Did I Just Get Robbed?!? An Overview of Six Flags Saint Louis
Written: Aug 02 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Family Fun, Variety of Rides
Cons: $$$ High Cost $$$, Designated Smoking Areas (Where Are My Rights?)
The Bottom Line: Bring plenty of Money, try not to cry when its all gone and enjoy yourself.
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| susieq112's Full Review: Six Flags St. Louis |
No, Really! I had one hundred dollars, who would steal 90 and only leave me with ten bucks to get home on… Oh - Wait - It was Six Flags. We returned from our trip to Six Flags late on Tuesday night, needless to say I wasn’t entirely over impressed with my visit. We went on Tuesday to avoid the crowds and partially experienced an un-packed park but it was still fairly busy. This was my first return to six flags for about two to three years. I was slightly excited and ready to spend some of my cash… Just not as much as I did.
Below I have highlighted different areas of my review ranging from Cost to Rides to My Own Experience in the park to help you out the most in your Theme Park shopping experience.
COST
Prices are always subject to change so you will want to double check to confirm prices. During the 07 season a General Admission Adult ticket is 44.99, if you buy and print your ticket on the internet it is 39.99. My piece of advice is to find a local retailer that sells the tickets at a discounted price or use a coupon, which are widely available.
Children’s tickets are for those who are under 48” are 29.99 and children three and under are free.
If you are planning on spending more than one day in Six Flags they do have a Multi-Day Pass for 44.99 or a Season Pass for 69.99. The only thing you will want to remember with these passes is you will have to pay the Parking Fee each time you go to the park.
Parking is $15.00 per vehicle and you have the option to pick-up preferred parking which puts you closer to the entrance for $25.00... Which is honestly not worth it. Larger vehicles, like buses and large vans are charged $25.00 for parking.
THE RIDES
For you thrill seekers out there Six Flags offers six extreme rides for you try out. They include:
Batman: The Ride: A thrilling steel rollercoaster, your feet dangle while you sit in the over head suspended seat and enjoy plenty of twists and turns at 60 mph plus.
Mr. Freeze: Another steel rollercoaster with a twist. Shooting you out of a dark tunnel you go from zero to 60 in a matter of seconds to two upside down curves and then go vertical only to fall back down and do the whole thing in reverse. Be prepared for a headache.
Ninja: A standard steel roller coaster with loops, spirals and more.
Screamin’ Eagle: The oldest roller coaster in the park is this wooden coaster with mega drops and turns, it literally sounds like the tracks are screaming as you ride.
The Boss: The newer wooden coaster in the park offers nearly vertical drops with sharp curves and more.
Xcalibur: This little ride starts out spinning then slowly makes its way up in the air to turn you upside down. Mid ride you are spinning and looking straight down at the ground where you started.
Moderately Rated Rides include:
Highland Fling: This ride is comparable to Xcalibur, but slightly different. You start out in your car and race around in circles while the ride slowly moves you to a vertical position.
River King Mine Train is the tamest roller coaster in the park and most park goers can enjoy it. It is a steel roller coaster with three drops going around sharp turns and then a fourth drop plunging into a dark tunnel. It sounds worse than it truly is and its definitely fun for the family.
Shazam: Features a number of cars that spin while the ride is going flinging you from one side to the other in a star pattern, be prepared for some tummy tickling but nothing to bad.
Thunder River: This is one of the famed Water Rides that everyone wants to get on, on those hot days. It’s most like white water rafting… The majority of people get off soaked and feeling better about the temperature.
Tony Hawks Big Spin: This is the newest roller coaster in the park. It’s a steel coaster with many twists and turns, but the main catch here is that the car also spins, so each ride is a bit different.
If your not much of an adventurer, Six Flags also has some tame Mild Rides for you to give a try:
The Joker: This use to be a boat that rocked back and forth, but now it’s The Joker, same ride different name.
Bugs Bunny National Train: You can tour the park on this steam train. There are a few train stations scattered through the park and a full tour lasts about 30 to 40 minutes. Informational and a good way to take a break, but defiantly not thrilling.
