On a recent trip to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey I noticed a "Holiday in the Park" advertisement on my walk towards the main gate. I've been to Great Adventure many times before, it's a great summer thrill park, so I decided to keep a tally in my head of pros and cons of a winter visit as I walked through.
I will start with the cons, as it's my personality to get the issues out of the way first. While the Six Flags franchise is well known for its top-class thrill rides, that doesn't translate to an enjoyable experience in the cold. I've been to the park on Halloween and while it is a blast, it's also freezing. Try going on El Toro in late October at night. It's what many consider the best roller coaster in the world. Late October nights, it's painful. Sure you can get lucky on a nicer day in fall but it's more likely you won't. Now imagine it two months deeper into the cold season. Ouch! People could get sick from that.
So leaving the thrill rides out of a nighttime visit, I found at this particular park a total of three indoor rides: the abysmal Dark Knight coaster, the mildly enjoyable Skull Mountain coaster, and the surprisingly enjoyable Houdini's Great Escape, which is an interesting but somewhat jarring take on the pirate ship. I suppose you can add things like the outdoor carousel and pirate ship to the list because they don't move fast or go too high in the air to make the elements unbearable. Still, that's hardly a catalogue that would get me to pay big money to visit in the winter. Other regional parks like Hersheypark, Kings Dominion, and Six Flags New England all have around the same numbers, if not less. To me, that's just not enough.
Around dinner time, a thunderstorm that wasn't in the forecast struck and lasted for a few hours. After going on two of the three lackluster indoor rides we left the park to go find a restaurant, something this park needed. When we went back to the park, we had to stand around in a gift shop for a half hour waiting for the rain to subside to find one of its main attractions, Kingda Ka, had to be closed for the rest of the day due to weather.
Now, we all know Orlando can have some brutal hot days, as well as severe thunderstorms. If you were to poll 100 people about being in sweltering heat or blistering cold, chances are it'd be close to a split. So what makes patrons flock in droves to Disney World and Universal regardless of any weather conditions? In my opinion, better theming and way more climate-controlled attractions.
To continue with Six Flags as an example, to waste an amazing intellectual property such as DC Comics is just that — a waste. Slapping the Batman title on a roller coaster won't get me to the park when it's nasty out. Put Batman in a dark ride similar to Universal's The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman and I'd be there. This slipshod use of IPs hurts their parks year round, I believe. The Dark Knight Coaster, while indoors and sometimes found as a way to escape the rain or heat, is just a huge strikeout in my opinion. It starts with some fun queue theming from one of the best comic films ever, and then throws any element of immersion right in the garbage. This would have been a ride worth visiting anytime of year had it been given some thought and a proper budget. With its new Justice League dark ride, it seems that Six Flags has perhaps realized the error of the Dark Knight Coaster, and I'm hopeful they continue in that direction.
Specifically regarding holiday events, Disney has Mickey Mouse and amazing light shows. Universal has the Grinch and some really interesting tree and light set ups. Six Flags has Looney Tunes and should utilize it better. They own theme park rights to many beloved characters, why not emphasize it? People love to go to Disney and Universal to get lost in a world of fantasy, all parks should try and create something at least competitive with their properties if they're going to try and justify being open more often. The parks would love our money year round — they are businesses after all — if they worked a little harder they'd probably get it!
The pros to a winter visit are not as convincing, but are still present. The one that's most compelling to me is that it's something to do! In the Northeast, or anywhere where winter is long and cold, it can be mind-numbingly boring. We can't all take weeklong vacations to Disney every month, sometimes just a reason to get out for a day and do something in the winter breaks up the monotony. Many of the local parks now offer the holiday season light shows which are always fun to take in. A cup of hot chocolate and a ride on a carousel and a few other attractions certainly sounds more enjoyable than sitting indoors every day. The Six Flags park I was observing also has an empty simulator show building that's not being used. (It once housed a Spongebob ride.) Anyone who's been on Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem knows these rides can be quite effective and fun if done right. Quality indoor family attractions are something thrill parks should always be offering more of if they really want to up their attendance, no matter what time of year it is. More indoor rides mean more attendance even on rainy days, something summers are full of.
