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General => General Discussion => Topic started by: KevShmev on June 28, 2011, 08:31:25 PM
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Went today with some friends. The water park was a blast, and we couldn't have asked for better weather (85, sunny and not a cloud in the sky), but my goodness, what a ripoff the prices are now! Unless you have a coupon or a deal or something, it is $45 to get in, and $15 to freaking park. Thank goodness a friend has a season pass (she goes all of the time since she has two small children who love the water park), so we parked for free, my man oh man, what a ripoff that place is. Even the cost of drinks and food is outrageous (like ball park outrageous), but we were smart and brought coolers of food and drinks. :biggrin:
But if nothing else, this ride is awesome:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rollerfan/1389975462/
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I also hate the speed pass you need to pay or you'll wait in line forever. Just another scam to make more money.
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It being a Tuesday, it wasn't too crowded, so the lines were relatively short (at least in the water park), and I was with a good group, so I can't complain about that too much, but on a busy day, yes, it would be a nightmare.
But I was just blown away by how ridiculous their prices are now (I hadn't gone in years).
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Last time I hit a Six Flags (Magic Mountain), I purchased my ticket in advance off of eBay and got it for $16.50 shipped. People get discounted tickets for all kinds of reasons and sell them off for cheap. I got a ticket for the local one here from a retail ticket scalper outlet for about half price a few years ago.
Of course, even with a $17 ticket I still spent a cool bill. $20 to park. $12 for a $4 tube of spf-35 (my own damn fault). God knows how much for the Flash Pass (still worth it). $15 for a light lunch. I had a similar experience here when TWC sent me a free ticket for being a swell customer, I still spent close to $75.
Nowadays, I'd probably not use a freebee here--our park really sucks. And, I'd still happily spend a C-note at Magic Mountain--awesome park.
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Disney is worth every penny El Barto. There is an amusement park in my home town growing up that 35 minutes from where I live now that blows the Six Flags in Mass out of the water. I'd rather go there.
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Six Flags are hit and miss. The one here, the original BTW, doesn't get many good rides. Magic Mountain and [AIUI] Great America are excellent. Part of the problem is that they rotate their rides from park to park, so only the marquee parks get new, purpose built coasters. The best coaster out here is the Titan. You'll wait 60-90 minutes to get on the thing. There's an identical one at MM that's so extremely ordinary in comparison to the rest of the park that you'll walk right up to it and get on. It might as well be a kiddy ride to them.
Never been to a Disney Park, but it always seemed like thrill rides weren't really what they were pushing.
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Disney is worth every penny El Barto. There is an amusement park in my home town growing up that 35 minutes from where I live now that blows the Six Flags in Mass out of the water. I'd rather go there.
I've been to the Six Flags in Mass. It wasn't anything special.
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Six Flags are hit and miss. The one here, the original BTW, doesn't get many good rides. Magic Mountain and [AIUI] Great America are excellent. Part of the problem is that they rotate their rides from park to park, so only the marquee parks get new, purpose built coasters. The best coaster out here is the Titan. You'll wait 60-90 minutes to get on the thing. There's an identical one at MM that's so extremely ordinary in comparison to the rest of the park that you'll walk right up to it and get on. It might as well be a kiddy ride to them.
Never been to a Disney Park, but it always seemed like thrill rides weren't really what they were pushing.
Yea, Disney is more or less about the experience and atmosphere, and less about the rides.
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Are all the Six Flags the same?
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Are all the Six Flags the same?
Nope, they're actually all quite different.
The closest one near me (in NJ) has some of the best coasters I've ever been on, while the other Six Flags I've been to (the one I mentioned in my earlier post) is quite lame. :lol
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Magic mountain is awesome... I havent been to any other ones
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Magic Mountain is the only Six Flags park worth talking about. Some of the best coasters in the world out there.
However, even though Ohio sucks, every coaster enthusiast needs to get out to Cedar Point, immediately.
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A thread about Six Flags' shitty prices and no one has mentioned the old coke can deal yet? :facepalm:
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However, even though Ohio sucks, every coaster enthusiast needs to get out to Cedar Point, immediately.
I'd certainly like to get out there.
I'm not real crazy about the trend to make coasters taller and faster when all they do is go up one hill and back. Top Thrill Dragster and Kingda Ka at SF-NJ just don't look very interesting to me.
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I agree completely, EB. My favorite coasters are the ones that last longer than 10 seconds and bring you through a myriad of differing loops, twists, etc.
A great example is Medusa at SF-NJ, the ride lasts a good 90 seconds and you go through a ton of loops, cork screws and wicked turns.
