I predict that SF great adventure will have the highest attendance for a seasonal park this year. In all the trip reports i have read lines have been very long. I have no idea how pki had the highest attendance last year because everytime i went it was never crowded.
I feel that six flags made the right decision in putting in kingda ka at great adventure and neglecting the smaller parks. Look at it this way. Would you put a Wal-mart in a small town or a large city where there are tons of people? The return on investment will be higher at larger venue. Its basic economics.

[QUOTE=YoungStud]I predict that SF great adventure will have the highest attendance for a seasonal park this year. In all the trip reports i have read lines have been very long. I have no idea how pki had the highest attendance last year because everytime i went it was never crowded.
I feel that six flags made the right decision in putting in kingda ka at great adventure [b]and neglecting the smaller parks[/b]. Look at it this way. Would you put a Wal-mart in a small town or a large city where there are tons of people? The return on investment will be higher at larger venue. Its basic economics.[/QUOTE]

Please, don't start that again. The smaller parks were not neglected at all last season.

Yes, putting Ka in Gadv was a smart decision. People were telling everyone how smart it was, but were getting blasted for "being fanboys" and no one would listen. Time for people to eat their words...

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It is possibly that Great Adventure could take that crown with the addition of Ka raising attendance numbers by a large margin from last season.

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I would agree with that. I think SFGadv wil become the #1 SF park.

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KK will definitely add a lot of attendance. But that's the case whenever a new park adds a "record-breaking ride." That's the reasons parks do it. I'm sure if we looked at a ratio of park attendance:new rides, there would be a clear shift in the positive direction when new rides, especially ground-breaking, record-setting rides, are introduced. Simple business logic.

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[QUOTE=YoungStud] In all the trip reports i have read lines have been very long. [/QUOTE]
Maybe thats because the park has some VERY SLOW STAFF! and a few rides when I went were only running ONE TRAIN! and lets not forget how they were stacking all 3 trains on nitro all day... 2 of the 3 days I was at the park (one day it just had 2 ...but still stacked)

GAdv is a good park. Yes... But just because it has long lines doesnt mean it has more people in it.

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If they did get a big jumpin attendance because of Kingda Ka, it's somewhat of a shame since a majority of those people didn't even get to ride it. Being closed for nearly two months straight had to be a black eye for them to some extent. While a new huge ride will bring in crowds, it can also get people very upset when one of the main reasons they went isn't up and running.

I'm not sure how well Kingda Ka has been running since it reopened last month but my friend went there a little over a week ago. He said that it wasn't open then. Although he told me that he didn't even get to the park until 3pm or so. This was also on a Saturday. That was a huge mistake. You don't go to a popular park on a weekend and arrive that late yet. Because of that, he wasn't able to ride much. I don't know if Kingda Ka was open earlier possibly in the day and then shut down.

I know that for example, V2 and Deja Vu at SFGAm left some people upset. Since at that time customer service was somewhat lacking, it further aggravated people when both of the new rides were closed often and Deja Vu always had trouble it's first threee seasons (and still has periodical trouble to this day) and very long lines. I can't tell you how many people told me that everytime they were there, it wasn't running or on the rare time that it was, the line was outrageous. I've personally seen where the line extended far outside the queue. The queue itself is about a 2 1/2 hour to 3 hour wait. I'd imagine with it outside the queue, it could have been up to 4 hours. I imagine that the same has been true for Kingda Ka as well. If that ride breaks down after people have been waiting for hours, you're going to have some unhappy people just like SFGAm did with Deja Vu.

Opening these type of coasters that can be problematic can be risky. If they don't work fairly often, you're going to upset your guests and the effects of that can linger for a few years. SFGAm had a high attendance of 3 million in 1999 and it actually fell during the time they received those coasters. I would imagine part of that was due to disatisfaction with the customer service and a large part to rides not running.

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I want to go to John's Park.

[QUOTE]Would you put a Wal-mart in a small town or a large city where there are tons of people?[/QUOTE]

Dude, they put wall-marts everywhere... :eek:

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That's true. I think the attendance has gone up this year and will continue to in the next few years.

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[QUOTE=James]Maybe thats because the park has some VERY SLOW STAFF! and a few rides when I went were only running ONE TRAIN! and lets not forget how they were stacking all 3 trains on nitro all day... 2 of the 3 days I was at the park (one day it just had 2 ...but still stacked)

GAdv is a good park. Yes... But just because it has long lines doesnt mean it has more people in it.[/QUOTE]

That's why you note how the parking lot has been pretty full (something that happens rarely) often this season. There were a few weekends where the mail lot was near capacity.

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I believe attendance will be up this season, but I think PKI (or maybe PCW) will have the crown as the number one seasonal. Also, I think CP will be down to # 4 or #5 with SFGAdv and SFGAm swooping in to the #3 and #4 spots. A lot of people have underestimated the draw of the rest of the Golden Kingdom, even with Kingda Ka down for two months.

NEXT season will be the big one for SFGAdv, building on what they did this year and introducing another major ride, plus keeping Kingda Ka running all season. People who came this season are more likely to return in 2006 and good word of mouth combined with the new woodie should really bring the attendance up.

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[QUOTE=Cephas]Dude, they put wall-marts everywhere... :eek:[/QUOTE]

I WISH! :mad: democrats have tried to keep walmarts out of California for years, they dont care if they provide tons of new jobs (AND REALLY CHEAP STUFF!), they just care that their "non-union" and therefore dont like them.

we recently got our ONLY walmart put in in so cal, but it isnt a superstore, if you guys are wondering how the government can do this, they try passing bills resricting the size of markets, for the sole reason of keeping walmart away!

why do they do this??? democrats confuse me :flip:

I think once the hotel and the woodie are up and running GAdv will be a true destination.

I did not run into too many crowded days at the park actually. Then again I've averaged going to the park really early or late in the afternoon this year.

On a side note it's not polite to rub points in and make generalizations. Let's practice some humility.

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And I'll add to that. While I agree with some of what Blazen_azn said (although not how he phrased it), it's not the place for it. People shouldn't have sidetracked it in the first place by making posts that had nothing to do with this thread and only Wal-Mart. Politics are the last thing a thread on coasters and parks should be sidetracked by.

I think that if the woodie is reliable like woodies usually are and it's also a great ride, they will be doing great. What year is the hotel being built, is that in the work now? I think they will possibly be the #1 park in attendance of season amusement parks very soon if not already.

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I want to go to John's Park.