Death of A Theme Park

[The Interpreter]

Some interesting observations here:

http://www.mickeynews.com/Columns/DisplayC....asp_Q_id_E_714

[Gordon Bombay]

^A very good article with very good points! If you're going to be paying a lot you deserve a quality product. A lot of these promotions that parks do are bad. Bring a firend free day for example, yeah the park makes a killing in profits but they also have a lot of problems. Thanks for sharing INterpreter, I hope all theme parks take note and I hope Magic Mountain can be saved

[King Maple The Tree King]

The author makes a fantastic point about how certain offers do not attract the best people who can be let loos un-supervised. Relatively, I've seen employees and security apply discipline very stricktly, however, its very hard to do sometimes on packed days, especially bring a friend free days. Last bring a friend free day I saw countless Mason police cars driving out of the park with people in the back seats and security constantly questioning people throughout the park. Last year when they did that promotion during the final days "RENEW YOUR GOLD PASS AND GET 5 FREE TICKETS!" on the final night of the year I witnessed a fight break out in The Beast station and saw two employees effectively put an end to it, they did so within in their means, rules, and restrictions, and security as well as polics promptly came and took care of both parties. I think all parks need to re-focus on the family and take a stronger stand on discipline.

[CoastersNSich]

Some of the little helpful things the big regional parks seem to have forgotten and/or discarded are the gentle transport rides. These include trains, monorails, inclines, sky rides, and observaton towers. Yes, I know how the big coasters and the whimsical flashy kids areas bring most guests in, but these seemingly simple transport rides are things the entire family can do together - again, something Walt Disney emphasized. I know SFMM can't exactly be Disneyland, but their effort to be the ultimate thrill park with the most coasters has obviously bit them in the butt. I'm glad they have their tower back up and running, now if they can get the Metro monorail running again...

[screamingnight]

Well Im 15 years old so I think I would enjoy myself at Six Flags MM not much. One thing there wont be a lot of little kids around screaming that would be good. But I would still hear lots of yelling from other teens. Also I would get pushed and that would make me angry. So this might surprise all of you I would never go to Six Flags MM.

[The Interpreter]

Hmmm. I was at Six Flags Magic Mountain less than three weeks ago. There were kids running around screaming. Lots of them. Behaving much worse than most kids in most parks. The difference, you see, is most of them were either by themselves or with their slightly older brothers and sisters. What was almost totally absent was family groups with small children. But there were small children. Just not very many with Mommy and Daddy, or at least with an adult old enough to care more about the kid than about leaving the kid to run around unsupervised while they went on the coasters.

What was most obviously absent was adults without kids. I think I was in a part of the park audience that was far less than 5 percent....adult over 25. It was obvious the park was virtually completely full of teenagers, a few twenty-somethings, and a lot of screaming kids, most running around unsupervised. Many, if not most of the people in the crowd appeared to be people you wouldn't necessarily want to encounter in a back alley at 3 a.m.