Definitely not the same, but in college my buds and I'd get stoned as all hell before going to Six Flags. Good times.
I feel for the guy who has the clean the restrooms. The stench of hot piss wafting through your nostrils on a 90 degree day. Wet floors sticky from a blend of urine and hose water. Diarrhea oftentimes intentionally missing its mark. Now add drunks. Ahhh...have you had lunch yet?
I don't think that's what they're going for. It think it's more... Frat boy#1: Dude, let's go to 6 Flags, get wasted, and ride some rollercoasters Frat boy#2: DUDE! EPIC IDEA!
last i checked...six flags didn't have a sign at the counter that said "families only...all you other individuals looking for trouble...you've come to the wrong place". lol.
Before? I guess you never went to Astroworld back in the day. People used to get together in groups in the stands where the ski shows were held and smoke out...not to mention the Astro Way was the #1 smoke-out ride in the park. My friends and I used to leave the park, ride the tram over the bridge back to parking, kick back in a van where all the party goods were, hang out in the van and party for a bit, and then go back to Astroworld. We would do that several times in a single outing. lol Those were fun days. One time...we went to Waterworld. Near closing time...we bolted on foot out of Waterworld onto the train tracks and tried to sneak into a Night Ranger concert in Astroworld. Suffice to say...that didn't work out too well. I can remember being on the run from several workers and security personnel in no man's land between the two parks...mainly in the train tracks area. At one point, I'm under the Dexter Frebish watching this ride over head thinking wtf have I gotten myself into. We never made it into the park. We ended up running through heavily thorned bushes(I had shorts and flip flops on) and eventually just gave up. Since we were kids, they let us catch the last train from Waterworld and leave. That was the only time I actually felt like the guy in "The Fugitive".
(Anheuser) Busch Gardens, in VA and Fl, obviously sells alcohol. As mentioned, it's not a problem. IIRC, it's only sold in the restaurants. Plus, the price and your constant walking around the place means you'd have to be dead set on getting drunk to do so. Most likely, people just heard about this, took it wrong, and went off the deep end. Evan
Having not been to an amusement park in a very long time, you're probably right. On first thought, it just seemed like a terrible idea. On second thought, as long as they restrict it to restaurant areas only, I don't see it really being a problem. People are going to get drunk and whatever else no matter what.
A couple things.... 1. To the commentor regarding wanting to get more teens and those in their younger 20s into the park, it's in fact just the opposite. Part of Six Flags' downfall under the former regime was catering specifically to that demographic. The new regime has tried to offset that by building more family friendly rides, upgrading the infrastructure, etc. to bring the families back. So trying to bring in more teens isn't the reason this is being done. In fact, I too have heard many adults wishing they could get a beer at the parks in my time there. 2. As someone else mentioned, in the pre-Six Flags days Astroworld sold beer in the building over where Excalibur and later Serial Thriller stood. Maybe some other locations, too. This isn't new. It's more of a "going back to" thing. 3. Many theme parks already sell alcohol. Someone mentioned Busch Gardens, which is owned by Anheuser-Busch. They also own Sea World, and sell alcohol there as well. Cedar Fair, which owns Cedar Point, Knott's Berry Farm in California and Worlds of Fun in Kansas City among others also sell alcohol. I was at Silver Dollar City in Branson earlier this year and they have a Beers from around the world festival every year. Disney is the biggest example of this, whether they're a destination resort or not. Who has tried to portray a more family friendly image than freakin' Disney?? They sell more alcohol than the other parks combined, at all of their parks (I believe - I haven't been to Disney in Cali in ages). 4. Good point above about the price. You know one glass will be at least 8-10 bucks easy, so I don't see people plopping down 40-50 bucks to get drunk. One or two beers should not a drunk make. 5. Someone said this will blow up in their faces when some drunken moron gets out of his seatbelt at 200 feet in the air. Don't you think the problem would be that they let a drunken anything ON the ride in the first place?? My guess is on the chance that someone did get enough down the gullet to be loaded, he wouldn't make it anywhere near an actual ride without being escorted away.
All i have to say about this is Schlitterbahn allows beer sales. We went with some friends and one of my friends got tanked. I mean annoying tanked to where we got sick of listening to him talk. I mean my man could not even stay in the tube on the lazy river. I have never seen anyone so mad on the lazy river. If beer wasn't there it would have been more fun for everyone else. However this is just one guy's inability to know when to slow down. Problem is everyone has a friend like mine and when you got to the park on the weekend you end up with 100 of them.
