Yet Another horrible experience with Six flags parks!
Associated parks:
None
But what do I know? I've only been to the park in question about a hundred times...
-Nate
RatherGoodBear said:
Chitown said:
SFGAm is regarded as a clean, efficiently operated park. If you caught it on a bad day, that is to bad.Any park that thinks it's acceptable to offer guests a bad day even just once in awhile doesn't deserve to be successful. Any customer who thinks it's acceptable for a park to have bad days deserves whatever bad days he gets. At least, the guests should be told which days will be the bad ones, so they get to decide if they want to show up or not.
And by saying that, are you willing to say that Cedar Point "NEVER" has a bad day even if a few customers experience it? I am only bringing CP up because the original poster included it in his TR. All parks no matter what pedestal they are on have bad days. You go on a saturday in August, you are going to have to expect large crowds, different types of customers, and people utilizing a line cutting program that is available to people who are willing to pay for it.
The original poster described an employee who didn't react fast enough to a medical situation. That doesn't speak for all the other employees in the park. Bad apples are employed anywhere you go.
My favorite MJ tune: "Billie Jean" which I have been listening to alot now. RIP MJ.
Do all parks have bad days? Well really is that even possible to say, given the first point? I find it hard to believe that even those parks that we enthusiasts seem to uphold as those who excel in operations, cleanliness, and customer service [Holiday World, Knoebels, etc] can go long before at least one person leaves feeling like they had a horrible time and vowing not to return. Heck, I'd be willing to bet it's almost a daily occurance. With 10,000+ people in a park how can it be possible to please absolutely everyone?
Likewise I find it hard to believe that those parks we generally uphold as being the worst offenders [SFMM is just one a classic example and one I am often vocal about] doesn't go long without at least one person leaving the park totally satisfied. Again, I'd bet it's probably a daily occurance.
All we can do is take each trip report at face value and accept it as that person's unique point of view of their experience that day. Period. No need to make someone feel bad for it. I don't see any need to doubt them. And really what would be the point of trying to make any park look bad by posting a trip report filled with lies and inaccuracies?
Just my .02 cents.
Xander, as a former SF employee I agree completely with that post. Even after working at SF it still kinda upsets me reading things like this. It's funny, you read all of these topics talking about bad employees and such but very rarely will you find one complementing the guys at "insert ride name" for keeping the line moving, making everyone smile, kicking line jumpers out, etc. *** Edited 8/15/2006 5:43:33 AM UTC by mudinthevayne***
I wouldn't have even responded the way I did if he said his negative experience in a more constructive way.
The negatives of his SFGAm visit paled in comparason to his overall negative feeling of SF parks and basically no person should touch these parks ever.
Most that have been to SFGAm or CP know these parks are clean and well run. If you had a bad experience, point it out with some details instead of going on a rant and saying PARK FILTHY, CRAP EMPLOYEES, CRAP THIS, CRAP THAT, ETC.
It just makes the whole chain and all of it's employees look bad.
What killed it for him was saying after that he has visited CP 20 times this year and never had any of this happen.
Like Nate said, and after what the original poster stated, he was not going into this park expecting much because of his visit to SFMM and SFWoA.
My favorite MJ tune: "Billie Jean" which I have been listening to alot now. RIP MJ.
One of our huge deals this year was the internal guest (ie. Employee, when they are on break in the employee cafeteria or clocking in/out at ESO ant the sort).
Team Members treating Guests right starts with the way they are treated by other employees.
They used to put the in-park reject type people in the employee cafeteria. The best time of the day for most TMs (break) became just...almost unbearable.
Many SF employees go an entire day without anything nice being said to them at all, and usually when something nice is said, it comes from a Guest. There is a real problem when it comes to managment sincerely saying thank you, telling us we're doing a good job, etc. That is how you build up your employees.
Everyone can be a good employee, even the most unlikely person. It takes praise and work, though. Management isn't focused in those areas.
I'll tell you right now, guys...Thank You goes a long ways. When a guest tells me thank you, I know it just really makes me feel appreciated and makes me want to pass that appreciation on to the next person.
Coasterguy said:
Yes your right. I was going to waste a night of my trip on my weekend off to hope for a bad time at Six Flags. That makes sense. Have you been to other parks? Huge differences.
Since you asked, I've been to about 50 parks in three different countries. Is that relevant?
You claim you didn't go in hoping for a bad time, but this leads me to believe otherwise
Having 2 terrible SIX FLAGS experiences in the past at Magic Mountain and Worlds of Adventure now Geagua Lake and much better I knew not to expect much from the park.
How else is that supposed to be taken? You essentially come right out and say you expect the park to be crappy and you expect to not have a good time. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
What makes me believe that most is that you complained about run-down buildings and poor upkeep on the landscaping. That's just plain untrue. I'm not saying there aren't some buildings that could use some upkeep or some paint, but those are few and far between. I don't think there's any park in the country (except for maybe Disney) that you couldn't say that about. Landscaping at SFGAm has always been just fine.
I'm not saying you made up the details of your trip report, just that you greatly exaggerated the bad conditions because that's all you noticed. Next time try being a bit more open-minded.
