If you bought SFDL, how would you Improve it?

If Screamscape is right it looks like SFDL is in for a nice ride package, including a "new" coaster, for 2006.

Enjoy ;)

yeeaaaah.... rriiiiiighhhht. **shifty eyes**

I'll thourally enjoy from the side-lines watching the kiddies have the time of their lives on a new "family" coaster while I despise & envy every cheer of joy.

I don't know who submitted that rumor, BUT... if that were true (a true rumor), it'd be NICE if they completely re-did the Loony Tunes area to combine all possible kiddie rides into one new large area instead of the two areas they have now... especially if they plan on getting some leftovers from Astroworld.

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rollergator said:

Then again, why are ALL three Rides of Steel (arguably the best steel rides since Anton) all being hogged by the Northeast? Share the wealth guys!

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You wouldn't know what to do with 'em, even if you had 'em! :P

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coasterqueenTRN said:
Seabreeze was one of those "WOW!" visits. I didn't know what to expect, if anything.

AWESOME little park. If I had to do it over I would of taken Bill there instead of Darien. :-)
/quote]

That was my impression of the park too. The only negative was the food prices ($2.50 Pepsi) but other than that it's ok. I'd love to see an 80 foot doubleshot there but who knows if it would ever happen. Jack Rabbit is a little weak, but it's smooth, and family friendly so it's definately an important park of their success. Their waterpark rocks and Whirlwind is also very fun.

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TeknoScorpion said:
I just wish they'd move SFDL to Southern West Virginia. We'd love and take care of it, and never forsake it like the local villiage idiots.

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Agreed, Clint. ;-)

You wanna help me buy it?

-Tina

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Lord Gonchar said:

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DawgByte II said:

- The park isn't nearly as bad as a few of you guys think it is

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How can you say that when I've been to the park five times this season and you have been zero or one time?

I agree with all your points that 3 beemers is extremely ridiculous, hell even one is ridiculous at this point but I think the 'locals' would have a better understanding of how the park is than someone who has only been there once or twice and had a good experience. I've seen the park go from way up in 1999, to back down up until this year when things have gone pretty well and my visits have been enjoyable.

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Ride Of Steel said:
How can you say that when I've been to the park five times this season and you have been zero or one time?

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But that's just it. All the stuff that you 3 locals complain about are things that one could evaluate on just one visit.

Let's go post by post from the locals:

Viper's opened post to start the thread, he's complaining about the rides. I wouldn't do any of the things he mentions. The ride line-up is fine and consistent with (nay, superior to) the parks in the area. A freefall ride might be the only thing I'd remotely agree with. That would probably be a nice ride addition, but still not entirely necessary.

Later in the thread Dawgbyte's first post suggests a golf course, complains about the layout and wants the return of the Stunt Show and The Giant Wheels' lighting fixed.

Golf Course? Whatever, it has nothing to do with the park itself. The layout? It's a circle. I made a full loop around the park with little hassle. Try SFA's 'path to nowhere' if you want retarded. No idea on the Stunt Show, I didn't find myself walking around thinking "they need a water stunt show", so it wasn't missed during my visit. The lights on the Wheel I didn't notice, they may or may not need repaired or restored or whatever. Sounds like a general SF complain that applies to most parks in the chain.

Later in the thread Dawgbyte says:

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I've had uber-good visits to the park, so I can pick apart the good & the bad... but the last year ('04) I went to the park, I found it to be a lot more disappointing than anything else. I TRIED & did make the best of it, but I found it virtually impossible to spend the entire day from opening to closing there without getting... well... bored. I don't know if it was the lack of lines that made the re-rides get a little tiring, or if it was the same-old, same-old... but I remember a lot of times going... getting there about 20 minutes before the gates opened for the parking lot all the way until after the laser show at 10:10pm.

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Well, that answers itself and is what I think the real problem is. You guys go on a regular basis. Heck, any park starts to feel like the same old, same old if you visit it enough. It's not a SFDL-specific problem.

Then you (ROS) come in with similar 'new ride' requests. Again, I didn't necessarily miss any of those things, but do think the Drop Ride is the most reasonable addition.

Aside from that you 'locals' aren't complaining about anything else. It's all things one could easily evaluate in one visit. Looks to me like you want some new rides. It's been explained time and time again as to why it makes no sense both in terms of SF's side of things and the market side of things.

Ironic that the most valid complaint comes from someone who lives 1000 (or more) miles away:

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rollergator said:
I throw it in the same kettle as Frontier City and the former SFAW: really good rides, LOUSY management...makes for employees who are oftentimes less-than-friendly to the guests (myself excluded of course, LOL), NOT happy to be there, and under-motivated...

