Part of why the guest experience at places like Dollywood is so great is that their staff are paid very well and get a lot of benefits, including 100% paid tuition for higher education. That kind of incentive is how people do their jobs better, not telling them "you gotta climb up the ladder." Advocate for better wages and workers benefits in theme parks and you'll see the benefits of that from a guest perspective.
@@kingripper4079 Yeah, I was behind someone from East TN while waiting in line for VelociCoaster and they said something similar. $8/hr is nothing and it's great they've raised the starting rate up from that. Afaik the big benefits package has been the main draw for working there even when the pay wasn't great.
It's a two-way street: higher pay also attracts a better type of employee (more reliable, more experience, less staff turnover, etc.), and lets parks not have to hire literally anybody that applies. For a company, though, it's a balance between higher pay and how much they tolerate lower levels of service and higher staff turnover.
No that has nothing to do with it TBH. The pay wasn't great at Dollywood and they didn't start paying well/giving benefits until recently with the labor shortage and it was about the same time everyone else started doing it. While yes of course better pay and better benefits attract better employees, and HFE is doing that now because they have to attract workers (just like everyone else is now), even 10-20 years ago when the pay and benefits sucked at these parks they had friendlier employees than they do now. What really made Silver Dollar City and Dollywood employees great was the fact that they were mostly empty nesters and the park appealed to empty nesters, so they built a culture around that. When people think of Dollywood they think Dolly Parton, so having that association helped with getting friendly old people. Same goes for SDC, it was mostly old people working there just because they had nothing better to do and/or needed the health insurance. Also Missouri and Tennessee historically are two of the friendliest places in the country anyway, so the people who lived around there were raised to be like that. If anything as the parks have built more big coasters and become more corporatized their staff are much less friendly now than they used to be, even though their pay and benefits are better than they were before. Source: i've been working in the industry for 20+ years.
You see the same thing at Silver Dollar City because their parent company really cares. I was at SDC on 5/9 and even with limited hours and pretty minor attention both time traveler and keg blaster were running 2 trains. They're opps never stack and everyone is friendly. Makes a first time trip to Dollywood a top priority.
Disney is purposefully pricing out the guests they don't want, like people who won't spend a lot on extras. And it will probably work because there are plenty of people willing to shell out for a Disney experience. Seems weird that KD is outclassing BGW when it comes to theming/scenery. I hope KI gets similar treatment for a couple of its areas.
@@alexandramcginnis8872 not really... theme parks and especially Disney are a very specific experience, if u want to go to disney and you have money to do that or go to paris why would u go go Paris if u wanna go to Disney lol
I have to disagree about the preferred parking on a busy day. If I have bought an annual pass and it states preferred parking included then capping it is false adverisement. I understand the parks want to make as much money as they can, but telling us to buy a pass because of all the perks included, and then denying those perks is false advertisement.
As someone who has worked in a few parks I think a lot of employee morale comes from upper management employees are human beings treat them like that and then they won’t be inclined to be negative on the job, as a company you have a responsibility to treat everyone including employees well, there will be the kids that don’t care but a lot of it is just bad vibes being passed down
Yes this is 100% true, currently at Carowinds a lot of employees are not very happy, which stems from the new HR team they just set up. They don’t try to help and always mess things up, which makes associates unmotivated to work hard.
Kings Island, and Holiday World have consistently been the best park experience we have ever had. Staff is always friendly, and personable. Operations are on point. Everything is right to have a wonderful time while you're at the park. Other parks could take notes on how to treat customers, and run their parks.
Great video. My biggest thing now is like...better standard ADA stuff. Thanks to cancer, my dad can't really do a lot of walking or stairs. Sometimes it's super hard to know what places will let him use an accessible entrance or if the main line *is* Ada accessible. It's just such a pain. Also. Test seats. All rides should have a test seat or seats. I'm on the bigger size. Sometimes a ride doesn't have one or there's no one attending it, so kids will use it to sit and won't move when someone needs it. I wanna know if I can fit there so I can avoid having to have a long wait in line and doing the walk of shame.
As an employee at lagoon, I completely agree with the sucky managment part of it. The oldest supervisor I have is 17 and the 2nd highest person in my department is 18. This causes for not great help on their behalf as they don't even know what they are doing.
One thing I feel like you all missed was security (specifically related to line cutting). Most parks seem to have little to no security presence in the park and don’t care about line cutting or other security issues. Cedar Point and Kings Island have really stepped up their security game this year. Also, I think security in regards to unsupervised teenagers needs to be more of a concern. Every park I go, I seem to always observe multiple groups of unsupervised teenagers causing problems (mainly 12-16 year old groups).
Seat stealing is a huge one at some parks. Lost track of the times I've had to keep a foot in the train and toss my loose articles in the bin to prevent that as a single rider. And all it takes is a few groups of brainless teens to gum up a single rider line so it's longer than the standby for actual single riders.
@Brian Foss I’m also a single rider and have started sitting in the seat without the restraints until the gate in the line closes and then putting my stuff in the bins.
Great, discrimination against teenagers for just being their age. You were a teenager once and everyone will be. I’m a 16 year old enthusiast with a coaster count of 65. How do you think I feel when people generalize teenagers because their age? We’re not all careless morons. Lots of people from all ages misbehave at parks. But nope, being a teenager makes you a bad person no matter who you are. I’m sorry if this comment seems like someone overreacting to something, it just hurts being a teenager when people talk like this about us
@@tdog8600 I never once generalized, dude. Get a grip. Citing the few "brainless" teens who throw a wrench in ops is very different from saying all of them do this. Well aware that there are plenty of teenagers who follow the rules and norms at parks. Seems strange that you're shrugging off seat stealing and hogging the single rider line as typical teen behavior, though. And discrimination is not the same thing as stereotyping. You might want to check a dictionary to learn the difference.
14:44 he is the greatest park President in my eyes. The reason why Fiesta Texas is such a great park and why it is improving so rapidly. Everything is improved to the best of the ability by the park. Roller Coaster Rodeo was an incredible guest experience. They are putting Universal and Disney leveling theming and effort into Dr Diabolical. While I don’t love most of the coasters at Fiesta Texas, I’m absolutely honored to have it as my home park
Absolutely on the “nickel and diming” part… I 100% believe that the reason why they’ve started removing the cubbies from almost all roller coasters at most amusement parks is because they want to get as much money out of you as they can by having you pay for a locker. They’re just taking advantage of their guests. Thankfully for my family, we always have a non-rider to leave our things with but if we didn’t, we’d probably spend $20 in lockers over the course of the day.
Six flags magic mountain started doing that with X2. We have the season drink cup and they wouldn't let us leave it on the ground like in the past. It was either buy a locker or throw it away really? So we just put it BY the lockers on the side now lmao
Hersheypark did the right thing and put in free lockers when waiting on line for a coaster. Was just there this past weekend. They also had water refill stations at a number of restaurants that you can just use your reusable water bottle on and fill it with ice as well. All free. No reason every single Park can't do that.
I can definitely agree that water is such a big issue. I remember paying 6, almost $7 for a water bottle at SFSTL. It was just a normal Aquafina bottle after I spent money to get a diet coke but it was very messed up as it was light orange and see through and the ice machine wasn't working and it tasted like pure sweat. And it was somewhere around 85 to 90 degrees that day so the 1 water bottle did pretty much nothing.
There should be a functioning water station (fountains with cooled water and bottle refill tap) in reach of every single rest room and food venue. I'm sure many parks would rather sell you water in bottles than give it away.
Maximum height requirements come from the manufacturer and are about safety. Either people over a certain height can violate clearance requirements OR the restraints don't work properly when a guest over a certain size is in them.
I know it wasn't covered in the video, but fast lane passes have ruined the park experience for me. I used to have six flags, cedar fair, and kennywood season passes, but the way the parks have transitioned over the years to pay more for a better experience has ruined my love for parks. Try going to a park on a busy day without fast passes and it is simply an unenjoyable day. I have friends and family who quit going to parks for this reason since the wait times and prices have increased a lot. I still hit up a park or two every year by myself, since my old coaster buddies gave up on this hobby.
Definitely agree with so much of this. To be honest I wish you had just made the video longer and actually got into the loose article thing because it really is something that bears looking closer at. Particularly because of water bottles. There should at least be some kind of allowance for water bottles to be brought into line. EVERYONE should be bringing a water bottle with them and yet I never do because it just feels like such a hassle to have one. But, as you mentioned, I feel like you could point out a LOT of other issues with the loose article policies as well.
Went to SeaWorld Orlando a few weeks ago, and while we were waiting in line for food, none of the people serving had a smile on their faces. The restaurant was TRASHED (Voyagers), and in my life of theme parks and working in restaurants, I have *NEVER* in my LIFE seen a place so disgusting. I saw one "manager" looking person, standing in the middle of the chaos.. on their phone. I know it's not like the Disney Magic, but I found it hard to believe I am *THAT SPOILED* in a theme park for basic cleanliness and attitude. 💓🌈💓🌈💓
I'm not a fan of the dual loading lockers halfway through the queue. In fact, it's not that easy to use for the first time, and it can even result in line cutting issues, because guests behind you proceed faster through the locker area. I would instead prefer the system used on Blue Fire. You keep your loose articles until you board the train, and you put them in large bins on the platform. Each bin is associated to a train, and runs alongside the whole station, so you just have to drop your bag in it, there's no confusion between riders rushing at the same spot. Your bin will close automatically when you dispatch. At the end of the ride, you exit the platform by a corridor, where the other side of your bin has automatically opened, so you can just pick up your loose articles without slowing the unloading process.
they have to have metal detectors in place to ensure 100% there are no loose articles because of the possibility a loose article might hit someone watching the ride from below or in the area. With the bin theory the metal detectors wouldn't work because you would literally have to have a metal detector at each air gate and that would take forever to screen each guest as they got on the train. I agree though the bin thing would make things a lot easier. I think they should stop building coasters over walkways so they don't have to have such strict loose article policies.
