austinlee

I have a few friends who have been to many more parks than I have. All of them have said SFMM has a better coaster collection. Before Terminator Salvation existed one of them said "CP has a higher quantity, but SFMM has better quality coasters". Since coasters are 99% of the reason I visit parks, I guess I live near the correct park. ^ I want in Intamin Gyro Drop on top of the hill too. Other than coasters, drop towers are the rides I enjoy the most.

Next week is the end of Spring Break just about everywhere in SoCal. Most weekday crowds will shrink back down to walk ons on just about everything starting on April 12th. I hope for your sake that there is no special event on the 16th but the 7:00 closing time on a school day is definitely suspicious to me. Agreed that the food lines are painfully slow and need to be improved.

Every time I have been to the park in April on a weekday it has been deserted. The key is just to avoid Spring Break, go on a school day when they close at 6:00, and avoid special events. Last year I went on April 20, which was the first Monday right after Spring Break ended and there were so few people there that I was able to re-ride X2 without exiting the train. Every ride I went on that day had less than 10 people in line. It was that light when I was there on 3/31/08 too, which was also the first Monday right after the end of Spring Break. In my experience the first two weeks of May are very light on weekdays too, but the end of May is usually crowded on weekdays which I think is because colleges start to get out.

Good luck but I would suggest that you keep checking their calendar in case something shows up on that day. I'm going later this month too, but I haven't picked an exact date yet, although it will be on a weekday.

^ Normally any April Friday, other than Spring Break, would be a good day go to, but April 23rd is Math and Science Day, which is an event that is usually crowded. The park is even open until 7:00 instead of 6:00 that day which is very unusual for a school day and seems to be an indication that they expect it to be crowded. If you want your visit to be near his birthday I would suggest that you go on the 22nd or 26th. Any weekday this month, starting on the 12th, should be very light except for the 16th and 23rd. Their calendar shows that they are open until 7:00 on the 16th too, but no event has been listed yet. My best guess is that there will be a special event on the 16th too.

^^ Thanks for the info Robb. I did a search on RCDB and only the three which are/were in the U.S. showed up since the one in Spain has a different name, Stunt Fall. I just searched by park name and found the 4th one. I've never heard of it before.

^^ That could be. I have had many school day and off-season visits to SFMM when I have been allowed to re-ride X2 without leaving the station when it had a two train wait or less. On my last visit a ride op made me exit and walk all the way around even though it was a walk on. Maybe he was in an unfriendly mood that day too.

Yes, that's quite a walk and I don't know what the point would be in making people walk all the way around. Wouldn't it be better to let people stay on than send out empty trains?

^ I'm not entirely sure of what I would pick but your last two suggestions both sound great to me. I have also thought that an El Loco, similar to Steel Hawg would make a fairly intense and somewhat unique addition to the park. I just wonder if something like that would have capacity issues at a big park when the park is crowded. Do any of you know how many cars can run on Steel Hawg or a similar coaster simultaneously?

OK, that explains it. It does stink that they made you walk around when there was no line. Pretty cool that you got on that many times though. This reminds me of the three best hours I've ever had at SFMM. 1. Rode X2 10 times in one hour on Season Pass Appreciation Day. 2. Rode X2 4 times, Tatsu twice and Deja Vu twice in one hour. 3. Rode Goliath, Scream, Batman: TR and Riddler's Revenge twice each in one hour.

^^ Thanks. I was there the first Tuesday in Feb. I must have just hit a bad day. Every ride I checked was 1 hour plus and most of them had much more than 1 hour waits.

Thanks for the info and picture. Deja Vu at SFMM is my #3 coaster. Hard to believe it's the only one left which is still at it's original park, which I am very thankful for. I hope this one is a success at it's new home.

^ Wow, that is a shocker. I went to DL on a Tuesday in Feb, 06 and Space Mountain had a 3 hour line. I've never seen it have less than a 1 hour line.