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You guys have a great little park - especially considering it files the SF flag. It's a shame you can't remove yourselves from the situation enough to see that.

^ good points on multiple occasions. Nice post, are u a lawyer?

I heard of that golf course rumor a while back, across the street or something. Sure, it would be nice so that SFDL could become more of a resort location, but I can't fathom that they would put a golf course in there. A course could be expensive, a good one, that is (none of this par 3 crap out there). and, it is a really easy park to find your way around in, one plus of the place. SFA was bad. SFGadv was bad this year because they closed off that pathway between Medusa and the GK, and it was a pain to walk around.

greatwhitenorth has some good ideas. They need to provide a fun experience again.

edit: I agree with Gonch as well, except I am not sure a drop ride is really the only thing they could/should add. They could for sure use another thrill ride for adults, as I mention below. A golf course is not all that bad of idea though, below I talk about the campground needing more, that could be another thing to add, although I think the ROI would be slow.

Three years ago, my gf Monica and I had a nice stay over at DL at the campground. The camping experience was fun, we finished our evening off with the light show and beers at the Beaver bros bar. The park experience was lacking, and was still lacking this year when we went.

Here is what I would do if it were my park.

Camping
- new large pool in the resort style, hot tubs and a swim up bar for adults, recreation area for the kids
- improved dry recreation areas for kids, maybe a baseball field?
- promote fishing and rent boats on the lakes
- keep beaver bros open later, make the whole after park experience more enjoyable
- make the campground/resort so much fun you would could go just for that
- add some benches, maybe some picnicing areas around the lake next to Predator

The Park
- the entire park smells of tar, replace pavement with a nice resorty sidewalk, think Islands of adventure
- paint and maintain every ride
- train the employees to at least be mildly friendly and efficient
- new family log flume with in the modern themed style
- one more modern thrill coaster or flat ride for the adults.
- think about providing free soda, it could work really well here and attract large families to the campground

Waterpark
- actually create one?

Like most Six Flags parks, the potential is there for a top notch experience. The campground they have is an asset, I wish they would add on to that and make it a unique experience, rather than just a place to sleep cheap. *** Edited 10/24/2005 8:11:15 PM UTC by eightdotthree***

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italianstallion said:
^ good points on multiple occasions. Nice post, are u a lawyer?

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Nope. Just a jerk with a love for healthy debate. :)

You may like it healthy, but I'm a masterdebator.

Gonch you do make some good points in that post but isn't it at all important to keep their season pass people 'loyal' to the park and coming back year after year? Like many people have said, there is no real true competition aside from 2 other small parks, so even though a new multi million dollar ride may not be in store for the park, I think they can improve what they do have to keep their current season pass holders as well as attract new ones. But also like you have said in other posts, SFDL is a small market park basically saying most of the people that go ARE locals or they do live within an hour or so of the place. They should be marketing for people to come TWICE OR MORE TIMES each year considering they aren't drawing in vacationers like CP or SFGadv, and that the drive time of potential customers isn't all that long. Even though a coaster enthusiast had a decent trip once during the summer, is that really what the park is catering to? Their regional market is more important and they have to have them come more than once a season.

Like you said, you thought my idea of a drop tower in the somewhat near future would be a good idea, but what about a junior coaster and and improved waterpark?

Those additions wouldn't be all that expensive and definately would step SFDL up against the other smaller parks and truely give thecustomer a reason to go again instead of experiencing the same old same old.

Ride of Steel - if Screamscape is right you are getting your junior coaster. VERY junior, LOL!

Hmm.. unless I'm missing something, it's been 7 years since the addition of a major coaster, correct? Also, I seem to be getting the impression that the park hasn't really been invested in the past few years.. is this correct?

If yes to one/both of those questions, I have this next question: Isn't it a little bit of Deja Vu with respect to SFAW? Is there some underlying issue with SFDL that is making this look like a park they might like to get rid of, and thus (as gator pointed out) makes sense not to invest heavily if you're going to jettison the property in some way, shape, or form?

I could be way off-base, but the situation seems similar, and the complaints from locals seem similar as well (as do Gonch's and Moosh's replies to those complaints :) )

well being that i've been there once last season and once this season i can tell you that Attendance at SFDL isent as cooked up as it to be.

If i can go on a holiday weekend and park in a row parraell to the enterance less then 50 yards from the gate at 2pm on a sunny warm nice day, when I expected to be in the boonies i'd say theres an issue.
not to mention i spent 2 minutes getting in at the metal detector lines the quickest in all the years...and might i add that 8 major rides were down that weekend including 3 coasters thats allready the tip off that it was not the day.
when i was younger i took out photos and you can see people everywere when i was there you could bowl down the midway and miss everyone in sight.

