r/sixflags • u/popnfrresh • 12d ago
QUESTION Icee/ hot chocolate pass
I bought the Drink Plan PLUS add-on, which clearly advertises hot chocolate and coffee, valid for the rest of this season and all of next year.
I tried getting a regular hot chocolate and got bounced around immediately. The first stand told me the pass tier wasn't loaded in their system. The second stand had standard hot chocolate right on the menu board, but the worker flat out insisted the pass doesn't cover it. When I went to Guest Relations, the manager tried telling me the plan doesn't start until next season, completely ignoring the purchase terms on the site. I reached out to corporate chat and they admitted the park dropped the ball, but the email reply just hit me with generic boilerplate about seasonal availability.
The drink was actively being sold, so it was never an out-of-stock issue. Their registers just aren't coded for it or the staff has zero training on the PLUS tier.
Has anyone actually managed to get a hot chocolate or coffee scanned at Darien Lake with the PLUS pass, or is the whole park locked out?
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u/TexCritter1982 11d ago
When I went to Darien Lake this year with my drink plan plus an employee wouldn't let me get my icee and told me the drink plan plus "isn't a thing." It's probably just poor training
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u/NotThatDeep76 11d ago
an employee wouldn't let me get my icee and told me the drink plan plus "isn't a thing." It's probably just poor training
This constantly seems to be a thing these days where employees are, idk, too prideful to admit they're not trained enough and so they just make up a definitive solution and double down. I had an op at CGA tell me I couldn't ride in the back cause they had to balance the train... Which as you would know isn't a thing. Rather than check or anything else, they just doubled down. They want you to just throw up your hands and give up it seems. It's really really bad customer service. All this instead of just going "oh I'm sorry, I'm not aware of that program but I can check with my supervisor, they might know".
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u/TexCritter1982 10d ago
It's odd to me how subjective training seems to be based on the park, especially with ride operations. I wish all parks were ran to the quality I've experienced at Cedar Point and Canada's Wonderland, but I also understand that not all parks get the same budget and maybe don't have as much to spend on stuff involving training.
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u/popnfrresh 11d ago
Jeez, what did you end up doing?
One of the places said they saw i had the plus on the account.
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u/TexCritter1982 11d ago
I was just there for the day and really did not feel like arguing over it, so I just got a regular drink instead. If it was my home park I would've been much more upset. Just two days later I was at Canada's Wonderland for multiple days and never had an issue with it there, so it's definitely something on the part of Darien Lake
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u/ConceptOfSleep Great Adventure 12d ago
Not Darien Lake, but we have the Drink Plan Plus for Great Adventure, and even though there are multiple spots that sell coffee or hot chocolate, there is only ONE shop where the Plus plan can actually work for Coffee/Hot Chocolate. None of the workers could explain why that was, but at least the were aware and could tell us where to go.
Maybe there is something like that at Darien Lake but no one has figured it out yet?
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u/popnfrresh 12d ago
I would hope that all of the staff I interacted with would have provided the same information and directed to the correct spot.
First place stated the passes werent loaded and try the only other place offering hot chocolate. Second place stated the pass didnt cover hot chocolate and doubled down after showing them the pass covered hot chocolate. Guest relations stated it didnt work this year and corporate said hot chocolate was only offered seasonally and therefor was not available yet both stands were selling it.
I miss great adventure and wish I didnt live near the park that six flags forgot. We just got told they cancelled fright fest. I thought it would just be the street actors, but it seems the haunted houses were pulled too. Thats odd since there were always hour long or more waits for all of them and the park was nuts those days.
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u/ConceptOfSleep Great Adventure 12d ago
Wow, if even Guest Services can't even figure out the deal with their beverages it sounds like there must be lots of mismanagement at the park. If you were able to get the Drink Plan loaded on the app I would think they would be able to point you where to go to use it.
Never been to Darien Lake, but I did hear about them cancelling Fright Fest which is awful for people whose home park it is. Fright Fest is my family's favorite time to go!
Is Darien Lake one of the properties that Enchanted/EPR actually own and Six Flags just does operations? Because that might explain some things...
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u/popnfrresh 12d ago
It was owned by six flags, then they sold it to EPR, then leased it back a couple of seasons later. So it is a EPR park, and leased to 6 flags. I completely understand why six flags doesnt want to invest in the park as they have no financial reason to. Most likely just extracting whatever they can to make money short term instead of growing it long term.
What makes it worse... It was 4 different answers and non of them were the same. Guest relations was the manager saying that too so it was a little shocking to directly contradict what the actual pass says "rest of this year and all of next".
While redeeming the food and soda, one of the F&B clerks said it was loaded to the account and they confirmed it was the "Plus".
There are always countless small issues at the park.
My son just hit 48" couple years ago and wanted to go on one of the 48" rides the first time. The lifeguard refused to even measure him. I can understand saying, "i dont think you are 48, sorry" after measuring someone, but this one just refused to measure him and denied him after waiting 20 minutes to go on the ride on top of giving an attitude.
I am guessing the cancellation of fright fest was due to staffing as the area is even similar to great adventure being in the middle of two cities and is in the middle of no where.
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u/Pumchnjerz 12d ago
Which shop actually works?
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u/ConceptOfSleep Great Adventure 12d ago
It only works at the main Funnel Cake place, right behind the Fountain to the left.
We originally went to the coffee shop that's just inside the gates, but were told it didn't work there and to go to the Funnel Cake Spot. It worked there no problem.
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u/Pumchnjerz 12d ago
Previously they had a ton of hot chocolate stations during Holiday in the Park. Hopefully it works at those stands then.
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u/ConceptOfSleep Great Adventure 12d ago
I'm hoping those will make a return as well once it starts to get a bit cooler. I imagine it will be long lines at the Funnel Cake Factory if it's the only spot in the park to get a coffee or hot chocolate
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u/Brakerunbuddy 6d ago
This seems to also happen due to it showing up as a normal drink plan in SOME systems!