steel

Fantastic park. Keep it up. It is a pretty standard mine name, but I think Shaft would fit the coaster pretty well. TNT would work, too, though that's probably better for a launcher.

It's loosely based on La Vibora at SFOT. Very loosely. It definitely won't work now. A lot of it is sort of falling apart. And it was too small for a HotWheels car, anyway.

The problem isn't their efficiency, it's the fact that they take almost no safety precautions whatsoever. It's dangerous.

FINALLY getting around to photos. This isn't nearly all of them, but it's a representation. Enjoy. That's all. "theming" Prowler>>>>>>>>Evel Knievel Too hot to take many pictures at SFSL Zoom... Moving right along ACErs taking pictures Prowler! Pretty Mamba These skies+3 hours until the park closes=incredible Prowler ERT with no light and wet track until 12:30 am. See? On to WoF. They put up these nifty banners for us at all the coasters (except maybe Boomerang, I'm not sure). I really wanted to see it roll back, but it never happened. Powder Keg ... ... Fire in the Hole Walkthrough The Happy Frogs! Seriously, ride it. Giant Swing and High-Low Silos Wildfire gets really close to the path. I don't know if I have ever seen a more photogenic ride. Proof that SDC is pretty. I don't know what's going on with the little kid on the ground. Thunderation station (lol) Flooded Mine was underwhelming Powder Keg station Powder Keg entrance building Wildfire love

I love love love omg love the GCI station. That is awesome.

Yes, I used a marble.

^I don't know which park you went to, but it certainly wasn't Mt. Olympus. There are no fences, so guests are free to climb on supports and tracks, the ride ops absolutely do not communicate, harnesses are not usually checked, employees sit on the tracks while waiting for the train to come back, and the price of admission is not constant. It's horribly run.

This is the best I can do: In eighth grade, we had this awesome roller coaster unit and we had to create a working model of a roller coaster. Mine was by far the most realistic, because I was the only one who cared. But it didn't work because we didn't realize that the table we built it on was tilted. Anyway, here it is.

Hades is fantastic. Cyclops is great, but it's extremely short. Zeus is incredible at night. I thought I was going to be eaten by a bear. Pegasus is completely lame. No forces at all. The park has to many go-kart tracks for its own good, and I had bad experiences on both of the ones I did. On Medusa's Drop, I simply had a slow cart, but on the Trojan horse one, somebody slammed into me, spun out, and sat there watching everyone lap me three times while the operator wasn't paying attention. The staff is incompetent enough to be frightening. They are rude, they do not know what they are doing, and the park is absolutely going to face a lawsuit before long because of a gruesome accident caused by employee negligence. Quite honestly, I liked not-Avalanche (just across the street from Mt. O) better than all of the coasters at Olympus. If you happen to ride Avalanche (I don't even know what they call it now), sit in the front row.

It's like Expedition Everest and Mr. Freeze got it on. I like it.

That's too bad. It was never any match for Wicked, though. I do not understand how Q won the Tony. I remember seeing Q and thinking, "Yeah, it's good, but it doesn't come close to Wicked." But it was a great show with some really fun music and I'll miss it. But hey, Avenue Q School Edition is not far off.

I like how the news clip says "Possible new ride." It doesn't get much more confirmed than shiny new track onsite and footers not far off.

^That is my avatar at ThrillNetwork, lol. Nobody seems to understand it. "...And these are not the hammer." Definitely the most quotable musical ever.

Wow, I suck.