Vendors who were at the parks Octoberfest that normaly play roadshow circuits said that attendance was deplorible for the 3 weekends they had a promising friday night outta all but the rest of it was so light vendors closed up shop by 5pm with a park closing at 10pm
I think there is attendance issues here and I know the other 2 parks have added stuff and that has gone over well meanwhile SFDL just sits there and takes it you know them little parks maynot be quote compitition but when it comes down to it those parks have more too offer in a consistant lower price and get more for the buck on a family of 4

if those families will venture to canada i think PCW wins hands down even ontario place is worth it.

SFDL needs to get there water park in check and redone, fix the service issues and get the rides up and running, i think alot of fustruations is seeing people heading outta the park as you walk in ...well if there not getting there bucks worth outta that full priced ticket there gunna leave and never come back.
lastly park amenities need to be done the patched blacktop needs to go thats one thing i can agree on here. lastly get the rides lit and painted the better they look in the day and night earns the guests respect...if its dirty and dark people will take that image with them.

Its a proven statistic that when someone has a bad experiance they will go home and tell atleast 10 people they had a bad time and dont go there...

its like a bad movie...do you like paying 8-9 bucks to see a bad movie you hated? what do you do? tell your friends of course dont go!

well it happens and i think if they add a new ride which is going to come at somepoint people will come back. they also need to clean up the place as a whole.

only time will tell if this company is realy commited to this park?! could it become another companies golden jewl? we'll see

Rember Martins Fantasy Island went through some tough years when the current ownership took over in 1994- the accidents of the past and the black cloud that was over this place pritty much today has been forgotten, the place has built a new look and reputation and people have come back if it happened at MFI- SFDL has the oppertunity to do the same *** Edited 10/25/2005 5:01:53 AM UTC by TopSpinJay***

Damn, Jay... that's the worst grammar sentence structure I've ever seen from you... good thing you at least broke it up into paragraphs! ;)

Us as locals may appear to whine & complain... but some of it is legitimate, especially the crowds & the way the park has been running as of late.

Local competition has been adding new coasters & flat rides left & right since 1999. MFI added Crazy Mouse, Nitro, Slingshot, and even a water attraction. Seabreeze added their Whirlwind coaster, froghopper, and I think another ride. Marineland even added a super record breaking triple drop tower as well as a "teacup" ride (themed to orca's).

Yeah, SFDL has added a ride here & there since then, but nothing that's really marketable to bring in the crowds. The Whirlwind, Sky Screamer, & Nitro were very marketable to those smaller parks because to them it was a major addition & brought in the crowds. Crowds much lighter than a typical SFDL crowd, however... but to SFDL, they need to keep up with the quality that they had going in the late 90's with the additions of the hotel, coaster after coaster, whole waterpark make-over... and so forth.

It just seems they stopped caring & are letting the local competition walk all over them.

Jay is right where a bad experience, one person will tell ten others about the experience to pass on the information to get them to stay away, while one good experience may spread the word to two other people.

I've told many about the poor conditions & many have listened & taken other routes to heartier parks nearby especially Canada's Wonderland, where I cannot stress enough... it's SFDL's closest real competition & next to Cedar Point & Great Adventure, is the best park in the North East.

Again, perhaps SF is looking to eschew the park fairly soon. That would make sense why they're not putting [m]any dollars towards it.

Here's what I would do.

fire all management

Reduce parking toll

reduce the gate addmission

Remove alot of the up charge attractions (They have way to many for the size of the park)

Install a S&S tower

Slowly replace the older rides with new ones.

reduce camping and hotel rates.

Install a couple new big roller coasters.

Make sure new management oversees that seasonal employees conform to new customer service requirements, or new management will also be fired.

Trust me, I live close to this park and limit my visits to once a year and a couple concerts. There customer service sucks, prices are high (big suprise it's six flags). Their maintenance of the rides is terrible. This year I took my family to Martins fantasy Island, Seabreeze and Canada's wonderland. All 3 are superior to Darien Lake.

How about MarineLand? It's a better park than SFDL, even though it only has 1 big roller coaster. When I last visited, all the rides were running. And, I felt more comfortable there. From now on, I will go to SFDL for Viper alone. Superman's 1 train operation I will not put up with anymore, and Predator, Mind Eraser, and Boomerang aren't that great. I HATE Predator!

Gosh, If I'd only win that Lottery...Jeez.