LaMapa

There hasn't been any new music added to the queue lines in months! I have heard Pumped Up Kicks playing since early Summer. They have about 15 songs they play on the loop and when you go weekly, it gets kinda annoying that they don't play anything else! And what always scares me is that the last 4 times I have ridden X2 (one time twice in the same day) I heard the same song as I entered the queue! They need some new music!! The new station music has been good, though.

Well, they have modified the cars in the last few weeks. Now the green shield that used to not be filled in like a circle now is. That is why they had one running empty on Saturday. Compare some pictures of the cars at the opening of the ride to the cars on Saturday. The shields are different.

Sounds like I have something to look forward to! Going to the park tomorrow and will be back with a photo update!

Yes! Agreed! That is what I am hoping for! The clues are pointing us to a giga too!

It is very intimidating! The drop scares you to death! But that's fine with me! I am glad to have more challenge! See you opening day, Lex Luthor!

I don't think it's fair to try and compare the season pass books of the 90's with the ones handed out now. First off, the passes in the 90s were actual annual passes and charged at a much higher price ($80-$100) compared to now where they're giving you an annual pass for the price of a regular day admission. Also, now, they give you discounts on merchandise and food and you can purchase a season pass parking pass when the old passes didn't offer that. I'd still say SFMM's passes are the best bang for your buck compared to other parks. Knott's and Universal are doing the pass for a price of a regular ticket but with no benefits (Knotts has only 10% at 3 of the parks many restuarants and stores and I swear they're the most expensive). They also charge a fortune to add the ability to be able to go to other CF parks when that is just thrown in with the SF passes (besides the water parks). The books are getting thinner, but there are about the same amount of coupons in the 2012 booklet as in the 2011 booklet, just the 2012 coupons are all half pages (except for the first one).

It is $20 per person for 3 people, $25 per person for 2 people, and $30 for one person. And currently on the SFMM website, it says that LL:DOD is in Samurai Summit. Haha.

Good news! It looks like I will be able to make another trip to SFMM this weekend. I will try to get a more detailed TR in with more pics. Last time I was very limited on time so I couldn't wander around too much. I will try to be there from open to close this time!

New Riddlers music-- It was very quiet so I couldn't quite make it out, but it was definitely different than the old music. Also, Tatsu had their station music turned on again.

It is usually more crowded in February than in January. But it won't be summer crowds. You will still be able to get all the rides done in 1 day.

Here's some photos from today. A few more will be coming later. Green Lantern had a very short line all day today! The only line was a few minutes inside! More Green Lantern shortness! I love these days! It was almost like ERT! Other than X2.. But we will get to that later. One train operation on Scream! It was a bit longer than usual because of this. Goliath was running 2 trains today, so it was a walk-on. Again, like ERT! The midways were very empty today. It was like a ghost town. You will almost never see this, especially this area of the park. This was the end of the line for X2 due to 1 train operation. It took about an hour to get on the ride. The line moved VERY slow! The ramp on the side of the station took about 30 minutes to get through. The ride op managing this side of the station was filling the station to a four train wait inside the station, then would let the station empty until there was no one in it before he would let anyone else in. Then he would fill it again! It was an interesting plan. But this is what the empty station looks like. More pics coming tomorrow! But overall pretty good day! And nothing has really changed inside the park except new station music for Riddlers and Goliath. X2's music was off, but the fire was on. Have a good night!

Yes, that did surprise me! And so did the operations today! They were amazing!

Decent day at the park today! Photos will be up very soon (cell phone quality only though). Here's a quick overview: 1 train operation on X2! This isn't good... took an hour and I got in line at 5 PM. It was because of the valleying. The valleyed train was completely reassembled, but all the seats were still in the flipped position in the maintenance area. Tatsu-best operations in a LONG time. They were NOT stacking and there was a 1 train wait. Riddlers had a long line due to 1 train operation, so I opted for single rider. Superman was still running, but I didn't get a chance to ride it. Green Lantern was walk-on all day, and I was lucky enough to get stuck on it! The stabilizer wasn't stabilizing the car behind us. It continued to flip and flip them! The ride ops told the riders to kick to make the weight a little more balanced, but it was very funny. Scream was running one train, so there was a 10 min. wait, and Goliath was walk-on. It was a very dead day at the park, which you will see on my pictures coming VERY soon!

