Six Flags America (SFA) Discussion Thread

[Jcoaster]

I think the reason they don't open Bat Wing at rope drop is because half the people burst into flames walking to the rear of the park.

 

Seriously, Google Map the park. There is little shade. Crazy Horse has the same booth food but at least it is inside and since ME is the only coaster over there usually not packed and you get a show.

 

And Blizzard River usually doesn't open until 11:30 . . . . . (I actually have ridden it a couple times this season, of course with my water shoes on, as I don't want to walk around with soggy shoes/socks).

 

But yeah, more shade would be nice. Summers in Maryland can get hot at times (but rarely into triple digits)

 

As someone from the south that's use to heat, I was shocked when I visited D.C last summer with the humidity, I always thought the further north you went, the less humid it got, especially in the summer.

 

Come to NYC in mid July.

[djackson]

Does anyone know if either of the wooden coasters had patriotic trains?

 

From Wild One's break run I saw some trains that kinda looked like the new articulated ptc trains.

[CoasterLover]

Does anyone know if either of the wooden coasters had patriotic trains?

 

From Wild One's break run I saw some trains that kinda looked like the new articulated ptc trains.

 

Did they look like this? (I believe SFA got SFNE's old PTC trains from when they converted Cyclone to Wicked Cyclone... only using them for parts)

 

[djackson]

Yes they looked like those.

[Suspence1127]

Hi everyone,

 

I'll be headed to six flags america soon on a weekday for a few hours. I had a few questions to make sure I was making the most of my time there.

 

1. What is the best plan of attack for hitting all the coasters in the shortest amount of time? I will not be arriving at opening.

2. Are there any flat rides that are worth hitting up? I haven't looked much into the flat lineup here but it seems like there are some cool rides.

3. What is the best place to eat? I'm looking for somewhere fast with quick lines.

4. Any other general tips that I should know about?

 

Thanks, all help is appreciated. I tried looking back 10 pages or so and I didn't see anyone ask these questions in a while so I am sorry if it has been answered recently.

 

Thanks in advance!

[djackson]

Hi everyone,

 

I'll be headed to six flags america soon on a weekday for a few hours. I had a few questions to make sure I was making the most of my time there.

 

1. What is the best plan of attack for hitting all the coasters in the shortest amount of time? I will not be arriving at opening.

2. Are there any flat rides that are worth hitting up? I haven't looked much into the flat lineup here but it seems like there are some cool rides.

3. What is the best place to eat? I'm looking for somewhere fast with quick lines.

4. Any other general tips that I should know about?

 

Thanks, all help is appreciated. I tried looking back 10 pages or so and I didn't see anyone ask these questions in a while so I am sorry if it has been answered recently.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

1. You probably won't encounter a line longer than 10 minutes for anything on a weekday unless you plan on a water park visit.

2. Wonder Woman, Rodeo, French Quarter Flyers, and the Rapids ride are all pretty solid flats.

3. My personal faves are Crazy Horse Saloon, Chop Six, and Gator Mcgees. Gator Mcgees Jambalaya is really good but you have to ask for it because it's not on the menu.

4. If you are a water park person, you should definitely do the one here. Don't waste your time on the drop tower. Ride front row on Mind Eraser and Apocalypse because other wise it's not as good. Lastly, Have fun and post a TR.

[Suspence1127]

Hi everyone,

 

I'll be headed to six flags america soon on a weekday for a few hours. I had a few questions to make sure I was making the most of my time there.

 

1. What is the best plan of attack for hitting all the coasters in the shortest amount of time? I will not be arriving at opening.

2. Are there any flat rides that are worth hitting up? I haven't looked much into the flat lineup here but it seems like there are some cool rides.

3. What is the best place to eat? I'm looking for somewhere fast with quick lines.

4. Any other general tips that I should know about?

 

Thanks, all help is appreciated. I tried looking back 10 pages or so and I didn't see anyone ask these questions in a while so I am sorry if it has been answered recently.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

1. You probably won't encounter a line longer than 10 minutes for anything on a weekday unless you plan on a water park visit.

