HWFan

Sorry, just saw this. I'm glad that the day has finally come where people can see what I've been talking about. I also think that when people talk about the larger scale of Transformers/Spiderman, this ride will make up for it in the interactive aspect. Also, it was kinda hard to see in the POV, but one of the "surprises" was the fog screen that is the first of its kinda as it is also interactive. I have no idea how they did it, but it's an amazing result!

I think I read somewhere that it was 9 mill. Compared to Universal's Spidey which cost 100 mill. Considering that the JLBFM cars cost half a million dollars each, and SFOT has ten of them, that's $5 million just for the cars alone. I very much doubt that the entire rest of the ride, including creative development, the animation, the animatronics, the ride system, the control systems, and the physical construction, cost only an additional $4 million. Not sure where you got the half a million for each car number from, but it is just plainly untrue. While the amount of investment into the ride isn't something to be disclosed by employees online, I can hopefully help explain this a bit. 1. With 22 vehicles and the maintenance stuff, let's just make it easy and say $20 million on vehicles. That leaves $80 million left. 2. Approximately $10 million spent on four massive elevators for the vehicles. Down to $70. 3. Building massive buildings and intricately-themed queues are at least $30 million. $40 left. 4. Incredible 3D film sections that are the highest quality 3D film clips ever created at the time for $20 million, which includes creating the necessary technology and paying the voice/screen actors. That's $20 left. 5. Everything else like screens, lighting, sets, etc with the $20. It is important to remember that Transformers & Spiderman are really on a massive scale compared to JLBM. Also, one thing that made JLBM for affordable when talking about the ride's cost is that SFSL & SFOT were able to just split the cost of the 3D film development. When you get down to it, it really makes a lot of sense. P.S. Chadster, did you happen to meet Donna Gentry (the VP of Project Management for Sally)? She's an amazing lady, who is the one responsible for really making the rides possible. I am just happy that the ride at SFOT is open, as that means she'll be heading back to SFSL! Speaking of which, I get to be a test-dummy for the e-stop/evac testing tomorrow. I highly suggest some of you take a look over at the SFSL forum for some more information including pics of our superior facade & ride (being 200ft longer).....lol I'm just messin' with ya

I wanted to makes a quick note regarding the newly released POVs from SFOT. One thing that is cool about our ride is that it's 200 feet longer than the one in Texas. That's almost like the length of Mr. Freeze's station & launch tunnel. With the additional length, they were able to do a couple cool things in SFSL that they couldn't in SFOT. Ignore the kinda crappy quality of the following screenshot, but it shows just how short the load/unload platform is. Our's seems to be at least twice that length. One nice part is that in order to help capacity, the ride vehicles will be continuously moving through the station like Pandemonium. Th load/unload platform at SFOT. Also, notice how there are doors at the end of the platform? Those doors are in numerous places throughout the ride in order to keep out sound/light pollution from the scenes on each side of the one you're currently experiencing. However, with the doors at the end of the ride platform, anyone in the line can see into the ride itself as each vehicle is just thrown into the ride. At SFSL, there is a nice bit of curvy track, keeping that from happening. My goal is to give you a basic hand-drawn layout of the attraction tomorrow. In terms of the attraction's facade, it is really looking great as nice new sod now covers all of the non-concrete areas in front of the ride. Now, the following pictures of the building were taken last weekend, so things have progressed a lot since then. However, they still give you a good idea of the area. Enjoy.....or don't enjoy (prozach, i'm talking to you): The side of the building that will be used for an extended queue. Inside that grey garage door is the maintenance bay for the vehicles (I believe two can park in there), the massive A/C unit for the building, and most of the ride's computers. A close up on the entrance and light up sign. A closer look at the facade and marbling. The exit pathway leading from the ride building to the heroes v. villains shop. This area has since been sodded. The exit door and side of the other side of the building. As you can see, it has also been painted. Also, here is the building that the Hall of Justice was originally based on. It's the Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm off to bed now, however, as tomorrow will be an exciting day! After delivering a couple super hero capes to some special kids at St. Louis Children's Hospital, I'm off to work where, if everything goes as planned, I will take part in the E-stop/Evac testing. I know, I know. I am such a selfless person to volunteer for such a boring, harrowing task, but someone's gotta do it. Finally, after seeing plenty of comments on here and social media along the lines of "that fireball is nice but will only last for one season tops," I mentioned it to Dave today, who wanted to reassure everyone that it would not be going away. Now you can all sleep at night. You're welcome. As you drift off to sleep, here' s couple non-JLBM pics to close on: When returning from break Sunday, there were a bunch of deer just chillin' by my car. I've seen them all over, but never in that part of the employee lot. Ironically, I hit a deer pulling out of the park that night, which caused ,500 worth of damage to my car. I was thinking about how this is a view of the Boss that you don't normally get to see. Its two massive turns look kinda artsy or whatever.