Couple of extra points: Shade. Some parks don't offer much shade in their outside queue lines, and it is horrible getting sunburnt while stuck in a cattle pen! Another is wasps/bees - some parks have a problem due to all the sugary drinks, and i know it is hard to eradicate bugs, but I think more could be done to prevent this issue!
Requiring lockers to go on a ride and charging for them needs to go. You paid to get in the park and ride the rides, you shouldn't be forced to pay extra money to go on the rides.
The souvenir bottle/locker issue has bothered me for years. New rides tend to be the ones on souvenir bottles and have lockers. Free refills, but it's $2 to put it in a locker every time you wanna ride. That's why I opt for the paper cup option. My other gripe is with assigned seating. For the most part ride ops will let you wait. But some rides they won't at all. Traveling hundreds of miles and spending hundreds of dollars at a park to not be able to sit in the front or back rows bothers me.
Just got home from 2 days at Magic Mountain. Great time. Everything is on the app for your day. Rides have pockets on the cars for phone or whatever will fit. Water refills at all water fountains . I like that you can place your stuff at almost all stations, x2 lockers right there at station. Great video. There have been some great updates at the park. Could go on for a while about it all. Thanks
My best friend works at Universal Studios Florida. I told her that Velocicoaster was going to be designed to roll back if it has to. Red flags seem to go up when I told her that. She said that Universal Studios won't like that, that it can't afford to have ride stoppages, that it costs money. With that in mind maybe this is why some rides operate a no loose articles policy, trying to streamline the loading and unloading process, and of course avoid health and safety issues too, all in all trying to avoid ride down time. In a previous video of yours you talked about a complaint about a ride not going upside-down, most rides you can see whether it goes upside-down before getting on it. My point is if you have guests that dumb about a coaster not going upside down, you're going to have guests dumb enough not to secure loose articles on rides. So some theme park rules might be based off the dumbest guests intentions.
With my dad being diabetic, having the ability to bring in at least a drink or a small snack shouldn’t be a crime. I get theme parks make a lot of their money from food, but when the prices are so unreasonably high, I stopped eating at theme parks altogether. I just eat before and after my trip. Kings Dominion was the biggest offender in my opinion. $6 water and $9 soft drinks was downright awful.
Drinks are still a problem but I have never had KI or KD not let me bring in a snack in my bag or pocket. Just don't walk in with a chipotle bag in your hand or a full on cooler. Also if you have special needs for a diabetic I know KI will make allowances just talk to guest services.
How about eliminate forced assigned seating. If I just waited an hour for the ride and want to wait 1 or 2 more rides to sit in the first or last row then let me. I do like though when they are making sure they fill up the train using single riders and such to keep the line moving.
Def think the need to be a ‘theme park pro’ and check apps, book slots and basically apply game theory is a big turn off for bigger parks like Disney etc
Totally agree. And Disney is really crossing the line by charging for Lightning Lane. Not only do you have to plan out every hour of your day now but you have to pay extra in order to even have a chance at certain attractions. So you're already paying record levels to enter the park and you can't be flexible about your schedule and you have to plan months ahead of time to even have a chance at eating at a restaurant you like and you're getting charged to go on the attractions.
I mean Disney's profit hunting in recent times with everything, including the stupid lightning lanes and such are just a no go for me! No matter how cool some of their rides like Cosmic Rewind look, I simply won't be giving them my money, I don't support their money making.
Agreed with most things in this video! Concerning the souvenir cup/locker at KD, I understand your point but cedar fair offers either the souvenir cup or a brand new paper cup with each refill. For this reason, my husband and I do the new paper cups with each refill since we know we ride coasters all day. Great conversation in this video though.
I hate when special effects on rides break and they are never fixed or they are turned off to save money. I get that they are a non-crucial part of the ride experience, but it would be nice if they were fixed in the offseason. It's sad to ride a ride over the years and watch the experience slowly deteriorate. It's even worse when it's your first time riding something and you find out afterwards that there were fog and audio effects in the past, but those effects haven't been functional for 8 years. It just signals cheapness to me.
Going to be a theme park should NOT be this big, gigantic hassle. You also shouldn't have to burn alive on hot days, with little to no water rides without long lines to get cooled off (most food places don't even have the best air conditioning). You shouldn't need to so overplan every little detail in hopes it's 50% well. It's why I kinda wish I lived by a less crowded chain park, even if we had to sacrifice literally both our intamins. Also nobody should be charging for lockers because they put in rides that make loosing stuff 100 times easier. Yes I've seen it rain phones off a free spin but why is it when I'm at a boardwalk park they can check me and there's never an issue/is fast+efficient? Places like Disney give me a headache even thinking about going to one section. THEME AND AMUSEMENT PARKS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A PLACE OF FUN #bringbackallthefunagain
I just don't understand the whole locker situation in the US. Here in Europe in pretty much every park you just take your bag into the station and store it there, in a cabinet for the train your on. And it works great! Sure there are exceptions but in those cases the lockers are always free.
The advantage to not having the bins in the stations is faster ride ops as you eliminate the time putting your stuff in the bin. As far as paying goes I just try not to bring stuff that needs to go in a bin. If I have something like that I prefer the pay once for the day and move your stuff from locker to locker option.
@@Thecincyclips Yeah that's what's always said but then Europa-Park is considered among the parks with the fastest operations and they have bins on the platforms. If there's an option to transfer lockers that's fine I guess, but I still prefer the system we have. It's just convenient and it's free 😀
@@rc_smarti7647 depends on the setup, the ride restraints and the ops. We have great ops with a mix at my home park Kings Island. 5 coasters with no bins available and 10 with bins or carry on. Mostly I just try and not bring anything that I can't zip into my pockets.
Bins on the platforms (or just the ability to leave your stuff on the platform) are pretty common at smaller parks in the US too. It seems like the big chains are all moving toward lockers. Except for Disney--they generally just let you take your stuff on the ride! But most of their rides aren't super intense.
Nah, they should pay better. Ive seen people go above and beyond and get nothing from the company. People have lives, you dont get our 100% everyday. Its not about the guests, its about how the job treats you. If you want me to act better, pay and treat me better.
I think that also speaks to the management point. Guaranteed the managers that show they care about their park also care about their employees, and it’ll show in their daily attitude. Definitely starts at the top!
@@bryantoliveira2813 yea but also good pay and benifits and good reasonable hours and flexible schedules mean a lot more than just being nice to your employees
@Patrick Holland not punishing guests, but dont expect my 100%. i have a life im living, sometimes im happy, sometimes im not, thats ok, people are dynamic, dont expect so much from us.
The one thing that Disney has that other parks don’t have is that they have a pouch on the back of the ride vehicle to put your things in ,the only ride I recall that you have to put your things in a bin is fight of passage and they are right behind your ride vehicle ,every other ride at Disney has pouches so you can put your things in them ,but with other parks like universal and six flags makes you put your lose articles in a locker or else you can’t really ride a ride unless you wanna lose someone. This is just my opinion but I think other parks should install pouches on the back of the ride so you can store your stuff in them instead of putting your things in a locker
Great and honest video! You guys did a great job of not sounding like entitled enthusiasts. As a person who only drink water, I hate having to ask for 4 small cups of water just to begin to feel hydrated. Some of these parks are located in areas where temps can regularly exceed 100°F in the summer, and the best they can give you is a 4oz cup of water?!
Water is my biggie. I refuse to carry around a souvenir bottle because I’ve had mine stolen multiple times. There’s also been many times where I’ll go to put my cup in the cubbies and when I come back to my row people have taken my seat. It’s just too much of a hassle for me to carry around. That’s why I LOVE the paper cup option at Cedar Fair. I don’t have to deal with those problems, plus I get a cup bigger than a Dixie cup for water. It leads to faster dispatches too. The Dixie cup of water is laughable, plus waiting in lines for them. Also, a lot of parks don’t have hot water for washing hands. My home park SFGAm has frigid water for washing hands
Theme the restrooms! Its kinda dumb to have areas themed out but when you go to the restroom, its an instant transport to modern day (insert country name here). BGT, African themed bathrooms. SF, if your in crackaxle canyon, a modern restroom doesn't fit. If your in steam punk, go with those aesthetics. Don't have me shop in an 1800's boom town but go potty in a 21 century looking restroom. Just saying.
My dad and I actually lie when we have stuff in our pockets when we go to certain parks we refuse to pay for lockers we forgot that Hershey Park doesn’t get mad when you have your phones on lines
The reason I like holiday world so much is because of the staff. On the raven, the staff were joking with the guests, the voyage staff were hyping the train up, competing against each other to see who was the best hyper, and on thunderbird, they were just plain nice.
