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Official Fright Fest 2019 Thread

Talk about anything that has to do with Six Flags Great America and Hurricane Harbor here.
Postby Necropolis on July 31st, 2019, 12:37 pm
Fright Fest 2019 is right around the corner! With that being said, the operating schedule is out for this time of the year! I am not sure but Fright Fest may start in the middle of September? The park is open the last three weekends starting September 14th and the last Friday as well. That Friday it's open from 5 - 11 pm so typical FF hours for a weekday. Then in October, the park is open every Friday, 5 -11pm, Saturday 11am - midnight and Sundays 11am - 10pm. Then there's the one off day FF is open on Monday, Oct 14 Columbus Day from 11am - 7pm. I am pleased to see the park is open on Halloween and through that Saturday so a total of 4 days since it's on a Wednesday this year. Then the park is open again the following weekend Nov. 9-10 from 12-6pm. I am glad to see Fright Fest is opening earlier and staying open till later! It just get's too packed and the fact that they are spreading it on more days is fantastic! :D :twisted:

https://www.sixflags.com/greatamerica/plan-your-visit/park-operating-schedule
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Postby Necropolis on August 29th, 2019, 6:03 pm
https://www.sixflags.com/greatamerica/s ... fest-night

New additions to Fright Fest for 2019! As suspected, it goes until November 3rd!
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Postby CoasterRiderSC on August 30th, 2019, 8:08 am
Necropolis wrote:https://www.sixflags.com/greatamerica/special-events/fright-fest-night

New additions to Fright Fest for 2019! As suspected, it goes until November 3rd!


When will the scare actors be done, 11/3 ??
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Postby MrsTaxi on August 30th, 2019, 9:53 am
Clowns in Yankee Harbor? Interesting. Wonder what will be in county fair?
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Postby ChiefBeef234 on August 31st, 2019, 5:50 pm
Hey y'all just wanted to point out a few changes this year I've seen! There will be no new scare zones, besides a refresh of the scare zone in carosel plaza.

Clowns have moved back to Mardi Gras/Joker Bridge this season

Henchman are going to be in Metropolis Plaza.

Vampires are going to New Orleans Place.

Nothing will be in County Fair this year. Besides the new house.

The two new houses this year are Infected (replacing MMC) and the 13th Order (replacing Hell Fest) I know nothing about these houses yet. Big Top, Gates of Hell, Manslaughter Manor, and Infestation! are all returning.

Some keen eyes may have noticed the stage for the uprising is different, this is because Nightmare Rhythm Machine will be on that stage as well. I don't know if this new layout will affect the uprising show.

The schedule has been extended to November 3rd. The following weekend is not fright fest.

If your trying to beat crowds this year I recommend Sundays for the first two weekends, Fridays are generally less busy once you can start going (3rd weekend and beyond), and anytime you can go on a weekday the park is practically dead. Also the park will be open Columbus day, be there will be no scare actors or shows that day.

I'm very excited for this upcoming season and especially excited to see the two new houses. I thought they did great with Hell Fest and I'm excited to see what they do with their own ideas without being tied to a movie license.

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Postby JT2002 on September 12th, 2019, 11:09 pm
Went to Fright Fest tonight, thought I should give some reviews...

Scare Zones: Since this was a preview, I don't think every scare zone was up and running yet. Nobody was in hometown square or carousel plaza, At the north entrance to Southwest territory they now have a scare crow scare zone (Wretched Meadows) and it's probably one of my new favorites. They added some great forest/ cornfield large props and the actors seem very experienced and fun. Also, at the other entrance to southwest territory, they've extended Underworld into the plaza in front of Justice League; the henchmen seemed to have moved there and those actors were having a lot of fun too. I think the clowns moved back to Mardi Gras, and now County Fair feels empty. There are zombies in New Orleans and Steam Punk under the bridge by Goliath (they've switched around some of the big props) and Lumber jacks in Yukon. Nothing else has really changed though, somethings may be added or switched during the season. Pumpkin man is at the front of the park.

Houses: I only was able to go in a few houses due to the long, slow moving lines because they wanted less people going in at once to train the actors. Here we go...

