Photo Trip Report: April 6th, 2019 - Opening Day #46

[29yrswithaGApass]

Click the logo below to view the full trip report:

 

 

Samples below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Yoshi]

Great pictures. I like that listing of the other Six Flags parks that looks like road signs and shows how far each other park is. The Stongman Challenge game looks like it will probably draw a lot of crowds. 

[Pineracer]

I saw on Twitter that SFNE now has a members only zone in their former Whistlestop Park (only have the train), did you see if Great Adventure did that. There is that area to the left of Joker that is just woods and fireworks viewing area (which like used for barely a week a year) that could work, especially in the summer

[29yrswithaGApass]

The major restaurants now have members only tables blocked off and a new relaxation station is being added near the Wonder Woman ride for members.

[Medusa42]

It's nice to see all of the new improvements to the park.

[SFGadv123]

I wonder if they are permanently getting rid of the yellow rails on Superman or if they are just painting it all red for now and will go over it with yellow after.

 

Also, it appears they are reeeaaalllly going all out on benefits for members. I've gotten a season pass every year for the past I believe 9 years and the thing about the membership is I just don't want to have to make a monthly payment for it, I prefer just paying for the pass once a year. But unfortunately my loyalty of buying a pass every year means nothing cause I'm not making a monthly payment lol

[The Master]

6 minutes ago, SFGadv123 said:

I wonder if they are permanently getting rid of the yellow rails on Superman or if they are just painting it all red for now and will go over it with yellow after.

 

Also, it appears they are reeeaaalllly going all out on benefits for members. I've gotten a season pass every year for the past I believe 9 years and the thing about the membership is I just don't want to have to make a monthly payment for it, I prefer just paying for the pass once a year. But unfortunately my loyalty of buying a pass every year means nothing cause I'm not making a monthly payment lol

 

It sucks, also I added up the payments, and even the lowest membership costs more in total than a season pass. 

[Matt Kaiser]

1 hour ago, The Master said:

 

It sucks, also I added up the payments, and even the lowest membership costs more in total than a season pass. 

 

You can't compare the two since it's Gold and Gold Plus. It's a higher level with clearly more benefits.

[29yrswithaGApass]

 It is interesting to note the extra Wonder Woman sign at the top facing only the employee parking lot. It seems like the ride could be a prime future candidate for ride rotation just like the Condor was with its lake facing sign.  

 

 

[The Master]

9 hours ago, Matt Kaiser said:

 

You can't compare the two since it's Gold and Gold Plus. It's a higher level with clearly more benefits.

 

 You always get charged more when you pay in installments rather than all at once due to the time value of money. Some of those benefits used to be included on the season passes and are just a way to make the memberships seem to have greater value than they do. The sad fact is they are turning their backs on SP owners and trying to force them to go with memberships to pad out their cash inflows from operations. 

[GAcoaster]

There's nothing wrong with Six Flags trying to even out their revenue stream while giving more benefits to encourage you to do it. 

 

Memberships just make sense for them since it means they no longer have several months of the year with no revenue stream from parks. That along with the extended seasons of all their parks makes a lot of financial sense and also makes their revenue stream much more predictable. 

[harry2004]

12 hours ago, 29yrswithaGApass said:

 It is interesting to note the extra Wonder Woman sign at the top facing only the employee parking lot. It seems like the ride could be a prime future candidate for ride rotation just like the Condor was with its lake facing sign.  

 

 

maybe that is a mistake

Edited April 7, 2019 by harry2004

[p_loots]

So happy to see all of the small cosmetic improvements being done at the park! The small details really do matter. I'm sad to see the Safari Tours car ride go, but it makes you wonder if anything is in store for the Looney Tunes Seaport/Safari Kids sections of the park. There's a lot of empty ride pads in that area.

[Matt Kaiser]

10 hours ago, The Master said:

 

 You always get charged more when you pay in installments rather than all at once due to the time value of money.

 

You have this backwards. It is better to pay in installments due to the time value of money since there is no interest. You want to be the one holding onto the money, so if you can delay giving it away, that's where you get the time-value of money.

If you pay $120 at once, that's $120 completely gone with no time-value gained.

If you pay $10 per month, you get to keep $110 the first month to invest. Month 2, you have $100 left plus what you earned last month to invest. At the end of 12 months, you'll have spent the same $120, but you gained money either by investing it or at least gaining interest.

 

 

 

[The Master]

53 minutes ago, Matt Kaiser said:

 

You have this backwards. It is better to pay in installments due to the time value of money since there is no interest. You want to be the one holding onto the money, so if you can delay giving it away, that's where you get the time-value of money.

If you pay $120 at once, that's $120 completely gone with no time-value gained.

If you pay $10 per month, you get to keep $110 the first month to invest. Month 2, you have $100 left plus what you earned last month to invest. At the end of 12 months, you'll have spent the same $120, but you gained money either by investing it or at least gaining interest.

 

 

 

 

Yes, but the business will charge a higher total price, even if there is no interest charged by them, which can offset whatever interest you might earn in a short term investment. Interest rates are generally pretty low for short term investments. Just for an example, suppose you can buy an item for $60 now, or for 4, $20 payments with zero interest which still totals $80. Many businesses do this to offset the time value cost of delayed payment to them, and often do not list the total to customers. This is a topic probably better suited for a different thread since I didn't mean to sidetrack 29's trip report.

 

I visited the park on Sunday, wasn't too busy. Most of the rides were running. Only issue was that JL was stacking really bad and interupting the ride. Hopefully they will solve that soon. 

[Matt Kaiser]

2 hours ago, The Master said:

 

Yes, but the business will charge a higher total price, even if there is no interest charged by them, which can offset whatever interest you might earn in a short term investment. Interest rates are generally pretty low for short term investments. Just for an example, suppose you can buy an item for $60 now, or for 4, $20 payments with zero interest which still totals $80. Many businesses do this to offset the time value cost of delayed payment to them, and often do not list the total to customers. This is a topic probably better suited for a different thread since I didn't mean to sidetrack 29's trip report.

 

I see what you're saying - it sounded like your issue was just with the payment schedule. Memberships are a higher price per year, but they are higher tier offerings, so it's not quite the same thing without a Gold Membership to compare. Six Flags actually does what you're describing in reverse where the monthly price for a Membership is over half the price of the ridiculous and made-up "full cost" upfront "Season Membership" option that they offer. They actually care more about just increasing recurring revenue to appease shareholders/investors and build longterm sustainability over caring about offsetting their time value cost.

[GAcoaster]

Businesses count on the fact that if you have any kind of membership with automatic draft billing, you'll just continue to pay every month and not cancel. They want to keep you as a member and so many people never look at their credit card bills they never notice they're still paying for something long after they stop using it.  

[Pineracer]

On 4/7/2019 at 11:26 PM, The Master said:

I visited the park on Sunday, wasn't too busy. Most of the rides were running. Only issue was that JL was stacking really bad and interupting the ride. Hopefully they will solve that soon. 

 

My friend Marissa, who works at Justice League, said that one of the screens wasn't working and she went in and "increased guests experience" (or something along those lines, not sure about the exact wording anymore).