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humphrmi

April 22, 2009 10:48 PM

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I'm surprised they're charging for this. We did the home printing thing last summer in Dallas and it was a huge pain - the link they sent didn't work the first time, but somehow managed to register that we printed, then wouldn't let us try a second time, then we had to go stand in line at the customer service booth for 30 minutes to get in. But we didn't have to pay $5 for the privilege of being inconvenienced. Apparently inconvenience is getting expensive these days.

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calquist

April 23, 2009 3:15 PM

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@humphrmi: I just bought SeaWorld tickets last night and I was surprised there was NOT a ticket printing fee. I guess I've been brainwashed..

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Etoiles

April 22, 2009 10:51 PM

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I was pretty pissed off at Ticketmaster when I saw that it would ost me extra to print tickets at home -- using my own ink, paper, and time! (I already knew they were serious WCIA contenders, but UGH.)

But if Ticketmaster gets away with it, and for Six Flags it's still the best of all bad deals, then they'll keep doing it. Grr.

2 replies

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April 22, 2009 11:40 PM

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@Etoiles: I personally like how Ticketmaster puts the \"Print Ticket\" option at the top of the delivery options list, big and bold, but then they bury the free mail via USPS on the bottom of the list so that you don't see it. The last time I bought tickets I accidentally chose the Print Ticket option because you always feels so rushed by the \"You have 60 seconds to fill out all your billing information or you lose your tickets hurry hurry you're gonna lose them ohmigod when did you start you don't know how much time you have left click submit!\"

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GuinevereRucker

April 22, 2009 11:32 PM

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@Etoiles: I'm wondering when companies will start to realize that a larger ticket price with NO hidden fees anywhere is more attractive than this sort of stupidity.

If my airline ticket costs $500, fine. But charging me $400 and making me pay through the nose when I want to eat, drink, pee, park, or use the internet... I start to get really annoyed.

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Mykie Gunderson

April 22, 2009 10:52 PM

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Don't forget, most Six Flags parks also charge $12 for parking once you get there, or $18 for \"premium\" parking.

Ticketbastard also makes you pay to print your own tickets.

It should be called a \"Really Convenient Fee\".

Pretty soon, they're going to tack on some kind of \"GIF Barcode Rendering Surcharge\", a \"Server Farm Processor Timeshare\" subfee, and a \"Co-Located Bandwidth Utilization\" premium.

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Macroy

April 22, 2009 11:02 PM

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Is it Theme Park Day on Consumerist?

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April 22, 2009 11:08 PM

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Really? That works? Ok, then...

Everyone who reads this comment owes me $5.

Pay up, deadbeats.

7 replies

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April 23, 2009 6:04 PM

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@Smoking Pope: Please provide for me with your bank accounting numbers, routing numbers, any personal PIN numbers, and I will deposit the full amount into your accounts without delay. God bless.

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April 23, 2009 2:21 PM

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@Smoking Pope: I will send it if you take Paypal?

If you do,then prepare to pay them a % chunk to get your money- but then again that is a subject for a different Consumerist thread...

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Julia789

April 23, 2009 1:12 PM

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@Smoking Pope: Sorry, it's free to read it. If I choose to print it, however, I'll put a check in the mail. ;-)

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leprofie

April 23, 2009 1:07 AM

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@Smoking Pope: Just give me your bank account number and I'll transfer the money tonight. While you are at it, your pin number and mother's maiden name are needed by my bank to set up the wire transfer.

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your new nemesis

April 23, 2009 12:32 AM

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@Smoking Pope: Put it on my tab

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SJActress

April 23, 2009 3:35 AM

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Put mine on skizsrodt's tab.

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tbax929

April 23, 2009 12:04 AM

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@Smoking Pope:
Not a bad profit. You put in your 2 cents and get back 5 bucks.

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Anonymous

April 22, 2009 11:13 PM

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To be fair, this is probably covering some cost, either of new ticket reading equipment, the service, or both. You can see \"Powered by accesso\" in the logo - presumably accesso isn't just giving away service to Six Flags. They're paying for the convenience, and so are you. I don't find this particularly outrageous.

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April 22, 2009 11:13 PM

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Most Six Flags parks are extremely overpriced, try to find a local amusement park that you can take the kids to that is not filled with tons of corporate advertising and insane rules and policies.