2. Wonder Woman, Rodeo, French Quarter Flyers, and the Rapids ride are all pretty solid flats.

3. My personal faves are Crazy Horse Saloon, Chop Six, and Gator Mcgees. Gator Mcgees Jambalaya is really good but you have to ask for it because it's not on the menu.

4. If you are a water park person, you should definitely do the one here. Don't waste your time on the drop tower. Ride front row on Mind Eraser and Apocalypse because other wise it's not as good. Lastly, Have fun and post a TR.

 

Thank you for the tips! Unfortunately I won't be able to do a full trip report because I won't have a camera but I'll definitely post my thoughts on the park if you would like that. Thanks again!

[alilstronger]

Hi everyone,

 

I'll be headed to six flags america soon on a weekday for a few hours. I had a few questions to make sure I was making the most of my time there.

 

1. What is the best plan of attack for hitting all the coasters in the shortest amount of time? I will not be arriving at opening.

2. Are there any flat rides that are worth hitting up? I haven't looked much into the flat lineup here but it seems like there are some cool rides.

3. What is the best place to eat? I'm looking for somewhere fast with quick lines.

4. Any other general tips that I should know about?

 

Thanks, all help is appreciated. I tried looking back 10 pages or so and I didn't see anyone ask these questions in a while so I am sorry if it has been answered recently.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

1. It doesn't matter. You shouldn't have lines during the week. If you do it will be for Superman and/or Batwing. Batwing has been treating the park well the past couple years and has not went down as much as in the past. I say go to Mind Eraser first - its the only coaster back there. The draw at this park is the water park.

 

2. Tower of Doom, Penguin's Blizzard River and Wonder Woman if you like Sky Screamers. The rest are pretty mediocre. Rodeo runs a watered down cycle compared to others in the country. The river rapids has no water falls and is really short.

 

3. You shouldn't have any trouble with food lines during the week.

I like:

1. Chop Six (former Panda Express) - across from the Tea Cups

2. Crazy Horse Saloon - great food and indoor/air conditioned - in Coyote Creek, across from Rodeo

3. Johnny Rockets - good burgers - Looney Tunes Movie Town

 

4. Take the park for what it is. So many enthusiast tear this park apart. It has gotten better over the past 5 years. Its really clean and a lot of the staff are friendly.

- If you like water parks I would suggest Bahama Blast, Mako, Hammerhead, and ZoomAzon Falls. The rest of the water park is standard park slides and nothing special.

- Get a front and back seat on Superman and Joker's Jinx. Completely different feelings in both rows on both coasters.

- Wild One is more fun in the last row but can be rough

- Roar feels out of control in the back

- Mind Eraser has gotten better over the years and its pretty equal roughness in the back and front now

- Apocalypse is only ridable in the front for me

- Skip EFX 360 - they make this seem like a great show but its silly and ridiculous in a bad way

[Jason Maier]

Hi everyone,

 

I'll be headed to six flags america soon on a weekday for a few hours. I had a few questions to make sure I was making the most of my time there.

 

1. What is the best plan of attack for hitting all the coasters in the shortest amount of time? I will not be arriving at opening.

2. Are there any flat rides that are worth hitting up? I haven't looked much into the flat lineup here but it seems like there are some cool rides.

3. What is the best place to eat? I'm looking for somewhere fast with quick lines.

4. Any other general tips that I should know about?

 

Thanks, all help is appreciated. I tried looking back 10 pages or so and I didn't see anyone ask these questions in a while so I am sorry if it has been answered recently.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

1. Try to hit up Superman: Ride of Steel and/or Batwing first. They usually have the longer lines . . . . and don't forget the Wild One

2. Definitely Wonder Woman: Lasso of Truth, Vodoo Drop, Blizzard River

3. I like Chop Six or Crazy Horse Saloon

4. DC area traffic during the week sucks . . . . (park related), if you can, try and catch the stunt show in the Stunt Arena (12:30, 4 and 7:15 are the showtimes) or the EFX 360 show in the Grand Theater (1:30 and 5)

[Highridin]

Add the stunt show. If the tall Australian sounding dude is acting that day, you will laugh continually.

