If you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t have any idea Six Flags America is operating in June for the final time. There aren’t, as of yet, massive markdowns on merchandise that must be sold. There are no “final season, thanks for the memories” banners adorning the park. And it would be a surprise to see the scores of tweens running from coaster to coaster wearing glum faces as they contemplate their final trip to their local amusement park.
But Six Flags America is closing. Its final operation day will be in early November. This is the end of the road for the regional theme park closest to the capital city of the United States. I visited the park last week for the first time in the hopes of capturing what we’re losing as the much-maligned park closes for good.
Six Flags America is nowhere near as bad as I’d heard it described many years ago. The park was clean, the foliage nice and the placemaking about what you’d expect from a regional theme park. It doesn’t stand out in any particular way; its attraction lineup is so-so, its landscape lacking any dynamism and its food scene is virtually nonexistent. But it offers affordable entertainment to the aforementioned tweens, who have long been the lifeblood of regional parks like this.
Six Flags last built a brand-new roller coaster at Six Flags America in 2001. George W. Bush was president of the United States, the iPhone had not been invented, and Steel Dragon 2000 was the tallest roller coaster in the world.
That coaster, Batwing, is not currently operating. Rumor has it that a motor blew on its lift hill. A cherry picker aimed toward the top of the lift hill seems to support that rumor. I don’t know if they’ll get Batwing back open, but it’s admirable that they’re not just throwing in the towel.
Less admirable is how much downtime I experienced in my one visit to the park. Joker’s Jinx, Ragin Cajun, Firebird and Superman: Ride of Steel all experienced extended downtime. The only coaster running two trains was Wild One. This may suggest Six Flags is attempting to keep parts fresh on coasters it can relocate (Wild One is not expected to survive); though it may simply be minimizing the amount of crew needed to operate its coasters.
Of the coasters I was able to experience, Ride of Steel is certainly the best. It’s no Millennium Force, but the view from the top of the lift hill is excellent and it carries a tremendous amount of speed through the course. Wild One is a lovely throwback and surprisingly smooth given its age.
The same cannot be said for Roar, the Great Coasters International (GCI) build whose best days are long behind it. When I was young, GCI were the "It" kids — building wooden roller coasters with dynamic elements without sacrificing comfort. They were the antidote to Custom Coasters International, whose reputation had been tarnished as its coasters aged.
You either die a hero, or live long enough to become CCI, I suppose.
I didn’t get anything to eat at the park, though not for lack of trying. An astonishing number of restaurants were closed, some with signage and most without. A couple of locations in Gotham City, which eats up the back half of the park, were open. There was a small cafeteria at the front of the park, too. I didn’t see any food carts or drink stands open; and none of the various bars or beer stands were open. I assume they (correctly) figured there weren’t enough over-21s at the park that day to justify opening them.
More disappointing were the handful of non-coasters closed in the park. Two of them had signs explaining to guests that maintenance was hard at work to bring them back on line (one of them is pictured above). The splash boat attraction will, in this writer’s opinion, never run again. There were tool boxes and remnants of work in the station, but they may as well knock down the sandwich board.
Perhaps more astonishing than anything else I witnessed at Six Flags America was the show schedule. The park closed at 5 p.m. on the day of my visit (absolutely wild!) but there were multiple shows with multiple showtimes. I caught a bit of the Wild West Stunt Show, which was a pleasant throwback to the days when these were the bread and butter of regional theme parks.
How to explain the discrepancy in budgeting between a fleshed out show schedule and a dire ride operation budget? I have no idea.
It is my humble opinion that nothing has hurt regional theme parks quite like their poor ride operation standards. Walking into the station only to wait 30 minutes because of slow ride ops is a particular kind of hell. It’s not just a lack of urgency; it’s clear that many of these kids haven’t been trained well.
I’d need to do a lot more reporting before I started properly diagnosing this problem, but you can tell when someone is lacking confidence while checking lap bars or answering a guest question. A unique problem for regional theme parks is the need to quickly train a large number of employees all at the same time. Getting returning employees is a godsend in this regard, but it’s still much more challenging to have one or two trainers teach 10 kids in a week than it is to onboard an employee or two at a time. I don’t have a solution, but this is a problem that will exist long after Six Flags America is dead and buried.
The highlight of the park is the steampunk area. I find the choice of theme baffling, but there’s some nice placemaking in what’s essentially a refreshed Old West town. The park’s Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster is one of the more comfortable I’ve experienced thanks to its relatively new trains.
The rapids ride is a bit more puzzling. There are a handful of rudimentary dinosaur animatronics around the station and throughout the ride, but it’s not all that clear why. My best guess, inferring from some doodads in the station, is that we go through some sort of a time portal and... voila, dinosaurs. Now, you might be wondering: Why? And if the boats are being transported back in time... how do we get back to the present? And why can we see dinosaurs from off the ride?
