teacherkim

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.

I wonder if the food truck idea will be the answer to food service in many of the parks. Quality of food trucks has risen in the last several years, while choices at many parks has not. I get that the parks get a huge markup on food; BUT if they just can't get the workers and many choose to leave and go to some fast food place and then return to the park instead of buying in. It would eliminate a lot of headache for the parks to vastly reduce their offerings and then have a variety of food trucks available. Just a thought.

Yeah it was the last week of school for almost every district in the vicinity and many plan a fun end of the year trip to the park during the last few days. It will be like that every year. Just plan on the week before Memorial Day to always have a lot of school groups, unless we just have a crap ton of snow days and districts have had to add days.

The ridiculous part about that is the park opens at 10:30, the line for the water park forms right then. So people are standing in line for an additional hour and a half waiting for entrance to Hurricane Harbor. If you don't get in that line, you might not get into the water park. I think they should let Diamond and Diamond Elite members with reservations for the Diamond Member Beach head straight in once Hurricane Harbor opens. Instead of having to wait in the line. Makes no sense to have to wait if you've got a reservation. That should be accounted for in their capacity headcount. In the past they have always had a separate line for the Gold pass members who get early entry and they let that line go in first. Not sure if they have changed that or not with the advent of the memberships. And there was no one policing the line, nor were they checking as you entered the water park, so all sorts of people just hopped into the gold entry line when they saw it going in first Seems they need to tighten up that system a bit. I'm not really super upset about the new slide not being open yet. I just wish they would communicate with us on what is going on and if they can give us a likely date so we can make plans with some friends who want to go.

There is supposed to be a dinner at the water park with ert on the new Wahoo River on the first night of Coaster Con, June 17th.

They are switching between opening at 11 and 12 depending on day. Actually, on the park hours it is listed as 12-5 this week and next and then switching to 11-6 weekdays the rest of the summer. Open an hour later on Saturdays. I think it is probably a staffing and past weather/attendance issue. Usually, it is not quite this hot the end of May, beginning of June and so probably not quite as crowded right off the bat as this year. Anybody has info on the new slide let us know? I am hoping the park would send out an email to passholders when it is ready to go but......!

Just to let everyone know for future planning. It was absolutely packed yesterday. Apparently, it was the last week for several schools and my Dad informs me that there was busload after busload of schools being dropped off. They had good weather until about 4 when lightning shut down most rides. With fastpass they got on 7 of the coasters before the weather shut down. Fortunately, my son was smart and did all the unique coasters so the only ones he did not get on were mostly clones that he had ridden in other parks.