WORST: this is a toss up of Hurricane Harbor (not a waterpark person)
Just because your not a waterpark person (neither am I) doesnt make it a bad addition. Thousands of people go every day during the summer just for HH. When it comes down to ROI, Hurricane Harbor is one of the best additions SFGAm has ever done, and longest overdue.
I feel that the worst thing SFGAm does is always having inconsistencies in their operation. I think SFGAm is overall one of the best most well rounded seasonal theme parks in the world, but on non-busy days (and sometimes on well attended days) the excessive amount of closed rides completely detracts from the experience. If I brought my kids to the park and paid $15-$25 to park, bought tickets, food, etc, and a bunch of kids rides were closed as well as a couple of the water rides and flats I would definitley not be returning again. That gets my "worst idea" vote.
Best: Easily of the Little Dipper. For a ultra small amount, they created a local PR dream. Plus it gives kids a stepping stone to Viper and American Eagle.
Worst: The park atmosphere. Ads everywhere, generic popular music, employee shirts that tell me to clean up when I already do, SF "TV" aka ads in the que line and PA announcements that tell people to buy a season pass. There is simply no reason to do this at all or at the level it is done at this park. It really brings down a park that, in my eyes, is a very nice regional park.
The point where this this reached worst status is the pre-show to The Dark Knight. The idea of the show is not only to control crowds, but make you feel like you are in Gotham City. Nothing says Gotham City like saying a SF season pass in on sale now, buy it today.
Dont know if they do this anymore, but in 07 not only did they play Geico commercials on the Carousel speakers they also played commercials to join the Marines . Nothing like a relaxing spin on the Carousel listening to an ad for military forces.
Best: Space Shuttle America, Raging Bull, Hurricane Harbor, themed train rides Worst: Spending more money on stuff not needed, thousands of corporate advertisements including those atrocious huge signs all over the park, promoting a "kid-friendly" atmosphere, processed foods, higher prices, making guests pay for lockers (who have big bags) to ride the coasters, removing the beloved Marriott soundtracks for the corporate nonsense, adding commercials to the soundtracks, even Gurnee Mills looks like a mess with the huge billboards all over the mall.
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."
Mr. D.T. wrote:Best: Space Shuttle America, Raging Bull, Hurricane Harbor, themed train rides Worst: Spending more money on stuff not needed, thousands of corporate advertisements including those atrocious huge signs all over the park, promoting a "kid-friendly" atmosphere, processed foods, higher prices, making guests pay for lockers (who have big bags) to ride the coasters, removing the beloved Marriott soundtracks for the corporate nonsense, adding commercials to the soundtracks, even Gurnee Mills looks like a mess with the huge billboards all over the mall.
The Lockers, at least in my opinion are legit. What could you possibly be carrying around with you that needs a big bag? Unless it's medical supplies, you really don't "need" it. And even if you were to have medical supplies in it, you can get a pass for that. When I go to the the park, there are two, sometimes three things I need: Wallet, Cell Phone, Camera. And pockets work just fine for those things.
BUT, you're right about one thing, for the people with game prizes, and souvenir cups, then it's unfair because you shouldn't have to pay another $1 after spending so much on the games and the cup. That part I can agree with. But it's still a loose article, and rules are rules. Luckily for me, I don't carry any
"I've been told that some part of every wish will be heard but lately I lost sight of the truth in those words."
The Lockers, at least in my opinion are legit. What could you possibly be carrying around with you that needs a big bag?
Disagree. Even though I never need to use them I have always hated locker policies. Hated it when they did it on SUF in 2003, hate it at Cedar Fair, hate it at Busch Parks. Makes no sense to me whatsoever why you would charge people money to store their items while they are going on rides when they already paid admission and discourage people from spending inside the park. It might make the line move a little bit faster but the frustration for the people that have to use them: having to explain it to them at the rides entrance, then them going over to wherever the lockers are and pulling out their wallet, needing help because they dont know how to work the lockers etc are hassles nobody should have to deal with. If a ride has one loading/unloading station, as all the rides at SFGAm do, its very simple. Get seperate bins for each train and open/close them as the train parks or have sliding door bins.