You may not know, but is the ride requirement straight-up 42", or is there a lower limit if riding with a parent? Our youngest is 39" right now. All I know what the contest page said, which is, in its entirety: "Riders MUST be a minimum of 42” tall and accompanied by a rider 14 years or older." That would seem to imply that the height requirement is 42", period. HWFan? It seems like someone's daughter needs to start putting tissues in her shoes. Sorry, but we wouldn't want this --->

I can say that at least the vast majority of the animation/video portions of the ride that are shown in that video are not the actual ride. It'd be like watching a 3D movie without the glasses, so they just edited some parts in there. Also, is you've ridden any similar ride, you know that the motion of the vehicle and the 3D aspect is what really makes the ride.

I ran into Dave Roemer two weeks ago at the park and took the opportunity to ask him about this very issue. He said they are well aware of the possibility of excessively long lines, and if necessary are prepared to use return tickets so people don't have to stand around for hours. I was concerned about capacity months ago, and it just seemed to be ignored. I fear 2-3 hour waits for this ride in the beginning. Scooby still would have 45 min+ waits many days and it was higher capacity. Scooby was higher capacity while running all 22 boats and using both sides of the station. Last season, most of the time it was operating at a lower capacity than the projected capacity for JLBM.

Actually, this is my biggest gripe about SFStL: the park theming, such as it is, ranges from inconsistent to random to totally nonexistent, and it really detracts from the experience. I know that it's because it's an old park that grew organically and without any long range planning, and with no budget available to renovate and make things consistent from place to place in the park, but it still bugs me. I went to Universal Orlando two months ago and while the rides are way more big budget than SFStL, the thing that really made the experience was the overall theming. Wherever you went, the part of the park you were in made sense with regard to the ride, store, or restaurant in front of you. None of that "Pandemonium in the middle of the English section of the park" (and really, what makes that part of the park "English"? The wooden buildings?) Six Flags has individually themed rides, but nothing about the placement of anything is done to create a cohesive experience. For instance, you've got Ninja right across from the two Batman-themed rides, along with a Chinese restaurant, a hamburger place (Johnny Rockets) and a giant basketball game. Absolutely none of these things have anything to do with each other. And then there's that mysterious "Studio Backlot" sign on the train bridge leading to the aforementioned area, even though there is no "Movie Studio" theming whatsoever to be seen anywhere other than that one sign and two stores that have "studio" in the name. Why is that sign even there? At least with JLBFM opening, there will be two rides across from each other that bear some relationship to each other, since before, Mr. Freeze and Scooby Doo certainly didn't. This doesn't mean that the rides are any less fun, but there is absolutely nothing about SFStL that says "here I am at a theme park!" This is because there is no theme. It's mostly a random collection of rides, and I'm not knocking the rides, because they actually are lots of fun for a lower-budget park, and I am certainly hoping that JLBFM will live up to Six Flags' selling it as a Universal/Disney quality ride (I still find it hard to believe that Six Flags spent the money to live up to what I saw at Universal Orlando, but I'm definitely willing to reserve judgment.) But even with this hopefully fantastic new ride, it's just one more individual experience that is not part of a cohesive whole. And frankly, I don't know how this problem/quote] I think you answered your own question when you referred to Six Flags as a lower budget park. Its just that, a lower budget park, so expectations need to be set accordingly. We've been to Universal two years in a row and thinking about going back next year (King Kong!). Its very expensive no doubt, but we feel like we get value, because its more than just the rides. The overall presentation and the park theming adds to the whole experience. We just don't have that expectation when we go to Six Flags, never will, but that's fine. And as a Universal 'veteran' I too will be curious if JLBFM can even play in the same ballpark as Spiderman or Transformers. I doubt it will, but I would love to be wrong. As I have said over and over again, in terms of quality, it will be "in the same ballpark" as Universal. The real difference is the scale of the ride. However, this ride will have the interactive aspect, in addition to a couple other fun surprises. I would say that this ride does put a bit more emphasis on the physical sets than Transformers, but you'll see how cool that Joker animatronic will be when you ride. I've ridden Transformers over a dozen times (including the rides on both coasts) and Spiderman a few times. I even leave for our vacation at Universal on May 26th. In the end, all I can say at this point is that I am willing to stake my (what I hope is at least semi-dhd) reputation on the words above. I'm not a "everything is awesome" Six Flags shill, and I have even poked fun at the park here and there. I've toured the construction multiple times as things progressed, met multiple members of the design team, and even made a new friend in the form of the VP of Project Management at Sally. I'm not trying to sound abrasive or like a pretentious name-dropper; I'm only trying to find a way to at least turn your doubt into well-deserved skepticism. Honestly, I would be skeptical as well if I were in your position. Either way, I hope you'll get to ride it this summer and have a great time in the park!

