MrSum1_55

If you don't mind eating or drinking while standing, bring a snack and some water in a long line with you. You will get in one extra ride, and it will give you something to do in a long line. Always sneak in some water bottles, and never be too cool for the drinking fountain. (Seriously. I know some people (mostly female) who think they are too cool for the fountain)

Lets see: Space Mountain BTMR Matterhorn GGC CaS GSS Would you mind naming me the seventh? In addition to what I said above, many people have a difficult time grasping the fact that their local SF park probably has more coasters and thrill rides than DRL, one just has more family rides. I even just heard the following today! What!? I really feel like a dumb GP magnet now! (I can't even count how many times I have posted in this thread!)

I would like to participate by uploading an RCT1 park, but I have a bit of a problem. Whenever I go to select the SV4 file to upload it, I get the warning that says "This file type is not supported, please select another track," even though it is flat out stated that this file type IS supported. Any help?

What does this mean? Does this mean you can load prebuilt tracks from the game? Recreate real coasters? I am very excited about this challenge, although I will have to get used to not using trainers!

What's with the GP in thinking that when a ride is rough, it is automatically 'old'? All wood coasters are 'old'. All SLC's are 'old'. Also, all smooth coasters are 'new'. So, that means that WDW's BTMR (1980) is newer than an SLC (1995-on). Also, I am not really a big fan of the Disney experience. Sure their dark rides are awesome, but the overall operations seem to get worse with every visit. Anyway, I had a conversation with someone that went like this: Other person: How many roller coasters are at Disneyland? Me: Do you mean just Disneyland or the entire resort? Other person: The entrie resort Me: six Other person: That's impossible! They have way more than that! Here is another one that has happened to me SEVERAL times from different people! Me: Have you heard of Six Flags Magic Mountain? Other person: What? Me: It is a theme park in Southern California Other person: Is that a part of Disneyland? Me: (Mental facepalm) No. It is its own separate park. [usually it ends here. But, once it kept going] Other person: Is that the place that is across from Disneyland? Me: No. That is California Adventure. Magic Mountain is its own separate park. Other person: Is it the place that is really close to Disneyland? Me: No. That's Knott's Berry Farm. Magic Mountain is in Valencia. Other person: Oh. I thought those were the only two theme parks in California! Me: [Mental facepalm, again!] The worst part was, I had this coversation when I was about ten, speaking to someone in her twenties!

^The Superman statue is gone, because, well, you cannot see it on the ride anymore, unless they choose to switich around one side. It was also difficult to see from the ground, anyway. Why not remove it to save 10 bucks of paint every year?

^Really, line jumping depends not on staff and security, but on the quality of the people who visit the park. It is simply impossible to monitor every point of the line, especially in areas of which there are switchbacks. If you are a pre-teen--young adult who has a major thirst for adventure, you would much rather be line jumping for X2 or Tatsu over Space Mountain. I you are a more mellow, rule abiding person who prefers gentler rides like Space Mountain, you will probably find yourself at the gate of Disneyland. I hate to stereotype, but this is usually the way it is. Not all people in the former category are rowdy line jumpers (enthusiasts, anyone), and vice versa. One incident I had was a summer weekday at Knott's. XLR8R, GhostRider, and Silver Bullet's queues were filled with teens, but I noticed little (if any) line jumping for these three rides all day! However, on rides such as Sidewinder and Pony Express, line jumping was horrible with eight-year-olds (from those stupid youth clubs) simply passing people to get to the front of the line! In fact, once an instructer actually cut the line with them! Anyway, back on topic of SFDK, some of my friends actually cut the Medusa line! (I was one of the people they cut) They offered for me to come into their newly-stolen spot, but, of course, I rejected. It really feels awkward when you are the only one in a large group who understands the ways of enthusiasts, people who love to ride rides, but follow park rules.

Pretty much all improvments are coming along great in my eyes, EXCEPT for Goofy's Sky School. I was never a big fan of the original cardboard theming, and I believe the new theming looks equally tacky. Cars Land, on the other hand, looks GREAT! I can see how this will take a while, though.