I've also complained about the water one for a long time. On my only non-Christmas visit to Hershey in 2018, it was tremendously hot. They set out large cups of water on trays for people to just pick up, eliminating both the cup size problem and long line problem. Its such a simple solution but it was honestly one of my favorite parts about Hershey. Made my experience a lot better. Also, I have also noticed food improving. I notice it most at my home park of Cedar Point, but over the last couple years they have added so many quality restaurants that I actually get excited to eat there when I visit.
Just thought of a parody idea? May be stupid but how about a short 10 minute Mockumentary about why Sarah thinks Nitro is the best overall coaster on the earth? First...there was This is How We Roll, you've waited for a new documentary and now we have.....
1. The cruise lines are remarkably consistent in their product, even when the ships are vasty different. I think the reason is the crew is constantly rotated so the company philosphy is naturally spread through the fleet. 2. They won't give you a larger cup of water because counting cups is probably part of how they reconcile the till. 3. Reduce the complexity of visiting. Disney is the worst with this, by way far. It seems even CedarFair and SixFlags is complicating their fast pass. At Universal and SeaWorld, you just show up with a ticket and you either have Express/QuickQueue or you don't. Pretty easy.
We were contemplating a family reunion at Disney. Most likely land, possibly world. It's so freaking complicated that even looking into what was required for planning it felt like torture. We're going camping instead.
I’m not so sure about “reconciling the til” with cups. During Covid every single place I went to that normally offered free refills just gave you a new cup as if that was going to save someone’s life. All these years we were told those cups are “inventory” and they can’t give them away, but I’ve been to a few places (WDW included) that will give big cups (normally for soft drinks) for free ice water no problem.
@@joeygassmann5595 Coof changed a lot of things, but the cups are still inventory controlled. It also depends on the revenue model. Disney, and similar premium brands, often don't have such fine grain controls. On hot days, Disney will server water in the big cups.
Another one is poorly designed fast lane systems…AKA cedar point. They sell practically an uncapped amount of fast lane to guests for a certain price then there are points where fast lane is 45 mins cause it’s oversold then the normal line moves x3 as slow and you’re waiting 2+ hours for a ride that really should be an hour wait.
How about when parks allow way more fast passes to board than they do general admission tickets. Not everyone can afford fast passes for each person and they don't deserve to be treated like a second class guest and forced to wait way longer.
Yeah California's Great America was really bad with that. The normal line wasn't moving for 2 hours and when I complained they acted as if I was stupid.
My home park is Valleyfair and speaking of employees that dont want to be there, I once had a ride operator say "Enjoy your ride on The Wild Thing. We were riding the drop tower. Also, a ride op once said "Enjoy your ride on the ONE AND ONLY corkscrew, which had me laughing for over 10 minutes.
8:00 BGW also had water fountains working in 2020, until freeze season. _One_ was turned back on later in 2021. 8:45 in some cases, businesses had been looking for that excuse for change, for example late closing times may never quite come back and surely some had been considering that for years.
Just about everything said here was SPOT ON! 10/10 video. You should definitely do a part 2 and a Loose Article video. Had some fun recently with confusing phrasing between what an Ap said vs what the Website said. They'll just blame COVID. Hysterically accurate!
One big gripe I have for most parks is not announcing when their major rides have reopened for weather or just breakdowns. By the time you realise that a ride has reopened the queue line is excessive because you were off in another part of the park. I went to Worlds of Fun for the third time with some friends this last year. I wanted my friends to try out Patriot the park's invert. It was closed for the first two hours the park was open. When we came to check to see if it opened later and the line was pouring out onto the midway. There was no announcement so people entering the park just swarmed to the first big coaster they saw. Any kind of announcement would've absolutely helped.
Complete agree with what you guys said about Nickelodeon Universe New Jersey. I live under two hours away but I’ve stayed away from it due to the cost of a ticket. Would much rather drive the extra 45 minutes to head to Great Adventure
Honestly I know there’s no way to change it but one thing that annoys me about theme parks are the denying a row request like I was at universal a couple weeks ago and I requested back row on Velocicoaster and the ride operator said no when I just saw him let two people go into the back so that’s my big problem with theme parks some ride operators are good about letting people choose their row but others straight lie to your face like I get it that you wanna keep the line moving but you shouldn’t tell someone they can’t choose their row when you just let people choose their row
5:19 that makes sense for people that want a career working at amusement parks. but most people aren't there because they see the amusement park as their career but a pay check until they can get through school or find a better job which is a side effect of the low pay in my opinion.
I absolutely hate it when a ride doesnt have a single rider line. When you have a 60-90 min wait and they send out trains with empty seats all day long. Just makes a long line even longer.
A lot of the inconsistency issues sadly come from the ops managers calling when to close the line for the night. Every day is different and every manager does things differently. Sadly day managers have a huge impact on how a park runs and it reflects on the company as a whole. And people blame the company when it’s really Manager so and so. Inaccurate info likely stems from a lack of an IT/website team. From experience, many of these entertainment giants gutted departments during covid and haven’t restored them. And cutting the intern who updates the app is an easy choice for an executive. Not excusing, just giving my experience based on working in a theme park
Our recent Vlog at cedar point we were talking about how the water to wash your hands was colder than the water in the drinking fountain. How’s that possible?
Great discussion, unfortunately I don’t think much will change, the executives just look at the bottom line, everything else is secondary to that no matter what they say.
A good example of parks not having info right on a app is Carowinds,multipule times its listied things like carolina cyclone as open all day,but it wasnt,they also say the app will tell you wait times, it never does
I feel like I can relate to this video with the feeling of not wanting to be at a park as a ride op. As someone who was a former ride op on Batman at SFSTL, I was trying to do the best I can with enjoying myself on the job. But, I was constantly getting yelled at despite working as hard and fast as I can. That was rough for me, and I feel like the other team members were holding me back as a result.
American Dream nickelodeon universe costing about $75 per person seems like a better value after paying $60 for a ride wristband at Adventuredome a couple days ago haha 😂
LINE CUTTING! Parks could prevent line cutting in a better way. Maybe station an employee halfway through the line on busy days, and have them call security when people push through. ✂️✂️✂️
the whole "paying for water" issue is pretty unforgivable... all parks should have free + accessible water :/ I wonder if it's just a north america/USA thing? are international parks the same way?
water stations are a must. my gf pretty much passed out (peak July) almost waiting in the long line for X2 @ SFMM. we were about to get to the stall and BOOM almost passed out bc dehydration.
When it comes to notifying if a ride is going to open or closed for a day sometimes that is very difficult to do because many times it’s a last minute decision or even coming in getting ready for the day and the park won’t know if a ride is ready to open until the ride operations crew gets there. Working in rides there have been times where my crew got to the ride and maintenance was working on the ride and mid-day they said we need more time so you aren’t going to open today or something you get to the ride and maintenance says no you aren’t opening. It’s hard to post that online and make sure everyone knows that but in the end it’s all about safety. But I do agree if a ride is planned to closed for a certain amount of time it should be posted
Even though I’m on the spectrum I think I would enjoy being a ride operator especially operating Twister at Six Flags Great Adventure and interacting with the riders
To share my experience with issues. When my friend and I visited Cedar Point last year; a couple of people already pointed it out, but what dampened our experience is that the ride ops let the fast passers in more than an average guest. It makes the regular line moves way slower than necessary. It definitely pissed my friend off. It was really noticeable on Steel Vengeance. It's real bad because other parks I've been to handled it much better. Other commenters already pointed out the solution to that issue, so I'm not going to repeat it. To clarify, I love Cedar Point. It's one of my favorite parks of all time, but these issues like this can ruin someone's experience and leaves a bitter taste in their mouths.
It's about time someone called out the "Oh, we don't have X because of COVID" excuse. I see that crap ALL THE TIME just in general. It's never "because of COVID", it's because these businesses have convinced themselves they can save money by being LAZY.
Seaworld just did this to ACE I attended spring con with a couple friends and the site/app both had listed that both Infinity Falls and Manta were to be open… Nope but then the next day both attractions were open!
Having free water should definitely be a necessity. It was a problem well before covid. If you are charging for a water cup there is no way that should be legal. I feel like every park ticket should give you a free water bottle or water container with water stations spread throughout the park and add the price of the plastic bottle into the park ticket. It should be illegal to charge for water
I also think they should have water stations in lines, or at the very least, have shade for the lines. Standing in direct sunlight for that long can be actually dangerous especially with the lack of available water at parks.
Here’s one you may be mentioned are roller coasters with assigned seating with no seating request they’re the worst if you’re a specific seat/row person,for example Wicked Cyclone at six flags New England first season it had strict assigned seating due to narrow station until mid August 2016 guess we’re allowed to pick there own seat which is a must welcome change.
Food/Drink prices for crap food, separate parking fee when you already bought tickets ahead of time, new rides with no capacity at some of the big parks that see huge crowds, bad and loud music, misbehaving patorns/kids with no responsible adult chaperones. And the food in Disney is overwhelmingly terrible. Only a few places are decent, and they are expensive.
