SFGADv announcement Sept.28

A few weeks ago when I was at Great Adventure, one of the gift shops was selling T-Shirts for "Diablo" - with the Tazmanian Devil emblazoned thereon.

Could this be the name of the new woodie?

majortom1981. You cited all things that, IMO, have to be improved at Great Adventure. Trash, people misbehaving, the park not enforcing the rules or not having enough staff to do so. If you only have three people on your ride platforms how can we expect them to enforce the rules when they have to deal with navigating through everyones sneakers, trash and qbots to get a train dispatched.

The park has issues, and like SFMM (although not as bad) another new ride won't fix them, it only patches them. An adequate staff, would fix a lot of these issues.

I don't see the name being "El Torro the Bull" or "Diablo" cause they said about a new themed area those name would fit the old theming of said area. Then again that also kind of makes me wonder what the theming of the area will be and if even "Jersey Devil" could work there.

8.3 I know those issues are there but they are trying to fix them. Problem is why work at an amusement park for $7 an hour and have to work at the park when you can make $7 an hour at some other job and not put up with the crap the park workers get. Pay more an hour and get more people willing to work there. It all comes down to how much is worth the hassle you get. Trust me the ops at Great Adventure take a lot of crap they don't need to deal with. It comes with being between Philly and New York.

Personally, I think it will be awesome that they are getting a second woody. I was considering making my first trip to Great Adventure last summer, but getting hired at Cedar Point stopped that. I think I will go this coming summer even if I work at CP, even if Kingda Ka isn't running when I go, I still think the rest of the coasters will make up for it. Plus this coaster could be better than what most everyone else is making it out to be.

I think there's a high probability of that since we don't know much (for sure) about the ride yet other than it's made out of wood.

yes for all we know they might decide to use toothpicks for the structure. I usually go to SFGadv at least once during the summer (got lucky this past summer and Kingda Ka was open when i went... and I actually got to ride it without waiting for 4 hours). I look forward to riding the new woodie unless they somehow completely screw it up, or try to make another looping woodie (Grandson of Beast? perhaps Paramount should look into that ;)). Can't wait to head down there this summer!

The problem with SOB isn't the loop, its the rest of the ride. The loop is butter-smooth. I'd welcome a looping woodie if what lead up to and followed the loop didn't readjust one's spine! ;)

How is it that so many other parks don't have problems with maintenance, air gates, trash, adequate staffing, people disobeying rules, etc? Why should anyone expect SFGAdv to get an exemption?

If they want to bill themselves as the biggest and best, then it should be that way from top to bottom, not just adding record breaking rides and trying to sweep the other stuff they're substandard at under the loading platform.

Don't give them a free pass. Just give them the people they need :)

give them your tired, your hungry, your poor, your huddled masses? *** Edited 9/22/2005 7:04:55 PM UTC by dragonoffrost***

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RatherGoodBear said:
How is it that so many other parks don't have problems with maintenance, air gates, trash, adequate staffing, people disobeying rules, etc? Why should anyone expect SFGAdv to get an exemption?

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Um, yeah. Exactly. majortom can make as many excuses as he would like about airgates and unions and my not knowing what it takes to run a park, but I can go to virtually any Paramount, Disney, Busch, or Cedar Fair owned park and not deal with the ride closures I've encountered every time I've visited SFGAdv. I guess as long as they're getting people into the gate, corporate doesn't mind, but I wish something would happen that would force the park to take some management cues from SFOG, SFStl, SFGAm, and SFOT within their own chain.

Another thing is that guys like majortom should realize that really and truly...I like the park. A lot. I think the collection of rides is fantastic and the atmosphere is as good as any other Six Flags, and in some areas, as any park I've ever been to. Its not the park that's the problem.

I am not making excuses.

Have you even talked to the maintanance crew at gadv .

OR are you taking your arguments out of thin air.

I have personally talked to the maintanance staff at gadv.

I have seen superman twice go down because people sitting on the gates and in turn the ride does not run because the airgates will not close .

I have friends that are actually ride ops for the park. They do there best. Can you deal with people screaming at you all day ?

There have been no major closures at the park when i have went except for the batman side of the chilelr and kk .

I have been to the park about 10 times this year.

Everybody complains about gadv what about cedar point. Ttd is possibly down for the rest of the season. where are the complaints about that ?

People complain that six flags spends too much money at sfmm and gadv but then people are complaining that they dont spend enough on gadv .

What do you want ? They made big strides for customer sevrice this year.

I personally dont see all the garbage everybody is complaining about. I think people just like to complain about gadv .

I have to agree that one of SFGAdv's major problems is not really the ops and the park itself, but it's the people where the park draws its audience from - Philly and New York.

In a nutshell, a majority of people from both of those cities are rude, inconsiderate, think they are owed something, and don't really care about anything but themselves.

I grew up in a small town and had parents who taught me manners and public decorum. I've now lived in Philly for almost 9 years and I never cease to be appalled at just how lousy people are around here.