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I agree completely, EB. My favorite coasters are the ones that last longer than 10 seconds and bring you through a myriad of differing loops, twists, etc.
A great example is Medusa at SF-NJ, the ride lasts a good 90 seconds and you go through a ton of loops, cork screws and wicked turns.
Medusa is my favorite ride of all time. That coaster is so good. I haven't been there in a while though. I heard they changed medusa into something else.
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Medusa appears to be pretty much the same ride as Scream at MM, which I thought was the best coaster out there. Nothing extraordinary, just a good, fun ride. It also had the benefit of being [comparatively] old fashioned, so there was never more than a five minute wait to get on it.
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Yea, the best thing about Medusa was going to the ride, waiting for less than 3 minutes and then going on the coaster like 3 times without having to get off the ride.
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Cedar Point is $48 admission and only $10 parking. It is also the greatest amusement park in the world.
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Cedar Point is $48 admission and only $10 parking. It is also the greatest amusement park in the world.
I love Cedar point - best all around, best value... but Six Flags NJ does give the coasters a run for the money at least.
Kingda Ka, El Toro, Nitro (6Flags) is slightly > Top Thrill Dragster, Maverick and Millenium Force (CP) IMO.
But Cedar point has better staff than any park I've been to (outside of Disney - but that's a different animal)... so professional. Whereas at Six Flags the dudes were racing to see who could finish their restraint safety check first. I don't want people racing through a safety check :tdwn.
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The one in NJ is okay. Some of the coasters are great but I hate that "wait in line for an hour for a 20-second ride" shit, even if it is a great rush.
I haven't been to the one in Denver yet (plan on going this summer) but they have a light rail stop so we wouldn't have to pay for parking :D
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Yeah, the Six Flags in MA is kinda lame. Whenever my family goes, we usually drive down to NJ.
Cedar Point is great too, that was a lot of fun :tup
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Six Flags Great America is awesome.
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I go to Six Flags great adventure in NJ a couple times a year because it's 20 minutes from where i live. Best theme park i've ever been to. I went last week and bought the flash pass Gold for the first time. It was worth every cent. The park was packed and i had no problem riding as many rides as i wanted without waiting. WAS AWESOME.
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What's wrong with the Six Flags in Dallas (Arlington)? The "new" Texas Giant has been reworked so it now has the steepest drop of any coaster (79 degrees), and 2 95-degree turns. Then there's the Titan, which is almost the tallest structure at the park.
Granted, I haven't been there since I was a kid, though I drive by it every day to and from work. Still, looks like it'd still be a lot of fun. But yeah, I've heard the prices have gotten a bit out of hand.
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This is probably why the couple water parks that are nearby Houston advertising free parking and free use of the innertubes...
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What's wrong with the Six Flags in Dallas (Arlington)? The "new" Texas Giant has been reworked so it now has the steepest drop of any coaster (79 degrees), and 2 95-degree turns. Then there's the Titan, which is almost the tallest structure at the park.
Granted, I haven't been there since I was a kid, though I drive by it every day to and from work. Still, looks like it'd still be a lot of fun. But yeah, I've heard the prices have gotten a bit out of hand.
The new Texas giant is supposed to be excellent. The Titan is a fine coaster. The problem is that neither of them are spectacular and they're the two best rides out there, by far. Batman and Mr Freeze aren't bad, but they're pretty generic in theme park terms. Shockwave and JRS are both antiques (though Shockwave is still a lot of fun). Flashback never works. That's it. 7 coasters, only two of which are standouts and they're fairly average. Compared to a real coaster park, like Magic Mountain, it's just disappointing. To be fair, it's still worth it to ride what they have, and I'd certainly recommend it to someone who's never been. At the same time, I grew up here and going to Six Flags was a awesome thing to do, and once I went to a really good theme park, it made it clear how substandard ours is. Like I said, of the 12 real coasters at SFMM, Dallas's best ride by far would be in the bottom 6.
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Last time I hit a Six Flags (Magic Mountain), I purchased my ticket in advance off of eBay and got it for $16.50 shipped. People get discounted tickets for all kinds of reasons and sell them off for cheap. I got a ticket for the local one here from a retail ticket scalper outlet for about half price a few years ago.
That's really cool, but how do you know the tickets aren't fake?
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Last time I hit a Six Flags (Magic Mountain), I purchased my ticket in advance off of eBay and got it for $16.50 shipped. People get discounted tickets for all kinds of reasons and sell them off for cheap. I got a ticket for the local one here from a retail ticket scalper outlet for about half price a few years ago.
That's really cool, but how do you know the tickets aren't fake?
