teacherkim

Prozach - I have found in the past that the weekends, particularly Sundays, between Labor Day and FF are very nice and quiet. It's a good time to go if you want things low key. The downside is that a lot of the food and some shopping venues will be closed. But the crowds are usually light and quiet.

So we made an impromptu, it sucks that school is starting next week, trip to the park today. I was going to go to the neighborhood pool for a few hours of sun and relaxation since I have to go back to work on Monday but the boy convinced me that since we already have the passes and the dining plan it would actually make more sense to go to the wp instead. Right. But, ok, I thought I will finally get to ride that damn slide that I have been trying to ride all summer. So, we strolled into the wp at about 12:20 (open 12-5) today, claimed a chair, got my sunscreen on, put sunscreen on squirming 15 year old that is taller than me while holding him down, rushed over to Typhoon Twister and........closed for the day. Seriously. That's the 3rd time we've been shut out. I'm giving up on it til next summer. The boy was so disgusted that he submitted to sunscreen for a closed slide that he promptly announced he was going to ride some coasters. I said ok, I will be laying out by the pool, come back when you're done. Got a relaxing hour and half of cooling off in the pool, sunbathing, reading....til the clouds rolled in. Then thunder so everything gets shut down for weather. So, as it starts to drizzle we vacate the wp which was the first time I waited in line to exit something but of course we all had to go through the turnstile. We stowed our stuff in a ride locker and did a lap around the park in the drizzle waiting for something to open. It never really did more than a light rain with just a bit of thunder, the weather closure lasted about an hour and a half. Prozach- I can report good news during the downtime. There was no trash in the park, in fact it was quite clean and the only boorish behavior I noticed was some middle schoolers that were sitting on one of the benches hassling people by loudly pointing out things about their wardrobe and then clapping in mock appreciation. In other words acting like annoying little twerps. So, I marched right over to the bench and gave them all my best teacher death stare. They stopped abruptly and went on to minding their own business. Yes, I still have it and I'm ready for a new batch of 7th graders next week! Between 3:30 and 5:30 we rode some rides then had a quick meal and then the real storm moved in closing everything for the day since the park was only open til 6 anyway. This one was a cold gullywasher with some serious wind. Rode it out in the fudge shop then made for the car. Since we have all been a bit debby downer on the park lately I will end with some good news: the park was nice and clean, landscaping looked good, I noticed several nicely planted beds, pots and hanging baskets. (I mean they had dragon wing begonias over by Mine Train when they should clearly be planted by Dragon's Wing because of their name but I realize this might be extreme nitpicking of an amatuer gardner) Most rides were up and running today, not counting the weather closure and TT (sigh). Shazam was running with it's new cars. Fireball and Boomerang both running as were all the water rides. Only things down were Colossus and Excaliber still down on refurb and Freeze which looked like it was getting some short term track maintenance done. So, overall, can't blame them for storms and everything looked pretty good today. Only negatives were I still don't like the emasculated Boss and there was a fight in the parking lot over a pretzel. But the combatants were geese so I'll assume they don't know any better manners.

Prozach - Sorry you hit on such an off day. I think a lot of the trash buildup and drunken behavior was the result of the very end of a busy day in an understaffed park. If you get there at opening you beat a lot of the boorish behavior. I HOPE the peeing girl was extremely drunk; otherwise.....I don't know what to say! Agree with you on the Screaming Eagle, I remember when that ride opened and all the hype at the time, it still delivers. But have to say I don't agree with you on the Boss. I hate the now super exaggerated mcbr and how much they slowed it down for the back half and I miss the helix! I have mixed feelings on Mr Freeze, don't really love the backwards launch but do like looking down on the vertical. bbchml - Thanks for the report on the new slide. We may have to try to get out there one more time before the wp closes and give it a go. We just got back from the new Universal wp, Volcano Bay, and they weigh everyone on just about every slide. I'm sure insurance is to blame and that is probably a requirement for the new slide at SFSTl to re-open. I know the Great America tickets are a lot more but you will notice a difference in ride ops and the park as a whole when you get there. Actually, I really try to give SFSTl a break most of the time. As we have all noted it is in a regional market, ignored to some degree by corporate, and has noticeable staffing issues. And I think everyone inevitably gets a bit bored with their home park after years of some of the same rides. However, I will admit, after visiting some stellar parks this year (Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg & Tampa, Seaworld, 2nd time at Cedarpoint and a return trip to Universal which is in a whole nother stratosphere) it is hard not to be a bit jealous and a little bitter about our park. Ironically, of the other parks we visited the only one I was not impressed with was another Six Flags, SFAmerica in Maryland.

