Six Flags posts net loss of $100 million in second quarter

Park closures for weather: This is one of the unfortunate outcomes of doubling the mix of passholders compared to single day and group ticket holders.

This didn’t happen as often before because it was still profitable to run the park in the rain when a lot of the attendance was going to visit regardless. That big company picnic is not rescheduling. Everyone would buy a sweatshirt or poncho at the gift shop, and the park would still make some decent money with the cheap labor they had at the time.

Plus, (and I'm all for safety), parks were not as quick to shut down rides unnecessarily for rain as they are now. Any sort of lightning or severe conditions, of course! But there are a number of major parks that include Cedar Point, Hershey, Busch Tampa, Seaworld Orlando and even Universal Orlando that will shutter the coasters for a literal drop or two of rain. They all have their reasons I'm sure, but it's not necessary and is actually bad customer service.

As far as parks themselves closing for the day regularly/unnecessarily for rain, the only one that comes to mind that everyone complains about is Kennywood.

I suspect the hair-trigger ride closures have more to do with what their current underwriter/insurer requires in order to write coverage at a particular price (or possibly at all.)

While they won't go too deep with that, there is the thought that the foul weather policy at Kennywood is a direct result of the macroburst incident that caused the collapse of the Whip pavilion and the unfortunate death of person(s) who had taken shelter in there. It's very possible that the policy was instituted as a direct requirement of their liability underwriter.

And I know the current rain policy at Cedar Point began right after the 2007 Magnum train bump incident. Before that, rain or not, people gotta ride.

If you just run one train on rainy days then it is impossible to collide. That should be easy for six flags to do since they only ever run one train.

This scathing SFA review is popping off on IG and TikTok 🤣🤣it's pretty funny https://www.instagram.com/r...l1cnBmcA==

For what it's worth, the one time I've been to Carowinds in the last twenty years which was last August, it was torrential thunderstorms most of the afternoon and the park was open and firing on all cylinders when we arrived around dinner time. Got some great rides on Fury.

In an interesting change from previous years WinterFest at Carowinds will operate from 11-7 in 2025, which seems less ideal for an event that features lots of Christmas lights.

And so close to the CEO, COO, CMO, CFO, CFO mecca...

which seems less ideal for an event that features lots of Christmas lights.

nah, saves them money on the burnt out bulbs.

Most likely with that early of a closing time, there won’t be any significant Christmas lights. To cut installation and disassembly costs. Reducing the guest experience. It’s a vicious downward spiral.

It’s a shame because these were great events with spectacular lights, especially at Carowinds.

But when a company includes everything on the season pass and then gives away food on meal plans, events that extended the season, probably aren’t profitable on the day-to-day income statement.

The question is as they degrade and eliminate these events, Will it have a negative effect on season pass sales? They are definitely making decisions to encourage customers not to renew

Y'all do know that sunset is around 5:15 or so in Charlotte in December, right?

https://www.timeanddate.com...e?month=12

Which leaves less than 1.5hrs in darkness for a winter lights event.

so they’ve added 5 hours to the light part of the day and have shaved off 2 hours at night.

that doesn’t seem like a money saver.

I’ve done Carowinds’ Winterfest (and others) every year for the past 4 out of 5 years. The crowd flees after the parade and honestly I don’t know if this hurts or helps the event. It certainly makes one think they don’t need to spend much on lights, but let’s be honest they’re drowning in them after WoF ended their run, and now that KD/SFGAdv have also.

it will now become much more of a baby sitting event, as the evening hours sort of precluded the “I’m bored” arguments on a December Saturday

Wait. We are complaining becuase they added hours? And the hours they cut are (presumably) all after the parade---the parade after which everyone leaves anyway? Do I have all of this right?

Daytime is warmer/sunnier/better for rides, and you still get 90 min to look at lights; doesn't sound bad to me.

Six Flags execs looking to this thread for guidance:

✔️ More Shows
✔️ Less Hours

"Oh man! This is great stuff!"

My mental comparison was Kings Island, which is something like 5-10 pm (only 5 hours).

If I'm going to do a x-mas thing at a park, it's for the atmosphere, lights, and dark time, which is so scarce these days during a regular season because of 8 and 10 pm closing times.

Extra dark time is the absolute best part.

Which is why I thought it was dumb.

But I don't know how to enjoy anything correctly.

I mean, you're not wrong. At all.

But at the same time, "I am mad that the operating day is longer, and that they close after the park clears out instead of staying open for just the hardcore fans" is peak Coasterbuzz.

Perhaps I wasn't clear.

I meant to say that adding hours to the schedule doesn't look like a money saver (from a labor standpoint). The reduction in dark time hours will certainly be less appealing to some (I'm sort of in that camp). Having additional daytime hours, might allow certain attractions to run (looking at you Fury) that would otherwise have to close as the temperature drops. I know I was there several nights were I was watching the thermometer like a hawk.

I'm honestly not sure my thoughts on this. The extra daytime hours should drive more attendance, which should be good for the event. I'm a huge Winterfest fan, and I don't want to see the event cancelled. We all debated the economics of it last year about this time, and we all shook our heads at how it paid for itself. I'm just not sure how certain folks will react to limited night time wonderland experience, and whether that defeats the purpose.

My comment about the parade was intended to be that I recognized that lots of people left after the parade, so I can see how mgt might think there was little value to having the park stay open after it. For the first few years, the parade ended the night. I seem to remember it running a full hour before closing last year. I also remember that after the 7:30 shows there was very little entertainment for the remainder of the night. No shows, the parade excitement was over, and it really felt odd. All of the shows ended prior to that, which I'm assuming left time for the lights, but people seemed to perhaps not take advantage of that, which again, might be the impetus for the schedule change this year.

I'm not complaining, just trying to gauge what impact it might have. Interesting to note that Kings Island has not adopted these hours, yet. The Kings Island crowd have certainly adapted to the "let's go to the park in the cold" scenarios. I'm not sure that changing the hours would have much of an effect as the weather might not vary as much (cold in the afternoon, colder at night, as compared to Charlotte where it might be cool in the daytime, and cold at night). Kings Island's prior incarnations of Winterfest did start at noon on Saturdays/Sundays, so the Carowinds hours aren't unprecedented.

I'm still processing and will be very curious to see what the show schedules/offerings look like in this new model.