El Toro ties The Voyage

Lord Gonchar said:
I would be as confident in recommending a SF park to someone as I would a CF park (moreso in certain cases) - and that was never true prior to '06.

Honestly, the worst part of our visit to SFA this year (other than the always-exciting season parking pass issues, LOL) was the fact that the board ops always delay dispatches so they can listen to themselves over the microphones with a trainload of passengers locked and loaded. Back in the early '00s, that was probably one of the better aspects of that park - other than the obvious 4 kick-butt rides.

(Maybe the "banter" was just more clever back then?) ;)

Hearing about Six Flag's season passholders knowing it's going to be a bad day, then what incentive would I have to bother going. I can't predict which day will be good and which day will be bad, and I've had too many bad days there to count, so I choose not to go.

My last trip there, I tried to predict the crowd levels. It was the first week of school in PA, on a Thursday. I thought for sure that they wouldn't be too busy, but I was very, very wrong.

And if they would have tried to be efficient that day, I may not have felt like I wasted money at their park yet again. Why, after so many bad experiences at Six Flags Great Adventure, would I happily take that chance to have another bad experience again? I don't care if they are under new management. I don't like them, because they have taken advantage of me, as a customer, far too many times.

My loss? Or their loss?

How many tries should I give a park I havent had much fun at in 15+ visits?

Im sure Ill break down eventually but so far, SFGAm is only 45 minutes down the road and in the 4 months Ive lived here I have:
-Visited Noah's Ark 4 times (2 hours)
-Visited Cedar Point 2 times (7 hours)
-Will be visiting WOF once (7.5 hours)

I have no plans on going to SFGAm this season.

rollergator said:
Honestly, the worst part of our visit to SFA this year (other than the always-exciting season parking pass issues, LOL) was the fact that the board ops always delay dispatches so they can listen to themselves over the microphones with a trainload of passengers locked and loaded. Back in the early '00s, that was probably one of the better aspects of that park - other than the obvious 4 kick-butt rides.

Oh, definitely! I think SFA more than any other SF park doesn't deserve it's rep as such a bastion of suck. 2nd best stop of our east coast trip this year behind only BGW.

We thought it was fine when we visited back in 2003 too. In fact, on both visits we stopped at guest relations to leave positive comments about especially helpful employees.

And 4 admissions, parking and unlimited drink ran around $135. Even if it sucked, it'd be a good deal. ;)

Touchdown said:
How many tries should I give a park I havent had much fun at in 15+ visits?

Im sure Ill break down eventually but so far, SFGAm is only 45 minutes down the road and in the 4 months Ive lived here I have:
-Visited Noah's Ark 4 times (2 hours)
-Visited Cedar Point 2 times (7 hours)
-Will be visiting WOF once (7.5 hours)

I have no plans on going to SFGAm this season.

Maybe you should change your plans.

My family drove 7 hours to visit SFGAm last weekend for the first time ever. We absolutely loved it...with a great selection of rides, entertainment, friendly employees, and incredibly clean midways/facilities, it was honestly one of the best park visits we have ever had.

And this is coming from an unbiased park-goer, along with a family who doesn't enjoy coasters in the least.

So is there where we realize that opinions differ and we have to take in the info available, combine that with personal experience and choose to believe what we will? :)

^But that goes back to "winning customers back." If you have enough negative experiences at a place its going to be awfully hard for them to get you back.

I will say that I saw noticeable improvement everytime I went, but in the end at SFGAm I always felt like I was just doing a bunch of rides I enjoy and not visiting a park. I never got that escape feeling, and there were just way too many hassles (horrible employees, bad food, and a general feeling of just not caring) to make it as fun as other places. Its all completely subjective but that's what keeps me away.

In the end I rather travel further and go fewer times to another park then waste my free time at SFGAm.

How many tries should I give a park I havent had much fun at in 15+ visits?

If it just comes down to you not liking a park, no one is saying you should go. Perhaps LK simply doesn't like SFGADv, and that's fine. But constantly complaining about the park, when you haven't been in a long time, based on your experiences in the past, when it looks as though more people have had good experiences than bad as of recent makes it look like he's complaining about a problem that not many other people have.

If you don't like the park, don't like the park. But don't complain about your preceived issues with the park when you haven't been in a very long time, and other people who have made multiple visits recently say they haven't had an issue with the park.

Honestly, I wonder if it's just a case of going to the same park too many times. KD and SFA have both lost that magical escape feel at times for me, because I was hitting them up 7 or 8 times a summer. Stuff gets old after a while.

I was going to say something similar. I post on a GADV site, and a lot of the people there (and the ones that cross pollinate to this site) seem more like they're just tired of the park.

I used to be that way about Carowinds.