Colossus: The Colossus is simply a large Farris Wheel, the lines a usually pretty thin, but it’s a must go for the beautiful view of the park and surrounding hills.
Grand Ole Carousel: This is a large carousel featuring four rows of lined up horses with additional chariot seating.
Log Flume: Step into a hollowed out log (made out of plastic) and take a trip down the river. Then plunge into the water from a decent height. You may be slightly wet after getting off, but nothing that wont dry in 15 minutes or so.
Moon Antique Cars: These little old time cars run on a laid track to keep them in place, with the gas and a little bit of steering left up to the driver. Young children will have fun taking their parents for a ride here.
Riverview Racer: More commonly known as the swings. Large adult size swings are lifted into the air as you spin in circles.
Rush Street Flyer: This ride is a basic platform with seats. The ride starts out slowly moving vertically back and fourth until it makes entire loops in the air. This is a must go for the view also.
Scooby Doo: Mystery of the Scary Swamp: Shoot em’ up. Here you ride through the not so scary swamp and try to hit as many targets as you can with your light gun. Points are counted, it’s a great competition/ride.
Water Street Cab Company: These are basic bumper cars painted to look like Yellow Cabs.
Tidal Wave: Quick and simple you ride in a large boat to the top of a rise then turn a corner and fall down into a pool of water. You will get off this ride soaked to the bone.
Recently and I’m not sure exactly when, but recently Six Flags gutted their Looney Toon’s Land and set-up Kiddie Land elsewhere. From what I can see all of the rides are brand new and improved from what they had the last time I visited back in 2004 or 2005. Children’s Rides include:
Bugs Bunny Ranger Pilots - Flying planes
Daffy Duck Duccaneer - Small rocking boat
Elmer Fudd Weather Balloons - Change in height
Foghorn Leghorn National Railway - Kiddie train
Marvin The Martin Camp Invasion - Space ship that move up and down and sideways
Taz’s Twister - Tea Cups but with a different theme
Tweety’s Twee House - large jungle gym with slides
Yosemite Sam Tugboat Tailspin - a small boat that mimics waves is a very gentle way
THE FOOD
Food is widely available throughout the park. You can find Papa John’s scattered throughout the park with three different locations. Many stands are set-up offering drinks and small snacks like turkey legs and pretzels. Indoor eating is scarce, but each Papa Johns had a few inside seats as do eateries such as the Johnny Rockets (an old time eatery), Villains Café and the Moose Burger Lodge.
Each individual eatery offers a slightly different selection but for the most part your choices lie between pizza or burgers.
Meals also come at a high price, you can read about our eating experience under Our Experience.
OTHER ACTIVITES
Shopping
Small shops are scattered throughout the park. The largest shop is within the city façade at the front of the park. Most shops offer Six Flags souvenirs from stuffed animals to t-shirts to key chains and much more. A few offer different types of items. The Hollywood Studio Store offers a variety of movie and TV related items, from T-shirts to Posters and Figurines. The World’s Fair Fudgery offers some tasty fudge treats along with tons of sweets to select from. Each shop tends to have a little bit different selection so it doesn’t hurt to browse through each one if you have the time.
Extra Cost Rides
The Dragon’s Wing is a free-fall ride measuring approximately 150 feet, this ride cost additional monies and your ride must be scheduled ahead of time. The Sling Shot works in the opposite manner. You are pulled to the ground and in a sling shot like manner flung into the air, of course this cost extra also and must be scheduled. I didn’t check the prices of these rides, but I do recall planning on riding the Dragons Wing when I was younger, but by the time we got there to schedule the ride it was too late and they were all booked up. Therefore if you have any interest in these rides plan in advance or you may not get to ride them.
Hurricane Harbor
This water part is to the right when you first enter the park. The park offers a little bit for everyone. The water park offers a variety of slides rating from mild to extreme in rating. Aside from the slides there is a 30,000 square foot wave pool and a 1,100 foot lazy river enjoy among other things. If you plan on making a visit to Hurricane Harbor you may want to take note of its hours, while it usually opens at the same time the park does it generally closes before the main park does. Hurricane Harbor also closes down during the end of the season before the park does and isn’t generally open in September and October.
