Photo TR: SFA & Kings Dominion

[natatomic]

This past weekend, I drove up to Virginia and Maryland to meet a friend and get a few more credits under my belt. My friend, Dan, and I know each other from being ride ops in the Disney College Program together last year (Splash Trash, baby) (as in Splash Mountain); but since he lives in Maine, and I live in NC, we hadn't seen each other since we left. So as he went to visit family in VA, I jumped on the opportunity to 1) see my friend 2) have a theme park partner for once and 3) have a place to stay that isn't a hotel (i.e. a place that is FREE!) Needless to say, we spent both days constantly pointing out instances of Bad Show (pointing with TWO fingers, mind you), peering over any and all control panels that we came near, and asking every water ride op some variation of, "So, uh, do you get wet on this ride?"

 

We went to Six Flags America on Saturday, which was a first for both of us. I had pretty low expectations for this park, especially after occasionally scanning the "Worst Park Operations" thread here. This was a good thing, though, because I, at least, wasn't disappointed. There were a lot of one train operations (S:RoS, Batwing, Roar, Mind Eraser), which did not surprise me given the earliness of the season and the low crowds, but that certainly did not excuse the 5-10 minute wait between dispatches. Don't they care about OHRC at all? :\

 

Batwing did not open up right away, so we first rode Superman twice. We only waited one train for the front row, and we walked on the second time for the last car. We got in line for it once toward the end of the day when the wait was an hour, but it broke down which caused more than half the people in line to leave immediately (why people do this, I don't know). Luckily it was only down for about 10 minutes, which meant that our previously hour-long wait was shaved down to about 20 minutes. And to all those poor suckers who got out of line? Two words: Ha. Ha.

 

We rode Batwing next, which we nearly walked on given that it had opened only a few minutes previous. Joker's Jinx had about a 20 minute wait (it later went up to an hour, I think), which was not helped at all by the two cars they had roped off. I asked a ride op what the deal was, and apparently the locks weren't working on one of the trains for those seats. I guess repairing the mechanisms that keep guests safe and secure isn't really a priority.

 

All the other coasters had less than a 10-15 minute wait, except for Mind Eraser which was roughly 30-40 minutes. It treated my head pretty roughly as well, but having been on one other SLC before, I was all too surprised. I was half-way looking forward to Two-Face, though, since I'd never been on an inverted boomerang before, but it was unfortunately not scheduled to open until the end of the month. Still, I probably avoided a splitting headache, so I'll just hold on to that silver lining, thank you very much.

 

All in all, it was an okay trip to an okay park. I don't think I ever need to do it again, but at least I have most of the current credits now.

 

I'll have the Kings Dominion TR sometime tomorrow night.

All right, folks, Kings Dominion photos to come tomorrow.

It's definitely not "rough," but I have a feeling it's not maintained all too well.

And let's finish the day with a bit more Superman.

Yes, I'm a credit whore, but this one BEAT. ME. UP. It kept slamming me into the side of my lap bar.

A couple more of Wild One - I really enjoyed this coaster, actually.

I don't know how everyone else feels about this woodie, but I found it to be rough. And Dan couldn't look to the left for the rest of the day.

Yeah, sorry I haven't been able to think of any captions for the past few photos.

Can't you hear them screaming in - OH - such agony?

Vekoma specializes in the Kidney Bean inversion.

Sorry, Dan. Right ride, but wrong park.

Have you noticed that almost all amusement parks have a "western" section? I always imagined it's because there's no upkeep. The more decrepit and worn away it looks, the more authentic.

Man, even the bridge is too wet for me.

"Ma'am, where do you sit to get the *least* wet?" or "Do you have any free ponchos to wear on this?" or my personal favorite: "Is this a water ride?"

Time for a nice, relaxing swing.

A side of cobra, please.

Yeah, it's closed, but I got a few nice photos out of it.

Or maybe not.

Now for some Two-Face

Five Flags! Less fun!

Bad Show, Six Flags. Bad Show.

...the coaster that believes that banking is a cardinal sin.

Wild One...

On to Joker's Jinx

OHHH! Batman! Now I get where the name comes from!

I would have gotten some pictures with the train actually running on the track, but I don't have the patience to wait 15 minutes in between dispatches.

Now back to Batwing

Let's ride some steel.

B _ W I N G. Hmmm, it looks like it might have been a U, maybe? Butwing? Yeah, Butwing, that must be it.

Not quite yet open. But what's the name of it again?

Gotham City is our first destination - mainly for that big ol' ride you see there in the distance

Welcome to the armpit of the Six Flags chain!

[krazekiddd]

Awesome TR! I can't wait to go here and I hope the operations are much better in time for the East Coast tour. Can't wait to see the rest.

 

Not the best photo of dan, but, awww, I'm so cute!

Ha! I love it.

[downunder]

You got some really nice shots there, how long before I get to SFA? C'mon August.

 

SFA looks like it has some really good coasters.

[Gorwingel]

I know somebody in this Photo Trip Report!

