Skysthelimit

^ I agree 100% and given the portfolio of parks, even if it did fit and the track was in decent enough shape, I don’t think this would be the park of choice. Dare to dream I also have intentionally moved to areas around better parks so I don’t care that much tbh at this stage, but do wish the park my best.

Given the legacy CF leadership team seems to have the upper hand at SF now, I could see Green Lantern potentially getting converted to a floorless and moved to SFDL. I don’t think it’s incredibly likely and I don’t know the dimensions off the top of my head without going to google maps to see if it would fit. But, I could see them placing this at about a 45 degree angle in place of the go-carts, between Viper and Skyscreamer. The lift hill could easily go over the campground, which is oversized to begin with. They really need a higher capacity ride to rebuild their somewhat tainted reputation from surrounding areas the past 2 decades. I was a rides supervisor/manager from 2009-2012 so I’ve always had a tendency to discuss “what-ifs” to turn the park around, and as this thread seems to continually illustrate, the improvements come in small, gradual doses. On a separate and personal note, the removal of Grizz, Giant Wheel and Thunder Rapids was inevitable but quite a blow to the lineup, especially with the 1-train ops since my departure years ago.

As a child of the 90s, this releases so much serotonin. My visit to BGW in ‘97 kicked off my enthusiast journey between riding Big Bad Wolf, Alpengiest, Drachen Fire, and of course Nessie. Should round out the collection really well too, as their family coaster line up hasn’t been quite as strong as BGT in recent years.

Hey all, hoping for some advice from the west coast locals on here. We recently moved from Orlando to Colorado for a change of pace and would love to take advantage of the short flights from Denver to LA for a quick getaway to Knott’s. I have only visited once and that was back in 2015 while Ghostrider was under its major refurb and will be my hubbys first time. Are crowds typically pretty light on weekdays in October assuming you avoid Scary Farm? I recall it being dead last time we were there in November but it was almost a decade ago. We’d love to ride Xcellerator while we still can and while all signs look good there for the time being, I noticed Silver Bullet is closed with no reopening date. Any intel on what’s going on there?

Surely the 5% surcharge has generated enough cash to keep Scorpion running.

Thanks so much, Bert!

Hey all, my husband and I are visiting SFOT tomorrow Saturday 8/17. We already bought our tickets and Flash Pass but was curious if anyone has any recent tips on the park. We visited once about 4 years ago and enjoyed it, but we’re definitely more familiar with the east coast parks. It looks like everything should be open, but there website is a little unclear on the loose article policies. Does anyone recall if lockers are mandatory and if so which rides? Also, is Mr. Freeze still running one train forward and one backward? Appreciate any recommendations for the day, especially if there are any operational “quirks” we should be aware of!

^ We’ve always errored on the side of caution and have purchased QQ even on weekdays at BGW and have never considered it a waste. Apologies if this is common knowledge, but did want to share two things about QQ at this park. If you do have a higher tier annual pass, you can get as much as 50% off daily QQ for you and your party. We live in Orlando and do this at BGT several times per year. The issue though is that the website doesn’t consistently apply the discount, and at BGW specifically we had to go to Guest Services to purchase with a discount. Second, most if not all of the QQ lines route you through the exit rather than via a merge point right at the station. I suppose if’s fundamentally better than Millennium Force’s merge point which is a half mile away, but there’s still that 20-seconds of awkwardness while you budge in front of those in the standby line. It’s nowhere near as pleasant of an experience as say FL+ at KI and I also don’t recall them accepting row requests either. For what makes us happy for a day at the park, it’s still 100% worth it though - especially if you don’t like to be in close proximity to sweaty people lol.

