BuddyChrist

^That's not entirely true, there were massive layoffs and cuts in staffing all across the chain in September. They haven't been replaced but many aren't around anymore.

I wholly disagree with making it an upcharge event. After visiting Halloween Haunt at Dorney and seeing how many mazes and intricate details they did, there's no reason that our park could justify charging on top of a $50 ticket to do Fright Fest. As it was I only payed $29 for Dorney and it included all of the attractions which were light years ahead of Fright Fest.

The Cyber Cafe and Boardwalk Food Court were steps in the right direction (Ichiban=Yum!) but I'd like to see more offerings like La Cocina around the park or at long last, a sit down restaurant!

I still think a Rainforest Cafe would go great in the Golden Kingdom if they choose not to bring back the tigers, that's prime real estate for redevelopment (Though I would much prefer the tigers coming back!)

The Karate Kid and Grown Ups ads in Kingda Ka's station and one train were overly obnoxious. Those misting signs are really the only approriate place for unthemed ads.

Just thought about this, but what coaster (if any) might be repainted in the offseason? My preference would be Nitro, but it may be Superman because of its highly visible location and proximity to the new attraction.

TDK won't be rethemed, they'll still retain the rights for any DC character that is in the park, Terminator also won't because its a WB property. The things that are being dropped are really third party branding that was brought into the chain over the last few seasons.

We can hope that this move will also motivate them to cut down on the amount of advertising in the park itself.

De-Wiggling the area would not be all that hard IMO, it could easily be be reunited with the Seaport with a few tweaks here and there. A lot of the old Seaport stuff is still lying around in the backstage area. This is the PERFECT opportunity to give a face lift to that entire area back there. What I would highly suggest is routing Skull Mountain's exit into a redesigned gift shop so you're eyes aren't burned out of their sockets when you step out of the dark tunnel and into bright paint!

Ah, my mistake then. I wonder why the investor presentation said Memorial Day then

I was told to go by my coworkers at the park, but I didn't have the time or gas to get there! Maybe they'll hold it again next year!

That's a dam shame, I wanted to eat there when I was older but I guess that will never happen. It's ebarassing how politics and legal jargon can really screw over a landmark restaurant, this will come back to bite the city in the long term.

I saw it with my girlfriend the first Saturday of Fright Fest (10/9), we weren't terribly impressed with it, that bright light behind Ghoulmaster really bothered us when we were sitting there as it blinded us. The dancing was top notch but the script was really meh. If we had something along the lines of Bill and Ted at Universal it would've been much more enjoyable.

On the other hand, it was nice to see a show in the Showcase theater that wasn't Hypnosteria!

At this pace I doubt a Memorial Day opening, but if it is to be themed well, it may just need that extra time to come together. I have to say it's nice that they're using Facebook to keep us updated on the progress with big photos instead of the main website with those tiny pictures!

Some of the best food in the park is in this place, but I really wish that we still had that 50's Diner theme, I don't remember it at all! The theming of Mama Flora's is really out of place, the whole park is fragmented in cohesive themes. The Medieval theme seems much more appropriate for the Old Country than Fantasy Forest (if they ever reopen the Old Country)

I gotta think Eruption's on the chopping block soon, the cost of maintenance and operation versus profit is probably horribly unbalanced (as it almost never operated with a full load of 6 people this summer.) and it is always having problems. I say take it down and really redo the sim theater with an awesome queue area and cool preshow inside the old queue area.

Oh and no more lockers would make people much more happy to be in the park and encourage more sales of the souvenir cups!

Nothing really draws me to the park besides the coasters. With the shows cut back, flat rides almost non-existant, water rides down to 2, and high prices, it's hard to justify bringing anyone to the park that isn't under 5 or over 10, which means you cut out a huge amount of families. Rides like Evolution allowed those kids in the 5-10 age range go on rides while their older siblings go on coasters or allowed everyone to ride together. If you're not riding a coaster in the park, you aren't doing anything else.

