singemfrc

I could be wrong but I could swear Viper and Ninja got painted right before or around the same time as X2. Was Goliath recently painted? Hmm I don't remember that. I thought Golitath was still on original paint, and though somewhat faded, it's colors lend well to fading, it doesn't look that bad. If Batman is chipping, I haven't looked close enough to notice. I don't think Ninja looks that bad either. It gets kind of dirty being in the trees, but the paint hasn't faded that badly. The color still looks good. Revolution and TC are N/A because TC is brand new and TNR was just painted. Well anyway, Tatsu is definitely one of the park's marquee coasters, so because of that and also because I'm sure they don't want to have to paint it again for a very long time they absolutely should use the best possible paint when they repaint it, which I hope is soon. If a repaint of Tatsu were the entire 2017 announcement I would be elated. (Bonus - sky tower refurb!)

I agree, it's been the best year in a long time at SFDK for new additions. In this month's newsletter. Though as pointed out "new ride" could be a very general term. I also doubt SFDK would install another new coaster that fast. Considering what SFDK has and has gotten recently I really have no idea what it might be. I'll have to wait and see.

X2 was painted in 2008 and still looks great. Tatsu was painted in 2006 and looks like a sucked on skittle. It would certainly be extremely difficult and expensive to paint Tatsu but I really wish they'd do it since it is one of their most visible and high profile coasters and the way it looks right now just screams apathy. I dont know if it was technology or price that improved but everything that has been painted or installed since about 2008 still looks good (look at X2, still looks great - and it's very exposed to the sun in that corner over there!) - bite the bullet and paint Tatsu.

Just to give you a heads up, Tuesday, August 16 the park is having a "Pokemon Go Lure-a-thon". So, it could be crowded. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. I just took the survey on my last visit to the park and look what is now a part of it: On the next page it asks if your visit was impacted by other guests playing the game, so I'm glad they're conscious of that.

As expected it was pretty busy today, and I had very limited time so I didn't expect to get much done on a busy Saturday afternoon. My main "shopping list" was to ride Kong before it closes (Its been down the last few times I was there), get a lap on V2 since its also just reopened after a long down time, and maybe a lap on Joker if i had time. I had heard Kong was only running one train (the orange one) so I expected a long queue and got what I expected. The switchbacks were about 90% full. The crew was doing a pretty good job dispatching quickly so it went about as well as it could, it was about a 60 minute wait. I laughed when they changed ride operators at the dispatching position and the new employee, upon the first train coming into the station, told the riders: "Welcome back, it's OK, the ride is over now, you can get off." Btw: I did spy the yellow train - it is completely disassembled and sitting on the ground underneath the station. You can see it when advancing from the brake run into the station. V2 was running so as the general rule of thumb with V2 is "If you want to ride it and its running, ride it now 'cause it may not be running later" I did just that and rode that after Kong. V2 crew was not quite as motivated as the Kong crew unfortunately, and a station wait turned into about 30 minutes somehow. I was disappointed that employees could clearly see several guests violently pushing and pulling on the air gates and didn't so much as say anything to those guests. With how touchy we know the air gate sensors are on those Intamin Impulse coasters, you'd think they'd be watching for that and scolding people. I honestly thought we were going to get an e-stop because the kid was pushing the air gate open when the train was passing through the station. They need to electrify those things...that'd stop people. I walked over to Joker and saw that it was running only one train and had about a ~50 minute wait so I passed on it since I had to get to Concord for a concert and didn't have time to wait (I'd gotten there an hour later than planned due to traffic, otherwise it would have been perfect). When I got to the park I saw the purple train running, but when I was leaving I saw the green train running and the purple train was parked on the transfer track. Not sure if it was running two when I got there, but it was only running one when I left. It was nice to see everything except Voodoo and Thrilla Gorilla running though...the last couple of times I've been to the park there have been several large rides down all day.

Going to do something today that I never ever do outside of a west coast bash...visit a park on a Saturday! Pray for me!

If it's a platinum pass, yes it works.

The first friday and sunday or two are very dead in fright fest, but it gets very busy after that. The closer to Halloween, the busier it gets.

If they're putting the new vest style Vekoma restraints on Kong, then I take back everything bad I said about it. I'm still not a fan of VR, but that will make it doable, while making the ride less painful at the same time. Lets hope that's really the case. No way in hell should they put VR on the ride with the existing restraints.

It's all part of a secret plan to boost chiropractor businesses! Wake up sheeple! Yeah this an absolutely terrible idea. You really have to see where you're going on this coaster to brace yourself. Plus they already have a hard enough time with dispatch times on Kong, this is just a bad idea all around. With Revolution I'm willing to at least try the VR and see what it's like, but I don't think I'll do that on Kong. Too much pain.

