SFGAdv 7/26/06 -- Holy hell.

Then I must have missed something, I thought Rick McCurley was still GM over there.

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matt. said:

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RatherGoodBear said:
Are the employees not being trained properly?

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That's a big part of it. When Six Flags ride ops go through training they may not even realize that dispatching the train quickly and effeciently is one of the goals they have. I chuckle when some people come back from SF parks with reports talking about "hitting interval" or "stacking trains" when your average SF employee probably hasn't heard anything like that in their life. You'd probably get a response like "Stacking trains? Like on top of eachother? What?"

That includes attendants, ride ops, team leads, and division supervisors, and is really just one example.

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Actually that is one of the main goals they have. Especially when most ride ops that work coasters are audited a day or two after being certified. I've seen two people fired because they stacked the trains on Road Runner without a good reason. Stacking and hitting interval are common words around SFKK so I don't see why they wouldn't be drilled into the "flagship park" even more.

RGB said:
So what happened between then and now?

This could be the answer
RTneedsTLC said:
Chuck Hendrix came on board in June for reasons that don't belong in a public forum. Take note of when operations began slipping....

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Although I don't understand how things can fall flat in one month, this seems to be a plausible reason why things seem out of order these days. I hope they turn things around . . . and fast.

*** Edited 7/31/2006 4:13:01 AM UTC by Antuan***

I think Six Flags is running out of money and they've entered into cost savings mode. Hence this SEC Filing.

Hence cut backs in staffing and park hours.

I am not jumping on any homepark bandwagon, but it seems Shapiro is looking at SFGAm as the flagship park from here on out.

SFMM and SFGAdv don't seem to be part of his plan for the long term future of the Six Flags chain.

Well, increase the speed by 10mph and all sorts of things happen. It seems like a geometric progression with every mph tacked on. To much stress. Too much to go wrong. I'll be shocked if they ever get it running reliably.

I think the design is flawed, and building them was a mistake from a business standpoint. I'm glad I rode them, but the height is meaningless since you have so little time to appreciate it.

I won't get in line for them unless the line is short because you just never know when they will break down (it seems they always do).

And it seems to me that people looking for problems and go in with a negative attitude are always going to find what they desire/looking for. I've been going to SFGAdv for a long time, and I always have a good time with few exceptions.

OK, I have to admit I really suck when the Jeopardy category is "Amusement Park GMs." (Guess my geek application will be tossed in the shredder now). In other words, the only person named "Hendrix" I'm familiar with is Jimi, and the only Curley I know is Howard. :)

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Intamin Fan said:
The comment about hitting intervals is the furtherest thing from the truth--at least last year. When I went during Fright Fest, the control op was telling the ride ops when their interval was coming up on Kingda Ka--and they were doing an excellent job of making it everytime.

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One ride op on one day at one park on one coaster! ;)

I was speaking about the chain in general. I'll still contend that 9 out of 10 SF employees who operate or attend roller coasters aren't going to know the first thing about how to run their rides at full capacity.

That's great that there seemed to be an operator who actually was informing his attendants about what needed to be done but I'm sure he or she was very much the exception to the rule.

It's not. I can tell you exactly what goes in in Six Flags ride op training. Discussing capacity, hitting dispatch intervals, not stacking trains, etc are all discussed in depth.

-Nate

I can as well, and it's not the same from park to park. And even if it were, these things are obviously not being reinforced once the workers get out into the field, so its pretty much a moot point either way. What's the point of going in depth on these things if they're aren't going to be utilized anyway?

Coasterdude read your private messages when you get a chance. *** Edited 8/1/2006 1:14:06 AM UTC by matt.***

I'm sure training varies from park to park. But then so does the level to which that training is reinforced. Some parks have some pretty large programs in place to reward teams that hit interval (SFGAm's COW program, for example). To insinuate that nobody at Six Flags cares about these things "because it's Six Flags" is a little ridiculous.

-Nate

If I only visited SFMM and SFGAdv, I'd be saying "becuase it's Six Flags". Having BEEN to some of their better-run parks, I know how WIDELY variable they are when it comes to *Customer Care* issues....

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coasterdude318 said:
To insinuate that nobody at Six Flags cares about these things "because it's Six Flags" is a little ridiculous.

-Nate

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If you reread my first post I never made a blanket claim about every single crew member at ever single park. I was making generalizations about the *majority* of SF ride ops/attendants that I still feel are true.

The bottom line is that there is no reason why the efficiency at your average SF park can't be as good or better as any other park in another chain (or indie park, of course). The only reasonable explanation I can come up with is A.) the training isn't good enough from the get go and/or B.) the things brought up in training aren't being enforced in the field.

I think it's a combination of both. No matter what the explanation is, the things I saw going on at SFA last year were enough to make me think the folks running the rides hadn't been trained like...at all. Which isn't really their fault, it's their supervisors who should have been noting what was going on the rides they were supposedly responsible for.

Trust me, tho, I'm more than happy to give credit the parks like SFGAm that rock my world in every way every time I go. ;) *** Edited 8/1/2006 10:43:22 PM UTC by matt.***

I wonder if the turnstiles just need to be adjusted. You can't imagine how many rides at SFoT have the turnstile in a position so that almost nobody goes through it. How can you measure capacity without an accurate turnstile?

"The clientele sucks. How necessary is it to spit everywhere? I mean, we get it -- Superman is like flying, but I don't recall the scene where Christopher Reeve hocked a big one at the ground. Was that in the director's cut?"

Love that, I wish my writng style was as good as yours. For it me its like getting ketchup out a glass bottle.

Am I the only one a little weary about riding Kingda Ka? From all these reports it seriously sounds like it's not safe to ride the thing. KK has a horrible track record in terms of accidents compared to Dragster, and TTD just sounds like its a lot more under control than KK. Maybe I'm just exaggerating. El Toro sounds awesome though.

All that place needs is a nice, swift Pinelands brush fire for a fresh start.
It gets worse every time I go there - you would think it's fright fest all season long the way the employees act like zombies.

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Craig the Coaster Freak said:
El Toro sounds awesome though.

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El Toro IS the only reason to go to Great Adventure.

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Craig the Coaster Freak said:
KK has a horrible track record in terms of accidents compared to Dragster

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I must have missed the part where Kingda Ka injured anybody.

-Nate (who thinks there are *plenty* of reasons to go to SFGAdv)

Well the only reason we're going back is b/c theyre giving us free passes and a free q-bot.

Only now im afraid it wont work!