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Six Flags Darien Lake (SFDL) Discussion Thread


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one of my friends was showing me the season's pass options and a full season's pass to Wonderland with all the options was like $500

Unless you are including the ALL SEASON FASTLANE (which is $499 Canadian) I have no clue where you are getting that number from. Even if you bought the pass right now (this late in the season without the free perks / free parking and cheaper prices your would normally get) with all the unlimited meal, drink, parking and FunPix options it would cost $370.42 Canadian ($278 American)

 

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Those other options would cost extra at other parks too above the season pass price. The meal plan at Darien Lake only gives you one meal a day, refills cost $, etc.

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use next year as the transition year to fix the park up, staff the park adequately, and fix everything that is run down such as buildings and structures and just overall work on the guest experience instead of putting in another ride. 2 trains on all coasters when the park is at peak capacity. They need to do what they have to do to make this happen, 2 train operation on coasters, fix the buildings, fix the viper station, fix the run down mini golf or tear it out, and fix the gum wall. The GP absolutely DOES notice 2 train operations. The park should be able to function without 2-3 hour lines on a peak day. Lines should be minimum 45min-1hour on a peak day.

 

edit: her. Sorry, I assume all enthusiasts are dudes because 99% of the time they are. lol

 

"Adequate staffing", " Fixing run down buildings", "Fixing Gum Walls", "zero tolerance for one train ops on busy days"??? You know what company bought this place right?

Edited by coasterbill
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I'm going to Darien Lake later this week for a few hours one morning and am kind of looking forward to it based on the fact that I have absolutely no idea what to expect. Seems like typical reviews range from "awful" to "not as bad as people say" so we'll see, should be interesting. As long as I can get a few rides on ROS and the new Eurofighter I'll be happy, the Arrow and the woodie will hopefully be pleasant surprises, the SLC and maybe the Boomerang depend on how my hangover from the night before feels........so chances are I'm sitting those out .

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Darien Lake is a nice little small / mid-market park with an insane fan base that has no grasp of reality which is why there are so many complaints about it. If you go into this park with realistic expectations then you'll have a great time. The Arrow wasn't bad, Ride of Steel is great, Motocoaster is fun, Predator sucks but the Mean Streak trick (front seat, lean forward) works wonders. Iron Shark is fun, I'm sure this is too.

 

Ride Moose on the Loose.

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Darien Lake is a nice little small / mid-market park with an insane fan base that has no grasp on reality. If you go into this park with realistic expectations then you'll have a great time. The Arrow wasn't bad, Ride of Steel is great, Motocoaster is fun, Predator sucks but the Mean Streak trick (front seat, lean forward) works wonders.

 

Ride Moose on the Loose.

 

That's pretty much my plan, but Is doing all of that in about 3 hours at opening on a Friday morning conceivable? I'm gonna be at a wedding about 45 minutes south of the park and plan on sneaking away while the wife doing all her bridesmaids stuff that morning, hopefully make it back just in time for the vows and the cocktail hour .

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I believe they had all the dining plans, parking and fastpasses/fast lane added, it was somewhere between 400-500 Canadian. Was also last year's numbers.

 

If you go when the park is not extremely crowded you will have a good time, the park falls apart when the crowds get insane and you won't have a good time. This goes for well, most other theme parks out there as well except that some can handle crowds a bit better. My suggestion is to go on a weekday during peak season, avoid the week of kingdom bound obviously and try to avoid going on a day when one of the most popular concerts is being held. We are right upon peak season so this is a great time to visit as you won't hit the staffing cuts that happen when the kids go back to school in August and the park is not in the first few weeks of opening lull when everything is not quite up and running yet. The complaints come from one train operations which mostly affects days when the park has insane crowds and some of the buildings and things that haven't been quite fixed up to the standards of other parks.

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I don't consider Canada's Wonderland to really be an option for those in WNY as its quite far away and you have to drive through Canada to get to it.

FWIW, when I was in my hotel room in Toronto and turned on the TV, I saw commercials for Darien Lake, and no commercials for Canada's Wonderland.

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I don't consider Canada's Wonderland to really be an option for those in WNY as its quite far away and you have to drive through Canada to get to it.

 

 

Is going to Canada really a problem for most WNY’ers? I feel like most people with kids/adventurists who would even contemplate going to another park can and already do go to Canada quite often.

 

I also wouldn’t call two-two and a half hours far away. I think it’s fair to say Canada’s Wonderland is Darien’s regional competitor, or at least where standards and targets should be set.

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I guess enough people here have the border crossing stuff these days, its basically required anyways, but its still pretty far away from Darien Lake. Some people do take theme park trips so its not unusual but most people in my area probably wouldn't travel there. I don't see Marineland ads anymore here in Niagara Falls NY. I could see people going from WNY to Cedar Point more than going to CW.

