Becoming the flagship park: Enchanted Parks' Mid America

As Enchanted Parks begins ownership of new parks this season and starts to understand each parks' unique characterists and market dynamics, one park stands out amongst them all: Mid America.

Being the final of the 3 original Six Flags parks built under Angus Wynne, it was the only park of the 3 not designed by Randall Duell who was preoccupied with designing Astroworld. Six Flags Mid America is unique in that it doesn't feature the "Duell Loop," a design element that allowed park guests to walk by each attraction in a circular loop around the park often featured at parks like SFoT, Carowinds, Marriott's Great America parks, etc. Unfortunately, the Duell Loop didn't allow park guests to quickly go from one area of the park to the other side without having to walk the entire loop. In the case of Mid America, it featured an entrance that caused guests to immediately hit "The Wall" of retail stores, forcing park guests around the sides of The Wall to head to the back of the park or use small pathways on each side to enter the original 6 lands. It's an inefficient design and it creates an immediate physical/psychological barrier right inside the main gate of the park.

Not far from Mid America is Marceline, MO, one of the ancestral homes of Walt Disney and a place that influenced him and what was to come in the future with its town main street. One of the great accomplishments from Disney and his design team was creating "The Hub" at Disneyland and then later on at other Disney parks. The Hub became an efficient people-mover, drawing guests down Main Street to a central location that then connects to each land, allowing guests free movement from anywhere inside the park to the opposite side of the park without having to make a lap around the entire park.

As Enchanted Parks looks towards the future with Mid America as a flagship park, I have to think that eliminating "The Wall" and designing a new entrance gate/plaza, pathway, and hub would benefit the park immensely. To be able to stand at the front entrance gates and visually see into the park would draw the guest in, much like the entrance to a Disney park does with the castle as the draw. Keeping with the 1904 World's Fair theme, the Colossus ferris wheel could be centered at the end of the "Main St." pathway as the focal point, then in the evening new LED lights on Colossus could be programmed to coincide with music/street lights/building lights/water fountains, etc. all tied together for a nightly celebration as the "kiss goodnight" before guests exit for home. Many are hoping for coasters and other new rides but this one change feels "enchanting" to me and I think park guests would feel the same, creating a truly flagship park.

When I heard about FUN dropping a few of their "lower tier" parks and those becoming Enchanted Parks, my initial thought was that this is probably good for the parks provided the company has adequate operating capital. The parks that were the lower tier parks in the Cedar Fair and Six Flags chains are now the crown jewels of Enchanted Parks. Suddenly Mid America, so long seemingly ignored by Six Flags, is possibly the star of the new chain.

I confess I haven't visited all of the Six Flags parks...only Georgia, Great America, Great Adventure, Magic Mountain, and Mid America/St. Louis. (Darien Lake, Adventure World, Geauga Lake, Wyandot Lake, Kentucky Kingdom, and Elitch Gardens don't really count as "real" Six Flags parks; those were all Premier parks with Six Flags branding). But of the ones I did visit, Saint Louis was far and away my favorite, even if they do have the least useful multi-station train ride I have ever seen in a park. On each of my visits there I truly got the sense that management actually cared about the place, and it showed at every level of their operations. Plus, I really liked their wood coasters, especialy the Screamin' Eagle.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Dave, I’m glad you posted about the train! It has the potential to be a truly useful transportation tool in the park and we all know how rare it is for a park to even have a train ride these days. Hopefully Mr. Harhi, with his Disney background, sees the opportunity to redesign the entrance of the park and incorporate the train in that design similar to how it functions at Disney parks.

For those who haven't been, perhaps some explanation is in order. There are two train stations, amd the train runs more or less around the perimeter of the park. Except that at the front of the park, the route goes behind the building on the entrance plaza, putting the one station right in the center of the park. The other station is at the middle of the back half of the loop, right down the midway from the first station. You could easily walk from one station to the other in less time than it takes for the train to go halfway around the loop.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

It’s interesting to think that Disneyland is 85 acres of park, Mid America is twice that in developed acreage. Getting the train ride developed as both a functional transportation method plus a ride experience with animatronics/scenery really could be a gem for the park and guests of all ages. Given the problems parks are having with teen meet ups, fights, etc. any chance to create a more family focused atmosphere and less dependence on “extreme thrills” has to be a winning strategy.

Once I was in a jet aircraft flying somewhere at night. Probably from out west back to Ohio. Anyway, thru the window in the distance I could see a bunch of street lamps in many rows and wondered what it was. (As one does). I kept my eye on it as we got closer and it came clear that it was a huge parking lot so I was even more curious. Then I saw what looked like chaser lights and is that a Ferris wheel? and finally realized we were about to fly right over Six Flags over St Louis. The weird thing is that the parking lot was so much bigger than the little park sitting behind it in the dark. Which makes sense I suppose, but to see it from up above was really telling and so awesome to see.