And for the record, I had a visit to Cedar Point that was worse than *any* visit I've ever had to SFGAm.
-Nate
Seriously, I think people come on here and start something negative about six flags because they think it's the most accepted topic or something. It's like, the unltimate way of being accepted by jumping on the bandwagon. Kind of the way some people use their political affiliation to gain acceptance, when in reality, no one cares.
The only 2 SF I've ever really had "eh" experiences with are SFMM and what was SFWoA. Now that SFWoA is Geauga Lake, and it's still just as crappy, we know it's not SF's fault. Magic Mountian would probably suck if it was run by anyone else, too, just because I don't like the way it's set up or anything in the least.
It was cheaper than Sea World and one pass got you everything.
I must confess, the parking lot was far more crowded under SF than CP.
Great Lakes Brewery Patron...
-Mark
It's not too far-fetched to believe that some cuts have been made in the areas that coasterguy mentioned such as trash-can maintenance and bathroom upkeep. We didn't visit on a weekend and it wasn't August, so again, we'd have a hard time saying that what coasterguy saw was untrue.
Where I will say he's being a little bit out of line (pun intended) was with the Superman queue comment. It's a tight maze, but it's really no different than the queues for Magnum or MF. And after you're out of the beginning maze, there's a long straight section that follows to the station.
Finally, for all of those out there, the I-Fan spelling tip of the day is that there is no "e" in ridiculous.
I know that the park is overpriced, but so are a lot of SF parks--this is one thing that I hold against them. And I agree with you on the Flash Pass thing--I really don't like it. But to me, if they are going to have it at their parks, they need to run it correctly. I've seen Flash Pass stairways NOT manned by employees before, and that just messes things up. I would put this one on SF operations.
As for unkempt rides and landscaping, wow--they must have really been having an off-day, as that park is usually a pretty good park--at least as far as SF parks go. Then again, you did go on a Saturday during the summer, which is when I try to avoid the large, popular parks. I personally had a great time when I wen there on a Sunday in May, and it was VERY not crowded, and the weather was beautiful.
I know that some of us like to bash Six Flags (myself included), and I think that they deserve a lot of it. They seriously have quite a ways to go to get their act together. Maybe some drastic changes will happen--who knows? This season has just not lived up to what Shapiro and a lot of us would have wanted to see. There has been ride closures, both long term and for the season, reduction in hours, bad operations, lackluster employees, major price hikes, and drops in attendance. The company is in some serious "pickles".
We also know that things vary from park-to-park, so when people make general statements (myself included), it isn't always fair to the parks and employees that are actually doing a good job. But Six Flags just has such a bad reputation now, and there have been problems and issues that have spanned a lot of parks, so it makes it easier to make all-encompassing statements like some do.
Personally, I'm just tired of Six Flags' crap. I'll leave it at that for now, but I will suggest you giving SFGAm another shot--preferably at a less crowded time. Try early spring on a Sunday, or June or July on a Wednesday. You may just be able to enjoy yourself.
coastin' since 1985
Terminator said:
I don't think its a problem that Six Flags offers Q-bots or flashpass or whatever they call it this year. I think its a problem that Cedar Point [and other parks].... Since the introduction of the q-bot, I don't have to. Cedar Point should wake up and take notice. Not everything they do is better than Six Flags.
I never thought I would say it... but I agree.
Season passes from SFA cost my wife and me around $100. For that $100 we got in to SFA, SFKK, SFStL and SFNE. Since we were getting into SFNE for "nothing", we sprung for a Gold Flash Pass. We used it 21 times that day... on a day when average waits were 45 min to an hour long. Well worth it. OTHER parks should offer it.
It was a total dump. Garbage laying all over, a horrid sewer smell through out the park. Hords of uncontrolled youths, spitting on guests, and, swearing at anyone that passed by. Kids running rampant on the rides, moving from seat to seat while the rides were operating. It seemed that there was no management or security presence at all.
Horrible food. Dirty eating areas. Slow, and lazy, food service workers. Rides that were in serious need of repair...Raging wolf Bobs was the worst rollercoaster experience I had ever had...absolutely terrible.
I went to Sea world the following day. It was like leaving Hell and finding the gates to heaven. And, they were right next door to eachother!!!!
So what if he says he won't give another cent to visit another Six Flags park again? I would assume that's a normal reaction to visiting three parks from a particular chain and having horrible experience at all three. Sure, we tell him not to "generalize" the chain from three different park experiences, but that's how it works with all other chain/brands doesn't it? You have three bad experiences at three different Denny's restaurants...are you likely to visit a Denny's anytime soon - even though some have better service than others? Same thing here. Get off this guy's back.
The minute someone badmouths SFGRAM,or CP for that matter then all the fanboys of these parks go on the offensive treating the OP as though he's commited the most cardinal sin that any coaster enthusiast on the planet could do.It's a fact that all parks have their good & bad days,yes even CP & SFGRAM & Coasterguy just happened to catch this particular park on a bad day...there's no need to chastise anyone for simply giving their opinion that reflects their visit to any park.
My view was slightly different (I think you can have a terrible day at *any* park if you go in expecting to hate it), but I'm sure things were still worse than normal on the day he visited.
-Nate
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