So I went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg on Thursday and I got last ride of the night on Pantheon. As soon as I reach the bottom of the exit ramp this ambassador named Jason who had the height measuring stick and everybody exiting the ride was playing limbo and this guy was just on it. And throughout the night Jason was greeting people as they entered the queue line of pantheon and he recognized me entering through that key line multiple times because you know as enthusiast I like Marathoning there best coaster there and he even gave me a red hand stamp and multiple high-fives and fist bumps and he was probably one of the most energetic employees I have ever met in my life. As of right now the good news is Busch gardens Williamsburg has gone all of their safety measures and excuses regarding the Covid and the only thing that’s still there that’s part of Covid is hand sanitizer stations and staffing issues however if you’re doing a trip to Williamsburg and you stay at the nearby hotels especially the ones closest to the park you may notice that the restaurants in the hotels may be still closed due to Covid I recently stayed at the Holiday Inn express just down the street from Busch Gardens Williamsburg and they did have their breakfast open however their pancake machine was turned off and I asked the people why and they said because of Covid concerns and that was not the excuse I think they just had it off because they did not want anyone attracting to that and with the cinnamon rolls there they had them but they only had one batch so the people that took all of them were the only ones that got them so you had to get up early and get to the breakfast restaurant right when it opens if you want to get the cinnamon rolls. The courtyard by Marriott next door still doesn’t have their restaurant open because of Covid. And then the Doubletree by Hilton did not have anything open until the spring because of Covid like the only thing that was open was like a convenient store and the fitness center but not even the pool or the restaurants were open and that Doubletree is massive and that basically kind of feels like a resort because they have three different restaurants and all of them plus the amenities were closed until the spring of 2022 because of the pandemic and that was just sad. Also Busch gardens Williamsburg recently updated the app like all the other Sea World Parks but l Busch Gardens Williamsburg does not show any ride wait times and then when you go in the park some rides to show the wait times but they’re so in accurate like for example Pantheon has their wait time sign out but most of the time it says like 13 27 just random numbers displayed on the wait time boards and they’re never accurate so they just guess on how long the lines are in the wait times are never on the app at Busch Gardens Williamsburg but Busch Gardens Tampa has accurate wait times. Another thing to mention that’s not in Busch Gardens Williamsburg but it’s right by it is that the McDonald’s there off right of that highway might be the worst McDonald’s I have ever been to in my life. And this even happened way before the pandemic began but we went to McDonald’s right after park close and there was two guys we tried to eat inside but they kicked us out because of Covid so we had to go through the drive-through we ordered our meal and I usually get a sweet tea however the guy said that they were out of sweet tea so I tried to order a frappe they said that they were out of that as well and said that the only drinks that they can make frozen is milkshakes and Mc flurry‘s anything with ice cream so we ordered a soda finally and I tried to order root beer and they didn’t have that either so I ordered a HighC then we when we pulled up the window they were stacked with everything we tried to order so they just refused to serve us what we wanted because they were in the mood to make it and saying that they’re all out of them to make it as an excuse so they can get their way and not to mention it took like 30 minutes for them to make the food because they were talking on their phones and playing on their phones rather than actually doing their work and we got normal amounts of food and the workers just did not care about us or any of their customers and then we got the wrong order because they just want to be lazy and the food was undercooked and disgusting and I had to throw it all away because of how bad the workers made it and how they just were lazy. I will never be going to the McDonald’s right by Busch gardens Williamsburg ever again because that was just horrible.
The last visit I had at six flags New England was the best out of the 20 times j went during the season. (I have season pass) The staff would be running the rides fast, wicked cyclone line was empty. And the bumper cars person said he wanted everyone to have fun.
Having boring queue lines. I get that if a park is popular there will be long lines. That just makes sense. But if you are essentially spending most of your day in queue lines then they should be a part of the experience. I'm not saying everything needs to have elaborate theming like Indiana Jones or Forbidden Journey. But they need to keep you at least mildly entertained. They can use placards with fun facts about the coaster, the ride, the history of the park, the city where the park is....etc. They can have TV screens with rolling trivia, jokes, clips of some kind of park related history...etc. Or they could have screens within clips from the media being represented (like the queue from the Simpsons Ride.) And certainly theming can be a great way to entertain guests. Since Six Flags usually doesn't like to spend much money for theming I think it's a missed opportunity that their parks don't all have screens with rolling episodes of Looney Tunes or DC Comics animated shows. Sometimes you'll find small clips here or there but they should have Batman the Animated Series on loop in some of their queue lines. You'd think that would be a cheap and easy fix. And I hate to say it but long boring uninspired queue lines is why Cedar Point isn't even close to breaking into my top 5 favorite parks.
If I want to stow all my crap in a locker for the day, (Umbrellas, ponchos, diapers, bananas.) I am absolutely willing to pay. I CHOOSE to use a locker. If I want to ride El Toro or Kingda Ka and you are TELLING me that I MUST use locker, the you better have it waiting for me right in the que and it had better be FREE. (God bless you Universal.) The experience is soo different and I would be willing to bet that a guest that didn't have to pay what amounts to an UPCHARGE to ride a ride, would spend more of their money on other things inside the park.
Single rider lines are a super easy and cheap way to provide better guest service. I can’t tell you how painful it is to see train after train dispatched with several empty seats. That just shows that the park doesn’t care about capacity or shorter wait times for their guests. But why doesn’t Cedar Fair do this? I dunno, maybe to sell more $250 fast lanes. Some parks do have them and don’t even advertise them, that’s an easy fix with a sign and maybe a note on their website. Nickel and diming for lockers is just tacky. If you’re going to make me use a locker to ride something, at least make it free like Universal. It is far more likely to have riders trying to sneak loose articles onto the ride if you’re going to charge for lockers. I didn’t realize Lagoon was charging for water cups, that’s absolutely atrocious guest service. I really love that park and had no idea they were doing that, it’s very disappointing. So many solutions out there for making the parks a much more enjoyable experience are very inexpensive, it only requires the will of park management to implement them.
Six Flags is puzzling in 2022. Especially individual parks. Their food has absolutely improved this year. Several ingredients have been upgraded and things like their chicken tenders are definitely better. But sometimes these are incomplete. Macho Nacho at Six Flags St Louis used to have warm and nice fresh tasting tortilla chips for their nachos - this year they're using yellow rounds like a ballpark nacho. Another change at St Louis is some of the coasters have had loose article policy changes. Every coaster at this park used to have shelving for your drink cups. All of them. They even built new ones for the 2021 season that have cubbies below the drink shelves. These have been removed on 3 coasters - however the loose article policy isn't even being enforced people are just leaving the items that'd be on those shelves on the floor of the station. It's truly puzzling that these have been removed - especially when money was spent to build new ones the previous two seasons. It hasn't sped up operations at all (I assume that was one of their reasons) and it's just super messy. And for the third time - THIS IS SOMETHING THIS PARK GOT RIGHT JUST LAST YEAR.
17:07 There’s a saying that used to be prevalent amongst Disney World fans: “if you want good food at Hollywood Studios, leave and go to Epcot.” (which is no longer true. DHS has upped their food game.) For Six Flags Great America, foodwise, your best option is to leave and go to McDonald’s or Burger King.
I went to my first Six Flags park last week (Magic Mountain) and was honestly shocked at how terrible the water situation was. No outside water bottles were allowed in the park, and so we ended up buying $6 each Smart Waters and refilling them throughout the day. I've honestly been so spoiled by growing up close to Lagoon, you can bring in your own food and water, and any food place in the park will refill your water bottle for free. I'm sad to see how many costs they're trying to cut, to the point of charging absurd amounts to stay hydrated.
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Part of why the guest experience at places like Dollywood is so great is that their staff are paid very well and get a lot of benefits, including 100% paid tuition for higher education. That kind of incentive is how people do their jobs better, not telling them "you gotta climb up the ladder." Advocate for better wages and workers benefits in theme parks and you'll see the benefits of that from a guest perspective.
Dollywood didn't start paying till places around them was paying better. I knew people there that was getting paid like $8 a hour in 2019
@@kingripper4079 Yeah, I was behind someone from East TN while waiting in line for VelociCoaster and they said something similar. $8/hr is nothing and it's great they've raised the starting rate up from that. Afaik the big benefits package has been the main draw for working there even when the pay wasn't great.
It's a two-way street: higher pay also attracts a better type of employee (more reliable, more experience, less staff turnover, etc.), and lets parks not have to hire literally anybody that applies. For a company, though, it's a balance between higher pay and how much they tolerate lower levels of service and higher staff turnover.
No that has nothing to do with it TBH. The pay wasn't great at Dollywood and they didn't start paying well/giving benefits until recently with the labor shortage and it was about the same time everyone else started doing it. While yes of course better pay and better benefits attract better employees, and HFE is doing that now because they have to attract workers (just like everyone else is now), even 10-20 years ago when the pay and benefits sucked at these parks they had friendlier employees than they do now.
What really made Silver Dollar City and Dollywood employees great was the fact that they were mostly empty nesters and the park appealed to empty nesters, so they built a culture around that. When people think of Dollywood they think Dolly Parton, so having that association helped with getting friendly old people. Same goes for SDC, it was mostly old people working there just because they had nothing better to do and/or needed the health insurance. Also Missouri and Tennessee historically are two of the friendliest places in the country anyway, so the people who lived around there were raised to be like that.
If anything as the parks have built more big coasters and become more corporatized their staff are much less friendly now than they used to be, even though their pay and benefits are better than they were before.
Source: i've been working in the industry for 20+ years.
You see the same thing at Silver Dollar City because their parent company really cares. I was at SDC on 5/9 and even with limited hours and pretty minor attention both time traveler and keg blaster were running 2 trains. They're opps never stack and everyone is friendly. Makes a first time trip to Dollywood a top priority.