 

I like EFX.

 

Add Bonsai Pipelines.... awesome. Ride the green slide for the fastest ride on Amazon Falls. You'll get heart pounding air time on the Mako slide. To this day, I feel like I'm going to fly off. Water in Splashwater Falls is way too damn cold, but have fun.

 

A great shoot the chutes ride is here.

 

Wouldn't ride Apocalypse, but if you do, ride the front or the second row. Be strategic when moving your head when riding. Also, make it the last ride of the day.

 

Ride a middle car on Roar, front or back on Wild One, and first two rows on Mind Eraser. Back on Joker's Jinx.

 

Drop tower is fine. For the size, it's an intense quick drop.

If you do the go carts, pray that you get #12. That's all I have to say.

 

I agree with basically everything else said about other things.

 

Also, I agree with Alli. Too many enthusiasts bash. This comes mostly from pre- conceived notions. It's the human factor of herd mentality. Piling on if you will. Great example: The park runs 1 train a lot, but mostly they run 2 on the 'weekend', unless one is broken. I've even seen posts on here about the park running one train ON ALL rides at a certain time or all day, when I was at the park at the EXACT time that the person that posted was. The park was running 2. In other words, they straight lied. Mostly wanted to jump on the bandwagon, so I usually don't call them out. Once I took pics, then low and behold, someone claimed 1 train ops on all rides on that same day. We are all friends here, so I didn't post behind them. Took the high road. During the week (M-TH), 1 train is all they need. Most wouldn't disagree.

 

The other bandwagon comment I hear ALOT. "Everything was a walk on"; on the weekend!! Now, I do agree that this is subjective. I consider a walk on as I got on the very next train. Some consider a station wait a walk on. Depends. Also depends on the parks that they are used to. I will say this. If you go during the week, before the water park begins to empty a bit (around 4-5), you will have many walk ons though. Ragin Cajin and Fireball lines can be devastating at times.

 

I go all of the time. I have little complaints. Flat ride ops are always slow, but overall have gotten better. Wonder Woman and Zinger ops seem to be quick. Coaster ops are fine. People usually jump on the slow ops bandwagon. Usually people riding hold up ops. Not including Batwing, and when a rider doesn't hold up ops, I time consistent 45 seconds to 1 1/2 minute dispatches. I time from all butts in the seats. Timing is something that I do all of the time. It is fun to me.

 

I always complain about the food lines. On constant occasion, food operations are unacceptable. They need better shade around the food stations while you wait. Plenty of shade where you sit and eat, but not where you wait. This is coming from one who likes being in the sun, and rarely complains about shade.

 

Employee attitudes are always pretty good. May run into a bad apple or two. What workplace wouldn't you find those in?

 

Honestly, SFA keeps one of the cleaner parks that I've been to. Lol,.not much to keep clean.. It's a smaller park.

 

By the way, some people that post on here are very objective, which is good. I can always spot the bandwagon folks.

 

I'm also one who doesn't compare. Some parks have bigger budgets than others, different sizes, a different customer dynamic, etc, etc.., I always take those into account. If I compared, every park would suck hard when compared to Universal and Magic Mountain...lol

[djackson]

For all the LGBTQ folks/Anyone who would care to attend, here is the info for pride night at SFA.

[Suspence1127]

I visited the park today for about 5 hours. Thanks to everyone who gave advice, it helped a lot.

 

Overall, I had a great time here. Superman and Batwing both surprised me as super fun rides, and the airtime on superman was pretty good, especially on the hill after the straight section. Joker's Jinx kind of dissapointed me, I was expecting a more intense and smoother ride, but it was still fun. I survived both mind eraser and Apocalypse. Apocalypse was my second stand up, the other being Green Lantern, and I was surprised by it. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Not to the point where I wanted to go on it again, but I still thought it wasn't so rough, other than some points here and there. On the other hand I absolutely hate green lantern. Rajun Cajun was surprisingly painful but we spun a lot, the most I have ever spun on a spinning coaster.

