Enchanted Parks is placing digital transformation at the centre of its strategy as it takes over operations of six former Six Flags parks. To achieve this, the company has selected WhiteWater’s Vantage platform as its visitor engagement and technology unification solution.
The rollout across eight US parks represents one of the most ambitious guest technology integrations in the attractions industry, connecting ticketing, payments, loyalty, food and beverage, retail, access control and mobile engagement into a single ecosystem centred around the guest.
blooloop speaks to Enchanted Parks founder and CEO James Harhi and Vantage senior vice president Aaron Mendelson about providing a frictionless, personalised and data-driven experience by linking every touchpoint of the visitor journey.
Vantage senior vice president Aaron Mendelson and Enchanted Parks founder and CEO James Harhi
“Our goal is to make the visitor experience as seamless as possible. Every corporation says that, but our goal is to actually deliver it,” says Harhi.
Mendelson adds: “Every venue uses ticketing, lockers, point of sale systems, and photo and payment systems, and they all do what they do really well in their own right. What Vantage does is bridge them all together as the central nervous system. It allows data to flow back and forth through various systems.”
“What's important on the Vantage platform is that it's always about a person – a guest in the middle. The ticketing system is about a ticket; lockers sell lockers. What Vantage does is maintain the understanding of the guest and how the guest relates to all of those systems.”
Harhi says: “And from our side, we want to understand more about our consumer: what they are actually doing in the parks, how long they are staying, what they are procuring, and what entitlements we see high redemption rates on. If people don’t redeem things, we can mix it up next year and provide different parts that might be more appealing to the guests.
“Those are the types of things that we’ll be able to work with Vantage on to curate the guest experience. We want lifelong customers, not people who walk out of the park and feel like they couldn’t afford it. I want them to come back and say, ‘This is my number one family value entertainment offering’. That’s what we want Enchanted Parks to be.”
Vantage and Enchanted Parks are providing a frictionless, personalised and data-driven visitor experience
On the long-standing partnership between Vantage and Enchanted Parks, Harhi says:
“I have a history with Vantage going back to 2019. We were one of their first clients with the Island H2O Water Park when they first introduced the platform. Now that their product and our product have matured, we’re able to work together to bring it to the next level. That’s our goal. We’ve had a good working relationship with their team and their ownership.”
The two organisations have “a very aligned vision of the technology of a theme park, so that's why we've always worked together very well”, he says.
Technology at Enchanted Parks
What’s unique about Enchanted Parks is its innovative approach to technology, with Harhi and the team deciding to build a comprehensive, future-ready technology stack from the outset rather than retrofitting systems later, Mendelson says:
“Guests are increasingly becoming accustomed to and expecting this kind of digital overlay, and that’s something that Enchanted Parks sees. It’s probably fair to say that everybody sees it coming; how you meet that need is a different story.”
Vantage is deliberately system-agnostic. Rather than requiring a fixed set of vendors, it connects whatever best-in-class systems a park already runs.
At Enchanted Parks, that ecosystem includes TicketSpice for ticketing and distribution, VersioPay for omni-channel payments, Zucchetti's TC POS for food, beverage and retail, and Lodgical for resort operations. Each was chosen for its strength in its own domain, with Vantage unifying them into a single guest record.
The platform reaches people through multiple interfaces. Operators work through a staff-facing interface to engage guests in person, enhancing service and resolving issues in the moment. Guests use a mobile app, part digital assistant and part wallet, to interact with the park.
Guests use a mobile app, part digital assistant and part wallet, to interact with Enchanted Parks properties
This includes fast, tokenised cashless transactions; in-app purchasing to add upgrades, merchandise and experiences straight from a phone; and a gamified loyalty layer that rewards them for exploring and engaging. Vantage also supplies the park's access control.
"Vantage focuses equally on the guest and the operator, because virtually every interaction in the system benefits both at once," says Mendelson.
He gives the example of redeeming an entitlement – a season-pass perk, a meal deal, or a fast-lane pass. However the guest carries it, it works the same way. Visitors present a QR code that represents them, whether it's in the app, on a card or on a wristband.
"For the guest, that's speed – fast, frictionless access, every time. For the operator, it's one workflow and one training path, no matter the guest, the ticket type or the entitlement.
"And because every redemption is linked across the whole guest journey and through every vendor, the operation gets dramatically clearer. You can see the whole park as one connected picture. One simple action for the guest ripples across the platform, but always comes back to the guest,” Mendelson adds.
"Vantage focuses equally on the guest and the operator"
Focusing on the visitor experience, Harhi says: “Vantage is our overall guest management system.
"It will allow guests to store entitlements or offers they may buy, such as season passes with a free combo meal or a free fast lane to skip the line, all in the Vantage app. That will be attached to a wristband, a card or their phone, and allow them to access those products inside the park.”
“It will also allow parents to tokenise their credit card to share it with their kids and set limits, so they can give their child $10 for a funnel cake, an ice cream or a stuffed animal, for example,” he adds.
