Six Flags St. Louis-anything?

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Boz773 said:
we are working really hard on guest service...and we are working hard on employee competence...

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Forgive me for being a pessimist, but I'll believe it when I see it. Any improvement over last season will be a major undertaking. I was very disappointed is the way that ride employees handled crowd controls, and actually filed my first ever complaint at SFStL last year about the way the crew on Screamin' Eagle treated guests. It was out of control last year and I am glad to hear they are at least thinking about guest services. With that being said, I'll believe it when I see it as this will be a MAJOR undertaking to undo several years of neglect by the HR department.

With a happier tune, I am very excited about Tornado and the fact that I don't have to drive all the way to Santa Claus, IN to ride one now (though I will still be going to Santa Claus at least twice this coming season). Does anyone know where the path will connect to the park (from the ride to the park) I think that it will probably use the same path as the Speed Slides, but as to whether or not the path will go around the run outs of the slide or if it will go all the way around the structure for the speed slides.

SS

When I was in the Harbor it looked as if the man bowl was situated right at the end of the speed slides. Were you woud get out at. The bowl is faceing Hurricane janes.

I know where the bowl is located (afterall I am the one who has been taking the update photos). I am wanting to know how the path to the slide will be situated.

Wait so swoosh your basing your guest experience on one thing you saw at one ride on one day. That can hardly provide subatantial evidence that we arent working on guest service. There are still some bad apples out there and though I worked and knew the crew on Eagle I am very surprised to hear that that happened and I dont know anyone who would have given that impression. But I do also have to stand up for HR as they have always worked hard at improving things and thats not just HR but all departments. Your going to get some not so good days, everything cant be perfect. The problem with Six Flags is that they are caught in this downward spiral where everyone looks for every little bitty thing bad and say the entire park is bad.

The path leading to the Tornado will likely go right between Hook's Lagoon and the end of the speed slides. The tower for the ride is on the parking lot side with the funnel next to it on the left if you are looking from inside the water park. If you look at the satellite photo here the fence next to the speed slides is about where the slide begins .

I suppose being an employee I should chime in about now. Honestly I don't think that there is a problem with the guests relations in the park. I do believe too that this year will be much better overall. It is true that once and awhile you will have some sour grapes among the bunch, but that is what happens when you do not have a budget like Disney to hire only people that always smile ear to ear and talk in really high pitched voices. When I compare SFStL to the other Six Flags parks in the nation, it ranks high in friendliness and guest relations. *** Edited 2/18/2005 11:20:45 PM UTC by CoasterMatt***

Way to chime Coastermatt, that is definitley a good point. There is one thing that parks like CP and Disney have over us, major major capital and years of business to build up money. Disney is just well DISNEY and parks like CP are big tourist attractions unlike SFSTL which is more of a local place. I think they do very well to who they are reaching to.

Just an FYI, I'd almost guarantee ride ops at SFStL make more in hourly wage than those in attractions at WDW.

It's all about training from the top on down.

Joe "at least I know SFGAm made/makes more than WDW attraction hosts" C.

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Boz773 said:
Wait so swoosh your basing your guest experience on one thing you saw at one ride on one day. That can hardly provide subatantial evidence that we arent working on guest service.

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No actually I am basing it on several things, just that was the final straw and made me go complain. I mean seriously was is SOP when the ride breaks down on Eagle? Do you let the people that were about to disembark back into the queue line by opening the air gates or do you say "tough luck" and make them exit the ride station and if they want to ride they'll have to queue again? Well that's what they did and that irritated me to say the least.

What I meant by park-wide poor guest service was things like GM hosts acting like it would kill them to put items in a shopping bag, trash sweepers more interested in flirting with the girls at games then tending to the overflowing trash cans, security guards letting people cut because they have "hommie passes", food vendors acting irritated that they have to give a discount on food items and the list goes on. To make matters worse, when I did complain the GR person acted like I was wasting her time. I have been an AP holder for quite awhile and I actually worked at the park for a season, 2004 was probably the worst in terms of GR and I sure as hell hope that they tend to it.

