The Yellow Board

Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Six Banners on 5/20/2022, 10:02 pm

I’d like your thoughts.
We just got home from Fiesta Texas and I’d like your thoughts. Here’s mine. Pardon my irritability from being tired and sunburned. 😎

I don’t think it’s worth it. Patrons wait over an hour for food, roller coasters were either not running or 2+ hour wait, 30 minute wait for sodas. The park, I feel, wasn’t sufficiently staffed for the amount of people there. Maybe the kids love it and if they do I’ll gladly take them since the trip is for them. I’ll ask on Monday and get a feel of what they think. I’m just curious to see what my colleagues on this esteemed forum have to say.

Do you like it? Do your kids like it?

The end of the year is almost here!

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by NLABD on 5/25/2022, 3:56 pm, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

I found it was very helpful to have the Six Flags trip at the beginning of May rather than the end of it just for the sake of temperatures

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by CCC on the coast on 5/24/2022, 6:54 pm, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

I came back insanely late Saturday night from Fiesta Texas after a five year gap between this trip and the last. I realized how much I didn't miss it and why I never pushed for this trip in my last school. It's miserable and I think after a certain point in the day its gets miserable for most of the kids as well. Sangerfest Hall is a humid zoo and the price isn't worth the hassle anymore. That having been said, I'll still have to take this trip. Every year.

The train was closed!! I couldn't believe it!

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by yuck on 5/24/2022, 4:21 pm, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

Going there with students in about another week. Definitely not looking forward to it.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Dosed on 5/23/2022, 3:35 pm, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

It is heading down the same path as Astroworld...

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by MS on 5/23/2022, 10:59 am, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

I prefer Schlitterbahn over Fiesta Texas. Lines are still long but plenty of rides without too long of wait. And being able to bring in snacks is great.

As a director having a shady area to call base is also really nice.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Susan on 5/23/2022, 5:54 pm, in reply to "Re: Fiesta Tejas "

Now, that the original owners of Schlitterbahn have sold out the facility should safer than ever before.

I do not think any of use ever knew what went on behind the scenes when one of the owners dreamed. As it turned out this brother 'graduated' from high school when they told him to leave and not returned.

Google the Schlitterbahn story. It is a very interesting read.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by NRH2NO on 5/23/2022, 7:23 am, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

Haven't gone to Fiesta Texas for a contest but what you said is exactly the same thing at Nrh2o. We went to contest there and only 25-30% of the PARK was open....two rides (which after lunch they shut down one and opened up a different one), one concession stand, and the splashatory (kidville). Even the lazy river was closed. There reasoning? We just can't get lifeguards. Last year I accepted that....just coming out of covid, some people were fearful of returning to life, but we are one year removed from that. The ticket price is still the same though.....

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by hobson on 5/23/2022, 7:22 am, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

We went last Friday as well. Very disappointing. We will not be going back next year. I've been so many times over the past thirty years. This was the worst experience I've had there.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Lynne on 5/23/2022, 7:16 pm, in reply to "Re: Fiesta Tejas "

I am sure it was a definite waste of money. Travis,

you should have come to Galveston. I could have entertained your kids at Schlitterbahn! I could have brought you guys some good fried shrimp and fish!

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Respectfully on 5/22/2022, 3:58 pm, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

Lines wouldn't be so long if people wanted to work there.

If they paid more than $9 per hour, they might have more people working to cut down on lines.

Just saying.

I'd be avoiding all places like that for the next couple years until pay rate catches up to reality.

If a kid can make $15 an hour working at McDonalds, I know what they're going to pick.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by ummm on 5/24/2022, 4:19 pm, in reply to "Re: Fiesta Tejas "

I am with you on paying people more, but that won't cut down on the lines for rides.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Price on 5/23/2022, 2:29 pm, in reply to "Re: Fiesta Tejas "

And when they start paying $15 bucks an hour you have a secondary set of problems. If I'm a company I'm not paying a 16 year old $15 bucks for their first job. So they will only hire adults who will then say they can't raise a family on that, (because minimum wage was never meant to raise a family on), so the company will be forced to hire fewer employees, (and create longer lines), or bad employees that create longer lines. Then they will raise the price of the entry tickets and then folks will complain about the cost of that.....

