bullsnike

Absolutely 1 thing that sends me over the edge - Single Rider Line Abuse. What do people not @#$%ing understand that groups of 4, 6, 20 ARE NOT SINGLE RIDERS!!!! Rant over

My situation was a little unique but I had a SFStl membership for 2016 (12 month commitment was up September 5th), and I wanted to switch my membership over to SFGam for 2017 as it was actually cheaper by about $0.50/month + the dining pass was $10 cheaper and I wanted to eventually add a season flash pass.....Why don't they make this good at all parks Basically my SFStl membership was canceled after I emailed them seeing what I needed to do, and my 2017 membership is being treated as new. When I got to the park yesterday, they attempted to issue the new card at the gate, but were having issues so I just went to pass processing to have the card they gave me activated and picked up my sport bottle for next year. Word of advise, get your pass taken care of as early as you can because the pass processing lines at the beginning of the year can be up to an hour and a half long. Yesterday I waited about 30 minutes and the line was moving quickly and half as long as I saw it early this season. Thanks for the information. Did you have to have your membership processed, or is that required only for season passes? If their system wouldn't have been down at the gates, I would not have had to go to pass processing for the membership part, however the dining plan would have needed to be done at pass activation. They are also giving out the yellow sport bottles at Primo's in hometown square.

My situation was a little unique but I had a SFStl membership for 2016 (12 month commitment was up September 5th), and I wanted to switch my membership over to SFGam for 2017 as it was actually cheaper by about $0.50/month + the dining pass was $10 cheaper and I wanted to eventually add a season flash pass.....Why don't they make this good at all parks Basically my SFStl membership was canceled after I emailed them seeing what I needed to do, and my 2017 membership is being treated as new. When I got to the park yesterday, they attempted to issue the new card at the gate, but were having issues so I just went to pass processing to have the card they gave me activated and picked up my sport bottle for next year. Word of advise, get your pass taken care of as early as you can because the pass processing lines at the beginning of the year can be up to an hour and a half long. Yesterday I waited about 30 minutes and the line was moving quickly and half as long as I saw it early this season.

To give an idea of a great value..... My total savings (Had I bought everything individually every day this season without my dining pass or membership) just by using my pass has come to $1689.30. This number includes prices I would have paid for online discounted tickets for every trip, parking, all meals, drink refills, and about $30 comes from the shopping pass 20% discount and $5 flash pass discounts for the few times I got a flash pass. This was even without utilizing the dining pass to it's fullest as usually I only had a meal and a snack, or 2 meals, but almost never 2 meals and a snack (maybe 3 times the whole season this far). Total I paid for all of 2016 for my membership and gold dining pass - $147.79 (This does not include the 3-4 times I got a flash pass). Total I came out ahead - $1,541.51 This covers a total of 20 trips this season so far (4 to SFStl where my pass was issued and 16 to SFGam). Holy @#$% I've been busy!

I did a membership during last years flash pass sale and it's well worth it to be able to spread out the payments. Overall you pay just slightly more, but the price is locked. I had all of the same benefits (free parking, baf passes, etc.) and was able to add season dining to mine. There is a $20 security deposit to get the lower price, and you must stay locked in for 12 months, then it goes month to month and you can cancel any time after 12 months. Also any free upgrades you had (ex. free parking) stay with your membership until you cancel. I'm paying just under $6/month for mine (the prices this year are actually better than I got last year). Hope this helps!

It's official for vr demon. The charging booths are up.

Platinum gives double rides without leaving your seat on all but Goliath, Giant Drop and Vertical Velocity and allows you to reserve Goliath twice in a day. You cannot reserve Goliath with a Gold. Also Gold is 50% wait time and Platinum is 90% reduced wait time.

