thisdougsforu

All great news. 2019 sounds like it should be a much better operating season.

Forgive me for being unaware, but do all of those enterprises have wild light packages? Hopefully so. A big positive of the influx of new flats in recent years is how much more vivid the lighting is at night. Supergirl could really do wonders for brightening up that area of the park.

I don't think it really matters that Screamin' Eagle is a landmark coaster. Colossus was pretty notable and Six Flags RMCed it, but who knows. In this case I think it does really matter. Eagle was John Allen's last coaster design, a design he had been working towards throughout his career, and one he was immensely proud of. Just seems like a dicey proposition, especially because the Eagle is still a kickass ride. It's like a classic car. My understanding is that Colossus was getting really rough before the transformation. That's just not the case with Eagle. Enough work has been done to keep her running well. When the sun sets on a warm day, a dusk ride on the Eagle is one of the best rides you can have in the park.

We went Saturday at open and everything was walk on or brief station wait for about 2 hours. At about 4pm it started getting crowded and as we left at 5pm the park was packed with a steady stream of cars still coming in. I'm sure it was nuts on Saturday night with the weather being what it was. While it was a good time enjoying warm temps and riding rides in the daytime, I will never wrap my head around the food ops at this park and how poorly they operate.

Looked at the SFSL site today to see if Eagle was going to be up and running for HITP and I see it's closed for the season. Bummer. Looks like it's the same list of attractions running as it was the previous two. I see it lists Batman as temporarily closed, not sure what that's about. Swapping to the winter wheels?

Not sure what the minimum operating temp is, but the coldest evening I've been to HITP was two years ago when it was high 20's and Freeze was running.

Yeah, the way November has gone the park probably isn't going to be as lucky as it was last year with mild to great weather. I remember one Saturday last December (I think it was December, may of been late November) it was like 60 degrees and the place was as crowded as I've ever seen. Lots of trip reports the following Monday as well, as it seemed everyone local that posts on this board attended that evening. Anyways, I don't see many of those nights with how cold and snowy its been already. Hopefully the operating rides hold up ok. Last few years it seemed like it didn't really turn cold like this consistently until around Christmas, at the tail end of the operating dates.

I just took this survey and wow, by far the weirdest I've taken from them.

Just listened to the last 10 mins of that podcast per the recommendation here. Some well articulated points, most of which have been discussed here, reflecting on his visit during the time when a lot of the attractions were down. Always interesting hearing thoughts on the park that are done in a well put together manner. Thanks for posting the link.

There are plenty of reasons SFSL is the way it is, but the whole "it's in podunk St. Louis, there is your answer" argument seems pretty flawed. Cincinnatti, Ohio. Santa Claus, Indiana. Branson, Missouri. Cleveland, Ohio. Knoxville, Tennessee; all markets with parks most sane folks would deem "superior" for one reason or another. The St. Louis metro population (right under 3 mil estimated) is larger than all of those. In the case of the smaller places, A LOT more. Again, I understand why the park is the way it is, but that's Six Flags doing for the most part, not really the region. They (corporate) want to put a minimal investment in the park and keep it profitable by way of season's passes and other way to court the locals. That's fine, but to say that its the only viable way to run the business because of the region seems a reach to me.

I went Friday night for a few hours and it was a great time. Perfect weather for FF and the crowds were low enough to where pretty much everything was a station wait or close to station wait.

The Boss is the largest ride in the park and was just altered over the past off-season. Am I not supposed to talk about my first experience on it? You had a legit reason to talk about it. I was talking more in general of the thread. Which is no big deal. The boss is a big imposing ride and I guess i can see why it gets the attention it gets. I just find there to be much much better rides there is all. My bad if you think I targeted you doug. Yeah sorry I just read that wrong. All good.

The Boss is the largest ride in the park and was just altered over the past off-season. Am I not supposed to talk about my first experience on it?

Ignoring the costume nonsense, I visited the park on Saturday from noon til around 7pm and had probably the best day I've ever had there. Most of the day we were there with just a couple thousand people at my wife's company as they had the park rented. My young kids are finally old/tall enough to do coasters and they had a total blast riding things like Pandamonium over and over again with no line. Weather was perfect as well. Both Freeze and American Thunder were running as smooth as I've ever experienced, so I wound up marathoning both at different times. Once the crowd was opened to the public at 5 there was a wave of people but still a great time. We wound up renewing our gold passes with her work tickets for 30 dollars a piece, so it was a good deal. The kids were asleep before we left the parking lot and look to be coaster junkies now, so that's a big win. Great day at the park. That being said, let me talk about the Boss as I finally got to try the "new", castrated experience. Yuck. That will be my last time. It was just as rough as ever, giving me an instant headache....however at least there used to be more excitement to go with the headache. The trains stopped completely at the mid brakes and slowly crept down the hill. The whole "new" back-half of the ride was just super lame to me, and even at the lower speed it was still rough as hell. TL;DR New Boss felt just as rough as ever but less exciting to boot. Castrated Boss aside, heck of a time at the park on a beautiful first day of Fall.

