teacherkim

We had a fabulous time at haunt last weekend. No massive line to get in on Friday night but we showed up about 5:40 and they had clearly been letting people in for a while which I think diminished the backup. In my opinion the best themed maze was Killmart but the best scareactors were at Cornered. They were hilarious. Also, the scare zone in that area was done really really well. Rides had a bit of a rough night on Fri. At various points Beast, DB, and Orion were all down and lines were pretty terrible, 1-2 hours. Most of the mazes had at least hour long lines on both Fri and Sat nights as well. We got Frightlanes for Fri night to do mazes and FL+ for Sat to focus on rides and that was perfect as far as maximizing our time. Don't miss the pumpkin beignets and apple cider doughnuts.....they were amazing!

Saw a few articles on this, apparently has happened at some other parks as well. I mean what happens if you drop the phone, lol?

Ok, but if you hate it so much and it is so rotten; why do you keep going on about it and posting. Boycott and be done with it already. Nothing either of us says here will affect the progress. Accept it or don't. Calling a truce for the weekend, I have to get up and drive to KI tomorrow.

Well I wasn't comparing SF to Disney on a park to park basis, I was comparing two similar projects involving the same ride type that followed the same timeline to show that it was not out of the ordinary. Also, comparisons between them are proportional to the money and attendance at Disney versus SFSTL. My point was that all of this "discussion" has stemmed from a complaint that SFSTL is committing some major sin in taking several years to properly refurb a historic carousel, which was the plan from the beginning, and the implied claim that no other park would take that long and it's pointless and no one cares and yada, yada, yada. I have simply been refuting that claim. Also, as pointed out Disney doesn't hit a home run every time. I mean Tron is really just a clone. An elaborate clone perhaps but how long have they been working on it? 4 years now? Why is it taking so long? If Covid shut down is the answer to how slow it is going then why isn't that a good enough reason for the SFSTL carousel. Compare that to Velocicoaster which was also built during Covid and I think took something like 2 years and if you have not experienced it is beyond spectacular..................all I'm saying is that in my opinion the scope and timeline of the carousel project at SFSTL isn't as out of the norm as is being suggested.

And the entire center of Epcot has been a giant dirt construction pit for how long now? As well as the fact that they shut down Tron construction and left it halfway done for awhile, which also meant the train has been out of commission that entire time. The site isn't abandoned, just a very long project; but no where near the glacial pace of Disney construction projects. It will be done when it's done. How long we gonna play this game?

Good to know, we are mainly planning on doing haunt stuff on Fri night and rides on Sat and will most likely just do a marathon all day on Saturday but will keep this in mind if we decide to take a break. Got it. We're too theme park savvy for that at this point and I went ahead and bought Frightlanes for Fri night so it's probably a moot point other than getting a parking spot. I'll report back next week.

Actually it does. The Disneyworld carousel was originally PTC #46 "The Liberty Carousel", made the rounds at several parks, Disney bought it in 1967 when it was 50 years old and spent 4 years refurbing it, stripped the horses down to the wood and made each one unique..................sound familiar

We're going to be there Friday and Saturday. Despite all the visits we have to KI, we've never been there for haunt so looking forward to it. Just decided to have an enjoyable trip so got Frightlanes for Fri night and FL+ for Saturday and therefore no need for complicated ride strategy. Although I did see a report that lines to get into the parking lot can be atrocious. Anyone know if that has been the case for Fri nights? Just trying to decide how early we need to be lined up at the tollbooth or since we have the Frightlanes if we are just as well off to let the initial wave get in and then show up a half hour later.

Any reports on how FF is going here? We will be there Sunday and Monday of next weekend. Taking advantage of the later hours on Sunday and Monday open due to Columbus day and swinging by after a Fri/Sat visit to KI to catch FF and complete some ride lists since our other visit was a stormy summer day a few years ago that impacted how much we could get on.