Quick tr from yesterday. We had a great day at the park, all the coasters up and running. With quick queue we got through all the major rides within 4or 5 hours, then could relax and enjoy seconds at our leisure. Only major ride down was Falcons Fury, it did have a wall across the entrance and looks to be under refurb. The giraffe experience was fantastic! Worth every penny and it wasn't really all that expensive. Ate at Dragonfire, good for a family because there were so many options. Thankfully we did not encounter any stray bullets Thanks for everyone's advice.

Yeah, I saw on youtube that they basically just have the landscaping and testing left.....and that testing had started. But announcing the date in the coming weeks doesn't sound like there will be much chance we will get on it on the 28th. Probably worst possible scenario, we can watch it test but not ride. Boo. I thought for sure when it said open summer of 2018 a few months ago that we would be safe by the last Saturday in July.

Hmmmm......that will be very close to our date. Guess we will just have to keep our fingers crossed that it is ready. We are getting off a short cruise to Cuba that morning in Tampa and have a car for the day to get to Orlando so that will for sure be the easiest day for us to stop at Seaworld. Hope it's ready!

We went to the park yesterday as well, on a total whim for a short day. AND I have some TT intel.......(which was an ongoing saga as the day went on) So, my son and I were going to go up to the local pool and then decided very last minute why not just run out to the waterpark instead and maybe get a ride in on the castrated (I mean refurbished Boss) to check it out. We could only stay til about 3:30 or so due to a family dinner commitment so we knew it would be a short day. We got into the waterpark just a few minutes after opening, lines were very short for the first hour or so. We did several of the slides pretty quickly. While doing Tornado and Wahoo Racer we noticed the construction going on just outside the fence as was mentioned in a previous post. At this point just grading and tree clearing but there is a little trailer there for the workers which would make it seem to be a more long term project. Asked around no one seemed to have a clue what it was for (or they weren't saying) except the 7 year old who hitchhiked onto our Tornado raft because he didn't want to ride with his older sisters, he said he talked to a "manager" who told him it would be a "cool ride bigger than TT" I say use that to let the rumors begin. TT was closed, there were several maintenance workers around the ride. We asked them if it was going to be open later, we got a "I don't think so, but we're working on it". That was the same line I got from a few lifeguards I tried to chat up about it. Hmmmm....seemed to be the company response and I thought what does working on it mean; it works totally on gravity, there aren't any moving parts. Anyway after some lunch and with the heat ramping up it started to get very crowded so we spent some time just chilling on the lazy river. We did rent tubes as the line was getting really long. While on the river I noticed that the sign at the TT ride entrance (you know the one that lists the ride requirements and what medical conditions should not ride) was missing. Also, a woman who had been at the park the day before told us that they were testing it the day before with employees and paramedics present. Hmmmm...more on TT in a minute. On a side note I did notice that the wp seemed understaffed. There was only one lifeguard at the bottom of Tornado leaving the riders to keep order and get their own rafts, only one person at tube rental, and as mentioned in a previous post 'attendants' at the top of rides instead of lifeguards. That doesn't really bother me, not much danger at the top but a few more would be nice if at all possible, particularly at the top of the tube slides. On a very side note they finally got rid of the poison ivy that has been growing all along the lazy river and I have been watching the lifeguards tramp through. Guess they figured it out. By about 2 or so it was really getting packed so we decided to to go check out Boss. Both of us are no votes on the new Boss I'm afraid. I liked the helix, thought it was unique, but I could have possibly lived with that if it wasn't for the trim. They have made the mcbr so much more intense, to keep it from going too fast into the new turn at the end I assume, that the coaster almost comes to a stop. Seriously, it crested the next hill very slowly and I really thought it was going to valley in the little dip after that hill. We watched it after our ride and it goes very slowly over that crest everytime. Makes the second half of the ride lamer than it used to be in my opinion. We rode a couple water rides and then it was getting late and we didn't have much time. So, we each did one more activity that we wanted. The boy went to ride Thunder. I stuffed my face with beignets. The mardi gras festival was in full force with lots of fun music and characters and special food. The beignets were yummy. Now the rest of what we found out about TT. Since the boy was riding Thunder on his own a ride op rode with him. He has no idea why. But my son asked him about TT. The Thunder ride op said that the insurance was requiring them to do 50 test rides with riders. These people had to be employees, sign a waiver and could only do it once. If correct this would explain the presence of the paramedics and the time it is taking to reopen. I suspect there will be a new ride requirement sign when it opens that has been approved by the legal department. BUT it does sound as if it will reopen this year. Final two notes: The lines for the rides in the regular park were short. I'm guessing with the afternoon heat the crowd had shifted to the waterpark. The firehouse spraying water into the parking lot seems like such a waste of water. Is there any purpose to it that anyone knows of?

Good! I was a little worried that they would have a PR problem after the news story was bringing up the whole KC slide fiasco at the same time as reporting on TT.

Thanks for the info Bert!

To all the locals....we will be at Seaworld on July 28th. Anybody heard about an opening date for infinity falls? Any chance it will be open by then? Or is everyone in the dark on this? Best food in the park?