Granted theres some rides that need lockers [see: Revenge of the Mummy] but they have temporary ones for free which is a different scenario. The way SFMM has it setup is pretty effeciant also having them right before the station instead of at the front of the queue to prevent people from wasting money if they decide to leave the line or if the ride breaks down.
^ I don't understand how that works at SFMM. Won't the guests be way more pissed off if they don't find out about the locker policy until they've already gone through most of the line?
The lockers are to the left of where the pic cuts off. When you enter the station the grouper explains to you the locker procedure and if you don't want to rent one you leave your stuff against the wall. You walk by it when right when your exiting the station.
Riddlers Revenge the lockers are before the stairs that lead to the station and pick up is at the bottom of the ramp in the exit path, and the station is always a huge line, so you cant really leave your stuff outside of the lockers like with X2.
The locker deal is just SF being SF. I dont expect it to change, but I will say my hatred of them comes with experience.
The Best Idea - Hands down the Little Dipper purchase, massive respect gained by that move.
The Worst Idea - Placing Superman in the Shockwaves foot print. This land should have been used for a much bigger and better roller coaster, if done right they could have possibly even fit a giga-coaster in that lot of land.
Plus: Vertical Velocity's location. Keeping the flumes all these years. Southwest Territory. Bad: Not building a path that connects both sides of the park, instead, you got to walk 15 minutes around. Also, Superman, they could have done more with the area. And not really following themes of the areas anymore
The only bad thing about Deja Vu being removed was that it happened after a season where it really improved and everyone noticed it was down very little compared to 2001-2006. Why do that rehab on it in early 2007, have it run better and then get rid of it? The park only got a million for it anyway...chimp change even for Six Flags.
Yup, Silverwood paid 1 million for Aftershock and their overall cost for taking it down at our park and setting it up there was 4 million. The ride was used and had a bad reputation so not surprising it was sold for that much. pretty sure Georgia's Deja was much less as it was in storage from early 2008 till late 2009.
onyxhotel08 wrote:Yup, Silverwood paid 1 million for Aftershock and their overall cost for taking it down at our park and setting it up there was 4 million. The ride was used and had a bad reputation so not surprising it was sold for that much. pretty sure Georgia's Deja was much less as it was in storage from early 2008 till late 2009.
^So, the only deja Vu (at least that I can think of) in any six Flags park that remains is in magic mountain? yikes.
"I've been told that some part of every wish will be heard but lately I lost sight of the truth in those words."
Best: Keeping the Whizzer, Maintaining Viper and American Eagle impeccably, Southwest Territory, Hurricane Harbor, Getting Rid of Deja Vu, Redoing many of the old flat rides in the park, such as Triple Play, Orbit, HTFM, Little Dipper, Adding more effects to the Dark Knight Coaster, Batman the Ride.
Worst: Loose Article Policy and other ridiculous policy's that have been enacted recently(not really great america but more six flags). Building a Crazy Mouse: Ragin Cajun and screwing it up! Superman Ultimate Flight! Building a path from a Southwest Themed Area into a Caribbean themed area! The underutilized use of the Pictorium, Not running two trains on the Scenic Railway even on busy days. Not utilizing The Deja Vu, Splash water Falls area for a major coaster addition. Not putting Buccaneer Battle in Hurricane Harbor it just seems like a perfect missed opportunity. Taking out the Dolphin Show in the Wilderness Theater. Not Themeing V2 to a nautical theme perhaps like "Tidal Wave 2 instead of V2. Getting rid of Great food for Generic lame food. Getting Rid of Parking Trams, and charging 15 and 25 dollars to park your car. Painting Batman Yellow, when Ragin Cajun and V2 are right near Batman.
The ONLY reason I think BB was put in Deja Vu's spot is because they knew nothing else would be coming in the SWF area for a while and they did not want two big empty spaces next to each other for more than one season. I would have taken down SSA and put BB there...so when it is not being used, along with HH, it is not such a dead area...
Great Food? You must have used the really way back machine. The food was just barely edible the last time I ate at the park in the late 90's(not counting the occasional snow cone or other snack). And reports I hear from friends pretty much echo that up through the present.
