singemfrc

Wow..congratulations on surviving Key Club Day. That is always the busiest day of the entire year. Can't even imagine what the coaster lines were like. If I drove in and saw the fairgrounds were full and they were using a second overflow lot I'd just turn around and leave..and I live an hour away!

Id like to find a happy medium between the 107 flips here and the 1 or maybe 2 you get at SFDK.

If youre not going for fright fest then definitely wait for the week after. This Saturday is going to be very busy, probably overflow parking busy.

^ Wow, when they start using the fairground parking lot then it's really out of control. When I went the previous Saturday the DK paring lot was near full but they didn't open the fairground one.

I drove down to get my first rides on it today too, and you're right on. It's not a mind blowing thrill, but it's fun, it's very comfortable & smooth, and you get a different ride almost every time. I rode three times today and all three rides were different. In one ride my car spun just at the right time to make it seem like my face was going to smash into the bottom of the lift hill before the car went back the other direction. Kinda like a head chopper, cool effect. I had some insanely good timing today which is unusual for me..When I pulled up today I noticed it wasn't cycling and thought "Oh no, this doesn't look good" but after walking in and straight up the ramp I saw them start cycling and they were at that point saying 10 minutes. I walked down and got a wristband and back up and about 5 minutes later they opened the ride. After my first ride I got in line to ride again but it broke down before I got on. I decided this would be a good time to get a couple rides on 'Dipper (which is looking fantastic with it's new paint job). After taking 2 spins on the classic I headed back down to the other side of the boardwalk to find they had just reopened Undertow and I walked right on to get ride #2. Again I got right back in line but once again it broke down before I could get back on. No worries, did some shopping at O'Neill and took a walk through the arcade and when I came back the ride was up again so I got ride #3...this time it seemed to be more stable and was running still when I left the park at about 5:45. I got the impression from the managers hanging around the ride and the conversations they were having with the ride ops that they will probably keep it running as much as possible, to at least get all the employees comfortable with operating it. You're also right about the restraints..the single lap bar is very fast and more than sufficient. Safe and comfortable, A+ on the trains. Absolutely beautiful weather today too, great day to be at the beach.

Thanks for the info. But, how often do they dictate where you sit. Like in percentage of how many times you went It just depends on how busy they are. The longer the que, the more they control to try and get the folks on faster.

^ Normally you can choose anywhere you want to sit. Sometimes when busy they will dictate which side of the train you are on and/or what row you are in, but you can always choose inside or outside seat (assuming you fit in an inside seat).

What happens exactly is on one of the raven turns (I believe it's the second one) the forces from the first half of the turn send your legs out away from the car (so they're straight) and then the second half of the turn forces your legs to come back abruptly and your calves slam against the car. The forces are so strong that I have not been able to prevent it no matter how I try to hold my legs. Some ankle restraints like Tatsu has would be perfect. Supposedly it doesnt do this as much when you ride on the inside, and even less so if you have a heavy person on the outside, but every time I've ridden it in the last few years I end up being on the outside with no one on the inside which is the worst way to ride. A lot of the restraints on the inside are broken and don't go up high enough for us taller folks.

ACE is also reporting that Undertow is open! Now I'm really tempted to drive down tomorrow.

Incase anyone didn't know:

YOLO ERT!

All these race reviews about the steakhouse, I definitely have to make sure to try that when I come down to ride El Loco. I know this isn't really a Vegas buffet thread, but real quick since we're on the subject kind of, Aria Doesn't get mentioned for their buffet a lot but they have one of the best. On the expensive side but worth it if you're in that part of the strip.

I actually got to ride both of these this summer in back-to-back weekends. Very close for me, I loved GateKeeper and thought it was much better than I'd heard (I rode post-vest-fix), but I have to give the edge to YOLOCoaster for the hang time in the loop and the air time you get when you hit the final brakes over the top.

^^ Well they are parking in the middle of thousands of people packed onto a peninsula who are all leaving at once..you probably should have known that was going to happen. I did a Fright Fest Saturday night at one of the smallest parks in the country last night (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA) and their parking lot was completely full. We were all the way in the back and left after the park closed and even with their parking lot being I dunno a 5th the size of CP's it took us 45 minutes to get out from when we got in the car. Also, $100 for a room in Sandusky? They probably could have done better than that, but I realize they were worried and probably trying to get the first room they saw.

He's actually only ridden it 20 times. LOL..yeah, I rode it once and it felt like a few thousand. Sure scrambled my brains! The thought of riding that coaster hundreds, let alone thousands of times is unfathomable to me.

