Another SFGAm Rant via TPR

[DejaVu2001]

the floats looked old and sad.

They are old. Look familiar?

[untalented893]

Of all the parks I've been to, SFGAm ranks somewhere in the bottom 25% in terms of staff engagement in my opinion. They aren't the worst (SFMM wins that title) but the park really doesn't compare with many of the other parks out there. I just spent the weekend at Cedar Point for the first time in four years and was blown away by their Operations (minus the whole Skyhawk thing...) Lines were flying, all coasters opened on time and were run with their full complement of trains, employees were doing their jobs efficiently and that goes a long way. Perhaps most importantly were the staffing levels - CP just does it right in terms of how many people run the rides and the lines on their major rides.

Cedar Point is a great example of a park that shows hustle with everything. They kind of have to be though with the volume of people they have in their park. It really all just comes down to what a park or chain's priorities are. Cedar Point is more about making positive experiences to establish repeat customers. Six Flags (at least our park) has the benefit of no real competitors in the area so they can really let certain areas slack to save some money. I honestly have no idea how SFGAm treats their employees, but I'm willing to bet they pay minimum wage to nearly all staff. That being said I'd be slow and rude too. You're on your feet all day in the hot sun and you literally could not make less at any other job. I went to CP last year and noticed that Magnum had a ribbon hanging near their operator's booth that said fastest crew of the week. I saw several other places like food stands, flat rides, etc with similar ribbons in different categories (friendliest, best appearance, etc). While this is very simple, it shows that the crew's hard work isn't going unnoticed and keeps staff motivated. But again, different priorities.

EDIT: They also do a great job of filling all or most of the seats on each cycle. Just last Sunday there were a couple of trains I noticed go with a full operational row go empty. This is their newest ride with the most staff and they couldn't get 2 people to fill this row? The saddest part is that there was a grouper there too....

[DeathbyDinn]

^ Great America has a similar thing to the ribbons. The crew of the week will have a plush cow somewhere in the station. Also on Monday I saw Dameon and a few ride ops in cow vests with a big sign that I think said crew of the week parade? Not entirely sure because they were packing up when I walk past, but the park does recognize good crews.

I will agree that Cedar Fair workers tend to be better than ours, but at the same time I payed twice as much for my KI pass, and it only gets me into one park. Food seemed more expensive too. ($8 for ice cream compared to $5.69 at GAm's Coldstone.) So like all things, ya pay more, ya get more.

[tribar]

Of all the parks I've been to, SFGAm ranks somewhere in the bottom 25% in terms of staff engagement in my opinion. They aren't the worst (SFMM wins that title) but the park really doesn't compare with many of the other parks out there. I just spent the weekend at Cedar Point for the first time in four years and was blown away by their Operations (minus the whole Skyhawk thing...) Lines were flying, all coasters opened on time and were run with their full complement of trains, employees were doing their jobs efficiently and that goes a long way. Perhaps most importantly were the staffing levels - CP just does it right in terms of how many people run the rides and the lines on their major rides.

Cedar Point is a great example of a park that shows hustle with everything. They kind of have to be though with the volume of people they have in their park. It really all just comes down to what a park or chain's priorities are. Cedar Point is more about making positive experiences to establish repeat customers. Six Flags (at least our park) has the benefit of no real competitors in the area so they can really let certain areas slack to save some money. I honestly have no idea how SFGAm treats their employees, but I'm willing to bet they pay minimum wage to nearly all staff. That being said I'd be slow and rude too. You're on your feet all day in the hot sun and you literally could not make less at any other job. I went to CP last year and noticed that Magnum had a ribbon hanging near their operator's booth that said fastest crew of the week. I saw several other places like food stands, flat rides, etc with similar ribbons in different categories (friendliest, best appearance, etc). While this is very simple, it shows that the crew's hard work isn't going unnoticed and keeps staff motivated. But again, different priorities.

EDIT: They also do a great job of filling all or most of the seats on each cycle. Just last Sunday there were a couple of trains I noticed go with a full operational row go empty. This is their newest ride with the most staff and they couldn't get 2 people to fill this row? The saddest part is that there was a grouper there too....

I've heard they get paid LESS than min wage, possible $7.75 an hour? I'm not sure on that though.

[DeathbyDinn]

^ There's a lot of exceptions to minimum wage, like seasonal operations, workers under 18, training periods, etc...