I am not keen on SF after they left our local park in ruins, only to leave the buyer of the park to clean up the mess and restore the reputation of the park to working order so they could actually get customers to come again. After a season of closed rides (for no reason) and general chaos, no maintenance and removing features of the park that they instituted at the beginning of the season. Not to mention trying to get the public to come back in an economy that can only go downward.

SF seems to be designed to take your money regardless. You have to pay for tickets and parking before you even get into the park. Then you find out the rides you want to go on are closed (the rides closed sign is after you pay for admission). Of course there are no refunds and they seem to have a \"policy\" for everything to make your day miserable. Including not being able to bring your own food into the park and in some cases no re-entry at all. So your forced to eat overpriced and nasty processed theme park food. Everyone at the park complains, there are no happy guests. I don't care to be around a group of people who are nothing but miserable (especially if I paid to do that). These have been my SF experiences in the past.

The first test a park has to pass for me to go to it is to have free parking, and allow you to bring food into the park, and re-entry. You are always going to need to go to the car for something.

10 replies

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calquist

April 23, 2009 3:23 PM

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@Outrun1986:
I love the Six Flags in Gurnee, IL. I don't go often because it is expensive (you can bring food in your car and leave the park, eat and go back in). I agree that the rides closing should be disclosed at the front of the park, but I would rather the ride be closed than the manager having the \"Oh, I am sure it's fine\" mentality. I had a friend that worked there one summer (the summer they shut down Shock Wave). He said that they had to shut it down because they were finding bolts and parts in the grass beneath and couldn't figure out where they were coming from.

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April 23, 2009 4:48 PM

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@calquist: Another thing I should mention is NY state's ride inspection program is once a year for theme parks at the beginning of the year. They do not check up on the park throughout the year. They inspect a traveling carnival every single time it sets up, so if something goes wrong in transport it is fixed before being allowed to operate. I have it on good authority that NY state ride inspectors are ruthless with carnival rides (they are not afraid to shut down all the rides at a single event!), but I am not satisfied with inspections of a park only once a year. This leaves a lot of room for parks to cut corners on safety issues to save money, and face it SF is a big enough company where paying off one or 2 deaths from their rides probably isn't a big deal. Its probably more expensive for them to implement a good safety program than it is for them to pay off a couple people that get hurt or die.

So given this information I choose carnivals over amusement parks. Its cheaper for me as well, and I never have to worry about admission policies or other insane policies. The carnival people travel with the rides, and they work the rides, they set up the rides, and they KNOW the rides. They know when something is going wrong, moreso than your typical 18 year old SF employee with minimal training and no knowledge of a rides inner workings. They are also small businesses so one death would essentially put them out of business and they do not want that to happen, so they have more of an incentive to operate safely. Carnivals are also working for their own bread and butter, and if no one shows up and spends they don't get any money, so they try to do everything to make your day pleasant so you will come back next year. There is no corporate \"policy\" or anything like that.

I am not sure what gets into people at a theme park but its not good from what I see (some sort of alternate mentality from standing in the heat all those hours, kinda like the mentality that happens on black friday at Walmart maybe...), but people at a carnival seem to act rather normal as compared to the theme park crowd.

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Julia789

April 23, 2009 1:15 PM

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@Outrun1986: My kid likes \"Playland\" in Rye, New York. It's close to us, cheaper than 6 Flags, and has all the same rides. And if we go on coupon day and pack a lunch (so we don't buy $6 hot dogs and $4 drinks) it's really really cheap.

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April 23, 2009 8:49 AM

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@Outrun1986: To be fair...I would think that their poor financial state implies that they are NOT overpriced...

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Anonymous

April 23, 2009 11:11 AM

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@RedwoodFlyer: Obviously something isn't working right, but if full price tickets are $60 plus $12 to park and $7 for a hamburger that's worse than McD's. That money has to be going somewhere. If they're not spending it on maintenance, and they're laying off staff, and closing rides.. Where else..

Real estate/taxes? Should have long been calculated into admission prices.

Insurance: Ditto

Character licensing/royalties: same

Litigation from dissatisfied or injured patrons: Possibly.

Executive bonuses and golden parachutes: Hmmmmmmmmm...

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sodden

April 23, 2009 5:13 AM

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@Outrun1986: I know what you mean. I stopped going to the local six flags long ago. Jacked up ticket prices, jacked up food/drink prices, and jacked up parking prices.

