The 10 Biggest Problems with Theme Parks
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
- Not every park is perfect- while they certainly do things we love, there's also a lot that could be better. Join us as we explain the 10 most annoying things theme parks do!
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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. 💓🌈💓🌈💓
So many great points. I love that Dollywood has the bins on each ride so you don’t need a locker.
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.
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!
@@user-lw4hz5hx5h absolutely so true!
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.
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
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.
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
You know how Six Flags has those drink bottle holders in the stations. Yeah put those on every ride at every park
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!
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.
Using COVID as an excuse to be lazy is a big one
Haha
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!
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.
Loved the video you both mentioned the water problem at parks even Taylor brought up having to pay 25 cents for a small cup of water at Lagoon, when I have gone to Lagoon in the past I have purchased the souvenir bottle and they would fill my cup with water for free, also I am happy that parks are working on the situation with the lockers while waiting in line this is something I would love to see parks improve on in the future, great video once again!!!
Everything theme park needs to watch this video
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.
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.
Excellent video I just have a few suggestions if you read all the way through this. Huge thumbs up for this topic.especially someone like you guys with a lot of followers bringing it up. Parks might be paying attention.
The new management at Six Flags had been in contact earlier in the year with the UA-camr Park Journey asking for constructive criticism and feedback. The single rider lines, more park specific merch, wait line times posted throughout the park on tvs, better food experiences( he suggested FatBurger to them) , better social media presence are some of the things he mentioned sharing with Six Flags management. Magic Mountain and Great Adventure are seeing some of these changes already. I hope park management throughout the country are watching your video and taking notes.
Only things I think you missed are 1.unusual one train ops( like on a low capacity ride on a busy Saturday why only 1 train) and not addressing bad restraints. I'm referring to common complaints for restraints on a certain ride. Like the vest restraints on X Flight at Great America or Banshee at Kings Island. They don't bother me and don't tighten during the ride for me but my 12 year old son recently on X Flight said it tightened down so hard he was having a harder time breathing. I've seen many enthusiasts say the same in their videos.
I'd like to see a video from you guys addressing the various restraints and which ones should stay and which should go immediately. And how to fix current restraints on certain types of rides.
As a side note for example I'm not a big fan of RMC restraints. But maybe that's just me. I am on the taller side though.. Its harder for me to enjoy these forces when I'm stapled in ( Steel Vengeance the lapbar jammed into my stomach and I'm not obese or anything). its jamming my shins and thighs also. Outlaw Run was great but super owww ejector airtime.. That I can at least deal with but its not ideal.. But that double barrel roll my whole weight was supported by my inner thigh jammed into the restraint through the entire rotations. A ride should not give groin injuries, jeesh. My son had the same problem..He could hardly walk at first after getting off Outlaw Run. I like the rides but a simple better restraint and I'd love them more.
14:47 Yes, absolutely! He does reflect so well on Fiesta Texas. It is one of my favorite parks to visit. I like that you brought up Kings Dominion too. There has always been something so special about that park to me, but I couldn't figure out what. I'm sure that's it.
I’ve been fascinated by roller coasters for a long time- because of that and your videos I now work at SFGR in the Demon unit- love you guys hope I’ll get to meet you both one time.
I 100% agree about employees/management not caring enough and not showing that they enjoy working there and make your experience enjoyable. My home park is Hersheypark. I worked there for five summers from 2005-2009 and went above and beyond to make the work day fun and enjoyable for guests and myself. It also helps that amusement parks/roller coasters are a passion of mine. Now mostly because of this generation, I see employees on their phone almost the entire time, hardly smile, operate rides at a very slow pace producing extremely long wait times, etc. Every time I visit and see it I'm like "Where's the sense of pride to perform your job to the best of your ability?". I don't know how pay is now compared to when I used to work there ($5.85/hr. in the mid-2000s), but I always said if pay was better, I'd work there part-time again.
Great video. Just returned from Coaster Trip to Carowinds, Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg and I share some of these same frustrations.
last holiday I was at Phantasialand during their Wintertraum event, and Black Mamba was almost a complete walk-on during nighttime (while the park was still open for 3+ hours). Ofcourse me and my gf wanted to take the opportunity to marathon this beast, but already from our first ride, we saw that the 2 ride operators had this cold attitude like they didn't wanted to be there...
During our 3th ride, there was absolutely nobody in the station so we got really excited.
While you normally can choose which row you want to queue, the ride op's gave us a very specific seat (while the whole train was empty). While we asked to get the frontrow, they started to close the front restrains already and said we needed to sit at row 4 cus we can't sit in front because the restrains are already closed. When we then asked to get backrow, the ride op raised his voice and almost comanded us to sit in row 4.
Back in the station there was still nobody waiting to get on the ride and we asked if we could just stay in our seats one more time (instead of lapping the incredible long queue again) but they seemed very annoyed by the question and said we needed to leave the station.