For one, his detailed feedback was a long string of tickets were great A+++++++'s. Plus, I corresponded with him a bit before purchasing. The other thing is that if it had been fake, I'd have just bought a ticket at the gate and bit out a whopping $16.5, so I didn't worry too much about it.
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I absolutely love roller coasters.
Six Flags Great America is awesome.
. That's my hometown park. It's definitely above average. The Eagle probably the best wooden coaster I've been on. (But on haven't been on any of the legendary ones). Also it's the best ride in the park. After going to Cedar Point, I've realized how boring Raging Bull is. It's practically forceless with no airtime.
Great Adventure is the best as far as Six Flags goes. But Cedar Point is my favorite park of all time. The roller coasters save for a few are top notch. The Maverick is my favorite coaster. The small ride packs a punch and proves that speed and height are no match to creative design and an amazing track layout.
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My favorites are el toro, kingda ka, and nitro.
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What's wrong with the Six Flags in Dallas (Arlington)? The "new" Texas Giant has been reworked so it now has the steepest drop of any coaster (79 degrees), and 2 95-degree turns. Then there's the Titan, which is almost the tallest structure at the park.
Granted, I haven't been there since I was a kid, though I drive by it every day to and from work. Still, looks like it'd still be a lot of fun. But yeah, I've heard the prices have gotten a bit out of hand.
The new Texas giant is supposed to be excellent. The Titan is a fine coaster. The problem is that neither of them are spectacular and they're the two best rides out there, by far. Batman and Mr Freeze aren't bad, but they're pretty generic in theme park terms. Shockwave and JRS are both antiques (though Shockwave is still a lot of fun). Flashback never works. That's it. 7 coasters, only two of which are standouts and they're fairly average. Compared to a real coaster park, like Magic Mountain, it's just disappointing. To be fair, it's still worth it to ride what they have, and I'd certainly recommend it to someone who's never been. At the same time, I grew up here and going to Six Flags was a awesome thing to do, and once I went to a really good theme park, it made it clear how substandard ours is. Like I said, of the 12 real coasters at SFMM, Dallas's best ride by far would be in the bottom 6.
I grew up here too, Barto. The Batman coaster looks very cool. But it now makes sense why I never see Flashback working. Most days I'm driving home just in time to wave at the people upside-down on the Shockwave.
The old Texas Giant would've never seen me again after what happened. What turned out to be the day Princess Diana died, my wife and I took an out-of-town niece to the park. We rode the Giant, JRS, etc. But at the end of the day, her niece wanted to ride the Giant one more time. No problem. So I thought. When the coaster hit the bottom of the first dip, the bar holding my wife down... popped up. :eek I grabbed the handle on the other side of her in the car and held her down with everything I had with one arm, while trying to push down and re-engage the bar with the other. With the force of the coaster, centrifugal force swinging me around in the corners, I never could secure it. We made it to the end of the ride, freaked out. We told the kid manning the ride what happened. He kinda shrugged his shoulders when we told him NOT to sit anyone in that car until it got fixed. Of course he ignored us. :facepalm: But it was enough to scare us pretty good.
Only been back once since then, and that was about 10 years ago.
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At MM I always loved the Ninja and Batman rides, those were so much fun. The last time I went I remember they had a new ride involving a dragon design and we waited 2 hours to get on that thing and it was such a blast.
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At MM I always loved the Ninja and Batman rides, those were so much fun. The last time I went I remember they had a new ride involving a dragon design and we waited 2 hours to get on that thing and it was such a blast.
The Mike Mangini theme park is amazing!
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At MM I always loved the Ninja and Batman rides, those were so much fun. The last time I went I remember they had a new ride involving a dragon design and we waited 2 hours to get on that thing and it was such a blast.
The Mike Mangini theme park is amazing!
Psh, I was talking about the Majora's Mask theme park thank you very much! :P
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At MM I always loved the Ninja and Batman rides, those were so much fun. The last time I went I remember they had a new ride involving a dragon design and we waited 2 hours to get on that thing and it was such a blast.
The Mike Mangini theme park is amazing!
Psh, I was talking about the Majora's Mask theme park thank you very much! :P
:lol
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The Six Flags in Buffalo, Darien Lake, sucks so bad. hateithateithateit. Then again the only amusement park I've particularly enjoyed going to is Bush Gardens Williamsburg.
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went to Six Flags in Maryland the other day, it was a horrible rip off. $36 each after the coke can discount, the safety crews were horrible at doing the checks, and it still took 20 to 30 mins to ride one ride even with close to no line. The only good thing was the pretty decent water park.