It isn't skilled labor and is paid accordingly. The parts that are, (water chemistry in the water park, ride inspections, and maintenance), are making good money but they don't help with the efficiency, only the safety.

I'm all for paying people what they are worth but the more we increase the pay for the unskilled the less valuable your college degree and specialized skills become. In a time of massive inflation just remember how much less buying power you have now then 2 years ago. Do we really want to throw fuel on that fire right now. Plenty of skilled positions sitting empty that we can encourage economic freedom by learning skills, not encouraging long-term unskilled fields.

Do we really want someone's first job to be the day they set foot in the classroom at 22 because nobody would hire them at 16 so they could learn how to "work". Heck, some of those early jobs are the best learning experiences because they probably involve working with a customer and bad bosses and all the fun stuff that builds character for later being a boss or a manager or an employee.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Respectfully on 5/23/2022, 6:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Fiesta Tejas "

Saying “some jobs aren’t worth a living wage” means that people shouldn’t do them, full stop.

Minimum wage was created by FDR as a living wage and was designed to stay that way. If it had kept pace with inflation it would be over $30 now.

You can say “a kid doesn’t need that money” but the fact is if a corp doesn’t HAVE TO pay it they won’t. That’s why our low income kids have parents working 2-3 full time jobs each just to stay in an apartment.

Inflation is happening now due almost entirely due to corporate greed.

And your canard about no kids taking jobs - that happens all the time NOW.

A box of Nilla Wafers costs about 3.50. Our minimum wage is two boxes of cheap cookies an hour *before* taxes.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by uh on 5/24/2022, 8:24 am, in reply to "Re: Fiesta Tejas "

Where did you get your info that inflation is coming from corporate greed? I'd like to know. Most articles I'm seeing are saying that corporate greed is not the cause.

At the same time, I would like for companies to pay more but that's capitalism. If they can get away with it they will. If they lose business they will change. That's how it works. Sometimes when the change it means they go out of business, like Astroworld.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by FYI on 5/24/2022, 11:41 am, in reply to "Re: Fiesta Tejas "

Most articles are being written by those same corporations that are saying they aren't the problem.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by I expected on 5/24/2022, 7:53 am, in reply to "Re: Fiesta Tejas "

I expected you would have a response.

Some jobs are not meant to be full time. Full stop. An entry level burger flipper is not something one should be doing for their entire life. Master chef at a 5 star restaurant is a completely different level, (of training and pay). It is an entry level, no skill job. Do I appreciate it, yes. Does it deserve the same pay as an electrician, a plumber, a doctor, or even a drafter? All of those jobs take years of training and thus are paid accordingly. So all jobs are not equal and do not deserve equal pay. Be careful what you ask for. When governments make things equal they don't usual go up, (we won't all suddenly be making 6 figures), so say bye bye to your pay rate as an educated adult.

Greedy corporations - aren't nearly as greedy as you might think. Look at the profit margins of many of these companies. While to you it seems high, (guessing you have never own, run, or actually worked for a non-government entity in your adult life), you have to take into account risk, all costs from buildings to insurance to staffing, to highs and lows, (see Covid and the number of businesses that didn't make it because there was no margin for no income). Parents working 2 or 3 jobs are doing so to make life better for their kids and are probably doing so in an unskilled field. As they move into skilled labor that changes. If at the age of 50 someone is still working 3 unskilled jobs because they never progressed then we need to look at why because even a kid starting at Whataburger at 16 will move into a management position by 20 with continuous employment unless they really aren't qualified.