I went for previews yesterday as well and got 3 rides. One in the front, one in the middle and one towards the back. It’s a little obvious that they had to get creative when shoe-horning the ride into a building that wasn’t meant for this attraction, but I thought SW did an A+ job with what they had to work. The ride fills a void in the park’s lineup and we agreed that the dark ride section into the first launch was the highlight. That said, I can’t get over how rattly this thing is. Sitting in the front seat, you see B&M track in front of you but it feels like you are on a family coaster from the mid-90s given the level of jank it has. Further back in the train it isn’t quite as noticeable, but it’s still pronounced. If I was a SW exec riding this for the first time, I probably would have been pretty pissed with B&M. I’m not sure what they or Clermont Steel have been doing lately, but their work has been less than stellar. On a brighter note, Mako in the front seat still smooth and gracefas can be.

We visited Parc Asterix during our honeymoon last fall. Honestly, it was our least favorite park of the trip (I found the aesthetics a bit.. off..for my taste and the people rude) but their operations were just wild. Three trains were just flying around the layout of Oziris where we were basically forced into our seats the moment the gates opened, old school Raptor style circa 1998 (minus the DJ booth). There also wasn’t any lollygagging or foolishness with the visual scans or waltzing around the platform with a confused look despite possessing an associates degree in IROC training.

We stayed overnight in Tampa after going to the Madonna concert last night. I worked a half day from the hotel and we decided to visit the park for a few hours given we were down the road. We arrived around 1 and started with Serengeti Flyer, Kumba, Sheikra. Iron Gwazi and wrapped things up with back left on Montu. Operations were surprisingly good. Montu and Kumba were both running two trains with little to no stacking and Sheikra was running 3 trains. Iron Gwazi just seems to keep getting better with age. Outside of the Texan RMCs, I think this one has the best lap bars. The ops don’t staple and the lap bars don’t tighten at all during the ride - good stuff. The Skyride was closed for no apparent reason but otherwise a good day. Friday must be the sweet spot for operations lately. Lastly, I swear that Sheikra is the least-rattlyest B&M coaster out there. Restraints aside, it rides like a dream compared to Valravn and Dr D. that have a noticeable up and down shake to them.

I can confirm that the third train for viper (yellow train) has been scrapped for parts since at least 2009. When I worked there, there were no remnants of even the fiberglass bodies anywhere on property.

^I’m sure the Six Flags social media team has the intel ready and available on both of those topics.

I grew up in Syracuse and have been visiting the park since I was 5. I also worked there as a Rides Supervisor from 2009-2011 while in college. The leadership team at Darien Lake was and remains incredibly tenured and talented. That said, the “hopefully this year xyz will be better!” comments I’ve seen floating around the internet/coaster forums & message boards for 20 years now. It continues to be essentially the same conversations which has been interesting to watch over the years. I have a sentimental attachment to the park and care for its success, but to think something as major as a 2nd train coming to the park for Ride of Steel is frankly a pipe dream. Could be wrong, but I don’t believe that Six Flags approves capex, it’s the property owners (previously CNL, not sure who it is now) which means their hands are tied to an extent. John Hildebrandt mentioned in his book on Cedar Point (Always Cedar Point) that Gemini had a hard time competing against The Beast back in the late 70s because you can’t really “sell” a coaster to the public by using hourly throughput as a value proposition. I can see why the threat of Boomerang’s closure took precedent over increased ROS capacity. During my time, if and when we did have 2 trains available for ROS, we ran them 7 days a week regardless of crowds. We knew it was important and was always a pet peeve of mine when managing my area of the park. It just tended to take a while to have an available second train (e.g. in 2009 we don’t get it until early August). Intamin has always been notorious in the industry for not being the best about keeping parts in stock, or over charging if it’s not a white glove client of there’s. Vekoma was much easier to work with from what I recall.

Sorry, you beat me to the punch. I’m pretty sure there are only 3 bays, because I thought to myself they have no where to put the train that was running at the end of the night. When I worked Raptor eons ago, we’d never leave a train on the track in the evening and I think that’s common practice on most B&Ms to take weight off of the road wheels. You could be right on the 4 bays I just don’t recall that in all my visits. I’m giving this topic too much energy than needed but as a nerd who enjoys the history of the Busch parks, I found it interesting.