So here is what I can tell you and you can decide. Last Saturday I was at the park for the private event. It was just as busy as any regular operating day i've ever been to. That being said, opening weekend is going to be worse. Most lines were 45 minutes and Goliath was 1.5 hours. Here is what info I can provide - Superman - Running 2 trains. Single rider line was being utilized surprisingly. - Goliath - Do this right at opening and get in early. Orange train was not running and was not on the storage track. I wouldn't expect it to be up for this weekend. Single train ops meant only 1 train dispatching every 5.5 minutes. No single rider line for the closed event (not surprised). - Wizzer - Can't report on as I didn't want to wait 45 minutes - Raging Bull - Make this an early ride as well. During the closed event, 2 train operations and about a 45 minute wait. - Batman - 2 train operations (I did see parts for a refurb sitting in storage but I don't believe they will go down to just 1 train). Full queue to the park was moving quickly and only took 35 minutes to get through. - American Eagle - Red trains were not on the tracks or anywhere to be found. Will most likely be just blue side running with 2 trains. About a 30 minute wait around noon and the ride went down twice while I was in line but came back up quickly. - V2 - Normal operations and a normal 30-45 minute wait - Dark Knight - Can't report as I didn't get near it. - Flat rides - Condor was running no lines, bumper cars running with 15 minute wait, Hometown Fun Machine - 15-25 minute wait, Orbit - 15 minute wait. Most other flats will not be open until later in the season (may from what i've heard). - Giant drop - All cars running. Car 54 only has 3 seats working out of the 4. Very minimal line. Longest wait was 15 minutes at the peak of the day. - Viper - 2 trains running. 15 minute wait. Probably got up to 30 minutes at one point. - X-Flight - Single train running - Expect a 45 minute-1 hour wait. This will be a problem. - Demon - 2 train operations - 15-30 minute wait. - Loggers Run - walk on. Running great - Yankee Clipper - Not open For me, I will be getting a platinum flash pass for Saturday and possibly gold on Sunday depending on the Sunday crowd. Remember, there are deeply discounted tickets and very nice weather forcast so I would expect peak attendance similar to fright fest crowds. If you don't go with a flash pass, you will be lucky to hit all the major rides once. Hope this helps

Dining passes are not accepted during private events Thanks, that's what I thought but wanted to make sure. Any idea what attendance and lines will be like? A friend of mine was able to get the ticket for me and told me about it since they aren't able to attend and I just happened to have the day off and figured it would be a nice preview for next weekend. I'm going to be meeting up with a couple of people from the area so I don't know what to expect as I haven't been to a private event at the park before.

Just found out that I'm going to be able to make Advocate Day this year and have a question for anyone that has been or might have some insight. Obviously season passes aren't valid since the park isn't officially open, but does anyone know if season dining passes will be accepted? Just trying to plan for food for the day since normally I don't have to worry about it.

I noticed the single rider line sign on Saturday as well. Would definitely be a perk for me since I go by myself every time. At SfGam the single rider lines work wonders when they aren't being abused and are enforced to true single riders. I hope SfStl brings them to several rides (Batman would be on the list for sure and wouldn't hurt for Freeze or Boss if they could manage it the right way.

I was shocked on Saturday of opening weekend to see that Ninja actually had not only a full queue, but the line extended out the entrance by a few people. First time I've ever seen the entire queue being full. Thankfully this past Saturday it was back to being nearly a walk on.

Ice was out at most of the machines Saturday while I was there, however they handled the traffic much better (partly because it was a lighter day) than last weekend when it was crazy. I was able to get through Mooseburger in about 15 minutes with a full queue (not out the door). Seems like the park took a lot of the feedback to heart. I also noticed much better organization for gold pass early entry going through HH rather than it being a free for all.

Although this is always an option, it's really not for those who rely on the dining passes. I have come to terms with the fact that lines are going to be long, but my personal option lies with what others have said in that there needs to be a sense of urgency. Opening weekend, everyone is new and I'm sure they aren't fully staffed yet, however over the next few weeks, management needs to address that issue and find a way to motivate and train people to be more efficient. If they are able to do that and people see that the workers are moving with a sense of urgency while protecting the quality of the food, I'm sure the GP would be more forgiving for the long lines.

