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Six Flags America (SFA) Discussion Thread


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Wild One is a great coaster but if you ride it in a wheel seat that thing can definitely bring the pain. Why anyone rides any 3 bench PTC coaster in a wheel seat is beyond me. I can probably count on one hand the 3 bench PTC coasters I've ridden that weren't significantly rougher in wheel seats.

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I live right outside Baltimore and I have such a love/hate relationship with this park its not funny. I went for the first time this season just to get my refillable cup so I can use at SFNE this weekend. This will be my last year getting a Six Flags Season pass. During my morning drive this morning I was actually running through in my head all the things wrong with this park.

 

The park itself is not bad at all. They try to take care of it as much as possible. The grounds are usually pretty clean which sounds small but its actually huge because when this park first became a Six Flags it was not taken care of at all in regards to trash everywhere. Now you will see managers out walking around picking trash up and some do try to interact with guests.

 

The overall feel of the park is lackluster and dated. Most of it just looks old and not taken care of. However, the guest that come to this park do not seem to care. Most of the people that come here live outside of DC in the worse off areas. So many of the buildings need a fresh coat of paint or some sort of remolding/fix.

 

The lack of having a behind scenes area bothers me. I hate how you can see all of the storage area behind Ragin Cajan. It just looks tacky in my opinion. When I am visiting the park in the summer I do not want to see Halloween and Christmas decorations laying all over the place back there. There is also lots of broken up rides, buildings, quick serve food stands, etc.

 

Mind Eraser needs a paint job bad. Actually lots of rides need a paint job bad within this park. The antique cars are pretty pathetic here at all. Where is the theming? Where is the amazing gardens that you could be driving through? Even a small park like Waldameer has impeccable gardens. When riding the swings I should not see skeletons laying on the roof of the theater next door. Why they never use all 3 sides of Voodoo Drop is beyond me. Every time I go 2 of the sides work and its never the same ones.

 

The customer service in this park sucks terribly. It has gotten better over the years but it still needs an improvement. Many of the employees are more focused on their social lives then checking restraints. They constantly are bickering and things over the microphones at the rides. It really should not take more then 5 minutes to get a train out of the station on almost every run through. When Superman had the VR it was terrible. It literally took anywhere from 10-20 to get each train out. The line was constantly 2-3 hours when they were doing VR. Now that Mind Eraser will have it I am sure it will make that line just as long.

 

The gleaming part of this park is the the wooden coasters - Roar and Wild One. Two of the best woodies in the area. Hopefully Roar will get the RMC treatment.

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Hopefully Roar will get the RMC treatment.

...you know what, nevermind.

 

So looking forward to riding ROAR in the cold again.

 

 

 

There are many things that could be done and they all seem so simple to fix. That's where the love/hate comes from. It's never going to look like Busch Gardens and I don't think if they spent a ton of money on landscaping and blocking backstage views it would ever counter the park's reputation.

 

I do have to admit that the antique car ride is one of the most WTF worst. However, they do have the Looney Tunes Prop House... it can get hot and smelly but where else can you load an air cannon with ball pit balls and destroy family members and stranger's kids? Seriously if you haven't been, its fun like they used to let us have when you could ride a bike without pads and a helmet on the main streets.

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Hopefully Roar will get the RMC treatment.

...you know what, nevermind.

 

So looking forward to riding ROAR in the cold again.

 

 

 

There are many things that could be done and they all seem so simple to fix. That's where the love/hate comes from. It's never going to look like Busch Gardens and I don't think if they spent a ton of money on landscaping and blocking backstage views it would ever counter the park's reputation.

 

I do have to admit that the antique car ride is one of the most WTF worst. However, they do have the Looney Tunes Prop House... it can get hot and smelly but where else can you load an air cannon with ball pit balls and destroy family members and stranger's kids? Seriously if you haven't been, its fun like they used to let us have when you could ride a bike without pads and a helmet on the main streets.

 

I'm with you BIG time on that (Roar was really awesome during FF & HITP) . . . and you never know, it could very well get the RMC treatment.

 

And one of my ideas for improving SFA is to . . . well make more use of the land they have available (and yeah, it don't look great seeing the boneyard behind Ragin Cajun). I for one would like to see a Dive Coaster come to SFA . . . maybe clear out the boneyard and build it there.

 

Or what about replacing the Gotham Arena (doesn't seem to get much use) with a Dark Ride.

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Yes, ROAR is a cold weather coaster. Always has been, but was better two-fold last year. That Gotham stage holds a lot of special events. It is going no where. I for one look forward to the BMX and body building show there.

 

Since we are talking maybes, I have been saying that we are getting a water coaster next year. V2 a close second. I will talk maybes again in a few months. Just want to get the 2017 ride going first.

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^ That is a A LOT of people for this park.

 

When I was there 5/20/17 that only reason it was crowded was because there was a music competition in DC that weekend so they all had tix to the park.

 

Hopefully Roar will get the RMC treatment.