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I guess enough people here have the border crossing stuff these days, its basically required anyways, but its still pretty far away from Darien Lake. Some people do take theme park trips so its not unusual but most people in my area probably wouldn't travel there. I don't see Marineland ads anymore here in Niagara Falls NY. I could see people going from WNY to Cedar Point more than going to CW.

 

As a Wesern New Yorker whom has a season pass for Darien Lake as well as a Platinum Pass with all season FunPix I can say that I have been to wonderland more than Darien Lake this year so far. It’s not insanely far away. Darien is about 45 minutes away from me, and depending on the border I can get to Wonderland in about an hour and a half. The extra 45 minutes is incredibly worth it for a park with 16 coasters, a bunch of unique and fun flat rides, and a world class atmosphere curtosey of Cedar Fair. I paid for my platinum pass monthly from August to January so by the time the season began I didn’t even have to worry about admission prices anymore. Thanks to the current exchange rate as well as 15% off of purchases within CW, I don’t think for me a meal plan is all that worth it and I’m totally fine with the reduced cost for things at the park. I ate at the buffet it midevil faire for $15. I can’t complain for that price. Nor am I upset with a $6 bevertail. Canada’s Wonderland is far from what I’d consider expensive - I know of a certain World in Florida tan by a mouse that charges $900 Plus for their annual pass and that’s the baseline product they sell. I just spent well over $1,000 for a budget trip to WDW where as I spent less than $100 for gas, food and merchandise on my last two trips to Wonderland combined. For what it’s worth Darien Lake has become more of a “there’s nothing better to do so let’s go to the park” place for me and my family - and that’s totally fine. We still visit upwards of 10 times a year and as long as they have a laser show they’ve got me from whenever I arrive until the park closes. Cedar Point, though freaking awesome isn’t as easy to just get up and go to as DL and CW are for most people in WNY. Sure, for people with Platinum Passes it’s totally worth a drive a couple times a year, but it’s not (for most people) an easily accessible park. You’d be surprised how many people have the ability to cross the border nowadays especially in the Buffalo area. With it being so close a bunch of WNY folk travel up there all the time. My main point in this whole spiel is that CW isn’t as impossible or expensive as some may think. And though Darien Lake isn’t awful, and it has a lot going for it, I wouldn’t say that there’s no alternatives nearby that aren’t reasonable because depending on what you purchase, that’s just not the case. You don’t need a fully loaded pass to have fun at CW, or any park for that matter. It’s just a fun perk that people can have if they want it.

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I don't consider Canada's Wonderland to really be an option for those in WNY as its quite far away and you have to drive through Canada to get to it.

 

 

Is going to Canada really a problem for most WNY’ers? I feel like most people with kids/adventurists who would even contemplate going to another park can and already do go to Canada quite often.

 

I also wouldn’t call two-two and a half hours far away. I think it’s fair to say Canada’s Wonderland is Darien’s regional competitor, or at least where standards and targets should be set.

 

It can be, I remember when we went to CW in 05 and it took us 5 hours to get there due to the border and Toronto's awful traffic.

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Darien is about 45 minutes away from me, and depending on the border I can get to Wonderland in about an hour and a half.

 

If it takes you 45 minutes to get to Darien from Depew, youre doing it wrong. Very, very wrong. And if it takes you an hour and a half to get to CW, youre speeding and not hitting any traffic.

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I don't consider Canada's Wonderland to really be an option for those in WNY as its quite far away and you have to drive through Canada to get to it.

 

 

Is going to Canada really a problem for most WNY’ers? I feel like most people with kids/adventurists who would even contemplate going to another park can and already do go to Canada quite often.

 

I also wouldn’t call two-two and a half hours far away. I think it’s fair to say Canada’s Wonderland is Darien’s regional competitor, or at least where standards and targets should be set.

 

It can be, I remember when we went to CW in 05 and it took us 5 hours to get there due to the border and Toronto's awful traffic.

 

Yeah I was kind of basing my initial assumption on the fact that the one time I went to toronto it took us over 4 hours to get there, and its about what, 4-6 hours to CP from WNY, so I just assumed that anyone willing to travel to CW is probably also willing to travel the distance to CP. Again travel time to destinations in Canada varies heavily on your timing and it can also be very random, you could be stuck in hours long traffic at the border depending on which border crossing you use or else you could have a border crossing experience where it takes you less than 5 min. I saw on the news that the 401 in Toronto is one of the most busy highways in the whole world which I assume you need to use it to get to CW so there is that to contend with. Several times I went to DL I met people who have been to CW who preferred DL because it wasn't as crowded. I wonder how long it takes by bus, I think you can get a bus from the Niagara area for around $30 to Toronto.