Favorite Wood Coasters: The Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Thunderhead, Balder Favorite Steel: Voltron Nevera, Steel Vengeance, Expedition GeForce, Olympia Looping Parks visited: 232, Coasters Ridden: Steel: 894, Wood: 179, Total: 1073
^ Really? The corn dog I had was god awful and the fries that came with it were in a wet clump. I would not have paid $2.00 for it, let alone the $9 plus it cost.
Same goes for the food at SF STL, SFOG & SFKK. Beyond over priced and some of the worst I've ever had at any theme park.
Best: Taking a chance and scoring big on Batman- the first coaster of it's type, Keeping Whizzer instead of shockwave, Revitalizing part of Orleans Place with the mardi gras theme, adding Wiggles world and doing something with the unused tent space that used to be American Eagles queue line (even though I miss the original Eagle entrance sign), finally adding the Southwest Territory which is an area that Marriott's had planned to build long ago, Hurricane Harbor at no additional cost, Little Dipper, keeping both original flume rides, Season passes, preferred parking lot
Worst: Building Batman in the Tidal Wave's spot and putting V2 in front of the flumes, which ruined one of the best themed areas of the park- Yankee Harbor, removing Cajun Cliffhanger rotor ride for Jester, removing the sky ride and Sky Whirl which was an icon of the park, removing the Edge (although I understand why), removing the Tidal Wave which had some of the best theming in the park.
Toss Up: Dark Knight- it's nice to finally have a dark ride, but it's like they couldn't decide between an old fashioned dark ride that goes slowly through tunnels so you can see the theming and story, or a big thrilling coaster in the dark, and many people think they got neither. I like this ride as I like mouse coasters and it's nice to have another coaster that my little girl can ride, but the jury is still out if it was a good idea or not. The theming is nice, but people are already getting tired of sitting through the movie now, are they going to want to do it in 5 years?
Also- Removing the only space diver coaster, Z-Force for Iron Wolf. At the time, Z-force was part of the ride rotation program and eventually ended up at Magic Mountain rusting away and not operating until it was scrapped. In the meantime, Iron Wolf is the most unpopular coaster in the park. Personally, I like Z-Force much better.
^ When will people just get over the whole Z-Force/Flashback thing? The ride was terribly rough, even when it first opened, and it was extremely noisy. Getting rid of a "one-of-a-kind coaster isn't that big a deal. Why doesn't anyone whine about DJV? I've just heard way to much about Z-Force's removal. Just stop.
Best: I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but didn't GAm actually say at some point that one of the best and most profitable installations ever was American Eagle? Correct me if I'm wrong. Otherwise, definitely Batman, and Raging Bull. Also, I think it's awesome that Six Flags went ahead with Marriott"s idea of a Southwest Territory area, and then did such a great job on the theming. Hurricane Harbor, retaining most of the original flats, keeping the Whizzer, doing such an amazing job on Viper, and now buying the Little Dipper are all excellent decisions
Not The Best: Probably the entire Deja Vu situation. The Dark Knight and all of the hype around it led to a lot of anticipointment with the general public. Removing Sky Whirl upset a lot of people, especially when it's replacement (DV) hardly ever ran. De-theming the Demon, removing the skyrides(I like skyrides!), and replacing Iron Wolf's restraints with the hard ones that it has now.
I suppose it's a good thing when I can think of more good things than bad.
david wrote:^ When will people just get over the whole Z-Force/Flashback thing? The ride was terribly rough, even when it first opened, and it was extremely noisy. Getting rid of a "one-of-a-kind coaster isn't that big a deal. Why doesn't anyone whine about DJV? I've just heard way to much about Z-Force's removal. Just stop.
Ummm, David, according to your profile, you're only 14 years old, and were not even alive when Z-Force was at Great America. I'm 41 and remember Z-Force very well. It was NOT a rough and noisy coaster when it was new at Great America. Personally, I don't like head-banging, rough coasters, and never had a bad ride on Z-Force. In fact, I rode it several times during one visit I remember in 1986, so many times that I could still feel the sensations of the drops and twists after I left that day! It was a great coaster, unlike anything else, until they let it rot and rust away at Magic Mountain. As for "whining," there's plenty of people who whine about DJV. I liked DejaVu, moreso than Buccaneer Battle, but I got sick of the long wait times, and hoping it wouldn't break down while I was in line, which happened a few times.
. Nothing like a relaxing spin on the Carousel listening to an ad for military forces.
