Yesterday, I went to the park for the 4th time this year. It's been a long time since the last time I visited in June. I knew that the park would be busy and parking was balls. Otherwise, I had a good time. The weather was great, but it was hot.
As always, the pictures.
When I came to the park, the back parking lot was closed. Cars were moved to the front lot; finding a spot was difficult. I asked a SFGAm Cop about the back parking lot. He explained to me that the park felt like closing the back area and I noticed that the parking price is now $20 fore front and back.
We know that Chang is in the garbage, but next year, Superbleachbrothers and Jonrev VS Robb Alvey and Haruhi Suzumiya: The Ride!
Fright Fest car has blocked the Pictorium.
First it was Karate Kid, Then Grown Ups, and now THE OTHER GUYS!? Seriously, the park needs to understand that Whizzer is more important than wrapping the damn ads!
Raging Bull.
There was a butterfly on the waiting line for Viper.
RB and STT
WHAT THE HELL........
Batman The Ride
Follow the railroad.
Raging Bull was the longest wait of the day.
Raging Bull's Tail. While I looking at my camera the operator told me to put my camera. I told him that I wouldn't take my camera out and do a POV. I never do POVs on roller coasters because if I get caught, my ass is out of the park.
I Had a turkey leg and Sprite for dinner. Dinner was good and only ate 75% of the leg
Some worker at GA was caulking a picture of Super Bugs. Later on, she did a really good on Bugs Bunny. Does anybody know who this artist is?
I saw a scary ad showing Bigfoot advertising beef jerky's near by Batman.
Its the crew of the week parade!
It's a bird, It's a plane, NO! Its Superman!!
Near by the Cyber Cafe, There is a room that is air conditioned that NO BODY even uses. The doors are opened for you.
When I first saw BTR in 2001, I first thought that the ride was an actual park of the sign saying, Gotham City Park.
This is was the caulking picture that I was talking about.
Riders beyond the sunset.
Raging Bull's first drop is the most popular element of the ride.
When I bought a Viper shirt, I got an exit pass to any coaster except for LD. I surprised that I got a pass. I used the pass on Raging Bull and when I got to the exit, I gave to one of the RB crew members. Since I was riding single, he allowed me to ride RB twice. Normally, you are not allowed to reride RB. I chose the back and the first ride, I went to the 7th row for the 2nd time. Lucky Me!
Last ride was Iron Wolf, still painful, but still fun.
Sorry for the crappy picture. I saw the GITDP for a minute. I had a good day at the park. The crowds were normal.
I'll be going back to the park this month with a very good friend of mine.
Looks like you had a fun day at the park. Let me see if I can answer a few of your questions
Superbleachbrothers wrote: Some worker at GA was caulking a picture of Super Bugs. Later on, she did a really good on Bugs Bunny. Does anybody know who this artist is?
This is was the caulking picture that I was talking about.
While I don't know her real name, she will sign her drawings as "The Chalk Lady". She has does really great work all season long in that area of the park. I recall seeing drawings of Daffy Duck, Porkey Pig, Mr Six, a really kick-butt Fright Fest Logo, and a few others. Not sure who's idea was to hire her to do this, but they made a great choice!.
Superbleachbrothers wrote: Near by the Cyber Cafe, There is a room that is air conditioned that NO BODY even uses. The doors are opened for you.
What's interesting about that room is that it has not changed one bit since the park opened in 1976. Back in 1976, the name of the place was called Buffet Le Grand, and was intended to be the park's fine dining experience. They had quite the menu too. The food was served just behind that area, and that room was where you would sit and enjoy your meal. Over the years, the name changed, and it was a Buffet up until the late 80's. I ate there for free in 1988, when I was awarded a ""Gold Superstar" from the park (as it says in my .sig, I worked there 1988-1992). I don't recall what I did, but whatever it was, it was above and beyond what was required for my job. Long story short, that is where we ate our "reward dinner", and had a Q & A session with then park president Jim Wintrode. I also got a golden colored name tag with my full name on it (which, I still have), a certificate, and I think a cash award too.
Not sure why it is not used more then it is, but you are correct. The doors to it are closed, but unlocked. No one ever goes in there, and the AC works really well! Nice place to escape on a hot day to cool off. I like it as it brings back memories of the park from the early years.
The wait times surprised me, usually when I go in august Bull is only 15 minutes. I might go tomorrow and it could rain so i hope the wait times are shorter!
^ Does that place still serve food? Where in the park is the chalk lady putting these murals?
What Place? The Chalk drawing was near by Little Dipper.
The former Buffet Le Grand airconditioned room over by the cyber cafe. What is it used for today? Is food still served there, or is just someplace to hang out?
Last edited by BLADE on August 10th, 2010, 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Superbleachbrothers wrote:I asked a SFGAm Cop about the back parking lot. He explained to me that the park felt like closing the back area and I noticed that the parking price is now $20 fore front and back.
I'd love to know when this happened. $20 for a day there is insane.
Also, the caulk lady did a great Pepe le Pew earlier this year. It was signed as "The Unknown Chalk Artist." On a side not, if you ever go to the Magic Kingdom, the janitors do a similar thing with water near the front train station. Nice little touches like this make a day at the parks even better.
ragingbull1331 wrote:The wait times surprised me, usually when I go in august Bull is only 15 minutes. I might go tomorrow and it could rain so i hope the wait times are shorter!
