BDFS
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Posts posted by BDFS
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Well I just got back from Six Flags St. Louis Media Day for Justice League Battle for Metropolis.
You can tell that Six Flag's St.Louis has seriously upped their game for creating a state-of-the-art 4D dark ride. Six Flags has partnered with Sally Corporation, they designed the complete experience of the ride. Pure Imagination are the geniuses behind the Computer Generated Imagery. Alterface are the ones behind the interactive game play. And finally Oceaneering is what tied this ride together. I truly believe if they did not have a part in JLBFM, it would not be the ride it is.
You start by taking a stroll through Centennial Park which is on the left side of Hall of Justice. As you enter Hall of Justice the first thing you notice is the air conditioning! You will truly appreciate it because in St. Louis we have and hot humid summers that have excess temps of 100+ degrees!.. as you approach the end queue line you will notice Cyborg the life-size realistic looking animatronic that is basically explaining what is going on for the story of the ride. His job is to recruit you to help save the Justice League from The Joker and Lex Luthor.
As you board your six passenger car you will notice that the ride does not stop at all. The cars continuously load and unload while slowly moving. This will defiantly will help moving the line as fast as possible. Get those 3D glasses on right now!
Now as the ride begins you get a shot of "laughing gas" and then are you finally whisked away to the first scene of the ride. It’s on a very large screen and which has lots of action going on. Joker is standing on top of a monster truck, Joker’s crew is in the orange jumpsuits and are throwing all different sorts of weapons at you. Superman captures The Joker, and right away Lex Luthor comes and takes out Superman and immediately takes Superman to LexCorp Headquarters. On to the next scene…
The next scene begins as you enter a set of automatic sliding doors. Your car approaches animatronic of The Joker sitting on an a.t.v. He then moves forward and shoots another blast of “laughing gas” at you. Now your car slides down a portion of the track and then spins sideways and you get a small flash fireball directly in front of your car. As you come around the corner you have a classic old school dark ride part… the front of a van as it honking its horn while flashing the headlights while moving directly toward your car. This is the end this scene. I’m calling all of this part the second scene.
When the next scene starts you are in front another large video screen. On this scene it has you placed at LexCorp. You have Cyborg telling you to “watch his back” as he tries to dismantle the security panel. Then almost out of nowhere Batman arrives in the Batmobile as Cyborg was able to dismantle the security panel and gain access to LexCorp. End of this scene…
As you enter LexCorp you are immediately confronted by Lex Luthor and he has now warned you about joining forces with the Justice League. He urges you to surrender or face his full force. Now as your car begins to go through LexCorp he has a rack of falling drums of full of flammable liquids that feel like they will fall onto the side of your car. As your car moves on down the track you come onto another scene on the large video screen. Now you join Cyborg while you help defeat the black spots while the Just League is being rescued!
Now these final two scenes are my favorite and they have the most action and the car has tons of motion on the scenes as well. As you and the Justice League escape from LexCorp you begin chasing The Joker and Lex Luthor throughout Metropolis. My favorite part of the ride is the world’s first-ever virtual loop on a dark ride. You feel like you’re blasting through a loop on a rollercoaster with the way the car moves. Next, as you are exiting the loop you hit a building and spin out of control and fall directly onto the street, and resume chasing Lex Luthor and The Joker down the subway. You are racing down the subway track next to the speeding train as it knocks your car over and it literally feels like your car rolled over with the way the screen and car moves. As your car comes to a crashing stop Lex Luther and The Joker are finally captured and the car now heads to the exit as the ride is now over. But just before you exit the car, you are shown the high scores from your car and where you rank at!
This ride is absolutely amazing. The sound effects on Justice League were absolutely phenomenal. I also thought the volume was perfect. The way the cars move is very impressive. The cars can move 360 degrees. They are very quiet and don’t distract you from the ride at all. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this exact ride pop up at other Six Flags parks in the near future. This ride will be very popular for many years. You can tell that lots of detail and design went into this ride.
Now a few things from what I had heard at the park today. I don’t know if these are 100% true but I will just tell you what I was told. They have the ability to display the scores from the JLBFM at Six Flags Over Texas. Kind of like a compare the scores between the parks as the day goes on. I also heard that they plan having a high score of the month and the resetting the scores each month…kind of cool,…but do you get a special prize for the high score of the month?
I apologize that some of my images are out of order. Justice League Battle for Metropolis opens Friday June 5th.
Thank you so much for the preview! I'm pretty jazzed up for the opening of this ride.
The gentleman on the far left, I forgot his name. (Sorry.) He spent a good 10 minutes talking to me about the new JL ride, and the park in general this past Tuesday. Right in the middle of a large group of management doing some sort of ride inspection. Not many folks would take the time from a hectic work schedule to do so.
Just one more reason I love my home park.
