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Granted.. it's not a fair comparison, as SFFT is run much differently (although SFStL does seem to be copying style/ideas from SFFT now with the updates). but Joker: Carnival of Chaos (previously planned as Joker: WildCard) is the exact same ride that's going here. At SFFT: they started clearing for Foundation pour on 2/23/19 footers poured by 4/7/19 ride pad, and queue house done by 4/28/19 ride parts arrived on site 5/18/19 main supports bolted together (on ground) and LED light package installed 5/25/19 ride vertical, and 1st testing on 6/26/19 finishing touches over the next week. Ride was ready to go by 7/14/19, but did not open until 8/10/19 due to waiting for inspections. so from actual starting of pouring the footers, until ride was up: ~3 months. and from actual RIDE PARTS ARRIVING ON SITE until ride was up? ~2 months. (all dates from construction updates at SFFT source) So, yeah.. they COULD still hit mid/late summer, if they get it going.

Meanwhile, Holiday World continues to make money with free drinks. Imagine that.

I get that, I'm much older than you and was around for all that plus Epcot and Animal Kingdom...........but, my point is that this is going to be on such a grander scale on both the rides and how grandiose it will be than those were when they opened, or at least it seems that way to me. Maybe I'm just not remembering the hype or maybe I'm just legit way more excited about a Universal park than Disney And to be fair I wasn't really thinking along the lines of China or Dubai, since those are not easily accessible for most people from the USA

I stand corrected - it could still beat Rookie Racer. I should have looked at more of the Giga installs to see how they compared. Definitely won't be a Memorial Day ride though.

All of 2023 Tantrum ran with 1. They kept saying it was a parts related issue, but with a whole 3rd train available if you wish to poach parts from it, it’s a little odd that somehow they still weren’t able to have 2 operable..

You don't sound all that bitter, lol. I enjoyed the write up

Before their family boomerang they installed their last coaster in 2014, and it was intentionally built on a somewhat smaller scale with 5 car trains. That's a 10-year coaster drought (same gap as Boomerang to Rookie Racer). Beyond that it's been some flat rides and a couple waterslides, and they run the same trains on all of their woodies to keep costs as low as possible too. I'd venture to say more capital expenditures have been spent at SFStL in that decade than at Holiday World. That's not to say SFStL is better. Just to say that the comparison isn't cut and dried. Koch Development Corporation also happens to not be on the stock market with public shareholders and that plays a significant role in how it is run too.

So we unexpectedly ended up at SFStL for 75min on Saturday night before close. It was my first Six Flags park in 15 months! - Electric vehicle parking was interesting and they had a lot of those spots, didn't realize it was new. Wonder if it will last? - Employees seemed very friendly, but I would hope so as we were on day two of operation! - Freeze still running amazing! - New kiddie coaster decent, like what Vekoma has become and what they're doing from the kiddie to the big rides. - Screamin Eagle ended our night with a double ride and a nice crew! - When did drinks become $7-$10!?!?!?! People complain about Disney pricing need to go to Six Flags!!!

Buccaneer's theming (lack thereof) is the very definition of Half-Ass. Why bother? they should have called it The Swinging Boat Ride

Soooo it was the year they did the retracking (whenever that was) and I recall seeing a side by side comparison and the current looked dreadfully slow. There was no way eyes can deceive like its right there. I did ride it that year and full sincerity it felt exactly like the year before (before the retracking). And in general POVs of the same coaster can look very different....it depends on a lot of factors. You also can't totally trust one, I recall Skyrush looking cool but....OK, then we rode in person and uh yeah. Point being, you really can't trust POVs to make much of a claim, you have to ride it. We're enthusiasts we're all insanely critical and crazy lol I doubt anyone would fake their opinion. If people are saying they don't notice any real difference, they mean it. They'd have no issue saying otherwise. Also this is my personal opinion: the launch was great but a bit overhyped. It was fun but as we know it slowed down after a bit and didn't really go over that quick (I never got to experience the OG sadly). To be blunt I felt more WOW going over the top of Skyrush. It was ofc super fun and its a bit sad its gone but I truly cant imagine it'll impact the overall experience, deff wont make it slower bc again it was going over not that quickly anyway tbh TLDR: dont use POVs to make definitive claims. Im sure it'll be great still as some are confirming.

^ YAY for a Marvin encounter! Me here, with K-9, Marvin's pet dog, at SFMM/ Sept-2016.