Yeah, I don't think chatter amongst the employees is, ummm, favorable. They did switch over to two train ops last night. At least I know they did on Boss, but probably on everything else since crowds tend to grow as the further into FF we get. Hopefully, stays that way.

You are right about there only being one train operations on the coasters. According to the ride op that lives in my house it has been that way for most of the summer. They were told as FF progressed ops would go up to two trains, we will see if that comes to fruition or not. Staffing continues to be an issue but crowds were definitely light for the first weekend. Apparently they topped out at only 5000 guests on Sunday. Hopefully, crowds will get better. While no one wants insane lines, the park does need people to show up. I mean this is usually their big money maker event for the year. My experience has been that the crowds tend to grow steadily each weekend the closer we get to Halloween AND a major school district in the vicinity of the park has no classes on Monday (it's a teacher meeting day) so that might make next weekend a bit busier.

And as an addendum to Bert's pics.....that was the youngest (though not shortest) of the group riding in the back of Woodstock Express, but everyone in the pic was over 18 and I don't believe that was ert at Coasterstock, I think it was just after regular open. Also, the Whirlybirds are legit because that is a genuine, bona fide smile on a normally expressionless "too cool to smile" 19 year old. Of course it occurred when Mom was not in the vicinity

So we shouldn't make any attempt to improve things just because they will/might get messed up again? Like never clean the house because we will just make it dirty again. Yeah I'm not buying that. Besides not a lot of teens waste time riding a carousel, not exactly high on the cool factor rating. I understand your frustration over it being closed at a time when your child is young, and I've avoided responding because I just haven't seen the point as we aren't going to convince each other to change our opinion (agree to disagree at this point) BUT I do not think as many people are as uncaring as you think they are. When we saw the presentation on the process a couple years ago everyone there was fascinated and appreciative of what they were doing. While I realize it was a group of enthusiasts, they were not necessarily people that usually cared about carousels all that much. I have talked to many many random people that were reading the info billboard and seeing the sample horses that thought it was pretty damn cool. A true representative sample, no, but you can't say you have truly surveyed the masses either, so no way to really say with authority what percentage really care; and frankly, if your main goal is to ride a carousel with your daughter, there are other places you can do that for a lot less money and much closer to your home. The zoo springs to mind.

It is my understanding that it was a go on the end of Six Flags and there had been preliminary contacts to RMC and that it was to be a possible 50th celebration ride for 2021; then it all got blown up by the virus. If they were starting the process in early 2020 for the next year's anniversary that would make sense timing wise but someone else may be able to shed more light on it.

To address a few of the things brought up: I don't think there is any worry about the park being open weekends only because the festivals are only on weekends. Lots of parks, much bigger more premier parks, do festivals that run weekends only. Takes lots of extra staff to man the booths. It COULD be a way to get more locals to the park IF they ADVERTISE it to the GP and have some really good food booths and drink specials, etc, etc. Our park doesn't always do a very good job marketing to the masses. I have been on JL and in my opinion it is better without the 3D, clearer. At worst I don't think a lot of people will even notice a difference in picture quality. And yes I believe it was a chain wide thing. Thunder River went down for a mechanical issue around a month ago and they pretty much knew then it would not come back in time for this season The ride op that lives in my house has said that they are "supposed" to add trains in time for FF so hopefully only a couple more weekends of one train ops. Although I agree it's disappointing that they didn't have them for a holiday weekend. As far as Boss, I had it on very good authority that there was a firm plan to RMC the thing before the virus that shall not be named struck. Do with that info what you will. Is there any chance now with the new CEO? Probably not, at least in the near future, but I really don't know where it stands at the moment. I've been butt hurt ever since they removed the helix.

I agree with you but for reasons I'm still not clear on my son prefers it forward launch, so I guess to each their own. It was suggested at a Q&A with park management about 5 years ago that they could have one side launch forward and one backward and have Twix sponsor it; do a left Twix, right Twix sort of thing. I'm guessing there is probably an operational and/or maintenance reason that cannot be done, although at the time they acted intrigued by the idea.

