Has your homepark inproved since SF took over?

Is this Parkbuzz or Coasterbuzz? With that regional flavor you get with parks like Holiday World or Hersheypark, you settle for smaller, less eye-popping rides that are a long shot from pushing the envelope in the industry. Sure, let's get Magic Mountain a sack of flats like Great Adventure did in '99. Has Great Adventure management seen to the operation of all these flats at the same time?

Let's face it, all large non-mom and pop parks lose that "fuzzy feeling" you once used to get. In that sense, Knott's was run straight into the trademark concrete grounds as Cedar Fair unfulfills its promises to retain tradition. That homey classic atmosphere now runs amok with generic Cedar Fair stamped work - no matter how modern or improving it is supposed to be.

The problem with Krax is that he doesn't know what Moosh, Dawn, you, or I know, but because we know these things (the reply button for example), we can safely say "See? I knew that?" ;)

You know?
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Join MY coaster club! - It's absolutely FREE!

I knew that, too.

mOOSH [keepin' it simple]

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A random Mooshter's Dawntionary listing: Asstroll - someone who can't seem to control their reply button.

Dude, you only have to press the reply button once, not five times.:)

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Top 3
1-S:RoS @ SFNE
2-Boulder Dash
3-Yankee Cannonball

Kraxl, your theory that large non-mom&pop's lose their mojo is debatable; PKI and DL come to mind, IMO. However, it is moot here. Magic Mountain was not mom-n-pop pre flaggin'.

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I've gotten the Point of life, and can now pass away a happy man!.......

Good job robocoaster. The mompop thing I was referring to was Knott's not Magic Mountain. But still, now that you mention it, Magic Mountain still had a charm that it no longer does now.

Despite being owned by the Knotts family it stopped being "mom & pop" in the late 70's when they more than doubled the size of the park and added the Roaring 20's and Fiesta Village sections.

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A random Mooshter's Dawntionary listing: Willy Nilly [n.] - impotent.

True Moosh, but you have to admit, the park could easily be called Knott's Dorney Park today. There is concrete everywhere, Ghostrider is not the same, and the trees are coming down in record numbers. There isn't much of a farm feeling left. The thing is, these changes don't bother me that much, but I notice them more and more each time I go to that park. Knott's may have lost the mom and pop years ago, but it's certainly got a big ole corperate feel now.

As for my earlier rants, I still feel like Six Flags has improved the quality of many of the parks they've managed, it's just that enthusiats tend to have short, nastalgic memories. Or have we already forgotten that it wasn't the current "Six Flags" that put horsecollars on Revolution or re-profilled Collossus? Yet they still get the blame simply because they haven't found away to magically turn back the clock.

Six Flags as a corperation today is about bottom line, how can we make money *now*. Investing 10 milion in flat rides is considered too much of a risk, although I have personally heard SFMM personnel beg for them. There are too many people to answer to if a profit is not made, which makes the company very knee-jerk.

Parks like the wonderful Holiday World can make their own decisions, based on actual rational thought. They can afford to focus on what's *really* important. I saw alot as an upper management employee and I can tell you, quite a few of these parks are doing to best they can with the limitations place on them, and a few have even succeeded in spite of. It is frustrating to hear people rag on a park you felt so passionately about, yet were unable to make any changes because some "six figure" jerk, who never even set foot in SFMM, said it wasn't feasible.

It was enough to make me quit the company, though I now have an understanding as to why certain thing never happen, and I live with them. I too would rather spend a day at Hershey Park or Indiana Beach btw, but I simply can't bring myself to continue complaining(or whatever word for it you choose to use) about something year after year. I also have a bottom line, either I spend my money there or I don't.

*Something* wicked this way comes...to the west coast in 2004!
*** This post was edited by DWeaver 7/16/2003 11:53:57 PM ***

Must I remind all SFDL'ers again, you stole our Topspin from SFA! That's alright, we snagged a ride from SFFT this year:)
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If you have a problem with clones, the solution is real simple—Stop traveling.
*** This post was edited by Intamin Fan 7/17/2003 1:53:40 AM ***

That is a rather simplistic view about Six Flags Darien Lake. I Worked at the park when Paul Snyder owned it and also when Fun Time Inc bought it. I will tell you both the previous owners did not put as much captial investment into the park as did the new Six Flags owners. The landscaping alone is incredible compared to what it use to be. Darien Lake, pre Six Flags owners, did not have a signature coaster so the first thing the new owners had to do was get an anchor attraction. As far as not putting up major rides in every year that depends on the attendance figures. If you do not get 2 or 3 million visitors a year it becomes hard to justify spending 12 million dollars or 18 million dollars on new rides. For some reason Darien lake doesn't have the crowd pull despite heavy advertisement. I guess us Western New Yorkers are not amusement park kinds of people.

Food prices are outrageous at Six Flags Darien Lake point blank. I was at Darien Lake the other night and my cousin was hungry so I said I will get some curly cue fries. Two large curly cues with cheese please. The cashier rang up $14 and something. My cousin looked at me I stood there for a second with my mouth open like WHAT???? Sorry, that is to much I would like the medium sized ones instead. Still came to $9 something but $14 for two cups of fries was too much. On a good note Darien Lake is forgiving if you want to bring small to medium sized food coolers into the park.

darienlakefan - "SFDL has been destroyed except for my beloved S:ROS since six flags took over.