As it stands now, I didn't believe this particular park had enough to get me to spend theme park money for a day in the cold, where most attractions are either off or wouldn't be fun to ride. However, that doesn't mean it couldn't in the future. It seems like some regional parks are starting to wake up and build rides to combat the seasonal and forecast dependent slant of their parks. Hersheypark just opened Laff Trakk — an indoor spinning coaster and another draw for any seasons visit. In the Midwest, Six Flags opened the Justice League: Battle for Metropolis dark ride that has been very favorably reviewed and should make its way to their other parks, hopefully. Heck, even closing the Dark Knight Coaster for a season and spending some money on proper theming would make it a much better ride.
The interactive shooting dark rides are becoming so much more popular now, and the technology is not new, which leads to some cheaper costs. The same can be said for simulators. Look at the lines for Soarin', which is in my opinion not even close to Disney's best ride. These kinds of indoor rides would be beneficial to any parks in any season, for someone looking to beat the heat or cold. On my last trip, I left the park because of rain. They didn't give me enough of a reason to stay. If there were 5-6 decent ride attractions at this park, along with the light spectacular and possibly a few walk-through attractions or shows, I would say I'd make the trip, regardless of cold.
What about you? What's the bar you set that would make it worth taking a theme park trip during the holidays, or even just on a winter's day?
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The point about Hersheypark is interesting. The park also has Chocolate World, open year-round with a dark ride/3d show/shops/food court. That helps them out a lot with Candylane, although it started out small (the carousel and a few kiddie rides) and has grown into 1/3rd of the park. It's also a plus for their hotels and outlet center in the same town. All-in-all, it's a good event for weekenders and locals. Curious to see what Six Flags will do in NJ, since that park has removed a lot of flats over the years.
Unless you're going to put a dome over the entire park (like Circus Circus or West Edmonton Mall), parks in northern climates are going to have to deal with cold and winter precipitation. It simply does not make financial sense to build a year-round park around this concept unless you create two separate seasons ticketed two different ways. The way most northern climate parks are executing Christmas events is to make them more like walk throughs than theme parks with only a few select rides open and guests paying a lower admission to reflect the fewer rides. While this is successful because of the lure of the Christmas lights and decorations, it won't work to build a park around this model when the Christmas season can only be extended so far.
Six Flags knows what its core audience (teenagers) wants, and it's seasonal schedule gives them the maximum opportunity to reach that audience. Those extra weekends (no current seasonal park could support weekday operations in the low season) from November to March do not offer a lot of bang for the buck even if the guests don't have to step foot outside in the cold. The extension into Christmas is an attempt by Six Flags to tap a new audience, and it will be interesting to see if that group shows up to support the expanded calendar. It works at places like Busch Gardens and Hersheypark because they have a more diverse audience/customer base plus other tourist lures to draw from more than just the local population (guests within 1-2 hours of the park). We'll have to see how it's received in the Six Flags parks trying this out this winter, but I don't think adding a bunch of indoor rides is going to necessarily allow seasonal parks to extend their park schedules.
Should more parks add dark rides and indoor attractions? Yes, but the goal of those installations should be to diversify their existing attractions and increase their attendance, not in an attempt to extend their operating calendar.
So, really, the regional parks would have to adjust their whole way of doing things to first build a variety of attractions that would appeal to young and old and have a good balance of inside/outside. They would also need to hire older (permanent) employees that could work throughout the year. Then, finally, they would probably need to do something during the off-season to attract the various demographics, like Disney does with Flower & Garden, Food & Wine and Star Wars weekends. Then there's the theming for Halloween & Christmas with specific decorations and shows.
But that's the market they've chosen, and it would take a HUGE investment for them to change, and may cause backlash among their current fans. Whether you like them or not, Six Flags is pretty successful at what they do, and their parks fill a void. They are making attempts to widen their appeal with attractions like Justice League and expanding into the Christmas business, but seismic shifts like what you are suggesting take serious time and money.
If you've been to Disney in January and other times when it's been cold, you see how it affects the attendance. Aside from the holiday weekends, Orlando is a relative ghost town between New Year's and Spring Break, and the guests who do show up are loyal locals or smart tourists traveling in the off-season who are able to get their kids out of school. From an operations standpoint, Orlando parks can close an attraction here or there if it's too cold, but in northern climates, the weather can be so extreme that many attractions need to be winterized.
