teacherkim

Can anyone tell me if the food trucks are still there and/or will be for the coming weekend? Particularly the yummy grilled cheese truck that was in front of BTR a couple weeks ago. We do have dining passes but have more than gotten our money out of them and will happily splurge on the trucks for speed and quality. And to the poster that wondered about people getting the dining plan......it's not necessarily squeezing every dollar but when you have kids that go literally once a week all summer it's not only a savings but super nice NOT to have to send cash with middle schoolers, so there is a convenience factor and on random Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the summer lines at food venues are not really an issue. So, does depend on your schedule and frequency of attendance.

This is just a complete guess, but one reason to have it closed could be to work on the track & general maintenance. They need the offseason for maintenance, but I'm sure they have a careful plan worked out. Also, I was wondering if someone would mention the food trucks. It's something interesting and at least made them put out some more tables. See my above post I talked about the food trucks on Sunday and had a conversation with one of the owners! I loved the idea! Of course they won't run flume during HITP, but to whomever said it was closed for season....it was running on Sunday.. Responding to HWfan......don't know why it didn't put his quote in the gray quote box to make it obvious

As far as everyone's guesses on what will be open for HITP. At the ACE event in September, Pete Carmichael confirmed to the group that everything inside the train tracks would be open, weather permitting; and from what I gathered weather permitting is a little bit of trial and error on what stays operational since they have never had HITP before. We were also in attendance yesterday. Did not do any mazes will go back some Sat night to do that but were letting some friends take advantage of our bring a friend free option to get some rides in. Busy but not Fri or Sat insane. JLBM surprisingly was working despite the fact that it was listed as close at park entrance, we walked right on using single rider, which is being way underutilized at this time. I explained to the group near the head of the line what it was when they questioned us bypassing the whole line. They had no idea, it always amazes me that people don't ask when they see the single rider sign but just get in line like sheep. However, several other rides went down. They closed Colossus due to wasps. And around 4:30 Thunder, Freeze, Ninja, and Superman were all down, not sure if something was going on or it was just really bad luck. On a bright note.....the food trucks! They had 2 outside food trucks that I could see. Talked to one of the guys for a while and he said they were invited everyday for FF and that outside trucks had never been allowed in before (and I certainly have no memory of them) as long as they wanted to come. Asked him if they were planning on being there every weekend and he didn't know for sure until they counted up the receipts and made sure it was worth their while but based on the fact that they ran out of food on Sat night he thought it likely. Great idea!! Because the food service was slower than ever yesterday with very long lines. Of course they don't take dining pass but a lot of FF visitors come just for that event and don't have DP so hopefully it will help alleviates some crowds. Personally, I plan on using them when we go back to do mazes even though I have DP. By now we have more than payed for them with the number of uses AND getting some fresh good food is such a treat. Hopefully they will be successful and more will be invited in.

I am also curious to hear how busy it is tomorrow, if someone can put that info up. We usually only go on Sat to get most time for mazes and just do FP. But of course we have some friends who are begging us to use our friends free option next Sunday and I have no experience what Sun FF crowds are like or how friend free will affect it. Curious to hear.

This is actually really good news! Previous FF have had dinner start at 6 which was a huge mess, everyone waited til then to use their pass but lined up right at 6 to get done and get to the mazes.....result massive crowd descending all at once on food venues. Starting at 5 is great because there will be some time to spread it out. And having lunch go to 4:30 even better because now you have the option to eat a late lunch and just have 2 snacks throughout the evening as you go from fright to fright. Yay! Maybe they do actually read those surveys.

Thanks! I put it on the after visit survey. Hopefully he will get some recognition.

HWFan P.S. you can tell Pete that I am Joel's mom......he knows my son because Joel has repeatedly told him that he wants his job in 20 years Oh and I forgot to add that the walkback tour of the Boss was really great, particularly getting to go up on one of the maintenance platforms and see a view of the coaster that most do not get to witness

I just wanted to say a thanks to all the employees that worked the ACE event on Saturday. My son and his friends had a great time. Pete Carmichael made sure he spoke to everyone and took questions from the group as long as they had them. They gave away some nice prizes that were loved by all coaster geeks. The food service workers back in the pavilions made sure the buffet was never empty; and while I realize it was a couple hours extra pay for them it was great for the ride operators on Freeze, Eagle, Thunder, and Boss to be so nice when stuck at work late! Special thanks to a young man on the Eagle crew. We got stuck on the lift hill when we were almost at the top. It turned out to be nothing, about 10 min and we were on our way. Ride operators communicated to us on the speakers to just stay put but this particular young man sprinted up the lift hill as fast as he could to make sure we were all okay. Almost to the point of giving himself a stroke, lol. This was fortuitous because I was surrounded by several younger kids (not mine) that were getting very scared and freaking out that the ride was broken. One poor little girl was crying, I had to go into full teacher mode in an attempt to calm them down, thankfully the employee showed up to back me up and we were able to calm all the youngsters down. Of course when it was all said and done they were extra proud that they completed the ride. My son was only disappointed that we didn't have to evacuate because he wanted to walk on the lift hill HWfan, if you can please pass that along to Pete and I am sure they can figure out who this employee was, I'm sorry I didn't catch his name; but he and the whole crew did a great job. And for everyone else, since the ACE members stayed after close for ert, we got a sneak peak at one HITP tree all lit up (not sure if it was an accident or they were testing) but it looked awesome!

