I am a hypocrite. I bought Fastlane.

It's sweet that you recall our banter from six years ago, but I haven't posted since then. Rising kids takes all my time. Tooshay... ;)

Touche?

I think you meant touche.

Google's fault, not mine.

I would have fixed it...

I have no idea who you are, (I wasn't around here when you last posted)... but if you have to blame Google because you can't spell, then any other garbage you're typing loses all semblance of credibility..not that I saw much there to begin with.

And I think you used touche wrong anyway...unless you meant to give me credit for the point made in my previous post. In which case, thanks.

^^ Aaaahhhh...that was awesome. Perhaps I have been too quick to say I won't move over on El Toro.

That was for Mike G., but I like your post too, Gonch.

If raising kids and posting on CoasterBuzz are mutually exclusive, I'd say Gonch has done a pretty good job managing both.

When your job is raising the kids it's easy to spend all day posting on Coasterbuzz and eating bon bons! :)

Well, you too. :)

(That was for Jeff. 8.3 snuck in on me.)

Maybe rising kids takes more time than raising them?

Well, he can always blame that one on Google too.

eightdotthree said:

When your job is raising the kids it's easy to spend all day posting on Coasterbuzz and eating bon bons! :)

I'm the real life Peggy Bundy!

RC Madness, I'm disappointed I feel so compelled to respond, but as someone who actually worked in ride operations at a Six Flags park, they consider fast-moving lines a good thing. There's no conspiracy afoot, save that when I see a certain sequence of numbers, I lose the ability to think for myself and begin targeting a wascawwy wabbit for assassination.

I wouldn't take it personally. It's all part of this wacky conspiracy theory that basically believes it make sense to piss off all of your guests with poor operations so that a small percentage of them will pay more.

No. Seriously. Some people believe that.

For real.

But Gonch, lets do the math!

Let's say that a park routinely gets 6000 visitors on any normal day. They only allow 500 to buy their upcharge.

6000 pay $45 to get in for $270K. On top of that, each person spends an average of $15 dollers extra for another $90K. Then 500 of those people pay an extra $50 to cut the lines for even more, at $25000.

If we tick off the majority of people, that's 5500 people, and they stop coming, it only makes sense that parks want to make $55,000 instead of the $385K they'd make if they start to tick off the majority and they stop coming.

I mean, that makes sense, right? They would want less people spending less money because they're being treated poorly by sabotaging the park with poor operations and implementing pay to cut.

Didn't you know that the goal of a business was to make the least amount of money possible while catering to a select few that want to feel rich?

If I were obigated to make sure that my shareholders profits were to go up each year or else, I would do whatever it takes to get more people to buy the cut pass, even if that means making my lines as long as possible by any means necessary. I'd schedule rides to only open for half the day, I'd run less ride vehicles than needed, and I would advertise on a sign that exaggerates the wait time that if they don't want to wait, come on down and pay for a pass that let's you (GASP) actually cut in front of every one else.

Running a business is not all fun and games. Sure, they need to be profitable, however, I think it would be pretty stressful to have an obligation to make sure that the business is profitable. It could lead to the business acting immoral, in a way. Heck, I see this all the time on the news. Monsanto, Dick Cheney, Walmart's bad reputation. It's crazy.

But that isn't the case with these parks! Do you not see the crews at parks like Cedar Point busting their butts to keep things moving?

Sometimes it's just a case of people not being particularly awesome at their jobs. There's not some big conspiracy afoot. If there was, you'd see it more widespread. I chalk it up to the fact that they've realized that they're popular and their rides can get crowded, so to compensate for their popularity, they've offered anyone willing to pay for it the opportunity to skip those lines. It's a bonus option, not the revocation of some past privilege.

Also, look at it from the perspective of people like me who use it when necessary. You say it isn't fair that I got to pay to skip that 2-hour wait on Diamondback, but if I ultimately pay more than you for my experience, how is it fair to me that I don't reap some benefit?

All that said, I chalk it up to people with money get to do more stuff and if it's that important to me, I'll work hard to make that extra money. I'm not angry at the rich people who get to fly business class all the time or stay in Grand Hyatts when I don't get to do that. Why should they miss out on my account?

A more accurate comparison would be first class bumping folks out of their seats forcing them to take a later flight. Not that it matters cause nobody complains about flight delays.

LostKause said:

I'd schedule rides to only open for half the day, I'd run less ride vehicles than needed, and I would advertise on a sign that exaggerates the wait time

I don't know if you were being sarcastic or not, but you've pretty much described SFMM's business model. Granted I haven't been in a long time (pre-Tatsu, and I've heard it's gotten better) but I visited 2 times in 2 separate years and didn't ride anything more than Ninja and Mine Train and do all the kiddie stuff because it was that poorly operated.

Shareholders are going to be really upset when you make or unpleasant enough that people stop coming. What you're saying goes exactly against how to run a successful business.

And then you bring up failed businesses. Theme parks are thriving.