The #1 issue is not having enough cover from the sun while waiting in line.
Disney is purposefully pricing out the guests they don't want, like people who won't spend a lot on extras. And it will probably work because there are plenty of people willing to shell out for a Disney experience.
Seems weird that KD is outclassing BGW when it comes to theming/scenery. I hope KI gets similar treatment for a couple of its areas.
But at the same time, would those people who pay extra notice what disney is doing and then choose to go to like Paris
@@alexandramcginnis8872 not really... theme parks and especially Disney are a very specific experience, if u want to go to disney and you have money to do that or go to paris why would u go go Paris if u wanna go to Disney lol
@@yurikz9 I suppose that makes sense.
I have to disagree about the preferred parking on a busy day. If I have bought an annual pass and it states preferred parking included then capping it is false adverisement. I understand the parks want to make as much money as they can, but telling us to buy a pass because of all the perks included, and then denying those perks is false advertisement.
As someone who has worked in a few parks I think a lot of employee morale comes from upper management employees are human beings treat them like that and then they won’t be inclined to be negative on the job, as a company you have a responsibility to treat everyone including employees well, there will be the kids that don’t care but a lot of it is just bad vibes being passed down
Yes this is 100% true, currently at Carowinds a lot of employees are not very happy, which stems from the new HR team they just set up. They don’t try to help and always mess things up, which makes associates unmotivated to work hard.
Kings Island, and Holiday World have consistently been the best park experience we have ever had. Staff is always friendly, and personable. Operations are on point. Everything is right to have a wonderful time while you're at the park. Other parks could take notes on how to treat customers, and run their parks.
Great video.
My biggest thing now is like...better standard ADA stuff. Thanks to cancer, my dad can't really do a lot of walking or stairs. Sometimes it's super hard to know what places will let him use an accessible entrance or if the main line *is* Ada accessible. It's just such a pain.
Also. Test seats. All rides should have a test seat or seats. I'm on the bigger size. Sometimes a ride doesn't have one or there's no one attending it, so kids will use it to sit and won't move when someone needs it. I wanna know if I can fit there so I can avoid having to have a long wait in line and doing the walk of shame.
As an employee at lagoon, I completely agree with the sucky managment part of it. The oldest supervisor I have is 17 and the 2nd highest person in my department is 18. This causes for not great help on their behalf as they don't even know what they are doing.
One thing I feel like you all missed was security (specifically related to line cutting). Most parks seem to have little to no security presence in the park and don’t care about line cutting or other security issues. Cedar Point and Kings Island have really stepped up their security game this year. Also, I think security in regards to unsupervised teenagers needs to be more of a concern. Every park I go, I seem to always observe multiple groups of unsupervised teenagers causing problems (mainly 12-16 year old groups).
Seat stealing is a huge one at some parks. Lost track of the times I've had to keep a foot in the train and toss my loose articles in the bin to prevent that as a single rider. And all it takes is a few groups of brainless teens to gum up a single rider line so it's longer than the standby for actual single riders.
@@brianfoss571 that’s a new one to me but I can definitely see how that happens
@Brian Foss I’m also a single rider and have started sitting in the seat without the restraints until the gate in the line closes and then putting my stuff in the bins.
Great, discrimination against teenagers for just being their age. You were a teenager once and everyone will be. I’m a 16 year old enthusiast with a coaster count of 65. How do you think I feel when people generalize teenagers because their age? We’re not all careless morons. Lots of people from all ages misbehave at parks. But nope, being a teenager makes you a bad person no matter who you are. I’m sorry if this comment seems like someone overreacting to something, it just hurts being a teenager when people talk like this about us
@@tdog8600 I never once generalized, dude. Get a grip. Citing the few "brainless" teens who throw a wrench in ops is very different from saying all of them do this. Well aware that there are plenty of teenagers who follow the rules and norms at parks. Seems strange that you're shrugging off seat stealing and hogging the single rider line as typical teen behavior, though. And discrimination is not the same thing as stereotyping. You might want to check a dictionary to learn the difference.
14:44 he is the greatest park President in my eyes. The reason why Fiesta Texas is such a great park and why it is improving so rapidly. Everything is improved to the best of the ability by the park. Roller Coaster Rodeo was an incredible guest experience. They are putting Universal and Disney leveling theming and effort into Dr Diabolical. While I don’t love most of the coasters at Fiesta Texas, I’m absolutely honored to have it as my home park
Absolutely on the “nickel and diming” part… I 100% believe that the reason why they’ve started removing the cubbies from almost all roller coasters at most amusement parks is because they want to get as much money out of you as they can by having you pay for a locker. They’re just taking advantage of their guests. Thankfully for my family, we always have a non-rider to leave our things with but if we didn’t, we’d probably spend $20 in lockers over the course of the day.
Six flags magic mountain started doing that with X2. We have the season drink cup and they wouldn't let us leave it on the ground like in the past. It was either buy a locker or throw it away really? So we just put it BY the lockers on the side now lmao
Hersheypark did the right thing and put in free lockers when waiting on line for a coaster. Was just there this past weekend. They also had water refill stations at a number of restaurants that you can just use your reusable water bottle on and fill it with ice as well. All free. No reason every single Park can't do that.
I can definitely agree that water is such a big issue. I remember paying 6, almost $7 for a water bottle at SFSTL. It was just a normal Aquafina bottle after I spent money to get a diet coke but it was very messed up as it was light orange and see through and the ice machine wasn't working and it tasted like pure sweat. And it was somewhere around 85 to 90 degrees that day so the 1 water bottle did pretty much nothing.
There should be a functioning water station (fountains with cooled water and bottle refill tap) in reach of every single rest room and food venue. I'm sure many parks would rather sell you water in bottles than give it away.
It's the max height requirements! People can wait to get taller but I'm not getting shorter anytime soon lol!
Me being excited to ride Pantheon only to realize I never will because I’m 6’8”
They have height increasing surgery, so height reducing surgery must work as well. Just have to break both your femurs
Maximum height requirements come from the manufacturer and are about safety. Either people over a certain height can violate clearance requirements OR the restraints don't work properly when a guest over a certain size is in them.
I know it wasn't covered in the video, but fast lane passes have ruined the park experience for me. I used to have six flags, cedar fair, and kennywood season passes, but the way the parks have transitioned over the years to pay more for a better experience has ruined my love for parks. Try going to a park on a busy day without fast passes and it is simply an unenjoyable day. I have friends and family who quit going to parks for this reason since the wait times and prices have increased a lot. I still hit up a park or two every year by myself, since my old coaster buddies gave up on this hobby.
Definitely agree with so much of this. To be honest I wish you had just made the video longer and actually got into the loose article thing because it really is something that bears looking closer at. Particularly because of water bottles. There should at least be some kind of allowance for water bottles to be brought into line. EVERYONE should be bringing a water bottle with them and yet I never do because it just feels like such a hassle to have one. But, as you mentioned, I feel like you could point out a LOT of other issues with the loose article policies as well.
We need some uploads again dude. Love your content.
@@Marty_NZ wow thanks!
@@F9109-r1e absolutely so true!
Went to SeaWorld Orlando a few weeks ago, and while we were waiting in line for food, none of the people serving had a smile on their faces. The restaurant was TRASHED (Voyagers), and in my life of theme parks and working in restaurants, I have *NEVER* in my LIFE seen a place so disgusting. I saw one "manager" looking person, standing in the middle of the chaos.. on their phone. I know it's not like the Disney Magic, but I found it hard to believe I am *THAT SPOILED* in a theme park for basic cleanliness and attitude. 💓🌈💓🌈💓
I'm not a fan of the dual loading lockers halfway through the queue. In fact, it's not that easy to use for the first time, and it can even result in line cutting issues, because guests behind you proceed faster through the locker area. I would instead prefer the system used on Blue Fire. You keep your loose articles until you board the train, and you put them in large bins on the platform. Each bin is associated to a train, and runs alongside the whole station, so you just have to drop your bag in it, there's no confusion between riders rushing at the same spot. Your bin will close automatically when you dispatch. At the end of the ride, you exit the platform by a corridor, where the other side of your bin has automatically opened, so you can just pick up your loose articles without slowing the unloading process.
they have to have metal detectors in place to ensure 100% there are no loose articles because of the possibility a loose article might hit someone watching the ride from below or in the area. With the bin theory the metal detectors wouldn't work because you would literally have to have a metal detector at each air gate and that would take forever to screen each guest as they got on the train. I agree though the bin thing would make things a lot easier. I think they should stop building coasters over walkways so they don't have to have such strict loose article policies.
Couple of extra points:
Shade. Some parks don't offer much shade in their outside queue lines, and it is horrible getting sunburnt while stuck in a cattle pen!
Another is wasps/bees - some parks have a problem due to all the sugary drinks, and i know it is hard to eradicate bugs, but I think more could be done to prevent this issue!
Using COVID as an excuse to be lazy is a big one
Haha
You know how Six Flags has those drink bottle holders in the stations. Yeah put those on every ride at every park
Requiring lockers to go on a ride and charging for them needs to go. You paid to get in the park and ride the rides, you shouldn't be forced to pay extra money to go on the rides.
The souvenir bottle/locker issue has bothered me for years. New rides tend to be the ones on souvenir bottles and have lockers. Free refills, but it's $2 to put it in a locker every time you wanna ride. That's why I opt for the paper cup option.
