A couple questions for my good man Harpo

[CoolestCoaster]

Hey I was just wondering since you been to nearly all the parks across the country, which are your top 3? Your last 3? and also in your opinion which is better, SFMM or CP? Also, What do you consider the most enjoyful SF park?

If you can answer these that would be great.

[Harpo]

My #1 favorite is easy: Cedar Point. My #2 and #3 are much harder to pick. However, I'd probably go with Islands of Adventure and Knott's Berry Farm. Also in the running would be Holiday World, Hersheypark, and Kennywood.

Worst three? #116 is Williams Grove, #115 is Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. #114 would be a tossup between Camden Park, Satan's Village, er, Santa's Village in Illinois, Six Flags Wyandotte Lake, and Ghost Town In The Sky.

As for CP versus MM, no contest: CP. I can visit Magic Mountain for 7 hours and feel like I've done everything I want to do. (In fact, last time I was there, I left about 2 hours before close, cruised south, and rode GhostRider at Knott's to finish out the day.) On the other hand, I can visit Cedar Point for 3 days and feel like it isn't enough time to do everything I want to do. Besides the rides, I also enjoy their shows (it's possible to take a full day and do nothing but see shows -- I know, I've done it!), the beach, some of the sit-down restaurants, the delicious Toft's Ice Cream, the mini-golf, the museum in Frontiertown, some of the unique shops (especially on Frontier Trail), and, on the rare occasion when time permits, taking a ferry from Cedar Point to Sandusky across the Sandusky Bay. (They've also just opened a new cruise starting from Cedar Point. I don't know too much about it, but it sounds like it would be relaxing. The Harbour Belle is a 90 minute voyage around Sandusky Bay and into Lake Erie.)

Of course, it doesn't hurt that my 4 favorite coasters (out of 401 on my current roster) are located at Cedar Point. It also doesn't hurt that I grew up at the park, hence I feel very much at home there. But, in all honesty, there are only a couple of coasters at MM that I really like. Most of them I find to be bumpier than they need to be. It gives me the impression that Six Flags equates rough with exciting.

The Six Flags park I liked the best was St. Louis. It was the only Six Flags park I've visited that I would rate as above average. However, it was a very quiet day, hence it wasn't much challenge for the operators. My opinion may have changed on a busy day.

Meanwhile, most of my visits to Six Flags parks would rank as Average, Below Average, or Way Below Average. I would rather visit parks by Cedar Fair, Paramount, Kennywood Entertainment, Hershey, Universal, or Disney. I would also have a slight preference towards Busch over Six Flags.

Terribly sorry, but that's my opinion. It should also be noted that I've tried communicating (several times) with top officials at Six Flags in an effort to resolve the issues that I feel hinder their parks. Thus far, I've been VERY unimpressed with the results of these letters, phone calls, and visits to Guest Relations.

Six Flags owns some parks with some good rides. If they could have even an average operational capability, I'd be much happier with them. As it is, I'm so disgusted, I'm seriously considering avoiding their parks. After multiple bad experiences at Kings Island in the 80's, I avoided that park for over a decade. When I gave them another chance in 2000, I found that they'd improved significantly (under Paramount's ownership). I currently have a worse opinion of Six Flags than I did of Kings Island in the 80's. But, I enjoy riding coasters more now than I did in the 80's, so I'm really not sure what I'm going to do. I wish Six Flags wouldn't put me in such a position -- I want to have a good time at their parks, but they seem so determined to do things that spoil my visits. (The letters are each over 5 pages long -- I may post them on my website soon, but I'm not going to enter into details here, because it would simply take too long.)

[CoolestCoaster]

Well maybe my friends and I will take a car trip next year and go to CP. It seems like it would be a fun place to visit. Also whats your opinion of SF Over TX? I visited that park numerous times and I find it to be the best park so SF park so far. (I been to: SF Astroworld (Pitifully, I actually WORK here) SF Over TX, SF Fiesta Texas, Sea World San Antonio, SF New Orleans, SF Great Escape, and SF Over Geogia.) But hey thats just me. To you was the experience good to you?

I visted Sea World SA recently and rode Steel Eel and The Great White. The Great White WAS FUN!! You can feel the G's on your face on the second to last turn it was great. And the Steel Eel, it gave me alot of air time over the camel hills nafter the first drop. Whats your opinion of these 2 rides if you've rode them?

[CoolestCoaster]

Alos why are your SF experiences so bad? I always have a great time at there parks (except SFA, cause I have to work, but we do get rides before, and after everybody.) i know some of there rides are old and bumpy but everything can't be perfect now can it?

[Harpo]

Why are my Six Flags experiences bad? Well, like I said, I've had a couple of 5-page+ letters and a couple of phone conversations discussing it with Six Flags. I couldn't possibly do it justice in a few minutes posting here. But, I can briefly sum it up as significant safety issues, remarkable quantities of trash, exceptional inefficiency, and general unfriendliness. The safety issues are my number one concern, and they're also the ones that take the longest to explain.

Six Flags Over Texas was not as bad in the "attentiveness" issues as I've seen at other Six Flags parks, but they could still use improvements. However, they rank 115th for efficiency (with Six Flags Over Georgia being 116th) of the 116 parks I've visited. I suspect that it's not a coincidence that the two least efficient parks I've visited are also the only two parks I've visited that had the Q-Bot for $20. I broke down and rented it at SFOT -- if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to get on all the coasters, although the park really wasn't very busy that day. They were simply being remarkably inefficient.

