Park reaching ride standards?

[batcave]

A bottle of water at Six Flags is $3.50 and one at Disney World is only $2.00. As for the advisements.

Ha...I wish. And Demon Boy 300 Acres includes the parkin lot, and SFHH Chicago is one of the nicest water parks around.

[rcoaster]

Well it's just the way Six Flags decides to run and get out of debt. I would rather have a Six Flags than no Six Flags because if they lower eall prices on guest demands, how are they going to get out of all their debts. Sure there are more ways they can get money, such as stop piling rides over rides at MM or increase on advertisements(which everyone complains from)!

[SheiKra13]

i dont think they'll stop pilling MM bcause its only one coaster short of cedar point and i think sfs would like to beat cedarpoint in coaster count, or at least i'd like to see that happen. i would like to get a new thrill ride becasue the last coaster besides rajun cajun was superman and never really thought superman was a fantastic ride, i was actually disapointed with it. the drop is boring, its slower than i thought it'd be, the only thing to look forward to is a pretzel loop. which is awsome, but besides that its a bit dull.

i do think they have done a good job on painting, but they could do some more cleaning up....

[rcoaster]

-Nope... Coaster count is not Six Flags' biggest concern, its more "family" now. Even if MM has more coasters, they barely run all of them! One day I went only 5 coasters were operating, so even if MM will get one more cedar point will still beat them in the "running count" and quality.
-I understand that superman may not be the best but if you don't like batman or superman thats sorta big.;
-Sooner or later something will come to our park so dont worry about that
- Back on topic, for their standards, they do have some things to work on, but they are/will be trying to work on that because the park will do anything to bring guests.

[w00dland]

I'll agree that the park's buildings do look more vibrant this year.

And never once did I complain about rides not being open because for the most part stuff opens atleast for part of the day (thats a staffing problem that could be fixed the park just doesn't want to fix it.)

You have no idea of what the BUSINESS of theme parks is, a park that spends as much as SFGAm does needs to make money while their open in order to stay in business.

You honestly think that without those advertisements the park wouldn't stay in business? Thats hilarious, I would be willing to bet the park makes gobs of money without the ads. Hell, I bet on a normal day parking itself pays for than half the workers salaries.

And never once did anyone here say Cedar Fair was the god send of all theme parks, I didn't even mention them. I understand how a business works, but I think Six Flags could at least stop making it so obvious that the only reason it was there was to take your money.

[SheiKra13]

i went one day and they were so low on workers they werent running red eagle, yankee clipper, the old fashion cars little kids like to drive, and few boat o splash water falls. i thnik they have to keep on top of their staff.

i also think the family thing is going to far, i mean i never go with family, unless u count my causin.

and i actually dont like batman or superman

but i still think the family thing is going to far, and well they attacked viper. i mean i dont mind avertisements, but when they attack my faorite ride at six flags with an advertisment then it kinda takes away the idea of the park.

i mean they could definetly improve on themeing
they usually run rides well
they could take cleaning more seriously.

[Bob O]

That the park this year FINALLY does a little painting of some rides area's and building's isnt a big thing, that is something that should be done on a yearly basis and during the season so the park is sparkling when you visit. A park doesnt get kudo's just for doing regular maintence/painting work.

I havent seen any better entertaitment, I dont find people hitting on garbage cans or break dancers to be any type of good entertainment , or any show to be much of any thing to speak of or worth seeing more than once.

Code of conduct should be placed in the park map, and maybe in the front of the park, but putting it in front of a ride/on garbage cans or the back of your employee's is tacky, takes away from any type of theming and I havent seen any improvement from past years since they added this BS!!

SFGAM cant compare to the major parks in the industry, but they cant even compete with parks like HW which gives there guests free soda/sun tan lotion and doesnt rip them off on when it comes to park food etc. And that park doesnt have to scam even more money by pay to skip privleges and not being able to walk 10 feet without being harrassed by advertising signs, it is so bad I can even go to the bathroom at places like SWT without seeing a geico staring at me when im sitting on the throne!!!!

It would be much better for the parks and it guests if SFGAM wasnt part of the SF chain and was run as a independant park on its own, sadly it is part of a inept company that is billions in debt and is still losing money with no turnaround in site.

[SheiKra13]

its sad how their so far in debt and i look at some six flags and there piled with rides and some barely have anything.

[BP317]

they cant even compete with parks like HW which gives there guests free soda/sun tan lotion and doesnt rip them off on when it comes to park food

Those are things that a small family owned park like Holiday World can do. No corporate theme park in the world will ever give unlimited free soda, the sponsorship deals they have setup with Coke/Pepsi etc is far too valuable.

You honestly think that without those advertisements the park wouldn't stay in business?

