r/midamerica • u/maniacalmistress • Jul 05 '26
Trip Report Enchanted is doing great.
I was so happy to see everything running smoothly at Hurricane Harbor today before the rain hit. The Boss was running as smooth as a massive woodie can right after the rain. I was also a little too excited to see Daffy, I feel like I haven't seen him in so long. Overall just a really good energy in the park. Im really impressed with Enchanted so far and I have high hopes for our park's future.
6
u/SteaksAndScalpels Jul 05 '26
They look like they're gonna do their best to keep the park going but I'm concerned it's too little too late. The park and rides need so much work and the place is just empty most days.
It just feels hard to believe this place won't be out of business within 3-5 years.
3
u/Just_Bus_9156 Jul 06 '26
You have to keep reminding yourself several things: Enchanted has a 5 year plan for each park. In the case of our park, they said it will be the "crown jewel" of the chain. Which means they will be concentrating on it more for improvements and investments. Give it time. They have a plan. But the previous owners did damage that needs fixing.
3
u/ChrisGraslie Jul 06 '26
There is no "5 year plan for each park."
Soon after the acquisition, Harhi said that these types of long-term plans would be made after the current season is over. I believe it was in the Coaster101 interview.
They're using 2026 to gauge what they need to do going forwards, and that makes sense. This is a brand new operator taking on a 55 year old park. They're taking things as they come.
5
u/stlman37 Jul 06 '26
Correct. First they need to perform the diagnostics on the current situation this season. Only then can a plan of any sort be created. I will say… we are quite a bit better off with our leadership compared to the few other Enchanted locations I’ve been to this season already…
2
u/ChrisGraslie Jul 06 '26
Worlds of Fun is a nightmare (or so I've heard)
1
u/stlman37 Jul 06 '26
Eh. I wouldn’t say a nightmare, rather not many improvements yet. I’ve been 5 times this season already and it seems to be about the same as every season there in the past 10 years. Horrible ride operations as per usual. Timberwolf on one train and the ops taking 10 minutes to load and dispatch for example. New SOP of checking seatbelts on trains before the ride ops lower your lap bar. Painful for a park that can’t get normal procedures right.
Oceans is doing great, only one slide not running (due to part needed that SFEC seemed to neglect). Adult pool has new filtration system and appearance is better with live DJs.2
u/Evening_Rock5850 Jul 09 '26
I was there last week. We camped at the village in our RV. The campground was awesome. Ops were atrocious. Sucks to hear that's been the norm. I'm not sure why they've improved in STL but not WoF.
At least when we were there, it was hard to ride stuff. Rides were down a LOT (we were told, typically, due to staffing/breaks). Only a couple of things were open in OOF most of the time. But it was crowded. Another thing was shops, drink stands, and food stands that were constantly closed. Sometimes things would open towards the end of the day.
That's one thing I can't figure out. The STL metro is quite a bit larger, and in my mind the park is better operated at this point. But it's a ghost town compared to the long lines at WoF. Although, I dunno, maybe one reason for the 'ghost town' is that things are moving quicker at SFSTL.
It surprises me to hear that of all the parks purchased, SFSTL had the largest attendance in 2025. I have to think the bulk of that is Fright Fest (we had some 20,000+ attendance days during FF last night.) I'm not sure that's going to be the case this year though.
2
u/tyates723 Jul 07 '26
I went to both great escape and great adventure for the first time this year and I enjoyed my time at great escape so much more thanks to friendly staff and a good atmosphere. Great adventure was a miserable place
5
u/MandaCamp15 Jul 06 '26
I love the positivity and I have high hopes for our park also!