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I'm currently in line for Transformers at Universal, so unfortunately I do not have much time. I do have just two quick things:
1. SportsDude, I really appreciate your enthusiasm for the ride in Texas, and I hope you have a fantastic 2015 season visiting the park. However, please stop repeating the misinformation about the current state of JLBM at SFSL. The park has absolutely nothing to gain from the ride not being open, so the notion of the ride being ready for daily operation and just being shuttered for an extra week isn't factual nor logical. The incredible teams at Sally & the other companies behind the ride have been doing a fantastic job with the attraction. They have been going above and beyond to ensure that the ride can open as soon as possible.
2. Regarding the comment about trees in the park, the park is actually mandated by the state(?) park service to keep a specific number of each species in the park, due to the land it is built on. I'm not sure if you visit the park often or not (as there seems to be a lot of non-visitors making negative assumptions), but the amount of trees isn't really isn't bad at all.
A-freakin-men!
The ride management team wants this ride to open with as few setbacks as possible. I don't know how many ride shutdowns have taken place in Texas so far, but they really have been ironing out many of the bugs associated with new "dark" rides at that location, which the team in St. Louis is learning from.
And we really don't need more shade at SFSL. Most of the park ground ques and walkways are shaded.
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Was going to post this in the SDC reviews, but...
On a very busy Saturday on March 21, (18K patrons in the park at 3p according to one park employee) we decided to finish our visit with one last ride on Outlaw Run. Much to our surprise, there was only a 5-10 minute wait, and after waiting for 30 minutes plus on plenty of occasions doing got day, and with 35 minutes to go before closing time, we figured we had just hit the lottery. My son and I estimated we had at least three more rides to get in on our favorite coaster before heading home. Waiting in the que next to the clocks, and with one train left to be loaded before we were set to ride, the train that had just left the station all of a sudden stops about 1/4 up on the lift hill.
Why? Dafuq?!
Some d-bag pulled out a dickstick with a GoPro attached to it while sitting in the very last row, causing the operators to stop the ride. (RRRRRRRRAAAAAAGE!!!!!!!)
Long story short, it took well over 20 minutes to get everything reset and operating, the park employees had to walk ALL of the riders back down the lift hill, (Something didn't reset correctly?) and then they had to run four empty trains before opening the ride back up.
The crowd waiting was livid, and when this guy gets back to the station, the entire place just lights into him with surprisingly loud booing, and the yelling of obscenities (for SDC, that is) that caused this jackmonkey to glow a bright red almost immediately. Being the gentleman that I am, I notice him wearing a huge NYY hoodie, so as any self respecting fan would do, I led the crowd in a spirited, "Yankees SUCK!!" chant as he made his walk of shame to gather his personal belongings previously left in the rider storage boxes.
We did all receive one last ride on Outlaw Run before they tossed us out of the park, but knowing we missed out on at least three more treks around the track... well, I hated the Yankees before this happened, so...
Driving back, we did see a car in line waiting to leave the parking lot with a large Yankees window decal on the back of the vehicle, so we all flipped that driver the double bird, and yelled incoherently as we passed him on the left. Whether it was the responsible party or not? Who really knows. Just made us feel better, I guess.
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So, I forgot to ask but, is wildfire running any better this season so far. Last year I went in May and had a major rattle and felt a bit sluggish.
We were in the park this past Saturday, with mostly sunny skies, and temps in the 60's. While riding Wildfire, there were no rattles to be heard, and it moved like greased lightnin'.
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But... but... but...
THE CHILDREN!!!!!!
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Six Flags is having a power problem! LoL
http://www.kmov.com/news/Six-Flags-closed-due-to-power-outage-261996251.html?can=n
Yep. Got there at opening, and was wondering why there were so many people still awing outdoors. Hung around for an hour, (DURR) gave up, went out to eat, came back around 1p, and the employees at the gate were basically encouraging everyone to find something else to do for the day.
Soooo..... road trip?
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Whoaaaa... didn't expect my comment about playing hooky from school to being a discussion regarding the current education system. I think this just proves the Coaster Community DOES care. Regardless of where you stand when it comes to skipping school.
Anyway, I'm trying to figure the "logistics" behind a last minute trip to Chicago. I'm very comfortable utilizing Chicago's commuter trains and public transportation. Any suggestions for the best way to get from downtown to SFGAm if I'm not renting a car? I'd like to take the train out of St. Louis, as The 9YO Coaster Kid still has a fascination with anything that moves via rails, and stay somewhere within walking distance to Union Station.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
Do you not own a car? Driving will be 10 times easier.
Read again, Negative Nancy...
My boy LOVES trains. This is for him. Easy is not always the most enjoyable option when it comes to making memories with the kids, and it's well worth the trouble. Don't be such an arse.