Big Top Terror: Meh. That's all I can say. I think this maze has actually gotten worse as it felt emptier to me as far as scares go. Strobes, stuffed things, clown props, circus tent curtains, it's all there but it feels empty. Nonetheless, I was even more bored to see that we only came across 3 scare actors for the whole house. Hopefully they have many more during the season. 2/5

Gates Of Hell: Holy hell (pun intended) this maze was awesome, it's pretty much the same as last year but the actors inside (there were a good amount) were awesome, they really got me and some of them were pretty funny. 5/5

Infestation: Never been in this one, didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, and I really loved the theming. I went once at sunset and once again when it was darker. All the lights and effects worked better when it was very dark. There were only like 4 or 5 actors, but they were all really convincing; stout guy in the laser room was hilarious, the girl at the end really got me good. 4/5
I also heard from folks that went into 13th order that it was a bit of an improvement over Hell Fest, but not a lot, not as good as Gates of Hell though

Rides: Only Demon and TT2 were open for the night. Demon hurt because it started raining hard when we left the station. TT2 is one of my favorites and it runs a nice cycle this year, went on it 4 times in a row cause there was no wait.

And that is all, thank you for coming to my TED talk. But really, overall this is looking to be one of the better FF seasons since a while.
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Postby ChiefBeef234 on September 12th, 2019, 11:15 pm
JT2002 wrote:Went to Fright Fest tonight, thought I should give some reviews...

Scare Zones: Since this was a preview, I don't think every scare zone was up and running yet. Nobody was in hometown square or carousel plaza, At the north entrance to Southwest territory they now have a scare crow scare zone (Wretched Meadows) and it's probably one of my new favorites. They added some great forest/ cornfield large props and the actors seem very experienced and fun. Also, at the other entrance to southwest territory, they've extended Underworld into the plaza in front of Justice League; the henchmen seemed to have moved there and those actors were having a lot of fun too. I think the clowns moved back to Mardi Gras, and now County Fair feels empty. There are zombies in New Orleans and Steam Punk under the bridge by Goliath (they've switched around some of the big props) and Lumber jacks in Yukon. Nothing else has really changed though, somethings may be added or switched during the season. Pumpkin man is at the front of the park.

Houses: I only was able to go in a few houses due to the long, slow moving lines because they wanted less people going in at once to train the actors. Here we go...

Big Top Terror: Meh. That's all I can say. I think this maze has actually gotten worse as it felt emptier to me as far as scares go. Strobes, stuffed things, clown props, circus tent curtains, it's all there but it feels empty. Nonetheless, I was even more bored to see that we only came across 3 scare actors for the whole house. Hopefully they have many more during the season. 2/5

Gates Of Hell: Holy hell (pun intended) this maze was awesome, it's pretty much the same as last year but the actors inside (there were a good amount) were awesome, they really got me and some of them were pretty funny. 5/5

Infestation: Never been in this one, didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, and I really loved the theming. I went once at sunset and once again when it was darker. All the lights and effects worked better when it was very dark. There were only like 4 or 5 actors, but they were all really convincing; stout guy in the laser room was hilarious, the girl at the end really got me good. 4/5
I also heard from folks that went into 13th order that it was a bit of an improvement over Hell Fest, but not a lot, not as good as Gates of Hell though

Rides: Only Demon and TT2 were open for the night. Demon hurt because it started raining hard when we left the station. TT2 is one of my favorites and it runs a nice cycle this year, went on it 4 times in a row cause there was no wait.

And that is all, thank you for coming to my TED talk. But really, overall this is looking to be one of the better FF seasons since a while.
Any info about the other new house, infected?

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Postby JT2002 on September 12th, 2019, 11:29 pm
^I believe they kept a lot of things from MMC, but now there's a mad scientisty theme to things rather than an asylum; though I did not go in it myself.
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Postby cliffhanger on September 13th, 2019, 8:37 am
I heard the reflecting pool is now dyed black. That's a pretty big change!
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Postby rmceagle2021 on September 13th, 2019, 9:00 am
There are 10 cycles for tt2 this year
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Postby UnclePennybags on September 13th, 2019, 6:35 pm
JT2002 wrote:Went to Fright Fest tonight, thought I should give some reviews...

I thought Fright Fest didn't open until Saturday. Did I miss something?
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Postby ChiefBeef234 on September 13th, 2019, 6:36 pm
UnclePennybags wrote:
JT2002 wrote:Went to Fright Fest tonight, thought I should give some reviews...