Nowadays, places like that just look at customers as sheep to be clipped, and it's gotten more and more obvious.

I'm not sure if it's just that demand is down or if they get gouged in turn, but it wouldn't surprise me either way. You can only clip the sheep so close before the sheep die from blood loss and the farm goes under.

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tbax929

April 23, 2009 12:05 AM

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@Outrun1986:
I used to go to the one in Jersey, and it was a ripoff 10 years ago. You're correct about rides being down all the time.

There was an amusement park closer to my house called Dorney Park, and it was about $75 for a season pass back then, which included their water park. That was a MUCH better deal.

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April 23, 2009 2:23 PM

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@tbax929: We bailed on the NJ Six Flags after it started to be \"Street Gang Weekend\" every weekend...

It was much better when it wasn't owned by Six Flags...

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TheGuinnessTooth

April 22, 2009 11:42 PM

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@Outrun1986: The closed rides thing really gets me. A few years ago my girlfriend and I wanted to go to the water park at the SF New England. It was late in the season so I called to make sure the water park was still open and then assured me it was. When I got there I discovered than only the fake beach thing was open, the one without waves, and all the rides were shut down for the season. So after driving about an hour to get there, paying for parking and admission the one thing we wanted to do, and called to make sure was open, wasn't really open.

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April 23, 2009 1:07 AM

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@TheGuinnessTooth: From what I know they shut down some of the rides in the local Six Flags (before it was bought out by PARC, the company that bought the park), because they can't get enough employees at the end of the season because of college coming back into session. I don't see how this is a problem for SF though, there are many other parks that run at full capacity in late august just fine and school goes back into session earlier in those parts of the country too! You think they would have this figured out after 10+ years in the area....

But yeah, when Six Flags was selling a few parks and leaving ours to die they just started closing rides for seemingly no reason at the end of the season. Naturally people then developed a very negative attitude towards the park, and PARC had to clean all of this up. I think you could see the rides closed sign before the gates though, unlike some other parks where the sign is placed AFTER you pay admission. I have been going on amusement rides for more than 20 years (without incident might I add), and I am a fan of them, but let me tell you those rides in that park as Six Flags was selling it were NOT safe to go on!!! There was basically no maintenance or upkeep. You have to wonder how a chain that is nearly in bankruptcy is keeping up with their rides as well...

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April 22, 2009 11:23 PM

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Six Flags, at least the one in Arlington, Texas, went to hell when they got rid of the six distinctly themed areas in the park and began pimping Warner Bros. all over the park. (Yeah, yeah, I had to walk uphill both ways to get there and \"Get of my lawn,\" yadda, yadda, yadda.)

For the same money, I'd let them send me the tickets rather than use my resources to print them.

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April 22, 2009 11:34 PM

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This isn't new. I had to pay this convenience charge for the tickets I bought last summer.

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Anonymous

April 22, 2009 11:40 PM

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Seems like a bad approach. If Six Flags is TRULY losing money, why not just up the base price of the ticket to $44.99, and either have the option to print at home, or mail via First Class for \"free.\" I bet this article wouldn't even be here if they just built it in to the price and didn't tell us.

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Becca Donato- Hardie

April 22, 2009 11:45 PM

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Just paid (and tweeted) about the ridiculous nature of that fee from Ticketmaster. My friend and I are planning a Disney/Magic Mountain trip in June/July, and I am very disappointed to see that Six Flags has taken this course of action. Esurance (as with most other companies) advertises the savings they pass to you by eliminating paper statements and bills, but these companies feel they have the right to CHARGE for the privilege of doing their job for them? Outrageous.

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Anonymous

April 22, 2009 11:52 PM

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If I did not need the tickets immediately I would have them mailed out of spite. Printing the tickets yourself costs them nothing. Having to mail them costs them in labor and postage costs. But then again charges like these are a big incentive for me to look for something else to do. For what you spend on tickets to Six Flags you can go to a Museum or Aquarium or some other short day trip and have money left over.

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dohtem

April 22, 2009 11:59 PM

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I think I am lost here... Who is pocketing this fee, Six Flags or Ticketmaster?

I think our anger is misdirected.

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Jeremie D. Harget

April 23, 2009 12:19 AM

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@dohtem: Six Flags is collecting the fee. They are just referencing Ticketmaster because they do the same thing.

