Ilovthevu' wrote: For instance, the pattern is that Six Flags gets Joker, and the next year they get rid of King Chaos because it's the same style of ride.
The "same style of ride." SF put a Skywarp at SFDK and they have a Larson Loop. Skywarps and Larsons are the exacts same ride just one is an immelmann. They have the same propulsion mechanism, thus neither are coasters. SF also multiple parks with pendulums. I wish your sentiment was true, but SF is not concerned with the same style of ride.
Betting on 2019 water park addition. Since I don't use the WP, I hope instead it's a much needed new flat ride like a Giant Discovery(revolution is not one of the better pendulums) or Endeavor(to replace the enterprise).
Last edited by Sven18 on April 27th, 2018, 4:54 pm, edited 3 times in total.
CoasterRiderSC wrote: While the membership gives them regular monthly flow of cash, the flash sale gives them the ability to invest all that cash up front (ie. Present value) and earn a ROI. So which way is better for them? I'm not a finance or economics person so I can't answer that...
Parks like deferred revenue, it's a great hedge against the whims of people and against adverse weather. Pass revenue is split over the operating season. Ie...a park like GAm will have pass revenue split among Q2, Q3, Q4. not open Q1 which is Jan - March. A year round park will have pass revenue split over 4 quarters. Membership revenue for all parks would be split over all 4 quarters, as the money is collected monthly. The benefit of memberships revenue wise in timing is it will make Q1 numbers better, which is a quarter theme park chains like SF & CF(not Disney) post a loss. Big memberships sales could eventually make Q1 profitable for SF, as well as their push for more early season events and SFMM going full year.
As much as it sucks to admit, Great America is nearly landlocked. There will come a point when there are no more expendable rides/open spaces. Corporate's specific strategy for Great America seems to be this..... Jam as many major attractions in the park as possible,to give guests a reason to keep coming back even when the park eventually runs out of room..... Riptide Bay, X-Flight, Goliath, Justice League, Joker, Hangover. Our park has been treated very well over the past 8 years compared to other parks. They know Great America is a cash cow and our space is limited.
Ilovthevu' wrote: For instance, the pattern is that Six Flags gets Joker, and the next year they get rid of King Chaos because it's the same style of ride.
The "same style of ride." SF put a Skywarp at SFDK and they have a Larson Loop. Skywarps and Larsons are the exacts same ride just one is an immelmann. They have the same propulsion mechanism, thus neither are coasters. SF also multiple parks with pendulums. I wish your sentiment was true, but SF is not concerned with the same style of ride.
Yes, you are correct; though that is a park without a lot of roller coasters, so they are marketing these small rides as coasters. I did just find out though that on the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom website, I can no longer find their Huss Top Spin which I know they just had. I find it weird though that they would take out their Huss Top Spin when they have a Zamperla Hawk - called Hammerhawk Shark. I don't know why they wouldn't get rid of this because they added a Larson Loop ride before. I think Six Flags Huss Top Spins are going to go the way of the Enterprise at a Six Flags park. I think each of them is going to be taken out one by one. I know of 3 already that are gone (Great America / Discovery Kingdom is again not on the website (probably gone) / New England)
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
Erm, no. Skywarps have a completely different ride system than Super Loops. Skywarps have a long train with drive tires in each "station". The rest of the track is just like Raptor track. Super Loops have a completely connected "train" that is powered all the time. I personally don't think Super Loops are creds, but I'm counting Skywarps.
Guy_With_A_Stick wrote:Erm, no. Skywarps have a completely different ride system than Super Loops. Skywarps have a long train with drive tires in each "station". The rest of the track is just like Raptor track. Super Loops have a completely connected "train" that is powered all the time. I personally don't think Super Loops are creds, but I'm counting Skywarps.
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You're wrong, You need to read the articles by the actual designers on Skywarps, it's a connected train and it is propelled all but 5 ft of 360 ft circuit,it's not a coaster.
