ytterbiumanalyst

OMG! They're relocating Speedy Gonzales' Truckin' Across America to St. Louis!!!!

The best family coaster on the planet.

^ Personally, I would like to see a more modern tube slide complex. Something with a cool element like a bowl or mini-funnel, to set it apart from the other complex. That one was built in 1999 and the slides are fun but dated.

This is really great news overall. I love that they're looking at a number of issues. Preserving Voyager is especially good to hear, with so many parks doing away with their flume or just not building one at all. I like flumes that get creative with their boats and don't just go with logs.

Six Flags St. Louis isn't beyond saving, but as it stands, it's just not worth it. Not for its region, not even for its state. Six Flags needs to realize this and really focus on this park's failings. Giving The Boss the Iron Horse treatment would a great step in the right direction, but revamping or covering several of their queues would also be an improvement at this point. They have the staff, but not the infrastructure. It really has been getting better. The last few years before bankruptcy it was just awful. I have family in St. Louis, and had gone just about every year from 1995-2007, but after the park's failings that year, we swore it off. Yep, American Thunder being built that next year wasn't enough to convince me to come back. But with the new ownership, they've really turned some things around. We got season tickets last year mainly because we were going to Chicago and wanted to ride Goliath, and the gold season tickets to SFStL were the same price as a one-day pass to SFGAm. Made it a no-brainer to give the park another shot, and I was impressed at the changes. It has a better children's area now than the park has ever had, and Tsunami Soaker and Justice League are both a lot of fun. So though it still has a long way to go, it's on its way up, at least. Congratulations on the wedding! And if you only get one new ride next year, Monster looks to be a good one. I'll be taking my first-ever trip to Adventureland next year because of it, and if it draws in others like me whose money they've never seen, it'll be a good investment for them.

There is more information out there than there ever has been, but that doesn't mean people are smarter. We still have gems like this: "People are stupid" has been my mantra for years, and though every so often someone thinks they'll prove me wrong, the mountain of evidence of human stupidity just keeps growing larger.

You've pretty much summed it up. American Thunder and Batman are the most re-rideable coasters, and Mr. Freeze is actually better in reverse. I've ridden it quite a bit since 1998, so maybe it's just that the reverse launch is something different, but staring down that spine is really unnerving. I actually like Boss; I find it more forceful than rough, especially after the RMC retracking, but I'm certainly in the minority on that. It kind of sucks that your #100 had to fall in Six Flags St. Louis, because Outlaw Run clearly is the best coaster in Missouri. American Thunder is the best coaster in its park, though, so that was clearly the right choice. The first drop that swoops left is great, all the turnarounds are forceful and banked perfectly, and the airtime on the final bunny hills is as good as it gets. Brilliant coaster; riding just that coaster all day is worth the price of admission.

Ooh! I've got it! Justice League: Battle for American Eagle, with sweaty VR headsets!

Or the lady that sued McDonalds for not having a hot label on coffee cups. Then there's somebody who sued a fast food place for only getting one napkin with their meal. The list just goes on and on. If people just used some common sense and follow the rules, there wouldn't be so many restrictions and dollars wasted on safety warnings everywhere. You know, there's some interesting research that shows safety warnings may actually be making us less safe. Possibly we're assuming if there's no warning against it, it must be fine; or perhaps we just see so many warnings that we don't really take them seriously. WARNING: DEATH IMMINENT would seem a lot scarier if it weren't attached to toasters.

^ Yeah, the hour wait every weekend says not too many of us are fearing for our lives. I don't think this will hurt its popularity in the slightest. Being across the street from a 40-acre church virtually guarantees mega profit every Sunday. Considering basically everything in the Springfield metro area is a chain restaurant, it's good to have something unique.

Of course then we're still out there measuring because people haven't ridden anything yet. Or the wristband came off. Or they don't have their arms in a spot we can see them. And it's now a game of trying to see it. Whereas for the most part I can be measuring and many people don't even notice it. For kids who are right on the line (like unless they try really hard, they don't make the requirement) I love giving wristbands out. But for the most part, they're a pain to deal with. Hey you can come up with a billion excuses for not doing it but the long and short of it is that the wristbands speed things up. But perhaps parks like SDC are better equipped to handle things like this. I think Holiday World does it better than SDC. Having the wristbands in the entrance plaza means you take care of that before the park opens. SDC's only wristband station is in Grand Expo, which is the oldest of their three children's areas. Guests who go only to Fireman's Landing will miss the measuring station entirely.

