Six Flags is cleaning up

In this season of giving while you give to all your favorite charities drop $5 in the help Great America Fund. My check is on it's way why not help a cause I really care about. If you care donate let's help our friend in need. Remember 200.000 in OSHA violations was just a odd coincidence... POINT!!!

Ronald Witrzek
SFGAm was pretty nice looking this year. I did notice a few weeds, but they were off in areas where guests don't walk. They may have been near water under Whizzer or Deja Vu, but the park wasn't like that.
Great America is getting The Dark Knight. How does that equate to Six Flags not caring about the park?

J7G3 said:
Perfect landscaping at Cedar Point? If you like concrete and silver que rails I guess.

Most of Great America is pretty 'put together' if you ask me. We've got some great looking rides (Eagle, Demon, Viper, etc.), rides in trees (Whizzer), flowers, and a tiny bit of 'hillage' in places (around the entire park, along the train line).

We also have Whizzer and Viper, Demon and Eagle as well. The newer coasters are big, sleek, and easy to market, but just seem to lack 'fun'.


What the heck are you talking about? Have you ever even been to Cedar Point? Landscaping is beautiful on the main midway and on all of the midways, and concrete everywhere? I see trees everywhere. You're just ignorant.


RIDE ON!


Parker17 said:

J7G3 said:
Perfect landscaping at Cedar Point? If you like concrete and silver que rails I guess.

Most of Great America is pretty 'put together' if you ask me. We've got some great looking rides (Eagle, Demon, Viper, etc.), rides in trees (Whizzer), flowers, and a tiny bit of 'hillage' in places (around the entire park, along the train line).

We also have Whizzer and Viper, Demon and Eagle as well. The newer coasters are big, sleek, and easy to market, but just seem to lack 'fun'.


What the heck are you talking about? Have you ever even been to Cedar Point? Landscaping is beautiful on the main midway and on all of the midways, and concrete everywhere? I see trees everywhere. You're just ignorant.


Ignorant? You're right... what a nice thing to say to someone you don't even know :) Wanna have a 'who's most ignorant contest?' You just might win! Kidding aside...

Yes, I've been to Cedar Point. Worked there as well from 91-93. The joke back then was even "Cedar Point: concrete and rides."

Yes, there are some nice flower arrangements, etc. I guess it's just the '1984/thx1138' feel of the cattle like silver que mazes.

There are lots of ways to make a que interesting. Cedar Point goes for 'control and operation' instead. There are ways to integrate the 2, but they don't wanna seem to do that.

The old thing they said in conferences "oh, we are not into gimmicks" I guess applies to the way they want you to wait in line as well.

I only have been to Dorney once, and it is very evident that CFair came through and kinda 'homogenized' or 'took the heart and soul' out of the park, for the most part. Some remnants are there.

Cedar Fair and the miles of silver que are fine with some people, I just prefer something with a little more creativity. Make it a little interesting. But then again, this is Cedar Point, the newer coasters just aren't as "fun" as, say, the classic Blue Streak. Just my opinion and preferences.. *** Edited 11/9/2007 7:06:57 PM UTC by J7G3***

We've been over this before. No one is saying Cedar Point isn't a pretty park (it is, no doubt about it), but it can't be denied there is a lot of concrete, a lot of gravel and a lot of large areas without any trees. Why people fail to see that is beyond me.
How exactly can you make a que interesting exactly? Besides surrounding the outside bars are trees and flowers. And have you ever been to any other park out there besdies Disney and Universal that don't have just metal bars in the que like at Cedar Point?


We've been over this before. No one is saying Cedar Point isn't a pretty park (it is, no doubt about it), but it can't be denied there is a lot of concrete, a lot of gravel and a lot of large areas without any trees. Why people fail to see that is beyond me.

All the concrete is for large capacity which CP does get. Nothing is worse than tiny midways full of people.

*** Edited 11/9/2007 7:11:59 PM UTC by Parker17***


RIDE ON!


Parker17 said:

All the concrete is for large capacity which CP does get. Nothing is worse than tiny midways full of people.

*** Edited 11/9/2007 7:11:59 PM UTC by Parker17***


Good point Parker! All I can think about is Great Adventure and those huge rides on dead end skinny midways... ug!

I just would prefer more interesting ques at the Point. I dunno, there are a million things you can do. Wind around the ride, go by it, under it, over it, WOOD que rails (do Gemini and Corkscrew still have wood rails?).

These huge robot cattle mazes of silver with those sun blockers over em, yuck!

I also think they overbuild the ques. King's Island used to have a long line(s) on the ground for the Vortex, which didn't have the cattle rails (cept maybe in the station?) and that was cool. I'd rather see a very long stretch of folks moving forward than having to walk back and forth back and forth a hundred times.

There's a psychology to lines as well; the Vortex line used to look very long, but went quick b/c there were no mazes. I think a combo of the 2 would be great. Doesn't Grizzly at KD have a long trail like walk on a boardwalk thing? It did back in like '84.

It's not about the queue areas, it's about the midways... like this one.

Rob Ascough said:
It's not about the queue areas, it's about the midways... like this one.

It's bout the ques for me, Rob! hehehe :) But damn, they could line those midways with trees, just a small strip or something.

That midway is great at night, you can see everything clearly, etc. But during the day, that sun beating down, all that concrete, uck!