You can view a printer-friendly dining pass menu here: https://www.sixflags.com/sites/default/files/sfsl_meallist.pdf However, they are working to update that sheet now that Firsf Cone has been added. I just called down there to confirm that you are able to get a regular waffle cone. If you would like a dipped cone, it is just $1 extra. Also, the main reason for the dining pass hours is that after 7:30, a lot of the locations shut down their dinner offerings as people stop coming in for dinner. A lot of the smaller stands will also close later in the evening, as it doesn't make financial sense to keep them open. Also, to respond to ChrisGraslie's comment, Dave especially is making sure the ride is definitely ready to open before rushing into it, which could result in some major downtime.

I am sure that would go over well with the locals in Eureka but NO just NO, dont do it. The last thing this park needs is to be trashed up with old junk planters. While I think that if placed in a couple larger pre-existing flower beds so that the boats were buried a few inches and completely surrounded by flowers, it could look really nice. But fortunately for you, there isn't any evidence to show that anyone who has the power to turn them into actual planters at the park has had a similar idea as myself. I think it'd be cool, but to each his own. Actually I think this is an awesome idea. They could have one out with some good landscaping and perhaps with some signage telling the history of the boat and the ride. I wish the park embraced its past instead of forgetting it. One cool thing that you may not have seen is that the park took a bunch of the old Hannibarrels and turned them into nice padded places to sit down near Tsunami Soaker & the train station. There is even a huge sign with lots of information & pictures of the attraction above the barrels by TS. I would expect the park to work on finding use for them before considering trashing them. The bumper cars sat for two years before they were just recently picked up by the Shriners to turn into go karts.

One thing that you have to keep in mind is the purpose of Universal vs. Six Flags. SFSL is a great place to visit to ride a decent amount of coasters (SFSL has pretty much as many coasters as each of the Universal parks has rides, not including their little kid spinners). Universal is much more expensive, and you are in part paying for that level of immersive theming. One thing that I personally never thought about until it was mentioned to me was the way in which the park's operating schedule & climate play into the level of theming. First off, with Universal/Disney being located in more tropical areas, it is much easier to maintain the outdoor theming. Going through the annual extremes of freezing/sweltering really takes its toll of most of the materials used for outdoor theming materials. Also, being open and profiting year-round is a big advantage that Universal/Disney have. As someone who has learned almost every little detail of the park and notices when even these smallest stand gets repainted, I can say that Pandemonium's placement has honestly never really bothered me. Would it be nice if it fit the original theme of that area when the park opened? Sure. But it looks nice and is a lot of fun for me and a lot of the Guests who visit the park. Parts of Cedar Point have very good theming with others having no theming at all. Even Holiday World, which really promotes and prides itself on being the first theme park, has less theming than SFSL. The amount of vinyl siding at that park could cover all the houses surrounding a few dozen cul-de-sacs in your average middle-class suburb. While it isn't a big deal to me personally, have you seen their Thanksgiving section (from the Voyage through Gobble Getaway)? After displaying some really impressive themed concept art for the area, the Voyage's massive statement is just a huge blue box that shares the functionality-comes-first mantra of a lot of the park's buildings. Again, with such rapid expansion, the budget for theming just wasn't there, and it is great that they are going back and really starting to increase theming. SFSL has some really cool & well-themed buildings (especially western ones) that cost a lot to maintain compared to vinyl siding (imagine how people would react if Batman or Mr. Freeze's station looked like the Voyage's station). Just take the park for what it is and enjoy it! There are a lot of really fun rides and we at least get a new ride of some type every year. Also, with JLBM, the lighting designer did the lighting design for the Disney castles & every ride that opened with USF & IOA. Each aspect of the ride was designed by the best in the business, and even if it isn't on as large of a scale as Universal, those designers wouldn't put their name on something that wasn't high quality. Comparing the JLBM budget to the Transformers budget, the scale and some of the aspects of the ride (such as four of the most high tech and largest elevators ever built) are largely responsible for the astronomical budget of the latter. I can't wait for you to ride JLBM, as I'm sure you'll really, really like it.

