Six Flags St. Louis

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I went to Six Flags St. Louis with my boyfriend on Friday and had an interesting experience. Like Universal they require you to put your bags in a locker before boarding the ride. Unlike Universal you have to pay for them. The lockers outside the ride are single use (so as soon as you get into them that's it. You have to pay to use it again) and they cost $1.00 to use. I was not very thrilled aobut this to say the least. The biggest issue for me is having my meter and glucose tabs with me. Especially because my blood sugar has been really unstable with lots of annoying highs and lows. Of course they don't make women's clothing with pockets big enough to hold meters/glucose tabs (well not my pants anyway). I wouldn't have had a problem with the locker if it weren't for the fact that should I need to leave the line to get my meter/tabs I would have had to pay again and this was not acceptable to me (plus, I really just need to have it with me).

I was informed that you can get a medical pass from Guest Relations. It's just a sticker you put on your bag that allows you to bring it into the queue with you. The unfortunate thing is that on a wet day like that day it fell off of my purse (second time they just stuck it to a card which I kept in my bag) and a lot of the people had no idea what the sticker was or what to do with it. It was obvious that they were not properly trained for this situation.

We also so lots of safety issues while we were there. My bf is a supervisor at a Cedar FAir park and I have worked attractions at Disney, so we're pretty familiar with how things are supposed to work. One of the biggest issues we saw was people leaving the panel at several of the roller coasters (huge safety issue). We also saw Cast Members with their backs to the rides, standing over the yellow line while there were no trains in the station, etc. Some people were super friendly, some not so much.

I can't comment on their treatment of guests with other disabilities, although I did notice that even their newest coasters required lots of steps so had alternate entrances. In several queues the alternate entrance split off of the main queue once the queue reached the steps, but it was so narrow that I could not imagine a person in an ECV or a wider wheelchair easily navigating it.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

We are originally from STL and had passes about 15 years. I can tell you that many workers are 14 and 15 year olds working for less than minimum wage. Many others will be college kids--it is not the same caliber as WDW, but a season pass costs much less than a day's admission to WDW.
They did not have the lockers (we have been gone 4 years), but you left your stuff in cubbyholes and I would guess there was a lot of theft. Sea World and Busch Gardens have gone to the lockers also. It can add a lot of cost to the day.
It kind of forces ya to wear those beautiful fanny packs because they are the only thing allowed on rides.
I hope the rest of your day was good--we really miss the place.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I'm very familiar with the demographics of the workforce. My boyfriend is a supervisor at Worlds of Fun and if I get a job in the KC area I am hoping to work there as well. They have a very similar demographic. Unfortunately, for whatever reason Six Flags's workers are not nearly the caliber of WoF even though the demographics are similar. I think a lot of it has to do with the company.

I sent them a letter yesterday about our experience. The lockers are to increase efficiency and because of theft. The reiterated the part about the medical stickers and expressed surprise that the majority of their team members did not know what to do with them.

They also stated that it is perfectly acceptable for workers to be over the yellow line, away from the panels, or outside the safety zones when there is no train in the station. This would not fly one iota at Disney or Cedar Fair parks. The panel must be manned at all times so that you are able to hit the station or E-stop in the event of a problem. There is also the possibility tha the person could fall into the track (one person was literally on the edge of the platform.) Sadly, their safety record leaves a lot to be desired.

The company is headed into bankrupcy. Frankly, if they want people to start populating their parks they really need to stop nickel and diming the guests and retrain their staff. I would be more than happy to spend a little more on my ticket if it meant not paying every time I want to ride a ride. The one good thing about having diabetes is that my need to have my stuff with me allowed me to take the bag up the queue.

 

[Tinker*Shell*Bell]

What did you do with the bag while on the ride? We are going to Six Flags next week and would like to ride a couple of the rollercoasters that look like having a bag in hand would be a bad idea, but the cost of a locker at each is prohibitive.
I know they say no outside foods can be brought in, do they apply this to Diabetic guests as well? I do not need to carry a lot, but a very low carb protein bar and a high carb bar should give me a choice depending on the moment.
I am also wondering if they have anything like the GAC at Disney. (Autistic child.)
I know this is the Disney board, but any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!
Sheli

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

They kept it at the panel. You have to sort of flag someone down when you get on so that they can take it. The rides this applies to are: Boss, Evel Knievel, Mine Train, Tony Hawk, and Batman. I'm not sure about the Ninja as both my boyfriend and I refuse to ride it. On the Mr. Freeze and Screaming Eagle they have a place on the load platform to put your bag. Be prepared to have to explain yourself though.