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Anyway, I'm trying to figure the "logistics" behind a last minute trip to Chicago. I'm very comfortable utilizing Chicago's commuter trains and public transportation. Any suggestions for the best way to get from downtown to SFGAm if I'm not renting a car? I'd like to take the train out of St. Louis, as The 9YO Coaster Kid still has a fascination with anything that moves via rails, and stay somewhere within walking distance to Union Station.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
It can be done, you would just have to do a few transfers. You'd have to walk from Union Station to Metra Ogilvie Transportation Center, which is only 3 blocks. Take the Metra Union Pacific North line to Waukegan. You can then take a Pace bus from the Metra station to the park. The SFGAm bus stop is at Grand Ave and Six Flags Drive, so you'd still have to walk down Six Flags Drive to the park entrance. All easy to do without a rental car.
Just FYI- Bus fare is $1.85 each way for an adult, and your 9 year old is $0.85. Metra train fare is $6.75 each way for an adult, and $3.25 for your child.
The information is much appreciated, thank you!
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Whoaaaa... didn't expect my comment about playing hooky from school to being a discussion regarding the current education system. I think this just proves the Coaster Community DOES care. Regardless of where you stand when it comes to skipping school.
Anyway, I'm trying to figure the "logistics" behind a last minute trip to Chicago. I'm very comfortable utilizing Chicago's commuter trains and public transportation. Any suggestions for the best way to get from downtown to SFGAm if I'm not renting a car? I'd like to take the train out of St. Louis, as The 9YO Coaster Kid still has a fascination with anything that moves via rails, and stay somewhere within walking distance to Union Station.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
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There are severe problems with sixflags.com, when it comes to tickets, passes, membership and a lot of other things with the website, so there are likely a lot of calls being made as to why things don't work, which is probably why you are getting no response.
This is surprising to hear. I purchased my pass, parking, and my kid's pass on Saturday morning, two hours before the park opened. Printed them out, strolled up to the gate, and within 10 minutes, we had our new passes in hand. What am I missing?
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Has the answer, "Sitting in my underwear" been taken yet?
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Nothing screams "Victorian Era London" quite like an authentic English Summer in Utah.
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^Depending on how little the little coaster dude is, you may have to skip the B&M coasters which have a height requirement of 54". If he's over that limit, you might want to check out Raging Bull.
Whizzer is a must, RED side of American Eagle (front!), Viper, and Demon (very front or 2nd from back). Just my 2 cents
He's now 57" tall. Thank you!
Trying to decide how bad a parent I want to be, and possibly keeping him out of school on Tuesday, even though it's his last week of school.
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Since school in Ohio does not get out till June. Would week days be perfect to go still??
June...what?
We've had our best experiences at many Theme Parks the Tuesday after Memorial Day when school is still in session in the park's metro area.
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If the Little Coaster Dude and I want to use our passes and make a quick trip up to SFGA, what must we ride?
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Bit late, but the Little Coaster Dude and I hit the park on Sat. the 10th. I have no idea what event was going on, but the park was crowded to the point there was a 30 minute wait to ride Ninja. I can't even tell you the last time I saw the queue being used. maybe a decade or so ago?
Processing of our Season Passes was the easiest I've experienced, well, ever. Nice job, SFSL!
Anyway, we skipped everything but The Boss, and Mr. Freeze, as my 9YO is now 57" tall versus 53" last Summer. Being his first time on Freeze, I was actually asked to "hold onto my lap bar" as we were preparing for the launch. Halfway thru, the look on his face told me this was a mistake, and I was concerned that he might have lost his coaster obsession in a span of 30 seconds. As we dropped back into the station and stopped, I asked him if he was ok, fully expecting to be canceling our trip to Cedar Point later in the Summer.
"Dad.... that was.... AWESOME!!!! Mr. Freeze is my new favorite ride!"
Crisis averted. Trip to Ohio is still a go. Wife none too pleased... but that's another story.
Moving onto the Boss, after running back around to ride Mr. Freeze two more times, we encountered one train running. Next in line for our seats on the first car, the crew decided to pull the weights out of train two. Holy crap, these operators were the SLOOOOOOWWWWWEEESSSSTTT in history. I don't want to bag on the health issues facing our nation's youth, but there was not a single operator who looked like they had exercised a day in their life. Kids should not be that out of shape at that age... or ANY age... and the crowds in line were practically begging to help them move the weights to their respective storage bins. It was a very sad sight. I should know, because we got to watch them grunt and sweat for 15 minutes. FIFTEEN! That said, I've always been one of the biggest defenders of 'The Boss,' and sitting in the front car has always guaranteed me an enjoyable ride. Holy S**tsnacks... was I wrong on this day. I never left the ride in the past NOT wanting to hop right back on. My arms and shoulders were still sore a full two days later from trying to brace myself, and I'm a completely buff dude who spends his free time in the gym looking at himself in the mirror. That all changed last weekend. Maybe things will "smooth out" as the season progresses, or as the track heats up. I don't know, because I'm not a fracking expert, ok?! I just love coasters, and know what I like. All I DO know is that my kid will have to drag me back on this weekend, because he feels no pain, and he's insane. He's NINE! Stupid youth.