Six Flags is always a rip-off. I don't work to earn money to pay $60 for the right to be in a captive-audience park with corporate advertisements and Warner Bros crap thrown at me.

Give me a day at the beach over that nonsense any day.

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April 23, 2009 1:14 AM

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@Jeremie D. Harget: Try a local park, good rides, none of the advertising. When I go to a park I go to a park to escape things like TV and the Internet, not to be bombarded with corporate advertising and policy after policy after policy (some of which make no sense). I am not paying 60$ + 12$ parking to be bombarded with ads.

Day at the beach is very peaceful and probably free or close to free depending where you live. I am better off taking a walk in a park if I want to get away instead of going to Six Flags, free and gives me exercise.

I live in the northeast, when summer comes I want to get out a bit, but I don't want to be stuck in a captive place where I am bombarded with the things I have to deal with every day, like fees, ridiculous policies, overpriced goods I don't need and tons of ads, I want to escape and get away. I honestly would rather be in Walmart than Six Flags, so that is not saying much!

Six Flags is the Walmart of the theme park industry, except they aren't as successful as walmart.

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April 23, 2009 12:25 AM

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Sweet, one more place that's never getting my money.

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chiieddy

April 23, 2009 12:47 AM

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It's not 6 Flags, it's Ticketmaster. I recently bought several tickets through them. Free to send physical tickets through US Mail. Fee to print them out.

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corkdork

April 23, 2009 2:18 AM

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@chiieddy: Interesting... I looked at buying some tickets to an event on the other side of the state next month (about the only thing Ticketmaster is good for, buying tickets to a venue you don't have access to...), and they quoted me shipping for free, provided I was willing to take the tickets in an unmarked white envelope sent via 1st class mail \"48 hours before the event.\"

I kind of wonder why they didn't also have a free option for leaving the tickets at will call (it costs $2.50 each for that), but c'est la vie.

Still, the $8 \"facility charge\" and $2.50 \"convenience fee\" irked me. But, at least, physical tickets could be delivered for free.

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April 23, 2009 12:58 AM

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I wouldn't have a problem with this type of charge if it were disclosed up front on the website while you are preparing to buy.

In other words, I wouldn't mind them trying to give people the illusion that they were getting a deal by chopping five dollars off the ticket price and adding a convenience charge instead. Silly marketing thing.

I do have a problem with people budgeting their money and getting ready to make a big purchase and then, when they have made up their minds, being roped into additional fees they didn't anticipate.

But I'm sure they know they'd lose business if the link said \"Tickets $39.99. Only $5 to print from your own computer

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LegoMan322

April 23, 2009 1:13 AM

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Screwing people over for the past 20 years has not helped them. They need to find more ways since the $10 hotdog, $6 soda, and $35 entry fee is not enough. Ohh...did I forget to mention the $2.25 cans of Coke?

I have no problem with this since they probably will not see my money.

1 replies

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April 23, 2009 2:25 PM

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@LegoMan322: $3.75 for a bottle at SF: Great America in Gurnee.

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cccdude

April 23, 2009 1:14 AM

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When given a choice of paying for \"print at home\" or \"first class mail\", I pick \"print at home\" every time UNLESS they want to charge me for the privilege (ala ticketbastard). This way, THEY have to, at a minimum, pay for printing costs, envelopes & postage.

I'm always amazed at any company that charges a premium for the cheaper, labor free method of ticket delivery.

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lockdog

April 23, 2009 1:36 AM

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I used to work at Sea World Ohio, which was across the lake from a small local amusement park (locals would go there mostly to avoid the tourist crowds at Cedar Point). About ten years ago Six Flags bought that park. The way it was put to us, basically Six Flags was under mountains of debt, but so long as they kept buying new properties, investors wouldn't look to closely at the books. Something along the lines of the whole \"you have to spend money to make money\" thing. Even at 20 years old I knew that such a business strategy was insane. Six Flags continued to gobble up other small regional parks until it finally began a slow implosion towards bankruptcy a few years ago. To make matters worse, a lot of the safety and inspection people at the old park quit under 6 Flags management saying they just weren't as committed to safety, always a bad sign for any workplace.

Capitalism. Yer Doin it Rong.

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MyPetFly

April 23, 2009 1:46 AM

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Heck, go for the First Class Mail option. It's still $5, but THEY pay for the tickets, the envelope and the postage.

