Six Flags Park changes for the year. Are they doing it.
From the pictures of the parks that I have seen, and from the parks that I have been in this year, the chain really looks like it was serious about the upgrades. Between minor improvements like the shade at Medusa and new landscaping at pretty much every park, to major upgrades like all rides being open all the time and special care made to the upkeep of their rides, especially the painting that has been done, the chain looks serious about their committment. I'm happy about it.
And Six Flags can't go with the 15-22 year old crowd for their future. That is who they were exclusively targeting since Time Warner left, and it means that you have a generally worse-behaved crowd in the park and instead of selling three or more tickets to a family, you're selling one ticket to one family member. If the chain can draw families back into it, the chain will have a great future -- it may not be filled with 200 ft tall rides every year as those are the rides that attract the 15-22 year old demographic that Six Flags has nailed -- but it will be better for the whole chain.
Personally, I think the parks need to drop ticket prices and raise season pass prices. I am a season passholder, and I have been for years. But I would be happy paying $150.00 for my season pass if ticket prices were on average 25% less. I think that would be the best way to attract more families and give people a little more money to spend while they were in the park. It would also give me a better chance to convince my non-coaster riding friends and family to join me for a day at the park...
The Dude said:
SFNE Freak said:
Six Flags New England promised shade structures for Superman and Batman queues. Here we are at the end of July and they have yet to arrive.I also remember they announced there would be attendants in all of the bathrooms, and that they were going to make some improvements to the parking lots. Have either of those improvements become reality yet?
There is rarely an attendent in the bathrooms, but they have improved the parking lot. I haven't seen the overflow lot yet this year, but they did repave the road to the parking lot across the street and made a separate lane for the tram.
SFNE Central- Online Six Flags New England Resource
longhairedspaz said:
SFMM has really picked up the pace and has made lots of improvements in this first half of the year.
Partially true, as the park was cleaner and more well kept then I remember. Plus, there was a lot less riff-raff going on, probably thanks to the security presence at the gate. The crew on Revolution was dispatching trains at a rate that would rival CP. But, they still have a long way to go...
-X is running two trains, but the ride attendants could be timed by a sundial.
-Batman and Riddler's Revenge both have one train operation the day I was there. Not to mention, from where I was standing it took them 5 or 6 minutes just to unload and load trains. That made for a 2 hour wait on a friekin' weekday.
-Superman closed "due to weather" the sign says. Right, it's warm, sunny, clear skies, no breeze... yep, those are some dangerous conditions.
-Colussus was closed.
-Flashback: Either get it running or tear it down. It should be illegal to advertise it in your coaster count when it only runs 3 days out of the year. Plus it's an eyesore.
-River Rapids ride was closed, and it's 95 degrees out. Any other park I would assume something went terribly wrong. But this is MM. 'nuff said.
-Log Flume was only loading on one side, making a very long wait for a very short line.
For now, I'll stick with Knott's. They might not have the huge coaster count, but at least the management and employees are competent, and they do have a great collection of rides.
SFA for example has had 3 full seasons(working on their 4th) to get Batwing to run at least 2 trains reliably on a daily basis & yet they only run one train on average.
Thanks,
DMC
BATWING FAN SFA said:SFA for example has had 3 full seasons(working on their 4th) to get Batwing to run at least 2 trains reliably on a daily basis & yet they only run one train on average.
Isn't that an improvement over last year when they could barely get one train running? Aren't the other Vekoma flyers having the same problems as Batwing? They were running two trains when I was at the park last weekend. Granted, that is just a snapshot, I guess we will see if this remains the standard the rest of the season or not.
I thought I was going to see big change in employee attitudes when the park opened in the spring, but that quickly changed. I would say that SFA is on par with last year.
- There have been some landscaping improvements,
- They did improve the food stalls by removing the windows (and in the case of the Pizza Resturant in the water park, the doors) to the walk up windows to the food stands and replacing them with sliding garage type doors,
- Opened main street service center which now handles the fast lane sales and stroller rentals etc.... The Looney Tunes put on a show when the park first opens
- Removed one of the railings in the Superman queue which opened it up more
I'm sure there are others, I just can't think of them off the top of my head.
Danimales said:
longhairedspaz said:
SFMM has really picked up the pace and has made lots of improvements in this first half of the year.Partially true, as the park was cleaner and more well kept then I remember. Plus, there was a lot less riff-raff going on, probably thanks to the security presence at the gate. The crew on Revolution was dispatching trains at a rate that would rival CP. But, they still have a long way to go...
-X is running two trains, but the ride attendants could be timed by a sundial.
-Batman and Riddler's Revenge both have one train operation the day I was there. Not to mention, from where I was standing it took them 5 or 6 minutes just to unload and load trains. That made for a 2 hour wait on a friekin' weekday.
-Superman closed "due to weather" the sign says. Right, it's warm, sunny, clear skies, no breeze... yep, those are some dangerous conditions.
-Colussus was closed.
-Flashback: Either get it running or tear it down. It should be illegal to advertise it in your coaster count when it only runs 3 days out of the year. Plus it's an eyesore.
