Danrarbc

Last Friday almost everything was a walk on. But it was also cold. If you only have 8 hours on a Fright Fest Saturday Flash Pass will be essential if you hope to ride more than 4 things.

During my visit this weekend I definitely saw lights installed for HITP in every single section of the park including Southwest Territory. Great America is almost certainly going to attempt to open the entire park. As for rides X-Flight might be the biggest question B&M-wise. There are a few stall elements designed to hang you upside down for longer than you'd experience on older style rides. As the wheel lubricant thickens those stalls might become rollbacks. Goliath will probably be fine. American Eagle and Viper both have those high turns that you take at lower speeds - they might not run once the low 20s hit. Nitro in Great Adventure doesn't handle the cold as well as other rides in that park, but Raging Bull seems to be a bit more 'downhill' of a layout. With the trim off I could actually see it running pretty well at low temps. If it has to stop on the MCBR it might crawl back to the station though. I would say Chicago is probably going to Six Flags' hardest winter test, but St. Louis already hit single digit temperatures and showed what some limits are. Heaters in the stations aimed at the rolling stock can help. Great Adventure has some but they aren't used in St. Louis, maybe that could have kept a few rides running. I hope Sky Trek Tower is reopened for the event - it'd be a great way to see the lights.

Actually I'm guessing the variety of light strands is more likely related to the fact that they'll be having the ENTIRE park open for the event. They have more work to do and I'd wager both the park maintenance staff and professional installers have been working on different things. I saw lights in every single area so it'll definitely be open 100%. I hope STL will be going this route this year - the Illinois section isn't big, the biggest worry has probably been clearing snow on the stairs and that hill.

I wonder how many SFSL patrons would be offended by the jokes in GAm's Love at First Fright? Way funnier version though. Also I've noticed something interesting about their HITP setup. We have professional lights with the screw on connections nearly everywhere - but I can see a lot of locations in GAm where they've just installed normal light strands. Even just out of the box mesh lights in the entrance plaza.

Yeah I kinda forgot this was a lease agreement, not a purchase, for a second.

I suppose it's true that they may be looking at moving people the opposite direction. But how many memberships can they really start in Rockford?

This is a very odd deal for Six Flags. The park is basically 75 miles from both Chicago and Milwaukee and while it is the largest water park anywhere near Chicago there are still options closer and if you're in Milwaukee the Dells would probably be your destination.

Indeed. Cedar Point will also celebrate an anniversary soon and they've already said it'll be a two-year celebration. Along with the rumors that they are planning a ride around the same time basically tells you up front that they are planning a good sized project, but it'll probably be the draw for the second year.

The helix probably always came up when people mentioned the roughness of the ride. And yeah I imagine that there was quite a bit of Wear and tear on both trains and the structure in that area. I also agree, I miss it and I think maybe there would have been room to increase the diameter of the helix by at least 50ft. It would have required many new footings though so a more expensive job.

Yeah you can spot quite a bit of new hardware. I'd love it if the park had something like Holiblog where they could do a post detailing what types of changes were required to make Colossus a continuous rotation wheel. Based on what I can just see from the outside it looks like quite a bit had to be done to modify the actual drivetrain.

Perfectly said. Back in the 90s St Louis wasn't really any more relevant nationally, but at that time corporate ownership was significantly more interested in capital improvements at this park. It isn't like Hershey PA is a 20 million person-strong metropolis. And yes back in the 90s the parks' lineups were much more similar.

Anyone remember when Hersheypark was a similar park to SFSL? I had no idea they were up to 14 coasters already. And they get 15 in 2020

I can pretty much guarantee anyone walking around a theme park full on tanked didn't do it on park beer. They smashed tallboys in the parking lot.

The bar opens around when the meat of Fright Fest begins. And the new alcohol policy has been in place all year. It's also the only place that serves in that area of the park so I hope they can find a way to make something more permanent.

Do you know if they fixed the lighting program for the giant pumpkin? That wasn't even a programming issue. Someone cut the orange light strands.

To be frank I'd rather it be torn down now so the area can be prepped early. Cedar Fair seems to try to hit opening day launches.

So still only 5 haunts for use with the wristband instead of 6. Looks like one more scare zone than last year though. Pretty meh for an anniversary. Sideshow guy not coming this season? And no Empire show?

Spot on, man. It's so disheartening to see the state of that queue. I understand changing the entry point to be more friendly to guests with disabilities, but the upkeep is just embarrassingly poor. That little grassy area between the switchbacks and the ramps up to the station often seems to be just knee high grass and weeds left to run rampant. Send someone in there with a weed whacker, and YES, do something with the roof! Also the lights in the ramp area have been out or non functional before, so you're standing in darkness at night in that part of the queue. Screamin' Eagle deserves better To be honest Eagle deserves a brand new ADA compliant queue and station - and I don't think it would be impossible to do. It'd just cost money.

Batman STL ran in to the low teens last year until ice buildup shut it down. If it was a drier cold it would have probably worked fine even lower. Ice even shut the ferris wheel down. Chicago is probably going to run in to the same issue. Moisture will shut things down before raw temperature will.

This is excellent news. I wish I would have been there for Jet Scream. IIRC my first year was 1991 or 1992, Tidal Wave was still new.

You should see before then. Six Flags St Louis released a HITP map in October IIRC. The loop layout of Great America would make it harder to have anything less than the full original loop open. And Southwest Territory isn't that big so having it open probably isn't too bad either and it has two good coasters and two flat rides that should do well in the cold.

Keep in mind all parks share the same portal so the high volume could be a sign other parks will be seeing huge throngs next season. And this Sunday will be a near ghost town.

Getting the old rides going again, as many as possible, for Labor Day weekend was probably going to influence people more than anything else. And Supergirl addressed one of those closures. Yes the GP has noticed the rides down.

The best ride coming to a Six Flags next year.

Am I the only one that thinks this is the best Batman out there? I’ve been a quite a few different ones and I have to say the terrain makes the difference in this one. Going over the water and through some of the trenches surrounded by trees it makes it feel faster then it is. In this case I’d have to say original is best. After this slot of then we’re just thrown down on empty flat plots of land. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Of course it is the best Batman out there. It is the original one built! I do agree though, the terrain makes it more fun than on some of the clones. In fairness they did try to duplicate some of the terrain features in St Louis by having it interact with queue elements and they dug a trench. But yes the original is definitely the best location Six Flags ever picked for the ride. I want to say one or two of the others rides a bit better though as B & M improved their manufacturing process.