teacherkim

LOL!! They just sent out the passholder announcements and had a feature on the Boss with a video. It's an old video that still shows the helix. Whoops. My son is ready to sue for false advertising.

That is almost verbatim what I said to my son when he was aghast that I liked reverse Freeze, not for the launch but for the view. He insists that the old forwards launch is best which is interesting since he has only ever ridden it in its current state having not been tall enough before. He has ridden several forward launches though to be fair.

They are predicting storms in the afternoon so ride your priorities first or they may get closed down due to lightning. Dave Murray just apologized for the weather on behalf of Mother Nature on the evening forecast.

That's one thing I've noticed about the couple of European parks I have been too. The landscaping/flowers are out of this world. But I'm into that and so I notice, I'm sure some people pay no attention to that whatsoever.

You know I really wasn't specifically looking for spic and span stuff. More observing ride ops and such. Nothing glared out at me one way or the other EXCEPT that the roof over the lower queue of Eagle is still in really bad shape, but that's been the case for years. I did notice they had planted some spring flowers that do ok in colder temps to get some color in the park before they can put in the more summer type stuff in early/mid May. So, that was a nice little touch.

So, we also were at the park on Friday. We kind of enjoy the first few opening weekends as much for the chaos as the rides. I say that in a totally loving way, not complaining, but it can be it's own form of entertainment Did see Boss testing. I will reserve judgement til I ride it, hard sell for me, I liked the helix! I did not ride Namtab but the boy did and I was surprised that his opinion was "meh", he thought it was kind of weird. Most rides were up and running if not right away by noon at least. Including Thunder River which with a windchill of about 47 I thought not even if you payed me, but there were people riding it, lol. Only non obvious ride closures for the day that I saw were Shazam and Boomerang. JL, had a couple wonky screens that went blurry but I will say that the ride ops were doing a really good job at utilizing the single rider line and filling up all the cars. Much better than in years past. Even though I love SFSL dearly as usual there were some not quite ready for first busy day incidents. Saw lines out the door at both JB's and the Primo's by Boss. We ate at the Go Fresh. Not sure what happened but they had some kind of medical emergency that slowed them down even more. First about 5 min or so after ordering an employee came out and told me that they had just run out of chicken and had to get more and it would be at least 10 min til our order was ready. Then I notice all sorts of commotion, frantic phone calls, security comes running, first aid team comes running.......next thing I notice is that the same employee who gave me the bad chicken news is being carted out in a wheelchair. He was conscious and I didn't see any noticeable injury. Previously, he was running around pretty frantically so guessing he passed out or maybe slipped and fell hard; however that is pure conjecture I really don't know what the nature of the injury/condition was. Of course, through no fault of their own, this put them even further behind. About 30 min to get a wrap and a chicken sandwich after the order was placed. I certainly hope the young man is alright but the point is that it appears the frantic nature of the employees being overwhelmed seemed to have contributed to the incident. I'm not blaming the employees they were working their butts off, but somehow they were not able to fulfill the orders in a timely manner. I'm guessing the same at the other venues since the lines were like FF lines without having anywhere near a FF crowd. I've seen this countless times during the first few weekends. Not sure if it is a lack of enough employees (kind of my initial impression), training, nerves as new people start new jobs (I'm guessing food service has the highest turnover), lack of supplies (they ran out of chips in the middle of all this) or some combination of all those factors. But, for whatever reason food service always seems to be particularly rough at the beginning of the year. The customers were being as patient as possible. particularly since many realized an emergency had occurred, but it was hard for many not to get impatient. Now, I have to tell you how I single-handedly killed Screaming Eagle yesterday. People before us slow to get out, I had to do the usual salmon going upstream push to get the drink bottles to the cubbies and so was the last one rushing back to get buckled in. Due to that I was really focused on the seat and noticed as I got in that there was a heavy metal bracket, about half an inch thick and about 2 x 4 inches with holes to be bolted onto something, laying loose on the floor in front of my seat. My first thought was, well that's going to flyout and hit someone in the face so I handed it to the ride attendant. Well needless to say they immediately shut the ride down and made everyone get off. Imagine a split second moment of everyone in the station (including my own son) staring at me accusingly as they closed the ride. I was persona non grata but of course it was the right thing to do. And the ride ops thanked me profusely for bringing it to their attention. They let us stand on the stairs at first thinking they could get us all back on quickly but the maintenance people decided it was supposed to be holding something under the seat on and I think that was it for Eagle for awhile. It was about 3:30 and we left shortly after that so not sure if it reopened or not. My opinion after attending many many early season days is that the rides ops were doing a great job! My son said that even the split situation at Batman was pretty smooth. And there were lines at a lot of rides that don't normally have them, like Mine Train. I think being the first nice day in the whole month of March and no school for most had a lot of parents bringing out the smaller kids. Looneytoons was pretty busy. But they do need more workers or smoother protocol or something at food service. Yes, it was a good sized crowd but no more than any moderate summer day and they were just completely overwhelmed and having difficulty servicing the crowds. Again, all the employees I saw at food service were working hard, they just seemed "frantic". Thankfully, no power outages that I am aware of which has happened more than once in the past!

Yes. It'd be open daily until at least that point. Not usually. Schools will start the week of August 13th around here and I'm pretty sure they go down to weekends only at that point (or shortly thereafter). I would certainly not count on daily after that week.

