Dan the Coaster Man

Very exciting stuff! Love the tunnel for the drop (at least that is what it looks like to me) and looks like a Shambhala-esk turnaround on the far end. Supports going through buildings?? Can't really read any of the labels

Could Be Me - MKTO ft Ne-Yo

I have only ridden RFII this year and I did not think it was rough at all. Not sure what had recently been retracked but I didn't catch a hint of what most people seem to be mentioning

Sunshine - OneRepublic

I graduate college in the spring, so I'm hoping to make it to SFStL twice before it is no longer my home park. I'll be moving back to Chicago, so trips to SFGAm are a lock. I imagine I wont be able to go on a roundtrip this summer with a new job, so I'm looking to knock out some Midwest parks I somehow still haven't been to on weekend trips: Mt. Olympus, Bay Beach, Little Amerricka, Indiana Beach, Adventureland and Lost Island (if it opens). My wildcard is an Atlanta trip. I really want to go. I have family in Atlanta. I have only been to SFOG for HITP in 2014 and 2016 so I'm still missing 5 credits there and have not seen a good chunk of the park. And obviously I'm dying to make it out to Fun Spot.

Christmas Lights - Coldplay

At least opening day, there was a sign at the entrance of Batman saying there was only one train because the other is in maintenance getting ready to go for next season

Hey everyone! Monthly update time. November was a step in the right direction for me. The first half of the month was not good, I kept eating bad. The second half I snapped out of it and cut the fast food. From the first day of the month to the last day of the month I was about the same weight, but I ended the month about 7 pounds lighter than the heaviest weight I recorded in the month, so I am proud of that! Exercise went really well. I closed all my rings each day and I currently have a 249 day streak, I averaged 11,088 steps, 79 minutes and 1,199 cals. The beginning of December meant I was finally cleared from my broken wrist after 14 weeks. In the first 26 hours I was fully cleared I exercised for 292 minutes and burned 5,259 active calories. I set my record for most active calories burned in a single day since I got my watch last spring with 3,693 cals! Has anyone heard of Marcus Leshock? He is a news anchor/reporter on Chicago's WGN 9 news. More relatable to us, he is a roller coaster enthusiast! He gets to talk about it on the news. Anyways, him and his wife put out a "100 Day Challenge", and I would recommend looking into joining them. Why wait until the New Year to change? There is no better time than the present! I am finalizing my goals, and I will be starting within the week. A quick google search "Marcus Leshock 100 day challenge" will take you to his website where he has more information on it!

What rides are usually open? I have not paid attention to SFStL before this year. I could see them opening at least another one before year end

Interesting to hear what I overheard was not the only case. I did not think about people calling off. I did notice the other day that the HITP park map has open rides listed on the back, so maybe the ride lineup is not as flexible / not likely to get more added on? Maybe they could / could have put the petting zoo on the path in front of the flumes? I didn't mind that they were under the overhead light tunnel by freeze, but maybe moving them or having them by the log flume won't make that corner of the park a sore thumb. Unless the animals need the overhead protection the tunnel provides... are those things waterproof? More than fine indeed, I would have done that if that was an option in the first place

I've ridden Beast in 2015 and 2021 and I didn't really notice a difference between the two years. I don't mind the roughness, I don't think its too much! I did ride with my non coaster enthusiast friend this year though, and he labeled it "the world roller coaster ever". Some smoothing out should help out with people like that, which is the majority

I love how cliffhanger track looks. Love the poltergeist pictures - I will take this from Six Flags any day!

I like that it is strong, there are 3 wicks and I love the scent of pine! Pretty cheap too. I forget the exact price, but it is Aldi. I'm sure you could get at least 2 of these for a similar sized Yankee Candle

Break Your Heart - Taio Cruz ft Ludacris

I bought 3 "Winter Balsam" candles from Aldi. They are my favorite Christmas candles!

Haha I would, but then the follow up is always "which bone?" or "where". To be fair though most people still didn't know For me Orion, Mystic and Banshee are front row