I had glucose tabs in my purse and they didn't say anything, I imagine some kind of protein bar or something of that ilk would be fine if you explained that you are a diabetic. Just remember to get the sticker from Guest Relations. If you get there early there is a window outside the gate. If your bag is a smooth fabric (mine was kind of a vinyl type fabric) you may want to ask them to put it on a card that you can stick in your bag. I had one fall off and ended up having to go back there to get it. The e-mail I received back did mention being able to get on at first aid as well, but I have no clue where that is.

As for a GAC type thing, I would think they would have one, but I'm not sure. You may not need it if it was like Friday. It was so dead they ended up closing the park early, and even then we rode each coaster 2-3 times with no waiting. I'm sure you can e-mail their guest relations or check out their website.

 

[ltillock]

We visit this park often and have season passes. My son has life-threatening food allergies, and I can answer your question about bringing in outside food. They are fine with it as long as you mention it is for a medical reason. Once you go through the metal detectors, there is a table where they manually search bags. You can mention it to someone there and they can put a medical sticker on your bag or cooler that says the food is approved. I've actually only had this done once. Other times I've mentioned it and they've not added the sticker. No one has ever said a word about the food. I'm sure you could take thing in your purse and be fine, too. I believe that their policy is somewhere on their web site, or at least it used to be.

Hope you have fun. While it isn't Disney, we are able to get there more often and we do enjoy it with our children!

 

[Absimilliard]

We also so lots of safety issues while we were there. My bf is a supervisor at a Cedar FAir park and I have worked attractions at Disney, so we're pretty familiar with how things are supposed to work. One of the biggest issues we saw was people leaving the panel at several of the roller coasters (huge safety issue). We also saw Cast Members with their backs to the rides, standing over the yellow line while there were no trains in the station, etc. Some people were super friendly, some not so much.

I can't comment on their treatment of guests with other disabilities, although I did notice that even their newest coasters required lots of steps so had alternate entrances. In several queues the alternate entrance split off of the main queue once the queue reached the steps, but it was so narrow that I could not imagine a person in an ECV or a wider wheelchair easily navigating it.

Off Topic:

Its interesting that you note that, as that whole "stay within the yellow line" for employees thing is just a useless thing for insurance purpose. I worked attractions at Disneyland Paris and to Cedar Fair or Six Flags, they'd have suspended every cast members on there and closed Space Mountain to make it "safe". We had 3 employees at each station and a grouper for each station. There was no safety gates, only a yellow line and the load cast member looked and walked over to the guest that got a little too close to it. As for the unload cast member, he had to go greet guests travalling in a wheelchair and explain the procedure to board to them.

When the attraction broke down (this is even better!), cast members were required to go to every lift hill and brake zones in order to answer guest questions and reassure them. When it was time to restart the ride, they'd do their thing and then just sit down. Trains would go next to them and it was ok. There was never any accident on the ride and cast members never got hurt. We wore safety boots and were very well trained.

The safety gates, adding seatbelts to every ride, having employees become statues when the ride get dispatched, etc. is just being paranoid about safety. I know of one incident where having safety gates didn't do a single thing.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I have worked attractions and have a boyfriend who is a supervisor at Worlds of Fun. Most of the things were not a huge deal. The two that really bothered both of us were having Cast Members nowhere near the panel or E-Stops and in one case the Cast member standing literally on the edge of the platform when no train was in the station. He could easily have fallen into the track and with nobody near an E-Stop could have been hit.

I can't speak for Disneyland, but at WDW if I was over the yellow line I would have been warned. If it was consistent I would have been reprimanded. I know that if I ever left my panel while the ride was running I could automatically have been terminated. True, many of the things we do are paranoid, but a lot of them are there because of incidents that have happened in the past. Maybe the area iworked was exceptionally safe, but soem of the things I saw made me nervous, especially given Six Flags poor safety record and their complete refusal to own up to their mistakes (Superman Tower of Power ring a bell?)