I'm not a fan of them removing the helix, although it appears to be a done deal now, it was a unique feature, kind of a shame to alter the original design. I never thought it was too intense but opinions differ; although it didn't seem to hurt the popularity of the ride.

Spring break is spread out all over the month of March depending on district which it was last year too. Almost every school will be off on Good Friday and the park will probably be open that day but that also would have been the same as last year. I say that weather will affect attendance more than anything. But what will be different with the earlier Easter date is that it will only be the second weekend it's open. If the weather is really bad opening weekend, March 24 and 25 then that may up crowds on Easter weekend. Most of that however should be concentrated on Friday and Saturday, it has been my experience that Easter Sunday is usually pretty quiet, especially if you get there at open and beat the church people.

Thanks for the info tnt, good to know. I figured there must be some issue with the cold because otherwise it seems that would be a no brainer for an event like HITP.....too bad.

Yeah, but then, in addition to maintenance schedules, you also start getting consistently dicey weather. This year was unfortunate but unusual. Most years we don't start getting really bad weather until January. I mean a couple weeks ago it was 60. Although, I'm sure they realize it's a risk anytime you try to have outdoor venues after Thanksgiving. As long as the event as a whole makes a profit they won't worry about individual bad days or being shortened by a few days. I don't see them taking a risk of going longer into January (usually one of our worst weather months) particularly after schools start up again.

Well it was a nice Holiday atmosphere tonight, snowed pretty good around 5:30 for a bit. But no coasters running. Cars, Shazam, JL, Colossus, Joker, Carousel, and a couple rides in Bugs Bunny land....that was it unfortunately. Very light crowd, we pulled in at 4:50 and parked in the first row of regular parking. Lights and shows all going gangbusters though. We used single rider for JL and so the longest line we were in all night was waiting for a hot chocolate refill at First Cone, about 7 min, lol. I could tell it was last night as food venues and shops shutting down and running out of things by end of night. We got the last bowl of chicken noodle soup at Fowl Ball (selling it there and at 1904 hot dogs but they closed down by 6) out of apple pies at first cone by 6:45 and getting low on fudge choices by 7:15. Not a complaint by any means...it was last night, light crowd, etc; to be expected. I will say the soup was not bad, not bad at all! I'm curious that they don't run the train during HITP. Maybe they were running it before Christmas and just not tonight? Does anyone know if it is affected in some way by the temps? Seems like that would be a good ride to run with more than normal grandparents and little kids attending for this event. Good way to see the decorations or maybe add some to the route and/or pipe in the christmas songs.

I'll give you all a report tomorrow. IF we don't freeze to death.....Mom much prefers summer to winter but I promised the boy one last visit and all his going to the park friends are out of town. Amazing what we will do for our kids

I know that 1904 Hot Dog has the soup. Not sure about other locations but I have seen the posters on their windows. Great! Thanks

I kind of figured that would be the case. Since we're having a heat wave today we are going to go to the park from about 4:30 til whenever we can't stand it anymore! Quick question, I saw that they have chicken noodle soup and chili in bread bowls (under the holiday treats on the web site) Does anyone know which venue is selling that? Josh do you know?

Well obviously it was slow enough that it wasn't worth it. States on the web site today that they will be closed due to extreme temps but plan on being open tomorrow. Looking at the forecast tomorrow and Friday may be it for the season......looks to be pretty brutal again for New Year's Eve and day.

Well done!

2021 will be the 50th anniversary of the park. I know the enthusiast community doesn't care that much but for a park that caters to mostly locals. It would be all over the local news, maybe up season pass sales a bit......just saying.

I'm almost positive Old Glory was there by 76. I really thought it was original to the park but could be wrong on that. Can anyone confirm?

How does Magic Springs do it? They have several great shows a year Well they must just buck up and pay for it. For whatever reason it fits their business model but not Six Flags business model.

The Beach Boys must have been very early 70's. I can remember seeing Chuck Berry in the Old Glory, I think it must have been about 74 or 75? They had some big shows in the 80's as well. But, even older classic rock and such that play small venues now will still demand a price tag above the park's allowance.

They did used to have very good shows but I had a discussion about this with the park's PR person at an ACE event and she said that the bands that have the biggest draw were the classic rock bands but they are way to pricey now for the park. I'm guessing it will be more along the lines of showcasing newer bands and/or some house bands that perform nightly. I am curious.

Well what the heck is going on, because that's what I remember having and then as of today on the app it only lists baff for Sunday's for me. Weird and annoying.

Actually, looks like I finally conformed. I purchased an iphone on a Cyber Monday sale yesterday, for a few hundred dollars. It was reasonable and my phone is showing signs of a slow impending death. I just opened my email and the BAFF was not listed for Saturday. I think I'll have to do as Josh suggested and call guest services, but that involves being social and not lazy. Edit: I contacted guest services and here was their reply: This Saturday you have bring a friend for 1/2 price and there is bring a friend for free on Sundays with your 2018 pass. I just looked at my pass benefits and it says the same thing. I SWEAR that we got an email saying BAFF was anyday BUT apparently I misread that, sorry if I gave misinformation. They did just add bring a friend for 9.99 for the Dec 1 and Dec 8, maybe they will keep that going for future Friday nights.

You don't even have to get new passes anymore. They will give you a new one if you want OR just download the current pass onto your old card. All done at the gate now. Unfortunately for you Prozach all the benefits and coupons are electronic, no more little booklet!