The Six Flags Comeback?

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Coasterfreakfromeriepa said:
Six Flags America in DC is a total dump!!! Very disapointing trip there last summer. Trash everywhere garbage cans over flowing and very lazy employees. Not to mention the rides needed maintence.I will never go there again! I have season passes to both darion lake and ceder point. Darion lake is not to bad. But SF has a long way to go before it reaches the way Ceder Fair runs there parks.

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This is not true anymore, the park has most definently turned around, the water park this year is awesome, the employees are nice, and best of all, all rides are running!

Let me give you the newsflash again... few people within 100 miles of Cedar Point know anything about Kingda Ka. Few people in the tri-state area know anything about Top Thrill Dragster.

It doesn't mean jack to anyone outside of the core region. There are no park executives standing around the campfire comparing the size of their genitals.

pOINt well made Jeff. I hope you only talk this way in real life.
*sidenote*
On the class trip this year, my whole group noticed how much nicer the park appeared as compared to SFGaM last year. Though the difference was minute, they still noticed. And these are your class meatheads with me.lol

Busch Gardens will not get a wooden coaster. Period. Ain't gonna happen and if you have been to Tampa and seen the way they operate Gwazi you wouldn't want them to get a wooden coaster. They would be more likely to get a floorless, a flying coaster or drop coaster. There next coaster will prob. be B&M. Busch has a great relationship with them and are very happy with the coasters they built. They don't care about breaking records and don't need to break records to get people to the park. Esp. since they are in one of the most popular tourist regions on the east coast. Does the park need more rides? Yes, but Busch doesn't just throw rides in. Being someone who has gone to both BGW and PKD since they opened I would much rather spend a day at BGW than PKD anyday.

Huh?

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Jeff said:
Let me give you the newsflash again... few people within 100 miles of Cedar Point know anything about Kingda Ka. Few people in the tri-state area know anything about Top Thrill Dragster.

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Well that might be so, but they know of both of them in Missouri and talk about them often. I find it weird that no matter which park I go to in MO, I always hear someone from the GP talking about those two "huge" coasters out East that are over 400' tall and usually they call them by name.

Are we just in the "Know" here? Of course since MO does set the fashion world. Trust me we do, what was in fashion two months ago is just NOW getting in fashion out East. It is a werid phenomenon. Is long hair and "popping" the collar just now the "cool" thing there? Yeah went out almost three months ago in Columbia MO. :)

Missouri, ie is in the loop with Cedar Fair. Kinda which might help the recognition. Worlds of Fun is a Cedar Fair Park. Therefore TTD is mentioned if someone has a pass and wants to go to Cedar Point.

The same can be said for six flags, they have St. Louis, so there can also be the same things said about Ka. Lets just say this is a coincidence, ahhh i think not, for those people who like coasters i should say, or are enthusiasts.

Yea, Jeff in most cases, I would agree with you, but I think you're selling not only the coaster-knowledge of northern Ohio, but the fame of TTD and KK a little short. Just walking around GL tonite, there were kids and adults who I wouldn't think would know a corkscrew from a lift hill talking about who manufactured Dominator (and getting it right!) and quoting stats and info about CP in comparison to GL. The knowledge is out there, and like Swoosh said, I've heard from people in the strangest places talking about TTD and KK by name, knowing what they do. The one thing they aren't always sure of is what park either one is in, but they do know they exist.

And KK's fame makes it all the more reasonable that a continued diaster, which is all but inevitable could easily spell the end of Six Flags (at the very least, as we know it)

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Swoosh said:Is long hair and "popping" the collar just now the "cool" thing there? Yeah went out almost three months ago in Columbia MO.

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Those are sooooo...last year's The O.C. & Laguna Beach...

;)

Its way too early in the year to talk of any type of comeback.
Lets wait till the end of the year and see hown many millions of dollars they lose again before we begin talk of a comeback and not the weather excuses we are so used too.

This may sound bad, but as for SFA, the only people who I've heard call SFA a "bad" park are enthusiasts or people with larger parks as their home parks. For the most part, the localsare just fine with SFA. As for the trash in the park, I've been to the park 10 times this year on weekdays and weekends, on holidays and rainy days, and I can honestly say that if you call SFA this year "dirty," then you have unrealisticly high expectations. Not only are there more trashcans at SFA this year, but I've seen more people going around the park sweeping this year than I have seen in many years past. Sure it's no BGW, but it's not the "dump" everyone makes it to be.

