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Are the days of horrible Six Flags ops over?


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Hey,

I saw this great forum on Reddit and I decided to bring it here so more people could see. Recently, I've been hearing pretty much everywhere that Six Flags's operations are greatly improved across the board. 3 minutes for Batwing, 2.5 minutes for Tatsu, 2 minutes for Green Latern, and other amazing things!! I've also seen it too, I went to SFMM and pretty much every ride was running 2 minute dispatches. I've heard the source of these improvements are removal of time consuming policies, such as double visual scans, and no more "double hand tugs" on the rides with OSTRs. Do you think their moving in a much better direction? Have you seen any of this? Lemme know!!!

 

-Kenny aka Mr. Corn (still don't know why I chose that username lol)

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I think its a little early in the season, those kids ain't worn down just yet. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

 

Someone remember to bump this thread come Fright Fest.

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SFOT's operations have improved so much. A couple of years ago, they were known to have the worse operations in the chain following SFA. When I visited, I totally forgot about that stigma from a couple years prior. They were probably some of the best operations I had ever seen outside Orlando. A several rides they did a countdown, and on rides like NTAG IIRC they had clocks in the station (can someone confirm this please?).

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In order to turn around operations long term, I think they're going to have to raise the price of season passes. I'm thinking triple the cost… similar to what Cedar Fair charges. It's still a great deal. It would take a few years to get to that level, but I hope they're going in that direction.

 

They really need an overhaul with their training. Six flags employees generally seem not very good at communicating and connecting with themselves or the guests. It's not their fault; it's mostly trickle down. Offering better bonuses, and perhaps an extra dollar an hour might help.

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In order to turn around operations long term, I think they're going to have to raise the price of season passes. I'm thinking triple the cost… similar to what Cedar Fair charges. It's still a great deal. It would take a few years to get to that level, but I hope they're going in that direction.

 

They really need an overhaul with their training. Six flags employees generally seem not very good at communicating and connecting with themselves or the guests. It's not their fault; it's mostly trickle down. Offering better bonuses, and perhaps an extra dollar an hour might help.

 

 

Maybe raise to $100, Also less BAFF tickets.

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After my day at SFA today, I'd say no. . . The days of horrible Six Flags ops is NOT over. Apparently the ops have NO idea how to check restraints and dispatch a train on Apocalypse to save their lives... Seriously... 2 trains in operation today, and dispatches were sitting at about 10-15 minutes. I could not for the life of me figure out why they were sucking so bad. They were standing around talking to each other. Standing in the middle of the train on the back of one of the rows talking to each other... Unlocking, and relocking, and unlocking, and relocking the seats... and yelling at everyone to stand not sit?? Idk... But it was weird.

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Today at GADV they were opping Kingda Ka horribly. They ran one train on KK then waited for Zumanjaro to load and run. Since one train is not long enough for Zumanjaro to unload and load we would just wait for 2 minutes for them to get ready even though they had a train queued for launch anyways. They also stacked all 3 Bizarro trains and took forever to check the restraints.

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Six Flags has discussed raising ticket prices on recent calls, but I stress this again (I do it often): there is not actually a correlation between increased profit and increased re-investment. In fact, steady profits disincline major capital investment because there is little need to do so, and encourage more minor changes. This is also why in spite of discussing increasing prices, Six Flags' corporate office is discussing decreasing the percentage of revenue to be reinvested into the parks for annual capex.

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Come to Six Flags St Louis and have those expectations put to the test. I won't go to that park any more despite it being the closest one I can go to, even for free (my kids earn free tickets from school each year but after the last few visits they don't want to). I'd be willing to give them another chance if I consistently heard things were better, but I'm not holding my breath. For the amount of money it costs, I'd rather just spend the little extra time/cash to go to Holiday World or better yet Silver Dollar City, although that one's not in day trip range.

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Come to Six Flags St Louis and have those expectations put to the test. I won't go to that park any more despite it being the closest one I can go to, even for free (my kids earn free tickets from school each year but after the last few visits they don't want to). I'd be willing to give them another chance if I consistently heard things were better, but I'm not holding my breath. For the amount of money it costs, I'd rather just spend the little extra time/cash to go to Holiday World or better yet Silver Dollar City, although that one's not in day trip range.

 

Have you tried Holiday in the Park? If not, you should. While Silver Dollar City's event is likely better it will likely sway your opinion a little bit based on what I've heard and what I've seen at their other parks (including Six Flags America which is a complete turd of a park any other time of year).

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They also stacked all 3 Bizarro trains and took forever to check the restraints.

 

Sounds normal to me.

 

 

Each year around this time, I hear about good operations at Six Flags. Just wait till schools are out then it will be back to the normal terrible operations.

 

 

This so true. Every year. "Are Six Flags operations actually good this year?" I'm pretty sure we had this exact thread last year. Save for opening day, operations at all parks are good in the beginning of the season. Employees are new, getting into the swing of things, crowds aren't obscene yet. But wait til dog days of summer start to take their toll.

 

Again, someone please bump this thread during Fright Fest. Hell, bump it in July and see if folks are singing the same tune.

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Six Flags has discussed raising ticket prices on recent calls, but I stress this again (I do it often): there is not actually a correlation between increased profit and increased re-investment. In fact, steady profits disincline major capital investment because there is little need to do so, and encourage more minor changes. This is also why in spite of discussing increasing prices, Six Flags' corporate office is discussing decreasing the percentage of revenue to be reinvested into the parks for annual capex.

 

Unfortunetely too much companies do this or have this mentality and watch their product/service deteriorate and employee morale decline with increased turnover. It would be nice and make sense if companies would reinvest their profits in their business and people (not just the fat cats at the top) but for too many companies it takes several years of diminishing returns and decline in guest satisfication to realize this and when things start getting better again many of them fall back into their old ways - it's like a never ending vicious cycle. I would be for Six Flags raising their ticket/pass prices if they reinvested all this additional revenue back into their business, but if they're just doing this to pocket extra profit then forget about it!

 

Again, someone please bump this thread during Fright Fest. Hell, bump it in July and see if folks are singing the same tune.

 

This!

 

Each year around this time, I hear about good operations at Six Flags. Just wait till schools are out then it will be back to the normal terrible operations.

 

Most likely the case. I'll have to make a trip to Magic Mountain sometime in May (on a weekday) before it gets nuts there.

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Come to Six Flags St Louis and have those expectations put to the test. I won't go to that park any more despite it being the closest one I can go to, even for free (my kids earn free tickets from school each year but after the last few visits they don't want to). I'd be willing to give them another chance if I consistently heard things were better, but I'm not holding my breath. For the amount of money it costs, I'd rather just spend the little extra time/cash to go to Holiday World or better yet Silver Dollar City, although that one's not in day trip range.

 

I was just at SFSL and it was the best experience I've ever had in regarding ride ops. Whether that's because it's early season or not is debatable, but it was as smooth as it could get.

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You get what you pay for with minimum wage making teenagers...

 

Operations will regress to the norm once early season excitement wears off.

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^Early season and summer operations are usually the best times. Early season is when the energy of the staff is highest. Summer is then parks have the highest quantity of staff, and also people working at parks over the summer are more likely to be people who want to work there, as opposed to having to. (I actually know a few people who want to work in the theme park industry, and are looking into working at parks over the summer to start with networking).

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