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When I observed the crane at Monster, they were using it to remove the top piece off to work on the center part. That top piece has since been put back on and the crane has now moved over to Zephyr. I will say I've observed people working on Monster the last few days, so there is certainly effort going into getting it ready for the season. All of these observations coming from the webcam of course lol.

I went to KD for their opening day this past weekend. I have been to plenty of legacy Six parks to experience their Flash Pass system, so I knew what to expect going in. The employees working the FL queues with the new phone-based scanners seemed to be well versed in how to scan people in, but the issues arose in those guests that entered the Fastlane queue before their countdown timers had expired. The employees were letting them simply stand in line until their QR code became available- forcing those who had their QR codes ready to go to wait several additional minutes- sometimes 10-15. Both TT and Pantherian were running one train (and kept shredding wheels... again), which compounded the issue. The QR codes do scan quickly, and they do seem to have the FL queues adequately staffed. It was easy to make a reservation in the app, though like many have said I did not like having to have my phone on me. To lap Twisted Timbers, this required me to get my phone out of the locker every time I wanted to enter the fastlane queue- rather than just store my phone in the locker for several rides like you can with a wristband. For me, that is the biggest drawback. I also experienced difficulty getting the all season FL on my pass to activate- after entering the park, the FL website still said I was not present in the park. I had to go to the premium experience center to get them to manually activate my FL reservations- which took nearly 30 minutes for them to figure out. I was glad Accesso was present to work through the bugs the first day. I did receive a survey after my visit- where I also left this feedback.

Before someone hops in to blame ACE: notice how they’re not having this problem at other parks; this includes other Six Flags parks.

I'd think so too. Still plenty of time to get things done. Absolutely. I imagine the lights will be updated to help signify it's return. I'm happy to see the flat rides get some TLC. I'm not personally able to ride most of them (got vertigo from labyrinthitis years ago, now I get super dizzy on anything that spins) but my wife and kids absolutely love spinning rides. You can bet they'll be on monster a some point this season!

I don't know, specifically, but I'd imagine they could use a forklift vs. a crane.

Hopefully they fixed the lights. Alot were burnt out or not working last season and I've noticed the sockets on the arms closest to the center no longer had any tube bulbs in them anymore

I have a theory on why this merger occurred—I’m assuming it was out of desperation and the belief that economies of scale might be the only solution to dig out of the after effects of COVID. I think the COVID hangover is the reason why the “pure” park companies (those that don’t have other significant sources of other income like Disney or Universal) like Six Flags, United and Merlin are suffering financially today. I think we tend to gloss over the long lasting impact shutting down the only source of revenue for six months, a year, or close to two years (in the case of California) had on these businesses—everything seemed to come roaring back right after everything reopened, but that didn’t make up for the long period of essentially no revenue—things like maturing debt eventually came home to roost. I really think the problems the park companies are having now are part of the long lasting impact of the pandemic. Of course, there’s probably a deeper thought about how as a society we haven’t really dealt with the trauma of the pandemic either, but that’s probably a little philosophical for a theme park board 🙂

I like how Jana took stake in October. It’s been 6 months. Over the time the organization isn’t really in business (parks operating), the CEO officially stepped down, and multiple other things have happened since then, so of course things are a bit dysfunctional. I mean I don’t think the ship is going in the right direction, but the captain needs to be able to steer it to put it on the right course.

Everyone with a brain knew merging with Six Flags would be a disaster like almost any merger that has happened in history! I literally can't believe coaster enthusiasts and CF employees/stockholders didn't try and at least attempt to organize some sort of revolt/protest to try and stop the merger. (not that it 100% would've worked but we've seen proposed mergers get stopped by protests in the past). Plus it would've gotten insane news coverage if a revolt got organized and happened. Sports fans remember Greg Schiano to Tennessee? That was stopped bc fans (and others higher up) put their foot down and spoke out against it as they knew it wasn't going to work. Also Mark Stoops to Texas A&M or Cracker Barrel and the proposed rebrand.

Once again, PE inserts itself to attempt to do more harm than good… First off, who exactly would be the buyer for the full SF company as it sits today? (Well, PE I guess…). They’re already strategically selling properties that they don’t feel fit into their long term strategy—selling the whole chain (AGAIN!) would only dump more debt onto the balance sheet because the company that gets purchased always seems to end up with the debt when PE is involved… Jeesh, guys—John has only been CEO for like 90 days—give it at least a few quarters to allow his strategy to play out 🙄