I went to SFA today from 10:30am to about 4:30. It wasn't really crowded all day, with very short lines (but those lines were much longer in time length because of the ridiculously slow employees). The only thing the park has going for it, is being fairly clean, but that is pretty much the only thing they are doing right. Either Shapiro is doing a terrible job at running Six Flags, or he changed this park much yet.


Superman: Ride of Steel: decent, but not great. Thankfully, it was smooth unlike most of the other coasters at SFA. There are two major flaws in the ride though, the two boring helixes and the two extensive straightaways. Those two elements greatly hurt the ride. Though, it was still tied for the best at SFA. 7/10

Joker's Jinx: decent, but not great as well. Nothing like FOF at KD, this design is much better indoors. It was poorly paced until the end, when it started getting pretty fun. 6/10

Two Face: just ok. fairly rough, but not what I was expecting. 5/10

Wild One: decent wooden coaster, the last helix is terrible though (it needs to be banked a little more instead of just basically flat turn). 5/10

Roar: great wooden coaster. Exactly what I expected from GCI, very well designed. The only complaint I have is that it needs millennium flyer trains instead of the PTCs. It does get a little rough, especially if you're not in the very front row. Tied for the best at SFA. 7/10

Batwing: it's OK I guess, but the B&M flyers are superior IMO. It was kind of boring, but it wasn't as bad as I had expected. 5/10

Mind Eraser: my first SLC! I don't know of any other coaster I've ridden that has headbanging on a turn after the brake run. It, thankfully, did have padded head restraints, which really helped (a good tip for it is to push your head as hard as you can into it, which helps on the headbanging some). The last two barrel rolls/in-line twists were the worst two parts of the ride, with the sidewinder coming in a close second. There were literally no good comments about the ride coming off of it. It is truly one of the most poorly engineered rides I've ever ridden. It doesn’t even deserve to be scrap metal. 0/10

-I did find a way to make the SLC a little (emphasis on little) less rough, if you push your head into the padded restraint as hard as you can, and keep it there throughout the ride, it should help some-

Here’s how I rate a park:
Quality of rides (up to 8 points): 1.5
Overall Staff (up to 1 point): 0
Park Operations (usual reliably, cleanliness, efficiency of staff, etc – up to 1 point): .5
SFA's Score: 2/10

Here’s how I rate an independent visit:
Number of rides running efficiently (up to 4 points): 1
Cleanliness (up to .75 point): .75
Staff (up to .25 point): 0
SFA's Score: 1.75/5
-Note- Quality of rides is determined by actual ride quality, amount or quality of scenery/theming or other interactive elements do nothing for this grade.

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...and that's my opinion of SFA

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Never been there, but a 2/10?! That's rough.

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Valleyfairzone.com
Your guide to Valleyfair!
- MCBS ~ BCC - CACI ~ MA - CE ~ HSF - CDD ~

Lol, my dad gave it a 0/10 and considered it the worst, major, park he's ever been to.

It could be a lot better, but they need some new, quality, rides. They also need an entire new management team, ride ops, and better upkeep (while upkeep doesn't effect my rating of a park, many rides and other objects need new paint). If Shapiro wants to keep SFA, he has a lot of work to do with it, which includes straying from his "all family, no thrills" plan with new thrill rides.

Oh yea, I forgot to add that their drop tower is still closed (I'm assuming due to the SFKK incident). It has to be the smallest 2nd gen. in the world too.

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SFA is by far the worst amusement park that i have ever been to! (and that's saying something considering that I have been to Mt. Olympus).

I think you hit the nail right on the head...terrible!!

It seems like you had a decent time, but from talking to you on aim it seemed like you hated the park! I've never been to this park before, but I'll definitely take your views into consideration if I ever do.

You thought it would be bad because it was a Six Flags park

Not all Six Flags parks are bad. They hire in from the DC area, where the majority of the employees don't care and just want paychecks every week.

I've been there before also, and I understand where you are coming from, but the rest of the Six Flags parks that I have been to are fine (excluding SFKK, but thats a different story, and a different situation with that)

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I was expecting Darien Lake to be much the same when it was still owned by SFI, but I believe that must have been the best Six Flags park. Or my memory's flawed.

SFMM was sorta a dump, I went in expecting at least good capacity, and didn't get that. Though admittedly, it was all highschoolers with a desire for thrills that day.

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o hai. i herd u liek mudkipz?

