SFGAm-05/17/12

[tweak89]

Well, although I gave a somewhat live account of what happened in another thread, I thought I'd post my overall thoughts on our day at Six Flags Great America.

This was the first trip to this park for myself and my wife. We are from Houston,Tx.

Day started out well enough as we got in early and headed straight to X-Flight. Ride opened about 10-15 minutes after official park opening time of 10am. We rode it once.

Afterwards we headed over to the Flash Pass center to pick up the Platinum pass we purchased online some time ago. When we got there we were told flash passes were not being issued since there was no staff present. As this was likely to be our only visit to this park were extremely disappointed. We were offered refunds, and that was our next stop-guest relations.

I know many here get bent out of shape about flash passes, but they are available and as we wanted to assure we got on every ride, we purchased it. Whether or not we would actually end up needing it is not the point, but that we were sold something that they decided not to honor.

After that disappointment, things did not really look up as we only managed 3 rides in two hours (X-Flight, Superman and Dark Knight.

Luckily, our day got better in no small part due to the attitude of the park workers (especially the ride operators) and the gorgeous weather. We also appreciated how clean the park was.

In the end, we did get to ride everything we wanted. We are really glad it turned out that way in light of the flash pass issue. Had it gone the other way, with the park getting really busy, this report would be quite a bit different.

Our favorite rides ended up being Raging Bull, American Eagle and X-Flight (riding towards the front).

Our only real disappointment was Dark Knight. It was not so much the ride itself, but how it seems that what was once an interesting ride queue has gone to pot (reminded us of the type of ride/queue condition of many if the attractions of our "home" park Fiesta Texas).

So, leaving the flash pass issue aside, we would give the park high ratings for cleanliness, employee attitude and the overall variety of rides. Although it's highly unlikely we will ever get to visit his park again we would do so if the opportunity presented itself.

[Ilovthevu']

^For the Flash pass, I believe the only reason they didn't have it going on today is because most of the park was buses. They know that these kids aren't going to spend the money for that, so than why have it at all?

For the Dark Knight line, I sort of agree, and I sort of don't agree. If you would have experienced the Dark Knight with a Flash Pass person working, they cutoff the line so you aren't stuck in that room with the little tv in it. They also allow less people in that area that is past the tv, so usually you aren't waiting 20 minutes in just the "box" area. You are mostly waiting in the theater area (which has all those switchbacks). They used to use the preshow room as a caged off area type of room. So, it's theater (with all switchbacks), than you went into the preshow room (which has the little tv), and than you went into the "box" area.

The preshow room area got boring after awhile seeing the same thing over and over again if you rode the ride alot. Some people would even just try to sneak out of the preshow room while it was going on while other people towards the end would talk, and other people couldn't hear it, or they would just act goofy. With it being dark in there, I wouldn't be surprised if some people were even stealing things. Also, the preshow room made people lose their spot in line a lot of times. The people that were closer to the door would get out of the room first - sort of like they were cutting in line. The preshow room also was bad when the ride just opened for the day, and it was bad when the ride was closing for the day. You were stuck watching the preshow room while the trains were cycling through. So, if there was no line, it didn't matter. You still wasted 5 min of preshow time.

I think the reason why NOW they bought that little tv (instead of that screen) is because the projector started getting bad. I sort of remember a yellow line on the screen from that.

The 2 things I see that aren't kept up is that the floor is really dirty in there (the theater area), and those tvs where it says something like GCR Control Center aren't working anymore. I have to wonder if 1 or more than 1 of those tvs got bad, and thus they don't want to spend the money to pay for new ones. Those are the newer tvs that don't last as much as the older ones do.

The way the line is, I really think they should play music in the "box" area (after preshow room). They should play some Batman music. I know Batman the Ride has Batman music, but it doesn't hurt for both of them to have it. Batman has 2 newer movies already, so they could think of something. This is instead of "Your train will be moving..." spiel that is such a waste when waiting 20 minutes in that area. Sure, have ONE speaker say that after the camera with clowns, but not all those speakers.

[FParker185]

nice TR and glad you liked SFGAm. About the flash pass thing, if you look at it another way, this is how I see it and it's one of the reasons I like operations at SFGAm. Flash Pass of course makes the park money, they could easily have closed a coaster or 2 along with a bunch of flats to get the staffing to staff Flash Pass, and everyone who paid full price (or even discounted price) to get in would suffer, rather than do that and make a few extra bucks, they kept as many rides open as possible. It may not be ideal, but I think it's one of the things that keeps SFGAm, if nothing else, at least one of the best operated SF parks.

[DejaVu2001]

^ The two really aren't connected. I've never seen or heard of Flash Pass employees being trained to run rides. I've seen a few people in admissions, and on really bad days Security running rides. I don't think they would ever train Flash Pass employees on rides though because they aren't really Six Flags employees.

[Ilovthevu']

^^I really think the reason why they didn't have Flash Pass that day is because they probably didn't feel like they would get a huge profit from it with so many buses.

