Skycoastin Steve

This is one of the opinions I hold highest, since I was there for the American Thunder and Prowler rides. Although I don't think Apocalypse was better than Thunderhead. American Thunder was insane!

^Why in the name of baby Jesus would they move Deja Vu within the park? Come on now, think about these things before posting them.

^Why in the name of baby Jesus would you want to build a Boomerang over ANYTHING Intamin?

^You literally can't see anything in that tunnel at night, it's total pitch black, which makes that turn even better when you can't see it coming.

The Arrow magic seat is the same as the PTC magic seat, front row of the back car. The tunnel is one of the best coaster moments anywhere, especially at night in the PTC magic seat.

I'm not sure anyone ever said that about Twister.

I only wish I wasn't having serious digestive issues during the alcohol exchange, I could have imbibed more! It was still a very fun night of socializing with everyone, though. Hopefully the idea carries over to future trips!

Missouri has the awesome GCI market cornered. American Thunder and Prowler are my favorites of the ones I've ridden (Roar West and Renegade are the only ones I haven't). Thunderhead and Lightning Racer are both excellent, and then the next tier down for me would be Kentucky Rumbler and Apocalypse. Wildcat and Roar aren't very good. Gwazi........is Gwazi.

Yeah, I rode it during ERT in the morning. Didn't even realize it had a max height until that night when someone told me (it might have been you). We all do things better while we're intoxicated.

Moving right along, we had made it to Bizarro Bash at SFNE, which would be quite an..........interesting day for me. Let me preface all this by saying that I am 6'5", which is 77", which is 1 inch taller than the max height restriction for Bizarro. More on that later. Upon arriving at SFNE, we waited for a little bit outside the entrance for all the Bash stuff to get organized, and then we were walked back for our ERT on Bizarro, the new Wild Mouse, and Batman. We went straight for Bizarro, and upon arriving, found out we had to purchase l.o.c.k.e.r.s for ERT. Really? For ERT? Whatever. So we did that, and then the fun began. They had someone at the entrance to the ride measuring people (which is fine, "safety" and all), and despite them KNOWING that a few of us were too tall, let us on anyway (which obviously made me happy). They also had one train running for a group of almost 200 people (yay, go Six Flags). So we rode Bizarro, had fun despite the horribly uncomfortable lapbars, then went to the Wild Mouse. This was also another ride that several of us were too tall for, but they let us ride anyway (remember that for later). Then we did Batman (meh) and the waterpark ERT (which was excellent, my first water coaster and the funnel slides are always awesome!). Once the park opened and the flood of GP came pouring in (park was packed), we started using our Gold Flash Pass. Thank goodness for those things and ERT, otherwise we would have basically ridden nothing all day. Slow crews, several rude employees, hardly any employees I would describe as polite, dirty bathrooms and walkways, no shade ANYWHERE (except for the lunch pavilion). At some point we went and rode Bizarro again, and I was let through the entrance again by the height checker who LITERALLY looked at the top of my head and her height stick as I walked by and just shrugged. I think at that point I had ridden it three times without getting denied. For some of the other rides, Cyclone had AWESOME airtime in the back car on the first drop (even if it hurt), and the rest of the ride was just OK. The new section of topper track was incredibly smooth, and I'd like to see more parks using this in the future. Thunderbolt wasn't anything special, and it was pretty rough. The boomerang and SLC were typical Vekoma offerings. I did really like Pandemonium, as the Gerstlauer spinners are leaps and bounds better than the Zamperla spinning mouse coasters. I know at some point we also did Houdini, which was one of the most bizarre rides I've ever been on, but still lots of fun. We also got the two kiddie credits and did the S&S tower a couple times. Back to Bizarro. At various other points during the day, I started getting denied for being too tall. Once was by the rude kid at the entrance, and another time a different girl was at the entrance, measured me, said I was OK, I waited half an hour in the Flash Pass line, and then got re-measured by one of the ops on the platform and I was sent packing. So by this point, I said screw it for Bizarro until night time ERT. During night time ERT, I made it through fine and got three rides in, including one in the front row, and not once was I checked for height (and this is with at least two supervisor/manager type people in the station). The fourth time I come back around, sit down in the train, and the little bitchy female ride op in the station has me get out and get measured. Of course, I was too tall, and unable to ride the rest of ERT even though I had ridden three times already right in front of them. Someone asked them why they have the max height in place even though there are ZERO issues with clearance on the ride (I rode hands up every time and never came close to hitting anything). Their answer? "It's for efficiency, we don't want anyone that could possibly not fit in the restraints to get in line." OK, for starters, that kinda makes sense. But here's a good idea for increasing efficiency: GET FASTER RIDE OPS. I will admit that the lapbars were REALLY tight on my legs, but I was able to get it far enough down to lock properly every single time. So what's the issue? If you see someone that might be too tall, have them sit in the test seat (just like people who might be too large), and if the lapbar goes down far enough, let them ride!!!! Once again, Six Flags' lack of common sense shines through. And for comparison, Superman at SFA has the exact same max height and I've never been denied. Not once. That ended up being a bit wordy, but if you can imagine my frustration the entire day when I was the proper size to fit in the kiddie coaster, but couldn't even ride one of the top steel coasters in the country, it was bad. And I do want to say that Robb and Elissa put on a KICK ASS event for us, I just felt bad that the park basically ruined it for me. I don't see myself going back to that park any time soon. Here come the pictures, full album can be found on facebook here. To start the day, KidTums was obviously a bit tuckered out, so she had pallbearers carry her down the Trident steps. Entrance to the park, basically the same exact entrance as SFA. Time for ERT on Bizarro, get your money ready! And get ready to wait for our one train! Hey, there are six flags! These would change later.......... Ridiculous first drop in the back. Almost to the point where it almost seems like it was a mistake. You can see the old first drop underneath the current first drop. Foghorn Leghorn was always my favorite, so this cracked me up. I loved how the line went through the structure. This looked rather interesting, but since Boulder Dash had turned our thighs into mush the night before, and Bizarro was doing the same this morning, we decided to skip what we heard was mainly a "really painful ride for your thighs." Gerstlauer spinners get the Skycoastin' Steve Stamp of Approval. Any ride that gets the SSSOA is A-OK! These are so much better than the Zamperla spinners. And these have airtime hills. The subtitle for this trip should have been "Vekoma Tour 2011." You're too tall for Bizarro? No problem, you aren't too tall for the kiddie coaster! I usually give old woodies the benefit of the doubt, but there wasn't much benefit on this ride. I say, I say, I say..... Crappy picture, not sure why I kept it for this update. I don't want to. S&S combo tower, these are terrific. Except later in the day they were only launching instead of combo-ing. Odd. I'll give you $100 if you can tell me which direction it's going. See? I told you the flags would change. If you go to this park and don't take this picture, Foghorn Leghorn will smack you silly. Someone left their hair in the Bizarro queue. I didn't realize it when I was taking the picture, but you can see the tops of Neil and Kim's heads in the 2nd row. I did like how the 2nd half of the ride interacted with the midway. This ride did have an extraordinary amount of airtime. And now for a random milestone, this was my 250th steel coaster. I highly considered making love to this statue. The world would be a better place without these. Neil took this while Jen and I were getting our minds erased. Nice shot, Neil! This is what four TPR members look like after their minds have been erased. And yes, it's huge. I don't know if it was the beer I chugged at lunch or the skull bashing that occurred on the ride, but I wish I could remember riding this. Best Q-Bot group EVAR! And yes, it's huge. Hopefully they didn't have to pay by the letter for that sign. This ride wouldn't fall out of Superman, it has three legs. Photo walkback! These are always fun to do. Normally, if you tried to get this picture and you weren't at a TPR event, you would be ejected from the park. Take that, GP! "Dorks of the world, assume the position!" I always wondered what a photo walkback looks like from the perspective of the rider. Knowing the GP's intelligence level, they probably thought we were filming a commercial. Large parabola. I'm glad those people survived busting through that big sign. I do like this shot. I was surprised by how much force was in this turn. As you can see, it was a sunny day. One without a lick of shade. This park made Cedar Point and Carowinds look like national forests in comparison. I spy with my hazel eye, TPR members in rows 2 and 3! Six flags? Bizarro and the S&S tower dueling to the death. Bizarro has killed before, so my money is on that one. Zero-g roll THROUGH THE TRACK! Cyclone near sunset. Up close look at the topper track, this stuff was great! "Even though you've ridden it 6 times today, you can't ride anymore cause you're too tall. LOLZ." Bizarro is now #5 in my steel rankings, still behind MF, 305, Maverick, and X2.