Among other things that you may want to do, Six Flags also offers shows. These are also scattered throughout the park in buildings and vary on content, they are family friendly and a good way to relax.
OUR EXPERIENCE
The Lines
We went on a Tuesday in July. The park was fairly busy, but not overly bustling with activity like I’ve seen in the past. We waited to ride the Scooby Doo ride the longest, taking about 1 hour and fifteen minutes total to actually get on the ride itself. However most of the rides had a shorter waiting line ranging between 5 minutes to 30 minutes.
The Operators
It was evident in some cases that our line waiting experience could have been slightly shorter had the college aged kids that were operating the rides not been chatting and playing around. In some cases the ride operators were very efficient in making sure cars were full, but others were too busy fraternizing and having fun.
Your Out Of Line
No wait, that’s “Your out of the lined smoking area.” The last time I made a trip to Six Flags I was welcome to pretty much smoke where I please, with the exceptions of when I was on a ride or when I was in a building. Now you can only smoke in designated areas marked by a purple line. These little stops were few and far between and offered little room to sit down and in some cases didn’t even offer any shade. As a smoker this was a fairly big deal because I wasted nearly an hour taking breaks to smoke, while I could understand not smoking in a line for a ride or in buildings, I still don’t see why I can’t smoke while I’m walking from one ride to the next. A non-smoker may not understand my plight, but I paid the same amount of money to get in as anyone else and I get less “play” time because I’m a smoker - I’m sorry but its just not right.
What Did It Cost?
For us (me and my boyfriend) we paid $33.00 per ticket ahead of time at a local County Market, saving about 8.00 per ticket in comparison to tickets bought at the gate. Parking was $15.00, no exceptions, you can elect for preferred parking and pay $25.00 however. We paid a whopping 18.50 for lunch which only consisted of two large slices of pizza and a large soda that we shared. We bought two additional large sodas during the day, due to blazing temperatures, at about $4.00 a piece. We had a large cup of Dippin Dots that cost $7.50, we split that and each of us had a waffle cone before we left the park that came to just under $10.00 total.
All of the expenses I listed above were pretty much necessity and the grand total is $125.00, thankful we had elected to leave our one year old son at home that day otherwise the total would have sky rocketed.
What We Did
We rode the majority of the rides only missing a few the old time cars, The Boss and The Superman. I elected not to ride the Superman due to a mishap on the same ride in a different park, but the other two rides we just didn’t have time for. We were in the park for about nine and half hours and if I had to break the time down I would say we spent about 1 hour eating, 1 hour total smoking, an additional half hour for bathroom breaks, three hours waiting in lines, about an hour riding time, an hour and half looking through the gift shops and the rest of the time walking. We enjoyed our day of leisure even in the 95 degree weather and both of us came out unscathed and not burned even due to a lack of sun screen. During our day we did not take the time to visit Hurricane Harbor.
Overall it was hard to be totally pleased with our stop at Six Flags, it was just way to expensive… I should have went to the gambling boat instead and then went shopping… No, No, No… Okay I had a good time, but I’m still regretting the amount of money we spent in the park. By the time you figure in the gas we spent to drive two hours back and forth to get there, the money we spent on games while inside, and eating before entering the park and after leaving our grand total went up to about 225 dollars, ugh I think I’m going to be sick…
Inside the park the rides are great experiences and a good time. I spent many days in the park as a child and teenager, often having season passes. The park has changed slowly over the years, but in many ways is still the same. The roller coasters are thrilling and many of the other rides are fun and entertaining.
I would only recommend this park if you save up enough money to go and your prepared to drop what ever you have saved once you get there. We spent pretty much everything we took in the park. A family entering this park would/will probably spend a proportionally larger amount than we did, especially on food and drinks.
Recommended:
Yes
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susieq112
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Procrastination ~ At this rate, I'll never finish my mini-doumentary...
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