What makes a park great?

I am thinking you will probably be changing your mind about WOF in the coming years. Especially with what it appears that they are starting to do with the park.

Cedar Point is the best park I have ever been to. Every park needs a Millennium Force and a Top Thrill Dragster. Most theme parks do not have those type of rides so in my opinion, those parks are not worth visiting!

*picks self up off floor*.....;)

Staff, pure, plain, simple...everything else is negotiable within reason, but a great staff puts you in some ELITE company.

What makes a restaurant great? A combination of the quality of food, atmosphere, staff, all contribute to the culinary experience. What does not make a restaurant great is providing more of the same, like McDonalds. Great parks provide unique experiences that can’t be found anywhere else. Holiday World’s gracious staff and free soda. Kennywood’s attention to historic preservation, Fiesta Texas quarry wall backdrop, Silverdollar City’s hillbilly attitude, Island’s of Adventure over the top themes, the landscape of Busch Gardens Williamsburg, the tightly packed rides at Morey’s Piers, Schlitterbaughn's natural spring tubing action from the top of the hill to the river below, and not sure what makes Knoebel’s Grove so unique, but its great. If one can be randomly dropped into any park, the truly great ones are immediately recognizable because they are icons. There is nothing that spectacular about more of the same.

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Jeffrey Seifert said:

I'm guessing you haven't been to WOF.

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I might have, but If I have I was very young to remember.
I do think it should have some variation in food, unique to the park, with good quality. I like things that are differant. Things that are the same are boring, so in that respect-rcmadness I have to agree with you. *** Edited 5/10/2005 8:12:30 PM UTC by Dominator56***

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youngstud98 said:
Cedar Point is the best park I have ever been to. Every park needs a Millennium Force and a Top Thrill Dragster. Most theme parks do not have those type of rides so in my opinion, those parks are not worth visiting!

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Must be a boring life limiteding your choices like that.

To me, Two coasters at HW beat the whole park of CP.

Chuck, who's not bashing CP but has had a great time at about every one of the 40 parks I've been to and it didn't take a MF to make or break em.

Well, Maybe WOF, Without Timber Wolf, that park was bland :)

Every park needs a "WOW" factor. The park with the most wow factors is the BEST. Cleanliness, food, staff, rides, and environment make up the factors. Cedar Point has clean midways, decent food and staff, great rides, and every time I'm there I can only think of what fun thing I will do next. That's why a lot of people love CP.

Fast moving lines always helps too.

I think a park that's great is the one that when you leave, you're already thinking about when you'll be back. That's been my criteria for a while now. When I leave IoA or BGT, I'm already thinking about budgets, upcoming schedules and how soon I can hop a plane back to Florida. When I left SFNE two weeks ago, I was already calling friends and family trying to find a riding buddy to come experience a great little park with me. When I leave Hershey, I try and find new, faster ways to get there and back in a desparate attempt to make Hersheypark a day trip from Pittsburgh. That's what makes a park great.

KBF, SFMM, I've even had opportunities to go back recently, and passed. Disney? Nah. But then, I think that goes right back to personal preference. Some people are brainwashed, I mean can't get enough of the Disney thing, and are already planning a return trip from the time they enter the park.

This system loses it's value when you go to a park a lot. When I go to CP late in May, I have no desire to return until September, although I guess in a way, you could say that's planning my return trip. But, when I leave for the last time in October, you can bet I've already got the first weekend in May circled on the calendar.

I would say the greatest part of a park would definately be the roller coasters because i know thats what i go to parks for, but you can't have a park without good management or else having rides would be pointless if they weren't run properly

http://www.FreePSPs.com/?r=18141712

GO there to get your free psp! *** Edited 5/11/2005 1:15:01 AM UTC by George Smithberry***

Millennium Force is still the greatest roller coaster ever built. That ride alone is worth the admission to Cedar Point. I need thrilling rides to be satisfied when i visit a theme park and only a few parks have REAL thrill rides. My home park is BGW and that park just doesn't satisfy me. Kings Dominion is pretty good considering they do have Drop Zone, Volcano, and Hypersonic. I still can't believe that BGW put in Darkastle. The ride itself is so childish and is no thrill at all. BGW has fallen in love with 3-d rides/shows and they want to be Islands of Adventure so bad!

yst98, you're of course entitled to your own opinion, but I think if you were a little bit more traveled that you'd find plenty of other parks with "real" thrill rides. SFNE's S:ROS is absolutely insane, and makes MF seem a little bit tame in comparison (that is if you like airtime which I do). Kennywood's Phantom's Revenge is just too sick for words. The double-down is taken at speeds that makes you wonder what Morgan was thinking:) Plus you've got Jack Rabbit–whose double-down is downright scary–plus Pittfall (a great and tall Intamin drop ride), and Thunderbolt. These are some other options that are available to you besides CP based on your location.

