On July 1st, Cedar Fair and Six Flags formally combine in their merger of equals. Selim Bassoul, Six Flags current CEO will become Executive Chairman of the (merged) Board. Having just visited Cedar Point and Great America last week, I can imagine the first Board meeting going a little something like this:
Selim: "Wow, I am very proud of how Cedar Fair has adopted the Six Flags model for maintenance. On Wednesday, Maverick, SteVe, Magnum XL-200, and Gemini were all down for prolonged periods of the day. But, you had multiple employees working on the break run on Maverick, and limited the down time to 4 hours?!? I'm sure if we cut additional maintenance staff we could have had Maverick down for the entirety of the day."
Richard Zimmerman: "We have much to learn about disappointing guests to the level that Six Flags has set. I am sure in time, we will limbo under the law bar of attendee expectations that Six Flags has set."
Selim: "Now, let's talk about ride operations. You're still running three trains on SteVe, MF, and Gatekeeper? Those ride waits could be exponentially longer. I mean, we run one train on our newest coaster in the Chicago market, MaxxForce, and suckers keep coming back."
Richard Zimmerman: "So, we just cut staffing to the bone?"
Selim: "Yes, and speaking of bones... you have a BBQ restaurant that serves good food, we need to eliminate that because costs are too high. Have you thought about putting in 3 Johnny Rockets into your parks? How about a handful of Papa John's? If you really make the food suck, and you raise prices, you can really piss off your guests."
Richard Zimmerman: "We have so much to learn. What about drink wristbands?"
Selim: "No, no... you need to make attending your parks as difficult as possible. Only include drinks if they buy a large bulky refillable bottle. You don't want your guests getting too comfortable."
@ Russell - Thank you, how could I forget!
This sounds about right based on my experience. I would also add to this conversation that it be mandated that front-facing employees be required to have the enthusiasm of a hostage.
Don't forget that forcing them to buy and carry around bulky refillable bottles that we can then make them rent a large ride locker when we cavity-search guests entering coaster lines.