Early August should not really surprise anyone with the wait times. It's the time right before kids go back to school, and they want to get to the park. The park wasn't too bad considering there were hardly any cars in the back parking lot at all. Iron Wolf was about 5 minutes, Batman, Superman, and Dark Knight were about 20 minutes each. Superman though had a really fast crew. The one time I was waiting about the same amount of people in line, it was 45 minutes, but they were really good those people working the ride. The last tv in line is about where the line started for Superman. The potential rain scared people away. On the booths to get tickets, it said chance of rain: 70%.
I just keep on seeing Dark Knight keep on losing so many people from when the ride just opened. It's good for me, but it's bad for me because than I know that those people are just going to go more on Superman, Batman the Ride, and V2, and make those lines longer.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
Last year was amazing during the last week of august, I went with a friend and we walked on every ride, and Raging bull was 15 minutes at the most! That week I did 6 straight rides on Superman and 6 straight on Raging Bull. I was thinking of going today because of the rain, but my friend couldn't go with me so i'm not going.
Does Al Weber want to destroy the company?! This is the reason so many people decide not to visit the park! But does that mean if you get there early the front lot is only $20?
ragingbull1331 wrote:Last year was amazing during the last week of august, I went with a friend and we walked on every ride, and Raging bull was 15 minutes at the most! That week I did 6 straight rides on Superman and 6 straight on Raging Bull. I was thinking of going today because of the rain, but my friend couldn't go with me so i'm not going.
Yeah, but it's last week of August, not 2nd week of August. That's a big difference.
For the parking, there is also a new season pass only area for parking that has fences around it, and it's near Superman, but the stuff to the right is for non-season pass parking people. It's reminds me of Kings Island preferred parking type of stuff where there is an area for them. I agree with parking being a huge problem with the prices. You say you go to a concert, and it's high, but SFGAm wants you back the next day to visit the park, and maybe even get a season pass. That's $40 in parking for 2 days visit. And you say Disney is also ripoff city, but they have more an excuse as they have monorails, buses, trams, and boats that can take you from place to place. They are giving you something more.
The thing is that someone is going to say more complaining, blah, but yet when attendance is going down for Six Flags, and if we see another bankruptcy, you can't just say everything that Six Flags does is good. You have the people that only love everything the park does, and don't care what the park does. It's all great. Than there are the people that just hate the park completely, and than you have people like me that really like the park, but everything at the park is not always sugar coated and peachy. A jaw-dropping price just to park in the parking lot is really just ridiculous, and it's going to scare people away. It's why a place like Holiday World gets so much attention from people from people saying it's such a great park. Personally, I never been to the place but they don't rip you off just for parking your car there.
What is really better though? A $45 -$50 reasonable priced ticket for the park compared to paying kids prices, or a $20 parking fee compared to something like $8. To me, the $20 scares people right away while the $45 people realize hey we are getting a waterpark, and all those roller coasters for that. That's worth the money. Instead, they trick people to come to the park looking at the $35 cheap ticket which is severly underpriced, and than people get shocked by a $20 parking fee. On top of that, Six Flags parks can't even get a high per-cap because they undercharge the gate, and undercharge the season pass, and than you have people on here complaining about all the ads everywhere.
If food were cheaper, most people would not be leaving the park. You take Mcdonald's for example. Mcdonald's is pretty cheap, and it is probably one of the top food places in the WORLD, but yet they have the $1 menu, and they have value meals at reasonable prices, and whatnot. Think about it if you could almost get no one to leave the park, you would get so much more money than what they are getting now just based on food alone because everyone has to eat something. Also, in regards to food to me they need bigger food places, and more workers for food because the waits are just very long for all the food. You want to get those people their food as fast as possible in order to get more people because there might people in line sick of waiting for 20 minutes, and say forget this, and just go out of the park.
Six Flags has got to get out of the mentality that just because you go there, you HAVE to spend money there. It's Dick Kinzel in what he said, something like people have no other option, but to eat our food. He's wrong, and people can go where in the world they want to. They don't have to eat his food. If you are an amusement park, you have to IMPRESS people with your products, food, and games. You can't EXPECT people just to say I'm going to buy this and that because I'm here at the park, and I can't go somewhere else. When I'm at a Cedar Point, I usually always go to Red Lobster.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
tribar wrote:I like the old parking routine better
I like the $8 routine or $35 parking pass routine better. And that was only 5 or 6 years ago. Right before Shapiro got into office.
That was Snyder's doing not Shapiro. Snyder was trying to make it like a stadium. Anyways isn't parking $20 for both regular for preferred and regular. I know its like that for GAdv and SFNE. Does Great America even have preferred?
Does Al Weber want to destroy the company?! This is the reason so many people decide not to visit the park! But does that mean if you get there early the front lot is only $20?
This was on the SFGAm facebook discussion board about a week ago.
Six Flags Great America/Hurricane Harbor Hey Jill, we have decided to move to one price for the time being so that we can get people off of Grand Ave and the tollway fastest. It's a quicker transaction when everyone is paying the same rate. We fill up the front lot first and then move on to the back lot. Season Pass holders with Season Pass parking will have a reserved section in the front lot. It's not an attempt to cut staff, just an attempt to get you in faster.
^The park is going to make money off of this than what they were doing. You can see the emptyness in the front lot compared to the back lot, so now the backlot people are paying $5 more. The thing that makes the parking booths so slow is the receipt they were giving to the people even if you had a season pass, and than at times, the registers were having problems. Parking wasn't a huge problem till this year.
Last edited by Ilovthevu' on August 13th, 2010, 10:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