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Anonymous

April 23, 2009 1:47 AM

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If you're lucky enough to live around Indiana, I highly recommend Holiday World. It's family owned and operated, but don't let that fool you - they compete very well with the big boys. Three of the best wooden coasters ever built, one of the highest-rated water parks in the country, free parking, cheap food (how about a whole meal for $5?) .. unlimited free soft drinks and suntan oil throughout the park, affordable shirts and toys, etc. Cleanest park you'll ever visit - even cleaner and friendlier than Disney. Oh, did I mention the coasters? Best wooden coaster EVER, winner of the top wood coaster poll last three years

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Bs Baldwin

April 23, 2009 2:04 AM

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So it costs the same for me to print the tickets or 6 six flags to print real tickets and mail them to me? yeah, I'll wait out 6 flags break-up. Also my chooses of 6 flags parks are GA (filled with loud, ghetto, ignorant new yorkers) or America (small, outdated).

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PsiCop

April 23, 2009 2:16 AM

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Don't even get me started on Six Flags. It's easily the most dismal operation I've ever seen. I went to Six Flags New England (formerly Riverside Park) on a weekday last June. Bought my tickets online, including $20 for \"preferred parking\" (as opposed to $15 for \"regular\" parking). Pulled up to the \"preferred parking\" only 30 minutes after opening, was told it's full, I had to go to \"regular.\"

Got to \"regular\" parking after waiting in a long line (c. 20 minutes), they saw my \"preferred\" ticket and told me I went to the wrong place. I told them I'd been sent there 'cause \"preferred\" was full, they told me that more \"preferred\" space had just opened and I could go there after all. I said, \"Can you GUARANTEE that by the time I work myself back out of this lot and to the \"preferred\" parking, that they will still have space there?\" I didn't want to have to drive back to the \"regular\" if it wouldn't work out.

The parking attendant looked at me as if broccoli had sprouted from my ears, and just repeated what she'd said already, as if that meant something. I said, \"I heard you the first time. But I'm not going there unless I have a guarantee.\" She refused to give one. I had to pay them $15 to park at the \"regular\" and once in the park, get a refund of my $20.

Inside the park there were HUNDREDS of people waiting, packed into a very small area -- basically everyone was touching, standing in the hot sun because there was NO cover -- and waited 45 minutes to get through the metal detectors into the park itself. At Guest Relations I tried to get my money for my $20 \"preferred parking\" that didn't exist. They insisted there WAS \"preferred parking\" available, as if for some reason I'd chosen to pay for \"preferred parking\" then choose not to use it and park in \"regular\" anyway.

The automaton that waited on me there eventually did cough up my $20 because I simply repeated my story several times and I wasn't going away. The word \"automaton,\" by the way, is an apt description of the employees at SFNE ... they all have vacant eyes and only give scripted responses.

I would have asked why the park was selling vouchers for \"preferred parking\" that doesn't actually exist when you pull up to use it, but that was a lost cause with her just insisting that there was, in fact, \"preferred parking.\"

I could go on with my story, including the rides that broke down while we were on them, and one halted in the middle to take an item from someone on it, ALL without even so much as a whiff of an apology or explanation from the staff. Or the food we paid WAAAAY too much money for after waiting 20 minutes in line (with only one person in front of us, it took that long to fill their order).

Or the janitor who was apparently Spanish-speaking, who was asked by a woman where there was a telephone ... he pretended not to understand, she gestured with her hand in the shape of a phone, he smiled and said, \"Ah! There,\" and pointed into the men's room. Another janitor came by, and finally told her where the phone was. When she left, the two of them were laughing, the first one joking in Spanish that he'd tried to get her into the men's room.

All without knowing that a bystander -- an \"Anglo\" who happens to know Spanish -- was eavesdropping. In fact the first one had known EXACTLY what she was looking for, but maliciously tried to send her elsewhere. How nice.

When I got home I drafted a complaint to the park's manager, listing all of these problems and more, and asked if any of this appeared to be acceptable business practices. I listed the names of all the employees I saw doing things wrong, including the two janitors who tried to send a woman into a men's room. The manager replied that it was a busy day, that problems happen, rides are shut down for my safety, and that there was no \"Rodolpho\" working at the park so he did not believe my \"send the lady into the men's room\" story.