“That's what we hired Vantage to do. They're working furiously to get things done. Since we took over, we’ve changed the point-of-sale system, the merchandise processor, the HR system, the scheduling system, and the ERP system. “
EPR’s acquisition of Six Flags sites
In early 2026, EPR acquired seven Six Flags properties, with Enchanted Parks to operate the six US sites, which are: Valleyfair (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Worlds of Fun (Kansas City, Missouri), Michigan’s Adventure (Grand Rapids), Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston (Texas), Six Flags St. Louis (Missouri), and Six Flags Great Escape (Queensbury, New York).
“We need to reinvest in the parks; that is something that we've heard loud and clear from our consumers,” says Harhi.
“The interesting thing about these parks is that we have a very passionate fan base, which at times can be extremely loud and distracting as a leader. There is a sense of ownership in these parks, and we have to do a good job of being stewards. That ownership drives that loyalty. I don’t remember at Disney having to deal with that level of ownership, even from season pass holders and locals in Orlando.
“People feel very passionately about the Disney brand, but I think there's a higher level of ownership in the local markets where these parks are.”
EPR has acquired seven Six Flags properties, with Enchanted Parks to operate the six US sites
He adds: “The shared experience of the grandparent going on a ride with their grandchild, a ride that they went on when they were that age – those are the moments that we want to perpetuate and sell. Those memories are what get me excited about these acquisitions, and the ability for us to do that and then generate new experiences for these kids. Hopefully they'll love the park enough to come back with their kids in 10, 15, 20 years.”
Discussing the future potential of the Vantage platform, Harhi says it could be expanded beyond the Enchanted Parks brand to transform guest experiences across the wider attractions industry, including into medium-sized theme parks and venues:
“This is a platform that medium-sized parks can potentially adopt and improve the customer experience across the country. We think there's an opportunity for Vantage to expand, and we can set the standard.
“The Vantage vendors will have the opportunity to showcase their technologies in our parks, but also bring them to medium-sized parks throughout the world. These parks aren’t really competitors to us. We have some local competitors, but most of the parks we own are the primary in that market. We want Vantage to be successful.”
Personalisation across the guest journey
Customer habits have changed, digital expectations are higher, and Vantage has the tools to meet them by understanding each guest as an individual.
“Here’s the vision,” says Mendelson. “The guest decides they are going to go to a venue, so they go online and buy a ticket through a ticketing system that comes over to Vantage. Everything that gets purchased becomes part of the Vantage portfolio for that guest or family, so we already know who they are.
“As the guest is purchasing, there’s a checkbox to opt in to use their credit card on site, so their credit card is linked to their account. They receive emails from Vantage that their account is ready and their tickets are there, and it’s all personalised because we already know what they are interested in. We can begin to curate the experience for them.”
Vantage in action at Island H2O Water Park in Kissimmee, USA
Once a guest has scanned a QR code, barcode or wristband, “the park is yours, and it's curated to your needs,” he adds.
“We know what you like, so we start to build your profile up as you go on different rides and buy different food, and we send you notifications to entice you to buy something that you might like. Ultimately, every time you take an action in our system, it learns about you in ways no human sees.
“The system is there to curate and continue to make a better experience for the guest, and in the long run, that benefits the operator, because the guest has more fun, is more likely to spend money, and is more likely to return.”
Storytelling and trends
For Mendelson, the nearer-term frontier is storytelling. "Once you really understand a guest – their preferences, their behaviours, the experiences they gravitate toward – you can turn that into a story. You take what they love and use it to build an emotional bond between them and the venue. That's where personalisation gets powerful – not just a smoother transaction, but a park that feels like it knows you and is immersing you in a story."
Looking further out, he sees wellbeing as the next horizon: "Venues in the future are all going to be catering to guest wellbeing – safety, efficiency, peace of mind. That's such a big area for us to explore."
What’s next for Enchanted Parks and Vantage?
As for Enchanted Parks’ immediate plans, “James came in with this fresh mindset about innovation and getting to build something for the first time”, says Mendelson.
“The flip side of that is that he's got scores of operators who have been operating these parks over X number of years, so I think it’s a unique privilege and a challenge to be able to go in there and try to take something that is brand new and make it feel really familiar for operators so that it doesn’t totally change their operation. It only enhances it.”
Enchanted Parks has selected the Vantage platform as its visitor engagement and technology unification solution
“What we’ve done is added some phased approaches to make it as easy as possible.”
Harhi adds: “Right now our baseline is cleaning up the basic things that everybody does, but integrating them all into one system. This year will primarily focus on synchronising systems. As we get into next year, we have some visions on the ability to push out promos immediately, maybe based on preferences, and also start curating the experience before guests arrive.
“The goal for this year is just to learn as much as possible, then for next year, take the data in the off-season and curate the guest experience. Find ways to make them really want to come to the park, whether it’s an offer or an experience.”
“The glue that holds everything together”
In the first year, Enchanted Parks will also use the Vantage platform to “find our pain points; where we are not delivering or where we can improve”, he says.
“We hope the data from Vantage will help us do that, as the glue that holds everything together.”
