I have been reading this forum for years and finally decided to create an account and post. I have been a big Six Flags Great America fan for my whole life, but over the past few years, I have become more and more frustrated with this park and visited less and less often. In fact, I did not visit in 2008 and have no plans to visit in 2009. I plan to visit Cedar Point and Kings Island in 2009. With Six Flags continued struggles, I am hoping the park would be put up for sale and bought by Cedar Fair. (I know, I know, wishful thinking). I just feel with Shapiro in charge the park is starting to become Six Flags Kiddie Land instead of Six Flags Great America Theme Park.
I understand the park needs to cater to families and not all additions need to be large coasters or thrill rides and I am fine with that. In fact I am really glad to see they are adding Buccaneer Battle for 2009. I think this could be a great addition to the park. I was fine with the addition of Wiggles World too. Having little kids areas in different parts of the park is good for families attending the park. It provides little kids a place to be with a parent while the older kids in the family ride a more thrilling attraction in that area of the park. I do not understand the addition of the Dark Knight. You have a very similar ride in very close vicinity in the park in Rajun Cajun and to top it off the ride was just added in 2004, only four seasons before. I know the park didn’t have an indoor coaster, but I did not understand the addition of the Dark Knight when you have pretty much the same type of ride in Rajun Cajun right next door.
Let’s look at the park’s additions over the last 7 years.
2009 – Buccaneer Battle – geared towards families
2008 – The Dark Knight – coaster geared towards families
2007 – Wiggles World – little kids area geared towards little kids
2006 – Operation Spygirl and the return of Space Shuttle America – Show geared towards families/ Indoor space ride geared towards families
2005 – Hurricane Harbor Water Park – The best addition to the park since Raging Bull
2004 – Mardi Gras – Thrill rides and wild mouse coaster
2003 – Superman Ultimate Flight – Flying coaster geared towards thrill seekers
Looking at this you can see when Shapiro took over (2006 was the first park additions Shapiro was involved in) and the correlation into Six Flags Great America Theme Park starting to become Six Flags Kiddie Land.
Six Flags Magic Mountain is getting a coaster in 2009 a wood coaster geared towards thrill seekers and I read that they are also getting a new coaster in 2010. Six Flags Great Adventure got new coasters in 2005 (Kingda Ka) and 2006 (El Toro) and then in 2008 got the Dark Knight. Kinga Ka was pre Shapiro, and El Toro was probably already well into progress before Shapiro took over. As long as he in charge, a big thrilling coaster will never happen for Six Flags Great America.
I read somewhere that depending on the success of Magic Mountain’s 2009 coaster (Terminator Salvation) clone may go into a Six Flags Park in 2010. I would bet that SFGAm would be that park. They have the space to fit a ride of that size in the Splash Water Falls spot and it would be the first major coaster for the park since 2003. This ride seems like a coaster geared towards families, but unfortunately this is not the ride the park needs at this moment. The park has two great wood en coasters. (I would like a third one, but not now, some time in the future). The park needs another mega looper. The other two major parks in the chain (SFMM and SFGAdv have two mega loopers and SFGAm has none. I think a floorless would be the way to go. They seem to be the new craze. I would not like to see a Dive Machine put in the park, they are too much of a one trick pony and frankly quite boring. I rode Sheikra last year and was extremely disappointed. It was one of the reasons we went to Orlando/Tampa. In fact, the ride that blew me away was Kraken.
These are just some of my frustrations. Does anyone else have any thoughts?
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My Six Flags Rant
96 posts
• Page 1 of 4 • 1, 2, 3, 4
Another thing that bugs me is the creativity of ride names. Six Flags used to have some unique and creative roller coaster names. (Iron Wolf, Shock Wave, Déjà vu, Vertical Velocity, American Eagle, Viper, heck I liked Batman the Ride when it first came out. Now everything is a copy of a coaster from another park or based off a movie. I loved the name Batman the Ride when it came out. The name was for Batman’s new crime fighting machine and went with the themeing of the ride and themeing of Gothem City. The rides slogan “Remember there’s only air beneath your chair was creative and unique.” Then the park adds Superman Ultimate Flight, which I guess the name agrees with the concept, but the ride is located in Orleans Place not in DC Comics area. Then Batman Dark Knight gets added and again doesn’t fit the theming of the territory. They already had one Batman why do we need another. I mean the park is Six Flags Great America not Six Flags Batman and Superman. Does anyone remember back in 1999 when Raging Bull was announced? The ride was themed after a bull that terrorized the old Southwest Territory. Sure Raging Bull is not the most creative name on the block but it fit the themeing of the area it was in and didn’t share the name of any other ride in the park.
