My first post. Wanted to echo some of the posts above, and add to the list of observations from day one.
Good: - Parking – VIP section for season passholders
- Lots of characters
- Wiggles World looked nice
- Short line for the first two hours (rope Superman, Ragin’ Cajun, V2, Batman, Iron Wolf, Raging Bull, and Viper before noon)
- Fairly well organized/efficient at the opening of the turnstiles and backpack check
- Appears they are getting focused on loading the rides efficiently. All rides have a new (I think) posted “riders per hour” goal (for example, Raging Bull is 1180 per hour, and Ragin Cajun is 160 – hmmm, which line will take longer?!)
Bad: - Plant life not looking very healthy outside the park. Several trees seem dead or are very late bloomers.
- Many unhappy/unenthusiastic workers – this is day one, smile!
- Lots of empty seats on rides when there were long lines (Superman) – why can’t they implement a “single riders” queue to fill in the empty seats?
- Ugly worker T-shirts with a long slogan about cleaning up the park on the back (there are worse problems at the park, and they can easily solve it themselves). A better slogan, if you have to have one, might be “Let’s keep this place family friendly – be respectful and have fun!”
- Front-seat lines still mess up the loading areas and queues for several rides, especially Batman (Superman is done well, with a separate line far back)
- Language used by some in the lines – not sure what you can do about it, but it is upsetting for a park that has lots of children
- Queue area for Superman. Why do they have random TV material and Superman theme music playing at the same time. The TV’s just don’t work well in the sun, are useless if you can’t hear them, and are cheesy IMHO. I think the same things can be said at other rides, but I didn’t wait in many lines yesterday
- Flash Pass. I didn’t do it (nor, fortunately did many others), but this seems wrong on so many levels. First it is a lame attempt to copy from Disney’s FastPass system. They are selling my time with the gold Flash Pass (pay money, wait 75% less time) – this is so Un-american, which makes it even worse at “Great” America. The system seems very bulky (big electronic gadget you have to carry). IMHO, they should either get rid of it, or make it free for all. The (unstated) reason Disney has FastPass is to get people out of the lines so they can spend money in stores and restaurants – somehow Great America misses the point.
SFaddiction84 wrote: upset to see that they still cant seem to fix Deja Vue!
First of all learn how to spell a rides name before you criticize it and it's maintenance staff! Dejavu was supposed to run for opening weekend. Due to some unforeseen circumstances it was push back a little bit. Next week the train will be on, and as long as catcher Two goes on without a problem (this time) it should be running in the next two weeks!
There were some really really good improvements for this season...
Good -As everyone else said, the Season Pass Parking was this best suprise of the day.
-The misters were so friggen cool.
-Employees were really really upbeat and into their jobs.
-Crews were sending trains in a timely fashion the whole day.
-The seperate booth they had to pick up Season Pass Coupon Books.
-I saw some of the restaurants had water cups.
-The mysixflagsphoto cards. This is by far the coolest thing I've ever seen.
-Wiggles World. The tea cups in there own Chubasco so hard. Those things can just spin so fast, they are so loose. It's also just a really nice area in there.
-The Wii Experience. It's slightly bad at the same time too, especially since most of my group has one, so we were stuck in there for a little bit.
Bad -The minute we get up to the parking booths, they were still getting out boxes of maps and stuff. We were probably stuck there for ten minutes while they were still getting ready.
-All of the busses. The reason they had all of the busses there, was because all of the band/school field trips need to be finished before SpyGirl starts. -Lot's of people throwing up.
-Eagle's line, but I guess we'll get used to it.
-SUF's crew. That was terrible the whole day.
Most of the improvements were really good, and I was impressed.
And as far as I know, Deja Vu should be ready to run next weekend!
Last edited by rct2wizard360 on May 6th, 2007, 2:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Viper 06 wrote: Btw zJohn if you had actually read my post you would know that the afternoon parade is not yet ready so you really can't use that as a point against six flags just yet. The Bad landscaping is always like that on opening day, check out your opening day pictures or other's opening day picture from about the last 20 years and I'm guessing you'll find that nothing has ever been perfect on opening day.
I know, I still find it funny though..but at least they're trying with a cruddy parade than just canceling it.
http://themeparkcritic.com/scripts/profile/ViewProfile.asp?ViewID=2909 A furious storm once roared `cross the sea, catching ships in its path, helpless to flee. Instead of a certain and watery doom, the winds swept them here to Typhoon Lagoon!
Its sad when the park cant get Dejavu to run when they have had all off season to get the ride to operate properly and do so on a consistent basis!!!
As for the behavior of parks guests I hope everyone who witnesa's bad behavior writes/emails the park to let them know, and in the future go to guest relations and complain. They wont do anything until enough people let them know. The park needs to have security in plain clothes to catch smokers/foul mouthed peoeple and line jumpers and eject them from the park and revoke there season pass's if they have one!!! If they start doing this early and often maybe people will get the message, if not the signs about behaving properly and trying to be family friendly is just BS and the park wont be any bewtter than it was under old management!!
