Reality Hits

I don't know where your getting this low capacity B.S....somehow a 20 minute wait for Raptor, and that being my longest wait of the day (Sans TTD) dosn't seem "low" to me. At least our new coaster was running on opening day.

I also barely saw any trash on the ground. I've never seen so many "sweepers" in my life. CP did a great job for opening day to me. I had an amazing time, and I've been going there every year for oh 7 years now, many years making frequent trips.

It just goes to show you that some Six Flags fans are just to frickin blind to admit how horrible most of their parks are when it comes to things that CP prides itself in.

Oh wait, that's everything.

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OMG! The Space Spiral is leaning!!" Must be the weight of that new air conditioning system everyone keeps hypothesizing about...

I haven't been to Six Flags yet, but I don't see why there has to be all the negativity with this park. I think that ANY amusement park is a wonderful thing for the tons of fans who want to get away from everyday life and enjoy being taken to a wonderful and fun place, away from the everyday hum drum of life. Oh well...guess I'm just an optimist. Rock on Cedar Point! Six Flags, someday I'll get to ya. King's Island, I'll probably see you within a month or so. Thank God for amusement parks!!!

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Brian, you said that SFA's S:RoS is up there with Magnum. I can't believe you said that.

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SFA-S:ROS' money seat appears to be in the back row. The third hill has amazing airtime, and a powerful slam at the bottom of the hill into your seat. If you haven't been in the back yet, try it. You'll like it.

Man! Almost nobody appreciates Six Flags anymore. Its odd how people call SFWoA, Worlds of Dumpster, or Waste of Afternoon, or stuff like that. I never had a bad experience there at all. Just try to have a good day, don't go there expecting a bad day. Anyway, this thread seems to be way off topic.

Those of you who say you haven't been to SFWoA and then say you can't understand why people rag on the park need only go there. I think the rides there kick ass, but I got tired of going there only to find them not operational or pushing hour waits on slow days. No thanks.

I would add that it isn't the entire chain, I really liked Six Flags Great America, and indeed CoasterBuzz Club is havnig its con there this year.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM

When I went to SFWoA on opening day and Batman was running two trains and stacking; not using the queues at all (I think there were about 10 or so kids that line jumped to get back with their friends in the main entrance queue). Superman was not even on its track, so thats not even going to be running anytime soon. The bathrooms were atrocious. X-Flight had only one train going all day (The other wasn't even on the track yet). It was my brother-in-law's first visit there and he hated it. Someone talked to me last night asking what other good parks were in the area around CP. I told him to head on down 3 1/2 hours South to PKI and to avoid SFWoA at all costs. The only good part about the day at SFWoA was ironically the overly criticized wild life side. I thought the shows over there were much better than what CP puts on in Oceana. I honestly would have actually rather have been at work that day than at SFWoA. Why did I get a season pass there?? --I don't think I will next year.

On the flip-side, Cedar Point did wonders for me the next day. The only downside was Dragster's capacity, but that is expected of a brand new ride...at least it opened on time. Everything else I thought was great. At least Cedar Point was able to get all except one of the trains on all of the rides and at least ready to be tested and certified if they weren't already. Kudos to CP and well, SFWoA, you still wonder why you'll never compete in the Ohio market?

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Michael McCormack
Magnum Count: 634
"Is it raining nickels?"
*** This post was edited by BirdOfPrey00 5/6/2003 11:50:41 PM ***

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BirdOfPrey00 said:
The only good part about the day at SFWoA was ironically the overly criticized wild life side.

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That is true. I usually go to SFWoA once a year, only for the wildlife side. I enjoyed Sea World very much, and the wild life side still has a little of the Busch culture left. I find it an enjoyable day. The rides side is a different story, and I don't bother with it much (maybe a ride or two) when I go to SFWoA.

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Florida may have Disneyworld and Key West,
but Ohio has Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay.
It's great to live in Ohio!

A few years back my sister and I had season passes for SFWoA (one of those get 4 season passes for $50 or something like that) and went twice. The first time, we stayed for oh...4 hours maybe, the second time we probably stayed for 2. We saw the lines for some of those rides and they were horrible and then the one ride we really wanted to ride was closed! My mom and dad were shocked to see us home after such a short time in the park. Lucky for us, it's only like 45 minutes from our house, so it doesn't take THAT long to drive. I know there's a lot of SF bashing going on, and I know that there's a lot of good SF parks, but WoA definatley does not live up to CP standards and deserves everything that is said about it. For me the choice is drive 45 minutes to a mediocre park or drive an hour to a top notch park, I think the answer is simple. ;) I haven't been back to WoA since my sister and I had passes, my heart isn't breaking... ;)

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Hotel Breakers Desk staff - 2002
Back to the Breakers this summer - 2003! :)

F U N K THAT. BOO WHO. Do you KNOW how long I stood in LINE to EXPERIENCE -the most- INTENSE SEVENTEEN s-e-c-o-n-d-s OF MY LIFE?!? 2'WICE?!? ...And I'm PROUD to say I did. SHUT UP if 6 trains weren't operational. THE RIDE OPERATED!! ...I feel EXTREMELY SMOOTH considering I've never seen such a complex design.

! THANK YOU CEDARPOINT !

...if i had any advice for TTD virgins or disbelievers... "back seat, after dark" ;)
*** This post was edited by Luke Sherri 5/7/2003 2:25:53 AM ***

You guys need to cut some of the other CP employees some slack to, it's not just the Ride Ops that need ajustment times. Some of you were complaining about some of the food lines being to long on opening day, well many of those foods employees were experiencing there first run with the public also. Ride Ops are not the only ones who need a little time to get things done in a timely and efficiant (sp?) manner. Working at the point is often very fast paced in most any area in the park, and just like those working on TTD the food lines will get better.