I've never heard that..maybe they're just talking about the regular flash pass. The gold or platinum flash passes would always be a help because they cut whatever the wait is by 50-90%, but if you know you're going that day, I strongly recommend buying the flash pass online ahead of time because they are likely to sell out.

No, that's Key Club Day a.k.a. Fall Rally South. (11/12 this year - http://www.cnhkeyclub.org/events/fall-rally) But how busy this day is shouldn't matter to us at all, because between morning ERT and evening Buyout/ERT, we should have plenty of time to ourselves. Omg... I made the horrific mistake of going on Key Club Day last year. I'm still scarred. Sorry to hear that; that's why I try to post periodic reminders of when it's going to be so that TPR members don't accidentally stumble on it like that.

It's been the restraint and control system since the ride launched. They've been having problems on both trains with restraints not registering as secure even when they are. I don't know if that's the only problem, but it's been recurring.

No, that's Key Club Day a.k.a. Fall Rally South. (11/12 this year - http://www.cnhkeyclub.org/events/fall-rally) But how busy this day is shouldn't matter to us at all, because between morning ERT and evening Buyout/ERT, we should have plenty of time to ourselves.

That's exactly what I meant.

Any idea what the "other company" is that we're sharing the park with on Saturday night, or what kind of attendance numbers they'll be contributing? I wouldnt worry about lines during the evening ERT due to the other company. It's the entire park, so I'm sure it will be more than enough room for everyone. I'm grateful, cause we wouldn't have the whole park otherwise!

I noticed a lot of the hotels around the park were offering inflated rates for this time period. I'm planning on using airbnb - cheaper and you can stay pretty much wherever you want.

Yeah, blown away by this. Absolutely amazing. This is going to be the best WCB ever!In addition to Robb and Elissa of course, thank you as well to whatever company we're sharing that with! I assume part of the reason it's possible is because we're sharing it with them. Between this and the morning ERT there won't be any reason to wait in a line all day!

Renting a car, as long as you don't care what kind of car, is cheaper than getting an uber both ways. Do you have a SF Gold Pass? cause if you rent a car and you dont have a gold pass, you also have to pay $20 or $25 (I forget) in parking, that could make a big difference. If you're going for an all day open-to-close trip to the park, traffic shouldnt be too much of a problem, because youll be traveling outside of peak hours. If you drive during rush hour, you could see that 30 minute drive easily turn into a 2 hour drive. Another thing to consider is that food in the park mostly sucks, except the new sports bar, and I've heard the newest places Twisted 'Wiches and Chop Six aren't as bad. If you want to leave the park to get food, having a rental car will be preferred otherwise you have to call another Uber as there really isn't anything outside of the park within walking distance. I agree with getting the platinum pass. If you're travelling halfway across the country it's probably a good idea. If you're going on a Saturday in Summer, just buy it online because chances are you'll need it. However - If you're going on a different day of the week its possible the park might not be busy, so you may want to buy the pass at the park. I can tell you from experience it sucks to pony up for a platinum pass and then find out everything is a walk-on anyway.

Well that's basically what they're doing now when someone puts a lap bar down who's not supposed to. From what I've been told by various SF managers, it's their policy not to check any seat belts underneath a restraint bar. Even if it can be done, they don't want to take the chance of a false positive.

They can't check the seatbelts if the lapbar is already down. Its a Six Flags thing to require seat belts on any coaster that inverts, California isnt the only place that has them, but theyre required on all California coasters. They went back and retrofitted all inverting coasters with seat belts in about 2013. I remember Superman was very awkward and very slow loading for quite a while when that happened. Right when the coaster reopened I remember the ride ops were requiring individual verbal affirmation from all riders that they wouldnt touch the lap bars before they opened the air gates. The short summary is the coasters require seat belts, and the ride ops are required to check the seat belts with the lap bar up, so if anyone pulls the bar down before their seat belt is checked, they have to recheck either the car or the whole train depending on the coaster. I know Joker has the ability to lock and unlock individual seats and rows where Superman can only lock or unlock the whole train so if someone messes up on Superman, they have to recheck the entire train.

You know I wish RMC and Premier and whoever else is manufacturing these new lap bars would produce a "California" version where the lap bars would be locked up or something until the operator unlocks or lowers them. Sure would save a lot of time (and thus $)

In 2014 Ninja hit a tree branch that had fallen on the track, derailing and dangling the train in the air. The train was heavily damaged and they had to combine it with the former parts train to regain a working second train, so now there's just two total. That's also why there are far less trees in the area now.

Batman, Green Lantern, and Goliath Does SFMM always have ERT on rides or at least often. I have never know a park have ERT so casually. Sign up for the newsletter, they notify you of most ERT sessions. There's almost always one on July 11th sponsored by the 7-11 convenience store chain.

I guess the park noticed too, they just made Tuesdays in July BAFF days.