I thought Fright Fest didn't open until Saturday. Did I miss something?
Employee fright fest preview was yesterday and MedLine buyout was today

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Postby UnclePennybags on September 15th, 2019, 1:57 am
I went Saturday, Sept 14. Park opening was set at 11:00AM. Got there early (10:30AM), but they were already letting people in by 10:38. I picked up my 2020 season bottle at Trolley Treats, but this year you can also pick them up at Carousel Snacks or the Go Fresh Cafe in Orlean Place.

I had purchased a 2020 Platinum Season Flash Pass, so I headed over to get mine at 11:00AM. Ugh. By this time, there were about 60 people already in line, which I later determined was a 45 minute wait. However, when the line didn't move for 15 minutes, I baled to get lunch at 11:30.

I was one of the first in line at Strutters after they opened. By 11:40 I was eating my food. Nice.

I checked the Flash Pass queue again at 12:00. There were now about 100 people in line, but the park had opened a second office, so you could see the line move every so often. This was over an hour wait, so I rode a flat, then saw Love at First Fright (LaFF) in the Grand Music Hall at 1:00.

LaFF is nice, but I thought the sound system in the Hall betrayed the show. To me, the music sounded distorted and the actors voices were not clear. I was a little disappointed this year.

The show ended at 1:45 and I found the Flash Pass queue was down to 20 to 30 people (about 40 minutes). I decided to refill at the Freestyles (Trudy's), which was about a 15 minute wait with 20 people in line. By this time, the Flash Pass line was down to a 20 minute wait, so I bit the bullet and queued up. By 2:25, I had my Flash Pass and was ready to do damage.

I never would have expected that the worst lines I saw today were for Flash Passes. Ironic. I had thought that most people were probably there for their "skip the line" passes that come with memberships, but the Flash Pass guy told me that most people were picking up Platinum Flash Passes. Considering their cost, I was surprised. Daily Platinum, Gold, and Regular Passes were going for $155, $100, and $55, respectively. In August, Platinum Season Flash Passes were selling for only $229, so maybe this was too good of a deal for many people to ignore.

Incidentally, if you are a member who receives "skip the line" passes with your membership, don't assume the long Flash Pass line is for you, too. Talk to the employee standing at the entrance to the Flash Pass office to see where you're supposed to go. When the line for Flash Passes was 60 minutes long, they were sending members in immediately via a different queue. You'll be ticked if you later find out that you waited in line for an hour when you didn't have to.

I didn't have too many problems with the rides themselves. X-Flight went down for about 15 minutes just as I was about to get on. Batman went down around 3:45PM and stayed down. Everything else looked good to me.

The park was packed today. Lines, lines, everywhere, but besides the Flash Pass queue, it didn't feel that bad. I got in a line of about 40 people at Capone's around 4:10, hoping to get to the front of the line by 4:30PM (Dining Pass dinner time). The line hadn't been moving, but as soon as I got in, it moved quickly. I turned around at about 4:25 and there was no one behind me. Empty queue. Crazy.

If you've purchased a 2020 Dining Pass, you're supposed to get a bonus dessert each time you visit the park in 2019. Unfortunately, these are not equivalent to "snacks" and I didn't know where to get one. The food service people at Strutters and Capone's didn't know the difference between snacks and desserts, so they couldn't help. In the end, I forfeited my dessert. Before I go to the park again this year, I'll contact Guest Services to get more information about desserts and where to find them.

The biggest take-away for today? If you are getting a Flash Pass, get into the queue first thing in the morning. ASAP. This is now the worst line I'm seeing at the park. Really bad.
Last edited by UnclePennybags on September 15th, 2019, 10:14 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Postby JT2002 on September 15th, 2019, 9:39 am
^ six flags makes serious bank with flash passes
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Postby UnclePennybags on September 15th, 2019, 12:44 pm
They haven't posted the 2019 Fright Fest map yet, but for those wanting to plan around the September shows, here's the schedule:

Love at First Fright (Grand Music Hall)
Fridays: 9:00, 10:30
Saturdays: 1:00, 2:30, 8:00
Sundays: 2:30, 8:00

The Ringmaster's Cabaret (Grand Music Hall)
Fridays: 7:30
Saturdays: 3:45, 6:45
Sundays: 3:45, 6:45