Since most jobs at the park only last up to six months, and it's not seen as a job someone would take to make a living, it wouldn't surprise me if they're allowed to pay below minimum wage. It's something I'm sure a lot of parks do. I remember the buffet at Cedar Point had a sign on the table asking for tips since the waiters only get paid like $3 an hour.

[Foltzy]

With a long line for the bus (You'll understand) right now. I'll post this

I'm currently in disney world on my 4th out of 5 days.
The staff here are crazy. Like seriously. They all point with 2 fingers because one is rude. They smile 24/7. And they are too happy it seems like.
While this is nice trying to help your vacation. Having been here as much as I have (15th time). It's nice but it gets old. Like one snotty cast member would be fine. Oh and the small world cast make me go crazy.

And the guest relations are really helpful. Someone in my party lost their glasses cause a get closed on them in pirates of Caribbean so disney paid for the new ones and gave us a one day pass. Then another person in my party got a piece of firework glitter in their eye. (A hour and a half ER Trip at night was required). So they paid the bill and we got another pass with park hopper and some money.

Overall. Disney cast is really nice and helpful, and that is great. But maybe just a little. And by little it's little

[RollingCoasting]

He also posted this now

[Tardis1972]

The Customer service and SFOG was really good.
Hherschel what happen. I have a regular season pass, So I was going to bring it with me, but I forgot it at home. They couldn't find my pass record on the computer, so in the end they let me in for free. I got to walk theough the the ticket bu building place to enter the park. That's great customer service. So not every six flags park

[RollingCoasting]

^ How was the Georgia Scorcher? Curious because I hear that it's the most enjoyable stand-up

[Tardis1972]

^ How was the Georgia Scorcher? Curious because I hear that it's the most enjoyable stand-up

Very smooth. Easliy my favorite stand up coaster. I've only ridden IW, mantis and GS.

[Sporlo]

^ How was the Georgia Scorcher? Curious because I hear that it's the most enjoyable stand-up

Very smooth. Easliy my favorite stand up coaster. I've only ridden IW, mantis and GS.

Just listening to the thing will tell you how smooth it is. That's incredible for a stand up, and it's 15 years old! http://youtu.be/iLhz30dw-wE

[coasterkid94]

As a former SFGAm ride op, I want to chime in here with my two cents:

Management is incredibly strict when it comes to safety. Basically it's two strikes and you're out: your first safety violation results in you being sent home early, your second violation leads to an automatic indefinite "suspension," which is essentially the same as being fired. If a guest 1/nth inches too short is allowed on a ride and a lead or supervisor becomes aware of this, multiple ride ops could get in serious trouble.

It's easy to think "Oh, this never happens" –– but it does. I have witnessed multiple instances where a supervisor height checked a child after his/her ride to see is he/she met the minimum. In at least one of these cases it's resulted in an operator receiving a safety violation.

[Sporlo]

As a former SFGAm ride op, I want to chime in here with my two cents:

Management is incredibly strict when it comes to safety. Basically it's two strikes and you're out: your first safety violation results in you being sent home early, your second violation leads to an automatic indefinite "suspension," which is essentially the same as being fired. If a guest 1/nth inches too short is allowed on a ride and a lead or supervisor becomes aware of this, multiple ride ops could get in serious trouble.

It's easy to think "Oh, this never happens" –– but it does. I have witnessed multiple instances where a supervisor height checked a child after his/her ride to see is he/she met the minimum. In at least one of these cases it's resulted in an operator receiving a safety violation.

Last time I visited, the ops let a tiny kid on Superman. I think they may have just measured the person, but let them ride even though they were too short.

[DejaVu2001]

Still going. I'd love to see this letter, but something tells me Robb won't post it because he probably looks as bad or worse in his actions

[sfgam-fan]

Why would the park president send him a letter before his visit?

[Muck Finnesota]

He also posted this now

Still going. I'd love to see this letter, but something tells me Robb won't post it because he probably looks as bad or worse in his actions

So, since the initial twitter-whine (twhining?) doesn't generate much of a reaction outside of the few predictable parrots, I guess you should come back a few days later to beat a dead horse. I wasn't there so I'm purely speculating, but could some of the alleged brisk attitude from park employees have stemmed from cameras either being used (by him or more likely someone in his party) or being out in the open (implying that they could use them) as a sort of intimidation tactic while this was playing out?