I'm torn because as a park, I love SFGAdv, but there are many times I don't want to deal with the people who are there - especially those who ignore the rules (don't even get me started on line jumpers) and think it's ok, or even cool to do so.

Granted SFGAdv will never be able to change everyone's behavior, but they could certainly go a long way to helping things by having adequate staffing and really cracking down on the "little things" that tick us all off. They need some Judge Judy types to crack the whip!

^ I thought Ed was from Jersey. :P

"Have you even talked to the maintanance crew at gadv ."

No.

"OR are you taking your arguments out of thin air."

No.

"I have personally talked to the maintanance staff at gadv."

I don't really see how this makes you any sort of authority on the subject.

"I have seen superman twice go down because people sitting on the gates and in turn the ride does not run because the airgates will not close ."

Well then there must be something unique about the air gates at SFGAdv, or there must but some serious problem unique to people at theme parks in New Jersey. I'm sure that there can be problems that arise from people sitting on air gates, but if it is truly a consitent problem at GAdv, I would think that Six Flags should be able to find a way to fix it.

"I have friends that are actually ride ops for the park. They do there best. Can you deal with people screaming at you all day ?"

I've been a ride op at a Six Flags park myself. It is a high stress job but then again...so is working as a ride op at any park.

"There have been no major closures at the park when i have went except for the batman side of the chilelr and kk .

I have been to the park about 10 times this year. "

I'm happy for you. But its not just me who has had problems with ride closures at this park. Read some trip reports and you will see that this is a pretty consistent problem that has been going on for years and years. Maybe I hit a park on a bad day and you hit it 10 times on pretty good days, but it seems as though it would average out every once in a while.

"Everybody complains about gadv what about cedar point. Ttd is possibly down for the rest of the season. where are the complaints about that ?"

There have been plenty of posts about TTD, ever since it opened. I don't think anybody here is happy that TTD has not run any more consitently then it has, and there have been hundreds of posts to that effect. Do a search.

"What do you want ?"

I want to pay my $40 and be able to have a good day at the park, without having to worry if I'm going to be able to get onto the major coasters without having to endure ride break downs or huge lines due to one train operation. Maybe the park is getting better but I think they need to find a way to get their current rides running before building another one.

Hey TeknoScorpion, you are a big ass mother****er. Don't ever think about calling me an idiot. I got a whole bunch of insults that I can use, you ****ing ****!

Speaking of SFA, can you use your season pass there to get into fright fest? Thanks.

Translation: I've contributed nothing to this forum with the exception of an uninformed opinion and a bunch of cool stars! *****

The new Intamin Wood Coasters have been described to be "as smooth as glass". Some people (enthusiasts of course) criticize them for being TOO smooth.

If this wooden coaster is anything like Balder or Colossos, this ride will be nothing short of amazing.

Clint, I'd be careful with this one. He's hardcore. I personally stop after just 2 or 3 stars. He's unleashed a whole bevy of them.

SFGAdv was nice. I didn't really say that in my last post in this topic. I had a somewhat decent time there.

But the thing is, I could have gone to another park. SFGAdv is 4 hours away. I could have drove the same distance and gone to CP. Hershey Park is only 2 hours away. I don't really think SFGAdv cares what I think though because the park is always packed. They have enough people there already who will go no matter how many rides are closed because of the huge population that they draw from.

What I am trying to say is, I can go to a much better operated park and spend the same amount of time and money and get a much better experience. My time and money is very valuable to me.

...and a lot of the time I do just that.

They may be trying, but from what I am used to at other parks, they don't try hard enough. I'll go back in about 5 years or so, just to get the new credits-I mean TRY to get the new credits.

About this new woodie, couldn't the reason they have built these Two new coasters within Two years be to help control the large crowds? If I was running a park, and one of the reasons some people didn't like to visit was because the lines were too long, I would build some more coasters to help make other lines shorter. ...Just a thought.

And one more time, SFGAdv was a decent park, imho.

Building more coasters to control crowds could be a valid reason, dexter. But what good would it do if a large percentage of those coasters are shut down because guests sat on the air gates, as majortom says?

We're getting mixed signals here, major. You're telling us it's a big deal because it's causing rides to be shut down, thus pissing off the customers and causing lines to be longer at other rides, again pissing off the customers. But then apparently it's not a big deal, because the ride ops just tell people to get off the gates a few times, then give up and say nothing.

At Dorney earlier this year, lots of people were walking around with bballs from one of the games. One ride op who was all of about 18 y/o working at Steel Force announced that anyone who bounced basketballs on the platform would be removed from the line. Guess what? There was no bouncing.

Either SF wants to deal with non-operating rides or they don't. If people don't follow the rules or listen to ride ops, sit on air gates and write all over rides, you get security to come and escort their asses out to the parking lot. If there are no consequences to bad behavior, there's no reason for anyone to stop doing it. And maybe when people see SF is serious about enforcing the rules, behavior will improve, the employees' attitudes will improve, and visiting SF parks will be a far more pleasant experience than many people in here have indicated.

Until then, don't say stop bashing poor SFGAdv, it's not their fault. Because it is.