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Joe Cool's Merch 2002
Macaroni's 2003

here is my 2c. even if the capacity was down and maybe there was a little more litter than normal at cp, you also have to realize that they dont have a full staff. I as an employee know that they dont get a full staff untill the beginning of june since most of the employees are highschool students and they dont get off of school untill the end of may. Also I havent seen the wall myself but I dont think it will bother me I will like the suspence of not being able to see anything untill I get right up there. Also the capacity issue there just wasnt enough staff to run more trains. And on TTD the employees need to be trained and practice so that they can get their load and unload times down so that it is possible to actually run 6 trains. think about it if they were to run 6 trains it would take the same amount of time waiting in line and you would be sitting in a line at unload waiting to get off because they were taking too long to load and launch the trains so that their would be a backup in the line of trains. now would you really want that. I think that 3 trains worked fine for opening day. As for SFWOA I dont have that much of a problem with it. I went there last year and I loved x-flight even though some people dont like it I thought it was cool. When I went the only ride that was down was superman ultimite excape and that was because the roof had been blown off, not something that they could prevent, that was intamins problem. So I would have to say that cp did an excellent job for opening day and to all thoes who disagree with anything that I said well you have your right to express your oppinion as I did.

-Doug-

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I am a Mechanical Engineering major not an english major so pardon my horrible grammar

Very funny click Here
Refinedmadness.com

My girlfriend and I went to SFWOA on opening day to get our passes for a trip to SFGA this weekend and the season pass center was closed. The one good thing about the day happened here. When we explained that we did not have a chance to drive back up from Sandusky before the weekend to get them and they worked on the system to get us our passes. Other than that, I wouldn't say much. Their marquee ride Superman (it's on the passes) wasn't even on the track. The place smelled like garbage on the Wild Rides side, and I saw a Hot Dog Value Meal for $8.79! Grass that needed cut - with overgrown dandilions - in cue lines. It was almost like they forgot when opening day was.
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tambo
*** This post was edited by tambo 5/7/2003 7:18:52 AM ***

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Panman said:
On my way out of the park on opening day I remember remarking to a friend that if you didn't know it, you would not believe that the park had been closed for the better part of six months.

How on earth do they do it? All those stalls, stands, and games alone must be a mission to staff. Never mind the training of the ride-ops, and the maintenance of the rides. Plus putting in a $ 25 000 000.00 ride that delivered the most insane experience of my life.

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Steve

For those 16 extreme seconds, it was worth the wait....

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Steve makes a good point and I don't think it should be forgotten. I have been on the inside of gearing up for a new season more times than I care to admit. It isn't easy. Some parks do a better job of getting ready than others.

I'll go back to what I said earlier. What they do in the first few weeks of operation are not nearly as important as what they do during the meat of the season. It is during that time that Cedar Point has proven it can excel and SFWoA has proven they have room for improvement.

It is a new year and the Six Flags folks up the road have another opportunity to show us that they take their business seriously.

Doug: Regardless of how many people the park has or what training they have, that means exactly zero to paying customers. Who cares, it's not our problem.

But that being said, they still do an OK job early on, and as it's been said several times, it's still a better day than the competition's best day.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM

Trash all over the park, employees who are rude, employees who are untrained, ride capacity low, rides not open for no apparent reason. Opening day? No, every single day at Six Flags Astroworld.

Cedar Point meets their goals. TTD was open openning day, granted not at capacity. Two years ago Six Flags "Great" America bragged about opening two new coasters in one season. Vertical Velocity opened in May, but Deja Vu didn't open until Frightfest.

I personally don't think it's fair to compare the openings of TTD and X. TTD had a prototype that should have eliminated most of the problems. X was WAY more innovative than TTD is. If you've ever been on X, you'll understand how complex this ride is. I am not defending SFMM here, but I think a lot of you are comparing two things that are on different levels....

Well, that leads to the question of whether it is the park's fault that a ride doesn't open or the manufacturer's fault. Most building contracts will stipulate when both parties agree something will be ready. Beyond that date there are usually cash penalties involved, taking into account a certain number of bad weather days.

This topic is really discussing several issues. A new ride being ready is one issue. The rest of the park being ready is another issue. I don't blame SFMM for X being delayed and I don't blame CP for TTD not running at capacity.

If the rest of the rides are not operating, the parks are filthy, etc on opening day then the blame can be easily placed. Even then, though, having been involved in opening seasonal parks, I tend to give any park a little slack for the first few weeks.

I'm surprised to hear about the filthy queues. I didn't experience that, but then again, I was in line for TTD through Joe Cool so I only had a 2 hour wait...which, I might add was expected.

I suspect the problem (?) is that CP generally does not allow food in their queue lines, but they DID allow food in the TTD line because of the huge wait. They made an exception to their rule.

Yes, I also experienced slow food service at the Happy Friar, but it was obvious the fella waiting on us was new (how much training can you get dealing with customers when there aren't any customers yet?).

As mentioned by others, I don't expect any park to be running up to snuff on opening day. But I do expect the problems to disappear after the park has been open a couple weeks.
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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead
http://www.webtechnik.com/ebony/CPLady.htm

Hey I'll admit i wasn't impressed either on opening day but i know it will get better...im a loyal passholder and understand the difficulties of a new ride...and ill also admit im disappointed with the rider capacity and the slowness of ride operations for TTD but i will also say this...I CANNOT WAIT TO RIDE THAT THING