Lagoon Review | How a Monopoly Negatively Affects the Guest Experience | Utah's Only Theme Park

Lagoon is a 95 acre amusement park located about 20 minutes north of Salt Lake City Utah in Farmington they claim to be the world's largest family-owned amusement park and they've been operating since 1886 so almost 140 years that makes him one of the oldest in the US the park sits conveniently right off of Interstate 15 and has this beautiful mountain backdrop they're home to 11 roller coasters a water park and a variety of family attractions I've been visi Lagoon for years and have really gotten a good feel for the place and so in this video I'm going to dive into the good the bad what could be better as well as tips for improving your day now I want to start off by saying that lagona has a very Lively atmosphere and a lot of personality in one Park it's really a blend between old and new so you have a lot of Classics that have been around for a long time and also state-of-the-art Thrills so as a result this is an excellent place for the whole family to visit but because everyone in Utah knows that this part can get very crowded and it's certainly doesn't help that Lagoon has no competition you won't find another amusement park for another 6 hours so if you want to go to a theme park and ride roller coasters in Utah this is your only option and that has major repercussions on the park as well as the guest experience and I'm really going to get into that in this video because whether you're a one-time visitor or a season passholder you are affected by this and let's look no further than exhibit a pricing Lagoon is extremely overpriced for what they offer a one-day ticket is about $100 for reference if you wanted to visit Cedar Point which is consistently voted the park with the best roller coasters on the planet you can get for half the price 50 bucks the difference is Cedar Point has competition locals have other options to choose from if they didn't want to go to Cedar Point so they've completely cornered the Utah Valley because there's nowhere else for people to really go if you ask the average Utah what amusement parks they've been to they'll tell you Lagoon and Disneyland not Glenwood Caverns which is technically the closest some mus park to here or maybe the ones in Vegas so therefore Lagoon can get away with charging Disney prices so you've acquired your ticket to come to Lagoon as you're driving up you're going to get a beautiful Skyline View of the park see all the roller coasters off in the distance the park has a very elongated layout stretching from north to south with the parking lot running right up against it so you can pretty much see everything out in front of you the front entrance is right in the middle so once you walk in you can go left or right but before you do that as you're walking up to the front gate one of the first things you're going to notice is that there there is no security here this is one of the few parks in the US left without security booths no metal detectors no unchecking your bags nothing you can bring whatever you want into Lagoon that includes your own food your own alcohol which sure that definitely has its advantages I mean it's certainly not cheap once you're inside the park so I see the plus with that but also in today's world that's kind of a freaky thought that they don't have even some form of security and honestly I imagine that's going to change at some point once you scan your ticket you're going to get a hand stamp now this is a little confusing because to the average guest there should be no reason that you're getting a hand stamp once you scan your ticket you're good to go you can ride anything you want however at one point in time Lagoon used to offer a ticket that would get you just admission into the park and then you could pay per ride now they don't offer that ticket anymore it's not something you can just buy on their website but every once in a while for groups they'll hand out these vouchers that get you free admission and then you would buy tickets to get into any of the rides it's about a dollar a ticket which can really add up cuz for some attractions you're paying $10 to ride so it wouldn't really be worth it anyways unless you're just planning on riding one or two things but in case they given that voucher that's why they hand stamp you so that every time you enter a line there'll be a greeter there that has to see your hand stamp so that you can just walk on in the one downside is if your hand stamp wears off you're screwed now I really like this entry experience for Lagoon all the flowers in the center the splash pad you see the sky ride going off in the distance that's an amazing Sky Ride great views all around I mentioned the mountains earlier Lagoon is situated in a Valley so it's completely on flat ground you don't have any uphill walking there's no use of terrain with any of the attractions and one of the things I immediately love about Lagoon is how many trees are here for Utah trees are nowhere near as abundant as other states but at times Lagoon feels very wooded it really helps with the atmosphere so let's dive into some of the rides of course starting with the roller coasters to left is their largest in signature attraction cannibal it makes a great first impression with its view when you arrive ironically though the most scenic side of cannibal is out of guest view it's what faces the employee parking lot very bizarre cuz