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.

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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[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 have no clue how walmart even came up, but yeah, ill try to make a constroctive post this time.

I really do think this is a great sign for SFI i havn't seen them put in a new woodie in awhile, (they may have though, i dont know) im just glad they have not forgot about them, and hopefully will put one in SFMM, god knos we need a better woodie.

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]I don’t know what were talking about. Walmart or Six Flags?[/size][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]I don’t really think it maters if SF in New Jersey has the most attendance or if SF in CA has it or if next year SF in Georgia might have it. Every year a park does something that raises the ride and coaster bar. But its not people traveling all over the world to visit that park that makes there attendance go up. It’s the people right in there own back yard. Every park will tell you there biggest crowed comes from the cities that surround it.[/size][/font]

[font=Times New Roman][size=3]It’s funny because if you asked people at my home park (Hershey) what the biggest coaster in the world is. Half of them would say Storm Runner. They just don’t know what’s really out there.[/size][/font]

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^Exactly. That's why I always find it amusing when people question why a lot of the smaller parks don't get rides as often as bigger parks. Bigger parks generally are in more populated areas and small parks in areas that aren't as populated.

And as you wished in your signature, welcome to TN. Don't forget to introduce yourself in the Time Square section.

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Whatever the park has in attendence, I think that with the new woodie going up in 2006 and a hotel going up in 2007, they should try to spend some time and money improving aspects of the park that are already there. Like getting their current coasters to work (with adequate capacity for their ever increasing guests), facelifts to areas of the park that really need it, ride themeing that was in place when rides first opened that they don't even seem to care about anymore, and definitely, better quality, prices and options in food!!

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Yea they should try to improve capacity an wait times. On a hot august day waiting an hour an a half for Nitro is brutal.

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DmnAdam, they have been doing that for two years now. Check out this.
[url]http://amusementpics.com/B&A/sfga_ba_01.htm[/url]
It only works in IE. Props to GAcoasterguy for a great job on that page.

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That is a very kewl page...love it!

I didn't say that they weren't doing anything....however I feel they still have a long way to go if they want to make their apparent aspirations for a resort to really become reality. Especially if they plan to compete with other resorts.

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Yeah, SFNJ has become the star park on the east coast.
For a while, they were kinda building up SFoG. With the new coaster next year, it will move them up a little, but SFNJ is still the top dog on the east coast.
The star SF parks are in or near major cities where they can draw lots of people.
It goes back to what I was saying in the other thread.
You'll find each company has a major park on the east and west coast.

I am very proud to call GAdv my home park :). Can you tell by my username? But with the 06' woodie coming, the hotel coming in 07', and god only knows what is planned inbetween/after, GAdv is looking to be even better then now.

With the possible changes in SF ownership going on now, I think the hotel may ben in danger of not seeing the light of day.

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If the chain changes hands, I would hope that they are intelligent to keep all projects that are in production and not just on the drawing board going. IMO, it would be a stupid move to stop the hotel after ground has started being tested and township approval has been given. It's at a point where you shouldn't return.

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