What could have been such a nice part of our day ruined our mood for the rest of our evening and while we still had a little less of 3hours left, the vibe was just completly ruined and our excitement to ride again also...
Must add that these 2 ride-op's where an exception and the staff in Phantasialand is always really nice in general and i would return anytime!
I also have the feeling that the Ride Ops in Black Mamba really don't care sadly. Had the same experience in the beginning of December there. On Taron you can stay seated and even on Fly they led us through the door and we could ride again
@@Disturbed666METAL i think the chance is big we had the same ride op's because I also went in December.
And yeah on fly and Taron they where way friendlier! Done fly only 2 times that day but when lapping Taron all the time we really felt the difference with BM. I think they saw we are enthousiasts and they gave us some room to get more airtime haha
@@bjeurn2273 same here 😅 it was insane how much space we had on Taron
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 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.
All very valid points. I think especially heading into the summer, water and shade need to be more accessible for guests. But that should be at all times. Employee morale is usually a reflection on management and how the park pays its employees. Also important to remember that we as guests don’t know what each individual employee is going through on a particular day. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt unless they’re being blatantly rude. Thankful to have Knott’s as my home park, which I really think has taken a turn for the positive in the past 5 years with updates to attractions, food, and seasonal offerings. Fingers crossed on that giga!
One of the reasons I love Knoebels so much is they fix nearly all these issues
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?!
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
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
I worked at Kings Dominion in 1998. You are right about employee attitude. I worked with foreign exchange managers that constantly rated high in the park. People would actually take the time and refer to upper management and express how good the service was. Mostly food service.
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.
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
nice observations taylor! you should make more vids like these
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. 🤣
Great video and I agree with pretty much all your problems especially the water issue. One issue you missed is with Fast Passes. Cedar Point is my home park and fast passes have greatly soured my experience. A big issue seems to be ride ops advancing the line for Fast Pass more than the regular line, so the regular line goes extra slow. There should also be a limit on Fast Pass, because you pay a lot of money for them yet the Fast Pass line can still be up to an hour because everyone is buying them with no limits at all.
I couldn't agree more. The worst park experience I've ever had was at Six Flags Great America. The fast lane line never stopped moving and the shortest wait time I had the entire day was 45 minutes. I was only able to score 5 rides for the entire day (and we were there at park opening). I get that people pay to skip the line, but don't ignore everyone else.
My biggest pet peeve is theme parks not extending hours like they use to have pre Covid, and still not changing the prices. I live in Massachusetts, and I go up to Canobie Lake Park often in New Hampshire as well as Funtown Splashtown and Palace Playland in Maine. Palace Playland has increased its prices by around $5-$7, but their hours remain where there’s no set closing time and it’s based on weather and attendance. Which is great because even though they open later on weekdays (4pm) you can still get rides there till 10/11pm and the arcade is usually open till at least midnight.
Canobie Lake Park and Funtown on the other hand, raised their prices by a good amount (Funtown $10 at least and Canobie $12). They’ve lowered their hours significantly. Canobie doesn’t even open 7 days a week in the summer and during the summer to go from 10:30-7:00 is $48 which for a small park is a lot of money. Weekends they charge $54 which still is a lot of money. Yes it comes with a water park which is 4 slides, a wave pool, and another small area but most of the time it’s at capacity and over an hour wait to get in.
Funtown, their hours are now 10:30-6:00 for the amusement park and 10:30-5:00 for the water park. 3 nights in the summer they’re open till 10pm. It used to be a lot cheaper to go when they were open from 10:30-9:00 on weekdays. It’s just a joke where you should be paying less for less hours in the park available and not paying more and using Covid as the excuse
interesting- didn't think about this one, but sounds like it would fall under the 'value' category. Less time for your money.
@@CoasterStudios probably would. I’m not sure what six flags, seaworld, and the cedar fair parks were like hour wise before Covid. I know during 2020 and 2021, one of the many things that was mentioned in the vlogs was less night rides at certain parks.
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.
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
Hansa Park did an awesome job on the issue of the loose article when the lockers were part of the pre-show.
I think Busch Gardens Tampa handles the drink situation perfectly. There are stands all over the park in between the restaurants. You can grab water, soda or a beer all over the place. It's awesome.
The Water thing is what really kills my "home park", Indiana Beach. It is a pretty old park and doesn't have working water fountains. I am well aware that the water the park would more than likely be drawing for is not the "best" water, but a basic filter system would solve this.
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.
BGW and Preferred Parking... I rant about this constantly. I am always getting to the park and seeing a sign indicating Preferred Parking is unavailable. I present my platinum membership card at the tollbooth and they say "Sorry, Preferred parking is full." I then drive past a 1/2 empty France lot and a 1/3 empty England lot on my way across the street to Scotland. I've complained to Guest Services and they just repeat the script that "we're sorry for the inconvenience, it was really busy today and Preferred parking sold out" okay but why was nearly half the Preferred parking empty?
