Unlike some of those who have posted, and like, I think, a certain share of the public large, I notice how I am treated by employees at parks. At Cedar Point, employees by and large are friendly and courteous. Yes, there are some nasty ones. But for the most part, nice people. To compare: at SFWoA last year, the first employees we met, the season pass people, were, to a person, very curt, and not friendly. With our new season passes, we proceeded to the entrance, where the employee was sitting on one of the turnstiles, waving people through. While there were some friendly people at SFWoA, for the most part they were not particularly friendly. And that has, in my experience, been true at each of the Six Flags parks I've visited: some nice people, but as a whole not a group enthusiastic about their jobs or employer.
Last year, we went to 3 Six Flags parks, WoA, GrAm, and St Louis. This year, we're not buying season passes, and we may go to Great America, or we may not. We will be going to Kennywood and Kings Island, among others. But one part of what has put us off of Six Flags is the customer service skills of their employees at several of their parks.
As for those people surprised by what they'll find at where they expected to find Sea World... do you really think everyone who was looking for Shamu and a pleasant park experience is going to be pleased to find no Shamu, big rides, lots of unsupervised teens, and higher prices? SFWoA has seriously muddled its image to the GP; attendance numbers for SFWoA this year aren't going to be as interesting as say 5 years out, so that we can see whether they track up or down...
-------------
"Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!"
Dr. Leonard McCoy