Walk Time: How much is a Six Flags pass really worth?

August 8, 2026, 11:09 AM · In theme parks and entertainment, "walk time" is the name for the final paid minutes of your shift, when you gather your stuff and start heading home. At Theme Park Insider, "Walk Time" is our weekend look back at the past seven days in theme park news.

Six Flags kicked off its annual pass campaign yesterday, running limited-time pricing through the Labor Day weekend. Russell Meyer responded with a discussion about Six Flags' pricing, noting the low price of the passes themselves and changes to the season dining pass add-on. But the kicker is the big price increase on Fast Lane access: More Expensive than Disney?

I also wanted to note that the Six Flags annual pass campaign includes California's Great America, so it appears - for now - that the Bay Area park will answer the bell for at least one more season. Six Flags' west-coast press release also promised that "Magic Mountain will soon release details about the new coaster also arriving next year."

With MonteZOOMa opening at Knott's, I feared that another California coaster project was doomed to take its place in roller coaster purgatory. But perhaps Magic Mountain's proposed Vekoma Thrill Glider might actually open next year.

Elsewhere at Six Flags, the company announced plans for a Yukon Territory retheme and expansion at Six Flags Great America, including a new Yukon Territory retheme, expansion. And in Halloween haunt news, Diablo is coming to Cedar Point, Kings Dominion.

Six Flags also reported its quarterly earnings this week: Six Flags find success in shedding parks.

We also got quarterly financial reports from Disney and United Parks.

Disney reports strong growth, commitment to Abu Dhabi: I had some fun with online reaction to Disney's report: Disney surprises some fans by doing what it said it would do.

Attendance slumps at SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, but United Parks did announce a new-for-2027 attraction for Busch Gardens Williamsburg: Busch Gardens plans Return to Corkscrew Hill for 2027.

United Parks also announced that Brad Gilmour is the new President at SeaWorld Orlando, succeeding Jon Peterson. Gilmour, a 23-year veteran at SeaWorld's Orlando resort, has been president of Aquatica Orlando and Discovery Cove and will retain those responsibilities as he takes on the lead role at SeaWorld's top park.

BRC Imagination Arts' redesign of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa, opened this week. The $20.3 million redesign adds 2,300 square feet to the facility and elevates First Lady Lou Henry Hoover to equal billing. It also emphasizes the one-term president's humanitarian legacy fighting hunger around the world.

"Herbert Hoover is one of the most misunderstood presidents in American history, and most people walk in certain they already know his story," Matthew Solari, Vice President of Story and Creative at BRC Imagination Arts, said. "A hundred years of scholarship says otherwise, and our job was to put that research in front of people in a way they could feel rather than just read. There isn't a single touchscreen in this museum. A lot of institutions don't trust their story, or their audience, enough, so they reach for technology to compensate, and more often than not it clouds the very thing they were trying to say. Sometimes the most radical choice you can make is to put the technology away and let people spend time with the Hoovers instead."

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