The Uprising Parade (Hometown Square)
All Days: 5:45

The Nightmare Rhythm Machine (Hometown Square)
Fridays: 9:00, 10:15
Saturdays: 8:15, 10:15
Sundays: 8:15

Nox Meet and Greet (Mardi Gras)
All Days: 6:45

Kid's Club Monster Dance Party (Hometown Square)
Saturdays & Sundays: 1:45

Zombie Jamboree Monster Dance Party (Hometown Square)
Saturdays & Sundays: 7:00

The Witching Hour (Carousel Plaza, Hometown Square)
Fridays & Saturdays: 9:55
Sundays: 7:55
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Postby CoasterRiderSC on October 14th, 2019, 2:31 pm
After going to the park this past Saturday I have some suggestions that Six Flags can roll out to make Fright Fest better:

1) Instead of having all the roving scare actors patrol the midways and thus clog up traffic, get rid of them and instead increase personnel at food services.

2) Ensure that enough operators are on staff for the day: an operator at Raging Bull told me they couldn't run 3rd train because they didn't have enough staff so they could take breaks! So running the 3rd train would have made breaks not possible. As a customer, that answer is a bit unacceptable. I waited 75 minutes at night for the ride (from 900 to 1015 I believe). Meanwhile they have all those scare actors roving, and that's just creating gridlock.

3) Open ALL the rides at the beginning of the day! They had several rides (Raging Bull, Giant Drop, Goliath, V2, etc) that weren't operating for much of the day due to the excuse of "wind". It wasn't even that windy in the afternoon on 10/12. If Six Flags wants people to stick around they need to have the rides running smoothly.

4) Some more reasons to ditch the scare actors in the midways: a) many people don't go there to "be scared" but just want to go on the rides. Losing the scare actors will "force" those that want to "be scared" to go to the haunted houses, thus increasing revenue for Six Flags! b) People with kids (like me) can have their kids stay the whole day at the park and spend more money. Plus they can possibly save on payroll if the number of scare actors is larger than the number of "extra" food service people and ride operators. Again, Six Flags wins!

5) Bring back the fog and green lights for Whizzer! The ride is great at night and with those 2 effects it's amazing!!

6) Bring back the fog and effects for Condor and the stall at the top, and run the ride at night! An operator told me it doesn't run at night because the lights arent' working.

BTW, The special effects on Demon (red lights, fog, etc) were very good

NOTE: If management from Six Flags reads this post, please consider some/all of these suggestions!
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Postby DeathbyDinn on October 14th, 2019, 7:18 pm
^ So your idea to make Fright Fest "better", is to remove all the actors which are the whole point of the event?? What??

Also, decreasing the number of scare actors would likely have little effect on staffing elsewhere. The people working Fright Fest are there because they want to be scare actors. If they get cut, they'd just go to a different haunt event, not pick up a spatula and start working in foods.
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Postby Coaster Critique on October 14th, 2019, 7:41 pm
CoasterRiderSC wrote:After going to the park this past Saturday I have some suggestions that Six Flags can roll out to make Fright Fest better:

1) Instead of having all the roving scare actors patrol the midways and thus clog up traffic, get rid of them and instead increase personnel at food services.

2) Ensure that enough operators are on staff for the day: an operator at Raging Bull told me they couldn't run 3rd train because they didn't have enough staff so they could take breaks! So running the 3rd train would have made breaks not possible. As a customer, that answer is a bit unacceptable. I waited 75 minutes at night for the ride (from 900 to 1015 I believe). Meanwhile they have all those scare actors roving, and that's just creating gridlock.

3) Open ALL the rides at the beginning of the day! They had several rides (Raging Bull, Giant Drop, Goliath, V2, etc) that weren't operating for much of the day due to the excuse of "wind". It wasn't even that windy in the afternoon on 10/12. If Six Flags wants people to stick around they need to have the rides running smoothly.

4) Some more reasons to ditch the scare actors in the midways: a) many people don't go there to "be scared" but just want to go on the rides. Losing the scare actors will "force" those that want to "be scared" to go to the haunted houses, thus increasing revenue for Six Flags! b) People with kids (like me) can have their kids stay the whole day at the park and spend more money. Plus they can possibly save on payroll if the number of scare actors is larger than the number of "extra" food service people and ride operators. Again, Six Flags wins!

5) Bring back the fog and green lights for Whizzer! The ride is great at night and with those 2 effects it's amazing!!