1st time post, but won't be the last as I've been lurking for the past 8 months So here is my opening weekend review/trip report. Left Central Illinois for the nice 200 mile drive at about 6:00 in the morning with the goal that I would be the first person in line for Mr. Freeze as I've had coaster withdrawals since October (Many of you can relate I'm sure). Arrived at the parking gate at 9:00am with only 2 rows of cars in front of me (goal #1 success - beat the crowd). Got through and parked by 9:35am and made my way to the entrance and was the 2nd in line for the entry gate. 10:00, made it through and headed straight to the holding area towards Mr. Freeze. At 10:20 after helping a couple that was also from Illinois (Chicago area) bring up their gold pass on the six flags app, security allowed us to proceed into the rest of the park early (love the gold pass early entrance). Got to Mr. Freeze and completed goal #2, first in line. What happened afterwards really made this a memorable experience. Around 10:35, the queue line for Mr. Freeze was still not open, and that's when Peter Carmichael walks up to us and says, I'm going to take you guys up to the loading station as we want to get the ride up and running for you. Now mind you, I've never met Peter, but from everything I've read about how Dave ran the park, from this unique experience walking up to the loading station and talking with him, I can't think of a more personable and friendly person to represent his park. It was a unique experience walking up with him and talking about the park and he was joking while we crossed by Thunder River saying today should be an easy day to get on the rafts. Finally we get up to the loading station as Peter wished all of us a fun day and I was able to catch the first ride of the season on the first train for Mr. Freeze. After getting off Mr. Freeze, I decided to scope out a lot of the changes around the park and got a great picture of fireball that I'll try to post for everyone later. I was happy to see (although dreading a little in the back of my mind) that boomerang was up and running as it had always been closed on my past 3 trips from last season. I finally got that credit right after taking my picture of fireball. For the rest of the morning, I enjoyed taking in the park trying to catch as many rides as I could for my journey to 500 rides this year. Around 12:30, I finally made the mistake of heading towards batman. As has been mentioned already, Batman was running only 1 train this weekend, and the reports I'm hearing are it will be that way at least next weekend and possibly the weekend after before they have the 2nd train back up and running. Plan on spending at least an hour to 2 hours waiting the next couple of weekends. I did crave some batman love and decided to go ahead and wait and when I was about 2/3 of the way to the tunnel stairs, the ride shut down for 20 minutes to clean up a nose bleed bringing my wait time to an hour and 45 minutes, but at the end of everything, getting that first ride of the year on Batman was worth the wait. I can not say enough about the operators this weekend on Batman as being in a worse case scenario for them, they really worked to move people through quickly on the single train operation. Around 2:30, I finally decided to take advantage of my dining pass. Be forewarned, food lines this year are crazy and I do not anticipate them getting any better with so many people taking advantage of the meal passes. Park operations really needs to figure out how to increase capacity at every food stand. The shortest line I found was for a hotdog and even with just 8 people in front of me, it took almost an hour to get my chiledog. At least it was nice and hot and the fries were perfect as well. After eating, I decided I better get my Eagle double ride credit for the day as it looked like Boss wouldn't be opening at all (mistake #3 of the day). The double rides really killed the capacity on eagle and what should have been about a 30 minute wait, ended up taken another hour and 45 minutes as eagle got stuck on the downward hill (didn't know it was possible) right as I was the next in line. 30 minutes later, they released the train and I finally got my double ride (3 trains later). Overall, for being the first day, I knew there would be some issues. I would have liked to have seen a smoother opening day, but it was the first day and I do commend the park employees for making it through. As I left for the day, I knew that Saturday, it was going to be a no brainer to get a flash pass as I discovered the lines were much longer than I had ever experienced at the park. With the deep discount on the platinum flash pass, I decided it would be the best opportunity to go for 50 rides in a day. Saturday morning arrived at the park at 9:30 and was through the gates into the park and headed straight to Batman after picking up my flash pass. With my flash pass, I was able to get on the first train of the day in the front row (goal #3 met), and what a great way to start the day. Batman seemed to be running much better on Saturday with the warmer temperatures. After my double ride on Batman, I worked my way around the park picking up every ride I could. The goal for Saturday was to only ride flash pass rides to cut my wait times to a minimum and get a good jump on my 500 ride goal for the season. One of the greatest things throughout the day was again noticing Peter walking around the park and interacting with the guests. I thanked him for the experience he had given me on Friday and throughout the day I saw him at least 3 more times in various parts of the park. Around 1:00, I finally got my hopes up that Boss would be running as I saw a huge line forming while the trains were being tested. Thanks to my platinum flash pass I was able to bypass the already enormous line as they opened the queue and was put on the first train in the front row to get the first Boss ride on the first train of the season. Boss is definitely running nicer this year, but I was still pretty beat up after my double ride. Without going into too much additional detail as I know this post is getting long, Saturday was a great day overall. I will say one thing, Ninja has definitely gotten rougher this year. Knowing the right way to ride Ninja (I have always loved the coaster even though no one else does), I can keep the head banging to near nothing, but introducing the VR aspect and not being able to see and anticipate the ride might become a major concern for the park as it would be easy to injure yourself. I'm shorter at 5'4", and on one ride even anticipating the turns, my neck hit pretty hard against the shoulder restraint and caused a good bit of pain. It'll be interesting to see what happens, but I'll try everything once. Happy 2016 season everyone and I look forward to being more active on the forums as SFGam and SFSTL are my home parks. Total credits for Friday -11 Mr. Freeze Highland fling Excalibur Boomerang Superman Batman Ninja x2 American thunder Screamin eagle x2 Total credits for Saturday (Platinum Flash Pass) - 33 Batman x4 Boomerang x3 Superman x4 Pandemonium x4 Mr freeze x3 American thunder x4 Boss x4 Justice league x2 Ninja x2 Skyscreamer Log flume x2