Of course, the answer is: Shut up nerd. It doesn’t matter.
I had a nice time at what may be Six Flags’ worst park (comparison is the thief of joy, etc. etc.). Theme park fans, families and tweens who live in the D.C. area will now need to drive quite a bit further for their closest regional theme park. Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Kings Dominion are, with little doubt, better parks. But their distance from D.C. will naturally limit how frequently residents of the capital city can visit.
And ultimately, the vast majority of guests at regional theme parks don’t evaluate their local park based on what else is out there. Six Flags America never needed to be as good a park as Great Adventure; it simply needed to be the park close by.
This sounds like a pretty typical visit to SFA. I still haven't found time to make it over to this park yet this season, but will probably squeeze in 3-4 more visits before the end of the year. We typically visit on Sundays close to when the park opens - the park is located near a number of "mega-churches", so is relatively quiet on Sundays until those services let out shortly after noon.
It really seems like Batwing is done for good, because maintenance has ZERO incentive to spend money to replace a major part to allow it to operate for a couple more months. So unless SF is planning on relocating the coaster, the last Vekoma Flying Dutchman is probably on its way to the scrap heap. I am a bit surprised that Shipwreck Falls is still not running, because the park has been working to get the splash-boat back up for this season after spending the entirety of last season SBNO.
The single train and disinterested ride ops are pretty much par for the course at this park, but if you noticed, laying out extra for a Flash Pass is completely worthless - though they'll gladly sell you one. Sadly, it's not even a function of this being the last year of this park's operation, it's been an issue for all the years I've visited this park, dating back to when it was known as "Wild World".
As you experienced, the food in this park is laughable, which is likely a result of the Season Dining Pass that was introduced over a decade ago. Over those years, the park has tried to improve and diversify their offerings, but what appears to be a step in the right direction at the beginning of a season ends up devolving back to the lowest common denominator by the middle of the summer. The random closing of locations is a common refrain, and in my experience is not isolated to this park. However, the overall lack of dining locations in the park means that one place being closed means a 20% reduction in options in a typical day.
The live entertainment has always been the strength of this park, highlighted by the stunt show, which has been given multiple nation-wide awards over the years. It's not Waterworld, but for a local park, it's a pretty good show and they do a great job of changing things up from year to year.
What you are describing was my experience two years ago in the middle of summer. One-train operations, lack of food options, rides down for no apparent reason. And this was during the busiest amusement park season!
SFA has been dead for years. I'm surprised they didn't scrap the park sooner.
I visited Six Flags America a total of one time back in spring 2018, and while I do consider it a bottom five Six Flags property, I do feel it gets a bit too much hate. Yes, the park only ran one train on everything, but everything in the park was open for me and nothing was more than a 20 minute wait, so I didn't mind too much. Superman is the only coaster there that warrants more than one ride, but a few others I found enjoyable (Batwing, Joker's Jinx, Wild One), and other than the SLC nothing outright sucked. I initially intended to only spend about three hours there, but wound up enjoying it enough to stay a bit longer, and could probably have added a couple hours on had the waterpark been open. Unfortunately, the park hasn't added anything to draw me back since that visit, and it isn't in a particularly convenient location to add into a coaster trip.
In a timeline where the chains didn't merge, I think this park had a future. Sure, Six Flags Great Adventure is close enough for a day trip from the DC metro area, but if you don't want to commit a full day to a park visit, it was a satisfactory choice. However, with the same company now owning the much larger Kings Dominion less than 90 minutes away, and with the recent investment to Dorney Park making that a more compelling option for those north of Baltimore, there just isn't a reason for this park to continue operating. It has a super low profit margin and occupies very valuable real estate, so while some locals may be put off by the decision, it is one that makes a lot of sense for the new Six Flags.
You're absolutely right AJ. SFA in a combined Cedar Fair/SF chain is definitely a surplus even though it is better located in the DC Metro area. Perhaps if SF better invested in this park before they merged with CF, it would be a tougher decision, but the lack of modern attractions compared to the CF parks within reasonable driving distance of DC/Baltimore (KD and Dorney) has put SFA at a distinct disadvantage to its new siblings. Unfortunately, there aren't even any attractions at this park worth moving to other parks since the best coaster, Superman, is a clone of a coaster at Darien Lake, Joker's Jinx is a clone of Flight of Fear (KD and KI) and Possessed (SFFT), and Batwing is the last of a model that is not long for this world. The rest of the attractions are not worth the costs of relocation or are similar to attractions already located in pretty much every park in the chain.
Personally, I don't think SFA is sitting on the "gold mine" of property that they think they are. PG County has some valuable real estate, but I just don't think they're going to clear that much profit after they account for the removal/relocation costs of all the rides and structures in the park. Overall, the DC region's real estate market is going through a bit of a market correction expedited by the dramatic cut in the federal workforce that accounts for a significant percentage of DC area residents. I can see SF's thinking for wanting to get ahead of the potential relocation of the Commanders from Landover back to the RFK campus in DC, but the rush to get this property on the market is not likely to yield that much more in a final sale price than if they waited a few years.