Caesar, the masses demand more!

Judging by the restraints, it's not a huge surprise that the height restriction is 52" (I had never really paid attention to what it was before). As big as the seats are, and as bulky as the lap bar is, a shorter person would get swallowed up. I'd honestly love to see a child ride one of these, I would be impressed by their bravery (much similar to when 48" kids rode the Skycoasters I worked at, always shocked me).

This. But we don't need to get into all that again.

And honestly, I was so tired, I didn't really have the legs for Darien Lake.

You just gave me a bunch of ideas for shots I can take next time I go to BGW. Thanks! And nice pictures!

Flaming Snake Horse on Fire.

I live 10 minutes south of Stafford and was awake during the aftershock, it was barely noticeable. The floor shook a bit and my bed wiggled. I've had far more seismic activity occur in bed than what happened last night.

^Thank you, much appreciated! And I agree about cheetahs, those animals are absolutely gorgeous!

^She also had three empty seats in the front row that she had to lock and buckle the seat belt for. They were pretty even most of that day.

The rides I had on it last year and this year were probably smoother than any of the rides I had while working at CP in 2007 and 2008, and the ones last year were probably some of the fastest I've ever had (this year I rode in the morning during early entry and it hadn't warmed up yet). And the paint job has literally NOTHING to do with how good the ride is. The only reason it's a partial paint job now is because it takes a REALLY long time to paint 6400 feet of track (Intamin box track especially), and it takes a LOT of paint, which costs a LOT of money. I know you have this apocalyptic view on everything involving Cedar Fair, but jeez.

TTD and Maverick didn't heavily affect MF's lines. I don't even think rabid pit bulls and rednecks with shotguns at the entrance could affect ridership on MF. People love it and will always line up to ride it.

^That's not a very pleasant job. Kinda like emptying porta-johns, you just catch crap all day.

Yeah I go every year been riding Griffon every year since it opened. Usually they are VERY good at loading, very fast, swift, and chill. But this year they were awful. I usually give the Griffon crew a 9/10. This year I give em a 4/10. Um, no. Griffon's crew has been very, very good all year. This is a video I shot in the spring where they have two operators and still get the train out right as the train behind it is pulling in, and that was honestly one of the slowest dispatches they had that day. Sheikra's crew has never been good. Ever. Griffon and Sheikra's crews are complete, polar opposites of one another. I literally avoid riding Sheikra because of how bad that crew is, because I know how long I'll have to wait if I get in line.

What's funny is I had actually considered heading down to KD for a little while this morning before work. I'm not sure whether I would have still been there by 2, but it would have been pretty freaky to get caught on a ride during that. Just the 15 seconds I was still inside at home was terrifying wondering if the roof was going to cave in (before I ran outside). For reference, my house is 37 miles from the epicenter.

I'm about 30 miles from where the epicenter was, I've never experienced that before! Now I know that I'm never moving to California.