I thought the park was not worth my visit this year because of the gas prices and overall deserved a C. My opinions of the coasters based on a visit last year are different. Wild One came through as a new surprise and taking top honors for best ride in the park with Two Face and Roar since Superman and Joker's Jinx were riding rough in 2006. Superman was facing a big decline in my favorability since last year's ride. I don't even want to talk about Batwing and Mind Eraser.

I agree about the layout of the park. Who wants to meet a dead end with a crappy SLC? Ha.

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Thrillnetwork Moderator - Rookie Year CHILLERLC1
Philadelphia Phillies - the 2008 World Champions!!!
LZ to SFA?

I guess I'm gonna have to be the one to stand up for SFA...


First off I think your ride rankings are insane.

Wild One is a great classic coaster with some of the best airtime around. The final helix has a thing called "laterals" many find them to be fun. I for one do.

Joker's Jinx is worse then FOF? I'm sorry but I find that laughable at best. The pacing is bad on JJ? How may I ask is it better on FOF? FOF has HORRIBLE pacing, it comes to a complete freaking stop on the mid course brake... The second half has ZERO speed until the final turns and the corkscrew. JJ has no midcourse brake so it keeps its speed up throughout. FOF is also way more rough IMO.

And I personally don't understand how you could say Batwing is boring but B&M flyers aren't... All B&M flyers have going for them is the pretzel loop, other then that those rides are terribly boring and forceless IMO. I find the Vekoma flyers far better just because they have lots of varieties in forces and more interesting elements. I haven't been on Tatsu only 2 of the Superman flyers, so I'm basing my opinion on those...



All I'm going to say in regards to the employees being slow is Batwing is the only ride I've ever had a problem with. Because the ride is extremely slow loading to begin with and normally only uses one train nowadays, and there is normally one slow employee messing up the work the rest of the crew is putting in. However every other ride I can't blame the employees for slow loading. Next time you're at a better quality park notice how every single coaster has lots of people working on it. Two people at the entrance making sure noone has loose articles and that their heights are fine, 4 different people checking restraints, and finally the ride operator. Six Flags will normally only staff their coasters with the three people. The operator and 2 attendants. This means that the attendants have to do more jobs and check more restraints there then at the other parks, they need to check heights, insure noone has loose articles, etc. Checking heights being the main problem. Plus on Wild One you cannot dipatch one train until the second train hits the final brake run... So you NEED to stack trains, its required by the computer... The fastest you can dispatch is one train leaves the station first thing the other one hits the final brakes.

I'm biased because I've been going to the park for years and worked as a ride op last summer, but its not just that the employees are slow or lazy, there are management and operating procedures at that park that are the main problem. Also, after working there, its easy to become lazy or restless when you're working a full shift from 9:30 am until 10:30 at night and you don't get a single break all day for the bathroom, food, etc.

So basically my rant is saying I don't blame the employees as much as I blame the management at Six Flags.



And finally. You NEVER need flash pass at SFA, that doesn't make sense. The lines are always short at that park, you can finish all the coaster in under 3 hours easily.

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Rebel Yell is better backwards.

Interesting perspective. Being a former member of upper supervision for a high quality theme park, I have to agree and disagree with you.

First of all, operating procedures are there for the safety of everyone, guests and employees. However, employees should learn how to follow the operating procedures and run the ride in an efficient manner.

Also, the park that I worked at had different staffing requirements based on the number of trains in operation. If we were running two trains, the requirement is less than three trains. However, employees were required to operate efficiently, even with less capacity.

It sounds like you may be bitter at the management, who may be a problem. However, there is no excuse for poor efficiency at any park, at anytime, by any employee. If one cannot handle the shifts they are being given, they can speak with their supervisor to change it or visit their human resources office to make a change. And, if that does not fix the problem or HR is not a possibility, then they most certainly have the right to simply quit. (Personally, I used to hand out applications to McDonald's tothe lazy employees on my crews and tell them that they could get paid two dollars more and hour to say, "Can I take your order?")

If a park like SFA can get quality employees to work at their park, then maybe these problems that we all complain about can be changed. However, this most of the time requires higher pay and better oppurtunities than a seasonal job and will most likely never happen. So, with that said, good luck to SFA because if they cannot change their way of doing business, they are going to keep having to deal with the same problems over and over.

Just by simply hiring more people SFA would be better off all in all. Because then they wouldn't have as many issues with not even being able to give people bathroom breaks and operating rides with minimum number of employees possible to do so safely.