It really does suck. One careless woman and not only is the ride shut down for everyone else (maybe permanently) but look at the money it will cost the park. Truly bad luck for SFSTL, when there was apparently no wrongdoing on their part. They probably won't but I hope they fight her in court instead of just giving in and settling. Wonder if that will impact future decisions on new rides for us?

OK locals and frequent visitors......We will be there in a couple of weeks. Have one day before a cruise out of Tampa, so I just went ahead and bought the quick queues on line to save time, was almost a for sure we were going to get them anyway. A few quick questions: 1) When I printed out all the tickets and such is just said to present the paper quick queue tickets to ride attendants to get in the line. Is that correct or do I need to turn them in for a wristband or something similar? Never heard of just carrying a paper around all day to use, and I've been to a lot of parks and gotten a lot of fastpasses and such. 2) I also did a serengeti tour and it would not let me print out a ticket for that. Have a receipt, stop by guest services I presume? 3) Any recommendations on food? We will probably be there open to close so will need a few nice breaks. I saw the restaurant with the three course price fixe menu; worth it? I was there 35 years ago so obviously some changes have occured, lol. Hopefully, all the neighborhood gun owners are having a quiet day

I knew it,,,,this was in the post today: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/water-slide-injury-at-six-flags-st-louis-highlights-lax/article_af660f73-5dab-5a02-bc9d-63dc70f1d043.html

Hmmm....that's interesting. I found out the answer to my own question about TT. There was a VERY brief story on the morning local news. They just stated that a woman had fallen out of the raft on opening day of the ride, gotten whiplash, the ride had been closed ever since and they noted that there is no inspection requirement for water slides in MO. I'm sure a lot of people will immediately start thinking of the KC slide where the very sad and unfortunate death occurred, even though the two situations have nothing in common. I wonder if the thing is dead even before it got off the ground? Prozach your comment may not have been sarcasm after all! Maybe they can convince the populace that they did a "tweak" and its ok?

Thanks for the summer sarcasm refresher Prozach........as a 7th grade teacher I'm never exposed to sarcasm. She says sarcastically and with a grin I haven't been real recently due to getting more than a mom's fill of parks at CoasterCon a couple weeks ago BUT I know early in the year I noticed a definite improvement in some of the landscaping. They had planted some cool weather flowers back in the spring, which hopefully have since been replaced with warm weather flowers, and had filled in several previously bare planter areas. I have to say in all seriousness that the gardens/landscaping at BGW really blew me away. Spectacular.

So sorry to interrupt this burgeoning MO-IL border war of insults BUT, did they reopen the new slide yet?

Well, they are supposed to have it available for ert at CoasterCon on Sunday. Will be interesting to see if they make it. The new slide here, at SFStl, Typhoon Twister has still not opened either. It was listed on the web site initially as coming in May and now just says opening soon. Maybe by the 4th of July

There are going to be about 500 participants. Get the fastlane plus, which if you only have one day I would advise even if there wasn't an event. Most participants probably will not get FL due to ert on almost every coaster before or after park opening.

Well the new slide looks good, had to tell all the free loaders jonesing for my free tickets that it will be a bit longer before it opens I guess 4th of July was a more realistic opening than Memorial Day.

Per the discussions on Volcano status, just thought you would all like to know that they have completely removed all mention of it from the Coaster Con schedule. Con will be at KD on the 19th and 20th. So they are obviously not optimistic it will be open by then.

I wonder if they will get it back up for CoasterCon. It is featured heavily in the preliminary ert schedule on the 19th and 20th, two full days at KD. I've been following the thread a bit to catch up on news since I will be bringing my son.

Prozach, I'm glad you enjoyed the event and congratulations on having MUCH better weather than we did on May 12 for the ACE event. Riding Valravn with little stinging rain pellets hitting you in the face and MF with the wind chill about 25 takes just a tad of the fun out of it I totally hear you about nerd status. (that is meant with true love! My son is a total coaster nerd and I love him to death and let's face it nerds end up ruling the world) As "the Mom" at these events I just watch the participants and chuckle. But they are all digging what they love, my son is no exception and I do it for him. I still have 6 whole days of Coaster Con coming up in a couple weeks! Sometime we have to meet for a drink at SFSTL.

Remember this was back when you could get a Big Mac meal outside of the park for about $3-4 but the price in the park was about $6-7. Well, that was what I assumed, but I just couldn't remember.

They were very busy at FF, of course I was there one night, on a Saturday so I have no idea what the final bottom line was.

You know I was just talking to my son about the McDonalds a couple weeks ago. It was where Mooseburger is now for those that don't know. I was middle/high school age, but I just cannot remember how the pricing compared to a regular McDonalds. Surely, it had to be more but I have no memory of how much more. I can tell you that the Subway at Cedarpoint is 2-3 times more than a regular Subway.