SFGAMNUT9302 wrote:As much as it sucks to admit, Great America is nearly landlocked. There will come a point when there are no more expendable rides/open spaces. Corporate's specific strategy for Great America seems to be this..... Jam as many major attractions in the park as possible,to give guests a reason to keep coming back even when the park eventually runs out of room..... Riptide Bay, X-Flight, Goliath, Justice League, Joker, Hangover. Our park has been treated very well over the past 8 years compared to other parks. They know Great America is a cash cow and our space is limited.
GAm could open space if they wanted. They could cut off part of the parking lot by the water park, which is what I hope they do instead of using the newly opened former Pictorium area for a WP expansion. Also, they could take some of the employee parking lot which is massive and under utilized.
On the new attractions "giving guests a reason to come back", most of the attraction have been misses. Superloop don't care it a carnival ride.. Joker - gimmicky ride, not a must reride that drives you to the park Justice League - ride it like 2 or 3 times all year Goliath & X-fight were hits...didn't list all but it's 2 out of the last 8 years additions are park attendance drivers beyond the buzz wears off. My frequency of visits has been decreasing to now just 3 or so per year.
If it wasn’t in the new mural, I would say that is a nice spot for Sky Trek Tower to fall if it was imploded. I guess it wouldn’t be difficult to update the mural next year...
SFGAMNUT9302 wrote:As much as it sucks to admit, Great America is nearly landlocked. There will come a point when there are no more expendable rides/open spaces. Corporate's specific strategy for Great America seems to be this..... Jam as many major attractions in the park as possible,to give guests a reason to keep coming back even when the park eventually runs out of room..... Riptide Bay, X-Flight, Goliath, Justice League, Joker, Hangover. Our park has been treated very well over the past 8 years compared to other parks. They know Great America is a cash cow and our space is limited.
GAm could open space if they wanted. They could cut off part of the parking lot by the water park, which is what I hope they do instead of using the newly opened former Pictorium area for a WP expansion. Also, they could take some of the employee parking lot which is massive and under utilized.
On the new attractions "giving guests a reason to come back", most of the attraction have been misses. Superloop don't care it a carnival ride.. Joker - gimmicky ride, not a must reride that drives you to the park Justice League - ride it like 2 or 3 times all year Goliath & X-fight were hits...didn't list all but it's 2 out of the last 8 years additions are park attendance drivers beyond the buzz wears off. My frequency of visits has been decreasing to now just 3 or so per year.
I still buy a season pass every year, and even though some of those rides are gimmicks, I personally enjoy Joker and Justice League. Agreed 100% with the water park expansion. This is what seems to make the most sense for a separate gate water park expansion. X = New Hurricane Harbor entrance. That would really help control crowds at the front gates in the Summer time, and bring down the metal detector wait times by dividing the Strictly Water park guests from the Dry park guests.
In my opinion, I think our water park doesn't desperately need an expansion. Sure, a water coaster would be nice for HH, but it isnt something I think is completely necessary. I hope they use it wisely. Hometown Fun Machine can go too. It has gotten less and less exciting over the years and there are two flats much better than it very close.
I don't believe that the park should take anymore regular parking lot spots away. I have been to the park on certain days where their were only maybe 20 spots left, and they had to park cars weird - along the road even. If anything, they should add to the parking lot rather than take away. This park has taken lots and lot of parking spots away because of adding the waterpark. That was all parking lot. The Viper was all parking lot also. Parts of the Southwest Territory was all parking.
If you go way back before all this stuff was put in, and think this park is so crowded that we are parking in the back lot, it's NOT the same as it was before (before all this stuff).
They really need to paint the Theater Royale building ROOF. It looks so bad. You can see it from a lot of rides like Condor, Sky Trek Tower, I think the train, probably the new looping ride, etc. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Six+F ... 87.9360473
The train - the actual roof of the train cars (I don't know if they did it yet) also look really bad.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
Ilovthevu' wrote:I don't believe that the park should take anymore regular parking lot spots away. I have been to the park on certain days where their were only maybe 20 spots left, and they had to park cars weird - along the road even. If anything, they should add to the parking lot rather than take away.
