supercellcoaster

Glasgow Megasnake - Mogwai

Good job. Very smooth and quickly paced, with airtime and *some* laterals. Only complaints: -Needs some extra bracing with crossovers. -The quality of the trackwork got a bit sloppy near the end. -Some of your valleys were a bit too abrupt, and bunny hill shaping was weird for an old woodie, which is what I assuming you were basing this off of. Overall great job though!

Great pics, sounds like you picked a great day to go. Are they letting the train run through the MCBR this year? I know they did in 2007, and I'm glad that trend was cut off short...makes the triple down amazing. Btw you accidentally uploaded a double pic of Legend with one under Raven.

Yes I have ridden it, and after the first drop I had about zero airtime. The bunny hop is good, but those two adjacent large hills were just boring and forceless, along with the rest of the ride. I know it may have just been the days I rode it, but I've heard the same from many other people. It may just be one of the hit-or-miss rides, who knows. (I'm not saying its not fun. It's tall and goes fast, which is what its supposed to do, but I would rather have a small forceful ride than a spread-out large one. That's just my preference, and that's why I like GCIs and CCIs so much.)

^I heard PTC was now refusing to do maintenince work on trains that run backwards or something. That's why all other racing rides no longer run backwards. (Racer at KI, etc.) That could be wrong though, its just what i heard.

Iron Wolf is my favorite ride at the park.....lol. It may help that I'm tall, but I think a good ride is all about where you position the restraint. Last time I rode it about a week ago, I had one headbang and a big fat 0 nut crunches. I also kind of like the stress it puts on your legs without any "support" from the crunching part of the restraint. But yeah along with the incredible pacing, compact layout and flying through trees, I really love that ride. If the park removes anything, i would definitely want it to be either Dark Knight (as mentioned, almost out of the question) or Ragin' Cajun. It's pointless to have two wild mouse coasters in the same park, even if one does happen to spin. Plus, they both suck. I just wish SFGAm had gotten a GCI instead of Dark Knight. It would have fit in well (MUCH better than a family ride very similar to a current coaster but with added lights), not to big for little kids/not lame, but still delivers thrills that everyone can enjoy. At least I still have EK.

Random people in a barber shop talking about how "awesome" CP is...(I kept my mouth shut even though it was very difficult) "Yeah Millennium Force is one of the biggest roller coasters in the world, it goes crazy fast." "Really?" "Yeah, it also has huge amounts of 'airtime' which is where you are flying out of your seat. I was barely touching my seat!!!!" Millennium Force? Crazy airtime? Bwahahahahaha.

I'm an enthusiast, and I enjoy The Dark Knight. Are you speaking for me? It is what it is. It's a family coaster, that was marketed incorrectly. Or at least the general public took the press to literally, thinking that a "thrilling ride" meant, "thrill ride." I lean toward the latter. SFGAm has made improvements to loading/unloading. I don't think you'll see lines like that this year. Nah I wasn't targeting that at you. I'm not trying to say anyone else is wrong either, I'm just saying I disliked the ride.

I know it was supposed to be more of a family coaster, but I'm giving my opinion from an enthusiast's point of view as I wasn't reviewing it for a family-oriented site. And I'm sure the video is ok for longer queues, but there was literally no wait the whole day so all it did was waste time and provoke the more immature adults in line to mock it. I didn't expect it to be anything more than Ragin' Cajun with lights, and that's exactly what it was. That's why I thought it was a waste of money. (And actually I would have preferred it to be an Iron Wolf-in-a-box if anything, but you see my point. )

Last time I rode Iron Wolf it cracked me in the temple before evening entering the first drop. I spent the rest of the ride pretty woozy. Iron Wolf is actually my favorite ride at SFGAm. I think it may have to do with my height though. I tend to have less headbanging that most people as I'm 6'2". Superman at SFGAm also has some rattling at the bottom of the first drop, but it's not major and barely painful at all.

Wow, those are probably some of the coolest flat rides I've seen....and what a ferris wheel! Great photos.

I'm in central Illinois, and the closest "park" for me is a place about 30 minutes away with a little electronic kiddie coaster. However I have a few parks within four hours: Indiana Beach: 2 hours 30 minutes SFSTL: 3 hours 30 minutes SFGAm: 3 hours 30 minutes Holiday World: 4 hours SFKK: 4 hours Kings Island: 4 hours While I don't really have a home park, I'm happy with some of the better parks (HW and IB especially) that I have near me.