Look at it this way, SFGAm has to pay for full-time year round employees in: Operations (Training/development/office), Guest Relations, Security, Human Resources, Wardrobe, Finance, Information Systems, Loss Prevention, Safety, Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics, Ride Control, Painting, Carpentry, Landscaping, Sales, Public Relations, etc....

Also remember on days the park is dead it LOOSES money by being open, In order to properly budget to upkeep the park, they have to make money in the few months the park is open. This is why there are so many ads this year compared to last year: they needed a way to compensate for the lost money when the park is not crowded (listen to the conference calls). When you spend more than you make, its called debt.....SF is in $2billion of it so clearly they arent making enough gobs of money off parking to combat it..

i've also been to busch gardens africa

You bring up a good point. BGA is also able to make money year round, while SFGAm can only spend year round and not make, therefore they have more money to work with without having ads...

Some people on these bored NEVER will understand that Theme Parks are businesses. Which is why I stopped trying to preach that way back when Shapiro and CO took over SF.

Thank you, for the love of god at least one person on these boards understands.

[rcoaster]

^^Thank you, my point exactly!

[w00dland]

Brad, are you Six Flags accountant or something? Are you telling me that for the past 30 years before the park started putting up a huge amount of ads and gouged their prices that the park never made any money? I'm fully aware that the park has full time employees, and they have had them for the length that the park has been open.

I fully believe that SFGAm has made money since it opened. It's a business owners dream. Its 45 minutes away from two very large cities, and has virtually no competition on the same scale.

Maybe what I'm trying to say here is that their are other ways to bring in money. One of the best things Disney and Busch parks do is immerse you in the park. They make it a place you love to be, a get away. Six Flags is making their parks look more and more like a State Fair Midway, it seems like they aren't even trying. Why would I want to go escape from daily life to a place where its so obvious that all they care about is my money, not how much fun I'm having there.

I know you aren't used to anyone saying that SFGAm isn't the best park out there, it might be Six Flags' best park, but its still a Six Flags park...

[Bob O]

Im not expecting SFGAM to give away free soda, but they could set up deals that would greatly reduce the price of soda if they were concerned about there guests!!! Dont you think that HW also has a valuable deal set up with Pepsi that allows them to offer free soda to its guests?? They are willing to give away free soda as a perk to there customers and make the money up somewhere else, ratbher than TRY to make money by gouging there guests at every turn inside the park.

SFGAM has been around for over 45 yrs and this is the 1st year they have ever went this overboard in assaulting there guests with advertising everywhere in the park, so they made do with out this for many years and got along, having been to alot of major/minor park chains the last several years. i have seen none with as much in park advertising as SFGAM has, except maybe SF STL.

"Some people on these bored NEVER will understand that Theme Parks are businesses. Which is why I stopped trying to preach that way back when Shapiro and CO took over SF.

Thank you, for the love of god at least one person on these boards understands."

And as a business SF is failing, they have been for many years and they have shown that they still dont know how to run there business in a manner that will make money and keep there guests happy. Maybe someday they wil hire the right person who doesnt think the way to salvation is to screw your guests, it hasnt worked in the past and isnt working now!!!

[rct2wizard360]

Now I might be wrong about this.
I don't know if Cedar Fair is in as much debt as Six Flags...

But I go to Cedar Point, and they seem to be doing okay, and I don't see a huge Geico banner hanging from TTD. I don't see signs that say 15 minutes from this point, and then a Geico ad on it. It's over the top.

Picture it like this...before the whole Shapiro take over, SFGAm was an RCT2 park. Little things were being added, it was so good, like a kid was making it. The Shapiro take over was like an adult coming up and saying, "You're doing this all wrong, let me show you what you need to do."

As ridiculous as that sounds, thats what it feels like.
Our park is a walking billboard.
And it's getting out of hand. I mean, employee's wearing sponsors logos over park logos? It's just freeking nuts.

Nuts I say.
Nuts.

[BullInDaBack4Life]

^I hate advertisements.

It is nuts.

[batcave]

Now Brad, Im going to have my theme park major(as in school) moment. Operations at Six Flags Great America are in the toliet. Operators are TERRIBLE, seasonal leadership needs to be evaluated, and the park president definitly brought the park downwards.

The fulltime team of operations is one of the best around, I would trade them with my Magic Kingdom ops team any day. The frontline employees are NOT doing what they should be doing. Leads should not be standing around doing nothing, crews should be pushing for capacity, and interaction should be themed to the ride. I was very dissapointed with my last visit in the ops team, Entertainment was the department that saved my visit.

Six Flags Great America has lost sight of the number 1 rule of hospitality...Excellence is not a skill, but rather an attitude.

[rct2wizard360]

҉hey

[SheiKra13]

well six flags is turning into a billboard. a billboard thats in major debt. If they could stop pilling rides in places like magic mountain and if they would stop adding rides they dont have the money for it could a complete differant story.