-River Rapids ride was closed, and it's 95 degrees out. Any other park I would assume something went terribly wrong. But this is MM. 'nuff said.
-Log Flume was only loading on one side, making a very long wait for a very short line.
For now, I'll stick with Knott's. They might not have the huge coaster count, but at least the management and employees are competent, and they do have a great collection of rides.
log jammer always ran only 1 side
river rapids might have just opened late
thecoasterguy said:
Personally, I think the parks need to drop ticket prices and raise season pass prices. I am a season passholder, and I have been for years. But I would be happy paying $150.00 for my season pass if ticket prices were on average 25% less. I think that would be the best way to attract more families and give people a little more money to spend while they were in the park. It would also give me a better chance to convince my non-coaster riding friends and family to join me for a day at the park...
You're assuming anyone who went to a Six Flags Park would ever want to go back. ;)
Seriuosly, though. It's not surprising to me that, with their terrible customer service, they'd only ask for $30 more to come back again for the entire summer.
Hobbes: "What's the point of attaching a number to everything you do?"
Calvin: "If your numbers go up, it means you're having more fun."
My favorite MJ tune: "Billie Jean" which I have been listening to alot now. RIP MJ.
Brian Whitworth said:
CoasterDude316 , is the early admission for pass holders for those only with SFGAm passes or can my SFKK pass work? Going there in about four weeks for first time... Thanks,Brian
A SFKK season pass should get you in through that entrance fine.
The coke company charges what, $.10 for a 20 oz bottle, $3 is way to much to charge your customers
Not to nit pick, but SF pays roughly 15$ per 24 case of 20oz bottle. And the fountain soda is not too cheap eiather. A 5 gallon bag in the box (BnB) of Coke Syrup will set you back $50 bucks. And its usally mixed with water between a 4 to 1 or a 5 to 1 ration. 5 gallons of syrup = around 20 to 25 gallons of soda. Its still a rip off but soda aint that cheap.
The REAL REAL money maker is cotton candy. A three ball bag of fluff cost any were between 12 and 15 cents to produce. And SF will turn around and sell it for around 3$. And then a cotton Candy tube (aka the Tubbie) is around .75$ to 1$ to make and retails for 5 to 5.25$.
And SE received so MAJOR TLC over the winter.
P.s I was once told by a coke repair man, the cost of fountain soda is roughly a pennie and once. *** Edited 7/29/2004 4:20:24 AM UTC by Bossstl***
Thanks,
DMC
Intamin Fan said:
I've only been to one Six Flags park this year-SFNE, and I have to say things are still not great. It was a busy Saturday, yet they were only running one train on Cyclone (which was taking them forever to load), Thunderbolt (does it have two trains?)There are two trains for Thunderbolt. However, it has been quite a while since they have had both running. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the type of braking system Thunderbolt has, but then again I could be talking out of my ass.
ApolloAndy said:You're assuming anyone who went to a Six Flags Park would ever want to go back.
Seriuosly, though. It's not surprising to me that, with their terrible customer service, they'd only ask for $30 more to come back again for the entire summer.
Well, I'm assuming that everyone that went to a Six Flags park would want to someday visit another theme park, and would be willing to try another Six Flags.
In my opinion, from the selection of parks that I have been in there are some GREAT ones (Over Texas, Great Adventure, Great America, St. Louis) some mediocre ones (New Orleans, Marine World, Astroworld, New England, Darien Lake) and some horrible ones (Kentucky Kingdom, America, ex-Worlds of Adventure). It doesn't make sense that some of the parks are only charging $30, and crummy parks are charging $30+ for tickets for their meager, poor collection of rides.
lilolx20 said:
log jammer always ran only 1 sideriver rapids might have just opened late
1. Then the park needs to fix the log jammer issue to keep the line moving.
2. In my book 4:00pm is already too late.
Roaring Rapids/Colossus may have just been closed for the day...it was a weekday that you went...i went last week, both open on a tuesday.
I agree Flashback needs to be excluded, destroyed or running. Supermans out till 2005- and nobody will give me a reason why. Batman has a train sitting in the station, why the continue to go without it is a mystery to me. Riddlers, i belive as well has a train in the station, and as you, i agree 1 train operation on a b&m is ridiculous, especialy a ride as long as Riddlers.
As for the employees moving slow on X, there's not a whole lot of rushing that can be one on that ride. Normal operation alone takes minutes to dispatch a train. When a train enters the station after a lap, the system as you know works like this.
Station Brakes, Fences Rise, Seats Fall, Riders Exit, Fences Fall, Seats Rise, Train Moves to Loading Platform, Fences Rise, Seats fall, Riders Enter, Check Restraints, Fences Fall, Seats Rise, Double Check Restraints, Dispatch.
I mean, thats a lot of stages to go through, and not a whole lot of rushing you can do. When a train exits every 3-4 minutes on X, it is a good day, for ANY park...i think it was the shortest i ever waited in line for the ride, less than a 1/2 hour.
Progress on other SF parks sounds slow, but persistent, i hope they keep up the work.
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