After doing several trips to UOR and one giant trip to WDW, I’ve gotten to like the skip_the_idea. At least sometimes.
We have season passes to Six Flags over Texas. We don’t live close at all. But we literally drive by going to and from my parents house. I am pondering maybe one day buying the basic flash pass just to see what it is like. On the other hand, that might literally spoil us for going without.
They have made the prices vary by date and I assume crowd level. I looked at the Monday after Easter and the basic one was $60/pp. DD’s next Camp Grandparents is around Easter.
Since my quandary relates to an amusement park, I thought I’d ask for opinions here.
I think it comes down to your own perception of the value.
We had SF passes a few years recently when our son was going to a summer drum major camp near New England. The Flash add ons to the season passes were absolutely ginormous when I looked out of curiosity. While we paid something like $60 per season pass during a sale, the annual Flash pass add on was $150 for the 2nd tier pass! Yikes.
So, my annual pass cost for our family of 4 would increase from $240 to $840 - and I wouldn’t even be sure the extra cost would help on days I was there.
I only have experience with SF in New Jersey and New England - NE is a park where you have a much better chance of it being low to medium crowded and I can’t imagine ever buying a Flash Pass.
Sure, the few popular rides could get long on days where the crowd was a little higher, but if you rope drop or just time it in general they were manageable without shelling out a few hundred dollars.
New Jersey is a much more crowded park - I think over there on regular summer day or higher crowds you could make the argument for the Flash pass. If I knew Texas is a more crowded park (I’m guessing it is) and it is a holiday, it would get me closer to going for the Flash.
But, Back to the perception part: I personally just couldn’t ever shell out for SF park upgrades - that’s a lotta moola. I’d just look for less crowded days. I like SF for what they are, but usually the overall ambiance is lacking and throwing hundreds of dollars at them is too much of a money grab.
Full disclosure: as much of a Disney fan as I am - I’m also not of the mind to upgrade for much there either. Sure, I’ll splurge for a nicer dinner etc, but I can’t bring myself to pay a lot of money for a dessert party / fireworks spot, for example. I’d rather figure out a tactic that gives me a good chance of success and either save that money or use it to extend the trip.
So, after all of that: maybe I’m not the best person to ask.
Thank you for the insight. I have never been interested in the flash pass before. I think when they first introduced it the price was like $10 ride. That was just bat-poo-crazy.
One idea would be to only try when DH and I have an Adult Day. DD is a ride wimp. So I insist on one day a year when it is just DH and I and we run around and do everything DD won’t do. Which is everything exciting.
There is also the thought that any day in which the price is low enough for me to maybe stomach the price, it probably isn’t worthwhile at all.
On the other hand, I fell head-over-heels in love with the Texas Giant recently. Don’t know why but it wasn’t until my 5th ride that I fell in love. With a Flash Pass I could get back-to-back Texas Giant rides.
I use them every time but I do platinum. I really loathe standing in line. The platinum works great. You don’t wait except the last little part so if you want front row on a roller coaster you will still have like a 15 min wait otherwise 5 min tops.
And last time I went you could do it on your phone app so you didn’t have to waste time standing in the flashpass line at the park btw. I didn’t realize that at first and wasted a good 30 min before my unobservant self saw the QR code I could scan to do it from my phone.
I had prepurchased it. When you get there you used to have stand in line at the Flashpass Booth (wasting touring time) to get the little device that you use to book the passes with and tap in with. I stood in that line for like half an hour (it was sooooo long) before I noticed there was a QR code on a sign to set it up to work from your phone. You have to book what ride you want to ride next and then wait some designated time before you can get in the flashpass line (sort of like Genie+) and so scanning the QR code allowed me to use the Six Flags app to book and use the Flashpass lines insteead of the little thing that looks like an old school pager. It was a nice improvement. Just like Disney, as soon as you tap in you can book your next one…so with Platinum since you only have to wait 10% of the time…by the time you wait the 5-15 min to ride the roller coaster, your next one is usually good immediately. But even with the others, part of your next ride’s wait can be while you are waiting and riding the current one.
We also had an annual flash pass to the St. Louis Six Flags. We hated waiting in lines so it was worth it for us, but I didn’t like the way they set up the lane. Instead of having a dedicated line, most of the flash pass lanes just had to enter through the exit. So, depending on the lane you would often be swimming up stream as they let riders off. Also, as you are standing there waiting at the exit, the people who waited in line and were going to be next (until you took their spot) are glaring at you. My kids were so embarrassed. Not embarrassed enough to wait in 45 minute lines, though…
So I’m also in Texas like the OP and I am trying to remember if Dallas Six Flags is similar but I cannot remember so it must have not bothered me. I know there was always signage to where the flashpass line is and it’s not always near the main line. For the indoor roller coaster it might be the exit. It’s definitely around the side. That’s the only one I remember it was hard to find the flashpass line the first time around.
I always like to know how things turned out. So, I thought I’d tell you.
I never did get the one-day pass. That day didn’t end up working out for us. The weather is just now getting nice again for amusement parks in Texas, so my mind turned to Six Flags. Thinking of going Sunday and it opens late and the flash pass is $60. But, it is $199 to add it for the rest of the year and all next year. So, I’m going whole-hog and adding it to next year’s pass and that starts now.
They did have price increases, but I’m tolerant of that. They extended all the 2020 passes to the end of 2021 including the dining passes. 2022 was really cheap too.
More updates:
That was totally and completely awesome. The only problem is the one I worried about which is that we are now spoiled and probably will struggle to go without flash passes. So, I guess it is a good thing they were added to the season passes and good until 2024. They were $199 and Gold which meant 50% reduction. For us, when we actually had to wait seemed to come when we were due for a sit-down-and-relax so the waits were never a problem. The weather was also perfect.
A side benefit for us is that DD has made a major leap forward in willingness to try rides that she rejected as too scary before. Yeah! As someone that practically grew up at Six Flags Over Texas, this is huge. Where the flash pass helps is that a long line has been changing her willingness to try a ride back into a nope. Up until now we could only try a new ride in the first hour or so. She even rode the Texas Giant with me and she is willing to ride it again! Big drops are the thing she hasn’t liked. She originally said that she was going to just wait in line with us. I said, “That is fine. They even have a Chicken Coop where you can wait.” (It even occasionally makes chicken clucking noises) After we picked our little line, she asked why it always had such a long line. DH said because it is such an amazing ride. So she decided to ride.
We started with Pandemonium. This is one I could do without, but they love it and I want DD to say Yes to rides, so I need to too. They didn’t have the FP entrance open, so we used the single rider line next to it. I showed that we had the FP and we rode together.
Then I got a FP to the Riddler, and that was the only time a FP wasn’t needed at all. Then we tried the Freeze. DD bailed on that one. That is one that we had to use the exit. DH kept saying that we were wrong. Then we wandered for food. DD wanted Nachos. We had to wander all the way to the Texas area because the other nacho area was closed. DH got a Phili. Cheesesteak which made him very happy. I got Bacon Ranch Fries, and that counted as a snack, not a meal. We have the dining plan too.
We also loved the bobsled ride. Normally we don’t ride it because the line is so long.
Not embarrassed enough to wait in 45 minute lines, though…