Nice TR. Hosing guests down is definitely a very Six Flags thing. I hope to take my first ride on the new Boss on Saturday as my wife's company has the park booked for Employee Day. Been a blast the last two years that they've done it. Because most of the employees bring their families, many younger, the family rides are what's busy. Most of the thrill rides and coasters are walk on. I'd imagine Colossus being down won't be the most well received given that the past couple years its always the busiest attraction for this thing, but hopefully they get it online. Regardless it should be fun.

What a ridiculous announcement. BGT is my favorite park and we had an amazing time during our visit earlier this summer. Adding both of those coasters for sure means a return visit within a couple years for us. Amazing stuff.

Glad to hear that Colossus appears to be close to re-opening. It's a major family attraction and they really it need in operation for Fright Fest and HITP

Yes, and Fireball and Spinsanity have the best lights in the park, save for the ferris wheel. At least this influx of new flats helps in that department big time. A Discovery would really brighten up the skyline. And for the folks dissatisfied, best to just vote with the wallet. I think the ride will be great and an endeavor is a cool flat...but I'll be taking at least a year off from passes.

The 50th anniversary of the park is definitely the best shot. I'd also agree that if Excalibur can't be fixed, a Discovery is the most logical thing to insert especially give the quantity that six flags has been buying them at. With the various installations of them this year, what all SF chain parks won't have one besides SFSL?

Neither of those will get me to spend the coin to renew 4 passes, but for the park's sake I hope it's an Endeavor. I would think a brand new one would be more mechanically reliable than an old troika, even if I do think troikas are cool classic rides.

All I've heard is that maintenance is hoping to get it reopened by next season. Most of the rumblings I've heard about the new addition are pointing to an Endeavor going in Highland Fling's old spot. Of course, we employees really don't have any more knowledge about future additions than most people. But it makes the most sense to me- they already have a queue and ride pad just sitting there. And Fling was a family favorite, lots of guests seem upset when I tell them that it's not there any more, so I'm sure it would be a hit. Whatever ends up going there can't be much taller anyways due to Dragon's Wing flying over the area. That is what makes the most sense to me. I loved Highland Fling and an endeavor, hopefully the higher capacity model, would be nice to plunk down in that spot. Assuming it has a lights package that many of the new ones have, it would really brighten up that area of the park at night.

Nice find, TNT. I also saw that today Screamscape posted a pseudo-retraction saying that listing was not for the STL Evolution, but that there are still heavy rumors of it being taken out for good. For you folks that work at the park, is there a sense of that? I suppose anytime an attraction is down for that length of time (with the rarity of the ride in general), it's not exactly a stretch for folks to think that.

That reddit doofus came clean that his post was a lie. Not a surprise there. It sounded incredibly fishy. Well, now we are at the week of with no real credible rumors on what to expect, what is everyone's guess? I'll stick with the Troika heading to Fling's spot. edit- just got confirmation that my wife's company has rented SFSL out for the third year in a row for employee day which is a Saturday next month. Been a blast the last few years as everything is walk on. Looks like I'll get my first ride on the "new Boss". I'm going to attempt to ride it in the front, back and middle to see how it is. If I die, well, at least this post will be here.

Sort of agree with you Sven. While some of these are certainly plausible and may indeed be true, a lot of these are the same rumors that have been going on for awhile. Screamscape just posted a rumor that Excalibur is slated for removal and is currently for sale. He has a link to the for sale listing on there (sorry on phone and can't put the link it). That's a big loss for the park.

I agree it will likely be the Troika. It would fit well into Fling's spot and, like Boomerang (a truly terrible ride) it would cost next to nothing to put it in. However, I have had enough of these kinds of carnival rides, not to mention Six Flags St Louis's inability to even keep the crummy rides they have up and running. If the Troika is the "really big" announcement mentioned on the Six Flags St Louis "Big Online Event" page, we will not be renewing our season passes and dining passes this year. Honestly, between the carnival rides and the rides that don't work, Six Flags St Louis has become boring to us and we don't go nearly as often as we used to. I am hoping against hope that they will announce something worthwhile this year, but given corporate's reluctance to spend any money on our park, I'm not expecting much. I think we will take the money we save from not renewing, put some more towards it, and go on a cruise instead. Yeah, for me it's pretty simple. If nothing exciting is announced, we aren't renewing either. That's not a whiny enthusiast threat, it's just the reality of my situation. Figure voting with the wallet is the best way. I really hope the best for this park, but gosh what a bad year. We've only gone once this year, and my wife didn't even go for that visit, at that. Been a waste of money to have the passes thus far. Hope to at least get out to Fright Fest to make it worth it, at least.