Saturday, May 24, 2008

Capacities on Flats Sadly Not Helping

At Six Flags Great America, these are the target capacities. These are what they are supposed to get compared to the unrealistic maximum capacities that manufacturers say:

Superman Ultimate Flight: 800
Batman the Ride: 990
Demon: 840
V2: 610
American Eagle (one side operating): 670

Flat Rides:
Triple Play: 340
Ricochet: 330
Rue Le Dodge: 300

How long when you go to a Six Flags park, or a Cedar Fair park do you wait in line for more than 5 minutes for a flat ride to get on the ride? The ride itself might be a good 2-3 minutes, but I'm not talking about that. Whereas for a roller coaster like Batman the Ride, you are always seem to be waiting a good 40 minutes unless the park is empty, or Superman Ultimate Flight is around an hour or more the whole day.

So, are flats really helping the capacities at these parks at all? Sure, there might be 20 people in line for Condor, but that's at one time during the day, and it's a walk-on type of ride. So, for the next 4 minutes goes by, and there is another 20 people. It only handles 20 people at a time in line while Superman has 800 people in line (Not the same people) for that line. It's always 800 people in that line, but Condor only has some 20 people in line at a time.

The problem is that the flats aren't up to standards to make long gigantic lines. Get some more thrilling flats unlike the Condor even though I do like the Condor, but I think it's a good ride, and it can be skipped unlike a KMG Fireball which I don't believe should ever be skipped.

Think about this. Two flats equal one Vertical Velocity roller coaster, and 2.5 flats equal Superman Ultimate Flight roller coaster as in capacity, but yet the roller coasters have the longer lines. I don't think that high capacities mean diddly squat than. Deja Vu target capacity was like 440, and you wait in line a good 40 minutes or something whereas Six Flags flats people aren't willing to wait.

The flats also aren't advertised as the roller coasters that has something to do with it, but still. Are the flats really helping? I'm not talking about the water rides either like Roaring Rapids, Yankee Clipper, and Logger's Run because they do get the people in the lines.

I believe that old flats should be replaced, but I think they need to be replaced, and not just removed for nothing like what Six Flags Magic Mountain did. These flats have to exciting though that you replace, and they don't have to be Max Air, or Skyhawk. They just need to be thrilling.

They can't be like the Enterprise that it doesn't even feel like you go upside down. They can't be the Huss Top Spin where it hurts your chest, and it hardly flips you upside down because they are afraid you are going to puke. That's like a baby ride.

No comments: