Six Flags Guest Approval Numbers...

[cellarhound]

I found this interesting...

Six Flags Guest Approval Ratings at Five-Year High

NEW YORK, July 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Six Flags announced today that surveys taken throughout June, the first full month of the operating season, show its guest approval ratings on a significant upswing. The surveys were conducted by independent firm Delta Market Research of Hatboro, Pennsylvania, a nationally-recognized company which has researched all aspects of the theme park industry for companies including Disney. They asked guests to rate every aspect of their park experience, from atmosphere, food, rides and cleanliness to broader questions such as "will you recommend the parks to a friend?", "will you visit again this year or next?", and "was the experience worth the money?".

On a scale of 1-10, respondents gave Six Flags its highest scores in the last five years in the following categories:

* Variety of things to do in the park; * Character presence in the park; * Non-stop entertainment in the park; * Feeling of overall safety; * Ride safety; * Employee service; * Speed of ride lines; * Food quality; * Park cleanliness; * Restroom cleanliness; * Park beauty; * Their overall visit.

The results also show: * 96% of Six Flags guests will or definitely will recommend the parks to a friend; * 92% of Six Flags guests will or definitely will visit again this year or next; * 93% of Six Flags guests agree or strongly agree that "My Six Flags experience was worth the money I spent."

The results reflect input from approximately 4,800 guests at 17 Six Flags parks for the month of June 2006. Individual parks are experiencing their best years since the study's inception in 2002. For example, this summer respondents that visited Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, gave record ratings for the following categories:

* Ride safety; * Feeling of overall safety; * Kids' or children's rides; * Employee service; * Character presence in the park; * Non-stop entertainment in the park.

"These results show that our guests are noticing -- and embracing -- the changes we've made this year. It's also a clear indication that our strategy of creating clean, safe and fun family entertainment destinations is working," said Mark Shapiro, Six Flags President and CEO. "As we enter the busiest part of our season, it's our goal to keep executing on our strategy and keep those positive response numbers going up."

[PragmaticIdealist]

Were these gang members taking the surveys?

[cellarhound]

Originally Posted by PragmaticIdealist

Were these gang members taking the surveys?

Obviously not... But then again, it is coments like this Shapiro is fighting against... He wants to show that the new managment is being successful, despite the brand damage... Which he cited and you successfully demonstraited...

[mrcoaster]

I'd like to see a question added to that:

"How many trains were operating on each coasters during your visit to the park?"

Seems like every time I show up to a SF park, the answer is always "1" and the line is much longer than it need be. If they can add running 2-3 trains per coaster and cranking up the throughput to the list of accolades, they may have something.

I know it's not the same thing, but working at Universal and Disney in the past, the hourly throughput numbers were a huge deal. Walking through the average Six Flags, it seems that few ride ops actually care if they push 1200 people through an hour or 12.

[A Disney Dreamer]

I hope they don't tear down MM. It needs to be greatly improved, but MM can be so much more than what it is now. I should have a trip report soon on the park since (I am hoping) I'll be able to go on Wednesday of this week.

[Alchimedes]

Originally Posted by mrcoaster

I'd like to see a question added to that:

"How many trains were operating on each coasters during your visit to the park?"

Seems like every time I show up to a SF park, the answer is always "1" and the line is much longer than it need be. If they can add running 2-3 trains per coaster and cranking up the throughput to the list of accolades, they may have something.

I know it's not the same thing, but working at Universal and Disney in the past, the hourly throughput numbers were a huge deal. Walking through the average Six Flags, it seems that few ride ops actually care if they push 1200 people through an hour or 12.

I will second this, they were running one train on every ride except Colussus on my last visit. I've already decided not to go back. Too me it's a cheap way to run the park and make more money, by lowering running costs. Also didnt care for the metal detectors, not a good sign when entering the park. I know there are those that frequent this park, and that's fine, but it's not a very friendly park. So I have to disagree with the results. From what I saw it was opposite of the results.

[ekester]

I definitely agree on this one. When I went at the end of May, on a weekday, there were 30 people in front of us in line for Collossus, but it was about a 25 minute wait because of how slowly everything was moving and how few trains they had running (one).

Other rides were a similar story. Few people in line, but long waits nonetheless.

Good for Six Flags that they're trying, but they need to do a lot more than a fresh coat of paint, new signs and a lot of talk.

Catch-22 for them, I suppose. They're hemorraghing money so they can't afford to make the wholesale changes they need to make. But they can't afford NOT to.

