Opening day May 2 2015

[Sharon29060]

Today was my first trip to SFGAm for the season! It was an awesome day, despite the fact that it rained. My longest wait was AE, 90 mins and my shortest was X-Flight, 5 mins(in the morning).

[JT3]

Went to the park today, and actually had a pretty decent time.

I waited an hour at Moose burger Lodge, which was annoying, but hopefully things get better later on in the season.
There were a couple things that really annoyed me. First off, on Viper, the guy kept on putting the disabled pass people in the same two rows, and I ended up having to wait 4 extra trains because of it. Also, we were going to go on STT while it was raining, and the two workers inside the ride were sitting there talking for a good couple minutes while everyone was standing outside in the rain just wanting to get in. Finally they let us and the reason it took so long was because we didn't have 20 people in line (which I guess is required for the ride to run) and she wasn't sure if she should let us wait inside.

I honestly love single rider lines. Got on Goliath in 20 minutes and the grouper at one point let the single riders take the last two rows because he was overwhelmed by the number of them. I also got to ride Superman with a 5 min wait using the single rider line.

I forgot, does Batman still have its single rider line?

[Brewersdawg828]

My friend and I went on opening day and wow. It was awful. We started by going to Raging Bull first, which was a 20 minute wait including front row which isn't too bad... Unless you're like the 100th person in line and it should usually take 4 or 5 trains to get on, which it did. I also noticed that the red train on the bull was nowhere to be seen. After words we grabbed chicken tenders for lunch at the county fair place with the burgers and whatnot. That was a good 20 minute wait and there were only 2 people in front of us. Then we went to Viper which to my delight was running fairly well. It only took 25 minutes to get on front row and we started by the Hurricane Harbor gates. Then we went to Goliath. The new ops are super slow. Last year I only waited an hour and a half or longer on the 4th of July, when the overflow line itself was overflowing and took 2 hours. On Saturday, they used the old line they'd used for Iron Wolf and that took an hour and a half for front row. By this time, it was only 4 but my friend and I had had enough and just went to the mall instead. Not too thrilled about all of the waiting we had to do, but I'm not shocked that it was what it was. I'm going again on Friday for a field trip and hopefully they get their shit together

[BURTONxBLUNT]

Everyone who has complaints about opening day .... What did you expect? Walk ons and re rides? No ... They advertised the hell out of the ticket prices this season and the weather was perfect! If you wanted to rode more should have shown up before 10am as i did the whole left side of the park(excluding goliath) before lunch which was around 12.....

[Guy_With_A_Stick]

If you guys want an empty park, go on Friday. Most local schools, including mine, will be in service.

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[Goku1910]

I also noticed that the red train on the bull was nowhere to be seen.

No third train at Raging Bull on opening day huh. You don't say...?

Raging Bull never has it's third train by opening day. You should be grateful for the rides that were at full capacity this year because that almost never happens.

[ChicagoCoasterGuy]

I went opening day and yea it was bad but it was beautiful out and tickets were cheap plus they had the cheer squads there so it was worse case scenario. No matter what though it's my home park and just being there made me happy because it means summer is right around the corner and we have a full 6 months of thrills and fun ahead of us. I will admit I was thinking I can't wait to get that survery so I can tell them how terrible they were but my last stop of the day changed all that. I was at Chop Six getting dinner and after waiting 30 mins and getting to the front while ordering the manager behind the counter apologized and asked if there was anything he could do to make our visit better. We chatted while I was waiting for our food and he continued to apologize over and over. He never had anything but a smile on his face and he even had his workers all smiling and laughing. I mean it was out of their control and they were doing they best they could. This is in my eyes superior customer service and he made me even forget how bad the day was with lines. When I went back for a refill on my drink he immediately apologized again and asked me how the food was. This is why I luv my home park! I too, his name down and the 3 workers that helped me as well and I will be contacting the park to tell them how amazing they all were. Because everyone is quick to contact when there is a complaint but when things are good it usually goes unrecognized.

[UWW-10]

This was the first year in quite some time that I avoided opening weekend like the plague. Waiting 1-2 more weeks with manageable crowds won't do me in......

It's the same story every year.....slow ride lines, slow food lines, too many people. When you think about a business (say a restaurant)...when you first train someone to serve you pick nights that are lighter crowds and don't give them as many tables in an area; because throwing them into a Friday/Saturday night dinner rush isn't going to make them more productive; it'll just fluster them more. Over time, the person becomes more confident and that allows them to have a larger area/zone; essentially allowing them to move into a high-traffic service night.

Is it a great deal to have $19.76 park tickets....sure but throwing more guests into the mix with the expectation that the employees just magically become faster because they'll just "figure it out" (especially if your new to the job...which I'd imagine turnover is high) isn't the best way to train or get people accustomed to their job duties. To me, it seems that the park wants to "pack them in" but the employees just aren't ready to handle the peak season crowd right off the bat.

[DeathbyDinn]

^ Exactly. Especially in the food court I saw so many employees that looked completely overwhelmed, and even the supervisors helping them were flustered. I have no problem with them doing cheaper tickets, I think it's great that people who couldn't normally afford the park get the chance to go. But why they insist on doing it on opening day baffles me. Why not do it later in May when the park is still quiet, employees will be more prepared, and they can still get the big rush before the new ride opens. This whole thing just makes the park look bad because all people talk about is how crowded and terrible opening day is.

[Banky]

I expected issues on opening day. I knew they would be busy. I actually thought it would be busier. The back lot on Saturday never got that full. I've been at the park when that lot is absolutely full and had less issues that we had saturday. Maybe six flags should hire people sooner and get some training done before opening day. Also since they were advertising the hell out of the 19.76 tickets and pushing the hell out of dining passes you think they would have better expected the crowd they got. I think my biggest issue though was the cleanliness or lack there of. It's opening day after all and there were things that still had dirt and grime build up from last season. which is especially sickening when its on the table and lamp above the table you are supposed to be eating at.

So for next year. Get a cleaning crew in that park with actual cleaning supplies before season starts and Hire and train employee's rinse and repeat...

[Sporlo]

^ Exactly. Especially in the food court I saw so many employees that looked completely overwhelmed, and even the supervisors helping them were flustered.

I'm convinced at this point that the food court employees are just perpetually unprepared and untrained and generally incompetent. Not only that but often apathetic too.

[Guy_With_A_Stick]

Currently stuck in batman station for weather. Before this, everything was a walk up. Goliath was the longest wait, at 5 minutes. Yeah, weekdays in may.

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[Guy_With_A_Stick]

Also, they're redoing Demon's starting tunnel(lots of holes and bare Plywood)

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[Coaster Justin]

Also, they're redoing Demon's starting tunnel(lots of holes and bare Plywood)

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Anyone still think Demon's going anywhere anytime soon?

[CoasterCale]

Nope, if they're redoing the tunnel. Opening Day was okay. I got a total of four rides in, including first train of the season on Demon. The most annoying thing are one manned snack station with people that don't know what they're doing a manager is nowhere to be seen. My father waited 45 mins for a pretzel with a line of 12 in front of him.