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Honestly, for me, Wonderland is definitely worth visiting, even without any passes for Cedar Fair parks. I live up near the falls, so it can take up to an hour to make it to Darien, and CW is just under 2 hours. The time difference is minimal compared to the difference in the quality of the product you are getting. I take a yearly trip up to Wonderland, and since I have gotten so used to DL’s crappy park operations, Wonderlands operations seem amazing to me. Consistently seeing two or three trains running, no constant breakdowns, good upkeep of the property (rides and buildings), and and overall more modern feel are all things you cannot get at Darien anymore. Also, the biggest piece of why CW is worth the extra drive is the amazing collection of rides, mainly flat rides, but the coaster collection isn’t horrible, seriously, it can’t get worse than Darien, so anything seems nice to me. But the flat Ride collection there is so unique and extensive, and it is another experience not possible at Darien Lake.

 

Overall, even though CW is much further that DL is, I think saying WNYers don’t commonly visit the park is totally false, as many will pay visits commonly as they want to experience REAL operations from a theme park that isn’t full of cheap owners like Darien’s situation. Darien Lake is great and all, but sometimes we need a break from the “why not take a visit” park, and experience a true theme park.

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Darien is about 45 minutes away from me, and depending on the border I can get to Wonderland in about an hour and a half.

 

If it takes you 45 minutes to get to Darien from Depew, youre doing it wrong. Very, very wrong. And if it takes you an hour and a half to get to CW, youre speeding and not hitting any traffic.

 

It does actually take 30 minutes almost exactly from my location to get to Darien Lake, but I added the extra 15 because almost always I’m picking up other people and usually start venturing to Darien Lake from farther east -making the travel time indeed about 45 minutes, thanks to the wonderful out of sync traffic lights in the area (I swear if it’s not Genesse, the lights are never in sync anywhere and that can add so much time to a commute). Also with Wonderland it does depend, last time I got there in an hour and 50 minutes due to fighting with the GPS to avoid the ETR/407 because it can get pricey if you aren’t subscribed to it (or however that service works) it initially said my time from home to Wonderland would be 2:00 hours, then it dropped to 1:15 after the border and by the time we got to the 407 situation it added 26 minutes to my travel time because it kept taking me to 407 entrances and I kept driving away from them. The time prior, traffic was almost non-existent so it did take about an hour and a half to get to the entrance right across from the 400. My favorite part of traveling there is watching the time drop by easily 30 minutes when I cross over the border in 5 minutes or less - yes, there are times when that is possible. It is worth noting; your mileage and results may vary, friends. An hour and a half is a lot more accurate than 4-6 hours. As is stating a Platinum Pass with season long FunPix is only $250 when you renew at the right time and that gives access to 11 parks instead of the one meh park a $70 or $80 season pass gets you at Darien Lake (or just add $20 per each six flags park to give the pass a little more value). There are people out there who would pay $500 or so for all the benefits at CW, but again, totally not required.

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I've said this before but it bears repeating- think of the 407 as your FastLane for Toronto traffic. Yes, it's pricey even if you have a transponder, but for me, it is absolutely worth it. On my last visit to CW in 2016, I left my house on the east side of Cleveland at 5:00 am and arrived at the Wonderland parking lot at 9:50 by using the 407 instead of the QEW/Gardiner/427 route suggested by my GPS. That included 2 quick washroom breaks, topping off gas in Angola, NY, and crossing the border (I have a NEXUS card to "FastLane" any border lines also... can you tell I am not a patient person?). If I would have taken the non-toll route, I'd probably still be sitting in stop and go traffic between Burlington and the 427.

 

If you can afford it (from the QEW starting point of 407 to the 400, the rate is $31.84 CAD without a transponder), I say it's one of the best ways of getting to areas north and east of downtown Toronto.

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It takes me probably 45 min to an hour to get to Darien lake from the Falls, I do think a lot of people go to DL just because well, they don't know any better and its the closest big park in the area and their kids beg to go there. Keep in mind most of the visitors are not coaster enthusiasts so they don't really care what the rides are, a lot of WNYer's who only visit DL once a summer haven't been to other parks so they don't know how much of a difference 2 train operation makes when in reality it makes a huge difference. Those who have been to a park with 2 train operation will notice the difference immediately and I have heard non-enthusiasts comment about the operations so people do notice that. I did look at what CW has and it seems to be very worth it especially if you like higher intensity flat rides.

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Darien is about 45 minutes away from me, and depending on the border I can get to Wonderland in about an hour and a half.

 

If it takes you 45 minutes to get to Darien from Depew, youre doing it wrong. Very, very wrong. And if it takes you an hour and a half to get to CW, youre speeding and not hitting any traffic.

