JG-77

Lol, this thread begins with the announcement of the Reese’s Xtreme Challange (or whatever it’s proper name is) and now we have come full circle Anyways, my family is planning to take a trip to Hersheypark using the sunset pass (we’re a family of 6 so this saves us over $130). We’re going some time next week, most likely Friday evening. Will this likely be enough time for all the coasters (except cocoa cruiser), major flats, and the Reese’s dark ride, plus rerides is major coasters? The sunset pass is good for 5pm until closing. Any tips for avoiding lines or just general things?

Just wanted to chime in to say that I’m thoroughly enjoying these TR’s I really hope I can one day get to this place sand experience Coaster, as well as the rest of the park!

Glad you guys are having fun! Great TR’s! I’m sure there’s probably someplace obvious I can find the answer to this that I haven’t thought of, but what’s the itinerary for this trip, as in which parks are you visiting and when? Is there a link I can follow? Can’t wait for the next installment of this trip

How quickly does the park typically recover from major flooding?

Soda. Ankapark or Daxing East Amusement Center? (Look them up, they’re both...interesting)

My personal pipe dream would be for a raptor between S:ROS and Batwing, but I doubt we’re getting anything like that any time soon based on the park’s history of not getting new ground up coasters for ~17 years.

It’s like amusement parks themed to different European countries are cursed to get a fire. First Europa and now here! Yeah ik Europa’s Fire was quite bigger but it’s still a somewhat interesting coincidence

Thanks so much for the help! One (probably) last question: What is the loose article policy at this park. Will I need to get any lockers?

My personal theory is that the line is ~40% "Omg it flies!", ~30% "Omg it's Peter Pan!", and ~30% "Its got a long line so it has to be good!"

^ Actually I've heard somewhere that certain rides mostly use the seat belts to make sure that the riders fit to avoid another NTxG-type incident* more than as a backup if the lapbar fails. Someone fact-check me on that. *For those of you who don't know, in 2013 a lady was ejected from New Texas Giant since her body was far too large for the train, tragically causing her death. She should never have been put on the ride to begin with.

Thanks for the feedback guys! Some follow-up questions: -Besides the coasters, what are some other recommended rides I should check out? -Which rides have single rider lines? -Are there any tips for avoiding crowds during this part of the day? (4pm to closing for anyone who didn't read my former post) I know that for some parks there are specific areas to go at for specific times to avoid lines, and I'm wondering if this park has anything similar for this time frame. -Which rides should I absolutely skip if the line is over 25min? -Any other general tips?

^Nooo! I actually love Batwing and it’s one of my favorite rides in the park, though I agree bathrooms back there would be nice. My personal pipe dream is a raptor clone between S:ROS and BW.

S&S: Do-dodonpa launch Intamin: Extreme ejector and Maverick-style laterals B&M: Clam shell restraints and roar sound that Great Bear makes RMC: Smoothness (especially on their newer rides like TT and SV from what I hear), Alan Shilke Vekoma: Inversions (I hear Lech Coaster has fantastic intense inversions) DISCLAIMER: I have never been on an RMC, S&S, or new-style Vekoma,so my choices are based on what I've heard from others.

^ Yup, S&S has actually made quite a few compressed air launched coasters, with 5 currently operating and another two under construction according to RCDB. There's actually a 6th operating compressed air launched coaster made by a Chinese company called Sameco. Here's the list on RCDB.

^ You beat me to it Here's my pictures of the park I took. None of them are near as pretty as yours though. Note that I was in a bit of a rush to take the pictures as I was with a friend and my mom and didn't want to keep them waiting for too long while I tried to get the perfect shot. I'm considering writing up a TR about my day, had a fun time! Wild West Express in all it's glory. My personal favorite moment on Wild West Express! It hurts your legs but I don't mind too much. Two small rides with Wild West Express in the background Wildcat, a Schwarzkopf that once upon a time lived at BGW My best shot of Tumbleweed, the park's kiddie coaster. The new-for-2018 Skycoaster. The indoor play structure next to the indoor ropes course. Shot from the food court. The park has a pretty nice indoor section with an arcade, some rides, and other activities including laser tag! Main entrance to the park. Park entrance with Wildcat in the background. This is the only park I can think of with bumper boats, but I haven't been to too many parks so that doesn't mean much.