My other gripe is with assigned seating. For the most part ride ops will let you wait. But some rides they won't at all. Traveling hundreds of miles and spending hundreds of dollars at a park to not be able to sit in the front or back rows bothers me.
water is a problem. especially at my trip at Busch gardens. luckily I went on the Safari they had unlimited free water
I’m going to Busch Gardens Tampa for the first time next week, what issues should I expect? Do all stands give free water or no?
@@CoasterGaming Ya in the state of florida it’s illegal to not give a water cup. It’s really easy to get water imo
Just got home from 2 days at Magic Mountain. Great time. Everything is on the app for your day. Rides have pockets on the cars for phone or whatever will fit. Water refills at all water fountains . I like that you can place your stuff at almost all stations, x2 lockers right there at station. Great video. There have been some great updates at the park. Could go on for a while about it all. Thanks
My best friend works at Universal Studios Florida. I told her that Velocicoaster was going to be designed to roll back if it has to. Red flags seem to go up when I told her that. She said that Universal Studios won't like that, that it can't afford to have ride stoppages, that it costs money. With that in mind maybe this is why some rides operate a no loose articles policy, trying to streamline the loading and unloading process, and of course avoid health and safety issues too, all in all trying to avoid ride down time.
In a previous video of yours you talked about a complaint about a ride not going upside-down, most rides you can see whether it goes upside-down before getting on it. My point is if you have guests that dumb about a coaster not going upside down, you're going to have guests dumb enough not to secure loose articles on rides. So some theme park rules might be based off the dumbest guests intentions.
With my dad being diabetic, having the ability to bring in at least a drink or a small snack shouldn’t be a crime. I get theme parks make a lot of their money from food, but when the prices are so unreasonably high, I stopped eating at theme parks altogether. I just eat before and after my trip.
Kings Dominion was the biggest offender in my opinion. $6 water and $9 soft drinks was downright awful.
Wow. Kings island is about as bad. Espically bottled drinks.
Drinks are still a problem but I have never had KI or KD not let me bring in a snack in my bag or pocket. Just don't walk in with a chipotle bag in your hand or a full on cooler. Also if you have special needs for a diabetic I know KI will make allowances just talk to guest services.
NINE DOLLARS for a soda?! That’s worse than Disney. WTF!
About the inconsistency, I feel like you should’ve brought up assigned seating. That’s inconsistent across several parks from my experience
How about eliminate forced assigned seating. If I just waited an hour for the ride and want to wait 1 or 2 more rides to sit in the first or last row then let me. I do like though when they are making sure they fill up the train using single riders and such to keep the line moving.
@@Thecincyclips exactly! Steel Vengeance, looking at you
Def think the need to be a ‘theme park pro’ and check apps, book slots and basically apply game theory is a big turn off for bigger parks like Disney etc
Totally agree. And Disney is really crossing the line by charging for Lightning Lane. Not only do you have to plan out every hour of your day now but you have to pay extra in order to even have a chance at certain attractions. So you're already paying record levels to enter the park and you can't be flexible about your schedule and you have to plan months ahead of time to even have a chance at eating at a restaurant you like and you're getting charged to go on the attractions.
I mean Disney's profit hunting in recent times with everything, including the stupid lightning lanes and such are just a no go for me! No matter how cool some of their rides like Cosmic Rewind look, I simply won't be giving them my money, I don't support their money making.
One of the reasons I love Knoebels so much is they fix nearly all these issues
Agreed with most things in this video!
Concerning the souvenir cup/locker at KD, I understand your point but cedar fair offers either the souvenir cup or a brand new paper cup with each refill. For this reason, my husband and I do the new paper cups with each refill since we know we ride coasters all day.
Great conversation in this video though.
Everything theme park needs to watch this video
I hate when special effects on rides break and they are never fixed or they are turned off to save money. I get that they are a non-crucial part of the ride experience, but it would be nice if they were fixed in the offseason. It's sad to ride a ride over the years and watch the experience slowly deteriorate. It's even worse when it's your first time riding something and you find out afterwards that there were fog and audio effects in the past, but those effects haven't been functional for 8 years. It just signals cheapness to me.
Going to be a theme park should NOT be this big, gigantic hassle. You also shouldn't have to burn alive on hot days, with little to no water rides without long lines to get cooled off (most food places don't even have the best air conditioning). You shouldn't need to so overplan every little detail in hopes it's 50% well. It's why I kinda wish I lived by a less crowded chain park, even if we had to sacrifice literally both our intamins. Also nobody should be charging for lockers because they put in rides that make loosing stuff 100 times easier. Yes I've seen it rain phones off a free spin but why is it when I'm at a boardwalk park they can check me and there's never an issue/is fast+efficient? Places like Disney give me a headache even thinking about going to one section.
THEME AND AMUSEMENT PARKS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A PLACE OF FUN #bringbackallthefunagain
I just don't understand the whole locker situation in the US. Here in Europe in pretty much every park you just take your bag into the station and store it there, in a cabinet for the train your on. And it works great! Sure there are exceptions but in those cases the lockers are always free.
The advantage to not having the bins in the stations is faster ride ops as you eliminate the time putting your stuff in the bin. As far as paying goes I just try not to bring stuff that needs to go in a bin. If I have something like that I prefer the pay once for the day and move your stuff from locker to locker option.
@@Thecincyclips Yeah that's what's always said but then Europa-Park is considered among the parks with the fastest operations and they have bins on the platforms.
If there's an option to transfer lockers that's fine I guess, but I still prefer the system we have. It's just convenient and it's free 😀
@@rc_smarti7647 depends on the setup, the ride restraints and the ops. We have great ops with a mix at my home park Kings Island. 5 coasters with no bins available and 10 with bins or carry on. Mostly I just try and not bring anything that I can't zip into my pockets.
@@Thecincyclips That's probably the best. I'll go buy some men's cargo pants before I go to the US xD
Bins on the platforms (or just the ability to leave your stuff on the platform) are pretty common at smaller parks in the US too. It seems like the big chains are all moving toward lockers. Except for Disney--they generally just let you take your stuff on the ride! But most of their rides aren't super intense.
Nah, they should pay better.
Ive seen people go above and beyond and get nothing from the company. People have lives, you dont get our 100% everyday. Its not about the guests, its about how the job treats you. If you want me to act better, pay and treat me better.
I think that also speaks to the management point. Guaranteed the managers that show they care about their park also care about their employees, and it’ll show in their daily attitude. Definitely starts at the top!
@@bryantoliveira2813 yea but also good pay and benifits and good reasonable hours and flexible schedules mean a lot more than just being nice to your employees
@Patrick Holland not punishing guests, but dont expect my 100%. i have a life im living, sometimes im happy, sometimes im not, thats ok, people are dynamic, dont expect so much from us.
The one thing that Disney has that other parks don’t have is that they have a pouch on the back of the ride vehicle to put your things in ,the only ride I recall that you have to put your things in a bin is fight of passage and they are right behind your ride vehicle ,every other ride at Disney has pouches so you can put your things in them ,but with other parks like universal and six flags makes you put your lose articles in a locker or else you can’t really ride a ride unless you wanna lose someone. This is just my opinion but I think other parks should install pouches on the back of the ride so you can store your stuff in them instead of putting your things in a locker
I will never understand the concept of charging for a cup of water. Water is not a novelty, it's a literal need. We NEED water like we NEED oxygen.
Great and honest video! You guys did a great job of not sounding like entitled enthusiasts. As a person who only drink water, I hate having to ask for 4 small cups of water just to begin to feel hydrated. Some of these parks are located in areas where temps can regularly exceed 100°F in the summer, and the best they can give you is a 4oz cup of water?!
Water is my biggie. I refuse to carry around a souvenir bottle because I’ve had mine stolen multiple times. There’s also been many times where I’ll go to put my cup in the cubbies and when I come back to my row people have taken my seat. It’s just too much of a hassle for me to carry around. That’s why I LOVE the paper cup option at Cedar Fair. I don’t have to deal with those problems, plus I get a cup bigger than a Dixie cup for water. It leads to faster dispatches too. The Dixie cup of water is laughable, plus waiting in lines for them. Also, a lot of parks don’t have hot water for washing hands. My home park SFGAm has frigid water for washing hands
Theme the restrooms! Its kinda dumb to have areas themed out but when you go to the restroom, its an instant transport to modern day (insert country name here).
BGT, African themed bathrooms.
SF, if your in crackaxle canyon, a modern restroom doesn't fit. If your in steam punk, go with those aesthetics. Don't have me shop in an 1800's boom town but go potty in a 21 century looking restroom.
Just saying.
@Maddox2021 - Comedy and More Alternate the toilets can be modern, but the building should look the part. 🤣
My dad and I actually lie when we have stuff in our pockets when we go to certain parks we refuse to pay for lockers we forgot that Hershey Park doesn’t get mad when you have your phones on lines
3:58 Glad you guys mentioned this. Nearly passed out for the first time at a park recently and yeah this is a huge issue
That every ride isn’t a roller coaster😟😟😟😟 (this is a joke btw)
The reason I like holiday world so much is because of the staff. On the raven, the staff were joking with the guests, the voyage staff were hyping the train up, competing against each other to see who was the best hyper, and on thunderbird, they were just plain nice.