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Went today with some friends. The water park was a blast, and we couldn't have asked for better weather (85, sunny and not a cloud in the sky), but my goodness, what a ripoff the prices are now! Unless you have a coupon or a deal or something, it is $45 to get in, and $15 to freaking park. Thank goodness a friend has a season pass (she goes all of the time since she has two small children who love the water park), so we parked for free, my man oh man, what a ripoff that place is. Even the cost of drinks and food is outrageous (like ball park outrageous), but we were smart and brought coolers of food and drinks. :biggrin:
But if nothing else, this ride is awesome:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rollerfan/1389975462/
Let me tell ya about Six Flags (Maryland). IT'S TERRIBLE! My girlfriend and I went a few years ago, and we got stuck at the top of the ride "Superman" for about an hour. The car just fucking STOPPED at the top, and they had some guy walk all the way up the steps that were next to the incline just to tell us that we'd be okay. Of course we got to watch as a crowd surrounded the ride, and everyone from all around the park took pictures and stared at us hoping that they'd get to see some crazy shit happen.
(https://s3.postimage.org/2wx4b1n2c/superman_ride_steel.jpg) (https://postimage.org/image/2wx4b1n2c/)
There were also horrific stories of "fluid" from the ride being shot into people's faces on Joker's Jinx, and people being decapitated that I'd heard before. It's notorious for accidents, and being the polar opposite of safe.
Here you go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_at_Six_Flags_parks
To be fair, there are pages like this for just about every park though. That doesn't mean that it isn't a ripoff, though.
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It is a ripoff mostly because the staff and service is shit. The rides are awesome. Who really pays full price? Its so easy to get coupons. I wouldn't think of going without one.
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The staff and service sucked ass in more ways than I ever expected.
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It's notorious for accidents, and being the polar opposite of safe.
Accidents that injure people at theme parks don't happen often at all. I don't know why you're saying parks are the opposite of safe because of a few freak accidents.
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It's notorious for accidents, and being the polar opposite of safe.
Accidents that injure people at theme parks don't happen often at all. I don't know why you're saying parks are the opposite of safe because of a few freak accidents.
They're given extra prominence 'cause they make the news, and they make the news 'cause they're rare.
If theme parks were truly dangerous - in the same way as driving a car is dangerous, or crossing a road - the occasions that people do get injured wouldn't be noteworthy for a second.
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If theme parks were truly dangerous - in the same way as driving a car is dangerous, or crossing a road - the occasions that people do get injured wouldn't be noteworthy for a second.
Exactly.
Although it does suck that you had to be stuck at the top hill for an hour on one of the best roller coasters in the world.
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:tdwn
This is a running theme in the business. As much as an advocate I am for Disney Parks over more traditional amusement parks, they are the worst offenders. I listen to a lot of podcasts about Disney Parks, and last year one of them had a wonderful episode about price increases. Last year, it went up around 9%, which as they stated, outpaced inflation and the rising cost of commodiies. Actually, they said last year those things did not go up last year, or if so, were up 1% at best. And Disney Parks has far outpaced inflation over time. Simply look at the Wikipedia for Disneyland, and it has a scale of the rising ticket prices.
Yet, supply and demand. There is a demand still to pay the prices. At some point though, I reckon Disney parks, and then maybe amusement parks, will be priced beyond your basic family. As these prices keep going up, the normal wage of families are not going up to match the rises. And people can only cut and slash so much to save and pay for their trips...
It is not just the ticket prices. Disney Parks has some fantastic dining options, and that has gone up. Merchandise it terrible. In 2008, the last time I was at Walt Disney World, my wife and I bought a Wall-E and Eve plush. They were over $20 combined. Back home afterwards, we got two that were twice the size, and made noises from the Disney Store. $20 combined as well.
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I just came in here to say FUCK rollercoasters.
Maybe I don't like them because my dad took me on the Texas Giant when I was six...
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I just came in here to say FUCK rollercoasters.
Maybe I don't like them because my dad took me on the Texas Giant when I was six...
Grow a set and get over the childhood trauma
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My dad took me on Big Bend when I was about that age. Nobody here remembers it, but it was a wild mouse coaster at Six Flags. The cars were basically like the logs in a log flume ride with 4 people lined up and 1 belt around the four of you. Scared the crap out of me.
Groovy Pictures (https://parktimes.com/content/node/3)
Park safety does seem to have taken a hit. Because of the much higher risk of state fair and traveling amusement rides, Six Flags was always heralded as the benchmark for safety. They always took maintenance very serious and only had reasonable and competent people operating the rides. I haven't seen anything that concerned me at a Six Flags park, but it does seem like the quality of 16 year olds they're hiring to run coasters has declined a bit. One of the things that happens when you go from 1 park to 18, I suppose.