I would keep my eyes on it for 2012, they've done too much work to just give up on it now.

I didn't cast a vote because I haven't experienced all of them that are listed. I went to Dorney Park's Haunt this year for the first time and it just blows Fright Fest out of the water. The entire park has decorations, the lights have red gels over them so the park is bathed in eerie darkness, there are 11 trails and mazes INCLUDED with admission and there are actors and fog all over the park. They make great use of their facilities and really know how to pull of the concept of a Scream Park, and for the price they charge, it was well worth it.

Improve the bottom line by cutting back, attract new investors, and then a sale takes place. I highly doubt that the current board is in this for the long haul from the way things have been going lately.

Maybe we'll be Cedar Fair's next conquest, buy up your main competitor. It could actually work out better than you'd think.

I voted unsure for management because I want to see how they perform in a full season of control from start to finish. It's hard to gauge the performance of a new team when they step into a company that is doing things according to the last team's budget. The same thing happened with the RedZone takeover so I'm gonna wait and see how they handle the budget and operations in the upcoming season.

I'm just thankful we're getting a stand-up, it really compliments our coaster collection nicely. Now if we could only get some flats too

Well at least he's back home in Texas, We'll miss him though.

^Funatics was a mess, there were so many problems and glitches with the system. It bogged down a lot of people trying to fix them and created many complaints when they would get 1 reward and not get more or people would sign up their 7 year old when the program stated you had to be 13 to be eligible. Trust me, Funatics was a nice idea, but the computerized way of issuing rewards was absolutely awful. It needed to use it's own dedicated system instead of sharing the online ticketing program and trying to link it to the SP database.

As for the Tigers, my thinking is that the whole pathway connecting the boardwalk to the GK may be closed off due to construction and they don't want to have the tigers doing shows with construction going on nearby (the rendering brings a helix really close to the Temple.) It's just a temporary thing as the Tiger show is still very popular even 5 years after its debut.

From Screamscape

In a very shocking piece of news, Screamscape has learned from a source that the Six Flags corporate office fired three of their top GMs this week. The list is said to include Eric Gibert from Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, longtime respected GM Mark Kane at Six Flags Great Adventure and the loved Jay Thomas at Six Flags Magic Mountain who has been praised for really turning that park around in the last few years.

No reason or even confirmation has come from the Six Flags corporate office yet, so this is quite shocking to a good number of people, as these were some of the top GMs in the entire chain. Valued members of the company, so it’s hard to imagine how or why the new Six Flags board would dismiss them. In the case of SFMM and SFGAdv, I’m told that Thomas and Kane brought up the guest satisfaction scores at both those parks to all time record high levels never seen before. Unlike the dismissal of the former SF New England GM earlier this summer who had close personal ties to Shapiro, these guys were longtime company men, around long before the Shapiro era.

From what I was told Dale Kaetzel (a former GM of Canada’s Wonderland and also involved with Hard Rock Park) will take over SF Discovery Kingdom, a returning Marketing Director named Bonnie Rabjohn will slide into Thomas’ seat at The Mountain and John Fitzgerald (formerly of Freestyle Music Park) will take the hot seat in the New Jersey park. You can also read a bit more about Kaetzel and Fitzgerald at Catchment, a themed entertainment / attraction management service the two were partners in.

Freestyle Music Park? That's quite a gamble to be taking, especially with the top park in the chain. I would have liked to see them promote from within the park or company instead of bringing in people from other companies. There are plenty of great Directors in the park that would make awesome GMs or Park Presidents. I'm just baffled by this move.

You gotta know the right people!

I wonder what Viper's looked like

The music changes with the Top 20 pop songs it would seem. I'm glad they've kept Movietown's music as being movie soundtracks, but the rest of the park is drowned in top 20 pop songs, most likely to streamline the sound system of the park and synchronize them across the park.

With all of this management shake up though, it will be interesting to see how things shape up not only for next year, but also for Fright Fest.