Six flags will not give us a new coaster, and hell not even a used one!

I have visited many other six flags parks and my home park is probably the worst and empty park. Too bad...................."

Good job kraxlridah, you still manage to miss the point. Has your homepark improved since SF tookover is a multi-layered question. It's not How Has, that would be simple, by adding coasters. I mean really, how many parks has six flags not added a coaster to? The mere heading suggests this is not about adding more rides, though that is a factor.

And so what do you do? The second some folk intelligently and respectfully list their reasoning why they believe MM was *overall* a better place before SF, you shoot of your mouth about how their "whiners" and their making you angry:(.

Next time you disagree with someone, try posting something that will actually foster a healthy dabate.

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I've gotten the Point of life, and can now pass away a happy man!.......

DW - I agree on some of your points about Knotts and have addressed them in threads about the park, but this is a thread about Six Flags.

Of course SF has improved some of their parks...that was never my point. I have only been talking about *my* SF park up in Valencia.

Nor do I blame SF for the horsecollars or the *first* reprofile of Colossus [speed hill after second drop]. However they are responsible for the removal of the double-down and for replacing almost all of the wooden track bed with I-beams. Sorry, but Colossus is not a wood coaster anymore, it is a steel coaster with wood supports. Psyclone is headed in the same direction, with more and more I-beam added each year.

As for your bottom line it's mine, too...exactly why I only visit a few times each year and spend as little money there as possible. I vote with my wallot.

Lastly, regarding complaining about tired issues, I'll say it once again: look at the subject of this thread. Everything I said was on-topic. You don't see me constantly complaining about the park in other threads.

mOOSH

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A random Mooshter's Dawntionary listing: Willy Nilly [n.] - impotent.

Like i said and i will always say SFDL is a lower tier park so that is exactly how it is treated like a lower tier park.

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Your Park only has 1 good coaster! That's too bad!

"Lastly, regarding complaining about tired issues, I'll say it once again: look at the subject of this thread. Everything I said was on-topic. You don't see me constantly complaining about the park in other threads".

Don't assume I was referring only to your posts Moosh, the entire direction of this thread changed after the first few posts, something we easily could have predicted.

As for the I-beams on Colossus, that's kinda like worrying about what kind of jelly your going to put on a burnt piece of toast. ;)

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Tease Alert!

*Something* wicked this way comes...to the west coast in 2004!

How many people here remember when it was something else to get a coaster every 5-10 years at your home park and where super happy about that. Seems there are too many complaints about not getting a coaster every year or 2.

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Army Rangers lead the way

With Kings Dominion as my homepark and yearly visits since 1978, I'm quite used to having a new coaster an average of every 2 or 3 years.

1975 - Park opens with 3 coasters
1977 (2 years)
1982 (5 years - longest wait)
1986 (4 years)
1988 (2 years)
1991 (3 years)
1994 (3 years)
1996 (2 years)
1997 (1 year)
1998 (1 year)
2001 (3 years)
2002 (1 year)

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-Mike B.
Son of Hulk
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What i was trying to say is this latest golden age has spoiled alot of people 1990-2000, notice how in the 80's they where more spaced out plus your talking about a big company with alot of money.

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Army Rangers lead the way

That's just it,back in the Time Warner days SF had more money & fewer parks to spend it on thus allowing for a bit more in the way of improvements & rides for each one on a regular basis.

Premier was having it's own problems managing the 13 locally based "amusement parks" (Adventure world included) long before they ever considered buying SF from Time Warner,now you add the burden of running the small time local parks along with trying to run the bigger more established parks of the origiinal SF chain(the big 4) with little to no money plus a bad economy in recent years then they're's bound to be problems that in turn mean most of the smaller parks (the ones that need help & if given help stand a chance at doubling their attendance performance) havn't gotten anything in recent years.

It seems as though for the most part SF has given up on the smaller parks feeling that they will never make as much of a profit,well they won't as long as SF doesn't help these parks make use of the potential for greatness that each park has.

Back when Premier bought Adventure world from the previous owners they made more of an effort to improve the parks image by adding new rides every other year & the longest they had to go between new coasters was 3 years,SF comes in & rethemes the park a bit,plops down a couple of coasters slap dash wherever they can find room for them & then pretty much leaves after that,the same can be said for SFDL.

Adding a new sign to the gate & a couple of hap- hazardly placed rides & then no new rides at all doesn't make for a good six flags park,they need to work at it over time & be willing to put forth the expense if they want it to remain profitable,you know I often wonder if the sale of SFTP by Time Warner to Premier parks inc. had anything to do with the lawsuit against them that involved SFOT & SFOG? I mean why in the world would Time Warner be so eager to sell the SF chain to another company?

You mean Six Flags Camden Park?

It's the best!

*poof* dreaming again. Oh wait, I don't live in WV anymore. lol.

-Tina

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Feel The DragsterGasm....
www.intenserides.com

What I meant to add was Darien lake may get a water attraction but nothing huge ...
*** This post was edited by parkenthusiast 7/18/2003 12:27:47 AM ***