As for what I think makes a park great, it's usually a park that makes me go "Wow" when I first arrive and continues to do so during the day. Off the top of my head, only a few parks have done that–Six Flags Fiesta Texas (absolutely beautiful), Six Flags New England (I figured out where all the Six Flags America theming and landscaping went, plus Hurricane Harbor just seems to go on and on...), Kennywood (I'm amazed at how much stuff is packed into such a small footprint), Sea World of Texas (very colorful and Steel Eel) and believe it or not Knoebels (because it's just so strange and yet has so much to do). Cedar Point was in a class all by itself for because of the real estate factor–I'd never seen a park that takes so long to walk from one end to the other, or for matter, from one ride to the next (in the case of Magnum to Millennium Force).

If I hadn't already been to these parks when I was little, I think I would be amazed by Hersheypark, Six Flags Great Adventure, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

Milly is the greatest coaster ever built...with the exception that Gemini is better.

Oh, yeah, and Phantom's Revenge.

;)

Airtime is so overrated that is why I don't really enjoy Apollo's Chariot all that much. I'm a guy so I want speed and more speed that is why Millennium Force rules to this day. The Superman ride is alot slower than Millennium and the first drop is smaller to, so how can anyone like that ride over Millennium? Cedar Point, Six Flags Great Adventure, and Six Flags Magic Mountain are the 3 best parks....period!

Then you might as well add TTD and Kinda Ka to your list of speed.....weeee! ;)

Even though speed is good, I look at the overall quality of a roller coaster. As for parks, I try to find something that impresses me. Seeing Bahari and riding the new flat ride, Revolution, this year at Holiday World and Spalshin' Safari is enough to make me burst at the thought of what this big new expansion project will be. These new additions that they add each year keep me coming back for more.

I don't mind speed, but design is what makes it a great coaster, if it looks good, rides good, apeals to you, and just have fun with it you'll want more and more. *examples: Hyrdra, Silver Bullet* Those I would pay to go and ride.

Each park is unique...and there are several different moods that a park can create, each bringing me back for more. For example, my home park, Dorney, keeps me coming back because it feels like home, because my friends and I know the park so well and always find different ways to have fun, different crazy things to do on the rides we know so well, so that each day at the park is unique. A park like CP, which I have only visited 2 times, has a mystique about it, almost an epic feeling. Since I don't make it to the park often, and its coasters are so good, I feel like my next trip to CP, whenever it may be, will be like a journey or a pilgrimage to a hallowed place. Then, a park such as BGW (the first park I ever went to as a kid) makes me feel like a little kid and conjures up vacation memories. This is a nostalgic feeling, almost rewinding time to more carefree days. Those are the three most distinct feelings I've gotten from parks, but that's what keeps me coming back for more. *** Edited 5/12/2005 1:06:01 AM UTC by Stale Force***

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youngstud98 said:
The Superman ride is alot slower than Millennium and the first drop is smaller to, so how can anyone like that ride over Millennium?

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For the same reason I'd rather ride Gemini than I would Milly or TTD. I like speed over airtime as well, but speed and nothing else gets boring (see:any coaster over 400' tall)

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...and Six Flags Magic Mountain are the 3 best parks....period!

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Someone call a Dr. Quick!

Actually, I'd almost agree if SFMM was painted nicely and they actually opened the coasters they do have. Oh, and had some thrilling flat rides.

"Great" is defined by the individual. My first visit to Dollywood was fabulous and at the time they didn't have any rides most of you consider great. But, they had a clean place, great food, wonderful atmosphere, good shows, etc.

Walt Disney said it best:

"You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world...but it requires PEOPLE to make that dream a reality."

I've been to restaurants with great food but I won't return because of lousy staff. K-Mart had great prices but it has been a long time since I have been in one because the employees were terrible.

Why the miserable employees? They probably are not treated well.

Parks are so worried about their next big capital project that most of them lose sight that their staff should be considered capital. You don't have to pay people a lot of money to treat them well.

At Disney I made $5.15 an hour...the lowest wage in the company. But, I had great housing (tennis courts, pools, etc), easy transportation to and from work, fair prices for meals, loads of extra activities, etc.

But, the ramifications of not investing in your most important resource are severe. Look at Worlds of Adventure. There is no doubt that Six Flags put some great rides in there. So, why didn't it work? Because they overlooked something more important. A new ride might get me in the gate but if I have a bad day I'm not coming back. And Geauga Lake/WoA relies heavily on multiple visits.

You can try to make this more complicated, but it doesn't need to be. People make the difference.

Thanks wahoo.... :)