Inflation due to greed???? My goodness did you take an economics class? Huge influx of available cash, especially because of government spending hits very low availability of raw materials and you have a massive imbalance of supply and demand. It isn't greed when a company can't make something to put on the shelves. And it isn't greed to think that the price of something might go up when you put $1,200 worth of fuel in a semi tractor to drive those goods across the country.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by observation on 5/24/2022, 9:30 am, in reply to "Re: Fiesta Tejas "

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2022/05/07/oil-company-record-profits-2022/9686761002/

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Another Observation on 5/24/2022, 12:29 pm, in reply to "Re: Fiesta Tejas "

This exact same story gets dragged out every time gas prices change....up or down.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Same on 5/22/2022, 12:44 pm, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

We were there yesterday as well. The kids had a great time so we will be back. You are correct about some of the ridiculous waits though.
I don't think it is as much about staffing as it is about the processes they have in place.
Why do they still have staff pouring the drinks when it seems like the overwhelming majority of people in the park had the refillable cups? That's more people in lines and staff filling drinks instead of serving food. It can't be a cost thing, because they have 2 or 3 of the refill stations that are un-manned.

My biggest gripe is with the disaster that was group ticketing. We ordered and paid for our tickets more than a month in advance and we still had to pick them up at will call, and even then, the "will call" window that was mentioned in the email was not the actual will call window we got our tickets at. They had plenty of time to print the tickets and mail them, especially since the $10 processing fee should have included shipping.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by YoungBlood on 5/23/2022, 8:43 am, in reply to "Re: Fiesta Tejas "

This has me worried about our tickets since we ordered them back in the beginning of March to go next week. We called when they hadn't shown up by the beginning of May and they said to stop bothering them and not expect tickets until 1 week before.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by BugsBunny on 5/22/2022, 11:18 am, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

I’ll wait for the official answer from my kids on Monday but, overall I think they had a decent time at the park. Our kids don’t travel much so that in itself was special to them.

Guest relations for the park was awful, rarely returned emails and most definitely never answered the phone ever. I’m pretty sure the phone number is a line that probably never gets answered.

From my perspective, the park experience was terrible. Students had to wait for over an hour to ride rides, I waited in line for 2 hours for food and once students saw how long it was to wait many ended up opting out of eating (which became extra terrifying because several of our students had medical conditions requiring them to eat at certain hours of the day) the day we went it started to rain so the rides got shut down and it was only then that we finally convinced students to wait in line for food. After an hour and a half of waiting our students got their food.

I really like taking kids on this type of trip but, in the future I think we might forgo the meal vouchers and just take them to a fast food joint or pizza buffet BEFORE going to the park so they won’t have to worry so much about waiting in line for food.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Mustang Sally on 5/21/2022, 4:07 pm, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

They upped their group ticket prices and then wouldn’t return our calls. Went to SeaWorld instead. Still had great coasters and short lines.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Me on 5/21/2022, 3:20 pm, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

We went to Six Flags in Dallas. It was filthy, the workers were completely lost and clueless. Food lines were 30 minutes long. The food was trash and expensive. It’s all the Six Flags, not just Fiesta Texas.
I loved Fiesta Texas when Opryland managed it and it was a musical theme park instead of an amusement park.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Me on 5/21/2022, 2:39 pm, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

I brought my kids on a Sunday afternoon last week and it was awesome. No lines! Private picnic area for food!

Go on a Sunday.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by Yup on 5/21/2022, 11:36 am, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

Fiesta tx has never been heralded as the best park experience, but yesterday was particularly bad.

Re: Fiesta Tejas

Posted by BDSO on 5/21/2022, 11:31 am, in reply to "Fiesta Tejas "

I think part of the issue is that theme parks (like just about every other business) are still understaffed. Remember, these jobs are usually held by college and older HS student who may not be out of school yet. We used to take our bands to Fiesta Texas every year the day before school was out. It wasn't' crowded and the kids were able to ride each ride several time. Then we got a new principal who said we could not go the day before the last day of school as we couldn't sacrifice instruction time (no joke, she expected us to continue with content even on the last day of school, which was a 1/2 day - and she did check). So we went on the Saturday before. That was the last time we went. Though there were no lines for food/drinks, the lines for the rides were incredibly long and the kids complained it wasn't any fun. That was 2019 and no student has asked about going. Plus, being local the kids all have passes and can go whenever they want during the summer without any restrictions on groups or how to dress.

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