I've also complained about the water one for a long time. On my only non-Christmas visit to Hershey in 2018, it was tremendously hot. They set out large cups of water on trays for people to just pick up, eliminating both the cup size problem and long line problem. Its such a simple solution but it was honestly one of my favorite parts about Hershey. Made my experience a lot better.
Also, I have also noticed food improving. I notice it most at my home park of Cedar Point, but over the last couple years they have added so many quality restaurants that I actually get excited to eat there when I visit.
Just thought of a parody idea? May be stupid but how about a short 10 minute Mockumentary about why Sarah thinks Nitro is the best overall coaster on the earth? First...there was This is How We Roll, you've waited for a new documentary and now we have.....
lol
Some parks really need to learn to control line jumping. It happens all the time to me at six flags parks in particular
1. The cruise lines are remarkably consistent in their product, even when the ships are vasty different. I think the reason is the crew is constantly rotated so the company philosphy is naturally spread through the fleet.
2. They won't give you a larger cup of water because counting cups is probably part of how they reconcile the till.
3. Reduce the complexity of visiting. Disney is the worst with this, by way far. It seems even CedarFair and SixFlags is complicating their fast pass. At Universal and SeaWorld, you just show up with a ticket and you either have Express/QuickQueue or you don't. Pretty easy.
We were contemplating a family reunion at Disney. Most likely land, possibly world. It's so freaking complicated that even looking into what was required for planning it felt like torture. We're going camping instead.
I’m not so sure about “reconciling the til” with cups. During Covid every single place I went to that normally offered free refills just gave you a new cup as if that was going to save someone’s life. All these years we were told those cups are “inventory” and they can’t give them away, but I’ve been to a few places (WDW included) that will give big cups (normally for soft drinks) for free ice water no problem.
@@joeygassmann5595 Coof changed a lot of things, but the cups are still inventory controlled. It also depends on the revenue model. Disney, and similar premium brands, often don't have such fine grain controls. On hot days, Disney will server water in the big cups.
Another one is poorly designed fast lane systems…AKA cedar point. They sell practically an uncapped amount of fast lane to guests for a certain price then there are points where fast lane is 45 mins cause it’s oversold then the normal line moves x3 as slow and you’re waiting 2+ hours for a ride that really should be an hour wait.
How about when parks allow way more fast passes to board than they do general admission tickets. Not everyone can afford fast passes for each person and they don't deserve to be treated like a second class guest and forced to wait way longer.
Yeah California's Great America was really bad with that. The normal line wasn't moving for 2 hours and when I complained they acted as if I was stupid.
Haha love a good rant video. Six flags is gonna take a lot it here
Biggest problem with coaster studios,
Being to cool 😎
My home park is Valleyfair and speaking of employees that dont want to be there, I once had a ride operator say "Enjoy your ride on The Wild Thing. We were riding the drop tower.
Also, a ride op once said "Enjoy your ride on the ONE AND ONLY corkscrew, which had me laughing for over 10 minutes.
So many great points. I love that Dollywood has the bins on each ride so you don’t need a locker.
8:00 BGW also had water fountains working in 2020, until freeze season. _One_ was turned back on later in 2021.
8:45 in some cases, businesses had been looking for that excuse for change, for example late closing times may never quite come back and surely some had been considering that for years.
Just about everything said here was SPOT ON! 10/10 video. You should definitely do a part 2 and a Loose Article video. Had some fun recently with confusing phrasing between what an Ap said vs what the Website said. They'll just blame COVID. Hysterically accurate!
One big gripe I have for most parks is not announcing when their major rides have reopened for weather or just breakdowns. By the time you realise that a ride has reopened the queue line is excessive because you were off in another part of the park. I went to Worlds of Fun for the third time with some friends this last year. I wanted my friends to try out Patriot the park's invert. It was closed for the first two hours the park was open. When we came to check to see if it opened later and the line was pouring out onto the midway. There was no announcement so people entering the park just swarmed to the first big coaster they saw. Any kind of announcement would've absolutely helped.
Complete agree with what you guys said about Nickelodeon Universe New Jersey. I live under two hours away but I’ve stayed away from it due to the cost of a ticket. Would much rather drive the extra 45 minutes to head to Great Adventure
Honestly I know there’s no way to change it but one thing that annoys me about theme parks are the denying a row request like I was at universal a couple weeks ago and I requested back row on Velocicoaster and the ride operator said no when I just saw him let two people go into the back so that’s my big problem with theme parks some ride operators are good about letting people choose their row but others straight lie to your face like I get it that you wanna keep the line moving but you shouldn’t tell someone they can’t choose their row when you just let people choose their row
5:19 that makes sense for people that want a career working at amusement parks. but most people aren't there because they see the amusement park as their career but a pay check until they can get through school or find a better job which is a side effect of the low pay in my opinion.
I absolutely hate it when a ride doesnt have a single rider line. When you have a 60-90 min wait and they send out trains with empty seats all day long. Just makes a long line even longer.
A lot of the inconsistency issues sadly come from the ops managers calling when to close the line for the night. Every day is different and every manager does things differently. Sadly day managers have a huge impact on how a park runs and it reflects on the company as a whole. And people blame the company when it’s really Manager so and so.
Inaccurate info likely stems from a lack of an IT/website team. From experience, many of these entertainment giants gutted departments during covid and haven’t restored them. And cutting the intern who updates the app is an easy choice for an executive.
Not excusing, just giving my experience based on working in a theme park
Our recent Vlog at cedar point we were talking about how the water to wash your hands was colder than the water in the drinking fountain. How’s that possible?
haha I've had that happen before
Cheaper parking would be sick. Parking at cedar point is more than 50% of the ticket price.
Great discussion, unfortunately I don’t think much will change, the executives just look at the bottom line, everything else is secondary to that no matter what they say.
Life experiences in general have declined in quality while increasing in cost as profits have replaced human decency.
Taylor have you ever looked into light boxes or other props you can use to make the lighting in your videos better?
W I N D O W
We have light boxes we use- you can see one of them in the reflection of one of the posters actually.
A good example of parks not having info right on a app is Carowinds,multipule times its listied things like carolina cyclone as open all day,but it wasnt,they also say the app will tell you wait times, it never does
I feel like I can relate to this video with the feeling of not wanting to be at a park as a ride op. As someone who was a former ride op on Batman at SFSTL, I was trying to do the best I can with enjoying myself on the job. But, I was constantly getting yelled at despite working as hard and fast as I can. That was rough for me, and I feel like the other team members were holding me back as a result.
American Dream nickelodeon universe costing about $75 per person seems like a better value after paying $60 for a ride wristband at Adventuredome a couple days ago haha 😂
LINE CUTTING! Parks could prevent line cutting in a better way. Maybe station an employee halfway through the line on busy days, and have them call security when people push through. ✂️✂️✂️
wow, 5 mins in and UK parks are really good compared to America 😂😂😂
the whole "paying for water" issue is pretty unforgivable... all parks should have free + accessible water :/ I wonder if it's just a north america/USA thing? are international parks the same way?
Depending on the regional McDonalds owner, some of them in Ohio charge and say its for the cup, to get around the state law that water is free.
water stations are a must. my gf pretty much passed out (peak July) almost waiting in the long line for X2 @ SFMM. we were about to get to the stall and BOOM almost passed out bc dehydration.
Finnigans in Univeral Orlando is the best meal! I get just as excited I’m going to eat there as I am for the rides lol
When it comes to notifying if a ride is going to open or closed for a day sometimes that is very difficult to do because many times it’s a last minute decision or even coming in getting ready for the day and the park won’t know if a ride is ready to open until the ride operations crew gets there. Working in rides there have been times where my crew got to the ride and maintenance was working on the ride and mid-day they said we need more time so you aren’t going to open today or something you get to the ride and maintenance says no you aren’t opening. It’s hard to post that online and make sure everyone knows that but in the end it’s all about safety. But I do agree if a ride is planned to closed for a certain amount of time it should be posted
When I went to Plopsaland de Panne in April, a 0,5 liter bottle of water was 5€, which was just ridiculous…
Try Six Flags. A bottle of Coke is $10.
wtf ok thanks 😅 I will be there in 8 Days
yeah, that place is expensive on top of expensive
Even though I’m on the spectrum I think I would enjoy being a ride operator especially operating Twister at Six Flags Great Adventure and interacting with the riders
The overuse and allowance of flash pass and skip the line passes are ruining the experience.
To share my experience with issues. When my friend and I visited Cedar Point last year; a couple of people already pointed it out, but what dampened our experience is that the ride ops let the fast passers in more than an average guest. It makes the regular line moves way slower than necessary. It definitely pissed my friend off. It was really noticeable on Steel Vengeance. It's real bad because other parks I've been to handled it much better. Other commenters already pointed out the solution to that issue, so I'm not going to repeat it.
To clarify, I love Cedar Point. It's one of my favorite parks of all time, but these issues like this can ruin someone's experience and leaves a bitter taste in their mouths.
I never had that problem with seaworld. BG, on the other hand.
Thank you for talking about the covid stuff, absolutely ridiculous
Keep up the great work sarah and Taylor 😁
It's about time someone called out the "Oh, we don't have X because of COVID" excuse. I see that crap ALL THE TIME just in general.
It's never "because of COVID", it's because these businesses have convinced themselves they can save money by being LAZY.
Seaworld just did this to ACE I attended spring con with a couple friends and the site/app both had listed that both Infinity Falls and Manta were to be open… Nope but then the next day both attractions were open!