PM me if you have anymore issues with what I said

I'm with Swoosh. My last trips have been pretty good only because I have run into a few customers that treated me how I was supposed to be treated. It was such a surprise/treat to be served by them that I forgot that all customers are supposed to act that way. I'll stay optimistic, but don't stand up for all your bad apples because you have many more than your think.

I completely agree with Swoosh. I worked out there for quite some years and every year they said that they were going to work on guest service. I still have not seen it.

You know I hate to say it but after putting some thought into it, I almsot would have to agree with Swoosh. I have had more bad employees then good. Once you get one bad employee if left unchecked can be like cancer and spread to all the good ones.

P.S. looks like I will be back in the saddle again this year. Only with a diffrent company.

32 days to go...

Just because I can.. I'm going to agree with Swoosh, again. ;-)

Here's to a good year.

LOL! Exactly how long does it take you to get to SFStL from Effingham? (Where 57 & 70 cross ;) - yeah some people drive that road and actually know where the hell that is :) )

Amazing.. someone actually knows.

I'm actually at school (SIUC) now.

However, it was a good two-ish hour trip.

Is that Carbondale?

SUIC is Carbondale, yes. Also, I'll be goign through Effingham on my way to Cedarpoint this summer.

Time for a rant.

I really think this park is not going to make it to much longer at its current rate.

The Entertainment is getting crappeir and crappier. I mean they only have ONE quality original show. And that’s the Show they hold on the "Western Town" stage. The rest of the shows this year are old, even there most popular show is only in town for two months. That being Kachunga, and the people in the STL area have been feed that for three years now. The Palace Theater the crown theater of SFSTL and the most recognizable building there hasn’t had a good show, with the exception of "Love at First Fright" in years.

The show they have going in this year is the same Chinese acrobats they have had before. When they were there last time the crowds were less then stellar. And what happened to all the recognizable concerts. Every year there are fewer and fewer concerts that people want to see outside of religious groups.

Moving on, even in the advent that the park gets there new toy in 06 the park will see only a large growth in attendance not in per cap. Per cap my friends is really what matters not necessarily attendance.

Which brings me to my next point; the park with the exception of Scooby hasn’t added anything family related to the park in quite some time. The real money is from families, and with a kiddie area that hasn’t been redone in 20 years (LT's was built in 1985) is not the way to draw in families in to the park let alone to ask them to buy season passes.

I guess I just really don’t want to see the beautiful park get ate up by a subdivision. I have been there for 5 years now, and like many you on the board have seen many things change over the last half-decade.

In some aspects I have seen the park improve things. For instance put new attractions in a dwindling Water park. Also they have finally some how managed to start to redo the exteriors of buildings instead of just the insides.

However, I have watched the parks morale go down year by year. The over all quality of the landscape and entertainment as wells as originality has dwindled. What I mean by that is that their isn’t as many flowers and the grass doesn’t look as clean cut, you know little things like that. As far as originality goes, the park never does anything interesting. They use to try and think up festivals such as, “Worlds fair” and “fall festival”. Or other events like the roller hockey thingy ma bober they did out in the parking lot for a weekend in 2001. Or when they us to hold a huge spring break event every year for several year out in the parking lot where HH is now.

The park has got in a routine slump, where it changes little from year to year.

p.s. I am happy for anything and everything the park gets, I just don’t think it might be a good idea.

I understand that it may have been better in the past, but I'm not complaining about the quality of landscape. Out of all the Six Flags parks I've visited, SFSTl and SFoG probably have the nicest natural setting. Not surprisingly, those are two of my top three Six Flags parks.

Effingham Illinois. . .I played in a basketball tournement there in high school. Their jr. high school looks/looked like a mexican restaraunt.

As far as Carbondale goes, it must be too fun. Out of about 10 friends from high school that went there, 6 have dropped out. Maybe those friends are just losers. . . GO CREIGHTON.