BuddyChrist

Theming can change right up until the ride actually opens. NOTHING is set in stone, especially in the theme park industry.

As long as he sees the parks as entertainment destinations instead of investment opportunities, he should do well. Hopefully he'll raise enough capital on the company end that Weber can work with. Right now the company should be focusing on selling more stock and assessing each park on an individual basis to see what each one needs to become a well rounded regional entertainment empire. More importantly, I'd like to see the end of the bombardment of advertisements and the end of the locker policy. Both are unnecessary and are really customer unfriendly. When parks of a similarr size can operate efficiently without both of those, then there's no reason why we can't.

Nope, just some really heavy rain in the span of 10 minutes, plus the drain got clogged up by a bunch of leaves

I don't know about Hersheypark, but I did take a trip to Hersheylake two weeks ago

The crest of the lift came down yesterday

There was 34,000 people there, you didn't miss much besides huge masses o' humanity!

Nope, no fireworks tonight because the wind didn't cooperate

I love the insane amount of headbanging in that commercial Of course back then, nobody really knew what "smooth" was on a coaster.

^ http://investors.sixflags.com/phoenix.zhtm...p=irol-govBoard These are the guys in charge, quite a diverse bunch. I keep thinking though that all of this is prep for a sale, all the daily staffing cuts and watching every dollar. I'm thinking it to be like a "Revive and resell" move but I could be wrong.

Without progress, there can be no future

Tower of Terror, now THAT would make a great movie.

From the park's Facebook Page: They're wasting no time. The loops are probably next

The last hayride that I went on in 2006 wasn't as great as the ones in years past. Maybe the staffing that day wasn't as much or Shapiro had come in and slashed the budget for it by that point. If they can recapture the quality of the late 90s hayrides, then it would be worth having it come back. The best place for it would be back by the Demented forest area now that Koala canyon is gone. But I don't think anyone would want to part with that terror trail

Goodbye brake run. OM NOM NOM

Is the Asbury Park Press trying to tell us something :-P By the way, the power outage was no big thing and many rides were up after half an hour. Anytime there's a slow news day, they always pounce on stuff like this.

Here's some of my favorite shots of Scream Machine that I've taken. Rust in Peace

You bring up a lot of good points, I never knew that they couldn't prop up divisions. I fold my hand good sir

Seasonal employees don't get overtime, so even if they work for 10 hours, they will only get paid their regular rate due to NJ classifying seasonal jobs as temporary and not entitled to the same benefits as permanent part-time jobs. The problem, as you say, is that the management is unwilling to sacrifice revenue for a high quality overhaul. Unfortunately, at this time and in this shaky economy, spending more than what you take in will hurt you with investors, no matter what the payoff in the end is. And I really don't see season pass prices as being "premium" compared to other parks and chains. With the amount of discounts at the parks (there are so many besides the Coke offer, there's a giant book full of them), people aren't paying for the entire gate price. The only thing that really is "premium" is parking, which has no discounts or credits that are offered. Everyone knocks on Six Flags for not having what other chains have, but they always don't see that they have global corporations behind them that are well funded and very stable with other business ventures that keep them secure. Six Flags doesn't have that luxury anymore like it did with Time Warner, it has to make it's money on the parks alone and then distribute them accordingly. I'm not saying that the company is perfect, but a lot of things have to come together in order for it to rise back to prominence like it once was. Unfortunately, the guest experience may be negatively impacted as the company finds its footing again but after that, the payoff should be significant.

^Maybe a few years ago that was true, but not this year, we've been doing it often so that we're not overstaffed for slower days. See, that's what I'm thinking too. A lot of this seems to be dressing up the company for a sale. With the company out of Chapter 11, there's a lot of fluidity with many of the old restrictions now gone. If the current owners can build the company into a profitable enterprise, then they may find some willing buyers. My only fear is that talk of a sale may fracture the new board and lead to another shareholder vote, killing any confidence in the brand in the business world.

There is a lot of infrastructure in Texas already, so uniting the company in one location is the best thing that can happen as it doesn't spread out resources at the corporate level. I'd love to see what Premier started in '05 with the Golden Kingdom finished by the new team. In order to do that, a lot of debt still has to be taken away. If Weber pays down the debt to a more manageable level, perhaps more elaborate additions and revamps could be possible. As for the cutbacks in hours, it saves a LOT of money. With the increased snow in the winter, many schools were staying in session a week later than usual. But, the staffing budget still accounted for those groups being out of school and coming to the park. When the budget is for 18,000 people and only 11,000 come, the extra staffing isn't needed on those days. By taking the staff off of the payroll that day, the park saves a lot of money. And it's not only in staffing to, but we also save in foods (spoilage), electric, and materials. By saving money in these areas, it means there is more money for paying off the debt and for new capital additions. Under Shapiro, he would take out or close rides as ways to save money. Staffing is one of the most expensive things for a park and if you can ease its impacts on finances by making calculated cutbacks in certain areas, you can do a lot more.

Probably the only thing I liked about Viper was the trains. The color and curves of it made it seem so much more modern than the boxy and older Scream Machine trains. A themed train is hard to come by nowadays, but to me Viper always had the best in the park (when you actually saw them outside the storage shed)

A lot of the lifeguards are also minors, so it's hard to keep the park open past 7 due to laws governing the hours that minors can work. It would be really bad to have a barebones staff for night swimming, attractions such as the Lazy River and Discovery Bay would have to close early due to the amount of lifeguards it takes to staff them.

I'd be in favor of removing the buidling and eruption for a Giant Frisbee or, even better in my opinion, a Splash Battle. If you think about the placement of our other water rides, putting one in the boardwalk would be a great idea as it would not overlap and would fit in perfectly with the boardwalk theme. The boardwalk is probably one of the worst places to be on a hot day as it's all concrete with no trees to shade any of it. Putting in a water attraction would encourage more people to come to that section of the park and play some games as well!

The whole Boardwalk area is supposed to be a tribute to Jersey and it's historical boardwalks. There have been many sightings and stories of him along the shore, so fitting him into the section wouldn't be totally hard to do. I'd love to see something unique to the park and unique to NJ, plus it's free of licensing and such.