[BP317]

You guys are titled to your opinion, which is fine. But what I see when I walk around GAm is that it is kept up MUCH better than it was a few years ago. Yeah theres ads, they dont really bother me. The overall cleaner feel of the park, with more families walking around instead of Ozzfest teenagers, more charectors, and newer painted signs makes the park a better experience for me than it was a few years ago. I remember back in the Premier days something needed to be painted or a sticker would rip off, it wasnt fixed because they werent willing to spend the money. Now it gets fixed right away. I've seen much more good than bad coming out of the park the last few years; thats what im trying to point out. I personally think its sort of silly to not visit the park any more because of advertisements and the music change (i'd rather listen to the music the park plays now than the old music anyway)...

Operations at Six Flags Great America are in the toliet.

I agree theres always room for improvement, but comparing to other parks in the industry i'd say their well above average (though now that its going into fall mode, things will be closing naturally)....

[w00dland]

^Operations is one thing I don't really complain about that much at SFGAm. Yeah, they don't have the staff sometimes, but when they do things are run very smoothly, and usually very efficiently compared to some of the other parks I've visited. Yeah, they're no Disney or Universal, but they are leaps and bounds ahead of Carowinds or Mt Olympus, or even Busch Gardens on good days.

But I really miss the old music and feel.

[rcoaster]

Tonight, they were giving out poptarts and literally throwing them, although its not soda like in HW, it's still food, but I have a feeling the park will become a much better place in the future (not saying its bad now), but I think this is just a stage that the corp needs to work through! (Although I dont know because I dont know what it's exactly like with the financial issues!)

[cdnelson]

I'm relatively new here, but my family has been going to Six Flags for years. I'll concede points to both sides here, but will add this. This is the first year in many that we've ever been disappointed. On to my bullet points:

Point: I'll concede that advertising can bring in money and help stablize SF's finances.
CounterPoint: Would a little economics lesson be out of order? If they made meals/food reasonable, more people would eat IN the park rather than packing lunches in their cars. More people eating $5 meals would generate a LOT more money than few people eating $15 meals.

Point: The park does look much better this year, and I for one appreciated. There is still some work to be done in the "nooks and crannys", but overall the appearance seems "up to snuff".
Counterpoint: Customer service has reached an all time low in my opinion. We cannot find refills for the $1 bucket deal ANYWHERE, when we are there. Almost all vendors are understaffed to the point that they are apologizing repeatedly for the long waits. Long ride waits due to understaffing are also driving away repeat visitors. It won't matter how shiny the park is if no one wants to come.

Finally...I don't mind the admission prices. Frankly, if you pay full price to get in...somethings wrong there are SO many discount programs to take advantage of. We purchased season passes for my wife and I for the first time this year. (My kids still get the free reading tickets so it wasn't worth it for them...yet.)

On our last visit in July, we had a miserable experience. We had planned to have dinner at Angelo's (as that venue seems to be the best value/$ in our opinion). There were no hours posted, so we asked an employee how late they were open. He replied 8:30pm. So...my son and I tried to hit a couple more rides, while the girls went to a show. We got rained out on rides, met up with the girls at 7:30pm and went back to Angelo's...closed.

So now we've got a wet & hungry 6 year old to contend with. We went to customer service (THEY were excellent by the way) explained the situation and they gave us food vouchers for our trouble. We asked what other food vendors were open? They said all of them...so fine we trekked back around to Mooseburger. They looked like they were closing, we asked an employee who was sweeping up and he said "No we're open". We got in line, only to be YELLED at that they were closing. We tried to explain and they said we needed to go talk to customer service. As we're getting more and more steamed, a counter employee is stifling a laugh at us. Needless to say, I did go back to customer service. Our day was ruined and we had to leave the park early to go feed our children. I have food vouchers for our next visit (as well as free parking) so at least they TRIED to compensate us for the treatment. We'll see how our next visit goes.

Long story short? We still love the park, it's a family tradition for us. However, this type of treatment has never happened before the new "management". Dressing up the park is nice, but they need to work on the attitude displayed by the seasonal employees.

[rcoaster]

Well a problem I had yesterday was when Deja Vu opened late in the day. We ran over to Deja Vu when we saw it testing and a small line was formed. A man told us that the line will be forming like this, and lined us up to the side of the building in front of deja vu. He left to the ride while another man came. By now, the line was really long and we got upset because they new line attendant went to the back of the line to tell them that the line was forming behind the building, so about 200 people ran to the other end, and he came to us saying that we need to go to the back of the line way back there. I was so mad and told him that the other man told us to line up here, and me and the people next to us were telling him we were here first and are not going to wait one hour to get on now! So some lady came and he left without saying anything and we ended up going in before most of the other people although it was like a rampage with people yelling and screaming that we are line jumping!
---That was crazy!