^While that does explain the confusing layout, all they really have to do in the front of the park is plant a few trees and plants and add some shaded canopies. These small investments would make the park look and far nicer than it currently is. There is little shade in the front of the park, which can suck on both extremes of weather. (On my visit, it was raining in the morning and the sun was blazing in the afternoon.) Also, I there are quite a few parks out there with poor operations that can at least boast cleanliness. (Cedar Fair parks, anyone?) You are right about line jumping, though. Most of the time, it is just people holding spots in line; the people who do legitimately line jump are mostly pre-teens, and can happen literally anywhere. I have even been (legitimately, I do not consider holding spots legitimate line jumping, even though it is still against the rules) cut in line at Disneyland! One of my worst examples was at CS at DCA in the Fastpass line; a bunch of kids who did not even have Fastpasses could sneak through the plants to the right of the queue, and be in the line!

^Great advice. I was JUST about to begin planning a SoCal trip around GL opening. Good thing I found out about this just now. (Although I will not be surprised if there is another delay)

^I agree with you as well. SFDK looks very much like a "permanant carnival," with games and rides placed wherever they will fit. There is little shade, few trees, and cleanliness leaves A LOT to be desired. Although all coasters were running their maximum number of trains, I did not go on a single, multi-train ride where all the trains were not stacked. Great America has more trees and scenery, as well as some rides being well intertwined in them (Flight Deck, Demon, or possibly even Grizzly). Also, the park was a hell of a lot cleaner on my one visit to Great America than it has been in all my SFDK visits, even though my CGA visit was busier than some of my SFDK visits! I have another interesting story I did not include in this TR. I came VERY close to purchasing a flashpass. (I have never done so before.) I went to ask one employee where the Flashpass office was. She did not even know where it was. Instead, I was directed to another employee who did know where it was. What!? The Flashpass is one of Six Flags's main sources of profit. How can an employee not know where the office is!? (This was especially atrocious, considering, I asked this at the entrance, of which the office is just behind the fountain and around the corner) Often, people complain about SFMM's slow operations. However, all I have to do is say to myself "At least I am not at SFDK." SFMM is clean, has some good vegetation in certain areas, and has better operations an employees than SFDK. I really wasn't so negative about this park until this visit. I used to believe it had potential, but now I will likely stick to CGA, unless given the opportunity for a special event (Bay Area Bash, anyone?) P.S. People often complain about line jumping at CGA. Well, I encountered worse on this visit than any to CGA.

In the past few pages, we have mentioned Dollywood, Silver Dollar City, Knott's, and Cedar Point. Is this really the SFMM thread?

Recently, I took a trip to SFDK with about 15 friends, all of them GP. Some stupid things I heard were... "OMG. (At Medusa testing) Are they running it backwards?" In line for Sky Screamer last tuesday (after the opening on the previous Friday) Me: This ride just opened last Friday Friend: Were you here last Friday? Me (In my mind): Really? We just drove hours to get to this place. Why would I visit twice in the same week? Why is it that whenever you know some random statistic about some coaster (or ride) somewhere, many people assume you have been on that coaster? Next to Roar: "Is this ride really made of wood, or is it just made to look that way?" (We were literally 5 FEET away from the structure, close enough to where you could see all the details and chips in the wood.)

^I will say, Great America does have better operations than SFDK. This, combined with the lack of new rides, generally result in shorter lines. Ten rides at CGA? Sounds like a good day at SFDK. Could this be the wordt SF park, behind SFA and SFLR? It is not very clean, dispatches are very slow, and the coaster lineup is not really too inspiring. The only perk is how they have a slightly larger percentage of family rides compared to other SF parks. I would much rather go to CGA, as it has the undisputed best coaster in the area.

^^^Exactly! A tilt is exactly what this ride needs to be complete! A lack of variation is probably the ride's largest flaw. After the 2nd or 3rd cycle, you have pretty much seen all the ride has to offer. If Funtime could figure out how to add a tilt to one of these, the excitment would significantly improve! Currently, the ride is all bark and no bite. Many experienced riders were too afraid to ride this. However, even people afraid to ride Boomerangs could ride this with ease. ^^The same thing happened at the opening of S:EFK (also WCB day). Superman's wait was only 60-90 minutes. However, X2 and Apoc both had two-hour waits, with Tatsu imposing a ticket system (due to 1 train operations) Even Viper had a full queue at one point! (Seriously. When was the last time anybody waited more than 10 minutes to ride that!?)

