DavidB

I made my way to the park on Sunday on a one day turn and burn to get a last ride on Vortex. I'm glad I did and it really was cool to see all the people that showed up to do the same. Long lines and tons of people taking pictures and videos from all different spots and angles. The weather was beautiful and lines were long all over the park in the afternoon, especially fastlane. I'm guessing fastlane was so busy because of pass renewals, as was the case for me too. I waited about 35 minutes starting at 6:20 to ride the Beast; even longer than I waited on a very crowded nice weather Saturday Haunt night a couple years ago with fastlane. ^I'm the complete opposite. I love Banshee. It feels so big and fast. At opposite ends of the spectrum, my favorite inverts are Batman and Banshee. They are very different experiences but I really enjoy both. ^^I would probably go to get a final ride on Ninja for sentimental reasons...but it really is such a piece of trash. I really like Vortex, Ninja can kick rocks. I was disappointed to see in the SFSTL thread that it is receiving some maintenance work

Kids are working way too hard to not work these days, that's part of the problem. Every single kid HAS to go to college. None of them want to be electricians or plumbers or carpenters or have anything to do with anything physical at all. Hence the excessive amount of work to get an accounting degree for very little pay because there are twice as many accountants as there are jobs. Everyone thinks they are too good to work a blue collar job that pays way more than the job they just went tens of thousands of dollars into debt to MAYBE get then be underpaid at... just my two cents as someone who has a degree in information systems but worked from installation up to basically general management at an outdoor construction company, and is now back in the field because you cant find any employees of any quality...

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I assumed it was pretty unlikely that they would sell out before the park opens, and I'm glad to see multiple people saying they sell them in the gift shops before the park is even open. I will definitely try and get them before rope drop!

^Yes, I've been all times of the year throughout my life. Bug eating szn sucks...I prefer October because its......not bug eating szn.

Yeah, I know May or June is a better time to go as far as ride lines go, but I enjoy going in the fall for a number of reasons. I like the cooler weather. I'm not particularly interested in doing the actual haunts, but I like the Halloween decorations and atmosphere. I like the late hours with lots of night riding. There aren't swarms of bugs around the coasters. Heck, last year I ate all different kinds of delicious food from the food trucks at the park, which aren't always options other times of year. Maybe I'll try earlier in the season next year...but this year I'm going this weekend.

So I'm planning on going to the park next weekend and after seeing this, I have to ask. Is there any chance they sell out of Fastlane Plus online before I can buy them in the park on Saturday? Does anyone know if they keep a quantity aside for in park sale? I would not be thrilled to drive from St. Louis and not be able to get them. I have platinum and would prefer to get the discount and already planned on buying them early in the day, right after early entry ends at the latest. Just hoping to get some insight since the forecast currently calls for fantastic weather, and they are already charging 180 online. Any thoughts or first hand info would be greatly appreciated!!!

Awesome, that's exactly the kind of advice I was looking for! I was probably leaning towards Christmas anyway, but wanted to get first hand confirmation. Also was pretty sure all the rides were open, but not necessarily how long the lines would be. Thanks for the insight.

Hey guys. I am seeking the opinion of some who are more local to SDC than I am. I want to visit before the end of the year...this is almost embarrassing to say since I'm 4 hours away, but I haven't been since I was very young. The primary focus would be the coasters, but I'm definitely not disinterested in the ancillary stuff, be it the Harvest Festival or Old Time Christmas. I guess I'm asking which you regulars would recommend. Considering ride lines and availability, crowd sizes, and overall experience, which would be better for my first real visit? I would probably do a Saturday but could include a partial Friday or Sunday with it. Any opinion is much appreciated, especially if you've been to both events!

^Maybe there is some confusion because you're named after a beatdown machine.

Front row of the back car usually yields decent results on Arrow loopers, and gives an good ride on the first drop on Vortex.

^I think a lot of roughness is overblown nowadays. Vortex is one of the smoother Arrows out there, but theres a segment of the population that will complain about anything that isnt glass smooth. When I see complaints about some b&m's having rattles and headbanging I'm generally confused. Aside from the one particularly awkward tight turn after the loops, I find vortex to be pretty smooth and enjoyable.

