A Cynical Thought
Well, I went to Six Flags Great America on Tuesday and got in the park just after 10. Wanted to ride Deja Vu first. "Operating 12-5" according to the sign. (Sign later changed to "Deja Vu will not be open today). So, I head to V2. "This ride is temporarily closed. Sorry for the inconvenience." (Not a soul in the station, either). So, went off to AE. Only running one side.
Now, here's my 2 cents.
1)Parks make most of their profit off of food and merchandise, correct? and...
2)The chances of a patron spending more money increase the longer the patron is at the park, no? Also....
3)Patrons will be more likely to leave the park after they feel they have "accomplished" riding all the rides they need to hit, which will be accomplished more quickly at the beginning of the day, when fewer people are at the park...hence
4) It is to the park's advantage to have major attractions closed at the beginning of the day, because then everyone will have to wait in long lines for them, which might contribute to them staying in the park longer, which might well result in them spending more money.
Thoughts?
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SFGAm: 1)DV 2)V2 3)AE Blue 4)Viper 5)Bull
Same thing happened to me there a week or so ago. Why is DV only running 5 hours? (It broke down at 12:10 that day for a while!)
My guess. After all the mechanics are done testing.fixing.inspecting all the other rides it takes the entire staff to make the darn thing run for 5 hours. It doesn't seem to even work (see recent rollbacks). ;)
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- Peabody
I have to agree with this idea somewhat. I do believe that there are some intentional "groundings." It is kind of evil, but it makes sense in the corporate world, sadly.
Jeff, good to see you around again.:)
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Make it happen for Knoebels at PPP
Also, the wait for AE was a solid 15 minutes (back row), when it would have been a near walk-on had both sides been operating from 10 o'clock. Why not have both sides operating from the get-go? To save an hour of labor costs? (The red side opened up around 11:15).
And what about V2? It didn't open up until about 11:30.
My thought is this: If you need to open up some rides late, why not have the less popular ones open late (Demon, Iron Wolf, etc)?
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SFGAm: 1)DV 2)V2 3)AE Blue 4)Viper 5)Bull
I agree with #3 entirely and actually came to a similar conclusion after seeing extremely slow ride-ops and one train operations at both SFWOA and SFGAdv (Nitro & Medusa excluded)
It makes a lot of sense if you think about it. I like your idea better than mine as I was thinking more along the lines of if you can't get to everything in one day, you'd be more inclined to visit again to "finish" the experience. Either way you get the same result - more "residual" spending due to more time in the park. I really hope that's not the truth because, quite frankly, it sucks. But for so many of us to have come to similar conclusions sure seems fishy.
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www.coasterimage.com
Dorney Park visits in 2002: 15
I rode it at 10:15 pm, on one of the last trains of the night.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
While waiting in line for Batwing back on the 10th I was thinking the same thing,I often wonder if the park wants to have long lines.
Think about it,the park may want long lines so it would appear that the ride is still popular and that way they can get out of having to add a new attraction in the near future.
Anyway that's my 2 cents.
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A rollercoaster? What's that?
Somtimes parks may want a long line. When your in a line especially a long one on a hot day. Your more likely to grab a drink off one of the line vendors instead of going to a water fountain when your just strolling around the madways.
As for main attractions being closed: I don't see why any park would want more than one closed per day. If I went to a park and there were 2 or 3 coasters down for the day for no reason other than no ride ops I'd be upset and wouldn't want to visit anytime soon. I could understand if I saw them being fixed but not because there weren't enough people in a park or not enough staff.
I think all parks should run like CP. Start off planning on a big crowd at least 2 trains per coaster then if you need a third you can add it or take off the second if need be.
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Visits to Knoebels in 2002: 6
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Titan Uranus 1976-2001
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SFGAm: 1)DV 2)V2 3)AE Blue 4)Viper 5)Bull
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Titan Uranus 1976-2001
yo Spacecase90210
i can see one ride being closed per day. maybe even two. but to have three COASTERS down in one day is totally the parks fault. you pay to ride coasters not to walk buy and say sure wish i could ride that. we pay this huge amount of money to get into parks thinking all rides will be open. you would think some of the 100 dollars we spend in a day goes towards fixing the rides fast and effeciently.
i personally think that they dont care to much about the rides being closed. cause i know myself if i went to SFNE to ride superman, i would not come back home till i rode it. i would stay in the town for a few days waiting for it to open. so if rides are closed companys think they will come back the second day to hit the rides that were closed the last day. i think they need to make more of an effort to get the rides up and running at a godd capasity.
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1.Fire Dragon 2.Ice Dragon 3.Raptor 4.Batman Knight Flight 5.Kraken
Wow, that Beverly Hills reference was childish. While on the topic of SoCal...Say Deja Vu is vallied out in the cobra roll, X is down for being X, and S;TE is down because it busted a LIM or something. You are saying that is the Park's fault? It's not like any park would let you buy a ticket without posting what rides would not be operating on a given day.
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Titan Uranus 1976-2001
The two days I was at SFGAm, Deja Vu ran only between noon and 5 pm. In fact, they closed the queue before 5 pm. The only explanation I've heard was it has trouble in cooler weather (less than 70 degrees), so it's open during the warmest part of the day. Don't know how true that is, but it was cooler the week I went.
Although they listed 3 coasters "down" and Deja Vu open from noon-5 when we arrived at 9:15 am, all coasters (excluding Shockwave) opened up eventually.
Frankly, I will not stick around to ride a popular ride if it's not open when I've finished riding everything else. Generally the lines are huge when it opens...as in Deja Vu. I got in line at 11:15 am waiting for the noon opening, and figured I'd be on the ride in short order. Even as close as I was, it still took another 45 minutes after they opened the queue, and the line was 2.5 hours the entire 4.5 hours it was open. My son refused to wait in line for it. Major capacity issues here.
Anyway, of the parks I've visited, SFGAm had the most coasters down in the mornings, and that intial list outside the gates was pretty daunting.
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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead
Several rides have trouble in cooler weather. Bull, AE, etc. Part of that is temp. Part humidity. AE usually doesn't open up until 11. But, part of that is the track walks take so long.
Aaaahh. Chicago Weather!
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"Getting on Iron Wolf is kind of like going in a blender and pressing PUREE"
--Ever lying in wait for someone to say something stupid.
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