All of the ride ops at Adventureland (IA). That's why I quit. When I worked Tornado, I was instructed to make guests take loose articles with them. They aren't allowed to even leave their jackets and cameras and things in the station. I once saw an onride video of Tornado in which the first thing you hear is the ride op saying, "Don't drop that camera!" as if it were a joke. Also, they receive little to no training. My training was to read a book about the different rides Adventureland has, then listen to a supervisor tell me where the break room was. That was it. No safety courses, no supervision at the rides. I was working Infant Ocean alone one day. At about 7:00 pm, I realized that nobody told me how to close it. The staff at Adventureland is very friendly, but I haven't been back since I quit, and I'm not sure I ever will visit again. My other complaint is with bored ride ops who think they are being very expressive (or are just bored). At SFSL, the Boss op was saying, "Sit upright, hold on tight, because The Boss is about to strike." Clearly, he had been to WoF sometime in the past ten years, because that's Mamba's catchphrase, word for word. More seriously, at WoF last week, the Monsoon operator was insufferable. Unfortunately, I can't demonstrate inflection with simple text, so I can't really show you how awful it was. But I'll try. "Ooooncomiiiing rideeeeers! Welcoooome to the Mooooooooooooooooooooooonsoon!" No exaggeration. It was ridiculous. I also heard this at a couple rides: "WELCOMEBACKRIDERSHOWWASTHERIDE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! AWESOME!!!! Pleaseexittoyourleft - not your right, your left - andhaveagreatdayhereatWorldsofFunrideon!!!!!!!!" They speed through their spiels so quickly that they are totally unintelligible. This is where the problem is. This is information that guests need to know to keep themselves safe. When they overemphasize syllables or rush through the spiel, thinking they are being entertaining and expressive, all they are doing is limiting the amount of that vital information their guest can get. That could be dangerous, IMO. [/$.02]

^Across the Universe is definitely a musical! It's a jukebox musical like Movin' Out and Mamma Mia. I wish they would do it for stage. OH! And while I'm here, who else has seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? I've listened to the soundtrack about a hundred times since I discovered it. At music camp a couple weeks ago, two of the counselors did "My Eyes." If you haven't seen it, watch it NOW! It's about 45 minutes and it will change your life. "It's a brand new day." What are you waiting for? Go watch it!

That's interesting. I thought SDC treated us best, but WoF clearly has more experience with coaster events. SDC had incredible food, a ton of free stuff, and outstanding employees. WoF had lot's of raffles and well-done ERT. I forgot to mention in the TR that they ran all three trains for night ERT on Mamba. That was the first time I'd ever seen them run all three. One-train Wildfire was not cool, I agree. That ride is more than long enough to warrant multiple trains. I sat right in the front, so I will find myself in the picture. Were you possibly the woman behind me in line for the front row of Boss when they were having all of those difficulties? Maybe not. A bunch of people were coming in the entrance to the ride as I was leaving. The reason they closed so early was that there was an actual lightning strike not too far away. That's what they said at Evel Knievel, at least. Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I will try to put pictures up tomorrow or Wednesday. If not then, it won't be for a while.

2009: iSpeed Ever: any Mega-Lite or SFNE Bizzaroman All these people mentioning Terminator... Honestly, if I lived on the east coast, I'd be more interested in Prowler than either TS:TR or El Toro Germany (which I think I will call Das Toro from now on to avoid confusion). Don't want to sound like a broken record, but that ride packs more action into 30 seconds than most rides can put in 2 minutes. But I want to ride all of them anyway.

