Six Flags will not be down for Breakfast

[Mayonnaise]

When I was a teenager (read: 6-8 years ago) our local Six Flags was definitely a hang out spot for the 16-17 year old crowd. At that age you could work a summer job, and discount season passes could be had for $65 at all Price Chopper locations if you bought before the season started. All you needed was a kid with a car and you were off for a day of loping around the amusement park.

Now I have to say... before Six Flags bought the park out, it was WAY cleaner and better then it became after it was a Six Flags property. It's gone downhill since Six Flags took over. They replaced the classic "Tornado" dark ride with a lame roller coaster, the Canonball Express (a Bertazzon Musik Express ride) no longer runs backwards after it goes forwards, they closed the Rainbow, replaced the "50's Cars" with the Wiggles "Big Red Cars" and worst of all, they ruined "Chipper's Magical Mystery Tour," an indoor scrambler with lights and music, by taking it out of the dome, painting it blue, and calling it the "Blizzard."

8^(

[Syndrome]

Back in the mid to late 1990s our Six Flags (Great America, near Chicago) was already plummeting downhill. I remember the day they opened the new Batman roller coaster. It was all nicely themed, with the Gotham City Park out front and marigolds all planted around a fountain. The teens in the line all started jumping the little fence, ripping out the flowers, and whipping them into the fountain and at each other and others in line. It was like a mini-riot. Guest Services just shrugged it off when I complained.

On another occasion, we were line jumped by a belligerent group of teens at the Iron Wolf coaster. I told the ride operator and was backed up by all the people around me, and he said, "Too bad, if you want to get on more quickly you should earn to do it too." You could hear my jaw hit the ground as it dropped. Once again, Guest Services was impotent when I complained.

I really don't miss that place.

[TomMorrow]

Two years ago, we got to go to Six Flags Over Georgia for an Employee Appreciation Day. It only cost me $2 to get in. When I left four hours later, I felt that I had overpaid. I don't see me going back. Perhaps Disney has spoiled me.

[Switchbeam 9]

Back in the mid to late 1990s our Six Flags (Great America, near Chicago) was already plummeting downhill. I remember the day they opened the new Batman roller coaster. It was all nicely themed, with the Gotham City Park out front and marigolds all planted around a fountain. The teens in the line all started jumping the little fence, ripping out the flowers, and whipping them into the fountain and at each other and others in line. It was like a mini-riot. Guest Services just shrugged it off when I complained.

On another occasion, we were line jumped by a belligerent group of teens at the Iron Wolf coaster. I told the ride operator and was backed up by all the people around me, and he said, "Too bad, if you want to get on more quickly you should earn to do it too." You could hear my jaw hit the ground as it dropped. Once again, Guest Services was impotent when I complained.

I really don't miss that place.

Six Flags should have asked themselves: who spends the most money of the two demographics?

Park tickets are only part of it. When they run off the families they run off groups that may spend hundreds in the park that day for a group who may buy a coke or two.

They also make the lines excessively long for the $ per visit. Six Flags here (Six Flags Over Texas, Arlington (Dallas area)) was a popular place for families out of town. Was the Summer destination because rural and smaller town families don't have much money and can't afford a Disney vacation. But they would go there and buy individual one-visit tickets per member and have a good time buying souvenirs and the like.

Now families just go to Mexico. Why spend several hundred going there when they can go to a family-friendly all-inclusive resort for just a little more and spend 5 days there? Can rent a car too and go all over the Yucatan. Nice beaches, ruins, Cancún, Xcaret, Wet n' Wild, and so forth. Plus the resort will have big pools, plenty of entertainment for the adults, a beach, and plenty to eat.

I am a sucker for deals and quality.

Now that I am grown up I fly to Mexico City. No better weather (70s in July and August is typical). So vibrant and fun. One of the largest, if not the largest, city in the world. But there are many areas there where it feels like a mid-sized European town. Beautiful scenery and Popocateptl and Ixtaccihuatl have snow on them year round. Being the geek I am there are around 200 cultural museums. Only NYC can compare in the cultural side. But one of the biggest things is that you can have a lot of fun and spend very little in 2 weeks.

