rj1972

I'm usually pretty nostalgic, but I do like the new sign. I'm on the fence; however, with respect to the electronic screen.

We haven't been passholders or visited GA since pre-pandemic. What exactly are the issues with El Toro?

While we only ever had season passes, I'm scratching my head as to why they eliminated the memberships. From a business standpoint, memberships produce a more level stream of revenue and remain in place until the customer takes the initiative to cancel. I would agree that there were quite a few drastic changes to admission and dining this year. Dorney still has an all-season dining plan, but the clientele at Dorney is even scarier that Great Adventure.

Darn! We were hoping that we simply missed something on the website. The meal plan was such a nice benefit.

We haven't had passes since pre-pandemic, and went to order them today. Am I missing something or have they eliminated the all season dining plan? We noticed that memberships were discontinued and replaced with the three-tier season passes, which we are OK with. However, we stopped the purchase when we couldn't find the dining plan. It seems that they only have a four meal add-on.

I did notice the new roster of board members. Let's hope that between them and Mike, they can turn the business around.

I'm glad to see that they thought creatively to at least open the Safari. I attended the virtual SIX shareholders meeting on May 6th and there wasn't a whole lot of optimism. Keep in mind that their stock declined in 2019, and 2020 has been a disaster for them. They had to take a loan just to get them by, as well as implemented a poison pill to avoid a takeover. Jim Reid-Anderson ran the place into the ground, and left it with little oversees development and a high debt load. Meanwhile, the board members let Jim do his thing, and they all received their retainers in return. I surmise that the company may not make it if they are forced to keep everything closed all summer. It's a shame, but they just don't have a good business model. You can't charge next to nothing for season passes and dining plans, while investing millions a year in new attractions. We skipped Six Flags last year, as we had Disney passes. We had intended to purchase Six Flags passes this year, but will likely do nothing for now.

It will be interesting to see how all of this turns out. SIX recently put a poison pill in place to avoid a competitor takeover, as their stock price was tanking well before the virus hit. Their stock is down 65% year to date, and last year was also a dismal decline. Jim Reid-Anderson pretty much ran the company into the ground. Such a shame.

All of you are way too funny! You are acting as if a new attraction is really that important in your life.

That definitely is impressive. We usually arrive early, as well, so as not to deal with the fiasco. However, even being among the first through the gates, the FP HQ is either not yet open, or there is already a line in front of us. There really needs to be a better system.

Ugh! So maybe not as promising as I had hoped. I just find it ridiculous to have to stand in line for usually around 20 minutes in order obtain a device that makes your line waits shorter.

OK, that's good news, as it was a mess last year.

Quick question: We alternate years between Six Flags Season Passes and Disney Season Passes. We are slated to purchase Six Flags passes, dining passes, and all season flash passes during the Labor Day sale; however, we were curious if the park changed the location where members obtain their skip-a-line passes. Last year, we had waits that pushed 45 minutes at times at the Flash Pass Headquarters due to that facility being used for both Flash Pass and Skip-a-line members. If the dual use of the Flash Pass Headquarters has not changed, we may rethink Six Flags passes this year. Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Nitro's lines were over 90 minutes Saturday evening, as well. My Flash Pass Platinum was rendering wait times approaching 20 minutes. Interestingly, the Justice League had lengthy waits. El Toro was all over the place, as that ride was going up and down most of the afternoon. I'm certainly glad to see the crowds coming out. SIX just needs to figure out how to generate those types of attendance numbers outside of Fright Fest with other high-interest special events.

Disney charges $20 a day for parking.

I have absolutely no basis for my comment, but I find it hard to believe that the economics makes sense to move El Diablo. This is not a high budget ride, and I would have to think that the cost of demantling, shipping, and re-installing El Diablo is just not worth it.

I rode this for the first time today. It was interesting, but I sort of place it in the El Diablo category, as it was more hype than it deserved.

In my humble opinion, this is one of their best attractions. Yes, it’s a cross between Disney’s Buzz Lightyear and Universals Spider-Man, but it’s great for any age group, and not just another off-the-shelf ride.

Just out of curiosity, what is the $20 membership security deposit all about? Does Six Flags actually want the cards returned upon cancellation? Why on earth would they want them back? They are of no use if Six deactivates them???

I’m looking forward to the next quarterly conference call to see how the conversion is going to memberships. From a purely subjective standpoint, I am seeing quite a few people sporting their membership lanyards, as if they just received their shiny new black American Express Centurion cards. I think the lanyards was a great marketing idea. My my only concern is Six’s offering of four different memberships, as well as the traditional season pass. Too many options can confuse the consumer. I also don’t like that they priced Diamond and Diamond Elite so low. I feel that Gold and Platinum are priced relatively well, but they could have demanded a much greater premium for the two Diamond memberships. These are monthly payment plans, which lessens the blow for customers wanting to aspire to something greater.

On the last quarterly SIX conference call Jim indicated that they are really trying hard to steer customers towards memberships, as they generally represent a much longer customer commitment, and are more profitable for the company.

Yes, I believe this is to entice season pass holders to convert to memberships since season passes don't expire until the end of the year. You will have some season pass holders thinking that there is no need to purchase now since their season passes are valid through the end of 2018. This may hook some into converting to memberships, which is SIX's ultimate goal. As for me, I'll see my season pass through until the end of 2018, and forgo and type of pass or membership next year.

I wonder if Nora made them wait twenty minutes like she generally does to they paying public before she opened the ride?

It will be interesting to see what they do with membership pricing. I hope to goodness they don’t run a sale on them since prices are supposed to remain fairly stable on memberships. Plus, they sold more Diamond+ memberships than they expected. We alternate between Six Flags and Disney season passes, so whatever they do in a couple of weeks will have no bearing on us, as next year is a Disney year. However, I do still like to follow their Labor Day marketing splash.

They over hype and market each new attraction. Look at El Diablo. You would have thought that this was some new amazing world record setting coaster when they made the announcement. It turned out to be a low budget attraction, and nothing more. With SIX, it’s all about quantity of attractions—not quality of attractions. I haven’t been to GA since June, given my frustration with the line at the Flash Pass headquarters. We will likely visit next week, but only time will tell what they install next year. Meanwhile my SIX stock is not exactly setting the world on fire.