6) Bring back the fog and effects for Condor and the stall at the top, and run the ride at night! An operator told me it doesn't run at night because the lights arent' working.

BTW, The special effects on Demon (red lights, fog, etc) were very good

NOTE: If management from Six Flags reads this post, please consider some/all of these suggestions!


First off I don't think its that simple. Scare actors are actors not ride operators or food service workers, so simply getting rid of them doesnt mean that there would magically be more staff at other places. The reason for the understaffed rides and food places is probably because a good chunk of the staff are high school and college kids who are back in school this time of year. And your claim that most people just go for the rides might be true for enthusiasts. But for the general public, a lot of people go specifically for the haunted mazes and scare zones, myself included. If anything I'd hire even more scare actors to make the event even better. You have the entire spring and summer to ride the rides. Us haunt fans have maybe a month and a half to enjoy the festivities.
Speaking of which, hasn't this years fright fest been great? I'm digging the new and reimagined scare zones like Wretched Meadows and Lost Circus, and the new haunted houses are some of the best I've ever been through at a six flags park. Especially 13th Order, loving the direction the park is going.
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Postby ChiefBeef234 on October 14th, 2019, 7:51 pm
Coaster Critique wrote:
CoasterRiderSC wrote:After going to the park this past Saturday I have some suggestions that Six Flags can roll out to make Fright Fest better:

1) Instead of having all the roving scare actors patrol the midways and thus clog up traffic, get rid of them and instead increase personnel at food services.

2) Ensure that enough operators are on staff for the day: an operator at Raging Bull told me they couldn't run 3rd train because they didn't have enough staff so they could take breaks! So running the 3rd train would have made breaks not possible. As a customer, that answer is a bit unacceptable. I waited 75 minutes at night for the ride (from 900 to 1015 I believe). Meanwhile they have all those scare actors roving, and that's just creating gridlock.

3) Open ALL the rides at the beginning of the day! They had several rides (Raging Bull, Giant Drop, Goliath, V2, etc) that weren't operating for much of the day due to the excuse of "wind". It wasn't even that windy in the afternoon on 10/12. If Six Flags wants people to stick around they need to have the rides running smoothly.

4) Some more reasons to ditch the scare actors in the midways: a) many people don't go there to "be scared" but just want to go on the rides. Losing the scare actors will "force" those that want to "be scared" to go to the haunted houses, thus increasing revenue for Six Flags! b) People with kids (like me) can have their kids stay the whole day at the park and spend more money. Plus they can possibly save on payroll if the number of scare actors is larger than the number of "extra" food service people and ride operators. Again, Six Flags wins!

5) Bring back the fog and green lights for Whizzer! The ride is great at night and with those 2 effects it's amazing!!

6) Bring back the fog and effects for Condor and the stall at the top, and run the ride at night! An operator told me it doesn't run at night because the lights arent' working.

BTW, The special effects on Demon (red lights, fog, etc) were very good

NOTE: If management from Six Flags reads this post, please consider some/all of these suggestions!


First off I don't think its that simple. Scare actors are actors not ride operators or food service workers, so simply getting rid of them doesnt mean that there would magically be more staff at other places. The reason for the understaffed rides and food places is probably because a good chunk of the staff are high school and college kids who are back in school this time of year. And your claim that most people just go for the rides might be true for enthusiasts. But for the general public, a lot of people go specifically for the haunted mazes and scare zones, myself included. If anything I'd hire even more scare actors to make the event even better. You have the entire spring and summer to ride the rides. Us haunt fans have maybe a month and a half to enjoy the festivities.
Speaking of which, hasn't this years fright fest been great? I'm digging the new and reimagined scare zones like Wretched Meadows and Lost Circus, and the new haunted houses are some of the best I've ever been through at a six flags park. Especially 13th Order, loving the direction the park is going.
Totally agree. The new houses this year are some of the best I've ever seen. Hopefully they can keep this trend going of replacing one or two houses every year with something of the same quality as 13th order or infected.

Also yeah, being friends with some actors I know for a fact they only work there to scare, not to cook food or run rides. Most of them would just go to another haunt if they got rid of fright fest.

