Six Flags 2017

Jeff said:

That just happened.

Indeed.

If we were in any other company, I'd suggest it was really great performance art/sarcasm.

I get what he's saying. McDonald's is the same way. On my last two trips to locations on opposite sides of town, they had the nerve to have the same menu at both. The same Big Mac. The same Quarter Pounder. The same Filet o' Fish. The same indigestion. I mean, c'mon. If I go to different locations, they owe it to me to give me two unique varieties of diarrhea afterward. I feel your pain, bro. I feel your pain.

We've been over this a hundred times... Six Flags are regional parks. Most people who aren't coaster enthusiasts aren't going out of their way to visit the one that isn't near them.

Yes...and in that sense the idea is that each park should be a bit cookie cutter in a lot of ways. They're offering the same experience in multiple markets. That's the point.

I don't think it's a point, or something to do intentionally in terms of guest experience. It just offers a lot of cost efficiencies.

I'm with Mr Lord Gonchar. Six Flags parks are kind of the McDonald's of the amusement park industry, to my mind.

Jeff said:

I don't think it's a point, or something to do intentionally in terms of guest experience. It just offers a lot of cost efficiencies.

Right. It's reasonable to expect McDonalds to create the most consistent experience possible from restaurant to restaurant because the core of their business is having a predictable experience no matter which McDonald's you go to. And it's a reasonable expectation that people will regularly visit more than one location.

For SF on the other hand, it's not a reasonable expectation that the typical guest will visit more than one, at least not with any regularity. But I'm sure being able to get deals on multiple coasters and reduce general R&D costs is very good for their bottom line. Sucks for nerds like us though.

2017 looks like it might be the first year with no new B&M coasters in North America. That goes back all the way to 1990.

Maybe the Six Flags St. Louis and Kings Dominion fans can petition B&M to send them a Wing Coaster each to keep the streak alive.

https://rcdb.com/r.htm?na=&nm=na&op=2017&pl=1&ot=2

There are currently 9 announced coasters for next year in North America. And enthusiasts still act like it's 1999 and their local park is being neglected because they aren't building a new coaster. I can't stress this enough: Regional amusement parks are a mature business for which roller coasters don't always drive new business.

i305freak said:

Just listened to SFDK's and SFSL's ads back to back and it's apparent they're nearly identical audio wise. It's this kind of stuff that Six Flags does that drives me nuts. Clearly no effort being put in... Duplicate rides, duplicate names... Duplicate parks next?

Those parks are 28 hours drive from each other. Hardly overlapping markets.

Surely that's the point of owning multiple parks. It's like Subway or McDonalds, just supersized.

St. Louis is a good side trip on a drive from Discovery Kingdom to Magic Mountain though, because enthusiast travel is typical.

Im just gonna say that with the addition of 3 new S&S 4D roller coasters next season, it seems reminiscent of them building a Batman clone in each park through the 90s.

Pagoda Gift Shop said:

2017 looks like it might be the first year with no new B&M coasters in North America. That goes back all the way to 1990.

Maybe the Six Flags St. Louis and Kings Dominion fans can petition B&M to send them a Wing Coaster each to keep the streak alive.

Pagoda while youre at it could you please have them send one to SFOT and SFFT as well. Each one has the perfect setting for a new one. SFOT has a lil pond between the Judge Roy Scream and entrance of the park that would be a neat effect as a coaster dives towards the water and skates a few feet above it. SFFT could incorporate the cliffs on the southeast side of the park just like they did with Superman Krypton Coaster. Have a B&M wing just drop off the cliff into the canyon and use that as its backdrop.

kpjb said:

St. Louis is a good side trip on a drive from Discovery Kingdom to Magic Mountain though, because enthusiast travel is typical.

Oh and while you're in that neighborhood, Dollywood and Knoebel's are must-dos.

Here's my suggested itinerary for a twelve day, fifteen park, 4000 mi, trip for you:

...

For any Discovery Kingdom people, isn't adding this Frisbee a little bit strange? I just put up a trip report a couple months ago pointing out that SFDK is NEVER running their flat rides. They are always closed, literally every single time I've gone over the last few years, and employees never know why or can give an explanation. They all seem to give the impression that SF doesn't hire enough people to run any of the flat rides. It always gives the impression of a run-down park going out of business. The thing is... they already have a outward-facing spinning pendulum ride... a Huss Frisbee called Tasmanian Devil. And I didn't hear of them running it at all this season, and it would only run sporadically over the last few years. And now they're adding a Zamperla Giant Discovery?? So weird. Hopefully they plan on hiring people to run it. I guess it's possible they are removing a couple of their run-down flat rides to make room for this bad boy. Any info on the location of it yet?

Being close to Atlanta, I'm looking forward to finally checking out the Justice League dark ride. From the videos I've seen they look really good. Also interesting to see no RMCs in the chain for next year unless you count the 4D FreeSpins. Seems to be a bit of an off year for Six Flags in general, especially for roller coasters.

In regard to the "next generation" Justice League ride going into SFMM, does this mean that the other new installations are going to be the first generation rides? And if so then why would they go backwards at the other parks?

The Justice League ride at SFMM would be the third generation. The JLBFM at Six Flags Great America is the second generation -- it has several additions not present in the first ones, as well as the advantage of a custom built building. With Harley Quin, new effects, a different ending, and even a tagline: "Ride. Play, Triumph," the SFMM version is a further evolution of the ride.

I've seen the SFMM one described as "the unique version" so the other two parks are getting copies of the original version or the SFGAm version. I don't think that's going "backwards," I think it's utilizing available resources, land, etc. at each of those two parks.

Pagoda Gift Shop said:

2017 looks like it might be the first year with no new B&M coasters in North America. That goes back all the way to 1990.

2008, 2011 and 2012 brought no new B&M coasters, but relocations of Batman: Knight Flight to Dominator at Kings Dominion, Chang to Green Lantern at SFGA, and Iron Wolf to Apocalypse at SFA.

Pagoda Gift Shop said: "in North America" so that would in include Canada's Wonderland with Behemoth in 2008 and Leviathan in 2012. 2012 also saw the introduction of X-Flight at Six Flags Great America and Wild Eagle at Dollywood. 2011 was a slow year in North America for B+M but perhaps they wanted/needed down time for development of the first B+M wing coaster Raptor at Gardaland in 2011.

https://rcdb.com/r.htm?ot=2&nm=na&pl=1&co=6831&page=1&order=-8