As I said, pure speculation, but there are many stories of this guy throwing hissy fits and shitting on a park and it's employees if he doesn't get something he wants (be it ERT, interactive queue/front of line passes, etc.).
There is nothing wrong with taking issue with less than great service (if that's what you expect and care about), and I mentioned initially that his was a valid complaint initially, but the infantile insistence on dragging a dead issue when no one cares makes it pretty clear that he's just badly butthurt..

[tp41190]

He has always been this way.

During his ACE days, he would throw fits with the park didn't allow him to film. He was told to leave ACE once he was caught filming during ERT sessions. Now he always makes fun of ACErs being fat when he is like 300 lbs himself. He was ALL about ACE, and then a total 360.

When he was kicked out of Cedar Fair parks in the early 2000s, he would always talk down about Knott’s and then make random references when going to other parks. I believe that came about from him positing his Cedar Point 2003 video, which contained a POV of every coaster including TTD. Back when that ride opened, Cedar Fair was hard core about cameras. He took the video off of his site and off of the DVD. When asked about it he said “the video was never very popular, and I thought that the editing quality was bad overall”.

In this case I’m sure he was told he was not allowed to have ERT. That is most likely why got a letter from Hank ahead of time.

[kenfandell]

I like Robb Alvey, really I do, but I like Elissa way better!

[tribar]

I hate to say it but I agree with Robb to a point. SFGAm has really gone downhill the past couple years. Mean, lazy and clueless employees, bad operations, long lines for rides, food and park entrance (it should never take an hour to get into the park; it shouldn't even take 10 minutes for that matter), and Eagle and Viper seem to be a lot rougher over the past few years.

That being said at least the operations aren't as bad as Mt Olympus. And I agree Robb can be a big baby and it's time to find something else to talk about it.

[FParker185]

Well Elissa does that that ore-pubecant boy charm to him, I mean her, but yeah, SFGAm isn't what it used to be. I mean last time I visited the park I didn't even get a letter from the park president at all. Show's where our park has gone!

[BBH]

I wonder what was so obnoxious about the letter. "Hi, you asked for ERT and we made no guarantee of it, so we can't fit it into our operating schedule." If that's the case, then it's a mixed bag of "lazy planning by the park" and "visit at your own risk of not getting everything."

I've noticed this season especially how downhill SFGAm has gone, but nothing on the level of this.

[tp41190]

I would just like to throw in how upset I am by learning how early they close the park in August. 8pm on a summer day?! And 7pm on a summer Fridays?! Seriously, WTF. I got to the gate right before I found out they closed, and the parking lot was still totally full.

[Cryptkeeper]

I was also really surprised the park closed at 8pm when my group was at the park earlier this week. People sure weren't leaving early!

Since we're on the topic of ranting, I must say that I saw the worst park operations that I've ever seen at Raging Bull on my last trip to the park. Raging Bull was running 3 trains during my group's one visit in line, but w/out exaggerating, they could have been running 1 train the *entire* time I was in line and the line would be moving at almost the same rate as it did with three. It was so bad that even others in the line near us were starting to complain about it. It was the slowest moving line that our group waited in all day, yet, ironically, w/ 3 trains, it should be the fastest moving line. I know people often say Bull's crew is bad, but are they usually this bad? If so, why does no one in operations actually care and send the crew to a kid's ride or somewhere where their inefficient nature won't hurt as much as it does at Bull? And, if they don't fix the problem, if park operations has basically given up, then why don't they just run one train to save on maintenance costs? (Perhaps the reason Eagle red was closed that same day...on a busy day at the park...ugh).

Also, is it standard operating procedure to fill 2 or 3 of the 6 cars on Giant Drop (every cycle) with flash-pass folks? I never noticed that before until last trip, and that made the line twice as long as it should be.

I seemed to notice more flash pass people then I had ever seen before. It could be that I usually don't go on super busy days, or it could be that they're now selling more flash passes.

On the positive side, employees were relatively friendly and the park was pretty clean.

[Chitown]

The only thinking I can come up with is that they are having longer operating hours for Fright Fest. Being open until midnight on Fright Fest Saturdays is a first for the park.

[Viper 88]

God it seems like maybe missing out on going at all this year might not be such a bad thing especially if operations are like this. They had better watch it people will get fed up with the BS. They'll make the drive to CP and even SFSTL and Silver Dollar City. I can't believe its taking an hour just to get into the park. This is precisely why I buy my tickets ahead of time and I always have my bag open for search.