Amusement Parks that leave you feeling dissappointed

[furie]

My guess is that by only running one train, you could save your maintenance crew the time of checking the 2nd train at the end of the day. If your maintenance crew is paid by the hour, that would save some money.

Yeah, this is the problem with this "hobby" - we just don't have particularly good facts on working practices and costs.

I agree with you, it's possible, but aren't the trains checked before they're "put to bed" as a matter of course? Is paying £12 per hour for two engineers over two hours really crippling? Considering the positive effect it may have, it could be worth it.

The answer of course is that we just honestly don't know why. We don't know the exact costs. It may be that on quiet days they know will be quiet in advance, they simply don't employ enough staff to make it viable to add the extra train.

If you have a park on the edge, then you need to look at every penny spent on maintenance and staffing as that's where (on a quiet day where you're possible looking at a loss) the savings can be made. The problem is, paper figures don't cover all the variables you can't quantify. Guest satisfaction and chance of return, amount spent in outlets, etc. You have no way of knowing how bad queues adversely affect that - particularly if it's a quiet day anyway where spend would be minimal. FOur extra cups of coffee compared to 2x2hoursxengineers for instance.

I'd love to see some real figures and get a clue, but I suspect so would the parks :lol:

 

[therick311]

Is paying £12 per hour for two engineers over two hours really crippling?

I certainly agree with you here. I'm not trying to say it's better and cheaper to run 1 train. I'm just guessing at the corporate accounting rational to justify it. As we have unfortunatly seen with the recent accident in North Carolina, short term money trumps customer satisfaction and long term money. Hell, it even trumps safety! :redhotevil:

 

[Casio]

Magic Kingdom: I went in 2008, and my feeling was really that they didn't need to do much with the park, so they haven't. They know they'll pull the gate figures so all they do is keep the rides running. Because it gets so many people, it's mainly just big open, bland space. Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain are both lame, Splash Mountain is the only redeeming factor as it is amazing.

Tibidabo: Crap. Crap rides, crap signposting, crap layout, crap guests, crap services.

On the subject of Walibi Holland, I actually really enjoyed it! I did the trip from London and back in a day, which was a fair bit of effort, but I still felt very satisfied. It's a nice looking park, it has a decent atmosphere, Goliath is incredible and then it has a fair few other coasters that back it up; Robin Hood, Xpress and Speed of Sound were all enjoyable. I do agree that El Condor is awful though.

 

[Edward M]

Overrated Amusement Parks

In contrast to VF15's topic, I have decided to make a separate topic about overrated amusement parks. It is simple enough. Just tell your choices for overrated amusement parks.

For me, I could have chose Animal Kingdom, Six Flags Great Adventure, or the Seaworld parks, but I will to go with a park that everyone loves, and I just find okay.

Dollywood
It's fine, but I found it nothing special. It is a beautiful park with some good rides, but it just wasn't nearly as good as I was expecting. Perhaps, it is my pure hatred for everything country, but I loved Silver Dollar City which is very country. I did enjoy Dollywood for being very pretty and having Thunderhead & Mystery Mine, but something seemed lacking. It felt like I was getting half what I expected. I don't know. Perhaps, there is something I missed. It is just how I feel.

 

[rtotheizzo17]

Re: Overrated Amusement Parks

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=35720

Same thing, no?

 

[elephant58]

Re: Overrated Amusement Parks

^Or perhaps he didn't realize that there was a topic on it already?

 

[rollermonkey]

Re: Overrated Amusement Parks

Cedar Point

'nuff said.

 

[gavin]

Re: Overrated Amusement Parks

Cedar Point here as well.

It's a very good park, and I guess it is a "must-do" for enthusiasts, but it's really not the amusement park Mecca that it's made out to be by a lot of people. While I had a great day there, I found it to be pretty soulless.

 

[Darren B]

Re: Overrated Amusement Parks

Disney </3

I've stated many times before about my hatred for the place. It's so fake and disgusting.

Europa park, I was expecting the Cedar Point of Europe, but it wasn't that great. A couple of good coasters but that's it. Still a nice park though.

Walibi Holland, it's just bland. Goliath is the saviour, no doubt about that.

 

[furie]

Topics merged

Carry on.

 

[CPSFMMCW]

Re: Overrated Amusement Parks

Dollywood
It's fine, but I found it nothing special. It is a beautiful park with some good rides, but it just wasn't nearly as good as I was expecting. Perhaps, it is my pure hatred for everything country, but I loved Silver Dollar City which is very country. I did enjoy Dollywood for being very pretty and having Thunderhead & Mystery Mine, but something seemed lacking. It felt like I was getting half what I expected. I don't know. Perhaps, there is something I missed. It is just how I feel.

I agree. I found Dollywood to be a bit of a let down. When I went it was packed, thunderhead was closed, and there were enormous lines for everything. And it didn't help that Firechaser express opens next year so I didn't get to ride it. I missed out on 3 credits(if you count firechaser) Don't get me wrong, i'm sure if I Went next year during the summer I would have a better experience. That stuff being said, I did enjoy the park an had a fun time, I just expected more.

 

[theRock-steel]

Six Flags America - I had good things to say about you before, but no more.

^ I agree with you about Indiana Beach. Rides didn't open when the park did too. Mt. Olympus wasn't any better. Hour long waits with single train operations is a bust. That's enough with the negative; Valleyfair!, Nickelodeon Universe, and SFGAM were much better. That Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern Indiana, and Illinois trip was still very good.

 

[PeskyTrimBrake]

Epcot:
A fairly decent park. Quite clean. but lacking rides. Epcot should be called more like a garden with activities rather than a theme park. Probably one of the most boring Disney Parks ive visited. The food is good but not worth the $60 per person. Wait times are unbearable and down times are frequent.

La Ronde:
Holy **** I can understand why La Ronde was almost closed. Having couple of decent rides, most of their rides are either closed, old, or abandoned. The place is a huge dump. Everything is rusty, dusty, dirty, and worn out. Also having a mediocre indoor roller coaster and having to wait an hour in line was a nightmare.


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk