douggw

Wow.. Really? 8 pages and counting? I really stirred the pot.

Why does Robb have to talk so loud when on the coasters? And then throw in profanity every now and then? I like to show my kids the videos, but I have to turn off the sound first.

Went Friday the 29th, and crowd-wise it was like we had the park all to ourselves. Everything except Roar (broken half the day, and running one train the rest) and Kong (of course only running one train) was a walk on. Was a little chilly, and half the rides were down (Roar and V2 half the day, Taz, Voodoo, Monkey Business, Boomerang, etc).

Went today (Saturday) to process our season passes, and thought the crowds would get bad during the evening hours, but I was wrng. The crowds were bad from the start! First off, the web page said the park opened at noon, so we arrived at 11:30 to get in, get a ride on Superman and process our passes. The park was already open and had been for sometime when we got there. We hurried over to Superman which was an hour wait, and then went to process our season passes. The line for that (which is an extremely inefficient way of doing it, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why they can't renew previous year's passes online since they already have our photo) and the line for the season pass processing was all the way out to the big animal signs - where the giraffe and other animal sign is, that tells you you are entering the SKY part of the park. And that's AFTER they turned a lot of people away (including us) by saying that they would let you process your season passes and still get the "Gold" for free as long as you did it by the end of December. You just had to get your papers stamped showing you were there. There were hundreds of Key Club teenagers that were everywhere in the park! And in all the lines they would perform a very annoying cheer that for the first few times was funny, but very quickly got very annoying! They were only running one parking lot tram, and when we left around 2:30pm the parking lot was closed as it was full, and they were herding all the cars across the street to the fairgrounds. The Medusa line was all the way to the rock climbing wall. We were there for 3 hours and went on Superman and watched the dolphin show. We couldn't get out of there fast enough! We've been going to that park for 10 years now, and have NEVER seen it this bad. It was so terrible you couldn't even walk in the Medusa area, and that was during the day! We had some friends who stayed, and they said the Superman line was 2.5 hours long! I'd love to know what their bank deposit was today! It must have been HUGE!

Nevermind that I suggested a "quick fix". I'm sure problems will never happen again. Computers NEVER go down or have glitches. There are NEVER freak accidents. Things ALWAYS go the way they are planned. I'm sure there will never be a problem again.

Seems like a quick fix would be to just install a tire there, that drops down so it doesn't rub on the train as it passes over. If the train gets stuck, an operator can press a switch that would raise the tire, and give the train a little push. Easy, simple, and cost effective to install. No computer patches necessary. As I was waiting in line to ride a few weeks ago, I noticed how close the train comes when it's going up the rear hill backwards at the start of the ride, to cresting the loop and going into the loop. It looks like it's only a few feet from doing that. One small extra push and it's in the loop and stuck. You can't just push the train out of the loop. I thought there would be a one way switch that would prevent the train from going to far backwards into the loop. It will happen. The train will end up one day going backwards too far and get stuck in the loop.

Just got back from the park today, Thursday. Excellent day! Not very crowded at all, perfect weather and EVERY ride was operating! Yep, even Taz Devil! And are you sitting down for this next part? Ok, good. Roar had TWO trains!! First time in like 3 years I've seen that happen! Got there when the park opened, and headed right over to Superman. Was basically a walk-on the first time, then the 2nd and 3rd times right in a row, wait was only 15 minutes at the most. Excellent ride and employees were VERY efficient at loading/unloading it. Line moved very fast. Roar was pretty smooth (as smooth as Roar can get) and I rode in the front. Kong on the other hand, was NOT. I tried it again for the first time in 3 years because I heard there were new seats. The new seats didn't make any difference. Had to pop some Tylenol after that ride! I'm good now for another three years. And Voodoo was running with a new and improved program! It actually went around and around and around and went for more than 15 seconds! I talked to the ride operator and she said they changed a few things on it recently. It was a good ride! All in all, excellent visit! Park super clean. Employees still doing the stupid High 5 with their hands when you get off the ride though. I wish they had hand sanitzer stations around the park. All the restraints are so nasty dirty and gross.

There were running contests on the radio here in Sacramento a few weeks ago where the prize was VIP access on Superman on the opening day (which was June 21) and then a few days before thay, they stopped running the contests and haven't mentioned it since. Now the commercials on the radio just say "Opening Soon". And the Facebook contest where people were going to be in the commercial for the ride has basically disappeared too - no more mention of it. I doubt the opening is only going to be delayed for a "few days" as their Facebook says. Maybe they haven't gotten the timing or thrust right yet for the train to make it all the way up the hill without rolling back or going too fast through the top inversion. Or maybe it keeps volleying in the loop. Who knows...they sure are keeping quiet about it!

Just got back today from a extremely uncrowded day at SFDK! I was surprised at the lack of crowds! And EVERY ride (except Voodu - which doesn't count because it's so boring - needs a new software update) was open! Even both water rides! Monsoon Falls got stuck on the lift hill early afternoon and remained there the entire day. Riders had to be helped off. Of course, Roar only had one train, which is normal, but it was SMOOTH! Almost like silk! 100% smoother than it was when I rode it in December! Like previously posted, Boomerang had no gum ads, and the M&M Steps were gone too by the old entrance to Roar. We walked up the stairs and immediately noticed all the M&M ads were gone! You know you go to Six Flags too much when you notice empty stairs! There were a few workers working on Superman, but mostly I either saw them sitting around or nobody there at all. And the water at the Sea Lion stadium was super green and slimy looking. All in all, a great visit though!

Here's a little coaster in a park near Munich that has the same idea as Superman - just less track.

Went last week and noticed just like a previous poster that Roar was extremely rough. Much rougher than it was earlier in the summer! Even my kids said that it compared to Kong, which we avoid and haven't ridden it in years.

Loved seeing those pics. I had a season pass each summer when I was a teenager, living in Auburn. I would visit probably 5-6 times during the summer. Loved Willard's Whizzer - small but fun coaster. Loved the 5 cent root beers at the store right next to Whizzer and the IMAX theater. Ah the good ole days! I have a Marriott's Great America frisbee around the house somewhere still. I don't let the kids play with it. I tell them it's has sentimental value. And I loved BOTH the boat and log rides. The place was always so clean too. When Paramount bought it, it went to pot. Dirty, trash and gum everywhere. I haven't been back since and that was probably 7-8 years ago. Now just go to Discovery Kingdom all the time and have season passes there for the kids. I always tell them about GA though and maybe someday we will go.