That's fairly standard. Everyone is 'screened' (measured) before getting on the ride, every time. In a single shift we'll see hundreds of people, and it's too hard to remember specifically "this kid is tall enough". And if you move to a different position, then theres a large chunk of people you haven't seen, so to be safe, everyone is measured. It takes only a few seconds unless there's a kid who's right on the line. Man. If only someone would invent a way to distinguish if a child is tall enough to ride that they could be given to be worn after being measured the first time. You know like maybe an armband. You know like what almost every park in the country does. Holiday World has one of those. The booth for it is in the entrance plaza, so your kid can get a wristband before the park even opens.

Another one? Seems like about every other year some idiot decides to sue them. Every suit of this type gets thrown out. Perhaps it's the 200 ft. long sign that says "Home of Throwed Rolls."

My longest trip was 1,250 miles and included 5 parks over 9 days, July 2014: Day 1: Six Flags St. Louis Day 2: Little Amerricka Day 3: Field Museum & Shedd Aquarium Day 4: Six Flags Great America Day 5: Six Flags Great America Day 6: Museum of Science and Industry Day 7: Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory, Navy Pier, Chicago Children's Museum Day 8: Santa's Village Azoosment Park Day 9: Drive home

After riding in a few more states, I'll update this. Arkansas - X-Coaster Indiana - Voyage (#2 overall) Kentucky - Kentucky Rumbler Oklahoma - Silver Bullet

I assure you, I didn't just pull that out of my A$$. If you don't like the 5 year plan, oh well - that's what's on tap right now. Oh, really? Wow, I'm sorry, random guy on the Internet. You must be right.

^ Uh...no. SDC is never removing theaters for a roller coaster. More people come to SDC for the shows than come for the coasters, and they know that very well.

Fun topic, and a little different. The company I have the most experience with is B&M, having been on several of their models (sit-down looper, floorless, hyper, invert, wing, flyer) Arrow - Mine Train (Thunderation) B&M - sit-down looper (Wildfire) Chance - Pirate Ship Eli Bridge - Ferris wheel Funtime - Star Flyer Gerstlauer - spinning coaster (though I'm sure I'll like Eurofighters and Infinity coasters better once I get to ride one) Hopkins - log flume HUSS - Condor Intamin - rapids ride (but the only coasters of theirs I've ridden are American Eagle and Vertical Velocity) Larson - Flying Scooters Mack - Twist 'n' Splash (Tsunami Soaker) Mondial - Windseeker Morgan - Hyper coaster Moser - drop tower Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters - anything by John Allen Premier - LIM Launch Shuttle (Mr. Freeze) RMC - Topper Track (Outlaw Run) S&S - Screamin' Swing Sally - Justice League: Battle for Metropolis Schwarzkopf - Looping Star (Silver Bullet) Tivoli - Troika Vekoma - suspended family coaster (Steel Lasso) Zamperla - Disko Zierer - flying carpet

I'm so glad you got to do the cave tour. That's the one thing I stress with everyone who's visiting the park for the first time. Yes, Outlaw Run squeals like that. It's louder in wet conditions, but it's always there.

^ In my experience, there is on the third down, but not on the first two. It's really crazy on that last half, and I really appreciated the breather halfway through. Without it I think the ride would have been too intense, and I don't think I would have ridden it as many times as I did. With the pause, it was one of the best coasters I've ever ridden.

THANK YOU! Finally, somebody who agrees with me! Not even close.

^ I stand by all those statements.

Yeah, if you're going within the next few days, and want to do the waterparks too, I'd get Fast Lane & Flash Pass. If you're skipping the waterparks, you don't need it, but do plan for a full day at each park. At WoF, do Spinning Dragons first, then Patriot, then go around to Prowler and proceed from there clockwise: Boomerang, Mamba, Cosmic Coaster (if you REALLY want to ride a Wacky Worm), and finish with Timber Wolf. At SFStL, hit Justice League first if it's open, then American Thunder and proceed clockwise: Mr. Freeze, Pandemonium, Boss, Screamin' Eagle, Boomerang, River King Mine Train, Batman, Ninja. Do Ninja last, as the threat of major headache and/or pain is pretty high, and you don't want that to ruin your other experiences.