MikeC65

I just looked at the contest to be the first to ride JLBFM on May 28th, and it contains an important piece of info I hadn't seen before: the height requirement is 42". Good to know.

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. Also, after reading the mention of Iron Reef, I went to the KBF message board and read the discussion, and Iron Reef is not actually running 8 cars with 8 passengers each. It's supposed to, yes, but apparently with the mechanical problems they've been having, the last thing I saw mentioned was, to quote one of the newest posts, "When I was there on Saturday they were operating with only six of the eight trains. The other two were in the maintenance bay." Also, there is no single rider line, so the cars are not always going out filled. FInally, per the board, they are having huge problems with loading and unloading the cars because apparently the doors don't open and close correctly, which is slowing down the load times. So, I wouldn't panic over what is going on with Iron Reef. Having said that, the ride capacity is still going to be an issue, but I think using return tickets, as Dave indicated was under consideration, will be a reasonable short term solution. HWFan, is JLBFM going to have a single rider line? Keeping those cars filled can have a major effect on ride capacity. I hate to keep harping on how Universal Orlando does things (well, not really, because there are lessons to be learned), and they have a single rider line for all the rides that tend to have long lines, and it really helps.

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.

Truthfully, HWFan, I'm totally fine with JLBFM putting "a bit more emphasis on the physical sets than Transformers." In fact, I think that IoA's Spider-Man, despite being an older ride, is actually superior to Transformers preciselyd because Spider-Man integrates physical sets into the ride better than Transformers does. Transformers is really just one 3D screen after another with very little in the way of sets at all. What sets there are really just serve as wallpaper between the screens and aren't truly part of the ride. And your brain knows, even with the best 3D computer graphics, that you're watching a screen. Eventually the lack of physical sets gets you to a point where you are SO aware you are watching a screen that the ride becomes less convincing. Spider-Man integrates far more physical sets into the story between the screens and it works well. If JLBFM strikes the right balance, it could be better than Transformers. But, budget means something too, so I'm still reserving judgment. It's Missouri, after all, so show me. Getting back to theming, or the lack thereof at SFStL, I totally recognize that the lower budget, the need to maintain the park during the winter, and the nature of a regional theme park means this park will never be on the level of a Universal or a Disney. Still, though, I really think the park could do better than it does. And to those who say, to paraphrase, "the rides are good, take the park for what it's worth," two responses: overall theming IS important to the GP because it's what gets people to have an overall image of the park beyond just a bunch of rides, and two, I'll never forget the reaction of my son, 7 at the time and a HUGE fan of SFStL, to his first sight on Universal. We had just entered IoA and walked about halfway through Seuss Landing. We hadn't even ridden anything yet. He looked around, eyes wide, and said, "Wow! This place is way better than Six Flags!" That's what good theming can do. No, Six Flags will never look like Islands of Adventure. But I still say more importance could be given to creating an overall look, and it IS important.

I love JB'S BBQ too (we eat there every time we go), but I just don't get why they themed it to something having nothing to do with anything else around it. With Scooby Doo replaced by a DC-themed ride, that area of the park is now one of only two with consistent theming (the other being Bugs Bunny National Park) and then they have to go and spoil the consistency by making the restaurant something entirely out of place. If they didn't like Heros vs. Villains as a restaurant and wanted to use that theme for a store instead, why not try to tie the restaurant into the remainder of the theme somehow, instead of making it something entirely different from what's around it? I guess they just don't care about overall theming, and I think that's a big mistake.

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 could be fixed.

Basically Spiderman....but better. It's a web spun from Spiderman's foundation with extra elements & improvements as well! I'm glad to hear you say this, but I just don't see how it's possible. I visited Universal last month, and rode Spider-Man and Transformers. These are huge rides with gigantic 3-D screens with 4K HD projection, creating a totally immersive experience. Spider-Man has 13 30-foot tall screens. JLBFM has 7 screens (per HWFan post on 12/16/15) and from what I saw on the Fox 2 News walk-through, they aren't all huge like the ones in Spider-Man. From that preview, the ride seemed more like a souped-up version of Universal's Men in Black target shooting ride. Not that JLBFM won't be superior to Men in Black, which is purely practical effects and has no screens as a part of the ride, but I can't see how, with far fewer and far smaller screens, JLBFM could possibly create the totally immersive experience Universal's rides provide. Plus, let's face it, Six Flags just doesn't have the budget to duplicate these rides, and you get what you pay for. Not that I'm not looking forward to JLBFM. I am. I'm sure it will be a great ride, and given that I'm at Six flags 3 or 4 times a week during the summer (yeah, I get my use out of that dining pass!) it will be great to have a ride like this. But comparable to Spider-Man or Transformers? No way do I believe it's possible.

Hi all, been lurking here for ages but figured it was about time to sign up. So I made my second trip to SFSL today and the progress on the JLBFM facade looked great. You can really tell what it's going to look like now. I know this has been raised before (way in the past), but now that the ride is getting close to completion, I'm still wondering about the capacity. It's pretty simple math: if the ride is 3:20 long, and there's a 40 second load/unload time, each car cycles through the ride once every 4 minutes, which is 15 times per hour. 15 cycles per car per hr x 6 riders/car x 7 cars = 630 riders per hour. For comparison's sake: Pandemonium: 1400 riders per hour (per Wikipedia) I don't know the number of trains or the ride length, so I can't check this number. The Boss: 960 riders per hour (Wikipedia says 1400, but that would require running 3 trains, which never happens). 2 trains x 20 cycles per train per hr * 24 riders per train = 960 riders per hour. This assumes the load/unload time is "pipelined" meaning as soon as one train pulls in, the next one leaves, so the load/unload time can be ignored. If trains have to wait, the capacity would be reduced, but that doesn't happen often in my experience. American Thunder: 2 trains x 24 riders per train * 18 trains cycles per train per hour = 864 riders per hour (Wikipedia says 850 so I''m close) So JLBFM is going to have a ride capacity significantly lower than other major SFSL rides. Should I just get on line now to have a hope of getting on it when it opens? Seriously, if it turns out to be really popular, this is going to be a serious problem. At 630 riders per hour, if SFSL is open from 10:30 am through 9 pm, that's 10.5 hours, which means no more than 6,615 people can ride it in any given day, and that's assuming they all get on line at once when the park opens, or at least evenly space themselves out throughout the day at exactly 630 riders per hour. If, as seems more likely, the majority of attendees arrive in the afternoon and leave after a few hours, the problem becomes far worse. Does anyone know what the average attendance is at SFSL per day? I mean, it isn't an issue with the Boss or even American Thunder because not everybody rides those rides -- and they also have significantly greater ride capacity than JLBFM. But if this ride becomes insanely popular, I think they are going to have to give out return tickets for anyone to actually get on it in a reasonable way, and if daily attendance exceeds 6,615, the excess of people won't be able to ride it at all (and again, that assumes people are evenly spaced out over time when trying to board the ride, which won't be the case). If this ride succeeds at attracting increased attendance, there could well be a lot of upset people.