The complaint from many, including myself, is that the current Six Flags installs new rides themed to DC characters without any regard for the theming the park already has. IE installing Supergirl in the Britannia section at SFSTL. Cedar Fair has been working more towards coherent area theming while Six Flags has been moving towards everything being a superhero ride while creating a thematic mashup with the existing themes in areas. I'm much more of a fan of Kings Island putting a spacey themed ride named Orion into X Base than I would be if it were called Superman in X Base, which is almost certainly what would have happened if Six Flags bought Cedar Fair a year ago....

Regarding the last few posts: I think we can all agree that when it comes to theming and visual appeal, Fiesta Texas is more the exception than the rule. I've not been there, and I havent been to all that many parks compared to some of you, but I've been to some, and that looks easily like the best looking Six Flags park. I'm hoping to make it there in November, so we shall see. Also, I keep seeing how it will be good for parks like VF, MA, and WoF. I can't say I agree, at least with WoF. I havent been to the other two, but I've been to WoF at least once a year for 3 or 4 seasons now, and I can't see it becoming a six flags park as an overall positive. WoF has gotten a number of "new" rides in recent years. Sure, they have been classics like the troika and condor, but it's not like the park hasnt gotten anything. And it's a very pretty park, with the rides all nicely painted. They just redid the front gate and the town square area(or whatever its called) in the last few years as well. I cant imagine six flags would have made those improvements, and also cant imagine them keeping these areas, and the park in general, looking as good as it does. And I agree with Zach about the DC characters. It's annoying to see almost every ride named and "themed" after a comic book character I could care less about. Especially when they are just dropping these into areas with established theming with no regard for the cohesiveness of the area and theming. I can't wait for them to drop Harley Quinn spinsanity into the Africa section, or joker into the Asia section of WoF..... Just my 2 cents.

^ Amen. The second half is quite uninteresting now. I don't know if the midcourse stop is on to keep the brakes at the end from having to work so hard or keep the train from potentially overshooting them, or to keep the double up at the end from being too wild, or to keep their new turnaround that replaced the helix from getting beaten up...but the ride is nowhere near what it used to be in my opinion. I'll take wild and bumpy over slow and more comfortable any day of the week. Of course as i've said here many times, I never minded The Boss' "roughness." There are far rougher than I've ever gotten on the Boss...

Awesome news on the roof, hopefully the other couple of terrible looking roofs on the actual screaming eagle queue will get replaced as well!

Well that is certainly a surprise... there are so many older Arrows out there just plugging along and Vortex is pretty iconic. It is certainly one of, if not the best megalooper they created, and compared to the rest one of the least uncomfortable in my opinion. I will miss this beautiful coaster, and it's great first drop. I can't really say I'm excited to see what's next, as looping coasters aren't typically one of my favorite types of ride, and this one holds a lot of sentimental value for all the reasons I've mentioned. I was probably going to make it to KI for haunt anyway, but now it's guaranteed.

^ Agreed. I think Banshee is plenty intense, just in a different way than the old inverts. You are absolutely hauling ass at the bottoms of the elements, especially the turnaround pretzel thing. It doesn't have the rapidfire succession of elements like a batman, but the sustained g's on the lower portions and speed through the first part of the ride are incredible.

I went over 4th of July and most of the coasters where the pass is beneficial have merge points such that you're going to have to wait for 15 minutes or so. As Andrew said, just make sure you select your next ride as soon as you've been scanned in, and by the time you're done waiting from the merge point, riding, and walking to your next ride, it will be ready. I would agree that the platinum is not worth the cost...i got it and wished I had gotten gold. It ended up storming when we left the park for dinner before having gotten on maxx force(it wasn't even on platinum on our visit), so we went back the next day and it was late to open, the queue seemed to be about 50 minutes consistently and I would say it was moderately crowded when we were there. None of the switchbacks were finished yet, so it was a straight shot from the station to maybe 30 feet past the actual entrance onto the path outside the ride. I know that doesnt answer your opening question, but hopefully gives some insight to how long the line will take.

