During 2002, I wrote the following three letters to Six Flags.
I will make no further comment here, other than to say that I'm presenting
these letters so people may draw their own conclusions.
Dear Mr. Story,
I would like to convey with you some information about a potentially serious incident that occurred at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure on the opening day, May 5, 2002. I apologize for the delay in sending you this information, but I have been recovering from an accident at home.
Before I begin, I would like to indicate that I am very observant of amusement park operations. Additionally, I am not quick to criticize. I am an amusement park fan who has been to over 65 different amusement parks. I've been visiting amusement parks every year since 1970. Additionally, I spent four summers working at an amusement park while I was in college. I graduated from Michigan State University in 1992 with a Master's Degree in electrical engineering. I have worked as an engineer in the automotive and semiconductor industries. Now that I have made you aware of some of my qualifications, I would like to share with you the details of the incident from May 5th.
The incident of concern regards the operation of a ride called the Time Warp. I was loaded onto the ride, but, before the ride could be run, there was a malfunction. I understand about mechanical problems, hence that incident alone would not be enough for me to concern you with the details. However, this breakdown apparently was due to operator error. I was trapped in the ride for about 30 minutes. The shoulder harnesses locked, but would not fully open. Here is the first item that causes me great concern. While waiting for maintenance to arrive to open the harnesses, I was talking to the ride operator. He admitted to me that he did not really know how to operate the ride. Additionally, he indicated to me that the crew working on Mr. Hyde's Free Fall also did not know how to operate their ride. Fortunately, no one was injured in this incident. However, had an injury occurred, I have no doubt that having improperly trained ride operators would lead to enormous lawsuits. As a result, I feel it is very much in the company's best interests to insure that all operators are properly trained before they are allowed to operate a ride for the general public.
The incident had more concerns, however. Ultimately, it required five maintenance people to figure out how to manually unlock the harnesses. Now, I'm a very calm person who hasn't got the slightest problem with claustrophobia or feelings of being trapped. However, future riders may have such a problem. If a rider were to begin to panic, possibly even resulting in health issues, it could once again lead to a lawsuit. I believe it is critical that the maintenance people know precisely how to quickly perform a manual release of the harnesses for every ride for which they are responsible. In this instance, there were multiple attempts where the maintenance staff thought they were manually releasing the harnesses, but they were unsuccessful. I repeatedly hear them saying things like, "Well, let's give this a try." Meanwhile, I overheard one of the maintenance people speaking to the ride operator. The maintenance person said, "After we get them off, then I'll show you how to run the ride." Certainly, the operator should have been taught how to run the ride before people were put on it.
I would like to make a positive comment. While I feel the operator and maintenance staff were not properly trained, I did find them to be exceptionally friendly during this situation. To make up for the inconvenience of being trapped in the ride, they allowed me to enter Batman's Knight Flight through the exit, bypassing the queue. I do not believe that the operator or maintenance staff is directly to blame. I believe the lack of training indicates a problem within management. I believe the training procedures should be carefully reviewed and modifications implemented to ensure that the staff knows exactly how to operate and maintain the rides.
Since I am already writing to you, I would like to provide you with a general concern. In 2001, I visited a total of 40 amusement parks. Nine of those parks were owned by Six Flags. While there are exceptions, I did find some generalizations about the parks. For the most part, the staff tends to be rude, inattentive, and very inefficient in their operation of the rides. The inattentiveness is particularly disturbing. If a ride were to begin to have an incident, such as a malfunction or a rider standing up, an attentive operator may be able to stop the ride before anyone is killed or seriously injured. An inattentive operator may not recognize there is a problem until a life has been lost. I do not know the specific details of the recent incidents at Elitch Gardens or Marine World, but, with what I have witnessed on my visits to Six Flags parks, I cannot help but wonder if the tragedies could have been avoided if the operators had been more attentive. Perhaps there were being attentive, and it was not possible to avert these tragedies. Since I was not there, I can only speculate based on what I have seen in multiple visits to multiple Six Flags parks.
The inefficiencies should also be of concern to the corporation. On occasion, I have timed the loading operations of the rides. In respect to the roller coasters, Six Flags is regularly one to two minutes slower at loading coasters than other parks. Of course, I make the comparison using similar coaster styles at different parks. This slow loading means that the lines will be longer. The longer people are waiting in line, the less time they will have to spend money on food, games, and souvenirs. Therefore, this slow operation can have a direct impact on the profitability of the parks. I believe I saw figures indicating that Six Flags lost $54 million in 2001. Increasing the efficiency of the staff would have a negligible cost, yet could be exceptionally beneficial in erasing the operating losses.