We did try the new Sports Bar for lunch, and the BBQ, while not Pappy's, was better than the crap they feed you at Rib City, so a plus for me as a BBQ lover. The pretzel bun is a nice change from the "Texass Toast" most joints serve with their BBQ. Stick with fries as a side, because the "side salad" was about the size of an infant's fist. Not that I've eaten an infant's fist. Just a size comparison... sheesh! Weirdos.
There are quite a few more Coke Freestyle machines placed around the park this year for fat little brats, and their sad excuses for parents to steal from with water cups, as we dummies who bought plastic cups for 15 bucks wait patiently for them to die of complications due to diabetes. Side note. Kids ARE getting fatter. When I graduated in '96 (GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!!!!) I remember ONE chubby girl in a class of 300. Now, kids from 11? 12? and up are walking around with cottage cheese oozing out from the back of their shorts, and muffin tops spilling out over their Hello Kitty belts. WTF happened? Do parents even care? What the heck are they eating, and when do they stop for air? Sorry. Rant over.
We left soon after lunch as every ride from Shazam --> Log Flume --> American Thunder --> EXIT was jam packed with riders waiting in line. Benefits of a Season Pass, ya know?
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Quick question...
Never been to Six Flags during Fright Fest. Will it be ok for my 6 (easily frightened) and 8 (more daring than his Dad!) year old kids before 6pm?
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what exactly is/was the chevy showroom building?
POV films in "Cinema 180." Precursor to the Omnimax theater experience. The film screen simply "wrapped" or curved around your field of vision. Just left and right... not up and down.
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Silver Dollar City is definitely right up there. The skillets are amazing, and of course the cinnamon bread.
The succostash(sp?) and homemade tater chips. Every... single... visit.
Aaaaaannnnnnd now I'm hungry.
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The Screaming Eagle. Can't beat a pitch black ride through the woods, sucking down whatever flying insect(s) happens to find itself lodged in your teeth and/or throat.
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For me, I have to say I don't love coasters. I love theme parks. Perhaps that comes from growing up in the Ozarks. Silver Dollar City has never been a coaster park, and I doubt it ever really will be. They have more coasters now than ever before, but the real draw is the amazing theming. That may sound odd to a lot of you, but there really are a lot of people who come to SDC and never ride a roller coaster. They walk around and look at things, browse the shops, see the shows, and never get on a ride at all. So that's the theme park I grew up with: the home of the sixty degree, 100-foot drop on a path. And that's the experience I look for when we go to other parks as well. I don't really have any desire to go to Six Flags; it's just a collection of rides lacking an experience to bring them together. Batman's great, so is Mr. Freeze, there are a few worthwhile ones that really are a lot of fun. But the experience is the thing, not any individual ride. The best any roller coaster can do is give you a great two minutes, but a park can give you a whole day to remember.
While I disagree with your comments about the coasters TODAY, you are spot on in regards to everything else. It's the only park where we can bring 4 generations of our family for an entire day, and nobody wishes to leave.
Plus, where else do you get to see your 86 year old grandfather who NEVER leaves his farm, giggle and yell like a little kid when he rides Thunderation for the very first time?
Best... Day... Ever.
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I have stood in a line for Mr. Freeze that had to use the queue houses, and I have stood in lines for The Boss and Batman that have had to use the ENTIRE queue line before. So those massive queues everyone complains about are there for a reason. Just because you dont see them utilized does not mean they never are.
I've always been stuck waiting in the Mr. Freeze Queue Houses. It's the one ride I've never walked onto in my years attending SFStL.
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Maybe in true Smokey Mountain fashion there will be about 4 pancake houses .
We made the mistake of driving through Pigeon Forge on our way to BGW this past June.
I think we lost count at around 20 pancake houses along the "strip."
WTF?!
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SFSTL - home of the awkward queues...
And agreed what the heck is with the queue line on batman?
To see how many line jumpers and impatient pre-teens/teens I can queue up behind me as my 8YO and I make our leisurely stroll to the loading area.
In other words... for my amusement.
Six Flags St. Louis (SFStL) Discussion Thread
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
They would have to "shorten the overall length of the Boss, and take out the double Helix at the end," so it's not in the plans at this time.
... At least that's what I was told when I inquired about this very topic on Tuesday.
But frankly, I'm ok with how The Boss currently rides. I haven't experienced a rough ride on the Boss in 2014, or as of yet in 2015. We even sat in the last row a few times this week, and it was a fantastic, relatively smooth ride....compared to years prior when I refused to sit in any car other that the very first one.