I'm heading down to the mountain for a while for a trip this afternoon. So I will have a TR for you tonight once I get back!

When Tatsu runs one train, a return-ticket system is used, with a time given for people to return to the ride. It is arranged so only about 250 people can be in the queue at once (about a 1 hour wait). However, that was when the dispatch times were about 4-5 minutes. Now, they can usually send trains out in around 3-4 minute intervals. While that is still pretty slow, it is much better than the old way. Last year, pretty much every coaster except X2 went down to one train at one time or another. This year, they seem to better have their act together with ride rehabs, and Tatsu hasn't gone down to one train yet. Since Tatsu has three trains, it should ideally never have to run only one train. X2 has three trains, and each train takes longer to rehab than on Tatsu. Their priorities should be X2, Tatsu, and Goliath. These rides all have three trains, and so far none of these have had to go down to one train. Hopefully, it can stay this way the whole season. There were a couple days last year when Tatsu was not stacking with two trains! The line moved so fast! Tatsu, Scream, and Viper were down to 1 train back in December when I went, not to mention X2 being closed due to wind. It was an empty day, but the Tatsu line took about 45 min. still. Then I went on Jan. 2nd and all of these rides were running 2 trains. I remember the days when rides like Goliath and Tatsu ran with 3 trains. That was nice! They need to take X2 train 1 off for rehab for a while, it is becoming unbearable. Does anyone know which ride at SFMM has the greatest capacity? Riddlers is really slow with one train too. It took 25 minutes to get through the switchbacks just outside of the station. I would say they were 5-6 min. dispatches.

Yes. Train 3 was in rehab through almost all of 2011, so they were running trains 1 and 2 until December. 2 clearly ran better during this time. But for some reason they took 2 off first for rehab and put 3 back. Now three and really smooth with loud audio and 1 is really rough with quiet audio. They need to take 1 off! But yes, train 3 hasn't been used for the last year or so until now.

Yes, I wonder which train this was that stalled?

Uh oh! Hopefully they can fix this quick! I wonder which train this is. Currently trains 1 and 3 are operational with guests and train 2 is in rehab. Maybe they were testing it with the fixed audio! I wonder if it is still saying "Is everybody in?" right now!

It was a great day! Short lines and SNOW! That was one of my best trips ever!

^Agreed. I did it on a rainy, cold, and windy night in February and that was the best ride I have ever gotten on it. Winter nights usually only back up to 20 minutes or so. And that is still worth it.

I recommend using Discover anytime you go, especially when you are going to X2. Green Lantern doesn't really matter because only four people decided to go to it a few days before Christmas. My friend and I were 2 of the 4. So you can get in a lot of morning rides! But only do the X2 later trick if the park isn't very busy. And make sure it closes at 6PM. If it doesn't, then your best bet is to go first thing, as the line won't drop more than 15 min. during these times.

Yes, but that is still long for a 20 second ride. And Tatsu is best to ride right before closing, it usually has the shortest line then. If you can't ride X2 in the morning, then ride between 3 and 5 pm. That is when the line is shortest. Green Lantern is usually the worst in the middle of the day, but it usually empties out in the morning and before closing. Goliath is almost always bad in the afternoon.

Yes, be sure to get on Superman! I would recommend that you ride in the morning, as the lines tend to get long in the afternoon.

Yes, but only do Green Lantern first if it is an emptier day. And have at least 3 people. Or else they might make you wait until more show up, which could be like 10 minutes in the morning. And yes, X2 is usually shorter around 3-5 pm. I went on January 3rd, and in the morning the X2 line was out the entrance (not using any queues though). I checked back at around 1 PM and the line was to the end of the large queue area by the lift hill. The line stopped at the end of the first switchback. Then when I went in at about 3:30, you could almost walk up to where they split you to the stairs or the ramp. The end was right under the big X2 logo. The wait went down from about an hour to 15 minutes in about 2 hours! That's crazy!

I can't wait until they announce more about this year's WCB! Hopefully it will be as good as it was in previous years. But other than WCB, I would recommend that you find a good order to ride the rides. Also, go on the random days it is open that people don't always know it is open. Columbus Day (October 10th) was great. So was the day before Thanksgiving. The week before Christmas is great, but the week after is packed. Avoid Summer weekends at all costs. Summer weekdays are moderate.