8/10 Solid signature, adaquate quote, nice use of Reviving this thread b/c I kinda like it.

The new trains for Batwing is just pure speculation. All that we know is that Batwing is "temporarily closed", and that the park has put the sign that someone posted earlier. I don't expect it to open for a while. Whether that will be days, weeks, or even months is anyone's best guess.

Hi all! My dad and I will have the opportunity to visit SFGAm this Friday from 4pm till probably park closing. I don't really know too much about the park aside from it's coasters, so any tips to have a good time would be greatly appreciated! Also, how's this park's weather policy?

Yes! It’s happening That first airtime hill looks glorious! That looks like it could rival the air of El Toro! Full steam ahead on the hype train!

Thank you! As a sidenote, I really hope to get out to Dollywood one day, there's so many great things about that place! Unfortunately, it will probably be several years before that happens - I won't be able to travel long distances alone for several years (due to age), and my family doesn't really have a good reason to trek all the way to Tennessee just for a theme park Great! I look foward to seeing how the area around Wahoo River will be improved, glad that park is actually thinking about aesthetics (though we won't know the quality of the additional work until we see it). Nice to hear the slides aren't down for extended time, I loved those things when I rode them a year ago! Glad you enjoyed! I guess the ability to go around indefinately around the river is pretty neat! I don't frequently go to water parks, so I'm not used to the ways lazy rivers generally work (the last time I was at a water park was over a year ago - in SFA's hurricane harbor!). I hope you enjoy your visit! Be sure to tell us how Wahoo River stacks up

I just want to say that these TR's have been absolutely fantastic! Can't wait to read more! Also, I know I'm several pages late, but: Because why not

Only been to one park this month so it'd have to be Superman: Ride of Steel, at SFA Front row all the way!!!

Wahoo River Open! Yes! Wahoo River is open to the public! I do not know how long it's been open, or if it's officially open (as opposed to a soft opening), but it is operating with riders! I personally did not ride because Hurricane Harbor was slammed (It was bring a friend free day I believe), though it looks like it'd be a pleasant ride if there was little wait. The area surrounding the ride could use some work to make it look nice (grass and foliage should do it). Onto the photos! SFA's new for 2018 Wahoo River is open, and the sign is quite big. The dirt roads left from construction are pretty ugly, but could easily be solved with some grass and bushes if the park is willing to do that. Also, it's quite difficult to see in this picture, but there are some water sprayers built into the walls of the lazy river a little over halfway up the photo and a bit to the left (near where the sidewalk-looking thing ends). Note the water being sprayed from the bridge. Also as a side note: The drop-slide complex (is that the right term?) in the background was closed the whole time I was in Hurricane Harbor. Does anyone know whether this problem occurred just this day or if the slides have been closed for a while? That bridge is the only way across the river. It's placed awkwardly such that you have to walk up that wood-fenced path to get there and down a path of similar length on the other side. It's not impossible that there's another way to cross that I missed, but this bridge was the only crossing point I saw. Also, the stairs in the bottom of the pic are just for safety, not for loading/unloading (I'll show the new loading system later). This is a fun feature right at the beginning of the ride. I'm really happy how this shot turned out! Another shot of the remaining construction roads. New Loading Method! Here's the new load area. I don't know how well it works since I didn't wait around to see, but it looks like a HUGE improvement from what it was before, which was a very small area with steps that was awful for capacity. From the loading area the water forks into two paths. Travel goes clockwise, so new riders would go into the left side, and return on the right. The one obvious problem is that there doesn't look like there's much to prevent people from going around as many times as they want. IDK what the park's rules on for re-rides are, I didn't stick around to see whether riders were being told to get off after one go or not. Even if they are only allowed around once, I have no clue how that would be enforced properly. Overview of the new load area with the sign in the background. Overall Thoughts: Wahoo River looks like a solid addition to Hurricane Harbor, and a HUGE improvement over the old lazy river. My one biggest complaint is that the areas right outside the river look quite ugly, though from what I understand construction only recently ended, and it is still possible that improving the perimeter of the ride is on the agenda. If the park decides to put in some grass, trees, and other foliage, than that would greatly elevate the ride! While it would have been nice to see a big new thrill ride for 2018, I'm not disappointed in this addition, and I'm excited to see what comes to this park in the future! Final Note: If anything I wrote in this TR was confusing to anyone, or if I made any significant grammar mistakes, don't hesitate to ask me about it! ------------------------------------------------ Instead of making a separate post I'll just put this here: I've always found that sign hilarious. Yeah, that sign is the definition of irony Thanks! Glad you liked it! I guess I can see your point about the toad I will note that based on my experiences and what other people have written, SFA's ambiance has been improving......slowly.