Its a vicious cycle where the lowest staff members get exploited by the higher ups in the park, so in turn the employees become bitter and won't do their job as well the way I see it. I'd be glad to work a full day 6 days of the week like last summer, but I need to be given time to eat and go to the bathroom which they don't do.

Honestly this whole thing is more then just a little blown out of proportion, though, by the thread starter. Complaining about trains being stacked at that park is really just plain unnecessary, if they dispatched a train 10 seconds faster on every cycle your average wait at any given ride would go from a 2 train - 10 minute wait to a 1 train - 5 minute wait. Its not like their looking at 2 hour long lines like CP or something. And the GP don't really notice slow dispatch times in my experiences, only coaster enthusiasts get really animated first thing a crew starts stcking trains...

Basically SFA doesn't stress speed in operating anyways, the head of the rides department stresses safety above everything else and they constantly sacrifice speed for slightly more intense safety measures.
They would rather have attendants check every seat belt on Wild One to insure they are tight and have the train get dispatched 30 secs later rather then have the attendants move as fast as possible and simply check the lap bars...

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Rebel Yell is better backwards.

^Well at most Batwing can get up to two hour queue times mainly due to the slow loading process & use of only one train.

Now what really just kills capacity at the park on their coasters is the use of the flashpass system simply because the ops don't know how to handle the large volumes of guests using the system on any given ride<superman is usually the main culprit> & they'll just load an entire train full of flashpassers making the rst of us have to wait longer only to have yet another group show up by the time the train returns & the process is simply repeated.

I'm still ticked off with the staff on two face for allowing about half a trainload of flashpassers on board but not even bothering to open the gates to let the rest of us board the train at all.

Okay, so I tried to keep the quote to a minimum, but it didn't work because I have too much to reply to...

First of all, you are probably right on hiring more employees. That would help a lot. I personally worked 6 full shifts a week when I was a supervisor, averaging 60-70 hours per week. When a operated rides, I was always given more than enough break time to remain happy with my job. Because of this, I ensured that employees who reported to my when I was a supervisor got the approrpriate amount of break time. However, I didn't work at SFA either.

For lowest level of employees being exploited, what do you mean by that? How are they being exploited? I am truly interested in a response to that before I give a response to it. Please let me know...if you don't want to put it here, PM me.

As for the trains stacking, you're probably right...the GP normally doesn't care. But, it doesn't change the fact that the rode is not being operated as efficiently as possible. The rides are meant to be operated appropriately and whether the GP cares or not, they should be operated appropriately to keep the line short for everyone, not just the GP and not just the enthusiasts.

Safety is #1 to any ride operation. However, when I operated coasters, I was able to check harnesses on my side of the train efficiently. My crew rarely had trains stacked when I was a coaster supervisor and high pressure was placed on my coaster crews and supervisors when I was a multi-location supervisor. The rides were all operating extremely safe, but efficient. This kept the guests happy which in turn made the pressure from upper management less which in turn made my crews happy because they were accomplishing the goal of operating the ride efficiently. In conclusion, safety can occure while efficient operation occurs.

Well I haven't waited longer then 45 minutes since its second season myself.



That is beyond bizarre the way you described the flashpass system... Its supposed to only be that one single row and thats the only way I've ever seen it used. I have seen other people with line skipping passes after being stuck on rides and I have seen large numbers of people in handicapped groups but I've never ever heard of or seen the flashpass used like that myself.




In response to rollerfreaker:

I think exploit is a bit of a rough or maybe an inappropriate term, but being given 5 full shifts and a half day, and one day off is a pretty rigorous schedule but its mostly the way that they couldn't regularly provide adequate breaks. It was incredibly frustrating to be working a ride and need to go to the bathroom and have either noone show up to give you a 2 minute break at all, or show up after 45 minutes or more... Its just things like that which were frustrating.

I would like to see all the coasters at SFA run as efficiently as possible, but at some point the safety measures in place such as ensuring all belts are tight (which is difficult because you have to reach between the person and lap bar and all that) or with Superman having operators recheck a couple seats on every dispatch makes it almost impossible to avoid stacking and such.

Hopefully as Snyder and co. make their changes the park will improve more. I personally think the park is far better this season then last season, and even better then the season before that. There are still lots of problems but I think things are getting better at the park as small improvements are made. For example it is MUCH cleaner now then it was in the past

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Rebel Yell is better backwards.