I am sure that would go over well with the locals in Eureka but NO just NO, dont do it. The last thing this park needs is to be trashed up with old junk planters. While I think that if placed in a couple larger pre-existing flower beds so that the boats were buried a few inches and completely surrounded by flowers, it could look really nice. But fortunately for you, there isn't any evidence to show that anyone who has the power to turn them into actual planters at the park has had a similar idea as myself. I think it'd be cool, but to each his own.

Thanks for that insight. It just surprised me that they would be sent through different places, but I'm sure there's a reason. I'll post a picture later tonight that I took, but it is where the larger garage door for the vehicles is on that side, and that side is also being used for the overflow queue if needed. Even without the anticipation for the ride, hopefully you'll get to ride it once. Luckily it makes Voyage to the Iron Reef at Knott's look like absolutely crap, to use technical terms. Honestly, I think that if I hadn't used the word tropical, you wouldn't have noticed it. When you see all of the landscaping in person, it looks fantastic, not really tropical. But let's remember, there are a lot of things in the park that would seem out of place more than the landscaping (i.e. Pandemonium in the middle of the English section of the park).

The remaining boats are currently in the employee parking lot. Right now, I just locked five of them down to be re-purposed in different ways at St. Louis Children's Hospital. I think that auctioning a few off would be really cool, especially if done for charity. I also think that a couple could possibly be re-purposed as cool landscaping planters around the park.

Well it must just have been bad timing on my part because they weren't running when I was there. I'm pretty sure I seen Love at First Fright about 7 years ago though. Do they do they same one every year? Maybe the shows weren't running on the days you were there. This year, they don't start until May 18, and some don't even start until the first week of June. It all has to do with the when the theater kids get off school and have time to rehearse. Last season, I dropped by to see Evolutions while on my break, and I was pleasantly surprised. Also, I know that the country shows at Miss Kitty's Saloon tend to get a lot of compliments at Guest Relations.

I'm just going to let the following pictures speak for themselves: In case there was any doubt, you can see all seven ride vehicle shipping pallets stacked in the parking lot. It's interesting that two came through Orlando International (MCO) and the rest through Baltimore.

That's a very interesting number that you just happened to throw out...just sayin'.

One thing regarding the ride and its sister in Texas, the testing & tweaking process of the ride in Texas was longer overall, because the ride is STL had the benefit of learning from the process in Texas. That is one good thing at least.

On my way out of the park tonight, I ended up walking out with and talking to the Director of Retail (Games, Merchandise, and Food). As long as the weather is better, I'll get facade pics tomorrow morning. Apparently if it hasn't rained this morning, they would have finished painting the facade. It's incredible! There is even a really cool Justice League logo light above the entrance. Also, earlier this week, the two sides of the building received fresh coats of gray paint that matches the front. The only thing on the outside of the ride that needs to be finished at this point is the nice fence in front. At this point, the queue, facade, and everything else outside the ride will be finished by the end of the weekend hopefully. The ride vehicles (all seven) have been cycling pretty much non-stop for a couple weeks now (the selfish side of me doesn't like this as Oceaneering literally locks & uses wooden beams to bariccade all the doors, meaning I haven't been able to see inside for a while). One thing to be optimistic about is the fact that the ride has made successful runs at pretty much full show-quality. At this point, it's all about minor tweaks & rare scenario (like E-stops) testing. When the ride opens, park management has made it very clear that they don't want to open the ride until absolutely ready to the point where it can be reliably counted on. If the ride has a grand opening, it's not fair to Guests & families who plan trips around the ride, if the ride will most likely be down. One of the topics I brought up with the director this evening was the new ride at Knott's. This ride will blow that one out of the water (pun intended). Does anyone know if the budget for Voyage to the Iron Reef was made public? I know what it was and was going to compare it to JLBM's budget. However, I didn't want to give any non-public SF info away on accident. Anyway, I had begun taking pics on my way out when I began talking with Gene, so I'll post the couple I took. I wanted to really give a shout out to the landscapers who worked non-stop this week, and their hard work really shows in the center of the park especially. Luckily, all of the tropical plants escaped the greenhouse finally, really sprucing up the park! New umbrellas, renovated theater, and new tropical landscaping. All in all, the park looks great! New umbrellas, renovated theater, and new tropical landscaping. All in all, the park looks great! New umbrellas, renovated theater, and new tropical landscaping. All in all, the park looks great! One really nice area is on the Palace Theater side of the DC Comics entrance train overpass. Lots of new plants, hanging baskets, and new weird square "boxes" we're hung on the side there, really making it look nice in person. First, on an unrelated note, look at the new roller coaster set up in the South County Mall's parking lot!