There is more than plenty of parking on 95+% of the days. There are ways to create over flow parking. There is the land on the side of SF drive, as well as the pond which I believe is man made so would not need environmental impact approval. Also, there is the wide swath of land they own on the Milwaukee Ave side. Some of that area is wooded and it also has a pond. That land can never be used for rides/attractions b/c it's separated from the park proper by the employ parking and other stuff. There are many ways SF could reorganize the operations.management side, employee parking, and the other stuff to expand the park, if space was really needed.
They already have a "BIG THRILLS COMING SOON" sign by the Pictorium. I'm amazed they're demolishing the theater this early in the season and already have a sign up.
SFGAMNUT9302 wrote:They already have a "BIG THRILLS COMING SOON" sign by the Pictorium. I'm amazed they're demolishing the theater this early in the season and already have a sign up.
But the difference is the timeframe. When SWAT came down for Justice League, we had to wait until August for confirmation. This is April. It's 4 months before a normal project starts for us. Maybe it's for the massive groundwork, or maybe it's because we're getting something big. Either way, I'm excited.
Time will tell. I was a huge fan of Shock Wave, and I would love to have another mega looper right in the front of the park. So I'm hoping we get an RMC T-REX with 7 inversions. But that's just my personal wish. I'm going to keep an eye on the Trees behind Hometown Fun Machine. If those start coming down, they're almost certainly planning something massive.
CoasterRiderSC wrote: I think the reason that Six Flags is pushing people into Memberships is what I call the "health club phenomenon": People sign up and pay their monthly dues. They get billed every month. Many people stop going but don't cancel the membership for quite some time. So Six Flags gets a monthly revenue from non-active members!
The many reasons for the membership push were explained in detail in the Q1 conf call. The biggest were ahigher retention rate than passes, members spend more, and buy dining passes at a higher rate.
To me the most important aspects of Gold Season Pass are: unlimited visits at all parks, free parking, the free days and discounted days for friends, the Coasters After Dark. I like things simple and it seems that the Membership pricing structure and its tiers are too complex.
Exclsive ride events, ie...Coasters After Dark are a membership benefit in the chart. They surely will grandfather people in that bought gold passes last year before the benefits changes. Other gold pass perk are also being moved to memberships.
CoasterRiderSC wrote:Also I don't buy too much merchandise at the park and I already have the Season Dining Pass (I had it last year and my big complaint was the wait times for food!).
Dining benefits have changed in the new configuration that make membership worthwhile. Deluxe dining passes have free upgrade to premium(something they always do even non flash sale) for $93. However the drink bottle is no longer included like before as a bonus. A pass holder with a dining pass must buy a bottle at full price of $30. So dining and a bottle will cost $123
In contrast a member gets a 20% up to 50% discount on dining plans...so gold member can get a premium dining pass for $749$1 more than flash sale last year). Gold member gets a 25% discount on a bottle making it $22.50...so they dining and a bottle for $94.50 ($ 29 saving than being a gold pass member). The higher levels of members get drinks included
Summary: Gold pass $96, prem dining $92, bottle $30.total $218 (flash sale pass $65, dine $73, free bottle...total $138) Gold member $ 86, prem dining $74, bottle $22.50 ...total $183 Plat member $ 110, prem dining $70, bottle free ......total $180 Diamond mem $146, prem dining $60, bottle free......total $206
Don't see them offering such big flash sale discounts on passes with the push towards memberships. Anybody buying now and getting dining the Platinum membership is the obvious choice.
According to this link: https://www.sixflags.com/greatamerica/s ... ing-passes, you still get a Sports Bottle when you buy the Deluxe Dining Pass (which they upgrade you to Premium), which then makes the price to buy gold pass and dining at $188!!!