While I am thinking about it, does everybody remember the slogans for these rides? Viper - “Don’t Get Wrapped in the coils.” Iron Wolf – “Stand Up and Howl on Iron Wolf”
Why does everyone hate TDK. It's warm, it's the only coaster open in the pouring rain, and it can be fun. With all these new ride technologies out now, people were expecting so much more from an indoor mouse, but if you were not expecting it to be fabulous, then it's fun. And, the two times that I visited SFGAm during Fright Fest this year, TDK had a 20 minute or less wait. If the line is out the door, that doesn't mean that the whole indoor queue house is full.
Long story short, if you hate The Dark Knight Coaster, DON'T RIDE IT. poor wolfie rip
 ( hopewe get a neww bm wingrider for next year!11!
I've reopened this topic as at the very least this topic was well thought out, even if it is a bit of a rehash.
Licensed Mechanical Engineer
Well its true that Shapiro says he is gearing toward families, and is putting all kinds of "Family Friendly" rides at great america, while putting in super thrill coasters everywhere else. Maybe those parks saw shapiro coming, and PRE-Ordered in advance all these coasters, so that it would be years after shapiro took over before he would have control of "coasters" at these parks?
Its true shapiro prob could have cancelled the orders unless they were pre-paid for. I do now know why he says "SIX FLAGS IS GEARING TOWARD FAMILIES" and yet he is only gearing SOME PARKS Toward Families while adding more un-needed coasters at Magic Mountain and so on. I do think while even though Six Flags needs a new Major Coaster, Where would we put it? Would it start at one end of the park and fly over the rest of the park? Six Flags Cannot even expand around them and a major coaster in park like ours would look like an eye soar i think, unless American Eagle were to kick the bucket, they would put in maybe a "Hershey Storm Runner" type ride (sorry, not good on my coaster types)! Trips Planned 2009: ?Unsure?
I do sorta agree with him Coasternut that it did seem like when Wiggles came it was going to become Six Flags Kiddie Land, I was mad when Wiggles came. I'm sorry I still hate them, they are a waste of space and they are flat out retarded, yeah they're great for kids but in my opinon I hate them and I will always hate them. Also BB sounds retarded it goes what 5 miles an hour, yeah I think I'll pass on that and I think it's also a waste on money. If they don't have the money for a roller coaster then why waste it on something that is only open for the summer????
SF trips 09 = 15
SF trips 10= 11 SF trips 11 =7
Sorry folks this gimme gimme gimme attitude no longer works at the Shapiro run Six Flags. We should be happy with what we have to enjoy because it could be a lot worse.
ALOT WORSE 
Lets all remember 2008 was a Cash Flow Positive year! Let Shapiro Attract families for 2 or 3 years, that way, he will get the park to the kind of numbers They NEED To be at, and then he can throw a major coaster at great america and it will not hurt the "bring in the families" gimmic! Well i do wish another major coaster would come to great america, say a "Maverick" or "griffen" type ride, lets settle with what we got!
I do have one request for the parks though, PLEASE finish themeing The Dark Night, it looks like they just "ran out of money" and didnt finish themeing it! Trips Planned 2009: ?Unsure?
Families=money
Thrill seekers=season pass+burger king Families=park staying open Only thrill seekers=park closing Now I must admit that I do eat at burger king when I go for one simple fact, I am 15, I make $9.20 every other week, my family is paying for 2 houses right now in this bi**h of an economy. But I'm fine with all of the family additions like I said before if families with money come to the park, it stays open. AND as I have said before we still have Raging Bull, SUF, BTR, American Eagle, Demon, Iron Wolf (yes I like the ride) and Viper. So with that said they can add as much family that they want as long as they do not completely for get about us 14-16 year olds with no money but love coasters. So in short Families=money, as long as they don't forget about me. End Rant "The rides are GREAT, The shows are GREAT, the fun is GREAT. At Marriott"s GREAT AMERICA!"
I understand that families = money and I couldn't agree more. I understand that SFGAm is a business and bottom line is to turn a profit. You have to add attractions to keep people coming back. HH is a huge draw to the park and was a great addition. I am fine with adding family attractions and kiddie attractions to improve the park. I just asked that not everything that is added be kiddie oriented year after year.