Also, a regional park operating in a northern climate, even if everything were inside, would have difficulty operating during these months because they just don't have enough people to draw from. Simply put, the parks near the major northern metropolitan areas (SFGA, SFGAdv, Dorney Park, Cedar Point, SFNE, etc...) don't have enough tourists in town in the winter months to support operations. Who travels to Boston on vacation in February (I have, but I'm one of those "smart tourists" who frequently travel in the off-season to avoid crowds)? That leaves the parks to draw only from the locals that you need to convince to come to the park in snow and cold. It's idealistic to think "if you build it they will come", but in reality if it's cold and snowing outside, people will probably stay home or go skiing. If you had a season pass to Six Flags and were as close as 30 minute to one of their parks, would you really bother visiting in the middle of January when it's cold (even if everything were inside) or April/May when it gets warm? Certainly theme park fans like many who read and post here would, but Joe the plumber down the street is probably in front of the fire. Perhaps it's more of a societal shift you're seeking since people don't typically associate theme parks with cold weather. However, until that shift occurs, there just isn't the payoff on the necessary investment and upheaval in their staffing model for regional parks to operate during the cold weather months aside from the current holiday events. A theme park is not going to invest in a market that doesn't exist. Perhaps if we wait another 20 years when Global Warming really kicks in, those northern regional parks will be attractive in the "winter" when it's 90-degrees and humid in Orlando or WDW is part of the Gulf of Mexico.
Maybe with people over 30, but the core Six Flags guest probably has only tangential familiarity with the Looney Toons characters. When's the last time you saw a Looney Toons cartoon on TV? Aside from Space Jam (and the rumored sequel with LeBron James), they don't air anymore, not even on Boomerang. Disney's Fab 5 are on every single day. The Muppets probably have more recognition these days than the Looney Toons characters.
Now, opening for a limited time due to a seasonal event is not a bad idea. A seasonal event generally offers attractions and experiences that are not available during the regular season. However, for most parks to operate year-round they would need to offer a reduced off-season rate and make sure guests know that many attractions will not be available. I find it hard to imagine that a bigger park would benefit more from year-round operation with limited availability during the winter than closing for a couple months and using that time to perform all their required maintenance and upkeep projects.
This would be Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. The parks are actually open year round in the cold climate. I've been to Japan in January and it seems like their winters are not at all like the winters in the mid-states or the east coast. There is light snow and light rain. It doesn't seem cold with temperatures hovering around 40s F. They can keep the park open with exception for rides going rehab. Certainly, they made their rides indoor and their Main Street has the canopy.
Paris winters are also mild with the lowest ranging temperature from 30s to 40s in January.
Cartoon network had a popular (original) Looney Tunes series that ended it's run at the end of 2014.(Jeff Bergman, Kristin Wiig, & Fred Arminson). This series aired from 2011 -2014.
And a brand new series, Wabbit, is slated to premiere at the end of this year (2015). And there's the rumored Space Jam 2.
The old classic shorts may not be airing, but WB is still producing new content with the characters.
I'd love to see a test case of Beijing's Universal Studios being indoors, or at least mostly indoors. Not only are Beijing's winters terribly cold, but the air quality is notoriously bad as well. However, I believe the most recent thing I read was that this park will not be indoors.
A park that has primarily indoor attractions could work in a colder climate, so long as they're creative with how to move guests around the park. Perhaps similar in style to The Venetian in Las Vegas and Macau, where the ceiling is painted like a sky, and you're meant to feel like you're outdoors, complete with stone walkways and trees...and a lot of storefronts. There would need to be skylights, and I'd recommend high quality synthetic grass - not the type they installed at Magic Kingdom, which is meant for people to walk and sit on.
Imagine a park with a ride lineup featuring rides similar to Rockin Roller Coaster, Justice League, Spider-Man, Transformers, Mystic Manor, Ratatouille, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Men in Black Alien Attack.
It could be done, but it'd be a massive undertaking. For me, it would need to be done to feel as much like being outside as possible, and that's where I think most parks would miss the mark.
As an aside, I am one of only two people I know who actually like The Dark Knight. Skull Mountain is too jarring for my taste and Houdini's Great Escape made me nauseated.
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