thanks for the info - i presumed it would be relatively slower on Sunday. but it was really pretty crowded - I saw cars in every available lot and they were all looking really full. I'll just go early next Sat. as far i as I would have had to walk it would have been quite annoying Kevin There is an ACE event on Saturday, although not a huge one, so shouldn't affect crowd level significantly. I see that the next 2 Sundays are bring a friend for $20, so shouldn't be as bad as today. Whichever day you come first thing at open will be your best bet. I usually think Sundays are better for that because you beat the church people.

I meant to say SATURDAYS the busier not Sundays.

That's very surprising. September weekends are usually slow, and Sundays the busier of the two days. Guess everyone waited for today with the rain now over. Your new pass overrides your old one as soon as you process the paperwork at the front gate. They will give you new plastic pass there. You can also enter your pass number into the app and use your phone and then you don't even need a physical pass. It should load any parking or dining you have too, but if the line is short at the processing building near Excalibur it's not a bad idea to stop in there and double check that everything that should be on there, is.

If they are running only one train on some coasters (which they might be in Sept) then I would put the 4 coasters on ERT at the bottom of your list because you will get so many rides on them after hours.

We will also be at the ACE event that day. From past experience you won't need much of a strategy in September, even on a Saturday, other than go ride Justice League first thing OR plan on using the single rider line. The days between Labor Day weekend and Frightfest are usually fairly low attendance. I believe that with school back in full swing you don't get the people coming in from the small towns for a long weekend AND Frightfest is such a huge huge event here that a lot of people save up their park time/dollars for that.

Ok just got caught up on the last few pages of the thread and at the risk of sounding like a lecturing mom/teacher let me add just a few points: Let's try to keep some perspective, we are talking about a place we choose to go in our leisure hours. No one is twisting your arm. If you don't think it is worth the money, don't go. I too grew up living within 20 min of the park since it has opened. As a kid I never thought about any other parks or what was wrong or right with SF, it simply was a place to have fun. Now, my son is 13, a member of ACE, and avid coaster freak (as are many of the posters on this board). Because of him I have learned a lot more about the industry as a whole, have traveled to several other parks, and know way more about the various coaster designers than I ever thought was possible. I get the desire for the giga coaster. I remember vividly the hype and pride and astonishment when Eagle opened as the current (at that time) world record holder. I get what some other parks have that we don't having been to so many now. I get and agree that food service needs some work. I personally think part of the problem is the restrictive meal times, but that's another issue. BUT........the vast majority of local visitors aren't avid coaster freaks, don't travel to other parks, and wouldn't know the difference between coaster companies or have any idea what a B&M hyper is. They might enjoy that fancy new coaster but they won't come to the park any more or less if it's there or not. Doesn't mean they are necessarily uneducated goobers, some probably are through no fault of their own, but many just don't have amusement parks that high on their priority list. To them any new ride or improvement is great. Management has to appeal to all it's customers, not just the coster "experts" and watch the bottom line. Back to perspective......I live in a well off suburb near the park. Most of my son's friends have season passes and many have experienced other parks. However, I teach in a much different neighborhood in the area. A neighborhood that is very low on the socio-economic scale. Many of my 7th grade students have NEVER been to SFSTL, much less any other park, despite the fact that they are only about 35 min away. They do not have season passes, many come from some very dire home situations, and often don't know if their will be dinner available at their homes each evening. The 8th graders go every year at the end of the year as a send off to high school and they literally start paying the school a few dollars a week beginning in Feb so they can try to have enough for the ONE visit they make in their whole childhood. What do you think they would think about all this bitching and moaning? To them the park some of you have painted as a complete hell hole is a wonderful fantasyland. Certainly, everyone has the right to state areas where they see improvement needed, I do too on those post visit surveys, and I would be just as happy as all of you to get a big new coaster; but let's not go overboard on the lamentations. An amusement park that needs to catch up to others is certainly not the Earth crashing into the Sun. Sorry, that's my chance to rant. Now back to the discussion.

Ahhh got it! Wasn't trying to inflame anything, just reporting on what the out of towners/never been befores were saying. We only live about 20 min from SFSTL so there a lot and grew up attending. That's why I was involved in lots of conversations and questions sessions with the other ACE attendees. They were interested in the history of the park and knew we were locals

Um that was supposed to be locker not fluffy fluffy bunny filled with whatever it says. Don't know where in the internet that came from Oh come on! Why can't I type the word I want? It keeps substitution the silly phrase for a very common word to store things in...whatever

So my son and I were also at the ACE event and agree Six Flags really did do a great job. The buffet in the water park during private ride time there was unique and fun. And the exit ticket on the last day was a nice touch, (although I realize that was at no cost to them) but they did feed us well and Pete Carmichael was very present throughout. FWIW - I talked to several of the attendees who had never been to SFSTL before and they mostly seemed to have a favorable impression of the park. Several of them raved about the airtime on Eagle.....course these are mostly die hard coaster people. The only real consistent complaint I heard was how strict the bag policy on the rides was and the fact that most of them had no place to leave them at the station. In other words they knew SF was just pushing the dollar locker rentals. On another note we ate lunch at the new Fowl Ball restaurant that used to be Calico's chicken (for one of the only meals they did not provide for us in the picnic grove) and I say...meh. Was really hoping they would revive fried chicken but they just had chicken strips, nachos, and foot longs which are all offered at other locations in the park. And now off to HW for the last day and a half of the coaster con.