I just ask that when it is time to install a new coaster that the park get something unique and thrilling that is not a clone. I would rather see the park wait 4-6 years between coasters and install quality unique thrilling coasters vs. cookie cutter clones every few years. The last major coaster SFGAm received was SUF and that is a boring, dull, clone of a coaster. I would have much rather have waited and received something unique like Tatsu or Manta down the road, then this clone. To me I liked Shock Wave. It was original and designed for SFGAm. Sure, it got a bit rough towards the end of its run, but it was a fun ride. I understand the ride needed to go because of maintenance problems, but it didn't deserve to be replaced by clone of a coaster. To Six Flags credit. I agreed and still agree with the removal of Déjà vu. The ride was a maintenance nightmare. I would much rather see money dumped in to park improvements (IE painting Raging Bull) then constantly fixing a ride. In my 15 visits since the ride was built in 2001, it was only open 1 time and I only managed to get one ride on this coaster. One heck of a ride, but the coaster was never open when I went. I think the space will be much better used. Hopefully Buccaneer Battle can be that ride.
Expect to see plenty of clones, as clones are cheaper to produce than a custom based ride. Engineering is not cheap. The general public doesn't know or care that another version of the ride may exist somewhere else. I don't see people complaining that there is a Haunted Mansion or Pirates of the Caribbean based ride at nearly every Disney park; when you have something that works it is an easy way add something new that will be successful rather than taking a risk. Licensed Mechanical Engineer
If it is a good clone (Which I think SUF is) who cares? Superman was a major success for Six Flags and continues to the second or third most popular ride. They should hold off for another 2-3 years and maybe take something out, put in a major looper/dive machine whatever and shut everyone up. The money they spent yearly on Demon, Whizzer and v2 would already help make those monthly payments. Just sayin'.
13 Years with SFGAm World!
Just so we can pay for maintenance costs on ANOTHER coaster! Yay!
If you chose the right company & you do your research you won't have another V2 or Deja Vu. You will have another Raging Bull or Batman. Two park icons with little maintenance issues. Aside from some motor issues.
13 Years with SFGAm World!
Why does everyone here, it seems, want to remove The Demon and Wizzer. The rides, and this is going to be a huge shock, PAID for. A company that could be facing bankruptcy does not need to tear out proven rides to cater to a bunch of thrill seeking 12-30 year olds who have season passes and use them a lot. They need those lower thrill but still larger rides to bring in the families that pay to come 1-2 time a year. They need more things along the lines of Wiggles World and TDK because they make money. Same is true for adding to the water park.
^
Simple, yet absolutely 100% Right. Once people understand that we'll all be better off.
I do understand too that families= money but we have plenty of kiddie areas, we don't need anymore. Now for BB doesn't anyone else agree with me that it isn't needed because we have Loggers, RR, and YC. If we were going to get a water ride at least making it thrilling instead of going on a track that goes 5 miles an hour to shoot people with water, that sounds just so lame. But that's my opinion.
SF trips 09 = 15
SF trips 10= 11 SF trips 11 =7
I see this entire situation as a "role reversal"
Every year of adding thrills after thrills was another year of parents and families complaining because they had nothing to do and with little to no response or solution to the complaints, these people left and told everyone they knew not to come. However...now that Shapiro and Six Flags finally began to answer the outcry to the problem of families...which are finally coming back through the front gates and spending money, the thrill seekers now whine because they have nothing to do, but in actuality they do. Literally, it was a decade of $25M coaster after coaster, and It's been 3-4 years and people now gripe because there hasn't been a major coaster in the company. There have been coasters and thrill rides, but instead of 1 single park getting a $25M dollar coaster, 3-4 parks have received multiple copies of a single ride for about the same price. Something must be going right if they reached positive cash flow after this season without spending the entire budget on one "Kingda Ka" for 1 park out of the entire chain. I see Six Flags trying to go more towards the family aspect for quite awhile and actually spending more on the theme aspect. I see TDK as one of the first "attempts" at putting a storyline to an actual ride. It surely has its flaws and is far from perfect, but for the very first attempt, they did a pretty good job. I would expect to see more of this in the future. You can't really do this when you "plop" a 25 million dollar thrill ride in a parking lot. As far as BB, it sounds so lame, yet got really good reviews at Dollywood. I always walk by rapids and seeing people have a good time trying to "shoot" the rafts that come by with water. I would assume that they won't charge people money to shoot the water from the midway. But I guess everything has to go 300+ miles an hour to be considered a thrill ride 