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Postby JT2002 on October 14th, 2019, 9:38 pm
^I think the best ways they can improve fright fest is maybe invest in the parade, the floats keep being recycled and they haven't gotten new ones in a decade. I'd also like to see them bring in another haunted trail for the Roaring Rapids area or in Hurricane Harbor again; they could get rid of Big Top Terror for all I care.
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Postby Mustbthistall2ride on October 15th, 2019, 12:31 pm
JT2002 wrote:^I think the best ways they can improve fright fest is maybe invest in the parade, the floats keep being recycled and they haven't gotten new ones in a decade. I'd also like to see them bring in another haunted trail for the Roaring Rapids area or in Hurricane Harbor again; they could get rid of Big Top Terror for all I care.


As cool as it would be to wrap up the night with a haunted, glowing parade, one big issue that most people don't realize is that those floats would cost a fortune to upgrade. A new float battery alone costs about $2,000 each for the ones they have, and that's to just run the machine smoothly and properly. Those poor floats have to always be re-painted and welded thanks to scare actors always swinging off them and abusing the heck out of them (they know they're not supposed to but it still happens anyway). Sometimes the floats can't even start properly, but I hope they're getting the TLC they need. It's always cringe-y to see them being hand-pushed on the worst days when they break down in the middle of a parade (hasn't happened a lot but I've seen it).

I'd love to see an end of the night parade with iconic, old-school Halloween characters like wolfman, mummy, witch, dracula, etc. That would be awesome! :D

I know that the Hurricane Harbor trail had lots of flooding in it when it rained and lots of guests complained about the lack of draining in the lazy river. However, the Roaring Rapids area was a fantastic area for both guests and scare-actors. There was plenty of good spaces for the actors to hide, and made a decent walk-through area minus the lack of lighting (lighting in regards to having just enough to safely walk through without tripping over a branch or whatever laid in the path).

Big Top is one of those houses where I could really care less if it went away. I'd rather have the Roaring Rapids area back open than Big Top anytime. But lack of staffing seems to give Big Top an advantage as having a smaller house (with 16 max actors vs. any Roaring Rapids House (Wicked Woods, Apocalypse) with 50+ actors) is just always going to be easier staffing-wise.
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Postby Mustbthistall2ride on October 15th, 2019, 12:45 pm
DeathbyDinn wrote:^ So your idea to make Fright Fest "better", is to remove all the actors which are the whole point of the event?? What??

Also, decreasing the number of scare actors would likely have little effect on staffing elsewhere. The people working Fright Fest are there because they want to be scare actors. If they get cut, they'd just go to a different haunt event, not pick up a spatula and start working in foods.


You're absolutely correct with this. The scare actors are there because they love what they do. The pay isn't great, you'll get punched/abused by guests at some point, and you work in rain or shine, hot or cold. But at the end of the day, they enjoy every scare they get and come back to do it again. Most are them are in school or have another job (they refer to FF as their "fun job").

Street characters are always the first types of characters to be hired first, then haunted house actors. There's no way this won't change. Also, each department has their own fixed budget, so the only way an employee can transfer to another department is if the employee is willing to, and if it's within the department's budget for hiring so many amount of employees.
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Postby CoasterRiderSC on October 15th, 2019, 12:46 pm
I think I might have confused some folks with my ideas. I wasn't saying take 20 scare actors and convert them into food services ops. I meant get rid of 20 scare actors and instead have more food service people (NOT necessarily the "fired" scare actors).

Also, make sure all rides are fully staffed so they can run full strength. Since FF is THE busiest time of the year, they really need adequate staff in food services and at the rides, and of course security.

So if 20 scare actors comes out to $1200 for 1 night (20 x 6 hours x $10/hour), then the park could instead spend that $1200 on food services personnel and ride operators, and maybe extra security.

Also, I said many people (not most) people go to the park for the rides. After all, it IS an amusement park and not a haunted cemetery!

The goals of my ideas were to:
a) clear up the midways
b) incentivize people to pay $$ to go into the for-pay haunted areas
c) enable kids to be able to stay at the park after 6 pm.
d) have fully staffed rides so all available trains can run on each ride

The main business of Great America is being an amusement park.

Rhetorical question: If people can just walk around in the Free scare areas and that's good enough for them to "get their scare on" then why do they need to go into the for-pay areas?

Hopefully this all makes sense....
Last edited by CoasterRiderSC on October 15th, 2019, 1:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Mustbthistall2ride on October 15th, 2019, 1:04 pm
CoasterRiderSC wrote:
DeathbyDinn wrote:^ So your idea to make Fright Fest "better", is to remove all the actors which are the whole point of the event?? What??