 

It does actually take 30 minutes almost exactly from my location to get to Darien Lake, but I added the extra 15 because almost always I’m picking up other people and usually start venturing to Darien Lake from farther east -making the travel time indeed about 45 minutes, thanks to the wonderful out of sync traffic lights in the area (I swear if it’s not Genesse, the lights are never in sync anywhere and that can add so much time to a commute). Also with Wonderland it does depend, last time I got there in an hour and 50 minutes due to fighting with the GPS to avoid the ETR/407 because it can get pricey if you aren’t subscribed to it (or however that service works) it initially said my time from home to Wonderland would be 2:00 hours, then it dropped to 1:15 after the border and by the time we got to the 407 situation it added 26 minutes to my travel time because it kept taking me to 407 entrances and I kept driving away from them. The time prior, traffic was almost non-existent so it did take about an hour and a half to get to the entrance right across from the 400. My favorite part of traveling there is watching the time drop by easily 30 minutes when I cross over the border in 5 minutes or less - yes, there are times when that is possible. It is worth noting; your mileage and results may vary, friends. An hour and a half is a lot more accurate than 4-6 hours. As is stating a Platinum Pass with season long FunPix is only $250 when you renew at the right time and that gives access to 11 parks instead of the one meh park a $70 or $80 season pass gets you at Darien Lake (or just add $20 per each six flags park to give the pass a little more value). There are people out there who would pay $500 or so for all the benefits at CW, but again, totally not required.

 

You should learn the back route... saves a lot of hassle. I can get there in 15-20 mins from Walden/Central area.

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The Walden/Central area is a bit further out than where I am. Plus I don’t mind driving straight down Walden and turning onto the 77. Past Pavement there’s what, 3 traffic signals? Including the one for the 77 I believe. From time to time I may also take Broadway all the way down, it just depends on where I’m coming from. The Walden/Central area is typically 5-10 minutes from my place as it is so 20 minutes from there isn’t all that much faster - and I live off of Walden.

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The Walden/Central area is a bit further out than where I am. Plus I don’t mind driving straight down Walden and turning onto the 77. Past Pavement there’s what, 3 traffic signals? Including the one for the 77 I believe. From time to time I may also take Broadway all the way down, it just depends on where I’m coming from. The Walden/Central area is typically 5-10 minutes from my place as it is so 20 minutes from there isn’t all that much faster - and I live off of Walden.

 

Make a right at Wende Correctional. Follow that and it turns into Sumner and goes to 77 right next to the entrance. Never has any traffic.

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Since we are talking about Canada's Wonderland on the Darien Lake thread, I thought I might ad my opinions. I am from Toronto and I am less than half an hour from Wonderland. I have a season pass, so I have never bought a fast pass for Wonderland. Fast pass is unnecessary at Wonderland when you have a season pass. So, IMO, I have to say that I, and my entire family, have always preferred Darien Lake to Wonderland. The reason is that at Darien Lake, you can actually get on some rides. Lines at Wonderland are ALWAYS ridiculous now. About 10 years ago they really built a tremendous amount of housing, very near the park, and within walking distance. It doesn't matter when you go now, it will always be packed. You might get on a couple of the lesser rides, but even our old-fashioned cars has a huge line. The atmosphere at Darien Lake is far above Wonderland's. As soon as my family enters DL, until the last minute we leave, is absolutely beautiful. When we leave Darien Lake, we immediately want to return. We don't get that felling at Wonderland. You all should feel very lucky for having a beautiful park like Darien Lake. As for Six Flags taking it over again, I think some of you have forgotten what Six Flags did to DL the last time they owned it. If it were up to me, I would leave the names of the rides as they are right now. Dl's rides don't need to be called by super hero names. That totally destroys the atmosphere and it really makes the park seem a lot cheesier than it needs to be. Leave things as they are, Six Flags. Darien Lake is an awesome park! Canadians love DL as it is right now, although it is VERY expensive right now with the exchange, but we will be back. I just hope Sis Flags doesn't run it inti the ground again after 10 years of successful rebuilding.

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I have a season pass, so I have never bought a fast pass for Wonderland. Fast pass is unnecessary at Wonderland when you have a season pass. So, IMO, I have to say that I, and my entire family, have always preferred Darien Lake to Wonderland. The reason is that at Darien Lake, you can actually get on some rides. Lines at Wonderland are ALWAYS ridiculous now.

 

Lines are ridiculous and you can't get on anything so Fastlane is unnecessary? What?

 

The atmosphere at Darien Lake is far above Wonderland's. As soon as my family enters DL, until the last minute we leave, is absolutely beautiful.

 

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this one.

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