 

Unfortunately, Roar was closed all day. As I was headed to Wild One, it broke down and it did not start running until I was on my way out and I unfortunately was not able to ride it. That was pretty upsetting because I was looking forward to riding it because I have heard that it was one of the better classic woodies.

 

Chop six was okay as far as food goes, and my first time eating in one. Nothing to special. Service wasn't too bad, but I was pretty much the only one in the entire resturuant so that definitely helped.

 

I did not have enough time to visit the water park, but I did go on the Penguin ride since I have never been on a ride of that type before. We noticed that not one group was getting wet, and then when our boat got to the bottom we were completely soaked. No clue as to why, but it was very surprising. After getting soaked on that ride, we headed to superman which was a complete walk on and I got 4 rides in a row which helped dry me off

 

Overall, I definitely only experienced only a little bit of what the park has to offer because I missed the entire water park and most flat rides, but I still had a great time. It was very interesting to me how small the park was, I'm very used to great adventure where everything is all spread out. I was also impressed with the cleanliness. The only issue I had was the operations. Most of the time it was decent, but there were times that you could tell they were not in any rush. All coasters were running one train (besides rajun Cajun of course) but I get that because it was pretty empty. One final random thought is that I felt it was weird how out of the way batwing was from all the other rides. I feel like the space between batwing and superman could use a flat ride or two to make it feel more connected.

 

Overall, a fun park and I would definitely go again if I'm in the area, but I'm not sure I would make a trip specifically for this park.

[Highridin]

Glad you had a good time. Too bad you missed out on Wild One and Roar. They didn't happen to have a closed for the season sign on Roar, did they?...lol

 

Yes, the park is kept very clean.

[alilstronger]

For all the LGBTQ folks/Anyone who would care to attend, here is the info for pride night at SFA.

 

This was rained out last year. I hope everyone has fun this year!

 

I would go if every water slide was open, last year it as just going to be a handful.

[Jason Maier]

Glad you had a good time. Too bad you missed out on Wild One and Roar. They didn't happen to have a closed for the season sign on Roar, did they?...lol

 

Yes, the park is kept very clean.

 

Roar was closed again today . . . . . didn't see a "closed for the season" sign nor did I see any RMC guys there.

 

Great weather today . . . . but no performances of the stunt show today.

[Highridin]

Same thing happened at this time last year. That's good news. Maybe they'll do more track work.

 

There is one of those very long trash bins, and a cherry picker piece of equipment in the back of the ride though.

[ArundelHigh Coasters]

Glad you had a good time. Too bad you missed out on Wild One and Roar. They didn't happen to have a closed for the season sign on Roar, did they?...lol

 

Yes, the park is kept very clean.

 

Roar was closed again today . . . . . didn't see a "closed for the season" sign nor did I see any RMC guys there.

 

Great weather today . . . . but no performances of the stunt show today.

 

Roar was closed on Tuesday too. Maybe this could be a sign of an RMC makeover in the next year or two? Also, Six Flags doesn't have "closed for the season" signs. When Two-Face was SBNO for the entire 2008 season, there was a sign similar to the one in front of Roar's entrance all season.

[Taylor Finn]

Hey guys, considering a visit next week on Tuesday or Wednesday. Just looking for some general tips.

 

Is it best to do the water park early and then hit the park up?

 

Any specific coasters that I should head to first?

 

I don't see a whole lot of non-coaster rides of interest besides the flyers, and rapids? Am I wrong?

 

"Best" food option in the park?

 

Thanks for all your help guys!

[Jason Maier]

Glad you had a good time. Too bad you missed out on Wild One and Roar. They didn't happen to have a closed for the season sign on Roar, did they?...lol

 

Yes, the park is kept very clean.