Great that they are bringing back a fried chicken place, they can definitely prepare it already since they have served fried chicken at ACE events we have attended. My son and I will be at the ACE CoasterCon starting on Sunday and lasting most of the week at SFSL and HW. Then we are leaving a few days later for our family summer vacation and will stop at CP on the way to New York; and at the end of the vacation will hit SFGAdv. That's a lot of roller coaster riding in a short time but I know it means everything to our son. You've all heard of soccer moms......well I consider myself an amusement park mom

-Food had no lines but that was probably because it wasn't crowded at all. Why are dining pass snacks only usable until 7:30 though? I have NEVER understood this. As I have said before limiting when you can get your food just makes the lines worse. They would be better off if it was spread out. Besides about 9 is when I usually want a funnel cake

I'm reasonably certain there is A/C in that station, just not turned on yet. It's just one of those weird weekends where it was almost hot enough for a lot of things. Rode Tsunami Soaker for the first time, and I'll just go ahead and say it - if you don't like this ride, you hate fun. Exceptions made for anyone that just doesn't like water rides (but I question your sanity in St. Louis summers). Also, history question - what was on the little island before Mr. Freeze was installed? It's such a weird size. Nothing, if I'm not mistaken. I know there was some jungle cruise knock off in the days before Thunder river, so maybe they had some themeing along the banks, but as far as I remember it was always unused and overgrown. It was Mississippi River Adventure instead of the Jungle Cruise but yes same concept and a definite knock-off. Although when I was 5 I thought it was awesome

Also on the Go Fresh cafe (the healthier option stand) the wraps are pretty good, agree they should definitely have one in HH. But again shooting themselves in the foot by putting it in an out of the way spot in corner of kiddle rides

The best days to go are generally Tuesdays-Thursdays. This avoids the crowds on the weekends and anyone that has a three day weekend. Also any days that have rain in the forecast are good to go. The crowds will be minimal and SFSTL doesn't close most ride because of rain or wind (there are of course some exceptions to that). You probably wouldn't need to spend any money other than food and parking if you don't have a gold pass. No need for a flash pass unless its a very very busy day. Agree 100%. Rainy Tuesdays are the best

Been following for a while mostly to pass on info to my 12 year old son who is an ACE member and avid coaster fan. He will be allowed on when he turns 13. I grew up here, 48 yrs old, mom and teacher, remember the days when the mine train was the only coaster and there was a petting zoo at the park! Vividly remember SE opening and so will probably feel old when they place the plaque at the ACE con and I think about 40 years gone by but.....anyway The food issue has been the bulk of what I have talked about in every survey they have sent me in the last 5 years. Yes, having more/bigger capacity stands with more workers would alleviate some of the issues. Not sure I agree that more dining passes is the culprit, theoretically that should speed each transaction up. After all scanning a card is much faster than a cash or credit card transaction, which should offset to some extent more people overall buying food. I think the restrictive hours are a huge part of the problem and even discussed it with one of the corporate execs who contacted me after an end of the year advisory panel survey in which I criticised the situation. Restricting when people can eat their meals and snacks is just shooting themselves in the foot and creating more of a glut. I have been to many theme parks with kids and it's always an off food day. Meaning you not only don't eat the healthiest but you tend to eat at odd times and that's ok once in a while. I really believe if they lifted the time restrictions people would spread out when they eat. After all 9 hours is kind of a short time to fit in 2 meals and a snack if you think about. This was particularly bad at Frightfest (this was mostly what I talked to the exec about) Everyone knows that the haunted houses are going to start gearing up about 6:30 or so but you couldn't eat dinner until 6 so everyone in the park was trying to eat right at 6; making huge lines, bad quality food, and grumpy workers. Stupid. If they had just let people eat whenever OR had lots of seasonal snacks available that people could maybe trade in meals for and walk around with (think cups of chili, hot dog stand, etc) there wouldn't have been this HUGE glut right at 6 when dinner opened for the pass holders. As far as leaving the park to eat. Yes, it's cheaper but it's also a huge hassle if you have a large group and or several kids. We often have guests that are coming with us on the bring a friend discount days, they cannot afford to go on a more regular basis and going off property to eat takes a lot of time out of the parks. After all sometimes mom is willing to stand in line for food while kids go ride stuff and get in as much riding time as possible. Just my 2 cents since I have been going to the park roughly since it's opening