I first visited SFOT in 1992. At the time, I saw enough problems that I said, "Someone's going to die at this park due to inattentiveness or ride condition." Unfortunately, on Sunday, March 21, 1999, my prediction proved valid as a rider was killed on the Roaring Rapids ride. I feel that attentive lifeguards on the ride possibly could have made a difference between an injury and a fatality in that accident.

Both times I visited the park, it felt to me like something was dragging on the tracks on Texas Giant. In 1992, everything felt fine for my first ride on Texas Giant, but I felt a problem the second time. I felt that same type of problem on my visit in 2003.

Added in edit: I forgot to mention Steel Eel and Great White. I liked those rides. Busch (owners of Sea World) tends to be quite inefficient with their ride operations, but they tend to do a good job on maintenance. Great White is a clone of the Batman coasters that are so common at Six Flags parks. However, the ride was in far superior condition, providing a faster, smoother, and therefore more enjoyable ride experience. Busch's real strength is in their landscaping. They tend to have very attractive parks.

[RCTForever]

07/28/03: Top Thrill Dragster Scheduled Status: Not To Be In Operation

LIES http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/news/ttdstatus.cfm

[CoolestCoaster]

HA HA! Someone actually noticed my "PUN". As you can figure, I don't like TTD. Not to go into explination as to why but I just don't.

O.K., O.K. You've convinced me to change my sig. Don't get so mad it was only a joke.

As for your post Harpo, I like The Great White, and it does get a higher ranking for smoothness and upto date paint work. Did you notice where the train connects to the track above? It had been painted like a shark and thought that was a cool touch.

As for SFoTX, When I went 07/09/02 and 07/14/03 they were running good.

On my first visit, ('02) They were doing a great job and most of the rides were a " Walk-On " I saw no problems that 2 days I spent there.

But now on this years visit - Diffrent story. The Rides were all running the first day, but the second Flashback was closed for the entire day for the brakes being stuck on the lift hill (reverse from the station). And also 1 of the trains on Mr. Freeze (Fav. Coaster by the way!) had only 1 car running at times both days. And near the end of the day around 8:30, some guy ****ed in the second row (Seat behind front.) of train B. So they closed that train for clean up. After about 10 minutes, they opened up that train again, and me being a single rider at all SF parks sat front row. The smell ws AWFUL! But hey how many people can say that sat in the front seatof a train with the other 3 seats empty on a semi-busy day?

As for ride maintence and effeciency, it was pretty good to my standards. (Remeber: I've only been to 1 other park from a SF park, and I also work at 1, so my standards are pretty low.) But to my suprise there was no trash, and I saw many workers on sweeping duty (can anyone say Handman 1??). As to my visit next year? BRING IT ON!!

[Harpo]

If you'd like a good comparison for efficiency, I'd recommend visiting parks run by Cedar Fair, Disney, Universal, Hershey, or an independent park called Holiday World. While even the best can have a bad day, those parks are generally quite good with the efficiency. (Note that Cedar Point regularly wins awards for highest ride capacity, which is a result of their high operating efficiency. Through my experiences, Cedar Point tends to be 2 to 3 times faster than many parks. I've been known to clock operations with a stopwatch, so I've had some decent data with which to work.)

On the other hand, you're likely to find slow operations at Paramount and Busch, and very slow operations at Six Flags. (I have seen cases at Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags Over Georgia where it took more than 1 minute just to open the air gates after the train had stopped and the passengers were released. There's just no valid excuse for that kind of delay.)

The operations at Kennywood Entertainment parks are reasonably efficient, but they need to be quicker at deciding to add extra trains.

[Squid2]

Harpo, which Busch? I've been to BG Williamsburg, and I'm wondering what makes them so inefficient? (Admittedly, my wife and I use the handicapped access.) And what is considered efficient anyway? Is it based on time, or what? (I'm not trying to argue the point, but I'm trying to figure out what you're seeing that I'm not.)

Squid2

[Harpo]

When looking at efficiency, I look partially at how long it takes them to turn around a train, and how many trains they're running in relation to the length of wait. Are trains frequently being stacked outside the station, or do they keep the trains flowing? At busy times, do they fill all the seats, or are there lots of empty seats?

With turning around a train, the factor that's almost completely outside of their control is how fast people get out of the train. (The only control there is how soon the harnesses are released.) Getting people into a train is somewhat outside of their control. Rides that have air gates, however, can easily be slowed down by inefficient operations. (As mentioned before, I've seen cases at Six Flags where it took more than a minute to open the air gates.)

Their biggest turn around factor is how quickly they check the harnesses. Do they saunter between the seats, or do they show some hussle? At Busch, they have a tendency to saunter.

Filling up all the seats can be a huge factor. Some parks do it in an inefficient manner -- the train is stopped, all the people have loaded, and there are some empty seats, so the operators hold everything until those seats are filled. A more efficient operation identifies the probable empty seats before the train arrives, and takes steps to fill them while waiting for the train. Then, when the train is in the station, there's no delay.

The easiest measure of efficiency is to determine how many riders can be pumped through the ride in an hour versus how many are actually being pumped through the ride. It's a function of the capacity of the ride and the efficiency of the staff. An efficient staff should always have a ride running close to maximum capacity when there are people waiting to ride. (There will always be some issues that slow things down, so equaling maximum capacity is unlikely.)

Oh, which Busch...

I've seen inefficient operations at Tampa, Williamsburg, Orlando, and San Antonio.