 

Roar was closed again today . . . . . didn't see a "closed for the season" sign nor did I see any RMC guys there.

 

Great weather today . . . . but no performances of the stunt show today.

 

Roar was closed on Tuesday too. Maybe this could be a sign of an RMC makeover in the next year or two? Also, Six Flags doesn't have "closed for the season" signs. When Two-Face was SBNO for the entire 2008 season, there was a sign similar to the one in front of Roar's entrance all season.[attachment=0]20170725_195101.jpg[/attachment]

 

We'll have to wait and see if an official announcement regarding Roar comes out. the longer the "closed for the day" sign remains . . . the more I wonder

[MisterBrow]

They're woooooorking on the path!!!

 

It seems they have been doing more small projects spread out over the season. Maybe the ROAR photo op? It hasn't been open all year. Has it?

 

Wish I would have scored one of those RMC shirts that were on sale. I would just stand around by the closed sign.

[CoasterAuditor]

Wish I would have scored one of those RMC shirts that were on sale. I would just stand around by the closed sign.

 

That would be a great way to troll the insane coaster enthusiasts out there

[Highridin]

Hey guys, considering a visit next week on Tuesday or Wednesday. Just looking for some general tips.

 

Is it best to do the water park early and then hit the park up?

 

Any specific coasters that I should head to first?

 

I don't see a whole lot of non-coaster rides of interest besides the flyers, and rapids? Am I wrong?

 

"Best" food option in the park?

 

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

Actually, dry side first, then waterpark. If you see summer camps, then switch.

 

Head to Ragin Cajin first. The line gets long. Ride Apocalypse last.

 

Wonder Woman and the Fireball are here too.

 

Best food? Go to Coyote Creek, or the water park. They have fresh cut fries there.

[Highridin]

Glad you had a good time. Too bad you missed out on Wild One and Roar. They didn't happen to have a closed for the season sign on Roar, did they?...lol

 

Yes, the park is kept very clean.

 

Roar was closed again today . . . . . didn't see a "closed for the season" sign nor did I see any RMC guys there.

 

Great weather today . . . . but no performances of the stunt show today.

 

Roar was closed on Tuesday too. Maybe this could be a sign of an RMC makeover in the next year or two? Also, Six Flags doesn't have "closed for the season" signs. When Two-Face was SBNO for the entire 2008 season, there was a sign similar to the one in front of Roar's entrance all season.[attachment=0]20170725_195101.jpg[/attachment]

 

We'll have to wait and see if an official announcement regarding Roar comes out. the longer the "closed for the day" sign remains . . . the more I wonder

 

Last year, it was closed for a while. They did track work to great effect.

[Highridin]

Glad you had a good time. Too bad you missed out on Wild One and Roar. They didn't happen to have a closed for the season sign on Roar, did they?...lol

 

Yes, the park is kept very clean.

 

Roar was closed again today . . . . . didn't see a "closed for the season" sign nor did I see any RMC guys there.

 

Great weather today . . . . but no performances of the stunt show today.

 

Roar was closed on Tuesday too. Maybe this could be a sign of an RMC makeover in the next year or two? Also, Six Flags doesn't have "closed for the season" signs. When Two-Face was SBNO for the entire 2008 season, there was a sign similar to the one in front of Roar's entrance all season.[attachment=0]20170725_195101.jpg[/attachment]

 

We'll have to wait and see if an official announcement regarding Roar comes out. the longer the "closed for the day" sign remains . . . the more I wonder

 

Last year, it was closed for a while. They did track work to great effect.

[Rayj]

So when I went to the park, I over heard maintenance talk about what the park needs. So i chimed in the conversation, they said they would get rid of some of the older flat rides and that next years addition won't be a coaster, but it could be false. They did say something is getting replaced.

 

Here are my predictions:

-riddle me this, rodeo, or penguins blizzard river gets replaced

-rmc roar

-Gotham stunt arena gets replaced

 

However, I wish the v2 rumor was true, but I don't think the park feels the need to add another coaster.