Essentially he called me a liar, and even intimated that I hadn't actually been entitled to the $20 refund for the non-existent \"preferred parking.\"

Note: My niece was with me. Her family all had been faithful season-pass holders, frequently attending the Six Flags near them (on the opposite coast). They sent a copy of my letter to their park's manager and told them they would no longer be purchasing SF passes. They didn't give a damn.

SF has made HUNDREDS of dollars a year on my family. But not any more. That gravy train has pulled into its last station and is retired from service. SFNE chose to act like a bunch of buffoons and idiots, and they lost out on all of that. The problem is, no one else in the corporation even understands this. They threw away lots of steady future business and haven't the first clue that they should even try to retain it.

If SF goes bankrupt, all I can say is, \"good riddance,\" and \"it couldn't have happened to a company that deserved it more.\" Horrible people, all of them, who deserve the horrible fate of going out of business.

3 replies

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April 23, 2009 3:59 AM

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@PsiCop: despite this being a long story, I read every word. Well written!

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Anonymous

April 23, 2009 3:03 AM

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@PsiCop: I used to work at Six Flags and let me tell you, not only is it absolutely shitty operation to attend but also to work at. We were always understaffed so I would work twelve hours a day, seven days a week, most days with no bathroom breaks because no one was there to cover.

We were constantly being stalked by middle management to \"ensure safety\", as if we would really could've done anything worse to the already breaking rides. One day my ride broke down and when maintenance came to fix it, they completely crushed the body of it by moving one of the cars. Seatbelts and the traction on the floor were always problems too.

One of my friends worked in the theater part when he was 16 and they thought that they could pay him under minimum wage and get away with it...his parents found out and threatened to sue so they gave him all the money he was missing.

The customers were the most vile people I've ever encountered, but I'm sure they had their reasons. I honestly will never set foot in another amusement park after working that ridiculous job. It made me realize just how seedy they can be.

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PsiCop

April 23, 2009 8:27 PM

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@GageFeardaddy: Thanks for the comment GageFeardaddy. I am very sure that working at an amusement park is brutal work. I'm also sure that it's a job that can be made far worse than it already is, by incompetent management. Which is why I hold the corporation itself, moreso than the individuals I encountered, responsible for the way it's run. The company chooses to run itself in a manner that keeps employees demoralized and prevents them from being able to take any initiative (hence all the scripted replies).

It is, quite simply, a horribly-run company. They deserve nothing less than to fold completely. Unfortunately the upper management who made SF the horrific company it is, will not suffer as a result ... during the shutdown they will pay themselves handsome bonuses and walk away happy, after having plundered the company they ran into the ground. But letting the company keep going in its dismal current form, is not acceptable either.

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April 23, 2009 2:18 AM

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I could have sworn that Six Flags did this last summer, and it is no surprise, they love to nickel and dime their customer every which way they can. Many of the parks have done away with letting you leave your bag at the other side of the coaster, now you get to pay $1 for a locker before you even hit the line to board, and the $1 only lasts for 2 hours.

I'm still a season pass holder (access to two parks in my area? you betcha) but I find every way I can to avoid paying their extra fees.

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April 23, 2009 2:39 AM

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Ticketmaster is the reason I rarely go to concerts anymore. Six Flags isn't much better. I don't feel sorry for them at all.

DOWn, baby, DOWn!

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nacoran

April 23, 2009 4:06 AM

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This is just poor marketing. If it's $20 less to buy your ticket online but then you have to pay a $5 fee that makes you angry you have to wonder why they couldn't have just made it $15 cheaper to buy your tickets online and made it seem like you were getting a deal. I wonder if there is a third party involved in this that is promised a portion of online sales (maybe a ticket broker). It's hard to imagine someone could come up with this without some weird contractual obligation causing it.

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Daniels

April 23, 2009 5:50 AM

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The Mets started doing this last year. Will-call pickup for Internet orders are free. Print at home has a fee.

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Anonymous

April 23, 2009 11:04 AM

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The $5 fee is per order not per ticket. That fee is collected 100% by Six Flags. The online ticketing site is run by a third party that collects a percentage of sales. Six Flags introduced this fee to offset losses on ticket prices (which are vastly discounted when buying online). This fee is also not new and has existed since at least 2005 - although it was originally only $3 per order.

