wipeout' makes an excellent California hit, I don't know about Hawaiian. Now there are plenty of songs in the soundtrack which do fit with Hawaii, but they could've done much better on it.