^Concrete is an awesome thing believe it or not. Go to Disney, and enjoy the feeling of not being able to really walk around. Cramped spaces are always fun to walk in. I admire Cedar Point for that walk-way all the way from the front of the park towards Raptor. It's much better than the walk-way near Top Thrill Dragster.

Yes, you can add some trees, and some ugly looking flowers, but I rather have the space. The more space the park has, the more people roaming around there can be along with less people on the rides because of that. You could have 12,000 people just walking/ sitting around not on rides.

You can have nice wide paths AND awesome scenery/theming. Tokyo Disneyland used to attract 18 millions guests A YEAR! Its got huge walkways and plazas and everywhere and guess what? It still look nice!
I have been to three SF parks in three different states. They seem to be really wanting to be family oriented. They are pushing their cartoon characters and they give away cartoon-looking maps. This seems to be working; there were young kids everywhere. This works REAL well for Disney. It may be what will turn things around for SF. The VERY popular thrill rides had lots of staff, but the short line thrill rides had just enough to get by.
This may change the industry. In the future, when you enter an amusement park, you may only have two options: very popular thrill rides with long lines or kiddie rides. There may not be anything in between; this may be what the parks are getting rid of.

Busch Gardens Europe Is The Best !
^If they do that, attendance will surely go down. You might say that a Flying Bobs ride is pointless to have. How much attendance does it get? At Cedar Point, the Matterhorn got in 2006, 566,000. That's a whole chunk of people for the year, don't you think? Wicked Twister for that same year got around a 1 million.

For two Flying Bobs, you get one Wicked Twister. So, get rid of the Flying Bobs / Himilayas / Wipeouts / Swings / Breakdances / so on types of rides, and you will see lines becoming enormous for those roller coasters because that's all there is to do anymore. Less people will also stop coming to the park. If you are a tourist destination, you can get away with deleting rides, but SF, or CF for most people aren't. Disney only has like 25 things to do at the Magic Kingdom.

If SF had 20 things to do including 10 kids rides, do you really think that the parks would be that packed anymore? Repeat visits would be non-existant. People would get sick of it always being packed for only the so many rides they want to ride. For Disney, you can get the fastpass, and some of there rides are presentations like the Carousel of Progress, Presidents, Country Bears, and the Monster's Inc.

Spinout the problem with six flags is that they are 2 billion in debt. They are doing their best to add new rides and take out old ones so they can reduce the debt first. IF the Dark knight coaster is as themed as they say and they start making use of the Dic Clark aquisition in the parks they will be doing very well.
Six Flags is getting $30 million in writeup for all the rides that are being removed this off-season. That's a hefty chunk of cash for a bunch of high-maintenance and obsolete attractions. I feel like it's a good move.
For weeks now I have been pointing out problems with my Six Flags Park Great America. Only to be called a tool and a believer of what I say. Well, it's all out now Six Flags worst stock shape ever. It sure didn't rain in Gurnee in July as posted on other forums people just didn't show up at the park. Apparently this seems to be common place for Six Flags. But add nothing get noboby at your parks. It seems the reinventing that the current Six Flags is doing tanked. Yet Shapiro tried to blame weather and put a positive spin on the whole situation. Now Six Flags is selling rides faster then Cedar Fair can build new rides. Let's see next year just at Great America De Ja Vu, Space Shuttle America, Splashwater Falls either up for sale or not operating. $55 for less to do at just this park! With my eyes wide open alot of the problems at Great America now make sense, Budget Cuts. And for next year Six Flags plans on eleminating slow operating days, but just how many at each park? Less staffing Less Full Timers but a better experience, can't wait to see how they pull that off. I know raise admission to $60 and Parking to $20, plus raise Johnny Rockets Burgers to $20, soda to $4.00. Big Plasma T.V.s for more advertisement as if Six Flags Parks already aren't littered with it. Best part is guests will probably damage these just like their little cousins. Well I fell great now because as all my friends have been saying "If Six Flags keeps loosing money Shapiro will bail." That day will come sooner then anyone thinks.

Ronald Witrzek
^ You still sound like a tool. Although I think Chitown's use of the word "tool" to describe you would by definition, not be the most suitable.

I think ass hat is a better fit? ;)

You were not so much doing a semi-intelligent critique, but just brainless babbling on about ridiculous price hikes that are yet to happen and how the news of the company's stock plunge means it gives credibility to your mostly uncomprehensible whining.

they had less operating days this past year .That does make a difference when one saturday alone great adventure can pull in 50,000 people in one day at the least . Thats one park.

Also do you guys realise they sold a whole buncg of parks that were still operating in 2006 and not in 2007? For selling all those aprks and everything only going down by %2 i think thats pretty good.

Also the accident probably did effect them. Everything was going up until the accident happened. These changes wont happen overnight.


Right now they are getting rid of the rides that take more to maintain and staff and that get few riders. They have a lot of debt to get rid off. They also stated that the improvement budget wil lbe $100 million a year for all the parks combined. So dont count on any park to get a huge addition in the future.

Major Tom,

Deja Vu and Chiller got a ton of riders.

If you dump arguably the most popular rides in your park (DV was probably #1 or 2, chiller #4) because they cost a little more to maintain, that seems to me to communicate the message that you don't give a damn about your customers.

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