most guests have never seen it but it's got a very imposing first drop one of the steepest on the planet there's already a full separate review of cannibal on this channel definitely go check it out if you want to hear about that ride specifically if you're going to ride any coaster at Lagoon this is the one to do it's smooth it's comfortable lap bars only and it's certainly intimidating primordial is their newest ride it's an interactive family coaster very low height requirement almost completely indoors inside this massive Mountain there's also a full separate review of this one that goes way more in depth to that ride experience but since it's so new that is going to have the longest line in the park so if you get here right at open and primordial is operating definitely go there first this thing can get a huge weight I've heard of some people standing in line for up to 4 hours for this thing that line stretches all the way through the park which ironically is not just because of how long the wait is as you're walking around Lagoon you'll see that almost every attraction has its line spilling out onto the Midway that is one of the biggest quirks of Lagoon they don't have q space so the park feels more crowded than it is because all the guests are pretty much forced onto the Midway as someone that has visited a lot of amusement parks I can confidently say Lagoon is pretty much the only Park that I have ever seen that is like this and it is beyond frustrating it seems like such a simple concept to build your attraction with some sort of Q house so you can accommodate a line and they just said nope we like how full the park feels with all the guests standing around how confusing it sometimes feels when two lines cross each other or bump up alongside each other how awful it is to navigate the midways because you have some people standing in a line you don't know what that line is for it's just confusing but leadership at Lagoon for some reason likes that and they haven't really done much to fix it but that's definitely one of my biggest problems with Lagoon but talking about some of their other attractions Colossus the Fire Dragon is an excellent schwarzkoff Looper definitely a favorite of mine Wicked is also right next door it's a zero Tower coaster with a vertical launch the only vertical launch in the US super unique has a great first half and a lackluster second half but that's pretty much it as far as the thrill coasters go there's definitely a lot more family coasters here so you have spider next door which is a Mau spinning coaster actually pretty underrated ride this thing can really get going if you sit in this car off balance so you have like two Riders on one side and no Riders on the other if you hit this one turn just right you will just keep spinning but it can be a hit or miss sometimes it can be really lackluster their wooden roller coaster named roller coaster sits in the center of the park it's one of the first rides you see as you're pulling up this is really the only airtime Centric experience in the park it's also one of the oldest roller coasters in the world but it's really well taken care of Lagoon did a big renovation to it a couple years ago they added a bunch of history in the station gave the ride Millennium flyers from GCI I highly recommend sitting towards the back because as your pull down over these drops you'll just get yanked it's really fun but it definitely feels its age if I could add any roller coaster to Lagoon it would be a modern wind roller coaster from GCI or the gravity group because Lagoon is the only amusic Park in Utah a lot of guests think that all wooden roller coasters are like the white roller coaster as they call it because it used to be white but that's just not accurate wooden roller coasters have gotten so extreme since then I think that that nice big smooth twister coaster would just do wonders here the problem problem is it seems like Lagoon is not interested in working with mainstream ride manufacturers anymore they like doing everything themselves their past coasters primordial Cannibal and bombora a little family coaster with onboard audio which is cool we all done in house that's another big Quirk of this park they're almost staying like outside of the amusement industry not really getting involved with other companies they're like we're just going to do it ourselves but they overall do have a nice coaster lineup and Stellar operations Lagoon has some of the best dispatches and operational teams in the United States they are extremely fast so even though the lines here might look long they move which is why I think these lines can really be deceiving cannibal always has a line spilling out the entrance that makes it look like it's a 2hour wait when retrospect it might be 20 minutes some coasters do offer single Rider lines such as Cannibal and wicked you have to look for them though they're not always labeled super well be prepared though if you are a single Rider you will not be allowed to sit in the back row of any vehicle by your I'm not 100% sure what Lagoon's reasoning for it is but I know a couple other Parks also have this policy and it's because they want to have two witnesses to see the entire train out in front of them in case something were to happen my thought is that because Lagoon is family-owned I imagine that they don't get the same insurance coverage that is offered to Big corporate Parks which means that they have to be