[davidl]

I just went to Six Flags NJ on Friday, July 21st and six flags is the absolute worst on running a park. First off when getting there half of the rides were not running at all. Secondly the rides that were running were all running just one train at a time and the amount of time they took to load and unload the trains was unacceptable. They were causing hour and a half waits all nearly every ride when it didnt need to be. Towards the end of the afternoon i actually saw them put a second train on Nitro, which took 20 minutes to do. Then it started sprinkling a little bit and they shut down all of the rides. Even though it stopped after a little while the only rides they reopened were batman and some of the kiddie rides. ANd it was only 6 oclock. We went to the concert they were having there and we left around 9 they never opened any of the other rides. Me and my wife go to a lot of amusement parks and we think six flags has a lot of great rides but it will be a long time before we return to one. They dont care at all about customer service at all and if you get to ride any of the rides or how long it takes. I would hate to see what the lines would be like if the park was busy. They wonder why they are in debt. i dont. I know why..

[tloolgb]

Originally Posted by davidl

Towards the end of the afternoon i actually saw them put a second train on Nitro, which took 20 minutes to do.

Consider yourself lucky. I say them take 40 minutes (give or take a few) to add a 3rd train to Superman in SFoG. 20 minutes is nothing.

[SoCal]

Originally Posted by A Disney Dreamer

I hope they don't tear down MM. It needs to be greatly improved, but MM can be so much more than what it is now. I should have a trip report soon on the park since (I am hoping) I'll be able to go on Wednesday of this week.

So why are you going? It looks like you already decided you do not like the park and will not have a good time no matter what. So why waste your money and your time? Seems silly to me...

I went to SFMM a few days ago and had a blast! I plan on writing a trip report up as soon as I get home.

[phruby]

It reminds me of the speed of the ride operators at Knotts. The car would arrive and release its passangers. Then everyone would get on and pull down their lap bars. Then we would sit close to five minutes as the ride operators stood around talking to each other before checking all the ride restaints. We thought the ride had broken down but it was just par for the course.

This is my number one reason why Disney parks are far superior on very ride. They know how to get you on and off the ride quickly and effecently. Disney cares about thru put. Knotts and SFMM could care less.

[2DieFR]

I must agree that efficiency is a HUGE reason I continue to visit DLR. There's something satisfying knowing that Disney can cycle through thousands upon thousands of guests in a timely, organized manner. I would rather wait for an hour for an attraction with 2,000+ guests in line than wait for an hour for an attraction with only 300 or so guests in front of me. Waiting at SFMM makes me think, I could be long gone by now...

[Alpine]

I went to SFMM today and WOW... the place has really cleaned up. Characters and a live jazz band at the front of the park, incredibly clean walkways, rides and bathrooms, clientele very similar to those at Disney but with less small children, and every ride open. Fast food service lines and courteous employees, though prices/values that make me wonder how the park isn't turning a huge profit.

HOWEVER, despite all the fantastic changes to atmosphere, surprise surprise, in about half the cases ride operation was horrible. A couple ride crews were great and kept dispatches fast and constant (Goliath and Ninja especially) but some... ugh... Tatsu was the worst example of terrible teamwork and complete failure of the person at console and bad loading procedures. I've worked three years as a ride operator and some of the things I saw today just baffled me. Six Flags seems really, really emphatic on safety and redundancy, which is why they actually have relatively large ride staffs compared to some parks, but it's all verbal/hand signal redundancy with almost no real checks except for the console position, and they obviously don't train folks at all about ride capacity.

So in detail, at Tatsu they had trains sitting around for like 2-3 minutes each time even though the loading operators are split by station and were just standing around, and vomit in one station for some stupid reason stopped all dispatches from both for 10 minutes. It also stopped one poor train of people in the fairly uncomfortable flying position on the brake run for that whole time... The console and one checker in our side totally weren't paying attention to checking seats, though the one guy on our side managing the Flash Pass line, checking half the train, and check verifying kept trying painfully to get them to finish their jobs and finally dispatch. I put in a nice comment about him at guest relations.


So overall, it seems like I'm not alone in feeling that SF has really shaped up in every way except the one most important issue that would cost no capital and no staffing to fix.

[Joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

The results reflect input from approximately 4,800 guests at 17 Six Flags parks for the month of June 2006. Individual parks are experiencing their best years since the study's inception in 2002. For example, this summer respondents that visited Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, gave record ratings for the following categories:

* Ride safety; * Feeling of overall safety; * Kids' or children's rides; * Employee service; * Character presence in the park; * Non-stop entertainment in the park.

Is that before or after the 16 year old kid lightly touches the shoulder restraints?

Seriously that park needs some serious adjustments before it gets me through it's doors again.