I think it’s worth noting that Dorney Park is 189 miles from DC. Kings Dominion is more than 80. These are not really that close to Washington, and certainly farther than I’d want to go for a day trip. I’m sure people will do it, but both those options are far less convenient than Six Flags America.
I kept reading "DC area" and thinking DC superheroes. I immediately felt stupid when I realized. . .
Jacob: I'm in the DMV, and I would rather drive to KD, Busch Gardens, or HersheyPark. All those parks have much more solid coaster lineups and more to do.
However, I also grew up in Southern California, and a 1-2 hour drive in a car is not a big deal.
I also live in the DMV, and while Dorney is a bit of a stretch, it's actually only 40 miles further from the center of DC than Busch Gardens Williamsburg, which aggressively advertises on DC radio and TV.
I will say that SFA is the only park in the region that is reasonably accessible via public transit (via bus, though routes operate from the nearby Metro/subway stations). I noted this when SF initially made this announcement, but SFA provided a public service and an outlet for local youth that have few other safe places for summer and after school entertainment. While some guests may not like when a theme park is filled with hyperactive teenagers, I think a park like SFA is a better place for them to spend free time than randomly roaming around looking for something to do. Unless they have access to a car, a DC-area teenager is not getting to any of the other nearby theme parks.
I make frequent day trips to Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens, Dorney, and SFGAdv, but I certainly don't represent the typical DMV resident when it comes to theme parks. I do think KD and Hersheypark (and maybe BGW) are reasonable day trips for the average DC Area resident (depending on which side of the river you're on), but Dorney and SFGAdv (and maybe BGW too) probably require an overnight stay for most folks.
It will be interesting to see how much KD attendance is impacted after SFA closes. Do SFA guests make the trip down I-95, go north to Hersheypark, or just don't go to theme parks at all? Considering how much Hersheypark has been advertising this year, I think the independent park is trying to plant the seeds to capitalize on SFA's demise.
IIRC, Cedar Fair used to use 150 miles as their radius for day guests, which would be visitors within a three hour drive in most areas of the country. I will say that I make the ~100 mile, typically ~2 hour drive from my home to Six Flags Magic Mountain every two or three months, so I wouldn't consider the trek from DC down to Doswell to be at all unreasonable as a day trip. If we put a radius around Six Flags America (which was 45-60 minutes outside of DC itself)...
-Kings Dominion is about 90 miles away, which would be between 1.5 and 2.25 hours drive from DC. This is pretty reasonable as a day trip.
-Hersheypark is about 100 miles in the opposite direction, making it about a 1.75 to 2.5 hour drive depending on point of origin. I'd also say this is quite reasonable as a day trip.
-Busch Gardens Williamsburg is about 120 miles out, and would be a 2.5 to 3.25 hour drive. This one could be done as a day trip, but it's starting to stretch the drive time.
-Dorney Park is about 140 miles straight-line distance, with drive times being 2.75 to 3.5 hours. Again, doable as a day trip, but probably more likely to be an overnight.
-Six Flags Great Adventure is almost exactly on that 150 mile line, but since the drive is on the interstate the whole way travel time is about the same as Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
-Luna Park (aka Coney Island) is the next closest major park after the above at about 190 miles. With at least a 3.5 hour drive, that's definitely beyond daytrip range.
I think the most likely scenario is those in DC proper and/or south of the area will probably easily adpot Kings Dominion as their replacement for SFA, while those more north might split between the closer yet pricier Hersheypark and the cheaper yet further SFGAdv. Sure, you might use some of the audience that are more casual hangout guests, for which the new drives make it not worthwhile for a short visit, but the chainwide chaperone policies that have been put in place make it clear those types of visitors aren't really who Six Flags is catering to anymore.
The fact that you started by saying it wasn't as bad as you heard it was, then spend the rest of the post saying basically everything there sucks, I think really illustrates the reputation of this park.
Personally I have been there twice (2010 and 2018) and never had any desire to go back.
I am hearing that Batwing opened today, June 14.
With any luck, the repair means that the ride is getting relocated. A Vekoma flying Dutchman lives on.
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Just went to Carowinds a few days ago and found many of the same issues. I realize many of the schools were still in session last week and I'm sure staffing is a challenge, but the number of restaurants and food stands not operating was unbelievable and the number of rides operating with ONE slow employee was beyond comprehension. Surprised Six Flags had any live shows... Carowinds has NONE!!! Oh, they do have a silly Snoopy thing in the "Harmony Hall" food court-- why they don't have real music with "harmony" there is beyond me!!!! Without mild rides and shows, there is no wonder "regional" parks only attract teens. Am I the only one who sees this problem?