OK, now most of you know I am not a SFA fan, so if you don't want to hear my
opinions, please don't read this. Just remember these are my personal views.
I will say this is not a "bash" on the park that many RRC readers have come to
expect from me. The day wasn't as bad as most of my visits in the past...
Anyway, here we go...
We were driving home from Pittsburgh and now that we had our SF WoA passes we
decided to stop at SFA for a few hours as we made good time coming home.
We got there about 1pm and a small rain storm had just stopped. The park was
not too crowded at this point. We paid our nine bucks to park (I still find
that to be highway robbery). We gave the entrance employee our passes and she
scanned them. Now this is something I will give Six Flags much credit for.
You can take any Six Flags pass and just go through the entrance gate and have
them scanned as if it's a pass for that particular park. With Paramount you
must go to Guest Relations and be issued a comp. pass and sign in. Its not
that big of a deal, but just an extra step with Paramount. But hey, I admire
all major theme park chains for letting you into any of their parks on one
season pass !
So we entered the park and headed for Roar. I was lucky enough to be on the
first public train on Roar way back in May 1998. I believe I may have had Roar
at my # 1 wood spot for a short amount of time. I love GCI twisters. They
were running two trains, but only filling one. This was happening on Wild One
and Jokers Jinx as well. There was only a two train wait so it was not as
annoying as it would have been if there was a 4 train wait or more. I don't
understand this idea... You are still running the train and putting wear and
tear on it. So why not fill it? Sure there may not be a long wait and not
many people on the train. But what's wrong with that sometimes? I tell you
this, when I can just sit on a train and ride over and over I am much more
willing to come back to the park and I am more willing to spend money to eat in
the park instead of outside. I have this little personal policy for any
amusement park that I will reward the park by spending my money on my meal
there if they are running the park right. If not, I will use my season pass to
get in and they will get no more money from me. If you are not in line waiting
for a ride, you have more chance to spend money on games, food or merchandise.
If they run one train and keep you in line, you are just that, in line and NOT
spending money. And don't you think patrons are seeing this empty train come
into the station over and over again and getting annoyed? I saw some people
look at the train and scratch their heads as it went empty. OK, enough on
that, now about Roar. The trains are in bad shape. I noticed that most of the
coasters' trains were in bad shape. What is going on with that? The wheels
and everything around them under the trains were so rusted out. Again, this
was on all coaster trains at the park. Did they leave the trains out all
winter and let them rust? Roar was slow and was shaking back and forth and
that is what was slowing it down. Its not the glass smooth ride it used to
be. I am very sad to see one of my favorite woodies in this condition. I
think a little track work and some work on the trains and she can shine once
again though. We only rode it once because I want to remember the Roar I once
knew, not that one. Maybe we will get lucky and the park will one day put M.
Flyers on it?!?!?!
Next we made our way to Jokers Jinx. I had not ridden it since they put the
lap bars on. Now, putting the lap bars on FOF at PKD turned that into my
favorite steel at PKD. So I was hoping for good things from JJ since it didn't
have a midcourse brake. Well, that didn't matter at all. But first I will say
I thought the trains were a little bigger than FOFs and easier to get into and
out of. I also think the belts on JJ were an inch or so longer making it
easier for a bigger person to get in and out. The train itself seemed a bit
more roomy than FOFs in general. They were running two trains and filling just
one. We got on the next train and were launched. The launch seemed slower
than FOFs. Now I don't know if that is because I was on TTD at Cedar Point a
few days before or not. But the launch just didn't do it like FOFs does for
me. The track is starting to rust, it needs some paint. The ride was bouncing
around and didn't seem to track well. The wheel housing and wheels were rusted
and didn't look good at all. Since the launch didn't seem fast the entire ride
seemed slower than FOF and the non midcourse really didn't make a big
difference. We rode it twice to make sure it wasn't a mislaunch, as that is
possible from time to time. But no, it was the same. I was really sad that it
was not as good as FOF. I was hoping it would be a better ride because of not
having a midcourse. But FOF still wins that contest for me. I will always
think that particular design needs to be inside because the ride itself is
kinda ugly. Paramount hid theirs lol. Next we went to Superman. I just LOVE
Intamin mega/giga coasters. They have the best "hyper" style, no doubt. This
coaster was only running one train and had the 2nd longest line. I just don't
understand why? We had to wait about 5 trains for each ride, which on a
coaster with a long cycle takes a while. It was about a 25 min wait. That's
not good when you have a 2nd train sitting there. We rode twice while we were
there and its no M. Force, but its still a wonderful ride and I am happy to
have it close by. If they would run two trains more often when I am there, I
think I would be more willing to return more often as this really is a
wonderful ride. The only thing I would change in design is the long flat after
the 1st helix. I think I would have put a bunny hop in there, a long drawn out
one. (that goes for SFDLs version as well). Next we went to Batwing. I rode
this in its opening year and LOVED it. I really like the flying concept
gimmick. I remember after my first ride two years ago saying, "Vekoma finally
did it, they figured out how to make a good coaster and make it B&M smooth."
