NEW ATTRACTION! - Promise then not deliver

Hypothetical Scenario

Hershey Park announces "Wildcat Revenge," the "Coming soon" date is July 2023.

This news causes a buzz and everyone is buying season tickets at a record rate.

The 2023 season comes and goes but the new "Wildcat Revenge" never opens. In fact, construction has barely started.

QUESTION: Is this legal? Can you promise a product in a particular timeframe, take money, then not deliver?

I don't really understand this post. My former girlfriend now mother and veterinarian who lives relatively close to Hershey, took her kids on the new ride who independently did the ride and absolutely loved it. She texted me last week photos of said kids (pretty young) who rode it without her.

Equally confused. But seaworld and the flume came to mind.

It's probably legal, but I bet ACE will bring them up on charges. At best, it could go on their permanent record. Worst case, they won't show up to ride the new rides and just trash them based on POV videos on YouTube.

Several of the theme park companies don’t seem to be too concerned with ethics these days. Bait and switch are their preferred ways of doing business. Advertising operating hours then closing early because of low attendance is another example of this.

The (cheap) season pass business model allows them to get away with this better. People still buy the passes because they are cheap, not because of an excellent level of service.

JFC. You are going to die young and bitter if you don’t let go of the fact that an amusement park closed early when you visited a few times because the weather was butt and the place was a ghost town.

I love when people are so confidently incorrect when using terms like “bait and switch”, “price gouging” and “false advertising”.

I never realized the level of nefariousness of amusement park management.

I do know that Disney settled recently (for $67 million or ~$50 per) for DL passholdees who were promised no blackout dates and then got blackout dates, but that’s an entirely different thing.

Yes, the ride did open this past season. However a situation developed that required the ride to be closed. To the best of my knowledge RMC is still in the process of rectifying the problem.

Expect the terms and conditions for the park's daily tickets and passes include notices/disclaimers that rides may not be available on any given day. So, legally the park is fine. But it doesn't make sense to promise that which you know you can't/won't deliver. There can be construction delays that can push opening back. And other unforeseen circumstances that means a new ride isn't available.

...and when those things happen, most parks are pretty good about letting folks know.

There've been a fair few new-for-2023 attractions that opened really late or not at all.

• Rookie Racer opened last week.
  

• Neither of the Kid Flash coasters have opened yet, though they might still make 2023.
  

• SeaWorld's launched coaster got delayed.

It feels like a particularly bad year?

Wildcat's Revenge did open for a while. I rode it :)

I blame Covid

Raven-Phile:

I love when people are so confidently incorrect when using terms like “bait and switch”, “price gouging” and “false advertising”.

That's the one that drives me crazy that gets thrown out from time to time. Price gouging is not Disney charging more for a hotel room on a holiday weekend or a baseball team charging more for playoff tickets. It is charging $200 for a sheet of plywood before a hurricane or $100 for a case of bottled water after when the water is contaminated.

So it’s ok for a sporting event to be cancel for low attendance AFTER it starts. Got it. Not operating as advertised is unethical.

“Dates and hours subject to change”
Just like everything else on earth. I bet if you look hard you’ll find it.
And let’s keep in mind that any business should be wary of cancelling too many times. Word of mouth and Yelp revues can be deadly. But your one man crusade against Carowinds doesn’t seem to be working. Last I checked they’re plugging along without you.

Yeah, sorry for the confusing example. What brought this question to mind was the fact that earlier this spring, Six Flags America announced the new "'Region's tallest' water coaster coming to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Maryland." OK, that's cool I guess. I don't go to the water park, but I will take a look once it is running. I heard nothing on the news about it opening, so late in August I strolled over to the water park to see the progress. NOTHING. It looked exactly like it did in April. The footers from the old slides were still there other than that no progress. OK, so this won't be opening in 2023. So much for the huge sign that is plastered over the construction site stating "Coming Summer 2024." I really don't care but it got me thinking about the legality of promising something "later this year" then not delivering. I used Wildcat Revenge as an example, because people would be super pissed off if they bought HP King passes for this ride and it wasn't delivered.

Then SFA announces the "new" rides for 2024, when they haven't even delivered the one ride for 2023 lol. My question is if I wanted to be a PITA, could I approach SF with the complaint that I want my money back because I purchased this season pass for XYZ, yet XYZ was not delivered? I would never do that personally, but just curious. Any lawyers out there? lol

'Region's tallest' water coaster coming to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Maryland

Per the Six Flags terms and conditions of its seasons passes/memberships:

Six Flags, in its absolute discretion, reserves the right to vary the opening and closing dates of the Six Flags Attractions and to close, remove or cancel all or any part of the rides, events or facilities within the Six Flags Attractions for any reason including, but not being limited to technical, health and safety and/or operational reasons or due to special events or private functions. For the avoidance of doubt, the full value or any part of the value of the Six Flags Pass will not be refunded nor will any compensation be payable if any of the Six Flags Attractions become unavailable or if any part of any of the Six Flags Attractions are closed or removed from the Six Flags network of parks.

And:

By purchasing a Ticket, Season Pass or signing up for a Membership you are deemed to have accepted these Terms and Conditions of use.

https://www.sixflags.com/si...conditions

I suspect there are limits to that - if Six Flags decided to close all the rides and operate only a water park, just because the rides weren't profitable enough, I'm not sure those Ts & Cs would stand up. And certainly if they advertised a waterpark with 10 slides, and tied a promotion to it, knowing that they were going to operate only the lazy river, you would have a case for fraud.

In general, though, some of this might fall under the rule that advertising is not a contract. Could you call customer service and get a couple front of line passes? Probably. Could you sue them? Probably no more than you could sue them for advertising that the place is fun when in fact it's Six Flags.