Six Flags Darien Lake — Attraction in Town of Darien

This is an updated review based off of an August, 31 2025 visit. Been a 5 star season in my opinion until Oktoberfest. We came here specifically for Oktoberfest. Sadly, we were let down due to the new management ruining the Oktoberfest we experienced the 2 previous years. The Octoberfest lanyard is no longer available, so you have to pay full price for everything. We loved being able to get the 6 item pass for $50. We have been doing this at other Six Flag parks since this began around 5 years ago. Probably won’t travel for it anymore. Also, the Oktoberfest mugs are no longer refillable due to “contamination”. Can still use six flags refillable beer and soda cups all over. So, it is now $12 for a 10oz plastic cup or $17 for a 20oz take home cup, which is the same cup as last year and non refillable. We were so frustrated by the change that we didn’t check out any of the food, buy merch, or play any games. Kind of feels like Six Flags is now is the get to bankruptcy fastest by making customers keep their money. We spent no money in the park, and would have spent over $100 between the 3 of us. Also, I rented a cabin for Blink 182 in 2 weeks and did 3 days, so we could each buy another lanyard, and spend a whole day enjoying the Oktoberfest festivities without worrying about driving. We will now spend $0 in the park, and just do all our free membership stuff.

2024 update: so we had our 9th visit to Darien Lake this season on Sunday. We’re legacy diamond members. I’d like to say this years staff are the best we’ve ever seen at a theme park from concessions to ride attendants customer service is some of the best I’ve seen. These days anywhere you go it’s hard to find a worker who cares. From helping with a food order to buckling a seat belt on a ride the workers go above and beyond.

Also, Brews and Bites is amazing. Love how for $45 you can get 6 beers and/or food items. Best deal you’ll find at a theme park!

August 26th update: if you’re allergic to bees you may want to consider not going here atm. Darien has always had a yellow jacket and wasp issues the last month or so being open. This is the worse I’ve seen it. Yellow jackets are around you from leaving your car to going back to it. Also, when we ate we had at least 6-20 yellow jackets flying on our food, hands and faces the whole time. Every table was like this at least in the Oktoberfest area.

Oktoberfest has tons of potential, and just hoping the first day was just a let down. They only had 4 of like 10 beers tapped. We were able to try an Oktoberfest beer we never had and love the mug, but since there was signs for another beer we wanted it was a let down we couldn’t purchase it due to “tap lines” not being ready. My nephews brautworst he said was amazing. However, he waited a half hour for it cause the workers let 2 entitled families jump in front of him to get their food when he had paid first and had been waiting 10 minutes before they even got there. Also, I got the brisket poutine. It was ice cold, and brisket was long strips that was impossible to cut and eat with the ice cold gravy and cold non melted cheese. Outside of that the theming, music, and games were really cool. Probably go back in a few weeks to see if it was just a really bad first day opening in regards to food and alcohol. Also, the T-shirt merchandise is awesome, and you can use your membership discount. Food you can’t.

Viva La Fiesta update. If you’re going for a festive feel Darien failed here. At first they had festive Latino music on, which was cool like all the other Six Flag parks. All of a sudden a country band took the stage though, and began singing depressing country music. Would have been cool to see a more cultural appropriate and festive band that fit the festival. Kind of confused by the country...

Let me start with the good before I get to my complaints- The kids had fun. Last time I was here I was a kid and had a great experience and I wanted them to have that too. That said, the experience sure comes at a price.

This park is expensive. From before you even step foot inside, you're charged $30 to park a car. The parking lot isn't anything special, there's no employees out there directing traffic. Darien Lake is in the middle of nowhere, how else are 99% of the people getting here? Hot dog and fries with a cup of water cost $17. No not bottled water, a paper cup with ice water- $5.50. Two bottles of water $8 (dasani). There's water fountains though some of them aren't cold. Looked like $16 for one beer. $12 per tube rental. Also be aware this is a cashless park- no where inside to they accept paper currency. Can't take a cell phone pic of the on ride photo- that's a no no! gotta buy them. Walking past the carnival games and employees are trying to hawk games on us. I'm sorry, this isn't coney Island or some nyc street, wish you wouldn't yell and and try to entice the kids to play the money games. At first I was like whatever, but It happened enough times it made me wonder if they get some sort of commission when they get people to play the games.