Well, that has changed. It was very bumpy. Not hurting, but bumpy. It felt
more like an SLC now, and most of us know how they feel. I was sad it had
gotten rougher, that takes away from the flying experience. X Flight was down
at SF WoA this Saturday, so I didn't get to compare them. We did ride X Flight
in its first season as well, and it was just as good as Batwing in 2001. I
wonder if its gotten bumpy too. This coaster was a long line, it was about ten
cycles. Of course, they were running one train. One sitting in the other
station and one on transfer. And one row was not working, so they took a train
with a broken row and ran it. Why not use another train so more people could
go? Its a 6 car train sitting 4 people in each car. So that's only 24 people
per cycle. Now we are down to 20 people with a car being roped off. And not
every row is always filled in any train, so it was only about 15 people going
on avg. So it made a long wait. Then when we got on and rode it was bumpy and
not like I remembered. Again I was sad about that as the flying coaster
concept is fun to me. I have been on 3 flyers, two Vekomas and 1 B&M, Batwing
was my favorite, now I think the Superman (B&M) down in Atlanta is. We left
there and decided to head over to Wild One. But on the way we decided to look
at the new water ride, Penguins Blizzard River (I think thats the name). We
watched people coming off and they were not very wet so we decided to give it a
try. (I don't like to get wet at parks, so this seemed to be my kind of water
ride.) It was a walk on, we just waited for the next boat to come in. We
loaded with another family and went up the lift. As SOON as you come off the
lift you start spinning, and spinning much faster than you think you would.
And you spin the entire time, the spinning felt much like on a spinning wild
mouse. No, its not the most exciting thrill machine, but not everything will
be. I think I liked it much better than I thought I would. I hardly got wet,
and again, that's a plus to me. I can't stand walking around wet all day.
Another thing I did like is that this ride can be expereinced by the entire
family. It can seat about 5 or 6 people in one boat and its a "big ride" for
the smaller ones in the family. I think I would have loved to have ridden that
with my brother and parents as a little kid. I would have felt I was on a "big
ride." So we then headed over to Wild One, but again we stopped at another
ride first. Janis has never ridden Two Face because every time we went to SFA
the line was long and we have a tough time waiting for shuttles. But it was
only a two train wait. So we rode. This train looked the worst of all. The
rust was all over the place on the wheels and area around the wheels. The
harnesses looked like some kind of white powder had dried on them, or like
someone had dipped them into the Great Salt Lake. The ride we got was funny
because of a little kid sitting across from us. He must have been about 9
years old. The seat next to him was roped off, so he rode alone. Going up the
lift he was happy and smiling and we thought nothing of it. On the way down he
started to let out a scream and just stopped, but kept his mouth open as if he
were still screaming. He closed his eyes as tight as he could, mouth wide open
and white knuckling as hard as he could When we got through half of the
boomerang he tucked his chin down to his chest so hard I thought his chin was
coming out his back. He remained like that until the end of the ride. Then he
jumped out of his harness and smiled and walked away and yelled, "THAT WAS
GREAT!" So I guess he liked it afterall, and here I thought he was just trying
to live through it, lol.
We noticed Tower of Doom was down. We wanted to ride the shortest freefall in
the states the same day as the tallest (we went to PKD on the way home for a
few spins on Drop Zone and Grizzly). But ToD was down. Just like the other
Freefalls on this trip, just looking at it was kinda sad. Once again, Drop
Zone has really spoiled me. We finally made it over to Wild One. They were
running two trains and filling one. I think Six Flags ruined the Wild One. I
have never liked the redesigned version. It lost its spunk. The triple down
turnaround was unique and wonderful. The ride has no feeling whatsoever
anymore. It was in my top 10 many years ago (back before I had been on a lot
of wood), but now its near the bottom of my 245 coaster list... I give it one
ride a visit now just because I like to always ride the wood. But I choose not
to ride it a lot because I want to remember the old Wild One. After that we
went back to Superman for another run and hit Jokers Jinx on the way out. We
didn't bother with the SLC. If we have already ridden the SLC at a park, we
don't bother with it again. The park was the cleanest I had ever seen it and I
must say every single employee that we spoke with was much nicer than seasons
past. I see improvement and I am happy about that. Much to everyone's
surprise I want SFA to be a good park. Its very close to home and I would love
to go there and ride Superman and Roar over and over again. I may go up to SFA
again later this summer. After this visit I am willing to return. It took me
two years to return after my last visit. Operations still have a ways to go
and the coaster trains need some work done to them. But employees and the park
being cleaner have come a long ways. I am giving the park a C+. My last two
visits were an F - So it has come up some. We left and drove home to PKD.
PKD was sunny, first time the sun had shone in VA in about 5 or 6 days from
what I hear. Rain and rain and rain while we were away on this coaster trip.
So PKD was very crowded on Memorial Day. Drop Zone had a full queue wait,
about 15 mins. We rode twice and loved it, we missed it this weekend !!! Then
hit Grizzly a few times and *FINALLY* PKD put two trains on it again, its been
a while. PKD had been running one on the wood coasters most of the weekends
and two on the steel. So it was nice to see two trains on my fav coaster at
PKD again!
Now, if only we could get a Steak N Shake nearby.
CoAsTeRDaN
PKD 4 ME
Http://members.aol.com/coasterdan/index.html
Http://hometown.aol.com/revolutiongoal/revolutionhome.html
# 1 Wood, The Villian, # 2 The Legend
# 1 Steel, Mindbender at West Edmonton Mall, # 2 Millennium Force
I've been at sfa in November roar wasn't running that great at all but at least they had 2 trains running. But what really got me mad was i was looking forward to riding superman i wasn't expecting the kind of ride i have gotten from six flags ne
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