Mini TR, Wahoo River photos coming soon! Note: I should be posting my photos of Wahoo River after I'm done writing this mini-TR Headed down to the park today, pretty hot but not unbearable. The park was even more crowded than on memorial day! We had to park in a branch of the parking lot I didn't even know existed, and then walk to the park along the road which could really use a proper sidewalk. There was a tram but it was only running a single car and wouldn't have saved us anytime due to how poor it's capacity was. The line to get in was super long, probably took ~30min of waiting in line just to get in. Luckily, that was the worst part of the visit. Lines were reasonable in the dry park, but Hurricane Harbor was slammed. Turned out today was a bring a friend day, which explains much of the crowds. I didn't know where to mention this in the report so I'll just put this picture here, but I found this sign quite funny I have zero regrets in my choice not to ride anything at Hurricane Harbor. This is just a fraction of the huge crowds, you can see a bit more how crowded it was in some of the Wahoo River photos. The first thing I did was head into Hurricane Harbor to check up on Wahoo River, which was open! More on that after this mini TR. As mentioned in the captions of the last photo, I didn't ride anything in the waterpark due to massive crowds. Once in the dry park, I headed over to Superman for a back seat ride, since I had never taken one and was curious what it was like. The ride went down briefly while I was in line and most people left, so I decided to wait it out at the station hoping that it'd reopen soon. My patience was rewarded, and I got to walk onto the back row for a ride. I was hoping to marathon it while the line remained short but alas, it returned to it's original length by the time my ride was over. I found the back row had two main differences from most of the other rows: 1). The back row provides some nice air on the drop that most of the other rows lack, which I always like. 2). The 4 main ejector hills give their air mostly on the way down instead of throughout the whole crest of the hill, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just different. Overall the back row is fun and worth a ride if you have the time, but the front row is still by far the best seat on this ride. One does not simply say no to an Intamin hyper! The guy in the yellow vest is back there b/c this shot was taken while the ride was down and the guy in the vest was explaining to everyone what was going on. After S:ROS, I decided to give the Penguin water ride a try, since I had never rode before, some people had told me that you don't get too wet, and the line looked short. While in line, I debated whether or not to change from my sneakers into my crocs (I brought them in case I decided to do any water rides). I ultimately decided to put the crocs on, which was a good choice since the raft for penguin had accumulated a couple inches of water at the bottom. While I didn't have to wait too long for my ride, the operations were very bad for this ride when I was there. The ride itself was a bit weird. When going up the conveyor belts, if you had your feet on the ground, you could feel every individual roller on the belt. I did get decently wet on the ride, mostly because the twisty parts at the beginning pour many drops of water on the riders, though the drops feel more like they're from leaking pipes than planned sprays, but I didn't actually look at the source. tl;dr for the below paragraph: Penguin went down for 5-10 min leaving lots of riders in the area behind the station. Several people got off despite it being against the rules, but to be fair the employees did little to enforce the rules and at least one op mistakenly told people they were allowed to hop off. While we were waiting to get back in the station, the ride went down, and we had to wait 5-10min to get back into the station. While it was down, the other group in the raft asked the operator closest to them if they could just get out, and climb into the station. After some verbal exchanges between the group and the two ops, the op closest to our raft said that they could hop out. Unsurprisingly to me, it turned out that there had been some sort of miscommunication between the two ops. The op in the back of