I was in KC over the weekend and almost always stay in a comped room at Ameristar, so naturally I almost always hit WoF since it is so close. Thought I'd give a quick TR with some thoughts on the park this visit. Everything looked nice and clean as usual. Having just gone to SFSTL last week, which I think is perfectly fine as my home park, really kind of amplifies the differences between Six Flags and Cedar Fair. Everything just looks better kept and cared for at the Cedar Fair parks I've been to, and visiting the parks so close to each other just drove that home for me. -We rode Patriot in the back and enjoyed it more than usual, don't remember if I've ever ridden in the back for it. -Also enjoyed Timberwolf more than last time. Probably due to some retracking work since last season? I remember seeing retracking being discussed, but didn't pay particularly close attention either last season or this season, but consensus with my GP gf was that it was better this visit. -Prowler was not better this visit, I had seen discussion of it getting rough and sort of dismissed it, as I seem to be less bothered by some roughness than many others. It wasn't painfully rough or anything, and plenty wild, but it was definitely rougher than last season. Definitely tolerable and fun, but a step down from last time. -Boomerang is still Boomerang and I do like the trains...but not a big fan. -Got a particularly spinny ride on Spinning Dragons and enjoyed that as much as I can remember in my limited rides. -Mamba was fun as always. Not the greatest hyper, but definitely a good time and very rerideable. Also hit the swinging boat, scrambler, log flume, and made sure to get on the enterprise since they don't seem long for this world. I also enjoyed pretending the Mamba Venom liquid sour candy was some sort of actual toxic substance...but damn was it sour. Finally, I tried to smash all the pennies the park had to smash, but couldn't find one of the machines that was supposed to be there in the Prowler gift shop...oh well. In the end, a good time was had by all and always like stopping in for a few hours on my random trips to KC from STL.

^ I don't know the elevation change from the current entrance to the station, but I believe the reason the queue seems to do so much unnecessary zigging and zagging at the beginning of it is because the ADA accessibility requirements dictate that the path can only be sloped to a certain degree (I think it is 1" of height for every 20" of run, we are occasionally asked about these types of projects). I assume the requirements will be the same for concrete work. The ride being up on the hill the way it is does no favors to the simplicity of the path. I went back and looked at my numbers yesterday after making the initial post, and assumed the walkway to be about 8' wide(4 for each side entrance and exit) and came up with over 3000 square feet with 1200 linear feet of railing. I ignored all of the zigging and zagging at the beginning of the queue, which is probably another 1000 square feet and more railing. Concrete is going to cost a bare minimum of 10/square foot so the concrete work alone for flat concrete is going to be over 35k to go 440 feet or so along the ride and to the entrance. This doesnt include curbs if they put curbs along it, or railings, or removal, or the extensive ramp which will be necessary to meet ADA requirements from the level of that station to the ground, or any necessary path routing to keep the slope requirements. Just to provide a little more clarity from a position of experience. I agree that it would be fantastic for them to rework that queue somehow and better utilize that space. I also think it will be costly enough that they won't do it unless they have to, would love to see it happen though...

I work for a company that builds decks, which essentially that's what the queue for The Boss is. I can tell you if we were to build that for a residential customer, it would EASILY cost the customer well over 100k, probably more like 200k. We are not subject to union wage rates or prevailing wage rates that would likely be required for a commercial project like that. Maybe I'm off base, but I work with deck pricing and construction every day, and I would guess taking down the existing queue and rebuilding it would cost a couple hundred grand...just to throw my two cents in there.

I think financial incentive and guest satisfaction were probably the main reasons for the helix modification. I'm sure they were getting complaints about roughness in the helix in particular, in addition to the change reducing future maintenance costs. Would it be nice to see the queue reconfigured? Of course. But I agree with Andrew in that they won't do anything with the queue until there is a pressing need, and it looks like the new ride won't force a change yet.

Well, in my opinion this looks like the best addition for our park in quite some time, probably since American Thunder. I'm glad we arent just getting a retheme of Excalibur, as I have seen suggested. Should be able to get a fantastic look at this thing from the Boss entrance/exit!

I love the idea of one side staying 'traditional' and the other being converted. I know this is blasphemy to many, but it seems like a good compromise. Designers have a pretty solid idea of ride times at this point and they could get them close enough to still "race." The traditional side could be converted to RMC over topper as part of the project to freshen it up and keep it smoother while reducing maintenance. I thought the same thing about Racer when that whole discussion came up as well. I like wood coasters but AE didn't do much for me last month on my visit and would be on board with a conversion of one side.

Has anyone purchased a Platinum Pass at Sea World San Antonio to use at the other parks and know of any drawbacks doing it that way? Right now a Platinum Membership at BGW is $354 and a platinum pass at Sea World San Antonio is 133. There has to be some drawback to getting the SWSA pass, right?