This visit was on May 31, 2011. I will say, the place was packed. I was traveling in a very large group (something I cannot stand doing), and, due to crowds and group setbacks, I managed a whopping five rides all day. Waits were over an hour for nearly every coaster, and nearly two hours for Medusa. However, this is enough of an introduction. Now for my Sky Screamer review! As I mentioned earlier, I hate traveling to theme parks in large groups (unless that group happens to be one of TPR members). Most everyone in this group was visiting the park for their first time, and pretty much everyone was afraid to ride Sky Screamer. After each of us had gotten in our rides, we all looked at each other. The opinion of this ride among our group was mostly a unanimous "was that it?". The ride is usually classified as an "extreme chairswing." However, to me, it was nothing more than a "high elevated normal chairswing." To place into more perspective how tame this ride actually is, i have a specific anecdote. I knew someone who was showing great fear prior to the boarding of this attraction, and, after the end, she had realized there was nothing to worry about. Sounds simple, right? Well, after we split the group, we returned to out meeting position at the end of the day, and I had a twenty-minute conversation with her on how she had to be pressured into going on Boomerang. However, after riding it, she thought it was pretty much the coolest coaster ever built! This was no isolated incident. I heard many anecdotes of the GP being unimpressed with Sky Screamer, while believing the Vekoma Boomerang to be the greatest feat of engineering in existence. Anyway, now for my TR of this mediocre day! We arrived at the park, only to find it to be PACKED! The walkway from the entrance to the parking lot had people struggling for elbow room. It is time for SFDK's awesome new ride (Or is it?) Can each of those tiny chains really hold 800 lb? (Sorry ACErs) Looks like we might have to wait! Turns out, the actual wait was only 45 minutes. (Medusa was nearly a two-hour wait) Kong, through the chains! Zero Gee! (You can get some really awesoms shots of Medusa from Sky Screamer's queue!) Twisty! Medusa, through the canopy! (SFDK really needs more trees) Is this one a "through the fence" shot? Sky Screamer doing its thing! It always stalls about 10-20 feet off the ground, to allow swinging to stop. My final verdict: this ride is just so boring! Pretty much everyone who I would classify as GP prefered Boomerang (!) to this. I might actually agree with them! (For one particular anecdote, refer to the text above) After spliting the group and eating lunch (waiting for everyone to finish), I headed over to V2. (Wait was about 45 min.) V2's Unique Twist Isn't it quite odd for a steel coaster to use a wood matinence platform? After a quick ride on Pandemonium, it was time to brave the Medusa line (it was a bit shorter than before) It should have only been this long, but several delays made it last nearly two hours for me. On pretty much every cycle, the two trains were stacked. Okay, but that is very "Six Flags" Eventually, there was a minor breakdown. After 10 minutes, they began running one train empty, one train full! Shortly after they got the second train running full again, they announced that they would ba adding the third train. This delay took about 15 minutes. As it would turn out, the addition of the third train did not help anything at all. On every cycle, all three trains were stacked, resulting in absolutly no improvment over running two trains. This was quite funny. Why would a SF park show a commercial featuring a Cedar Fair coaster? This sign I found to be quite funny. It basically said "This park sucks. Try to win a trip to SFOT instead." (Don't all SF parks have this now?" Gotta love the expensive theming SF puts into their rides! (This was pretty much the worst I have seen the park in all my visits) After my front-seat ride on Medusa, I strolled over to Roar. It broke down, though. They were cycling empty trains shortly after I queued. However, they began running full trains again, so I got in one quick ride before leaving. I pretty much gave you an entire trip report, with all five rides I went on. (Although I did not get a picture of Pandemonium). I did not ride the two Vekomas (for obvious reasons, to an enthusiast). Overall, I cannot state in any other way that I thought this was the least enjoyable visit I have had to the park. Gum and trash were everywhere and lines were very long with slow dispatches. Sky Screamer also seems quite overhyped, to say the least. I bid you a farewell on this TR, and I do not recomend visiting SFDK anytime soon without a Flashpass.

Today, I just recieved a new contender for my worst line (and probably my second worst of all) I queued for Medusa at SFDK. It was raining, and the queuing area was full, including the giant outdoor switchback (I hate getting wet) (Kept on waiting) A small 10 minute breakdown took place. After this, one of the trains was sent around half-empty for a few cycles. (Kept on waiting) About 45 minutes had gone by, and I was finally under the covered area. All of the sudden, I heard an announcment "For your convienience, we will be adding a third train" OK. The line has been the same length all day. Why are you adding the third train now? Oh, well. Better late than never Or is it? It took about 15 minutes to add the third train. Previously, I noticed that dispatches took about four minutes. I wondered how the third train would help at all (Kept on waiting) It did not take me long to realize that the addition of the third train was pretty much pointless! (All three trains were being stacked on every cycle) (Kept on waiting, until front seat line) Total, the wait added up to just under two hours. Did I mention the rain cleared shortly after I got in the covered area?