After getting a chance to check out all of the pictures, I wanted to point out a couple small things: 1. You can see in at least half of the pictures that there are metal poles holding a chain sticking out of every sidewalk curb in the park. This apparently did a great job in keeping people out of the landscaping (ugh, don't even get me started on this issue today in the park). However, they were eventually taken out due to people trying to jump over them (yes....it is THAT stupid), tripping, falling, and subsequently getting hurt. Actually, you can still see the holes for them by looking at any of the curbs, some of which still have the base of the metal pole imbedded in the concrete. 2. In one picture, you can see both of the park's trains. The other was a green locomotive and eventually sold to Busch Gardens Tampa, where I still believe it has operating fairly recently at least. Also, for all you train lovers out there, you may have noticed the train being a car short the last couple years or so. Well, the manufacturer of the train is no longer around, so parks that operate similar trains (like Disney) either have to do repair work in house or contract it out to be done as a custom job. The park has been replacing axels on the cars in addition to replacing a few other custom parts to ensure the Tommy G. Robertson's longevity.

I belive Dave Roemer at some point expressed disinterest regarding Larson Loop flat rides and said he didn't want to see one be put in, don't quote me on that though. Im sure we all would rather have like something other than that. Plus im sure the park has heard our 'signature steel coaster plz' requests for a while and probably have that somewhere on their list of additions to consider. People always say it's tedious as crap to put 'new steel coaster' and 'six flags st louis' in the same sentence but my gut says it'll happen in the next 5 years or so if not 2016. We'll just keep hoping! I always thought a Green Lantern themed B&M Hyper would be a dream. People have mentioned also an S&S 4D coaster and honestly that wouldn't bother me too much. Take out Ninja, you've got a perfect plot of land there. If the park received an S&S 4D, I don't think Ninja's plot of land would be used for it...but with the super loop, just think: Every park president in the SF chain would probably say they're rather have a signature coaster than a super loop. No news there. This is why you're secretly my favorite, prozach. (However, when I was likened to Paula a month or two ago, I definitely took it as a huge compliment. I just like to think that my park info/pics posts are like an edgier version of her.) To whoever asked these questions (sorry I was too lazy to go back and quote you specifically): 1. They won't be left in their current states, but all the focus right now is the front. 2. It's really nothing excited, like at all. The metal queue fencing for it went up this past week. As long as everything is going okay tomorrow, I'll try to grab a few pics of the area.

Just to clear up the Gold Pass early entry once and for all, here is an overview of the timing that goes into opening the park: 9:30 - Toll Plaza Opens 10:00 or 10:10 - Once security has the block points set, the front mall opens to all Guests. 10:20 - Gold Pass Early Entry begins at the Hurricane Harbor gate. Whether you are going to the theme park or water park early, you will still enter through that gate (there is a little path that goes behind The Flags gift shop to the regular HH exit for those wishing to enter the theme park early) 10:30 - The rest of the park and rides open for all Guests.

First, I'm sure everyone will be happy to hear that testing has been going on for a while now. Of course, it has to start with the vehicles just crawling through the course, then add speed, then add the stops/timing, then spinning, etc. Everything is going really well, and the park & designers couldn't be more pleased, from what I've heard! Second, the facade is starting to really look good! Most of the large, approximately 25ft columns are already finished completely with the faux marbling and everything. If anyone is in the park this weekend, you'll notice that some of the paint has run down the facade in a couple places on the front entrance part. Luckily, this was just the base layer and had been painted yesterday morning before the torrential downpours started. I passed the paint crews as they were headed out of the park at around 10:00am. Still, the facade is perfectly on schedule, even with the rainy days here and there.

Unfortunately, it all just has to do with the legal, contractual aspect of the membership program. However, I am sorry for the inconvenience!

Yes! You can add any of the cool pass add-ons (like the tube pass, dining pass, go-kart pass, dragons wing pass, etc) at any time. However, you won't get a monthly membership version, you'll just get the $29.99 per season version, which will work best honestly. I'd suggest buying it at the season pass service center rather than online, as you will have to go their either way to get it physically added to the pass. Plus, you'll save the $8.99 online order processing fee! Then, before you know it, the waterpark will be open and you'll be relaxing in the lazy river.

Welllllllllllll, technically they didn't need to make SE meet the ADA's requirements, due to its age, so it isn't wheelchair accessible. While I always really enjoyed SE in the past, I understand that retrofitting the ride to be wheelchair accessible isn't really feasible (like the submarines at Disneyland). Still a beautiful ride to have up on the hill there!