Enchanted Parks boss describes future for former Cedar Flags parks

I wish the parks best hoping for them to be successful.
Part of me feels like this is Premier Parks (From the 90's) 2.0

“Happy employees are [creating] happy guests,” Harhi said. “It’s a circular model.”

“The most complicated thing we’re doing is we got away from the dining plan,” Harhi said. “We cannot continue to do what Six Flags did because these parks are not Six Flags.”

He added with a laugh, “I do not have a magic chicken tender tree.”

Maybe there is hope?

"Becoming an employer of choice" is foundational to Enchanted Parks success long-term. There are some really excellent park operations professionals out there that I am sure would love a chance to get back to the days of strong park operations (Kinzel era) with strong people culture (Ouimet era) which truly is a winning formula that is lost at FUN now.

One of the things that I am also intrigued by is the entrance portals at Epic Universe and how that might be adopted at Mid America. I recently posted about the guest flow/design challenge of the park; by creating a Disney-esque 1904 Worlds Fair-Main Street entrance zone and then having portals into the original themed areas of France/Spain/England/USA the park could be really exciting and help to make the "flagship park" a potential destination park for theme park fans given St. Louis already has a decent tourism draw.

Mforcebob:

I wish the parks best hoping for them to be successful.
Part of me feels like this is Premier Parks (From the 90's) 2.0

That's how I feel about Cedar Flags. I feel better about the future of the parks that went to Enchanted than I do most of the parks that stayed with Cedar Flags.

Interesting interview. I tend to trust him a tiny bit more by the simple fact that he answered in normal words. As soon as I hear (read) "synergies" "going forward" etc, I know that every word that follows will be BS.

So Six Flags has “magic chicken tender trees”? That’s how they do it!