Six Flags. Where to begin? They’ve been up to a whole lot recently. It all began last fall when Dan Snyder began to make a big stink about Six Flags’ management. Eventually he was successful in his battle with the management of Kieran Burke and team out and Snyder’s guys in. The new CEO, Mark Shapiro, began a tour of all the parks in the chain and has been announcing new ideas ever since.

First of all, before diving into the Shapiro stuff, a word about AstroWorld. What were they thinking!? Removing the park may have made a quick buck, but was it ever considered to “fix” the Six Flags image first? It just doesn’t seem like it was wise choice to throw away such a nice looking park. Yeah, the parking was supposedly a big problem. It’s just sad to see a ride like the Texas Cyclone go I guess.

Anyway, on to Shapiro. He’s been spitting out ideas since he took the reigns of the company. Some have been great, some awful. From the beginning he has emphasized a desire to shift the focus of the company to family fun, not thrills. This is a great plan, part of what the parks have needed. It seems like a good number of his ideas focus on this when there are still bigger problems, but we’ll discuss that in a bit. Another idea that got some press was the new policy of smoke free parks. This is also a great plan that many other parks have also been instituting. Hopefully we see it enforced, however. Without enforcement it’ll do no good.

In this constant stream of ideas, some things have been just plain stupid. The perfect example is the ill-fated no re-entry policy. How could a park ever think about not allowing re-entry? This isn’t like spending a few hours at the movies. If they’re aiming for the family atmosphere, it has to be assumed that in a full day at an amusement park the family is going to need to run out to the car for something. Lockers are expensive, as is food. Luckily the backlash from the mere idea of this caused the company to revoke the policy.

So among a bunch of other little ideas we get to today. One of the latest to come out of Six Flags is news on the Fast Lane program, now known as “The Flash Pass.” Basically, this program takes everything Disney did right with FastPass and screws it up. The Flash Pass is not free, and will cost you. Quite a lot actually, especially after already paying the absolutely ridiculous $15 to park and $60 admission to major Six Flags parks. And for $60 (more than any other park in the country, if I’m not mistaken), those parks better seriously deliver this summer, considering they have never been close to being worth $60 admission in the past.

Back to the Fast Lane/Flash Pass system though. In my experiences visiting Six Flags Great Adventure, the function of this line jumping system is so wrong. First, the entrances for guests with the pass are usually not staffed at all, meaning people walk up at the wrong time or with no pass at all. They either merge right in or take over seats on the train with no restriction to moderate the flow of Flash Pass guests onto the ride. When ride crews are minimal and capacity not maxed, this all causes the regular line to move even slower. How about before letting people pay to line jump the company takes a nice long, hard look at their operations?

Specifically speaking of the operations, I’ve always been rather annoyed with how some things are run. I don’t like waiting in line forever because employees stand around chatting, or the ride is just staffed horribly. Rides like Medusa and Nitro at Great Adventure can be people eaters in terms of capacity, but not with three employees total operating and checking seats. A thorough overhaul of operations and guest services will get me back through a Six Flags gate much quicker than $60 admission and a bunch of Looney Tunes characters charging for autographs!

Now this whole rant is not saying Six Flags is the worst thing in the world. The company does own a good deal of parks with huge potential. Parks like Great Adventure, Magic Mountain and Great America, among many others, are great properties with potential to be absolutely wonderful theme parks, but they need to focus on the right things to improve. So far it seems like many of those things have the focus this season; many of the parks have needed some paint, serious maintenance and general clean up for a long time. If these efforts continue along with some guest service training that is enforced throughout the season, there is a chance for Six Flags to turn around. Fixing Six Flags is going to take a long time, but they need to start from the core of the problems, then add the frilly stuff and advertise. We’ll see what happens!

Today marks just fifty days until my home park, Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, opens for their 123rd season. After Hydra roared into action last year, Dorney Park is taking the year off from thrill rides and using the opportunity to make some necessary general park improvements. Shortly after closing for the 2005 season an old landmark building in the park, the Dorney Mansion or Gold Mine building, was removed due to poor structural integrity. For 2006 the void left by this removal will be filled with a new Subway restaurant, featuring an outdoor patio area to dine and enjoy shows across the way at the park’s Center Stage. As a sweet treat this summer, Dorney Park will be selling cotton candy for $0.25 this summer. Along with all the other Cedar Fair parks, this is sure to be a hit.

Dorney Park’s big new additions for this year are focused in Wildwater Kingdom, Dorney’s water park. For 2006 a new wave pool, Wildwater Cove, is being added to alleviate over crowding of the main wave pool. Pool side cabanas are also being introduced.

While the improvements for this season are sure to prove successful as much as they were necessary, one can not help but look to the future. The removal of Skyscraper from the bottom of the park at the close of the 2004 season left a void of attractions in that area of the park. Could something be up? After all, Skyscraper was only added in 2000. After the removal of Hercules between 2003 and 2004, a gap was left in the park’s roller coaster collection for wilder wooden roller coaster. Hercules obviously had to go, and while Thunderhawk is a great ride (would be fantastic without the head rests), the poor thing needs a big brother. A wooden twister coaster such as the offerings of Great Coasters would be the perfect compliment in the way Twister compliments Phoenix at Knoebels. I am sure others will agree that a great wood coaster would be a better addition than any of the popular gimmicky steel rides out there right now. Hopefully the latest trend of building wood coasters is continued by Dorney!

The countdown to opening day continues. I look forward to opening day at Dorney Park and seeing what other surprises are in store for the 2006 season. See you on the midway!