...you know what, nevermind.

 

And what is this supposed to mean? Why can't roar get the treatment? Its sister did in Discovery Kingdom and that park looks better then ours but is run like ours.

 

The best run Six Flags that I have been to is SFNE. I will compare it this weekend to when I was there back in 2011.

 

Even though they have A LOT of coasters at this park they have nothing that is stellar anymore. Superman is fun but I can ride more fun rides at Busch Gardens, Kings Dominion, Hersheypark, Kennywood, Six Flags Great Adventure, and Knoebels - all within 4 hours of Six Flags America. Same goes for the woodies - You have to step up your game when you are so close to Knoebels and Kennywood. Both parks consistently have some of the top rated wooden coasters in the world. The rest are just blah here.

 

I just want to see them put some awesomeness in this park. Unfortunately, due to the clientele they do not need to. The people that go here eat up everything they already have. There are so many people that still rave about Superman. After I tell them about rides at the parks in the area they get quiet. The people that go to this park usually do not travel to the other local parks. Once I tell them Apocalypse and Ragin Cajan are used rides from Chicago they look baffled - most normal guest do not know they move rides around.

 

We all can sit here and say "the park needs this" or "the park needs" that. Unfortunately, unless we are on the management team at the park we have no idea what the park truly needs. Apparently something is being done right because Six Flags has not sold it off yet. I do know though the park may stay with them for a while due to the ground it sits on being worth so much money. Six Flags used to have a table every year at Baltimore Pride and I had an awesome conversation with two managers from the park a few years ago about this.

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Yes, ROAR is a cold weather coaster. Always has been, but was better two-fold last year. That Gotham stage holds a lot of special events. It is going no where. I for one look forward to the BMX and body building show there.

 

Since we are talking maybes, I have been saying that we are getting a water coaster next year. V2 a close second. I will talk maybes again in a few months. Just want to get the 2017 ride going first.

 

And the Gotham Arena also has cheerleading/dance/band competitions. But I do remember years ago, they had a Batman themed stunt show there, as well as concerts (it would be nice to have occasional concerts at the Gotham arena at SFA)

 

Hmm . . . a water coaster. I like that idea, but where to put it (I don't see them axing anything currently at HH . . . or maybe they'll expand it)

 

And V2 . . . an Impulse Coaster would be nice (It don't take up much space, it could easily be between Batwing and Superman)

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^

 

After I tell them about rides at the parks in the area they get quiet. The people that go to this park usually do not travel to the other local parks. Once I tell them Apocalypse and Ragin Cajan are used rides from Chicago they look baffled - most normal guest do not know they move rides around.

 

We all can sit here and say "the park needs this" or "the park needs" that. Unfortunately, unless we are on the management team at the park we have no idea what the park truly needs.

 

I guess that is just the point. Management knows they can relocate coasters and the GP is cool with it, if not psyched.

 

Something simple like that pathway from the Creek to SM would be missed by most and they couldn't advertise it. It would be tough to monetize it with stalls and the real need is another restroom that way. If they ran the path through some trees for some shade they could have section where people might think hey this is nice. Then you could tell them about those other parks.

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I went to the park today from 1:45pm - 4:45pm and the place was absolutely deserted. All park employees seemed in excellent moods, were all extremely nice (yet slow on most rides per usual, especially Superman) and the other park patrons were well behaved today which was great. Every single ride was a walk-on and in 3 hours we wore ourselves out. The band and dancers that played in the mardi gras area by the flyers were great and attracted quite a crowd in no time. I hate to say it but I thought that Roar was running better than Wild One - and I love Wild One and usually hate Roar, so who knows. Wonder Woman looks great and it'll be nice to have that main path open to get back to Superman and Batwing. Currently they have walls up with minimal signage saying to go around and through Whistlepunk kidsville. For anyone curious as to what you can bring with you into the park food wise: bottled water, fruit, and vegetables. Unfortunately for me, fruit snacks are still a no-go.

 

The park has come a long way in the last 10 years and especially in the last 5 years with cleaning up the place and making it a better experience. Even the shopping centers and housing areas around the park are getting built up and improved. Regarding the clientele mentioned in previous posts - I spend an enormous amount of time at Great Adventure and find the patrons at both parks to be similar yet there are minimal complaints in the SFGAdv thread about it. Every time SFA is mentioned the seedy area is first to be brought up which I hope goes the way of the dodo. Was it a bad place to be many years ago? YES. Should you start a fight with a bunch of teen thugs who skip the line, in either park? No. With the new development in the area I think in another 5-10 years it'll be a different place which hopefully will attract more visitors and therefore my fingers remain crossed for a RMC Roar... or even just some bathrooms near Superman.

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Popped in this morning for a bit before the rain sprinkles. Indeed, two stations on BatWing. Two trains Wild One, Joker, Superman... Wild One "A" team no where in site! Nothing bad to say about ops today, some more energetic and friendly than others.

