What is going on with Six Flags this year?

It is quite obvious after going to SFGAdv. last year, and SFFT, SFOT, SFAW, and SFA that the old management was overthrown by the park managers from the current parks. I've now had the same experience at the five parks I've been to. They have plenty of staffing, the parks are clean, they're pretty, and the ride operators are both courteous and efficient.

The reason I come up with this theory is because it's got to be the most frustrating thing to have all these great rides, and a park with huge potential, and you can't get the support to run the park properly. So guess who the guest are taking things out on? Of course, the managers.
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2002, the year the Six Flags America bashing stops.

I'm actually pleased to hear someone saying something positive about a SF park for once. I've been to other coaster sites who have members ranting and raving about how horrible their experiences at SF has been. Everything from rude employees to dirty bathrooms to slow coaster loading times has been covered. Granted, these are opinions and a lot of them do sound like sour grapes........but it's refreshing to hear a viewpoint that believes that SF isn't going to the dogs.

I did notice a change at Great Adventure this year. Of all the Six Flags parks I've been to, the ride ops seems to work more efficiently and were halfway nice.....took me off guard for a sec.

Yeah, SFOG is really nice this year. The ride ops are actually cool, and even some of the maintenance workers are nice.

Great Adventure has always been on the decent side of things in my opinion. They usually run most of their rides to full capacity and have decent operations - not as fast as CP usually, but definitely better than most parks. I can assure you though that not much has changed for the positive at SFNE this year. I haven't visited Great Adventure since 2000 and I am aching to go back and have a good time because honestly, I haven't had a good experience at a Six Flags park since late summer 2000 when I last went there. That includes visits to SFWOA, SFNE, and SFDL - and dare I say SFWOA was the best of those three...

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

The only think I can say is wait for the crowds of July & August to see how things go. I thought the same thing early last year at SFWOA. Things were clean. Rides Ops were good. Then as the year went along and the crowds came, things went down hill. I hope you are right and SF has finally got the message. I really really want SF parks to live up to their potential.

As much as I criticize Six Flags, this latest rash of incidents is just and unfortunate coincidence in that they are all Six Flags Parks. Of course, the more parks Six Flags owns, the greater the odds of them having multiple accidents in a given day/week/month or year. Remember, Elitch and WoA have only been "Six Flags" parks for the last 5 or so years.

When you're at the bottom there's nowhere to go but up.

That said, I'm not quick to write off every park in the first place. In recent years trips to SFGAm and SFGAdv have been outstanding, while my local park SFWoA has been terrible. My trip to SFA in 2000 was sad, as there was nothing open. Trips to SFDL haven't been bad, but generally they're not running rides at capacity. It just depends on which park you go to.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

I got to give it to SFGADV for doing a good job with ride capacity on their coasters. If you have been there anytime during the summer and any time throughout October, you know the crowds and lines are mostly large. Even during its first weeks of the seasons its kinda packed. But the great thing is, a good portion of the time the rides are running well and the lines actually move.

SFA is the only SF park that I've been to this year so far, but I noticed a significant improvement there. Ride down time has been greatly reduced, and the quality of the operations has been improved dramaticly.

I suspect that there are 2 causes. First, management has tried hard to make things better. This park has grown very rapidly in recent years and was suffering some serious growing pains. Second, the down turn in the economy has probably helped management at all parks in obtaining quality employees. During the late economic boom, parks had a difficult time obtaining just sufficient numbers of employees, and often had to curtail operations due to a shortage of bodies. In that type of situation employees quality is hard to keep up.

I am so glad to hear so many good comments on Six Flags parks. It has been a while since I have. Generally speaking, from I have been hearing and reading about from enthusiasts is that SF Darien Lake, Astroworld and SFWOA are generally not good experiences. I was at SFWOA after it had been converted to a Six Flags, and the operations were horrible. One train for almost everything. The employees were also rude and the park was dirty. However SF Great America and SF St Louis have been great lately. They run most things to capacity, the employees are pretty nice, these two parks are MUCH cleaner, and more beautiful. Guess it depends on how each park is run...or what SF puts into each park.