Wow, I didn't think it came off that negative. I said the event was great. The park is not bad, either. There are some wonderful rides. I had a great time most of the day. Before I start, I should say that the 108*F is what it felt like outside according to weather.com, not what the actual temperature was. It isn't perfectly precise, but it is the heat I was dealing with, so it's accurate enough. They were dispatching quickly, but the problem with the two train system is that capacity is slightly improved at the cost of line movement. If they only ran one train, it would take slightly longer to get on the ride, but the line would move much faster, which is a price I'm willing to pay. The station was not just stuffy, it was dangerously hot. Same deal with Batman's stairwell. I was with a nurse most of the day. She agreed that it was a dangerous amount of heat, even for as short a time as you are in it. My complaint isn't about the fact that I was hot, it's about the fact that SF exposed its guests and, more importantly, its employees to risky temperatures for prolonged periods of time. The risk of heat exhaustion was high enough outside. It must have doubled in those buildings, and tripled for the employees doing physical work inside them. They (the ride crews) handled it very well. They aren't the problem, they're the victims. You're right, misunderstandings and miscommunications do happen. However, I find it completely ridiculous that no one bothered to inform the ride crew that they would be working an hour and a half longer than they had planned. Once again, the crew was the victim, not the problem. Furthermore, I had no intention of riding The Boss more than once during ERT. It's a fun ride, but I'd rather be on Evel. I was more worried about the other people who wanted to enjoy ERT. That wouldn't be a problem for me normally, but I wasn't near any water fountains, I was getting dehydrated quickly, and I was already in a bad mood from the heat and the Boss stuff (and countless employees telling me to have a "Six Flags" day, whatever that means), so that was just a line I didn't want to have to cross. You're right, I got two great rides on Evel as well as dark night rides on Boss and Eagle. And the lightning was beautiful. I do understand that the park couldn't do anything about it, and I'm not complaining that I had to leave early. But the lightning was cool. Sorry if I didn't make it clear enough that I had a good time. Most of the problem was that I was completely exhausted after a week of Coaster Con in 90- and 100-degree heat and Six Flags operations almost always get me frustrated. I agree that it is a fantastic deal. But I'm sure you've had imperfect days at parks, too. I hope that makes it clearer.

Prowler, especially at night.

Ooh, I'm fascinated. Thanks for the tip. Assassins is right up there with Into the Woods and Ragtime and Les Miserables for me. I'm really lucky-by the end of my senior year, I will have been in two, maybe three, of my four favorite musicals. Not my all-time favorite (Into the Woods), though, unfortunately.

^I don't have a question or advice, but thank you so much for posting that link. First of all, it will help me. Second of all, so many times when people figure things out alone, they don't tell anyone else what they did. So I guess that's my advice. In this thread, if you figure out your problem alone, explain how you did it. Somebody else was probably wondering the same thing.

Day 8 (last day): Six Flags St. Louis - 108*F, 93% humidity My last day of coastering for a while. Con was over, but a lot of us (including me) went to Daredevil Daze at SFSL. Morning ERT was just on Evel Knievel, which was not a good move on SF's part, IMO, since all of us only had one choice of ride. I rode twice before deciding it was too hot to continue. Thankfully, they opened up Mr. Freeze at about 10:00, so I got a ride on that before the crowds, too. I've been to SFSL, but, as with WoF, I was with people who hadn't, so I got to ride everything again. After Freeze, we went to Big Spin, then The Boss, then Screamin' Eagle, then River King Mine Train, then Ninja, then Batman. None of the waits were bad at all (though I swear I will never ever ride Ninja ever again - what a horrible ride) until we got to Batman, which was about 50 minutes. It was already ridiculously hot, too, so the rare spots of shade in the queue were welcome. We were looking forward to getting into the station, where it would be cooler. Wrong - it was easily 110* in that building. Not just annoying, but medically risky. It was torture for us. Just imagine the toll that must take on the employees. This is a good B:TR, but it isn't worth that. Lunch was actually pretty good for a big chain park. The popsicles were great. After lunch, we just could not take the heat anymore, so we took a break at the hotel (Holiday Inn at Six Flags, I highly recommend it - good quality rooms (some with views), great pool area, and a free shuttle to and from the park) until 8:00 pm. First thing I did when I got back to the park was Mr. Freeze. I love that ride and I didn't wanted to do it again. No outside line (thank God), and the inside queue is air conditioned. So is the station. Usually. Not today, though. Today it was even hotter than the Batman queue. Well, yesterday, actually, but who cares? Anyway, I was an idiot and decided to wait for the front. They were running both sides. It's a cool idea, and at first I really liked it, but it makes the line move so agonizingly slow that it isn't worth it. So I was in this station for a good 25 or 30 minutes waiting for the stupid front seat. I cannot imagine how horrible it must be to work in there. That is seriously unhealthy and could become dangerous very fast. I'm going to be emailing the park about that. So I was in a bad mood after getting off Freeze, even though the ride was wonderful (there is almost no relief greater than that of being launched out of that boiling hot station into less boiling hot air outside - no lie, it actually felt nice and cool going outside after being in there for so long). I love their drop tower, Superman, so I did that next. What a horrible line. For whatever reason, they've decided to use only one side of the tower, so the line moves half as fast as it should. And it is pretty hot in there. Bad mood only worsened. After a quick trip on Xcalibur, which has to be one of the strangest rides I've been on, I decided to ride The Boss, since ERT was about to start and I was right there. Got to the station and up to the front of the line for the first row and the ride assists told us that this would be the last train of the night. I assumed they meant before ERT, so I let the GP couple behind me cut in front. Then I got there and they told me that it was okay if they did a couple more trains before they closed. The woman behind me (also there for Daredevil Daze) thought they must mean because of weather if not just for GP - there was some lightning way off in the distance. But no, I got in the train and the op said that there would only be one more train and that if people wanted to ride, they would have to spread out. There was even a security guy there ready to shut the ride down. So I asked. I showed them my schedule. I said they could ask their superiors if they wanted - we had ERT on The Boss, Screamin' Eagle, and Evel Knievel from 10-11:30. They honestly had no idea. Nobody bothered to even tell the crew that they were going to have to work for an hour and a half longer than they had planned. Completely ridiculous. This is also going in my email to the park. Then they decided to take of one of the trains for ERT. The difference between Cedar Fair and Six Flags, huh? Very, very bad mood now. Screamin' Eagle was great at night. That helped a little bit. Then I paid $3.50 for a tiny water bottle. I threw my change in the trash. Normally, I wouldn't have gone that far, but I was not a happy camper. Then I only got to ride Evel twice before they closed because of lightning. So I left the park in a really bad mood. Shame, SFSL is a pretty decent park. Overall, the event was great, but they screwed up toward the end. I had an awesome week. Looking forward to my next coaster vacation. (Pictures soon?)