particular about certain things I personally don't like it like if you are a single Rider you can't even ride jet star 2 the C belts on that attraction are designed to hold two or three riders in tandem so it wouldn't properly secure you so like the first time that I went to Lagoon I wasn't able to ride jet star 2 so if you come here by yourself be prepared for that some of the coasters also assign rows you can always request a specific row but it doesn't mean that you'll get it it just depends on who's operating which brings me to staff because this was actually pretty interesting I was surprised in walking around Lagoon that most of the employees here are high schoolers you can start working as at Lagoon as young as 14 if you want to be a riot operator though you have to be 16 Utah in general has lighter child labor laws than most States so like I know at other Parks you have to be 18 to operate an attraction and 16 to work their period but Lagoon is different that's why their park operating hours are so based around the school schedule their hours get significantly longer because if it's a school night their employees aren't allowed to work past 930 it's just an interesting setup very different than what you see at most theme parks in the United States but I want to move on from roller coasters and talk about some of their flat rides and dark rides over by cannibal you have a nice lineup you have a paratrooper always nice to see one of those around Samurai is a hus top scan one of the few left in the country they have a great Ferris wheel that just gives huge views of the park and you can spin your Gondola it's got like a turntable in the center which is a lot of fun you also have a huge SNS triple Tower called Rocket there's two sides to this blast off and re-entry so one shoots you up and one thrusts you down definitely rewriteable behind that tucked away is a set of flying scooters really underrated attraction they remind me of the ones that you have at canoby they are just absolutely insane you can really get these things going on the other side of the park Cliffhanger is a large mondile Top Spin that's also a water ride you can get soaked on that thing and then in the back of the park you have a water ride called rattlesnake Rapids it's really tucked away so you'll probably miss it if you don't know that it's there they also used to have a log flume back there but they recently took it out so I imagine that they'll probably add a new one at some point in the future that whole back section of the park is really interesting it's called Pioneer Village you have to enter it past their kitty land on this narrow pathway that goes up against the train tracks you actually go around the Lagoon that Lagoon is named after you have this old Western street with a bunch of shops on either side some of those shops sell items or food but others are like mini museums so there's like a furniture shop a low model train museum like staes and carriages you can spend a lot of time just walking around back there exploring but it also be very very easy to miss like I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of visitors to Lagoon have no idea that stuff is there but if anything that makes it very easy to repeat visits a lagoon like even though I don't have any kids I enjoyed walking around their kitty land there's so much for children to do here plenty of rides designed for kids that even adults aren't able to get on they're too small I mentioned they had dark rides they have two Classics both of them up front Dracula's castle and Terror ride teror ride is definitely the better between the two they did a bunch of renovations to it a few years ago though it's definitely a short ride experience so try to do both if you can but they both can get long lines they are not high capacity attractions but it's exactly what you'd expect from an old timey Dark Ride full of charm and some fun scenes and maybe even a couple scares here and there I won't really get into talking about the water park though funny enough throughout all my years of visiting Lagoon I've never been inside lagona Beach water parks were never really my thing and this one seemed definitely on the smaller side let's talk about food though because this is actually kind of a fun one they have several original locations throughout the park but there's also so two different Arby's there's a Subway my favorite place to eat in Lagoon is their beer garden this place is incredible it's so well themed it's patterned after like a German Village the quality of the food is just so high everything they sell is amazing it also happens to be the only place in the park that serves alcohol but you do have to consume it in that area something I'd love to see in the future is some sort of meal plan for the park like a lot of locations in the Cedar Fair Six Flags chain offer dining plans I think that'd be a great add-on to your season pass as of right now their season pass system is pretty terrible like one it's obviously super expensive but there's no benefits you don't get any discounts inside the park as a passholder like even parking is an extra add-on like the season pass you get is literally just for admission throughout the season even big corporate entities like Disney have benefits to their passes and I just don't understand why Lagoon hasn't jumped on that I think at the end of the day it goes back to what I talked about at the beginning that they're