Ok, thanks.

I've never ridden a S:ROS before so don't kill me if they top this...but honestly, I'd have to say Cornball Express at Indiana Beach. With the single buzzbars that only go down to the divider, you're flying around in your seat with ejector airtime on every hill. <3 the drop by the lake.

Good quality pics, and holy crap there were a lot.... I'm confused about Morey's Piers being split up. Do they charge one entrance fee for all of them and you just have to drive in between the piers, or do you have to pay separate entrance for all of them? On a different note, Great White looks so awesome...*wants credit*

No, all the annoying schoolkids I mentioned were basically hogging that, plus it was really cold so getting all wet didn't sound too fun. It looked somewhat interesting though, so I may ride it if I get up there next summer. Yeah, I have to admit that all the excess trashcans did their job...there was almost no litter in sight. There were also some "handymen" (go RCT) walking around with those little sweep-scooper things, probably another attempt at actually being what they were marketing themselves as.

EDIT: Sorry about the photo sizes....I just copied and pasted this from a different site, figuring it would come out downsized. (I didn't want to reattach all the files...) If I should fix these let me know. So...I went to Six Flags Great America for the first time in a few years on the third. The drive up there was supposed to take 3 hours max, but it ended up taking over four because of Chicago traffic and large amounts of major highways being rebuilt. Typical. It was kinda chilly (The high was in the upper 50s) and there was a strong north wind, so the water park was closed. This meant slightly longer lines, but it actually seemed to add some thrill to all the rides, which all felt more forceful than I had remembered. Hm. The first signs of the park! Raging Bull isn't really visible from far away because of all the development and trees, so it just pops out of nowhere. Here's a not so good sign...there were a bunch of little junior high kids running around the park screaming for the first few hours we were there. Luckily it started clearing up at around 2. (Exact quote: "OMG WE'RE AT SIX FLAGS!!!! WE'RE AT SIX FLAGS!!!! *Scream*") Raging Bull and Viper look sexy together. Superman from the parking lot. I kind of wish Shockwave was still in this spot, but at least Superman is an okay ride. 1...2...3...4...5...6... 7? Apparently SFGAm is being marketed as the "World's Cleanest Theme Park" this year. Trash cans with this rhyme on them were everywhere. (They lost the rhyming vibe on line three...) Yes, I mean EVERYWHERE. (How many trash cans do you count in this picture?) That's right, there are 15 trash cans! [:O] Raging Bull looked sexy with its new paint job. Too bad the ride is killed by this...... Giant Drop broke down right when we got in line, and was down for the rest of the day. It still looked cool though? Iron Wolf was running really well and was my favorite ride of the day. It totally kicked Mantis's ass. It's also probably the closest I'll ever get to riding an Intamin standup. [] Leaving the loop. Batman was a lot better than I had remembered it, and was running pretty well. As much as I think CP is overrated, V2 wasn't as good as Wicked Twister. It was still really fun though. Demon was also running well. However it's never been all that great to me, besides the vertical loops. I love how the train lurches through those things. American Eagle is very secluded, and the park is really neglecting it. They were only running one side at a time, the whole thing needs to be painted and holy crap do they need to retrack that thing. The first three valleys had just enough jackhammering to be fun, but when you're going 10 miles per hour into an extremely drawn-out helix and it's painful, something really needs to be done. Superman needed some paint also. I tried to get a shot of the Chicago skyline from the car on the way back, but I kinda failed. Oh well. As for the coasters of today: Raging Bull: 7.75 The first drop is really fun, but the rest of the ride is completely killed by those trims. There's some good airtime in the back, but as soon as you hit the first hill you just feel like you're dragging through the layout and that SF is ripping you off to save a few dollars on replacement parts. Bleh. The new paint looked pretty sexy, though. Viper: 7.25/10 Viper was just overall a fun ride. There was airtime in a few places, some minor roughness (the good kind), and lats on a few of the turns. On a different note, the park REALLY needs to hire a person to only let a certain amount of people into the loading area at a time. The entire loading area was packed full of people in no order at all, so you basically had to barge your way through to get on the ride. Whizzer: 6.75/10 Wheeeeee. That's about it. Most of the ride was more fun than thrilling. I've always been a big fan of those low-to-ground Schwarzkopf turns, though. Lesson learned from this ride: your shoulder does NOT appreciate it when you try to reach out and touch the grass then hit a Schwarzkopf transition. Demon: 6.25/10 The two loops are fun, but the straight sections are a waste. There is a massive pop of airtime going over the first drop in the back, and the horrible Arrow transition into the corkscrews was (painfully) awesome. It was too short for my likings though. V2: 8.25/10 I love impulse coasters. While this one didn't have the twisting back spike, there was some free-fall and then the front spike covered the twistiness. I also got to witness two junior high girls have literal panic attacks and come back the the station crying. Woo? You decide. American Eagle - Red: 7/10 As mentioned, the park needs to retrack and repaint this. It was still fun though, offering some mild jackhammering and some light airtime. The first drop could have been MUCH better though, and the racing aspect would have added some fun to the ride. Iron Wolf: 8.75/10 The pacing on Iron Wolf is amazing. It's non-stop flying through the trees it was build around and weaving through itself. There was also a minute amount of headbanging for a standup ride, and I actually had some added fun trying to keep my ears from being crushed. Spacely's Sprocket Rockets: 3/10 Yeah, I'm a credit whore. [lol] This ride provided what was probably the best on-ride photo of me ever. Ragin' Cajun: 3.25/10 Ow. This was not fun. It looked fun, but it wasn't. The ride ops struck up conversation about the fact that the team of the jersey I was wearing lost a game in the last 5 seconds a few days earlier. Our car didn't spin at all. There are now bruises on my thighs. Not a fun ride. If you're going to build a spinner, make it a Gersty or a Maurer Sohne. Batman: The Ride: 8.25/10 I actually like this Batman more than the later clone at SFSTL. There are some bonus near-ground sweeps, and it's just as forceful as it's Dolly down south. Fun ride, minute head-banging. Superman Ultimate Flight: 8/10 This is another of those "wheeeeee" rides. There was more force this time on the valley of the first drop, due to some roughness. I lovelovelove the bizarre forces of the pretzel loop. It goes from 1g to airtime, to being pinned on your back, to airtime, to a banked turn. I kinda wish the rest of the ride was as forceful as that, but it does what it was meant to do. (By that I mean giving you the feeling you are flying.) One bad note: I lost 32 cents in change. [] Dark Night: 3.5/10 SF fail. This was such a waste of money. The whole thing was based off of theming. In the Q, you are forced to watch some 10-minute video clip that is basically taken from the movie, even if there is no wait. The only fun part of the ride was the smoothness of the hairpin turns, which made me think that it might be ok after all. I was wrong. After the hairpin turns, there was just as much pain and lameness as Ragin' Cajun. Available GCI>regular wild mouse coasters>rare steak>electrical burns>Dark Night. Thanks for a great day SFGAm, and even though you made a horrible horrible decision on which ride to install for this year, it was a good visit. EDIT: If you want any of these photos in full size, PM me and I'll send them to you. (I don't have PRO Flickr yet.)