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April 23, 2009 11:49 AM

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This is the reason I love living so close to Hershey Park

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April 23, 2009 1:07 PM

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Nothing new at all. Yet, I still find myself at six flags great america at least three times a year. I find it to be quite inexpensive when compared to other full day entertainment options. Season pass is under $70, $10 parking per visit, bring own food, making it just a little over $35 per visit, which is much much less than a football game, basketball game or a concert that only lasts for four hours.

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April 23, 2009 7:19 PM

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@endlessendres: Plus if you buy a season pass from Six Flags America, you get access to Six Flags Great America for free admission, plus 13 other parks

[www.sixflags.com]

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April 23, 2009 1:10 PM

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Why should they be any different from anyone else. Ticketmaster and many other online ticketing services charge extra for the priviledge of you saving them labor and postage.

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MFfan310

April 23, 2009 2:12 PM

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Makes me glad that I live closer to Cedar Point than I do to any Six Flags park.

Cedar Point's parent company (Cedar Fair) doesn't attempt this stuff... they actually know how to treat their guests well.

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Anonymous

April 23, 2009 3:44 PM

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If you are going to the Los Angeles Six Flags be prepared to pay $1 at each ride of you have a bag.

Before you were able to take a backpack or anything else and set it on the ground until the ride was over. Well I recently went and if you have a bag you are required to rent a locker for $1 at each ride.

1 replies

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April 23, 2009 7:20 PM

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@VeraSneep: That's at any Six Flags these days it seems. I visited America, Great Adventure, and New England last year and all of them had the locker fee.

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synergy

April 23, 2009 3:46 PM

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Other sites do this too. I just go find out if there's still tickets and then go buy it at the window. At least other sites label it \"convenience fee\" where I've seen it.

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April 23, 2009 4:06 PM

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Lets see, Long lines, Expensive food. Indifferent employees. expensive parking. Sounds like Six Flags is no different than any other theme park. Well except Disney. At least with Disney you get to have Goofy to entertain you while your standing in a long hot sweaty line.

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April 23, 2009 4:34 PM

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Why isn't SF in the worst companies poll, or maybe it is and I just didn't notice.

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April 23, 2009 6:39 PM

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Don't even get me started on the $1 locker rentals that are mandatory if you are carrying a souvenir cup or a bag. I guess it's a good place to get dollar coins.

\"Cheesy Charlie's is great. They have a game where you put in a dollar and you get four quarters. I win every time.\" - Chris Griffin

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Anonymous

April 23, 2009 7:31 PM

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I remember Six Flags Magic Mountain back in the 70's. It was nice, clean a \"family park\" I enjoyed as a kid. It was pretty neat in the 80's as well when it began to turn into all-out rollercoaster park. By the 90's, it was a hangout for gang members. Security roamed the park in groups of 5-6 just to have safety in numbers. Today? I wouldn't go there if they paid ME the $5 charge on those tickets. they haven't learned any lessons about what makes a park and what doesn't. If they wanted me to be there then they would have kept it a clean, well-maintained, gang-free park. ( How do you keep it gang-free? Same way as everyone else. Prohibit colors, certain clothing, etc. ) Magic Mountain can die for all I care. It's been dead to me for close to 20 years now.

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Will Sours

April 23, 2009 8:44 PM

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ya I bought season passes for Six Flags parks that were advertised all over for $49 each. But once you add in the $45 season parking pass, the $5 \"convenience fee\" (my ass) to get some sort of proof of my purchase printed, it comes out to $150 for two season passes. Really sleazy thing to do, I thought only ticketmaster was this much of a dirt-bag company, BUT, I ended up paying it anyway like an idiot of course.

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savdavid

April 23, 2009 11:54 PM

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I would giggle if they went under. What a waste of land those parks are!

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April 24, 2009 1:13 AM

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so its a way to hide the true price, shady!

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April 24, 2009 4:55 AM

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Why would you buy those? Especially Kentucky Kingdom, I know 2 or 3 people (my brother included) who have almost died there.

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Anonymous

April 24, 2009 12:56 PM

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Wolf Trap in Washington, DC, does the same thing. I just bought tickets to a concert there and they charged me $4.50 to print my tickets at home. It's still cheaper than mailing them or picking them up at Will Call, which are both a couple bucks more, but it seems like it should be free. After all, I'm doing all the work myself and using all my own supplies and equipment. It costs them nothing, so why the steep fee?

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