What makes a great theme park?

After my last blog post, I've been doing amusement parks almost non stop. From the small family run establishments, to the big parks of the Six Flags and Cedar Fair corporations, there's been a mix of many different parks, with many different attractions.

Since Saturday, I've been travelling with three friends. Darren, from Banbury, Ben, from London, and Taylor, from Windsor, Ontario. We all met through a website called Coaster Force, where enthusiasts gather online to chat about theme parks, rollercoasters and thrill rides. Last year, we decided to take a trip to the US for 3 weeks to hit up some of the best theme parks the country has to offer.

Cliff's Amusement Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico is a small, independent park that can cater for families and thrillseekers alike with a good selection of classic rides, to their marquee attraction, the New Mexico Rattler.

We all have differing tastes in what rides and parks we like, but we all know what makes a good park, and what doesn't. The first thing to say here is that it takes an awful lot for an amusement park to be considered bad. There's not many, if any places that we would tell people to outright avoid, but after a discussion in the car, there's a few things that we all agree are essential in the making of a great theme park.

First Impressions

Prior research aside, the arrival at a park can leave a big impression on the sort of day you'll have. The first person you see or speak to, be that the person directing you to your parking place, the person checking your bag, or the person taking your money or checking you ticket the gate should make you feel special, like they want you to be there. And they should want you to, After all, you've made the effort to be there!

Whilst some parks are lucky to have a big attraction on their skyline to build the anticipation as you approach, other parks don't have that luxury. Alton Towers, for example, has planning restrictions which prohibit any construction above the height of the trees. But the monorail which takes you from the main parking area to the front entrance carries you over some of their flagship attractions to build the excitement.

At over 300ft tall, Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland can be seen for miles around before you even get to the park.

Regardless of whether you're going on a quiet midweek day, or a prime holiday weekend, there shouldn't ever be an excessive wait to get in to the park. A lot of this comes down to good management, which I'll touch on later. I've waited at some parks for longer than should be happening, and while there's always going to peak periods when people arrive (I've always advise getting to a busy park first thing to maximise your day), there's no excuse for making people wait longer than need be.

Six Flags New England has an entrance which looks great, and really builds the anticipation before you set foot inside. And on a busy day, there were plenty of staff at the gates to get people inside without a long wait.

Cleanliness

You wouldn't want someone to see your house looking like a landfill, and theme parks don't want to have the public see their properties as one either. From the moment you enter, to the queue lines, the toilets, the restaurants, and everything in between, good presentation is a must. What this constitutes can vary from park to park depending on their get up, but when you see litter, graffiti, used chewing gum, cigarette butts, dirty restrooms and the like, it makes you wonder about how much the park really cares about their image, and how the guests see them.

Not every park needs to be as sterile as a hospital waiting room, but as long everything looks good, regardless of theme or type, it will leave guests thinking that the park cares about it's attractions, and consequently, care about the people using them.

The main concourse after the turnstiles at Elitch Gardens in Denver, Colorado. Spotlessly clean.

Operations

If a park is run well, you won't be waiting excessive times for anything. From rides to food outlets and games, everything should be operated promptly and safely. Parks are under pressure to do everything in proportion to make sure they don't overspend their budgets (it's a business after all), but even from quiet days to peak summer season periods, no one wants to wait longer than they have to.

Some parks will offer guests the opportunity to buy a fast pass for their attractions, which enables them to bypass the main queue in order to reduce their waiting time for a ride. But this has to be managed in proportion with the main queue line, to be fair on the guests who have chosen to take the normal queue, and those who have chosen to purchase a fast pass. Disney parks even offer a free fast pass system, which allots guests a ticket with a one hour time window in which to return to a ride, enabling them to visit other attractions before returning with their fast pass ticket to ride that attraction.

Patriot at Worlds Of Fun in Kansas City, is a an example of a ride with a fast pass system operated efficiently to maximise throughput for all guests.

Once at the ride station, it's easy to see how well a ride is being run by the length of time it took you to get there, and how quickly the operators are able to load, unload, and dispatch a ride. There will be situations that can't be helped, such as a guest who has thrown up their lunch while riding. But even so, these scenarios should have a plan to deal with the issue, and resolve it without causing any undue delay whilst not compromising on safety. I've seen wonderfully efficient crews who work brilliantly to keep the queue line moving, and I've also seen terrible operations where crews are slow, and don't look the least bit interested in what they're doing.

For that second point above, there is simply no excuse. This also goes for restaurants: for example, if you order hot food, and it comes out cold, you know there's a problem with the operations.

Despite being the newest attraction with the biggest queue, the efficient operations meant that Wicked Cyclone at Six Flags New England kept people happy with the wait in line, and even happier when on the ride.

Rides & Attractions

As an enthusiast, I'm much more picky than most about what I think constitutes a good ride. But irrespective of an enthusiast's point of view, amusement parks have to cater for a wide range of social demographics, and offer rides which will entertain old and young alike to maximise who they can attract to their property.

Six Flags Great America is renowned for huge cutting edge rides, but they still entertain classic attractions, such as the Whizzer, which don't leave out out younger people, and allow more families to ride together.

Some parks do this better than others, and the best parks will offer something for everybody, whether you're on a school day out, with your family, with your friends, or even by yourself. Yes, there are certain parks which choose to cater for one demographic more than another, and that's their business decision to do so. That's another discussion to have on another day about whether it works or not. But because the largest and most successful parks have greater diversity in their attractions, they have greater power to market that accordingly, and thus attract more people.

Bizarro at Six Flags New England has an imposing structure, great capacity, great selling points for thrillseekers, and a truly memorable ride.

There's one thing that underpins everything above:

Great Management

Management at all levels, needs to be connected well to its employees, and its guests. The management at the very top need to know their raison d'etre like the back of their hand. If there isn't strong and confident direction from the very top, it can make life very difficult for those underneath to carry out their roles the best they can. And whilst this works both ways, it's the responsibility of management to manage, and do it well. If a park makes you feel welcome, looks clean and presentable, operates its ride and gastronomical attraction efficiently, makes employees happy and want to work, and makes its guests happy and want to return, that will be down to great management.

If any of the the points I've listed are not as they should be, then there's a problem with the management which needs to be addressed. If the management doesn't care, the employees won't care, and the public won't care about visiting. Without great management, parks won't fulfil their potential for themselves, their investors, and the customers who are expecting a great day out.

Every amusement park has the potential to be great. Some are already there, some are utterly fantastic, and some do with some helpful pointers to get them going them in the right direction. But without telling a park what you think, they won't know how to make the experience they offer even better.

With all this in mind, I'll be writing as many reviews of the parks we are visiting over the next few months we are visiting to give an honest an unbiased opinion on what we like, and what we think could be improved.