Half this is indirectly complaint about capitalism
- Walk of shame (THE WORST!!!!)
- Long lines
- Favorite rides closed
- Covid excuses
- Maximum height restrictions
Having free water should definitely be a necessity. It was a problem well before covid. If you are charging for a water cup there is no way that should be legal. I feel like every park ticket should give you a free water bottle or water container with water stations spread throughout the park and add the price of the plastic bottle into the park ticket. It should be illegal to charge for water
I also think they should have water stations in lines, or at the very least, have shade for the lines. Standing in direct sunlight for that long can be actually dangerous especially with the lack of available water at parks.
My biggest complaint is definitely food, if I’m paying 20 bucks for a meal it needs to be good not stuff you can pick up at a gas station.
Here’s one you may be mentioned are roller coasters with assigned seating with no seating request they’re the worst if you’re a specific seat/row person,for example Wicked Cyclone at six flags New England first season it had strict assigned seating due to narrow station until mid August 2016 guess we’re allowed to pick there own seat which is a must welcome change.
Food/Drink prices for crap food, separate parking fee when you already bought tickets ahead of time, new rides with no capacity at some of the big parks that see huge crowds, bad and loud music, misbehaving patorns/kids with no responsible adult chaperones. And the food in Disney is overwhelmingly terrible. Only a few places are decent, and they are expensive.
My biggest problem are exit passes and people faking injuries to cut the line.
So I went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg on Thursday and I got last ride of the night on Pantheon. As soon as I reach the bottom of the exit ramp this ambassador named Jason who had the height measuring stick and everybody exiting the ride was playing limbo and this guy was just on it. And throughout the night Jason was greeting people as they entered the queue line of pantheon and he recognized me entering through that key line multiple times because you know as enthusiast I like Marathoning there best coaster there and he even gave me a red hand stamp and multiple high-fives and fist bumps and he was probably one of the most energetic employees I have ever met in my life. As of right now the good news is Busch gardens Williamsburg has gone all of their safety measures and excuses regarding the Covid and the only thing that’s still there that’s part of Covid is hand sanitizer stations and staffing issues however if you’re doing a trip to Williamsburg and you stay at the nearby hotels especially the ones closest to the park you may notice that the restaurants in the hotels may be still closed due to Covid I recently stayed at the Holiday Inn express just down the street from Busch Gardens Williamsburg and they did have their breakfast open however their pancake machine was turned off and I asked the people why and they said because of Covid concerns and that was not the excuse I think they just had it off because they did not want anyone attracting to that and with the cinnamon rolls there they had them but they only had one batch so the people that took all of them were the only ones that got them so you had to get up early and get to the breakfast restaurant right when it opens if you want to get the cinnamon rolls. The courtyard by Marriott next door still doesn’t have their restaurant open because of Covid. And then the Doubletree by Hilton did not have anything open until the spring because of Covid like the only thing that was open was like a convenient store and the fitness center but not even the pool or the restaurants were open and that Doubletree is massive and that basically kind of feels like a resort because they have three different restaurants and all of them plus the amenities were closed until the spring of 2022 because of the pandemic and that was just sad. Also Busch gardens Williamsburg recently updated the app like all the other Sea World Parks but l Busch Gardens Williamsburg does not show any ride wait times and then when you go in the park some rides to show the wait times but they’re so in accurate like for example Pantheon has their wait time sign out but most of the time it says like 13 27 just random numbers displayed on the wait time boards and they’re never accurate so they just guess on how long the lines are in the wait times are never on the app at Busch Gardens Williamsburg but Busch Gardens Tampa has accurate wait times. Another thing to mention that’s not in Busch Gardens Williamsburg but it’s right by it is that the McDonald’s there off right of that highway might be the worst McDonald’s I have ever been to in my life. And this even happened way before the pandemic began but we went to McDonald’s right after park close and there was two guys we tried to eat inside but they kicked us out because of Covid so we had to go through the drive-through we ordered our meal and I usually get a sweet tea however the guy said that they were out of sweet tea so I tried to order a frappe they said that they were out of that as well and said that the only drinks that they can make frozen is milkshakes and Mc flurry‘s anything with ice cream so we ordered a soda finally and I tried to order root beer and they didn’t have that either so I ordered a HighC then we when we pulled up the window they were stacked with everything we tried to order so they just refused to serve us what we wanted because they were in the mood to make it and saying that they’re all out of them to make it as an excuse so they can get their way and not to mention it took like 30 minutes for them to make the food because they were talking on their phones and playing on their phones rather than actually doing their work and we got normal amounts of food and the workers just did not care about us or any of their customers and then we got the wrong order because they just want to be lazy and the food was undercooked and disgusting and I had to throw it all away because of how bad the workers made it and how they just were lazy. I will never be going to the McDonald’s right by Busch gardens Williamsburg ever again because that was just horrible.
The last visit I had at six flags New England was the best out of the 20 times j went during the season. (I have season pass)
The staff would be running the rides fast, wicked cyclone line was empty. And the bumper cars person said he wanted everyone to have fun.
Having boring queue lines. I get that if a park is popular there will be long lines. That just makes sense. But if you are essentially spending most of your day in queue lines then they should be a part of the experience. I'm not saying everything needs to have elaborate theming like Indiana Jones or Forbidden Journey. But they need to keep you at least mildly entertained. They can use placards with fun facts about the coaster, the ride, the history of the park, the city where the park is....etc. They can have TV screens with rolling trivia, jokes, clips of some kind of park related history...etc. Or they could have screens within clips from the media being represented (like the queue from the Simpsons Ride.) And certainly theming can be a great way to entertain guests.
Since Six Flags usually doesn't like to spend much money for theming I think it's a missed opportunity that their parks don't all have screens with rolling episodes of Looney Tunes or DC Comics animated shows. Sometimes you'll find small clips here or there but they should have Batman the Animated Series on loop in some of their queue lines. You'd think that would be a cheap and easy fix.
And I hate to say it but long boring uninspired queue lines is why Cedar Point isn't even close to breaking into my top 5 favorite parks.
Minimum wage, minimum effort. Can’t blame employees at all.
If I want to stow all my crap in a locker for the day, (Umbrellas, ponchos, diapers, bananas.) I am absolutely willing to pay. I CHOOSE to use a locker. If I want to ride El Toro or Kingda Ka and you are TELLING me that I MUST use locker, the you better have it waiting for me right in the que and it had better be FREE. (God bless you Universal.) The experience is soo different and I would be willing to bet that a guest that didn't have to pay what amounts to an UPCHARGE to ride a ride, would spend more of their money on other things inside the park.
Single rider lines are a super easy and cheap way to provide better guest service. I can’t tell you how painful it is to see train after train dispatched with several empty seats. That just shows that the park doesn’t care about capacity or shorter wait times for their guests. But why doesn’t Cedar Fair do this? I dunno, maybe to sell more $250 fast lanes. Some parks do have them and don’t even advertise them, that’s an easy fix with a sign and maybe a note on their website.
Nickel and diming for lockers is just tacky. If you’re going to make me use a locker to ride something, at least make it free like Universal. It is far more likely to have riders trying to sneak loose articles onto the ride if you’re going to charge for lockers.
I didn’t realize Lagoon was charging for water cups, that’s absolutely atrocious guest service. I really love that park and had no idea they were doing that, it’s very disappointing.
So many solutions out there for making the parks a much more enjoyable experience are very inexpensive, it only requires the will of park management to implement them.
Six Flags is puzzling in 2022. Especially individual parks.
Their food has absolutely improved this year. Several ingredients have been upgraded and things like their chicken tenders are definitely better. But sometimes these are incomplete. Macho Nacho at Six Flags St Louis used to have warm and nice fresh tasting tortilla chips for their nachos - this year they're using yellow rounds like a ballpark nacho.
Another change at St Louis is some of the coasters have had loose article policy changes. Every coaster at this park used to have shelving for your drink cups. All of them. They even built new ones for the 2021 season that have cubbies below the drink shelves. These have been removed on 3 coasters - however the loose article policy isn't even being enforced people are just leaving the items that'd be on those shelves on the floor of the station. It's truly puzzling that these have been removed - especially when money was spent to build new ones the previous two seasons. It hasn't sped up operations at all (I assume that was one of their reasons) and it's just super messy. And for the third time - THIS IS SOMETHING THIS PARK GOT RIGHT JUST LAST YEAR.
17:07 There’s a saying that used to be prevalent amongst Disney World fans: “if you want good food at Hollywood Studios, leave and go to Epcot.” (which is no longer true. DHS has upped their food game.) For Six Flags Great America, foodwise, your best option is to leave and go to McDonald’s or Burger King.
Lol as a former cast member of Hollywood Studios… partially, yet totally accurate. And that was in 2017
@@MrDisneyguy DHS has upped their food game. I once had a great barbecue chicken and ribs platter from ABC Commissary a few years ago.
@@mdf3530 you got me at great BBQ chicken
I went to my first Six Flags park last week (Magic Mountain) and was honestly shocked at how terrible the water situation was. No outside water bottles were allowed in the park, and so we ended up buying $6 each Smart Waters and refilling them throughout the day. I've honestly been so spoiled by growing up close to Lagoon, you can bring in your own food and water, and any food place in the park will refill your water bottle for free. I'm sad to see how many costs they're trying to cut, to the point of charging absurd amounts to stay hydrated.