One question, though. How come this one-train rehab never seemed to happen around the Jay Thomas management? How was he able to do this so at least two trains can run? Are there plans to get a ride such as Tatsu back up to three train operation? This seems to be reasonable excuse, although I can find little apparent excuses for the extended rehab of Apoc and Deja Vu. Also, why the hell did many of these rehab schedules go into Spring Break? Was that by accident?

I went on a thursday the week after Spring Break, and Deja Vu was actually open! Why would they take a break from rehab, only to close it again? (Maybe it was just another GIB 'off' day) To my knowledge, they have been running one train since March (and probably longer). The reason for such a long rehab is that Apoc only has two trains, meaning they have to refurb each one, one at a time. Tatsu's rehab was much shorter, since that ride has three trains, meaning they can rehab two at once, and switch the two rehabs for the one running one. My suggestion: either do the ticket system (if you were at SFMM around or during WCB, you know what I mean) or just close the ride completely. There is nothing worse than waiting 2 hours for a one train ride. I just do not understand why they would impose a ticket system on Tatsu, but not on Apoc! (Both had 2 hour waits with 1 train, but only Tatsu got the special treatment)

On this debate, I am not really sure which side to take. On the one hand kiddie rides spread around the park means the adults have something more to do, as they ride a coaster nearby to a kiddie ride. However, on the other hand, do we really want rowdy teens disembarking from Deja Vu running amuck on kids' precious kiddie coaster? In addition, young kids (just too large for the stroller) hate walking. It probably depends on whose point of view you look at it from; the kid or the adult.

I have a couple new ones on vertical drop coasters. Once, I heard somebody say that "roller coasters can't do 90 degree drops. One time, on a ride that did do a 90 degree drop, a kid who was too short fell out and died, so they had to make the drop less steep" Me: (In my mind) Do the words "height restriction" mean anything to you? At another time, I had the complete opposite situation! One person kept insisting that Griffon's Drop was beyond 90 degrees. (I bet we have all heard this one plenty of times, though).

There is no arguing to the point that this is a kiddie ride; it is and has no desire to be anything more. Even if the scenes are modeled exactly after the movie, younger kids know it is simply animation on a screen. However, when you take it to the level of an amusment park ride, what kids know is not real suddenly becomes (or gets closer to) reality. Heck, I was even afraid to ride (the old) Space Mountain at Disneyland before my first ride; not due to the speeds and G-forces, but because I was afraid of the dark. After my first ride (at age 6-7) I realized there was nothing to fear, since there was nothing scary to jump out at you.

Did this day actually come!? Is it REALLY open!? I don't believe this pictures are real. I think you dreamt this happened, snuck a camera into your dream, and brought the pictures back to the real world.

On this topic, I have an interesting story. I was next in the X2 line, having just waited an hour. Dispatches were about 4-5 minutes to a train, and two ride ops were checking restraints on each side. At the front of the line, I heard the two ops arguing over who had just run through the restraints the fastest! (Seriously. They were RACING each other, and it still took them 5 minutes almost every time!) Anyway, I am not sure why American parks force down lap bars, while European ones do not. Just a quick look to see if the restraint is mostly down should be fine. Even on American B&M flyers, ankle restraints are rarely thoroughly checked. The ride ops just look to see if they are locked down far enough. Why aren't other restraint systems like this!? It must have something to do with the ankle restraint being in syncornicity with the OTSR.

Alright. We have all been in the situation when we have been turned down from a ride as a result of being too short/too large/or perhaps too tall. However, I have an all new story. I had just waited 45 minutes to ride DownUnder Thunder (waterslide) at CGA. I was 13 at the time, and, although I have always been very small, I knew I was well above the height restriction. I got to the front of the line. This conversation happened Op: Are you a single rider? Me: Yes. Op: Well, please get in...wait, how much do you weigh? Me: 100 lb Op: Sorry. We need a combined weight of 120 lb! This was more funny than dissapointing, though! I would like to thank the op for letting me go down the adjacent orange slide, though. This was far from my worst waterslide incident! The longest I have waited for one was almost 2 hours to ride Pacific Spin at Knott's SC! This experience ruined funnel tube rides for me.