Additionally, the parks have had a tendency to be cluttered with trash, and the restrooms were abominable. At those 40 parks, I experienced 170 different roller coasters. Of all those parks, there were only 9 coasters that I could not experience due to apparent maintenance issues. All 9 of those coasters were at Six Flags parks. Weather was clearly not an issue on any of those visits. Upon closer examination, I was unable to see any maintenance people working on the rides. Additionally, none of the rides had any staff members working to keep the public informed on if or when the rides would reopen. Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey was the worst offender, with 9 adult rides closed, including 3 coasters. The trend continued in 2002, as Double Loop was not ready for opening day at Worlds of Adventure.
There was only one Six Flags park that I visited in 2001 where I felt the staff was doing a reasonable job. That park was Six Flags St. Louis. The park appeared reasonably clean, the staff seemed friendly, and they seemed reasonably efficient. Their attentiveness was better than at other Six Flags parks I've visited, but they could still use some improvement in that area. The only significant blunder I noticed occurred on The Boss. An operator was fooling around with a grabbing device. At one point, he picked up a piece of trash, and flung it over the railing of the loading platform. Clearly, he should have disposed of the trash in an appropriate receptacle, rather than merely relocating the litter.
I am sorry to say it, but, from my experiences, I believe Six Flags is the worst multiple-park operator I have witnessed. My comparisons of multiple-park operators include Cedar Fair, Universal, Walt Disney, Kennywood Entertainment, Hershey, Paramount, and Busch. I mention this opinion in the hopes that Six Flags will make an effort to improve the park operations. In general, I obtain great pleasure in visiting amusement parks and riding roller coasters. Naturally, the best park operations provide me with the most enjoyable experiences. If Six Flags were to significantly improve, it would be a great benefit to my enjoyment in my hobby of roller coaster riding. As a result, I would like to see your company improve.
Quite honestly, I have always wanted to have a career in the entertainment industry, possibly as a ride designer or park planner. For that reason, I pay close attention to the operations of amusement parks. While it is certainly not the intention of this letter to seek employment, nevertheless, I believe my experiences could be quite beneficial in helping to improve the Six Flags park operations. I leave that thought for your consideration.
I do apologize for the negative tone of this letter. I truly wish I could be more positive in my comments. However, I feel it is imperative that the issues be revealed so solutions may be found. If a problem is not recognized as being a problem, then an effort will never be made to correct the issue. It is my hope that this letter reveals some of the problems, thereby opening the door to the solutions.
Thank you for your attention.
Dear Mr. Burke,
I am sorry that I need to write a letter to you in regards to my concerns with the Six Flags parks. I have made previous attempts to communicate with Six Flags regarding various issues, but I have not been satisfied with the results.
First, allow me to introduce myself. I am an electrical engineer, working in the automotive industry. During my career, some of my work has involved process improvements and safety systems. As a hobby, I enjoy visiting amusement parks and riding roller coasters. As a result of this hobby, I have visited 91 different amusement parks in the past 3 years. While visiting amusement parks, I typically analyze the operations at each park.
During this three-year period, I have visited 12 Six Flags parks, and made a failed attempt to visit one other. On these visits, I have witnessed potentially serious safety issues that I have not witnessed at any of the other 79 parks that I visited during the same time period. Additionally, there have been many issue that, while not directly safety related, have reduced my enjoyment of the parks.
There are quite a few issues that I mentioned in a letter to Gary Story on June 9, 20002. I have attached a copy of that letter for your reference. In response to that letter, Rick McCurley, the General Manager at Worlds of Adventure, left a message on my answering machine. I made three attempts to return his call, leaving three messages on his voice mail. I never did hear back from Mr. McCurley, thereby forcing me to question the sincerity of the efforts to address the issues.
Since that letter, I have visited 3 other Six Flags parks, and attempted to visit a fourth. I find it amazing that every visit to a Six Flags park decreased my opinion of this company. I witnessed significant issues at each of these parks.
On June 29, I visited Six Flags America. As I have come to expect from Six Flags, the park was overrun by litter. However, litter is an aesthetic item. While it impacts my enjoyment of a park, it does not have a significant impact on safety. I am far more concerned with the operations issues. When I went to ride the Mind Eraser roller coaster, I observed the ride operator at the control booth. Instead of paying attention to the ride operation, the operator was trimming and filing his fingernails. While working on his manicuring, one of the operators checking harnesses walked over to him to inform him that the train was ready to send. Without even looking up, he asked her if it was clear, then hit the start button. He never once looked at the train prior to sending it. Next, I rode on The Wild One roller coaster. At this location, the ride operator at the control booth was etching something into the wood at the top of the booth rather than paying attention to the ride operations. The operators, in general, appeared inattentive, but those two instances were the most blatant examples of inattentiveness I have ever witnessed at any amusement park. On the Superman Ride Of Steel roller coaster, the ride appeared to be in a questionable state of repair. The Plexiglas around the control booth was completely missing, and some of the queue rails were no longer attached to the cement.