Mind Eraser is closed for the summer. The Predator wasn't working at all that day. Ride of steel was down until early-mid afternoon. Not necessarily a bad thing but there are no employees directing guests once you get inside the que. Kinda just line up and go wherever you want. I could be wrong about this, but it seems most of if not all of the coasters had only one train running which increases the wait times. Can't take bags on the ride, which I get, but you can't even take them in the ride que and leave them at the exit (ride of steel) they must be left at the lockers near the bathroom outside of the ride entrance and either pay for a locker or pray and hope nobody steals your stuff.

Got the kids the meal plan- recommend everyone does this if you're going- though there was a point we stopped for drinks outside the viper and all the soft drinks except mt dew were empty. We were made aware of this because the employee working there informed us which begs the question- why not refil it? keep an eye on the bags and when the get low, replace it. No more soft drink syrup? Then let your manager know and have another one sent from somewhere else in the park. Another thing ( conspiracy time) I noticed was that it was a ton of kids working the park of different ethnicities and many of them seemed like English wasn't their first language. That's not a problem at all, but then I think of all the nickel and dimming in the park and makes me think they exploit cheap young labor from other countries on work visas.

There's also a few spots in the park that look abandoned and condemned. The batting cages for example, and another wooden structure right next to the walking path that looks decrypted that leads to an overgrown path way. Straight up abandoned and forgotten about.

All in all the kids had fun but that's because they are kids in an amusement park but this just seemed like a greedy money grab to me. Almost everything done is to maximize profits and get as much from your wallet...

We get season passes every year. The prices of everything in this place are ridiculous yet we continue to go and spend money here. Last weekend I dropped my AirPods in the parking lot on our way in and didn’t realize it, by the time we left it was dark and someone had parked so close to our car I could barely squeeze myself (I’m not a very large person either) or my bag into my car. So I did not see my AirPods in the ground near my car. I immediately noticed they were missing when I got home because I went to charge them for the night as usual, so I went to find my devices on my phone and seen that they were in our parking spot at Darien Lake. I started a Lost Item case on their website, with exact details of what happened, where they were, and that I could see them and was tracking them. Meanwhile, I reported them lost on my phone and selected to be notified when found (meaning if someone opened the case I would be notified that they had been seen). The next morning, I got a notification that they had been seen at Darien Lake and I proceeded to watch them move through the park. I tried calling Darien Lake, to no avail. There is NO WAY to call and talk to anyone there. So I made a second report. Then later a third report. Then I made a report with the main headquarters, all the while being notified over and over that my AirPods have been seen and found. Again, that means they are being opened and closed. Finally, the next day I received an email from Darien Lake stating that nothing that matches the description of my missing item has been reported or found. Okay. That’s great. I can still see them. They are still there. So I make another report telling them that someone there is in possession of them and I can still see them and am tracking them. This park is ridiculous. For what they charge for everything there, you would ALMOST THINK they could afford to pay someone to ANSWER PHONE CALLS.

UPDATE: After driving back over to the park, a very kind security guard drove my daughter and I into the parking lot before the park was opened, to look around for AirPods which were still showing up in the park. They were nowhere to be found. He said they could possibly be in the lost and found building but that did not open until later and the woman who worked in there would call me when she came in. He took down all my information, another description of exactly what I lost there , I explained in detail again (exactly the same as all the reports I’d left online). When the woman from lost and found finally called me, 30 minutes after I expected, she was very rude and told me that yes, she had AirPods there, NOT in a purple silicone case and more than likely that meant they were not mine. To make a very long story short, I went in, played the “play a sound” button from the Find My in the app on my iPhone - obviously they were mine. “Someone” had taken them out of my EXTREMELY tight silicone case and was more than likely hoping they could not be claimed so that they would be left here at lost and found and able to be claimed themselves.

Kudos to the security guard for your help. Shame on the lost and found staff. Thank you Apple for making it hard for others to just steal our very...