Day 7: Worlds of Fun - 101*F, 94% humidity Morning ERT on all the big coasters - Spinning Dragons, Patriot, Timber Wolf, Mamba, Boomerang, and Prowler. I literally walked on to the front row of Patriot and there still was nobody in line when I got back into the station. Same thing with Mamba. Everyone was at Prowler of course, which is a perfectly acceptable use of time, IMO. I think I was just a little too tired for Prowler, though. It sort of beat me up. After ERT was an End-of-Coaster-Con "Ceremony." They gave more stuff away (they must have given out thousands of dollars worth of stuff this week) and fed us chicken. Didn't stay at the park after that. We wanted to get to St. Louis and take a nice break from coastering. Had a decent supper at Applebees. The hotel is SFSL's next-door neighbor. We could have had an awesome view, but we actually just look out over the indoor pool. Oh well.

Day 5: Worlds of Fun - 103*F, 89% humidity Really long day. Morning ERT was on Patriot, Skyliner (the Ferris wheel), and Spinning Dragons, and breakfast was actually pretty good. I don't have any idea how many times I rode Patriot. There wasn't even a line for the back row and they were running both trains. After ERT was the walkback tour of Prowler. That was fun, but we didn't stay back there very long. RipCord was doing a special for us so that we could fly for $15 all day. So I did that (and it was a good ride, as always). Lunch at All Star Grill was surprisingly good, and we got 50% off, so it was also reasonably priced, if not just a tad expensive. Then I met up with my church's youth group, which was there all day. My youth director's daughter wanted to ride Prowler with me. That was so much fun. She's at that age where she likes roller coasters, but they're still scary. So it's all very exciting for her. She also convinced me to ride Fury of the Nile (and she is probably the only person on Earth who could do that). Then Mamba a couple times before heading back to the hotel for a while. When we got back, Skills USA's kids were all in the park, which meant about 15,000 kids. So WoF threw a luau for us in Oceans of Fun with water slide ERT. I just ate and went back to Prowler, which somehow had no line. Night ERT on Timber Wolf, Detonator, Cyclone Sam's, and Mamba. Fun, fun.