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Here are some things that you may or may not know about theme parks that will make you either want to wait until a down season to go or avoid theme parks altogether.

The truth is, you are going to spend the most amount of time at the park in line, especially during the busiest times of the year. I know from experience when going to any of the Six Flags across the country, if we weren’t at the park by noon, and then there was never really a reason to go. The pools were crowded and the lines were awful; when it’s well over 90 in Texas, Georgia, or Missouri, it can be pretty unbearable.

You aren’t going to save any money by staying at the park. I read this and thought, true, but there are perks to staying at hotels that may be affiliated with the park. For example, I was able to book a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia that was $90 a night and it gave us two free tickets to Six Flags. Considering that a park ticket was $40 at the time, this was a pretty good deal. Now, if you’re trying to go to Disney World, then staying at the park isn’t going to save you any money and finding a hotel that will is going to be difficult.

Seasonal workers are young, some are really young, and are operating the rides! Seasonal workers tend to be the kids who are looking for summer work through high school or college students on vacation and there are no federal laws that require ride operators at theme parks to go through any training process. There are a few states that have laws pertaining to safety and training, but there really isn’t any consistency between parks regarding training employees.

Safety regulations are nonexistent in most states. While there are some states that offer safety regulations regarding theme parks, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alabama, and Kansas don’t regulate theme park rides. Mississippi and Washington D.C. don’t regulate permanent rides, but do regulate traveling fairs. Florida and Pennsylvania get gold stars in this category as the exception rather than the rule; they both have full time inspectors on staff to check rides for safety. California jumped on board the regulation train, but only after a high school student was killed on a waterslide following lax safety.

This also leads to shoddy maintenance of the rides. Here’s just something to think about: The reports of accidents at parks are reported by the parks themselves, meaning that they have everything to gain by underreporting.

These are just a few of the reasons to perhaps not visit that theme park this summer. Then again, there are plenty of things that “aren’t safe” too… Even going to the beach is dangerous.

Jeremy

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