My sister instead goes to Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor (owned by Six Flags) and probably spends almost as much in 1 day as I do in 2 weeks there.

Looks like Six Flags is losing the crowd that spends money. So many alternatives.

[praline3001]

If your interested in six flags and this chapter 11 filing, you should google Jazzland and New Orleans and the huge lawsuit that is going on currently.

I am sure this chapter 11 has a lot to do with Katrina and Jazzland. The short of it is Six Flag signed with the city to give them a certain amount of profits... and the park was completely destroyed (parts of the coasters were on the highway!) during Katrina. The park was struggling to start with as they built in in an EXTREMELY bad area crime wise ... they couldn't have picked a more crime ridden area if they tried.
Six flags refuses to clean up the area ...even with the safety issues that half broken rides and abadoned amusement parks. The park has become a haven for crack dealers and gangs. Its an eye sore ..a really bad one.

I live outside of New Orleans so this issue is on our local news A LOT. Not siding with either one but Six flags refuses to pay a dime to the city or clean up their park from the hurricane almost FOUR years ago....

I can't help but wonder with this chapter 11 if the millions they are supposed to have owed the city are now null and void.


A lurker who mostly reads here but wanted to throw that in there as a possible straw that broke the camels back

[dash1bravo]

Back in the mid to late 1990s our Six Flags (Great America, near Chicago) was already plummeting downhill. I remember the day they opened the new Batman roller coaster. It was all nicely themed, with the Gotham City Park out front and marigolds all planted around a fountain. The teens in the line all started jumping the little fence, ripping out the flowers, and whipping them into the fountain and at each other and others in line. It was like a mini-riot. Guest Services just shrugged it off when I complained.

I worked at that park for a couple of years and vividly remember the Batman ride and all the attendant pomp. :D Time-Warner had just bought Six Flags (from Bally's IIRC) and management really thought the company was poised for great things. Batman: The Ride (tm) was to be the beginning of a golden age for the company. As far as a Six Flags attraction goes, it really was an impressive effort... I mean, we had a themed queue! They flew in a huge assortment of celebrities (mostly B and C-listers) for the soft opening. Time-Warner execs abounded. There was much excitement in the air. Blah blah blah.

Most importantly, all the pre-season orientation stuff hammered the point that Disney was to be regarded as the golden standard against which we'd compare ourselves.

A few weeks later a friend of Bugs Bunny (I worked in the shows department) was tazered by a guest. Which, as anyone who's been to a Six Flags park knows, pretty much sums up the whole Six Flags experience.

[Switchbeam 9]

If your interested in six flags and this chapter 11 filing, you should google Jazzland and New Orleans and the huge lawsuit that is going on currently.

I am sure this chapter 11 has a lot to do with Katrina and Jazzland. The short of it is Six Flag signed with the city to give them a certain amount of profits... and the park was completely destroyed (parts of the coasters were on the highway!) during Katrina. The park was struggling to start with as they built in in an EXTREMELY bad area crime wise ... they couldn't have picked a more crime ridden area if they tried.
Six flags refuses to clean up the area ...even with the safety issues that half broken rides and abadoned amusement parks. The park has become a haven for crack dealers and gangs. Its an eye sore ..a really bad one.

I live outside of New Orleans so this issue is on our local news A LOT. Not siding with either one but Six flags refuses to pay a dime to the city or clean up their park from the hurricane almost FOUR years ago....

I can't help but wonder with this chapter 11 if the millions they are supposed to have owed the city are now null and void.


A lurker who mostly reads here but wanted to throw that in there as a possible straw that broke the camels back

Yeah it's amazing such a big operation as Six Flags didn't have insurance. Maybe it was a harbinger of what was to come by not even properly covering their asse(t)s.

[praline3001]

Yeah it's amazing such a big operation as Six Flags didn't have insurance. Maybe it was a harbinger of what was to come by not even properly covering their asse(t)s.

I agree ~ crazy!

I am sure the huge lawsuit going on had something to do with the chapter 11 filing