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X Looks Awesome! Oh Yea!!
Questions:
smles@ilstu.edu

SFNE, my home park, has really dropped the ball.
S:RoS was running one train on my first two visits and only running 7 or 8 cars (depending on the time of day) on one train the third visit. B:DK has had problems almost everytime I've been in line, and Mind Eraser has been up and down all season.

I would be back every weekend if I knew I could get marathons on S:RoS, but spending an ENTIRE day in line and only getting 5 rides is kinda weak (considering it's a 1.5hr drive from where I live). Haven't been to any other Six Flags, but I'm moving to within 30 minutes of Great Adventure, so I hope what y'all say is true.
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AC?, RB?, MF?, DD?, PR? Who can keep track of it all?

In my opinion WoA is far from terrible. Since that's the only SF park I've been to I can't judge the others but I can honestly say that park has never been as bad a park as some/most/few on this site would lead you to believe.

One SF park i noticed a DRASTIC change is SFAW. I went a few years back before Serial Thriller was there. It was the year Texas Tornado was being built. (whichever that is). I remembered it being an awful experience but this past time i just went, about 6 days ago, i was pleasantly surprised by the change. The employees were nice, and i had a good time there. Of course, it could use some updates in the ride department, but the differences in the trips blew me away.

SFEG seems to be nicer this year, but I only went a couple times last year. The only complaint I have is I see one train operation on Twister II all to often, it would be nice to see more two train operation(and they could paint the new track while their at it). Other than that, it has been very nice and almost runned like a family park! I hope this continues through the season.

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Go AVS!!! AVS will repeat!!!

The Six flags parks focus this years seems to have changed. They brought in the family packages for some parks, became a little more patriotic, brought in some new rides, the employees are nicer, and they are trying to maintain the rides and the park. I got to give props to SF's, because they have full potential and trying to live up to it.

RDuck- The line on Twister II has to be a certain length before the second train can be added, but I don't know how long because it isn't my section of the park.

I think a lot of the improvements in guest service can be attributed to the lack of new attractions. Without new attractions to staff and adjust to, the parks can focus on other issues.

SFWoA is doing astounding this year. The attractions all seem to be open unless down for legitimate reasons, the coasters are running very well capacity wise, BKF's crew is running 2 trains and actually having to wait for them to return, so I could definately see them running 3 train operation during the summer.

The employees say hello, how are you...just when walking by...and I noticed that they seemed to be having alot of fun doing their jobs also.

The park is doing great, the animal side has some great employees that seem very enthusiastic and they pretty much can answer any question you have about the animals in wich they are putting on display. The park seems much more clean this year also, and the landscaping from the old Sea World side seems to be steadily creeping over to the Wild Rides side which I am very happy about.

All in all I have gone only on Sat. this year so far and I have had a great time everytime. I cannot wait to see what's in store for the future...especially next year, it looks to be a big year at World's of Adventure in 2003.

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"Tea & Cake Or Death?-Eddie Izzard"~My No Limits Designs...http://coastergames.net/author.php?author=BKF%20Master

Last year, I had some gripes against Six Flags Belgium, but, I understand these problems comes from the Walibi era. In the last few years of Walibi, they had HUGE problems regarding cash flow, so new attractions were few and far behind at their 6 parks and maintenance went downhill, MAJOR. Add to that bad luck with new attractions, like Dalton Terror, an Intamin Giant Drop, which is the same height as Pittfall at KW. They have had all the problems you can think of with that ride and its always open at 1-2 pm...

SF picked up these fledging parks. Some of them are in a state barely able to work (Walibi Smurf comes to mind, that place is a junkyard!) and others need new attractions (Walibi Smurf, Rhones Alpes and Aquitaine). Only one could be truly considered a "great park", Bellewaerde, which is like a smaller BGT (in a good way). They only got 2 coasters, but good water rides, great animal attractions and even a great dark ride!

SF basically build a new park with SF Holland. They did a conversion "light" with SF Belgium and its failed, BIG TIME.

SF is doing a good job with La Ronde, doing very needed landscaping and adding a new ride... finally! What we need now is a new water ride, a Mad House and 2-3 new flat rides.

I know this is short but I think it cuts to the point.

There are going to be plenty of complaints everywhere you go and IMO those people should deal with it in a reasonable manner and realise that you have to except your experience good or bad for what it is, was, could be, and could have been.

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