There were also some unique non-safety issues that I witnessed at Six Flags America. At a French fry stall near Superman Ride Of Steel, I noticed that the employee was sitting on the back counter of the stall, looking at his lap, with a French fry sleeve hanging out of his mouth. I took a picture of this employee. If you would care to provide me with an email address, I will email you a copy of the photograph. At the time that I took the photo, the employee looked up at me, then resumed looking at his lap. Later that day, I had lunch at the Casa de Pizza. When I went to the first window, I was told that it was closed, and I was instructed to go to the next line. While I was standing in the next line, the same employee proceeded to serve a guest that came up to that "closed" window after me. When I arrived at the front of the line at the second window, I was again informed that the window was closing, and was told to step to the next window. In this case, at least, I was first in line at the third window, where I was finally served. After all that, the pizza was substandard. It contained one and a half slices of pepperoni, and looked as though it had been sitting around for a long time.
On July 5, I visited Six Flags Over Georgia. You may recall that this park had a fatality earlier this year when a maintenance worker entered a ride area while the ride was in operation. I would have liked to have thought that such an incident would have served as a valuable lesson. However, when I was waiting to ride The Great American Scream Machine roller coaster, I noticed maintenance oiling the tracks while the trains were in motion, fully loaded with park guests. Such a procedure is hazardous to the maintenance workers and the riders, and should not be tolerated.
Normally, slow operations are merely an inconvenience. At this park, however, the slowness of the operations also contributed to safety issues. It was a very hot day, hence it was important to remain hydrated. Functioning water fountains were hard to find, and the employees at the food service counters were exceptionally slow. As a result, it was difficult to obtain the necessary beverages to avoid dehydration.
Six Flags Over Georgia provided a very unique experience. It was the first time in my 33 years of visiting amusement parks that I actually felt angry when leaving the park. This park was disgustingly filthy -- it had the second-worst trash problem I have witnessed in my life. Throughout the park, trash cans were overflowing. In the Deja Vu queue, a roving vendor entered the area, and merely kicked the trash out of his way, rather than making any effort to clean it up. There was a Discovery channel special about Cedar Point amusement park where even the CEO of Cedar Fair picked up some trash that he spotted on the midway, which is part of the reason why the Cedar Fair parks tend to be significantly cleaner. That's quite a contrast to the apparent lack of interest in the trash at Six Flags Over Georgia. Also, the queues at this park moved slower than at any park I have ever visited. As an example, on Deja Vu, only one train was being sent every 7 minutes. There was always a pause of more than one minute from the time the train was unloaded until the gates were opened to allow in the next set of riders. Such a delay is inexcusable. I have to believe that these pathetic operations are a shameless effort to extract more money from guests by encouraging them to use the Q-bots. Of course, the line to rent the Q-bots was also very long. Additionally, I object to paying an additional fee for such an item. I feel it discriminates against those who want to have a fun day, but cannot afford to rent these units. I do not have such financial issues, but I refuse to rent the Q-bots based on principle. After all, similar line systems are in use at the Disney and Universal Studios parks, as well as at Cedar Point, but they are all included with park admission, making the systems equally accessible to everyone who visits the park. When leaving Six Flags Over Georgia, I intended to register a complaint about these issues at the Guest Services office. However, the line for Guest Services was also exceptionally long, filled with many unhappy looking guests.
On July 7, I visited Wyandotte Lake. The Sea Dragon roller coaster was in exceptionally poor condition. I sat in the front seat, where I noticed that the entire front panel of the train was very loose. Since the lap bar was attached only to the front panel of the train, should that panel fail, there would be nothing left to hold the rider in the seat. When checking the lap bars, the operator gave a funny look to that loose front panel, but he let the train run, anyway. When the bolts are not fastened with a proper torque, shearing stresses can occur, which can cause the bolts to break. The ride should never be allowed to run without a proper torque check of the bolts. Of the 316 different roller coasters I have experienced during the past three years, I have never seen a roller coaster train in that poor of a condition.
