Great Adventure Outpost

Industry => Trip Reports and Meeting Plans => Topic started by: coastermom on August 31, 2014, 07:15:20 PM

Title: Poor Management decisions on a holiday weekend with a HUGE sale going on TR 8/30
Post by: coastermom on August 31, 2014, 07:15:20 PM
So after over 15 calls to SFGADV membership line and 2 emails I still had no answers so I just canceled it ! I then went ahead and purchased new season passes because I felt like this  :headbash: :headbash: with the membership . I will NEVER do that membership again !!

On to our trip on 8/30 ...  4 of us go to the park with our new 2015 vouchers in hand and head to the gates .. Get into the park and head to processing it is now about 1:30 the line to process was just about at the start of the gate I figured maybe 45 min and we would be done ... NOT SO !! 2 and 1/2 hours LATER we are still ON LINE !!!! As we are waiting we have three young teenagers who thought we were going to let them  waltz past us  >:( Now I am hungry and tired of waiting this becomes a screaming match and I am called a racist because I did not let them cut me ... WONDERFUL all along there was not one Security Guard to be found ! I asked them to go  get the person who told them to go to the front of the line and then they got nasty ! It should never get to this point but again there was no Security around and nobody there to stop them . Needless to say security should have been posted there !! We get to the computer room to be processed and find TWO yes TWO people there to process passes !! WTH ?? There are a good 20 computers in that area !! Your park is  running a MAJOR sale on a HOLIDAY WEEKEND and you have TWO people there to process passes ?? Sorry but who is in charge of this mess ?? This person should no longer have a job .. after we were processed the line was well out toward the Parachute ride I can only guess how long those people waited !!  :o
Title: Re: Poor Management decisions on a holiday weekend with a HUGE sale going on TR 8/30
Post by: WadeJ on September 01, 2014, 10:02:54 AM
Ugh.... wow.  After participating in plenty of surveys over the past year, it really seems they want to push the membership vs actual season passes.  Now I'm glad I didn't go for it as well.  Besides this mess, it's just too freakin confusing.  All they need to do is properly implement a system that doesn't require processing the pass in person!  Especially if you are a returning pass holder.  Even if they don't want to continue to the biometric to verify identity, then go with a system like Disneyland that has a picture of you on file which pops up as you enter the gate.  That picture can then be reused for years. 
Title: Re: Poor Management decisions on a holiday weekend with a HUGE sale going on TR 8/30
Post by: B-mac on September 02, 2014, 12:01:47 AM
I heard SFNE processes your season pass at the gate if you have a pre-printed voucher. They really should have something like that here but I guess the excess office space needs to be used for something.
Title: Re: Poor Management decisions on a holiday weekend with a HUGE sale going on TR 8/30
Post by: Ogolo on September 02, 2014, 06:57:56 PM
I thought that was what they were doing this year at GAdv also?
That is why they had the tabled to write you name on the blank pass after the gates.
You only has to go to the processing center to add any upgrades. 
Title: Re: Poor Management decisions on a holiday weekend with a HUGE sale going on TR 8/30
Post by: Steve on September 03, 2014, 05:06:39 PM
If you have a 2014 active pass and purchase a 2015 one, it gets added onto your card right at the gate and you do not need to go to processing.

The last week in August is always bad staffing wise. All of their college kids, which is a good chunk, go back to school the week prior. So it always leaves them shorthanded. It just sucks you had to experience it. Now go any weekend in September that is not Fright Fest and it will probably be a very short wait everywhere.
Title: Re: Poor Management decisions on a holiday weekend with a HUGE sale going on TR 8/30
Post by: WadeJ on September 03, 2014, 10:00:43 PM
I thought that was what they were doing this year at GAdv also?
That is why they had the tabled to write you name on the blank pass after the gates.
You only has to go to the processing center to add any upgrades. 

Exactly the problem.  And actually, it turned out even worse for us.  We got the parking pass deal but they couldn't add it at the gate.  So we walked in with vouchers, received our pass which we wrote our name on only to have to wait in a crazy huge line to add the parking.  Stupid.  Also, to make it even more fun, we had purchased our passes with part of our extended family for a total of 9 passes.  The vouchers had ZERO details on them to know who should use each one.  Every single one of us got somebody else' pass voucher which still worked but it meant the backend had all of the wrong details - more time wasted since we spent a good 30 minutes entering it all online ahead of time.  This made it a huge pain when I tried registering them online because the last names were different.  After many combinations I figured it out and had to manually correct each one.  And then I found our you couldn't complete the pass registration process without an email address but it won't let you use the same one more than once.  My 3, 6 and 9 year old do not have their own email!  So I made up fake addresses only to find I then couldn't link them to the "pass manager" because it sends an invite to each person you try to add.

It's a complete cluster and just sucks.  It shouldn't be this difficult to spend money and go to a park!!!
Title: Re: Poor Management decisions on a holiday weekend with a HUGE sale going on TR 8/30
Post by: AV Matt on September 04, 2014, 01:28:10 PM
Have a Six Flags day!!
Title: Re: Poor Management decisions on a holiday weekend with a HUGE sale going on TR 8/30
Post by: B-mac on September 04, 2014, 08:14:58 PM
The 'Have a Six Flags day!' Line is used in so many different ways that I don't like using it. It's pretty bad when other employees say it sarcastically so often it loses its impact.