Also, decreasing the number of scare actors would likely have little effect on staffing elsewhere. The people working Fright Fest are there because they want to be scare actors. If they get cut, they'd just go to a different haunt event, not pick up a spatula and start working in foods.


I think I might have confused some folks with my idea. I wasn't saying take 20 scare actors and convert them into food services ops. I meant get rid of 20 scare actors and instead have more food service people (NOT necessarily the "fired" scare actors). Also, make sure all rides are fully staffed so they can run full strength. Since FF is THE busiest time of the year, they really need adequate staff in food services and at the rides, and of course security.


Gotcha. Hmm. The Culinary staffing issue during FF is especially tricky to really solve, as so many culinary employees leave to either go back to school or back to their home countries (if they were part of the exchange program). It's always been a issue year after year and it just seems to never really progress. I know they've been trying to get more local residents to at least try to get an interview into their schedules with free tickets and other benefits, but it just doesn't seem to be working much.

Maybe automation is the key to the future for the Culinary department? Or state-of-the-art vending machines for snack stands? Touchscreens at every eatery?

You brought up some good points in terms of guest satisfaction and financial profitability. I would love to see everything at full capacity during the busiest times of the year. It would be amazing to be able to have every train on every coaster running, haunted houses always at max character staffing, security every 20 ft. and culinary lines no longer than a five minute wait. That would satisfy so many guests and create lots of jobs for the local community. But there's always issues with staffing, how each department is individually run and micro-mananged, and where the budget is going. There's a a lot that goes behind the scenes that gets changed around a lot and it doesn't always match up to what the guest wants vs. what the company wants.

If I were going to SFGA my very first time, I'd buy the haunted house pass more so for the thrill of the what's unique to each house and it's theme-ing, as well as the technical aspects of it that may not be present in the scare zones. There's a lot of scenic elements in an haunted house that you can't replicate while being on the street.
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Postby got2havefun on October 15th, 2019, 7:40 pm
Mustbthistall2ride wrote:
CoasterRiderSC wrote:
DeathbyDinn wrote:^ So your idea to make Fright Fest "better", is to remove all the actors which are the whole point of the event?? What??

Also, decreasing the number of scare actors would likely have little effect on staffing elsewhere. The people working Fright Fest are there because they want to be scare actors. If they get cut, they'd just go to a different haunt event, not pick up a spatula and start working in foods.


I think I might have confused some folks with my idea. I wasn't saying take 20 scare actors and convert them into food services ops. I meant get rid of 20 scare actors and instead have more food service people (NOT necessarily the "fired" scare actors). Also, make sure all rides are fully staffed so they can run full strength. Since FF is THE busiest time of the year, they really need adequate staff in food services and at the rides, and of course security.


Gotcha. Hmm. The Culinary staffing issue during FF is especially tricky to really solve, as so many culinary employees leave to either go back to school or back to their home countries (if they were part of the exchange program). It's always been a issue year after year and it just seems to never really progress. I know they've been trying to get more local residents to at least try to get an interview into their schedules with free tickets and other benefits, but it just doesn't seem to be working much.

Maybe automation is the key to the future for the Culinary department? Or state-of-the-art vending machines for snack stands? Touchscreens at every eatery?

You brought up some good points in terms of guest satisfaction and financial profitability. I would love to see everything at full capacity during the busiest times of the year. It would be amazing to be able to have every train on every coaster running, haunted houses always at max character staffing, security every 20 ft. and culinary lines no longer than a five minute wait. That would satisfy so many guests and create lots of jobs for the local community. But there's always issues with staffing, how each department is individually run and micro-mananged, and where the budget is going. There's a a lot that goes behind the scenes that gets changed around a lot and it doesn't always match up to what the guest wants vs. what the company wants.

If I were going to SFGA my very first time, I'd buy the haunted house pass more so for the thrill of the what's unique to each house and it's theme-ing, as well as the technical aspects of it that may not be present in the scare zones. There's a lot of scenic elements in an haunted house that you can't replicate while being on the street.


Some automation like that mobile ordering?? Also, I believe rides could be staffed higher, but it is because of their budget they are limiting the amount of staff working which limits Raging Bull to two trains, not that they don't have the employees. Food Service is a whole other issue.
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