The most oft heard complaint about SFGADv is that it's 'too busy'. Um, duh! It's in the middle of the largest populated area in the US. Of course it gets busy. That's why you buy a gold q bot, or go on Labor Day ;).

Ive been the Canobie Lake, BGW, and CP far more times then Ive been to SFGAm and haven't lost that feeling so its not familiarity.

I think what it really comes down to, more then anything is my first visit to those parks. In short, I had an amazing first visit to my other "home parks" but had a down right terrible first visit to SFGAm. Subsequent visits have been better, but never amazing. Is that because I come in with a negative view of the place? Probably thats at least partially the reason if not the entire reason.

I agree that you probably should not continue to complain as loudly if you havent visited in a long time (or at least qualify it with I went x years ago) but he still has some valid points. SFGAdv is Im sure very crowded on most days, but I bet they dont get busier then the FL parks. Ive been to the Florida parks at their worst (Easter Weekend, 4th of July) and still had a fantastic day. Ive been at parks that had far less crowds but due to management decisions (one train operations,) un motivated employees and poor ride capacity have much longer lines and were much less fun.

When you say a park is "crowded" you can mean one of two things, the park has a lot of visitors that day, or the park has lines extending to the midway for their rides. They are two very different definitions.

I think it absolutely has to do with getting "bored" with a place. We used to go to CP almost every weekend, and it got boring. Now, I spend a lot of time at the zoo, or the art museum, and it's the same thing. Things are fun, we like to do things, we do one thing too much, we get burnt out. It just happens.

More riders on Voyage than El Toro?

Where have the SF parks near Ohio gone? SFWOA is no more, SFKK bit the dust, and SFDL is no longer SF. The closest is SFGAM, 6 hours away or more, so many of us no longer have SF passes.

$15 parking fee.

Need to spend $$$ on Q-bots.

And finally, some of us, including yours truly, know they might not fit their **** into the ETseats!

Roz

yet to ride ET

Need to spend $$$ on Q-bots.

I strongly disagree with that statement. Been to 4 SF Parks this year and there was no need for a Q-Bot at any of them, SFGAdv included (where I could have gotten many re-rides on Toro or anything else, but had a plane to catch).

Last year went to 3 SF Parks (including both SFA and SFGAdv) and there was no need for Q Bot.

And as someone who hates standing in line, and has no problem buying a Q Bot, I've yet to need to do one.

But I do agree with the comments about the lack of a local Six Flags for a good majority of the Buzzers in the Midwest. Without SFKK, the only one left that isn't either on the East, West, or Texas coasts is St. Louis, right?

and Chicago.

From my house the two closest SF parks are Chicago (6 hours according to Google) and St. Louis (just under 7 hours).

Now that Kentucky closed we actually get coke cans with deals for the Chicago park on them.

Vater said:
Honestly, I wonder if it's just a case of going to the same park too many times. KD and SFA have both lost that magical escape feel at times for me, because I was hitting them up 7 or 8 times a summer. Stuff gets old after a while.

Yep.

We dumped our Cedar Fair passes this year for exactly this reason. I might get them again for next season, but haven't done so yet.

I haven't made it to any SF parks this summer, but last year I was able to spend a bit of time at quite a few of them.

SFGAm - Spent 6 days there, thought it was the best of the SF parks I went to.

SFKK - 1 day. Mediocre at best ride selection, everything else was decent.

SFStl - 2 days. A fun park all around, good rides, nice staff, good service.

SFoG - 2 days. Nice ride line up, but horrible efficiency and customer service.

SFA - 1 day. Mediocre ride selection, But friendly staff.

SFGAdv - 3 days. Only 2 rides worth riding, Rude staff, poor efficiency.

SFNE - 2 days. Nice ride selection, nice staff, good efficiency.

La Ronde - 2 days. Only 1 worthwhile ride, terrible efficiency, rude staff. And no free water. Blame Canada.

Great Escape - 2 days. Decent ride line up, friendly staff, decent efficiency.

Again, this is all just personal observation based on what little time I was at each park, but it helps me understand why some people hate SF, and some love it!

Doh! Forgot about SFGAm.

sirloindude said:
^I don't get the hate for SFGAdv. Probably the best customer service I've had at a regional all season. All rides running at full capacity with stellar crews possessing friendly attitudes, and that was just the ride side of things.

As has been said by others before, I think a lot of the people who complain about SF parks haven't actually been in a while. Most of the negative TR's I've read aren't about SF parks.

I totally agree with you. Although the customer service at SFMM wasnt Holiday World -- it WAS however outstanding. Each and every employee was friendly, smiled and pretty much all said "have a six flags day" even just in passing. The park was spotless and all the rides were running.
I had a blast during both visits and would easily visit the park again ANY time I LOVED it! :)

I wanted to get to SFGrtA this season but looks like thats not going to happen. I had fun the last time I was there too! (4 yrs ago?)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2264 :)