A couple interesting thing I noticed out at Fright Fest tonight: Bought my 2014 card and did the gold membership this time, found out if you buy a membership (as opposed to a season pass) they give you a brand new 2013 coupon book and a use-anytime bring-a-friend coupon that work between now and january, and then you still get your 2014 stuff when it's ready. They said in 2014 the coupons are going to be digital..supposedly you will log onto somewhere on sixflags.com to view and print your coupons. Finally got my SkyScreamer ride..backwards! Have they run it backwards during Fright Fest before? Ive never gotten a chance to ride it before so I never noticed..the park sure wasn't doing anything to promote it. We didn't do any of the mazes but one of them seemed to actually be inside of the Shark Experience..anyone done this? How is it? Rode Voodoo for the first time tonight as well and was very underwhelmed. About 2 or 3 flips in the first 15 seconds and the rest was just upright and boring. Could have been so much better. SkyScreamer was more exciting. Park was very very busy (We parked way out in G lot!) but with all the mazes eating up the crowds most of the coaster lines werent too out of hand and the flat ride lines were mostly nonexistent. Early in the day most of the coasters had over an hour wait but by the last couple hours all but Medusa had waned down to 30-40 mins. Roar was running one train most of the day causing the line to spill way out into the walkway, then at about 9pm they added a second train and the line dissipated into nothing. Guess they wanted to go home on time

Gold Striker far exceeded expectations. The best woodie I've ever ridden and definitely will remain so until I get to ride Outlaw Run or El Toro. YOLOCoaster was pretty much as expected. A nice little edition, nothing spectacular but not bad. GateKeeper was quite a bit better than I had expected, granted I got to ride it after they fixed the restraints, which I heard was a pretty significant issue for a lot of people. Wish I could review Undertow, but..sigh..

I don't think they bother with the fog at all anymore, I cant remember the last time I saw it, it's been years. The fire is otherwise the most elusive effect, I hear from other people that it's been on from time to time, but I've never seen it myself. Audio is just hit and miss. Most times I visit the park one train has audio and one doesn't, and sometimes only for parts of the day. Too bad X2 is down during Fright Fest this year, it was kind of cool to get alternate audio last year, I liked it better than the original audio. I'm hoping they'll have X2 up and running in time for the spring ride flips when I get to visit again.

California is the worst place to build anything. Try to put a pool in your backyard in Los Angeles, it'll bankrupt you and drive you insane. Look at KBF's Windseeker, Cedar Fair chose to send it to another park than deal with California and I don't blame them. Any time you're dealing with hills or coastline it gets exponentially worse.

Good point, forgot about the fact that users can troll the times...just for giggles, I even went as far as putting down a wait time for X2 at WCB Many parks including my home park have apps and if they implemented wait times in their own official app, it would be huge! Now the burning question is would Six Flags or Cedar Fair want to invest in those time boards like what Disney has, and give those 'check in cards' to guest so the can accurately monitor the time? Until then, especially with my home park, I have a pretty solid idea of how long waits are based on line length. Ive been a pretty big advocate of RideHopper (I have nothing to do with it, Id be just as happy about any official apps that came out), and what you both say is true. The information is only as good as the users submitting it and the accuracy of the information they submit. Clearly it would be nice if the park had an app that posted wait times, although that's not fool proof either, I have found SFMM to post incorrect wait times at the park (sometimes very incorrect), presumably just because they had neglected to update the sign, and the same could happen with an official app. The information is still as good as the person entering it, and in my experience Disney > Cedar Fair > Six Flags in this department. RideHopper does at least attempt to minimize bad information, it checks GPS and only allows a submission if GPS reports you to be inside the park you are submitting for, and it does offer a "check in" feature where you can click check in when you get in line which starts a timer and then you check out to post the accurate time when you are about to board. Gumball is right it works best for SFMM since there is the most activity there...you even get submissions for Single Rider lines or Flash Pass lines. The app is also pretty effective on busier days at Cedar Point. At SFDK it works really good early in the day but usually by 12 or 1 in the afternoon there are no more submissions...Im assuming the small group people using it are kinda like myself and get there early and bug out before it gets too late. I've tried using the app for CGA or SCBB but there is absolutely no one else using it, so it's useless. tl;dr: the more people use it the better the info is going to be, but I always take the information with a grain of salt anyway. I rarely look for the exact wait time for a ride as much as I look at the overall picture of how busy a park is.

The survey I took only focused on one specific idea and asked several questions about it.

Well after the survey SFDK just sent I think it's pretty obvious what the most likely next addition will be. If you get the survey, take it to find out. They did ask me to agree not to reveal what the potential addition was, but I think it's an excellent idea from a business standpoint and I'd definitely visit the park more often with this addition. I also found it interesting that they specifically asked for comparisons to CGA, even asking what specific advantages I thought CGA had over SFDK. Honestly I think the two parks are pretty even except for the obvious difference SFDK has in it's animal attractions. Both parks have some great flat rides, both parks have a handful of good coasters and a couple great ones.

I know that they have the new electronic fluffy bunnies that give you a code and that you can open and close it all day, I dont remember specifically if you could change locations at SFMM, but I know SFDK has the same fluffy bunnies and you can change locations, so it's probably the same. Different rides have varying levels of fluffy bunny policies. Generally with rides like X2 and GLFF they're more strict about loose items and will be quicker to force you to use the fluffy bunnies. X2 is the strictest which is why they have fluffy bunnies inside the station (These ones are not the new electronic type, theyre old school, but I think theyre only $1 or $2) - not that any of this matters right now with X2 being down but useful info for the future.

Sorry if this has already been answered, but why is X2 out for FF? Something mechanical? I believe the lift hill chain broke in August Yes, and it had to be remanufactured. It is expected to be down for another 3-6 months.

This is outstanding, will make it much easier to view and post while away from home and to post updates from the park! Thank you for implementing this! (Posted from the app)