Meet me in St Louis........or Eureka even!! (Six Flags trip report)

[draybook]

We headed to Six Flags St Louis this weekend for two days at the parks. Now introducing the victims:

Myself, wife Amy, daughter Ashley and son Justin. In the other group was my wife's best friend Christy, her husband Frankie, their son Marcus and Frankie's step-sister Alex.

This was only my second trip to any Six Flags park, the last one being in LA back in like 89 or 90, so I had no expectations. The only sucky thing is that I'm FAR from being a coaster person so I knew I'd most likely be the item mule. My son is motion sensitive also so he was my wingman.

Now, I won't have too many pics up since I put my wife's Nikon back in the car after 3 hours because I was tired of lugging it around and the little waterproof Stylus camera doesn't have an amazing zoom, and my wife/daughter had it most of the time.

before I put up any pics, I want to share some of my opinions of the park. As far as food goes, it sucked. On the first day, we only ate lunch there and it was near the front of the park, the hamburger place next to the ice cream parlor. We spent $39 for crap. I had the cheddar burger and it looked as if it had been sitting under the heat lamp for two hours. The cheese was a deep golden color and it was barely luke warm. My wife almost threw up on her last bite of her salad. She said it had a rotten taste to it.

On to character interaction. At first I was surprised that they didn't have an organized method to taking pictures with characters, much like at Disney. But as I watched it unfold, it actually made things faster. Of course they don't do autographs, so that helps too but it was easy to get pics with them and didn't take longer than 30 seconds.

Safety. I was impressed with how concerned they seemed to be with saftey. On each ride that the kids went on, 2 employees would walk around and make sure that everyone was secured in the ride. Nicely done!

I did have one MAJOR beef with something that happened on the second day, but I'll get to that at the end of this report. Now, I'll give a brief rundown of both days then I'll toss out the pics in no organized manner.


DAY ONE
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We actually didn't leave Memphis until roughly 6am Saturday morning, about 1.5 hours behind schedule. If you knew my wife and her family, you'd know this is common practice. We arrived at our hotel at around 10:15am. We got checked in really quickly and got changed into walking clothes. We met up with our friends and headed to the park.

We got into the park at roughly 11:15am. The first ride we did was the ferris wheel. We then bounced around to every ride and those who could get on, did so. We stayed til around 9:30pm and then left the park. We headed back to the hotel and let the kids swim until 11:30. I really liked the setup at our hotel, the Days Inn right down the street from the park. They had a huge indoor pool/game area. Day One done.


DAY TWO
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We got up around 8:30 and got cleaned up and dressed and headed to Denny's. This was a real treat for me because I haven't been to a Denny's since I lived in California, back in like 91 or 92. It was worth the wait. We then headed back to the hotel to get our stuff packed and get dressed for our day at Hurricane Harbor. Once again, we got to the park around 11am. We made our way into HH and went to the Hook's kids area. The water was freezing cold. Good thing it was hot outside!

We once again made our way around the rides and my wife forced me to do the single intertube slide thing, the one next to the big raft ride. It was more the darkness that got me than the drops and motion, but it was fun just the same. We stayed at HH until 4:30 and then went to get changed and head back to the main park. WARNING, THIS IS WHERE I HAVE MY COMPLAINT!!!!

When we got to the little turnstile to leave HH, the little snotty girl working it told us that we had to put a shirt on my wife and kids to go through to the exit. This wasn't a problem for me. However, as they walked through the turnstile, Frankie's little s-sister was pushing the turnstile bar round and round because it was stuck. The girl then yelled "don't, don't, don't do that" and then she grabbed Alex's arm and yanked it away from the turnstile.

I couldn't believe that this girl had the nerve to grab someone's child. It's not like Alex was doing it to be annoying or mess with it, she was trying to get it unstuck. I looked at the girl and then told her that she could be nice about it, which I then followed with "if you don't like your job then quit".

Anywho, we got changed and then headed back to the main park. We bounced from ride to ride and left the park around 9:30pm. All in all it was a great experience and I had fun. It is funny how much it seems that SF emulates Disney. Like how Scooby's Scary Swamp is basically Buzz Lightyear on water. Ok, enough babble, on to some pics!




