Trip Report from yesterday, 11/20/21, opening day for Holiday in the Park. It was my 7th ever visit, and my first for Holiday in the Park Rope dropped American Thunder and spent the first hour there, I was able to get 6 rides. The back row on blue train was closed. Then I switched over to Batman, only to see that they are running one train for the rest of the season for routine maintenance. Line was fairly long, around 40 minutes. I waited it out. After Batman I went to Fowl Ball to try the chili cheese dog. I try to eat unique food (to SFGAm) while visiting other parks and it caught my eye. This was the best food service I’ve ever had at Six Flags. The line was not long, but it moved fast. The food was extremely fast for Six Flags – I waited less than a minute, and it was HOT. I was pleasantly surprised. The length of line I waited in would have normally taken at least 15 minutes, I was in and out of the building with hot food in 5 minutes. I did a couple more rides on American Thunder after “lunch”. After a few rides it was dark, so I wanted to walk around and see the lights in the back. It’s a shame there’s no rides for thrill seekers open in the back, because the best lights and atmosphere for Christmas is in the back near the kid’s area and train station. Even if something like *gulp* Boomerang was open, because right now there are only two extreme rides, and the walk between the two is lackluster in lights and atmosphere. More on the Christmas aspect below. After walking around, I decided to redeem my 2 skip the lines for Batman because I had waited 40 mins for one ride on Batman compared to 9 rides on American thunder within 90 mins. I was forced into a membership when Six Flags dropped all parks access to the season pass, and decided to go big for the diamond elite. However, I had used my membership twice at SFGAm and was not able to retrieve my skip the line passes either visit because the flash pass HQ line was ridiculously long. I was so happy to see not a single person in line at SFStL’s Flash Pass HQ. I redeemed 2 for Batman, went straight there through the flash pass line, and when I got to the station there was no attendant. I was even more amazed to find that it was only a station wait now, so I snagged my 2 rides without using my pass and called it a day for Batman. The rest of the visit was walking around, American thunder rides and one ride on Colossus. I also got a shake from johnny rockets as my snack as its not on the meal plan at SFGAm for whatever reason. I used mobile ordering and it was extremely smooth and fast. I was too full for a dinner, so between my snack and lunch, this was the best food service I’ve ever seen at Six Flags. Something of interest I heard/witnessed. While in station for American Thunder, the ride operator pointed out and was talking to another employee who was not working for the day. The ride op was like “what are you doing here?” and the other person / employee said “they didn’t schedule me. I would have worked if they scheduled me, but they didn’t so here I am”. I found this interesting to hear considering there has been speculation there aren’t many rides open because of staffing. I know this was just one individual, but SFStL is not staffing everyone who is willing to work. This could be for a variety of reasons… but they are leaving something on the table here. Or maybe it’s part of their plan, like open more rides as the event progresses so people come back? I know if Mr. Freeze started running this year, I would travel back ASAP (this is mostly due to the fact I’ve been to SFStL 7 times and only have 2 rides on Freeze to show for it). It was just interesting to hear firsthand after all the staffing issues parks have had this year, that someone wanted to work and they weren’t scheduled. The park is only open 2 days a week. I thought they would be scrambling to bring in anyone for the most part. Overall thoughts – Rides aside- Holiday in the Park was alright. Like I said, I wish there was more of a reason for everyone to be forced to walk through the middle/back of the park. When I went to HITP SFOG 2014 & 2016, you were forced to walk the entire park and see everything. The layout for SFStL is different, no question, but still. Open Fireball or Boomerang or Screaming Eagle or Pandemonium or Xcalibur so that everyone has to see more of the park. The Mr. Freeze / American Thunder corner of the park was pretty bad. No music and lots of cheap cardboard cutouts (especially the stretch by American Thunder in front of where the car ride used to be). The batman area was alright. The lights there weren’t that pretty, but at least they had music, and I loved that they turned their 3-point shootout into a hockey shootout type game. The buildings by the train station were beautiful. The area on the bottom of the hill by the mine train was also pretty. As for the rides, I came in knowing only American Thunder and Batman would be open. I was not expecting one train on Batman. For most of the night, that did not cause any problems. But considering they only have two coasters open, it’s kinda a shame one of them only has one train. When it gets busier it’s going to pull a long line. I would not visit Holiday in the Park if American Thunder or Mr. Freeze were not open as one of the two, so I’m glad American Thunder was open and I got 15 rides. I heard numerous times from guests that they felt they did not have a lot of options, and with 9 rides plus 2 coasters open, they are right. I felt like it was enough with American thunder because I love that thing and the line was a station wait half the time, but obviously more is better. If more rides don’t open, I would not visit again by myself. I would if I brought some friends though. If they opened Mr. Freeze or 2 more coasters from the rest of the field (include Xcalibur to) I would go again!

Justice League has been on the list the whole time. Shazam has never been on the list, and still isn't, and it was open Saturday. I did not notice anything else open that wasn't on the list.

Superheroes - The Script

Triple post oops, but I went to the park today, I’ll have a trip report out later, but FYI… Shazam was open and Batman is only running one train for the year

A positive sign, Colossus has been added to the ride list

But it is on the meal plan, and the mac and cheese is super good. The muffin was a nice plus as well.

Pony is open last I saw/heard, but they did hike their prices up this summer. I meant close not closed, like right behind #3

Agree with this, but also a huge culprit for lines are the ops. I think I have spent more time on Ghostriders brake run than actually riding it, and it's a crazy long ride... Xcelerator ops are the worst but I am not sure if that has anything to do with how many launches the ride can handle in X amount of time?

That fortune telling machine is insane and does. not. stop. I worked there this summer and I would be in the park on off days. It was always so peaceful feeding the carp until that fortune machine went off! So loud too. I would consider the Holy Trinity to be Famous Dave's, Backbeat and Mac Shack. Thirsty Pony a close 4th