Add to the fact that Hurricane Harbor is always jam packed and I've heard reports that SFA has been filling most of their rarely-used-last-season 3rd parking lot nearly every weekend and I'd say SFA is turning around.

Actually, not even all enthusiasts thing SFA is a 'bad' park. I for one liked it better than SFGAM, SFKK, and SFMM (combined), and I know plenty of ethusiasts that really liked the park.

Thankfully, Sam Marks isn't around (here) to jump on everyone that does have an issue with the park anymore :).

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Impulse-ive said:
...there were kids and adults who I wouldn't think would know a corkscrew from a lift hill talking about who manufactured Dominator (and getting it right!) and quoting stats...

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You're calling out exceptions. I can probably hear someone talking knowledgeably about nuclear physics too, but that doesn't make the park full of PhD's. There will always be someone, and in the local population it's still about a tiny minority, and they're still going to go to the local park and not one 400 miles away.

SFA is turning around. HH is awesome, and the coasters are more reliable. Every time I have gone this year, I haven't seen any garbage laying around. It is changing.

I dont know about the other parks but great adventure is doing really well. Most of the rides are open.

The attendance is really up since last year. I am going to hate to see what fright fest is like lol.

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majortom1981 said:
I dont know about the other parks but great adventure is doing really well. Most of the rides are open.

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And that's why they're not making a comeback yet. It's sad that the state of operations in many parks has been so bad that "Most of the rides open" is now considered good.

A park should be doing reall well when ALL the rides are open regularly and consistantly, with multiple train operations on coasters.

I think the SFA defenders are seriously delusional. Trust me, I use to be one of them so I know the mentality. I had a man in front of me at Batwing say "They seem to have a lot of rides that breakdown". That should tell you everything right there. NOTHING has changed from last year, except for Typhoon Seacoaster, and even that still has issues. Many of the employees could still give a crap, and the food area in front of Typhoon Seacoaster was extremely dirty. I even saw a bunch of managers and employees talking about 20 ft. away from a bunch of litter, and no one took the time to pick it up. I still like going to the park because I do like some of the rides, but the rest of the park experience needs a whole lot of work.

As for Jeff's comments about KK and TTD, I think he's way off base. Cedar Point did a lot of TV advertising in Maryland last year featuring TTD in the commercial, so I'm guessing that other states surrounding us were targeted as well. KK has now been in Time Magazine–twice. It was featured in the weekly Numbers column, and then this week on page 16, there's a very large picture of the coaster accompanying the "Are Thrill Rides Too Thrilling?" article. Time is read by millions of people. You do the math.

You're totally missing the context from which my comments came though... The decision to build these rides are not to satisfy the egos of executives. See previous posts on first page.

Jeff, my "campfire" example may have been a little melodramatic, but when Mr. Kinzel makes public statements, gives interviews, or just talks among friends and colleagues about the record breaking coasters at Cedar Point, is he concerned exclusively with marketing, branding, reputation and good will of the company? I think it's more than that. I think he has alot of PERSONAL PRIDE in the fact that Cedar Point is known as the Mecca of the coaster world. And when management at CP sits around for their regular "brainstorming sessions", don't you think there is a little "espirit de corps" there, or are you saying that it's all about the paycheck.

You are right that the general public does not know squat, but give the Amusement Park Going Public a little more credit. Many of them do know KK from TTD, and alot more than that. And while you are right that the people who are spending those dollars at Magic Mountain are not exactly hurting CP (except if you consider that those dollars are not being spent at Knotts, and that obviously would have some effect on Cedar Fair's bottom line) many at MM probably know that there is such a place as CP, and vice versa. I know this might sound a little presumtuous, but next time you are at CP, ask random people you see if they have ever heard of Magic Mountain or if they know what KK is. I bet the majority will know about both, and some will probably even laugh at how basic those questions are.

Why is every SF topic about Cedar Point?

I really, really want to see SF make a "comeback" (like improving the total guest experience) so I can once again enjoy what they have to offer.

I have always wondered what the problem is. Why can't SF just do what it takes to make things better? How hard could it be? A Sixth Grader could tell you what is wrong and how to fix the problems.

I know it's not like playing RCT, and improving a parks opperations takes money, but the sooner they fix what's broken, the sooner people will realize that SF better, and the sooner they will start to profit again.