Not sure about other chains, but at most Cedar Fair parks, get the "drink plan" or wristband instead of a souvenir cup. Helps avoid the issue of not being able to get in line for certain rides. The cups are much smaller than the souvenir cups but you can get one every 15 minutes...(and who needs that much soda anyways).
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.
Keep up the great work sarah and Taylor 😁
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.
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.
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
Many valid points! Shoutout to BackRowByron for being an awesome rideop and enjoying his job with enthusiasm. Definitely made things better when Pantheon kept breaking down, because it's an Intamin.
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
As there most likely won't be larks watching at this video, you have shown people who maybe want to start ir work in q theme park. This is a good thing to show what to expect when going into a park.
People who work at amusement parks don't have any say in anything, and all the people high up have been hearing these complaints from letters that they get every day. They just don't do anything about it because they figure if the place is making money then they are doing their job well lol.
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.
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
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
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.
100% the water problem is a big issue. Recently had a trip to Thorpe park, and there was basically only 1 place we found where we could get water. Its insane!!
We frequent Universal and being able to bring hydro packs with us and fill them up at the coke style machines which offer free water is a great system. Wish more parks would implement these machines
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
great list. a few things I would add if you make a part 2
1. Cedar Fair is the biggest offender to this (cedar point in particular) but overselling the fast lane pass. Obviously Cedar Point is by far the worst here but at some point they need to significantly increase the price of fast lane or place some limits on the most popular attractions because its completely destroying the regular lines especially rides like Maverick that basically end up being marathon city because they nearly always empty out the entire fast lane queue before taking any riders from the standard line.
2. Six Flags biggest complaint is a lot of rides really need a good coat of paint. Some fresh paint would go a long way.
3. SeaWorld/Busch inconsistent pass pricing across the chain for platinum level passes depending on which location you buy a pass from. Some require to be done as membership only others like San Antonio or Sesame have lower price but otherwise equal pass. (six flags is also an offender here)
4. Universal wider path ways or additional path ways in areas that are prone to bottle necks.
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.
Love the video guys
5:17 - There was an employee at the Kings Dominion ice cream parlor that went out of her way to get my girlfriend and me mint chocolate chip ice cream for our anniversary date because we got rained out on our very first date and had been trying for a year to get to an ice cream place. She even had a guy come out of the back with a fresh container and had him scoop it for us because it was frozen solid. She was amazing! And she even remembered us when we went back and got ice cream for Winterfest!
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.
I agree the Dollywood customer service was awesome and friendly. Best perk was getting a fast pass to lightning rod since we were about to board when it broke down for 30 mins.
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.
totally agree on the surveys, We have been to 26 HHN at Universal Orlando we did the survey each visit and it really helped parks do listen whether they act is another issue!
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
Biggest problem with coaster studios,
Being to cool 😎
Great video - agree with most of your top 10. And I know this is a niche problem as an enthusiast who visits parks solo, but I've been in single rider lines longer than the main queue because a few big groups of guests thought they'd save time by gumming it up. All it would take is posting a fake single ride wait time within 5-10 minutes of the standby time to dissuade groups from using it.
in terms of food shout out to Knott's, food is great and the Boysenberry festival has some of the most unique dishes that are all fantastic
I’m still happy that silver dollar city is my home park for loose articles because having a cubby for free at your own risk on the other side make for a great experience and makes it to where you can jump from coaster to coaster without trying to get a locker every time.
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.
One Thing Thats Missing From Some Parks Are Places To Rest (Benches Or Areas With Low People Traffic, Shade) Every Time I Went To The Magic Kingdom I Could Never Find A Bench To Sit Down
Bums me out a bit that my home park, SFOG, has single riders lines for their big attractions but said lines are always closed off even when the park is really busy
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.
Some parks really need to learn to control line jumping. It happens all the time to me at six flags parks in particular
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
Another big issue is enforcing line jumping. Some parks put up threatening signs, even some with phone numbers to security but I rarely see it enforced. Anyone who’s been to Knotts knows what a problem it is. One person is way ahead in line (or supposedly is) and while you’re already waiting forever to ride Ghostrider or Xcelerator here comes 3, 4, 5 or more people plowing past everyone “excuse us we are trying to catch up to our party” NO you are line cutting, if your “party” wanted to ride with you then they need to wait for you to get to them. I wish more guests would be more proactive in stopping this practice because security certainly won’t. I saw a woman stop 5 kids from trying to bypass all the switchbacks one time and she yelled at them to get to the back of the line and she wasn’t tolerating their behavior. They all turned around and left, and she got a big round of applause.