[CoasterDemon]

I thought the main reason Flash Pass exists at SF parks is so they can capitalize on their poor operations? The benefit of allowing some people to pay to cut, and not having to wait in line, was just a product of the operation. The one they say "it's a service we offer." I have a funny feeling I may be getting off topic, again

[Ilovthevu']

^As we talked about before, I think a lot of it has to do with saving money. Someone said that Raging Bull won't have it's train till June, and that probably stems from how many people they have working on X-Flight. They need at least 5 people plus they have that person that says go to the left, or go to the right (Personally, I don't think that person is needed). As it stands, it's at least 6 people, so they probably figure in their budget, let's not run Raging Bull with 3 trains to save some money on employees to run X-Flight. On top of that, last time they had 3 security out front. That's 9 people all of a sudden not including supervisors for ONE ride.

You can look at a lot of flats in the park, and they aren't staffing 2 people; in order to save money. Basically, rides that are "forced" to have 2 people they have such as a ride like Condor (They need 2 people because you have the big tower - big obstruction- in the way to see the other side of the ride) or Sky Trek Tower, but something like Ricochet, Triple Play, Chubasco, East River Crawler, Hometown Fun Machine, Fiddler's Fling, etc they only having 1 person.

[CoasterDemon]

^The big guys gotta have their 6 digit salaries I guess

[Stoogie]

Big corporate America. Sigh. Don't get me wrong, I pay big bucks to go to parks and it's too bad they can't get the staffing that is needed for the flash pass program. Me personally, don't believe in the pay to cut syndicate and never will. I pay to go to the park to have fun and part of that for me is people watching...watching all the nice rich people pay to cut. Makes me sick.

[w00dland]

^As we talked about before, I think a lot of it has to do with saving money. Someone said that Raging Bull won't have it's train till June, and that probably stems from how many people they have working on X-Flight. They need at least 5 people plus they have that person that says go to the left, or go to the right (Personally, I don't think that person is needed). As it stands, it's at least 6 people, so they probably figure in their budget, let's not run Raging Bull with 3 trains to save some money on employees to run X-Flight. On top of that, last time they had 3 security out front. That's 9 people all of a sudden not including supervisors for ONE ride.

You can look at a lot of flats in the park, and they aren't staffing 2 people; in order to save money. Basically, rides that are "forced" to have 2 people they have such as a ride like Condor (They need 2 people because you have the big tower - big obstruction- in the way to see the other side of the ride) or Sky Trek Tower, but something like Ricochet, Triple Play, Chubasco, East River Crawler, Hometown Fun Machine, Fiddler's Fling, etc they only having 1 person.

Yep, pretty much right on.

Also - assume that it took a lot of maintenance hours to get X-Flight up and running well for an on time opening to the public. A third train on bull can wait until June 1st if you don't have the staff to run it anyway. A 2nd train on Superman needs to happen, but not as much as a new coaster needs to happen, etc. Priorities change daily in a theme park's operations.

[Corkscrew07]

^The big guys gotta have their 6 digit salaries I guess

The "Big Guys" you speak of have absolutely no idea that the Flash Pass was not run on this day. I don't know you as a person, but this statement is naive.

[tweak89]

I pay to go to the park to have fun and part of that for me is people watching...watching all the nice rich people pay to cut. Makes me sick.

It's funny how people assume it's "for the rich". I'm far from rich, but if paying for some type of fast pass ensures that I get to ride 15 rides as opposed to 6, especially at a park that I will probably not come back too, you can bet I'll do it.

Anyway, to get back on track/topic, I forgot to add that the Roaring Rapids was one of the few river rides where you actually get SOAKED !! It was a little chilly, but it was fun. It was also the first time we have ever seen people wearing life vests on this type of ride. Was there some sort of incident, or is it common for folks to use them?

Some Pics:

[Ilovthevu']

^Not that I ever heard of (for Roaring Rapids at SFGAm). At SFOT though, one of the boats capsized, and one person died (It's Intamin. What do you expect?). Than, at that time I really think that the Roaring Rapids rides started having the water being less filled up to the top because of that. At least our park, I think our water levels are lower because of that accident. That's been a number of years since that happened though.

I don't really know why now about the vests though.. I know that the workers when they were retrieving the rafts from the small pond would wear them.

[FParker185]

One dead, 10 more injured, pretty much the same thing happened at a few other parks also resulting in deaths, most rapids rides had a bunch of underwater features removed and generally the water level raised slightly to keep the front lip of the raft from catching on the bottom.

Has nothing to do with the lifevests though, they have always been there and used, they are optional for anyone who can't swim and wants to use it.

[Ilovthevu']

^Hmmm. That's probably why the waves aren't as good as they used to be. I always thought that they put less water in there. Instead, what you are saying is that they put more water, and less rapids parts. If anyone doesn't know how Roaring Rapids makes the rapids, they have these big metal pipes in the river, and the water goes over them to make the rapids. Imagine a tree without branches, and let's say they put them in the trough of Roaring Rapids (horizontal). That's sort of how it looks, but these are metal or some other material (pvc maybe, I don't know) instead of wood.