 

New striping in the parking lots. Thankfully, the faded stripes were some straight and some diagonal and a bunch didn't match the curb direction. New bright white stripes alleviate some of the wacky parking jobs. New paint on the Super Man Logo at the ride entrance. Fresh mulching still in progress. Good that this stuff is happening but why after the opening. It's like they playing Roller Coaster Tycoon and have to wait to generate money to start the next little project.

 

WWLoT now a part of the sky line. Stone retaining wall work near completion, looks like a circular ramp entrance being dug out to back fill the wall. Railings are being unpacked.

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Wow! It is nice to hear about all the little improvements throughout the park and the improved operations. And I'm glad to see that Wonder Woman is almost ready to open. I'll be really excited to visit in 2018 (I have family in the area that I need to visit). Maybe next year I'll get to ride Vertical Velocity if it actually closes and actually is relocated to Six Flags America. I would have gone this year but I decided to take a road trip to northern Idaho and visit family there and stop at Silverwood on the way.

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Popped in this morning for a bit before the rain sprinkles. Indeed, two stations on BatWing. Two trains Wild One, Joker, Superman... Wild One "A" team no where in site! Nothing bad to say about ops today, some more energetic and friendly than others.

 

You must have been there before I arrived because they were only running one train on Joker, Superman (excruciatingly painful operations), Roar and Batwing for the several hours I was there. Wild One had two trains going but the ops were slow to say the least. What's up with them now pushing the bars down for you on Wild One?

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Popped in this morning for a bit before the rain sprinkles. Indeed, two stations on BatWing. Two trains Wild One, Joker, Superman... Wild One "A" team no where in site! Nothing bad to say about ops today, some more energetic and friendly than others.

 

You must have been there before I arrived because they were only running one train on Joker, Superman (excruciatingly painful operations), Roar and Batwing for the several hours I was there. Wild One had two trains going but the ops were slow to say the least. What's up with them now pushing the bars down for you on Wild One?

 

Hmm? I just left a little while ago, and was there all day save for 2 hours. 2 trains on all except Mind Eraser. No slow ops. Not making things up or you...lol?? I will post a pic of the 2. This was mid afternoon.

 

It was great. Batwing broke as usual, then the ride op said, "everyone go to the other station". Ah, the joy of having 2 stations.

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Popped in this morning for a bit before the rain sprinkles. Indeed, two stations on BatWing. Two trains Wild One, Joker, Superman... Wild One "A" team no where in site! Nothing bad to say about ops today, some more energetic and friendly than others.

 

You must have been there before I arrived because they were only running one train on Joker, Superman (excruciatingly painful operations), Roar and Batwing for the several hours I was there. Wild One had two trains going but the ops were slow to say the least. What's up with them now pushing the bars down for you on Wild One?

 

 

I was in at open, rode some rides, grabbed lunch, and then off to run the errands I was actually sent out of the house to do.

 

One ride on Superman I did the little walk sprint that you do when someone holds a door open for you but you are too far away really and didn't get to the gate. The operator noticed and reopened the gates. Slowed things down for the 8 already loaded but got another 8 of us on the train and we appreciated it.

 

I thought I heard them give the direction not to push the bar down on Wild One but did so anyway. They didn't say anything. Better microphones and speakers would be good. It sounds like a NY subway sometimes. I would imagine it is so that they can check the belts without rooting around in your lap. Or, maybe something extra they gave to the non "A" team.

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I can't believe they didn't get the star flyer up for Memorial Day wknd.

 

Know what i think? They are trying to coincide the opening with the movie.

 

We have a winning guess here

 

Do I get a prize? Of course my guess goes down the toilet if it doesn't open by next weekend.

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I broke down and bought the go cart season pass yesterday. Great idea..lol..I used 16 bucks of riding yesterday. Pass cost 30. Getting 2 more laps today. Basically, I will pay for that pass today. I usually ride about 4-6 times a year, so it is worth it to me. That number would actually be higher, but had to pay. Not this year!

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I was in at open, rode some rides, grabbed lunch, and then off to run the errands I was actually sent out of the house to do.

 

I thought I heard them give the direction not to push the bar down on Wild One but did so anyway. They didn't say anything. Better microphones and speakers would be good. It sounds like a NY subway sometimes. I would imagine it is so that they can check the belts without rooting around in your lap. Or, maybe something extra they gave to the non "A" team.

 

Duhhhh I just realized that I went to the park on Friday, not Saturday which is when you went Between being crazy busy recently and now the holiday throwing things off, my days are all mixed up. We had someone on our Wild One train push their lapbar down and they got a little snooty about it. The ops on Superman were stapling every single person into the train and we really got slammed one time and then I started pushing up with my knees when they came to "check" my restraint. I'm not a pansy when it comes to tight restraints and Skyrush's don't bother me at all but I know other people have issues. Even on El Toro and Skyrush the restraints don't get that tight! Did you have a similar experience?

Edited by TBpony414
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