Rusted Sky

We promised the little guy we'd go to Six Flags this year. And we did, on Saturday.

You know something? It was a lot more fun 20 years ago. Of course, Saturdays are big days in any amusement park, but it sure seemed like the park's unable to handle the crowds they're drawing. We got there around 3:30, got into the park about 4:30 (we weren't that far back in the parking lot, but there was a tram and we figured we'd save our feet... that was a time-wasting mistake) and were about to ride the Mine Train (it not having a TERRIBLY long line, only about 45 minuntes) when thunderstorms popped up in the area and they shut it down for about 45 minutes.

So we stayed in line there. If the rides were closed, why bother going to another one? We waited... and waited... and waited... and finally it started up again and we made it through about 6:30. Time for dinner - and we decided on ribs and chicken... only to find when we arrived that the concessions folk were far more concerned with talking amongst themselves in groups than with taking care of the customers. I was very impressed at their ability to NOT provide the service that would yeild a meal for hungry park-goers.

We gave up on that and hit up one of the Papa John's pizza stands. $45 later, we had four large slices of pizza, (two with pepperoni), two bottles of water, two orders of cheese bread, and two small drinks. We sat at a non-too-clean table, and cleaned it when we left (leaving it considerably cleaner than when we sat down) and staggered on. We separated - and I and the little guy's friend went to the Great American Scream Machine, while Sue and the little guy went to stand in line for the bumper cars. We finally met up again close to two hours later - the lines were indeed that bad.

I was going to try to ride Goliath, the new coaster at the park - but it was after 9 and the park closed at 10, and the line areas for THAT were full and then some - so I went with the others to try riding Thunder River. We stood in line for about 50 minutes, and rode it at 10:10. Then it was time to stagger out - and with the trams to the parking lot overloaded, it was 'March or Die' time as we hoofed it to the car. (The little guys were barely able to make it.)

We exited the parking lot itself at 11:15. There wasn't any sort of traffic control visible. All in all, a thouroughly unpleasant day. At the park tickets would have been $50 each, or $40 on-line. A family of 4 showing up at the gate would have been out close to $300 for tickets, food and drinks. ($3.50 for a bottle of water? $3.49 for a small drink?)

The company itself isn't doing so hot. I don't expect it'll fail, but it's not healthy, and seems to be confusing adding new rides at the park with actually making a park work well. There's a certain price/value ratio that must be maintained in order to keep the customers coming back - and as far as I'm concerned the price badly outweighs the value.

J.