^ I have had solo rides on Viper, Revolution and Gold Rusher at SFMM within the last 6 months. Every time it happened the ride ops and the few people in line cheered when I came back into the station. I thought it was pretty funny. Also, on my last visit, I was on Deja Vu and saw the train on Terminator with a solo rider on it.

This sounds like a great idea to me. I always liked Supreme Scream much more because the slow climb to the top is the most exciting part of the ride to me. This would give people three options depending on how much of a thrill they are looking for. I don't think getting shot up from ground level is scary at all. Most guests at SFMM would be looking for more of a thrill than at DCA, in my opinion.

I believe Mega Mountain is what the park was called when it was used in an episode of The King of Queens. I tried to search for this but was not able to verify it, but I'm pretty sure.

I have to admit it makes me feel a little better about visiting parks alone now that I know so many of you are doing the same thing. All these years I thought I was in the vast minority. I have been doing it for so long that I now actually prefer it. I enjoy the freedom to do whatever I want, especially when I want to power ride my favorite coaster and there is nobody there to say "let's go ride something else, we just rode that".

^^ Yes, that would be a nice addition for SFMM now that Freefall is gone and they don't have any type of drop ride anymore.

Shockwave was my favorite coaster when it was there. It was my first stand-up coaster too. I was really disappointed when it was removed which is the main reason I rode Vortex at CGA about 15 times in one visit when my parents and I went there on vacation in 1991. I was still disappointed that Shockwave was gone and was having stand-up coaster withdrawals which didn't go away until Riddler's Revenge opened.

This happens to me too, I know most of the ride operators for Xcelerator pretty well as well as several of the Supreme Scream operators. You just make friends at the park if you have too, thats what I have done because I have no roller coaster enthusiast friends that are willing to go to Knott's as much as I do I had this happen at KBF in 2005, just after Silver Bullet opened. I went there almost every Sunday that whole year and a ride op on Silver Bullet started to expect me to be there every Sunday. I skipped a Sunday one time and went to SFMM that Tuesday instead. The following Sunday I went to KBF again and she said she missed me since I wasn't there the previous weekend. I told her I "cheated on her" and went to SFMM instead. That gave her a good laugh.

I think the show is contrived and scripted too. Would any of these CEO's, on any episode, actually pick out employees and help them this much if they weren't on TV? I really doubt it.

I've never heard about this before. It sounds very cool. I'll have to try it sometime.

Thanks for the info. I guess the expiration date is fixed. That means I may not even get to use the skip the line pass anyway. I am currently planning to go the park in late April and mid to late May. Oh well, I've rode the heck out of every coaster in the park anyway. As long as I get all five rewards and get a discount on my Xtreme Pass next year I'll be happy. I don't really need the other four rewards anyway.

I go to SFMM and KBF alone on almost every visit. My friends are afraid to ride and my coaster enthusiast dad doesn't go to the parks very much anymore. I have no problem going alone. I can do whatever I want without worrying about what other people want to do. If my choice comes down to go alone or don't go, which it has, I will go alone without a second thought. On most visits I end up talking to other people in line or some of the employees. On all four of my SFMM visits this year I have had employees recognize me and start talking to me while I was in line or walk up and talk to me while I was walking around the park.

Could you please tell me the expiration date on your skip the line pass? I would like to see if the expiration date is different than Eric's since you went to the park 2 weeks after he did. SFMM answered my e-mail today and I am not going to get credit for my visit last week. I would like to see if there is any chance that I can use the pass in June since my first visit which is eligible for rewards won't be until April. I am still unsure of what went wrong. I signed up for Funatics months ago. Also, how can they say I was not opted in to receive e-mails when I have been receiving e-mails from them? Here is the complete response I received today. Thank you for contacting Six Flags. I apologize, but when you processed your season pass, you were not opted in to receive emails from Six Flags. Because of this, you did not receive credit for your first visit. I order to receive credit for your visit, you need to be opted in by midnight during your visit. I went ahead and opted you in to receive emails, so on your next visit, you will begin to receive credit for your visits. We look forward to your next visit. Have a Six Flags Day!