Great TR, and glad to see the park isn't very busy early in the year as I hoped. I'll try to get some pics when I get out there next week!

I'm going to get a headstart saving up for the Middle America trip, however it's not even close to set in. I'll probably wait until 2011 trips are proposed to commit (or not) to a 2010 trip, since I would rather tour parks not within 8 hours' driving distance of my house. (I JUST missed East Coast and Deep South, which I would much rather have done )

And I thought I was the only one....... http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=116975587637306317702.00044a014dcf303201e8f

^Yeah I've got some Mogwai too, along with some other bands like that. I love the style, its interesting to listen to.

Right now it's a toss-up between "A Life Less Lived" by Daylight Dies, and "I Swallowed Hard, Like I Understood" by 65daysofstatic. I'm pretty sure there are about two other people on this site who have ever heard of either of those.

Thanks for this PTR, now I can't wait to get out to SFFT and SWSD next spring break. (It'll be a great reward for the 17-hour drive... )

When this was first announced I thought it was basically going to be a waste of money for SF, but I guess it turned out better than I thought it would. I still don't understand switching up Medusa, though. I mean, wouldn't it make more sense to try and boost attendance at a smaller park that doesn't have fanboys and heavy attendance?

Well, you sure took on a tough park to recreate, but from the looks of it you're going to do a really great job. Looks awesome so far!