the station shouted to the group and the other op that they weren't supposed to be allowed to get out, but it was too late - the group was right next to the station, and it didn't make sense for them to turn around and head back to the raft since they were so close. Another group in a raft behind us asked to get out since one of them needed to go to the bathroom. I forget whether an employee told them explicitly if they had permission to get out, but after some talking with employees they got out, and climbed over the fence into the queue. No employee made any effort to stop them despite the fact that at least one watched the whole thing if I remember correctly. After the weird experience that was Penguin, I went to Wonder Woman to dry my feet off. This was actually my first time riding it despite visiting the park several times with it open, as every other time either the line was too long, or it was too cold for my to want to ride it. While dispatches were quite slow (Loading/Unloading + Ride cycle = ~7 min), one of the ride ops made did great job of making sure every ride was sent with all 32 seats filled, counting and grouping people in line while the ride was running and announcing to all the riders that he wanted every seat filled. I'll be sure to mention him in the SF satisfaction survey! The ride itself is quite fun, and pretty relaxing if you're not freaked out by the heights. It offers great views of the park (even if the park isn't super pretty), and was worth the ~20 min wait to ride for the first time and dry my feet off from Penguin. I actually felt the blood pull to my toes a bit on the ascent up. Side note: does anyone have good tips to avoid the feeling of blood pulling to one's feet on rides where your feet dangle? I've had the same problem on some B&M's. Getting off Wonder Woman, I met up with the rest of my family. (Note: I forgot to mention that I was visiting with my family since I can't drive. My Mom and sisters spent the beginning of the trip at the wave pool while my dad spent his whole time in the dry park. My dad and I met up after I finished looking at Wahoo and spent the rest of the day together.) We headed back to superman for my sister and I to grab a front row ride (My sister's 1st front row ride on this coaster). We wound up waiting a bit longer than anticipated because it turned out that there were more people in front of us than we thought, and a couple with flash pass took the front row before we could get on, but it was definitely worth it (my sister who is gp also agreed that the front was worth the wait). After S:ROS I grabbed a ride on Joker around the middle, which was good fun, and gave me my fix for coaster launches. I chose the middle as I'd ridden front and back multiple times each and wanted to try out the middle just because. With only 45 min left before we wanted to leave, I took a ride on Wild One (2nd to back, underrated ride with solid air unless on a wheel seat), and then we rode Zydeco Zinger, a Falling Star, to finish the day. The ride is pleasant and generally relaxing. When at it was at top speed, I felt mild uplift forces at the peak and a bit of tingling in my stomach. A little surprise with this ride was that my other sister spotted a toad sitting inside the ride's support structure, which was neat. Zydeco Zinger, SFA's Falling Star, had a surprise toad inside! Photo taken by my mom. Heading out of the park, a pair of employees were handing out free packs of Haribo gummy bears, which was a nice surprise! Overall this was probably the least pleasant visit to SFA I've had over my past 5 visits (including this one) due to high crowds, but I still had a nice time in the end, and enjoyed getting to ride some great rides! Wahoo River photos coming very soon! Final Note: If anything I wrote in this TR was confusing to anyone, or if I made any significant grammar mistakes, don't hesitate to ask me about it!

Thanks for your responses! I actually don’t mind Apocalypse and enjoy a ride if there’s no line, as I can avoid most of the head banging by keeping my head forward. Anyway I visited the park today, it was slammed (especially the water park). Wahoo River is open! I’ll have some photos up later today probably. EDIT: I won't be able to get the report up until tomorrow, since I have to go to bed and I have work tomorrow.