SFGAdv 7/26/06 -- Holy hell.

OhioStater, they also lured me back with flashpasses after complaining to guest service. The clencher....this happened on my first visit to the park this season (breaking in my season pass). I was so frustrated by the park I didn't want any part of them so i wanted my money back. They refused so they bribed me with free stuff. Need-less to say, I took it.

Coasterdude, your absolutely right there is one other reason to go to Great Adventure, and thats for The Chiller. Too bad its been closed the majority of this season.

Dante says impressive rollercoasters are simply not enough to warrant a good amusement park.

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coasterdude318 said:

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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.

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Valuable point.

- J

The Shapiro Effect? Things have gotten WORSE at Great Adventure - as if that could even be possible, it's like scraping the bottom of the cess pool instead of wallowing on it:
Saturday got there late to see a concert - told my friend and his family to meet me on the bar line inside the 'great' arena. Well, in the infinite wisdom of the new Shapiro Family Friendly Park Policies, there IS no bar anymore in the concerts. So I walk over to 'best' of west to wait in line for a tap beer (which had to be snuck into the arena since they won't even allow it inside the concerts now). There was no employee working the beer line - only some poor soul trying to get sodas for the food line and in the rare occurence that she had a free moment, she would go over and pour a beer for the angry secondary beer line. Now there is a major rock concert happening immediately next door with over forty or so people standing in line for nearly an hour to buy a beer, so I called food services on my cell phone to complain that they needed more help in that restaurant -they acted like they didn't even know what restaurant I was talking about and never sent anyone to help this poor girl out. After waiting in line for over a half hour and not moving at all, I finally got disgusted and left to go see the concert which started. We got there really late so only had time to watch the concert and decided to leave early to get at least one ride in for the day, so we headed to El Toro since we saw it running. When we got there it was closed for testing, and the adjacent rolling blunder was ALSO closed for no apparent reason other than understaffing. So we went back to watch the end of the concert and didn't ride a thing, which sucked because we missed a good twenty minutes of the show schlepping back and forth to the rides.
Ironically, during the 'family' rock concert at least three seperate times the lead singer exclaimed 'IS THIS A GREAT F*CKING CROWD OR WHAT?' I had my eight year old son with me who looked at me in disbelief each time the guy said it. It would have been more family friendly with a beer in my hand and singer without a potty mouth! I honestly didn't have a problem with the singer saying that stuff in the excitement of the moment - my only problem is with Shapiro's little prohibition stunt at their rock concerts. The amount of money their losing not selling alcohol at those things must be being made up with high parking fees. I spent the next day a Clementon and we had a blast - complete opposite of sux flags.

Anyone who thinks that Six Flags would be offering a better experience today with the old regime still in charge is smoking crack. Its too early to write-off Shapiro. IMHO he's doing the best he can given the chain's financial status.

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ApolloAndy said: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?

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Pay some intern like, well, an intern to count 20% of dispatches by looking at video (also handy in case of *incident*), then base your estimates on that. Jus' sayin' is all...then again, we know how expensive those minimum wage people get...pfffft!

And "staffing issues", I'm sorry, SELL some stuff already and use the proceeds to FIX what's wrong at those few really promising parks...you know which ones... ;)

This is the wrong time and method for convincing people that the new management is better...IMO.
*** Edited 8/17/2006 6:22:57 AM UTC by rollergator***

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Mamoosh said:
Anyone who thinks that Six Flags would be offering a better experience today with the old regime still in charge is smoking crack. Its too early to write-off Shapiro. IMHO he's doing the best he can given the chain's financial status.

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Yay, Moosh!

I was starting to fear the entire enthusiast world had gone stupid. ;)

I'm not "writing them off". but for a company in the HOSPITALITY industry that's got the "under new management" sign out front due to the bad reputation EARNED by the previous owners....these cutbacks in staffing bother me (not ME personally, but, well, you get the idea) WAY more than the reduction in operating hours. WHEN people are inside those gates, Shapiro and Snyder need to CONVINCE those people inside that the NEW regime is going to continue to provide the better guest experience than KieranCo did.

On many fronts, they really HAVE improved, and the costumed characters, the cleaner bathrooms, improved food-service, those are all visible....cutting back on OPERATIONS budgets with the season in full swing, for that I'm gonna have to give them some flak....it's deserved. NO new ride at a megapark should be single-training in midseason...(/user looks directly at "the new bull in town", GAdv).

To me, it's the old adage of "gotta spend money to make money"...in the hosptiality industry, if you don't have that *seed money*, you better go get yourself some...

Next year, is really the litmus test for me, once they've have a SEASON to learn the ropes. April and may are LOUSY indicators of progress, THAT much hasn't changed since kieran & Co. got run out of town... ;)

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...it's the old adage of "gotta spend money to make money"...

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Totally agreed. But that's one of the things the company doesn't have. In fact, they have an alarming lack of it.

Check my post in Moosh's "Motley Fool" thread for the big detailed take on this idea. I'm just going to be saying the same things here.

Hmmm, how many seasonal employees could be hired (retained) and how many costumes could be purchased for say, ummmm, oh I don't know... 5 million dollars?