SF could learn something from HW!!!!

[Bob O]

http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/200 ... 835236.txt

The people in charge of SFGAM and SF should read this and learn that there are other ways to make money than by overcharging for everything!!!

[zjohn1988]

They could learn more than just that

[Galvan]

Yes, because Holiday World has several parks and thousands of employees across the country.

Please

[BrianPlencner]

Now, this is a current article, but I think Will needs to know what parks are still open around him.

Check out the quote below. Bold added by me for effect


"What have we done that's different or better? The key is serving our market better than our competitors," Koch said. "That's how you go up against Six Flags (St. Louis), King's Island (Cincinnati) and Opryland (Nashville). Our mission is to be the world leader in family fun. We want to make our park the first choice for family entertainment."


Opryland???? Of course they will serve the market better then them, as they have been closed since 1997! True, when they were open, it was a park they needed to worry about. Its just interesting that Will mentioned that park over something like SFKK, or Beach Bend, which are closer to Holiday World then Opryland was.

--Brian

[FParker185]

The principals remain the same though. If people dont feel like they are getting ripped off at every turn, they are more likely to leave happy and return.

Not saying SF needs to give away everything and anything, but with say $15 parking that royally pisses people off before they even walk though the gate and that tunes people into way inflated in park prices and SF taking every opportunity to nickel and dime people out of every cent they can. Also lowering prices will increase sales. It's all about perceived value, and with prices so high now, SF wouldn't even have to lower prices that much for people to start perceiving value in things. If you could get a meal(entree, side and drink) for under $10 I bet a majority of people that currently leave the park to eat, they would start eating and spending $$ in the park. Another good one is soda, for $3 people will buy one then refill it all day from drinking fountains. If it were say $2, people would say it's not all that bad and maybe get 2 during the day, and besides getting an extra dollar, sales volume would rise, and they could purchase the stock cheaper.

And charging anything more than $10 for parking when you are a business that depends on repeat customers is nothing short of criminal.

[coasterkidd100]

Ya, the parking price and the food prices really make me angry. I have only eaten at the park once and the food was not that good and of course I paid a lot of money for it.

[Coastermonkey61]

I bet we here on this forum could run an amusement park better than Opryland at this point.

[Bob O]

It doesnt matter if HW runs one park, or many all across the country. It all gets down to customer service and value!!!! If people leave the park happy and feel they they got good value for the money that they spent they will leave happy and spread the word. Its the same if you are visiting HW, or a Disney/Busch park or for that matter Dollywood/Kennywood etc. But SF in general and our park have forgotten that.
Of course I guess some moderators dont understand this

[Galvan]

Obviously Six Flags is doing something right since you are a season pass holder for Great America.

Bob, before you start running your mouth again, Let me remind you That I have been to several Six Flags parks, Several Cedar Fair parks, IB,HW etc etc.

So I think I know a thing or two about the parks.

[Bob O]

I also have to been to several SF parks as well numerous other parks across the US so im not running my mouth in the least.

SF has me as a season pass holder due to having no other options in this part of the country, but if I lived elsewhere I wouldnt be a SF passholder, so im content to enjoy my favorite rides but give the park no money other than the season pass money.

[Ilovthevu']

Everyone is for Holiday World, how about Kiddieland? They give free parking, and free soda too, and you are paying less. For Holiday World, you are paying for what you get. Kiddieland's price is like $22, and Holidayworld is $36. Basically, the extra amount of money you are paying is the waterpark, and the coasters.

Holiday World doesn't have an extensive amount of coasters like SFGAm does. So, it's really not fair to compare. If they started giving free soda at SFGAm, than they would have to charge higher prices even more because of how much they are spending for new attractions in the park every year.

The prices at SFGAm this year are discounted heavily. I doubt Holiday World discounts that much as our park. The gate prices at SFGAm is $54.99, but they were giving $15, $20, and now $25 off admission which is nuts.

[Trailblazer Tony]

^Kiddieland is great, don't get me wrong, i go every year. However, you can't compare even Holiday World to it considering the design aspect. Holiday World has several stationary rides, themed lands, a fullfledged waterpark, and an overall larger budget and size ration. Kiddieland has only a few permanent rides and a layout that screams "we place portable rides on a designated patch of land next to each other and leave them there for a long time." Like I said, i'm a huge fan of the place, but just as it is impossible to compare Holiday World to Six Flags effectively, I also think it's ineffective to compare Kiddieland with Holiday World.

That being said, I think the size and amount of guests Holiday World gets annually has a strong influence on the cleanliness of the park, as well as the giveaways they have (free soda at a park Six Flag's size is unheard of and would create chaos). That being said, I think Holiday World does the best they can to value their customers, as does Six Flags. I just think at the end of the day Holiday World does a little bit of a better job, but is in no way an "everyone should do what we do" example.

[MForce4ever]

SF could learn quite a few things from a lot of parks...For example nobody should pay a dollar every time they want to ride a coaster because of their loose articles, don't expect people to be fooled by a building with some theming a wild mouse is a wild mouse (especially if there's another wild mouse 1000 feet away) and so on and so fourth