THE END!!

[DLRP_bopazot]

Nice TR thanks for sharing

[RooBear]

Thanks for sharing!

Peace,
Roo

[bigwig30]

Thanks for the trip report and pix. Living in Missouri (closer to Kansas City than St Louis), I make the trip to SFStL about every other year, with last October being my last excursion - for awhile. While some of the coasters in the park are pretty fun (Evel Knievel, especially), overall the atmosphere and quality of the park are subpar even for Six Flags.

However, I was intrigue by your pictures, because it looked like maybe things might be improving a bit, as my last visit, the place was, without a doubt, the ugliest, dirtiest amusement park I have ever visited. There were weeds growing everywhere, and every ride, building, and sign needed a fresh coat of paint. All the decorations were washed out and bland from the lack of maintenance and upkeep. The rides themselves (with the exception of the aforementioned Evel Knievel coaster) were in dire need of upkeep. For those rides that had indoor queue areas, cobwebs were the featured theme. I heard that Mr. Freeze got a paint job in the off season, so that is a start, but the park still has a long way still to go.

Another problem with the park (and with most Six Flags parks) is that after you ride the coasters, there is not much else to do. SFStL is filled with basic midway experiences and carnival rides. BORING! Furthermore, the kiddie section of the park is quite obviously an afterthought. Situated along a short, windy path, Bugs Bunny National Park is not really a section at all, just a series of mall food court caliber rides sandwiched between Britannia and Gateway to the West. Honestly, there is almost nothing for the under 42” crowd to do at SFStL.

My biggest complaint though is that all the attractions are placed willy-nilly with no thought to aesthetics or theme. Tony Hawk, The Boss, and the pay-extra Go Carts are in Britannia. Why? Batman and the Joker are nowhere near DC Comics Plaza yet, Scooby-Doo (which in no way compares to Buzz!) sits right in the middle of that area. Does that make sense to anyone? The Ninja is in the Studio Backlot - I guess because someone once made a movie about Ninjas? Evel Knievel is listed on the park map as being part of the 1904 World’s Fair section (which makes no sense), but honestly, it is part of DC Comics plaza (which also makes no sense). There is no rhyme or reason to SFStL, no theme, no thought for ride placement, they just stick a ride where there is room…and often where there is no room.

As for the food - I totally agree with you: I will not eat at SFStL. The park restaurants are all disasters and always seem to look like McDonald’s after a Saturday lunch rush – but without the one frantic worker trying to keep things clean. And you're right, prices are out of control, even for an amusement park. We always leave the park to eat at a nearby Steak 'n' Shake. Not great, but $35 can feed five of us, including dessert and tip. Not a lot of better options in Eureka, MO, but almost anything is better than the dining options in the park. Ugh!

Anyway, I appreciate your report and I am glad that overall, you had a good time. We usually have a good time as well, despite the issues I have discussed. Honestly, I think there is a pretty decent park under all that mess, and with some TLC, elbow grease, and a fistful of cash, SFStL can be vastly improved. It will take some doing, but it can be done. Just look at how far Magic Mountain has come over the past few years!

By the way, if you get a chance to check out another Missouri theme park, head to Silver Dollar City down in Branson - it is a lot more like a "real" theme park!

[draybook]

Yeah, the theming was lousy, but the park was nice and clean. And except for the one girl I mentioned, the employees were a pleasure to deal with.

We're going back at the beginning of September, since we have season passes. I just hate the 4 hour drive there.

[bigwig30]

I am glad to hear the park is making strides in the right direction. Now, if they could just do something about the lousy food!

[brand42]

Although I would've liked to see more coaster photos, thank you for sharing the trip report with us, draybook.

As a passholder who has gone to Six Flags Magic Mountain eight times this year thus far, I can understand about the food situation. I've not tried every establishment yet but thus far, the best food I've found are the chicken strips. However, I'm not the hugest fan of chicken strips.