In addition to the safety issues at Wyandotte Lake, I should comment that the park's employees were exceptionally rude. Also, I noticed and photographed a Dippin' Dots hostess. While not serving her customers, she was regularly exploring her nasal cavities with her finger.
It is not a safety issue, but there was one other issue this year that really lowered my opinion of Six Flags. As I mentioned earlier in this letter, I attempted to visit one other Six Flags park. On October 19, I traveled to La Ronde in Montreal. Being that the drive was about 10 hours, I started the trip on the day before. The park's hours were posted as 12 noon to 10 PM. When I arrived at the park at about 1:15, there was a moderate rainfall. The hostess at the parking toll booth informed me that they were closing the park and sending the employees home. Never in my life have I known a park to close 8 hours and 45 minutes early due to a moderate rain. Since I couldn't visit the park, I started on the road to home. Naturally, I cannot say with certainty what happened with the weather in Montreal, but, after I had been driving west for about 45 minutes, the rain stopped, and it didn't rain again for my entire drive home. Based on the weather patterns, I estimate that the rain probably stopped at La Ronde at around 3:00, which would have allowed 7 hours of dry riding time had the park not been closed. Additionally, as I mentioned, it was a moderate rain. I have been to many amusement parks when it was raining harder than that day at La Ronde. Actually, in 2001, it was raining significantly harder when I visited Six Flags' The Great Escape. At that park, most of the coasters were still running in spite of the rain. This incident at La Ronde tells me that I cannot trust that a Six Flags park will be open when I arrive. As a result, I am not likely to plan any more visits to Six Flags parks. If there happens to be one on my way, I may stop, but it won't be a planned visit, since I don't really know if the park will be open.
Of course, my key concerns in this document relate to the safety issues at the parks. In all my years of visiting amusement parks, and with all the various parks I have visited, I have never seen such consistently sloppy operations as I have witnessed at the Six Flags parks. I had similar, although not quite as severe, concerns with Kings Island amusement park back in 1988. After some fatalities, the park was sold to Paramount. While the Paramount parks are still not particularly efficient in their operations, when I finally returned to Kings Island in 2000, I noticed that they have done an excellent job at fixing their safety issues. As a result, I have also made multiple visits to three other Paramount parks. Since Six Flags, in my opinion, currently has operations that I perceive as being quite a bit worse than the Kings Island of 1988, I am at the point of avoiding Six Flags parks. That's unfortunate, since the parks do have some good roller coasters, but I am tired of the inefficiencies, and I do not trust that the parks are operated in a safe manner.
You should also note that the inefficient operations are probably costing Six Flags quite a bit of revenue. As an example, because of the slow operations at Six Flags America and Six Flags Over Georgia, I chose to eat my dinner on the road after leaving the parks. Had the operations been faster, I probably would have eaten at the parks, thereby generating more revenue for Six Flags. Naturally, while standing in lines, your guests are not purchasing food, playing games, or purchasing souvenirs, hence you are potentially losing revenue due to the slow moving queues.
What really makes all of these issues quite sad is that most of them could easily be addressed through improved training. The employees clearly do not show any pride in their parks or their job. If pride is instilled into them via training, they are likely to do a better job. The result would be safer parks, plus improved efficiency, thereby providing guests with more enjoyment. The impact on operating costs would be negligible, yet the increase in revenues could be quite noticeable. Also, every incident comes with the risk of a lawsuit. With improved operations, there would be fewer incidents, hence less opportunity for lawsuits. In time, improved operations may also lead to lower insurance and lower maintenance costs.
I strongly urge you to start taking corrective actions to improve the park operations. As it stands, I feel that the public should be warned about the issues I have witnessed, thereby allowing them to decide if they want to take the risk of visiting the Six Flags parks. However, before I share my opinions with others, I am giving Six Flags one final chance to show a desire to improve the park operations. An incident at any amusement park is harmful to the entire amusement park industry. Since I have a passion for this industry, I do not want to see any bad press for the industry. I hope you will take these issues into serious consideration.
Thank you for your attention.
Dear Mr. McCurley,
Thank you for contacting me regarding my letter of November 10th.
I hope I was able to provide some helpful insight that will lead to improvements
at Six Flags and in the entertainment industry. For the past two
seasons, I have held a Six Flags season pass. I will admit that I
am a bit apprehensive about purchasing a pass for 2003. Prior to
our conversation, I had decided to forego the pass, but, since our discussion,
I am reconsidering. I anticipate making the decision during the winter,
as I investigate destinations for my 2003 summer roller coaster trip.
That's all I can post right now. Due to my 2003 travels, I expect
to send another letter to Six Flags. Once that letter is completed,
it may also be posted here.