Ha there is a huge groundhog, to me, (woodchuck to you) colony around Screaming Eagle at SFSTL too. I too often get partially undressed by Mystic Timbers and a few other coasters. Iron Gwazi is the worst for that in recent memory.

Glad you enjoyed SDC on your first visit. Although I love Wildfire, way more than any B&M invert, lol, I swear that coaster has one of the best top of the lift hill views anywhere. Seriously glad you went through the cave, so many enthusiasts ignore it because it isn't a ride and it's such an awesome experience. If you ever do have time to stop at SFSTL, let me know and I'll meet you and show you where all the bodies are buried.

Oh God! TWA!! Way to open up old wounds. I am still butt hurt over that one. I surely hope not. There is a rumor, completely unsubstantiated, that some park presidents will officially be canned on Thursday's earnings call. One of them being SFSTL, will be interested to see if that holds any water or is all BS and what if anything it means for the park. They are advertising for performers but not sure what the exact plans are, will stay cautiously optimistic. I thought last year's FF was back to about 75% of what it used to be. I think it will really all depend on how many employees they can get/retain through Halloween.

Hey, you know I would be there Friday if I didn't live 900 miles away. Proud of you for the effort and whatever you end up doing that day is fine, whether you ride anything or not! Hopefully everyone will put this in perspective and maybe we can play nice for a while on here. For those that don't know it was through this forum that I met Bert and his wonderful husband and made the decision to meet them when they ventured forth to SFSTL 3 years ago, despite not being at my best that day after an ill advised neighborhood Mom's bourbon tasting party to celebrate the end of the school year the night before ; and I am so glad I was able to make such good friends that day.

I have been butt hurt about Boss ever since they neutered it by removing the helix I think the fact that the mid course trim is so severe now, which they had to do after the helix removal affects how the whole layout feels. Plus normal increasing roughness of it as it ages. Dunno but it hasn't felt right to me since; just due to altering the original design. Maybe that supposed RMC (which was a credible rumor amongst employees) that apparently got scrapped when the virus that shall not be named began will come to fruition some day. I know, I know........don't hold my breath, it may never happen.

Some GP were bitching on FB that they closed the park too early yesterday before the storms really hit and that it was barely drizzling when things shut down...yada, yada, yada. They don't know how well the park was looking out for them. Apparently Eagle and Boomerang took a lightning hit during those storms and were down today for safety checks. No damage that I know of, so hopefully back up tomorrow. Although when Diamondback at KI took a lightning strike it was back up within four hours, however in all fairness it was during Coasterstock and I'm sure they moved heaven and earth to get it back up asap. Also Thunder River, Supergirl, and Boss all were/went down at some point today....so apparently a bit of a rough day at the park. Hopefully they get most things up and running by tomorrow or it might be a very rough weekend.

Yeah...... having to evacuate due to a valley is not normal operating procedure. Update: We talked to some ride ops, the culprit was a branch that fell on the track and when the train hit/ran over the branch it slowed them enough to cause the valley. The ride ops said they will have to disassemble the train to get it off the track and put it back together on the transfer track. Then I am sure there will be testing, etc. So most likely down for at least the weekend

So apparently no one checks this thread too often, we were at the park today, arrived about 2:30, found out closing had been moved from 9 to 8 and unfortunately only got one ride on Boulder Dash before this happened around 5:30

Glad to hear the good operations continued after our visit, maybe they have their shit together now. We liked the new healthy options stand too, forgot to mention that one, very good and fresh fruit options. Water cannons on Maverick were not working the week before either and it did have a second launch failure and there was a train stuck in the tunnel that had to be evac'd along with those on the brake run. Happy that your Breakers room was good. I've never had an issue there before so hoping/assuming it was a one off. Tony did give a very left handed complement to Con attendees. Stating something along the lines of he was so impressed with the people that were now in ACE versus those that were in the club before and what an improvement Not sure what that was all about and I wonder if he got some pushback about the comments regarding coaster clubs that he apparently said during Coastermania.