New Year Resolutions

January 10th - Quitters day.

The day Most quit their New Years resolution. Can't wait....

I wish Robert would get a better hosing company... Ads ads and Ads...

Disney World - Include some Lightning Lane reservations with the Annual Pass.

Universal Orlando - Create more dark rides that all family members can ride (ex. Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, ET, etc.)

Disney - Yes, you're a publicly traded company, but not every decision has to be made based on the ability to generate additional revenue. The company needs to get back to catering to and growing their fanbase instead of shrinking that base with shrewd money-making schemes. Disney experienced their greatest growth in the 90's and 00's because the parks were welcome places that virtually everyone could afford to visit every 3-5 years. The shift to trying to appease more fickle, demanding customers who don't care about costs may prop up the short term prospects of the parks, but it is beginning to create a hole in the next generation of fans that will be needed to backfill the aging fans that made Disney parks what they are today. You only get 1 chance to make a great first impression, and Disney parks are starting to fail in that respect with more and more folks either swearing completely off the products or taking more time between visits.

Universal - Understand that supporting attractions are just as important as headliners. It doesn't matter if you have the best roller coaster or dark ride on the planet in your park,. you still need solid secondary attractions to draw guests into your parks. Not only is it important because of height restrictions on more thrilling rides, but not every IP/ride concept is to everyone's liking, so it's critical that there be sufficient activities for every guest to do in your parks to ensure they stay full and popular. This is my biggest concern with Epic Universe, because let's face it, they are relying a lot on show elements and passive attractions (HP wand stuff, Nintendo Power Band, and general scenery) to fill a guest's day. The lack of flat rides and other smaller attractions throughout the new park may not be an issue at opening, but it going to be a massive hole a year or 2 down the road when Universal will need to be investing big bucks into keeping IOA and USF up to date.

Six Flags - Respect your customers and be transparent. The recent wave of attraction closures is about as disrespectful as at gets to long-time fans. Six Flags should know that their annual pass holders are essential to their survival yet a week has not gone by in the past 3 months where they have not slapped that loyal fanbase in their face by announcing a ride closure. Sure, many of these attractions are either long in the tooth, expensive to maintain, decreasing in popularity, or all of the above, but to finish out the year and then announce rides will be removed prior to next year's opening day is just plain rude. We saw yet another round over the past 2 weeks with SF shuttering Anaconda and Beserker at KD and Nighthawk and Drop Tower at Carowinds, which comes on the heels of various other ride closures around the country headlined by Kingda Ka and Green Lantern at SFGAdv. I think many enthusiasts and fans understand the need to close many of these attractions, especially if they're making way for more exciting/popular replacements, but the least the company can do is to let guests have a chance to get a few final rides in before they close and provide concrete plans of exactly what is coming. With the merger of SF and CF, there's very little competition among regional parks, so there's absolutely no reason Six Flags needs to play all coy with coming attractions, unless SF still doesn't know whet they're doing.

Ditto, tbh. Wait, lemme add one for my home park.

Busch Gardens (and SeaWorld where it applies) -you need to understand that surrounding scenery or even justa ride building is crucial to any new ride. If you're building a ride in a near-empty section of the park, you need to supplement it. Da Vinci's garden at BGW is a great example of how a large amount of flat rides can increase guest capacity and increase more to do for the little ones. On the opposite end would be Serengeti flyer, which doesn't even have a store or restaurant within a decent walk away. Building a cool roller coaster is one thing, but it needs to be supplemented with other things to do.

I 100% agree about Disney, sadly the parks have just been woefully mismanaged in the past decade. I think they have a major problem with "smell your own fart syndrome," but all you ever read in online reviews about Disney now is how expensive it is and how frustrating it is to visit with so many confusing upsells and operational policies. I sincerely hope the new CEO is a more hands-on Michael Eisner (in his early years) type and actually cares about what is going on in the parks, because Bob Iger (who also started off good but stayed way too long) has been totally absent minded when it comes to the parks. Like I said in another topic, everyone is just looking out for their short-term bonuses and promotions and people aren't thinking things through.

And the saddest thing is that its not like they aren't spending money, they have been spending tons of money on new additions, especially at WDW, they are just 1: so bureaucratic and dysfunctional they aren't getting nearly as much for their billions as they should be, and 2: the additions they are making are lazy and the total abandonment of creativity for shoving IP in every corner is ruining the parks.

So yea new years resolution for Disney: hopefully the new CEO is someone who is what I would call an "inside outsider." Someone who grew up with the company and knows the ins and outs, where the bodies are buried, etc...but also has the common sense to steer the ship in a more customer friendly direction.

Here is one not enough people are talking about: how about B&M getting back to making smooth coasters. I recently watched a video about Phoenix Rising and the guy said "I wish it were a Vekoma because of how much smoother the new Vekoma coasters are than B&M," and as someone from a different generation it was just shocking to hear, but it is true. I have read many, many reviews about new B&M coasters being unnecessarily rough even when brand new. Iron Menace, Phoenix Rising, Penguin Trek, heck I even thought new Incredible Hulk seemed unnecessarily rough when it was new (haven't ridden in years). Whatever cost cutting is going on at B&M is noticeable and I hope they are taking this feedback.

Sea World/Busch - This is by far the oddest company in the industry IMO. They have such a weird business strategy where their APs are actually pretty expensive for what they are (its over $400 for the platinum in Florida), however they give out an insane amount of "bring a friend for free" tickets when you buy one. So like...you can buy an AP for $450 (in Florida, its way cheaper in the other markets) and then they give you 8...seriously EIGHT free tickets. The company seems to be in a weird identity crisis where they are trying to get away from keeping the whales in captivity, but obviously they still do, their APs and ticketing are so weird...but idk it must be working for them because 5 years ago they appeared on the brink of bankruptcy but now seem to be doing fine. If there's one thing Sea World has become atrocious at its operations, SF used to be the punching bag for this but IMO Sea World is even worse. Closed rides all the time for seemingly no reason, 1 train ops, slow dispatches, etc. So
my new years resolution for SW/BG would be 1: re-do the toll plaza and park entrance at SWO, which is a total disaster and takes forever to get in the park even when its not busy. 2: Increase pay and benefits for your staff and focus on operations so that you can actually do things and not just be frustrated the whole time.

Really? I rode phoenix rising just last month and it was butter smooth.