Bob O wrote:Its sad when the park cant get Dejavu to run when they have had all off season to get the ride to operate properly and do so on a consistent basis!!!
The ride was running fine up until a few days before Opening Day. Things can happen un-expectedly, so stop blaming the park for god sakes.
I do think you have to cut them some slack on the landscaping. This spring was strange in that it didn't really stay warm for any length of time and also there was some late snow/ice to contend with.
I would agree that there was an absence of security, especially the first part of the day. They were trying to deal with some folks later but they can't be everywhere at once either.
There was a group of six trying to crash the line prior to opening at the turnstiles but security and the other employees there sent them to be back after several of us started making a racket about it.
I know it's tough to come up with staffing on opening day but some "groupers" would have done wonders with the lines yesterday. I'm often a single rider as I often travel to SFGAm while I'm in the area for business and I certainly try to do my best to fill in the gaps. Most of the general public won't do that on their own.
According to one of the maintenance guys I talked to they do expect Deja Vu to be ready for next weekend. They are finishing up some cable replacement and the train should go one and be tested by mid-week if all goes well. He didn't know when Sky Trek Tower would be opening.
Aaron084 wrote:The Big Red Car Ride was pretty sad. They need a few trees and cutouts to add to the ride, but I'm sure that's coming.
I thought the same thing. Even some simple road theming would have been nice.
So they didn't use any floats yesterday in the parade? Because I definitely saw one they used last year when I was on BTR
Some notes:
- AE line and exit are pretty long.
- AEB and AER were racing and both had two trains running, so that was really nice.
- I rode AEB and we were barely trimed before the helix. So we were flying during the helix, it was awsome.
- It was a blast riding Revolution although people still can't seem to understand the message "move all the way down." (Did the routine seem shorter than usual to anyone?)
- The misters were pretty cool.
- Saw a few line jumpers (and either I don't know what security looks like or I never saw them).
- Saw lots of characters out.
- RB seemed to load slow, but BTR seemed to load pretty quickly.
- Some ops were enthusiastic.
- Overall I had an enjoyable day.
Good to know that Deja Vu will likely be up and running next weekend. Mother's Day, here I come!
I don't know why everyone keeps complaining about how long AE's line is. I think it could be a lot worse. It's just a little extra walking, no big deal. At least it doesn't have 5 million switchbacks anymore.
Viper always had a grouper. I hate people in line for Iron Wolf by the station. When there's no one in the station because of the front row line and no one is going into the station. If you're not in line for the front row, move into the darn station! Also people on GD don't always follow the yellow lines, and they end up ruining it for everyone else.
rct2wizard360 wrote:Raging Bull had a grouper for the first hour of the day.
Friggen I don't know why the scrapped it. It was helping a ton.
Hrm, I find that half of the time, grouping doesn't work well at SFGAm. It's amazing, as it should be an easy concept to grasp, but many fail to understand how to make it work. For instance, at Viper yesterday, the grouper was allowing *just* enough people in to fill each row on the train, basically..and sometimes, was letting empty rows go out. If you're going to group, you let in enough people to fill two or three trains to prevent that from happening, and, so, when you see a group that wants "two people to go ahead of them" (so they can ride w/ friends in other rows) actually has two people behind them who can go ahead of them..tis much better than letting that row go empty for a cycle.
Was NOT impressed at all with American Eagle, The red train slowed down toward the top of the lift and creaped over the hill, later on we decided to ride the Blue side and this time that train did it! Not pleased at all
Seriously!?!? I thought AE was the best running ride at the park. The trims were on on the top but not on the bottom which made for killer air on the back half. AEB was practically trimless the entire ride!!! I loved it!
I also love the Wii experience. That will take up too much of my time this summer.
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
Bob O wrote:Its sad when the park cant get Dejavu to run when they have had all off season to get the ride to operate properly and do so on a consistent basis!!!
Well bob since your always so negative and first to criticize everyone and everything, I think you should show the park how to fix dejavu and all the other problems.
Personally, they had from End of Frightfest to May 5th to get the park ready, your telling me that in 6 or 7 months time, they couldnt get Music right? or signs right, or get things working properly?? And another thing, maybe they should think about starting Employee Training sooner, We were waiting inline at the entrance gate to pay for ever, and there was only 9 cars in front of us. Because the employees couldnt get things right as far as paying and stuff.
Very poor! I dont understand how 7 months go by and they still cant get it ready. what, are these precious people to good to work full days or weekends to get the park ready?
^its all about the budget. Most of the employees are seasonal. They are all let go within a week or two of fright fest being over. if money is tight it might even be the last day the park is open. Very few employees are full time. If you want the employees to be perfectly trained on opening day or the rides to opporate perfectly then the seasonal employees have to start sooner. And if you want them to be during fright fest then you have to cut them some where. Do you want less employees during the peak season. Early May is when they are doing the on the job training. If you want the peak season service it is a necissary evil.