Monopoly they're the only Amusement Park in Utah they can get away with whatever they want and so for that reason I feel like guest service is not a priority at Lagoon they have a huge customer base with no competition there's nowhere else to go their Market is so exclusive that they feel like they don't need to go above and beyond so like if you're visiting Lagoon and you have a problem during your day the park doesn't really have any incentive to fix it for instance one of my biggest complaints that I have at Lagoon is that they need more lockers rides like cannibal roller coaster fire dragon and wicked require Lockers in order for you to ride you can't can't bring your loose items with you on the platform however they only have a couple lockers at the entrance and so they're always sold out now these are free to use although they're not really free they're just worked into the price of admission which actually I really like I wish other Parks did that but half the time when I'm walking up to fire dragon or Wicked there's no lockers available so instead I have to go to roller coaster use one of their lockers and then walk all the way back to fire dragon or Wicked the only one that has plenty of lockers is cannibal or probably primordial since it's so new so my advice for you as a guest visiting Lagoon is if you're going to do multiple rides back to back put your items in one locker and then just keep them there until you finished the rides in that corner of the park cuz there's a good chance if you pull your items out and then go to the next ride there won't be any available another thing I've always thought was a weak spot with Lagoon is their Halloween event frightmares compared to any other Halloween event at a theme park this one is really underwhelming but again it doesn't matter because the average person in Utah is not visiting other Theme Park Halloween events sure the event might be more family oriented like there's certainly plenty of pumpkins everywhere it's a festive atmosphere but then when you get to their haunted houses they are not that great it feels like at times they're trying to be scary but they're just epically failing if you're looking for a good haunt in Utah I recommend Fear Factory in Salt Lake City that's definitely the best in town also beware the crowds and fright mares it gets way too busy which is also why I think that lagon doesn't have any incentive to fix up that event because they already just get get way too many people there so if it ain't broke don't fix it the last big critique I have before we close things out they have a train that takes you around the Lagoon on the south side of the park and while you're on it you will go past some animals in cages and they are the tiniest cages ever there's a variety of animals in them such as tigers and Kangaroos and their habitats are just way too small and it's just a very weird setup because these animals are not in guest view unless you're riding the train so the average visitor has no idea that the animals are here and the reality is you don't need animals in order for people to want to ride the train you could still keep the Train move the animals to a Better Home and Lagoon would not be affected there's no reason for him being here Lagoon is not an animal park and I've just never been a fan of that if I were in charge that would be the first thing to go so kind of a sour note to end things on but that being said I mean I I do really like this park I know I mentioned a lot of criticisms but I do think they do a lot of things well I just happen to disagree agree on how it's run but honestly it's entirely possible that we might be seeing some changes in the future the freed family owns the park and the Father Figure Dave freed passed away last year and so the next generation of Freeds is officially in charge of the park so I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing some changes in the future I hope that that comes in the form of more lockers a better line containment system a better Season Pass Program more of an emphasis on the guest experience and more of a push to just do better because for longest time it seemed like the people Lagoon were just content with how things were and there was no drive to get better which just not how the mentality should be when you run a theme park I think of a place like Six Flags Fiesta Texas that just has wonderful leadership that has really elevated that Park to the next level never satisfied with how things are constantly trying to improve for the future if Lagoon had that mentality this park would be a heck of a lot better but I want to hear from you guys down in the comments below what you think of Lagoon in Farmington Utah if you agree with the points I brought up if you you think there's anything I missed if you're new to the Channel please check out the park reviews playlist we've reviewed tons of parks around the world they're all available in alphabetical order by the park name go check it out thank you so much for joining me and I'll see you next [Music] [Music] time he

Channel: Coaster Studios

Views: 281,107

Keywords: lagoon utah, lagoon park utah, lagoon roller coasters, lagoon rides, lagoon roller coaster, lagoon review, lagoon cannibal, lagoon wicked, lagoon wooden roller coaster, lagoon spider, lagoon colossus the fire dragon, lagoon farmington utah

Id: XbZ66Pu9fKM

Length: 18min 29sec (1109 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 03 2024