 

[Absimilliard]

I have worked attractions and have a boyfriend who is a supervisor at Worlds of Fun. Most of the things were not a huge deal. The two that really bothered both of us were having Cast Members nowhere near the panel or E-Stops and in one case the Cast member standing literally on the edge of the platform when no train was in the station. He could easily have fallen into the track and with nobody near an E-Stop could have been hit.

I can't speak for Disneyland, but at WDW if I was over the yellow line I would have been warned. If it was consistent I would have been reprimanded. I know that if I ever left my panel while the ride was running I could automatically have been terminated. True, many of the things we do are paranoid, but a lot of them are there because of incidents that have happened in the past. Maybe the area iworked was exceptionally safe, but soem of the things I saw made me nervous, especially given Six Flags poor safety record and their complete refusal to own up to their mistakes (Superman Tower of Power ring a bell?)

Superman: Tower of Power was a combinaison of a scared ride operator who affraid he or she was going to lose the job if he/she pressed the e-stop for a "wrong reason" and a bad design that the park had found a way around, but creating another problem! Another park in Spain had the same exact incident (cable getting loose, starting to do crazy things) and there, by chance, the ride was e-stopped soon enough. Six Flags is sueing Intamin for not equipping the ride with a cable tension sensor and forcing them to do the "home made" solution while providing no other solution.

Intamin rides in general are lots of fun, but no other companies ever had as many accidents! A few people were tossed from their rides after they discovered the hard way design flaws in the restraints. In 1999, a large man was ejected from the brand new Superman: Ride of Steel at Darien Lake. The investigation showed Intamin had not designed the bar to be able to close down low enough in the case of a large person. The solution was to add a seatbelt as an additional "backup". A few years later, different type of ride, same restraint. A large woman was again ejected and this time, Intamin blamed it on the person belly "not allowing the seatbelt to work". In England, another girl was ejected.... Except this one forced Intamin to come up with another excuse, as she was a skinny teenager!

After yet another ejection on the Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags New England, Six Flags took upon themself to finally fix those faulty restraints. They did by adding sensors to the lap bar (showing if its lowered down enough) and adding metal bars to the lap bar, so that you finally get sufficient lateral support and protection. Must have been a good idea, as its only 2 years later that Intamin added the lap bar sensors and side support to its trains!

All that to say that it really depends on what company you're dealing with. You can overbuild, take care of it as best as you can, have the strictest security procedures for employees and guests and the oddball accident will still happen!

 

[BeckyScott]

As for a GAC type thing, I would think they would have one, but I'm not sure. You may not need it if it was like Friday. It was so dead they ended up closing the park early, and even then we rode each coaster 2-3 times with no waiting. I'm sure you can e-mail their guest relations or check out their website.

I looked into this, as we were figuring out where to go this summer.

No GAC or similar thing. I am on an email group with a bunch of StLouis area autism moms, and asked them about it. There used to be a wristband that served as a GAC. But too much abuse, and they discontinued it. So apparantly no accommodations at all, nada, zip.

We're going to Silver Dollar City instead. Non-visible disabilities are sent to the wheelchair entrance (which for many of the attractions is the exit). I will report back as to how well this works, the last time we were there we were given a letter at Guest Services to present at the wheelchair entrance, but now you don't get that. So it will either work well or totally stink, depending on how well the (16-year-old) employees have been trained. I think it will save us quite a bit of hassle to stick DS in an autism t-shirt. They also have accomodations for food allergies. So they get our money from now on. Well, you know, besides Disney, which still wins.

 

[ltillock]

We're going to Silver Dollar City instead.... They also have accomodations for food allergies. So they get our money from now on. Well, you know, besides Disney, which still wins.

BeckyScott: Do you know what kind of accomidations Silver Dollar City makes for food allergies? I haven't heard of this before, but would be very interested in knowing more about it.

Thanks!

 

[BeckyScott]

http://bransonsilverdollarcity.com/food-restaurants/detail.aspx?AttractionID=1255

I emailed them, too.

What it is, basically, is that they have pre-packaged meals (prepared elsewhere) that they will "ship in" to a restaurant if they know you are coming. Since DS won't eat most of their pre-packaged stuff, I asked if they could do him up a hot dog, gf (EnerG) bun, chips... they said no problem. They even offered to get hold of some appropriate dessert, as most of their dessert options are chocolate, which is also a problem.

They said just to email them back when it was closer to our vacation time and let them know where and what day.

The allergy food is NOT available at White Water, though. Although they were willing to work around me bringing in food.