It is the truth. The park has been much busier in 2006, 2007 and 2008 than it ever was when I went in past years. In 2005 the amusement park usually wasn't too busy, but that was because the waterpark was new and everyone was going there. I think that there are a lot of minor things that they could change to increase how much money they make. I know that a lot of families that go to the park try to not get more than one meal inside the park, because they know it's a total ripoff. I think if they offered some cheaper restaurants they could make a lot more money off of food. The same goes for games. At holiday world the games are $1 for a lot of them and at knoebel's it's like 25 cents for some of the games. Most families have more fun at parks if they aren't thinking about how much money they're spending. Right now it seems that most of the families that are going and spending a lot of money are doing it because they feel obligated to take their kids to six flags, because their parents took them when they were kids. I know a lot of you are probably thinking what the heck this guy has no idea what he's talking about. I've gotten the snobby suburban soccer mom point of view on this one from my mom and her friends and that's exactly how they think. Coasterwise unfortunately I somewhat agree with both sides of the argument. I'm a huge thrill seaker, so I would love to see a crazy coaster or some awesome prototype drop tower, but I don't think that will make them a lot of money. So in the short run I think they should stick with some nice small- medium sized coasters and rides until they get their act together. Then I think once in awhile they'll be building big coasters again. I don't think they will ever get back into the habit of building a huge coaster every two years. Track Record=467
Park: 103 Steel: 363 Wood: 104
Adding family ride after family ride will not mean families will be spending more time at Great America and their hard earned money on a place with sky rocketing prices and so many areas of the park that are a complete eyesore. Forget thrill seekers and families for a moment. Think about EVERYONE and what EVERYONE wants to see are stabilized prices and a beautiful park. If someone likes Great America and can afford it, chances are they will return year after year no matter if something is added or not.
13 Years with SFGAm World!
But in this area, a beautiful park really doesn't mater. Where else can people go? You have Kiddieland that is a glorified carnival with a small coaster and log flume. Other then that, you are 2 hours away from another park. Look at Cedar Point. The park looks like crap (theme and looks wise, not saying the park is crap) compared to places like Holiday World or Busch Gardens, but people go. Why do they go, they go for the rides. Six Flags is NOT a theme park, it is an amusement park. Busch Gardens, Universal, Disney, Holiday World are theme parks, this is an amusement park. No matter what the place is now, that is what it is. The land names at this point are nothing more then ways to find a location easier. For the returning no matter what, don't be so sure on that. I am willing to bet that families that go to Six Flags fall into 3 groups. The first one is season pass holders that basically use Six Flags as a day care for their kids. Group two comes 1-2 times a year max and spends 200-300. Group 3 is the group that goes every few years. Group 3 may enjoy the place and have the money, but it is not a priority. I have not lived in this area long, but most people I know have always been group 3. They were this way as they would go to Disney one year or a trip to a national park, which basically eliminated Great America for a year. With one day for a family of 4 costing 200-300, that was a chunk of their trip. What Shapiro is doing now if throwing tons of family things at the park to convince those people that the park is worth the money along with or even over a trip. From the financial reports, it seems like it is working.
[quote="UWW-10"
I always walk by rapids and seeing people have a good time trying to "shoot" the rafts that come by with water. I would assume that they won't charge people money to shoot the water from the midway.[/quote] Although the water shooters at RR are high power, what is planed for BB just barley go 10 feet and I have seen people exhausted after doing that, So I will guess that the midway ones will be the same as at RR. "The rides are GREAT, The shows are GREAT, the fun is GREAT. At Marriott"s GREAT AMERICA!"
I am sorry, I usually don't call someone out (that's Galvan's job these days) but I have to with you. You have got to be the most selfish person on these boards. You call anything you don't like retarded and a waste. You mention BB is a waste because 3 other water rides are in the park. I guess with your logic, the park has 12 coasters so no reason to add another coaster at all. How was Wiggles a waste? Because it doesn't fit your high thrill sector? I guess the 2-6 year olds with parents spending money in the park don't count? These young kids don't matter to be entertained? My take is you have no kids and only care about yourself and that's it. 3 kids areas that really aren't that big are not alot of kiddie areas. Dollywoods splashbattle was a huge hit and I dont see why BB will be any different. It's completely new to the area (IB's is to compact). I thought Barney the dinosaur was pretty dull, but guess what, my daughter liked it for a period of time so I appreciated that it was around to entertain her and I purchased items of Barney. Wiggles is still popular with the young kids. I finally retired the Sarah Palin signature because she is now 100% irrelevant.
Call me selfish all you want, I don't really care. I don't have kids of my own but I will eventually, I have every right to say what my opinion is about things. If you don't like what I have to say oh well that's my opinion but you don't have to be such a freaking jerk about it. Also if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all.
SF trips 09 = 15
SF trips 10= 11 SF trips 11 =7
i could careless if they dont add anything for 10 years im still coming back.
Make B&M Great Again.
96 posts
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