SFaddiction84 wrote:Personally, they had from End of Frightfest to May 5th to get the park ready, your telling me that in 6 or 7 months time, they couldnt get Music right? or signs right, or get things working properly?? And another thing, maybe they should think about starting Employee Training sooner, We were waiting inline at the entrance gate to pay for ever, and there was only 9 cars in front of us. Because the employees couldnt get things right as far as paying and stuff.
Very poor! I dont understand how 7 months go by and they still cant get it ready. what, are these precious people to good to work full days or weekends to get the park ready?
Hey addiction, cool it down.
Take in to consideration what you are complaining about. First, employee training can start as early as February and continue into the operating season. Say you were learning how to take money, answer questions, etc. at the toll booths in the front. You learned about this in March. It is two months later. How many people do you think are going to remember EVERY little detail? Maybe they were getting questions from the guests, confused by the register, etc. Let's not forget that their training is without actual guests. Training in a classroom is much different than having guests in front of you.
Second, 7 months may sound like a long time, but with a small staff, it is hard to get everything updated and fixed. When I worked in the park during the off season, my crew and I were lucky if we accomplished at least one task during the day. It took days to do some things that we were assigned. We would be pulled into different departments to help them out. You have to keep in mind that the park prioritizes their to-do lists. Changing the music from Fright Fest is probably not high on the list. Making sure most of the rides are ready to go is. So, where do you think the park puts their money and hours? You've got it: maintenance of rides and general mechanics.
You're, what, 22 or 23? If you have a problem with the park, write a coherent, polite letter and explain what the problems are, how it affects you and their other guests, and what they can do about it. Venting on a message board populated by teenagers is not going to solve any problems.
In all honesty, the problems you have encountered are the best you could hope for. From what I understand, a majority of the rides were open, crews were upbeat, and people were enjoying themselves. It could have been a lot worse. However, it was not.
So, my final thoughts to you: either write a letter to the park explaining what they probably know about already, enjoy what was provided to you and hope that this was the lowest point of the season, or quit complaining unless you plan to do something about it.
It takes a lot more than you think to get the park running let alone the rides. The don’t just throw a tarp over the rides in the winter and take them off in spring and run them. To stick up for employees, Wiggles world is open isn’t it?? Sometimes you have to take a little to get a little. Who do you think assembled those rides in that area? Who do you think landscaped that area? How long has it been since a ride, let alone a whole new area has opened with the park??
The “Please keep the park clean because my…” on all the trash cans were removed. They were there last week. I suspect there may have been several complaints during Buyout weekend.
Wiggles World is open but not done yet.
Signs are missing for several places.
Loggers run Turntable floor is missing.
Sky track Tower is still closed and it been at least 8 months.
The Fruit Salad ride in Wiggles world, the fence that goes around it was built too close to the ride that you are able to touch the ride. To fix this problem SFGAM put a temporary barricade around the fence.
Kids playing on and breaking the new stage by County Fair train station. No Security in site and no Barricades around the stage.
Turbo Bungee up charge attraction has been removed and the empty dirty spot just sits there and rots.
Overal SFGAM did not look like it was ready for opening day.
DejaVuGurl1203 wrote: Then a bit later we got in line for it again, and 2 girls were in front of us and a few other people, and this girl with 3 others were trying to get past us. Me, my boyfriend, and a friend Josh we kinda ran into, blocked them from passing. She was SO pissed. She was calling us the n word, saying she would beat one of us down and crap. Eventually, by using the switchbacks they got with their friends. We told security but they didn't seem to do anything.
That was hilarious, I couldn't keep a straight face the whole time she was "cussing" us out.
"Oh My Gosh, She is such a whore!" - heard behind me exiting Raging Bull.
DejaVuGurl1203 wrote:I had this crazy idea last night, that I want to make a t-shirt and have the back say "line jumping is not permitted" and some other stuff. And I'd wear it to the park.
What about 'Smoking Is Not Permitted'? Wait until you get the responses from that. Many people smoke in line because they're not aware of the rule of thumb. Otherwise they're just plain ignorant.
R.I.P. Splashwater Falls and Space Shuttle America. Deja Vu, enjoy Idaho.
Hear ye, hear ye: "After 45 years, Six Flags has stopped smoking."
The “Please keep the park clean because my…” on all the trash cans were removed. They were there last week. I suspect there may have been several complaints during Buyout weekend.
They were removed because the high gloss green garbage cans didnt agree with the adhesive, and they wouldnt stick on and kept peeling off by themselves.
As far as people talking about the stage in county fair, it's supposed to be integrated into the midway, it's not supposed to be a full-fledge production. And as far as the afternoon parade go, once they have the performers for Show Stoppin and the Other shows in the park daily, I believe, they'll be dancing in the midways like last year, which was so much better, chances are they will have the new vehicles by then.
It's interesting that no one has mentioned the gallows up in SWT, so I'll mention that they are being used for the new Country Rocks Show.
Ride operators can't start training until the rides are done being refurbished over the offseason.
Then it needs to be warm weather for the majority of the rides to operate.
It take's a lot of more work to get a theme park running than a lot of you guys think. It's a lot of hardwork to get ready for the first few days of the season. So stop the complaining.