 

It's nice to see what Dan has been up too since I last saw him in WDW.

[CoasterEricHP]

Your photo's definately capture SFA's good side! Good job on that.. haha. Maybe the park is only awful on hot, crowded summer days. Can't wait to see the KD ones! Ready for Sat?!

[Swimace]

Wow, your pictures are amazing! I especially like the first picture of the water ride where the splash sort of blends in with the clouds. I was reading this thing and thinking "wow, what a nice looking park, hopefully I'll get back there someday", but then I had to slap myself and wake up.

[Erik Johnson]

Awesome TR! I can't wait to go here and I hope the operations are much better in time for the East Coast tour. Can't wait to see the rest.

 

Not the best photo of dan, but, awww, I'm so cute!

Ha! I love it.

 

At least you will be going with Robb and Elissa which will make sure that you guys get to the park early....which is the key in earning credits there during the summer months. Nice trip report. I think that SFA has a great collection of coasters, it is just a shame that they seem to have a difficult time running them properly.

[ginzo]

At least you will be going with Robb and Elissa which will make sure that you guys get to the park early....which is the key in earning credits there during the summer months. Nice trip report. I think that SFA has a great collection of coasters, it is just a shame that they seem to have a difficult time running them properly.

 

It's true. We went there on a Friday morning in July last year and the park was DEAD for the first few hours. We got all the credits, except for Two Face (closed), in 3-4 hours and that included several SROS re-rides. If all the rides actually opened with the park, you could probably get all the credits in 2 hours if you were smart about it.

[RideOn87]

Wow,

 

Awesome shots from S:ROS. What kind of camera do you have? Also, totally against six flags rules! Next time, we're confiscating it!

 

But really awesome shots of the park. BTW, the A keeps falling down, its been fixed twice this season.

[natatomic]

Awesome Photo TR Natalie! Several of the captions actually had me lol-ing...haha. What did you think of S:ROS? It always look semi boring to me compared to the one at SFNE but it seems to do well in most rankings, so I wasn't sure.

 

Aw, thanks. As for S:ROS, I don't really have much to compare it to. I haven't been on the other two versions, and the only other Intamin hyper I've been on is Millennium Force, which I don't really consider a fair comparison. It's not as smooth as MF (again, I assume this is due mainly to poor maintenance at SFA rather than the quality of the ride overall), nor as thrilling, but that extra 100ft on MF's much steeper drop kind of give it the advantage. Still, there's PLENTY of airtime to be had, and 73 mph is nothing to scoff at, so I would probably put it somewhere in my top 10, probably even top 5, but only because I prefer hyper/mega/giga/whatever coasters full of height and speed over the more common multi-inversion coasters.

 

Wow,

 

Awesome shots from S:ROS. What kind of camera do you have?

 

Thank you! I have a Canon Rebel XT, though I occasionally use my 6 year old Canon point&shoot as a back up.

 

Also, I have these pictures at full resolution. If anyone would like any, just let me know!

[BeemerBoy]

Nice report thus far, Nat! I take my hat off to anyone who can make SFA look nice and enjoyable.

[robbalvey]

"The Kidney Bean Inversion"

 

LMAO! We have a new for that element!

 

--Robb

[SFAfan#1]

Nice SFA TR! Cant wait to see my other home-park Kings Dominion!

[cfc]

^^Holiday World should build some ride with the "Kidney Bean Inversion" in their Thanksgiving section. They could paint it green and yellow and call it "Succotash."

[natatomic]

Sunday was Kings Dominion, and the weather was not looking good. There were predictions of scattered showers all day, and for once, the weather men DID NOT LIE.

 

It was clear, for the first couple of hours at least, so we headed straight for Volcano. Even though we arrived when the park opened, we still had about a 20 minute wait due to a one train operation, which was the case all day for this coaster. About half the coasters were only running one train, but Volcano seemed to be the only one with a wait longer than 20 minutes.

 

Avalanche was scheduled to open around noon, but when we got over there at 12:30, a greeter told us that it might not open at all during the day. She ended up being right, but since I already had the credit, I wasn't too heartbroken, even if I do enjoy a good bobsled.

 

It started raining around 1pm, and then the rain came and went about every hour or so. Still, it caused a lot of people to leave the park, which meant shorter lines for us. If wet, frizzy hair was the price I'd have to pay for shorter wait times, then I certainly got off easy.

 

Rebel Yell was operating both sides for the first part of the day (both sides going forward, as I'm sure you already know), though by mid-afternoon it just ran the once-backwards side.

 

Dominator, of course, wasn't open, but we did find out that the VP, a few other Important People, and maintenance had ridden it early in the day. I have the credit from when it was at Geauga Lake, so there was no need for me to offer my future first born child for a chance to ride. Still, it was an option I considered...

 

That's pretty much all I have to say about this park, though I will admit that it was a breath of fresh air after SFA. Better operations, better theming, friendlier staff. Just so you know, though, the cloudiness and grayness of the day did not make for the best photos, especially since I'm still trying to work my talent up to the level of my camera (if the sun isn't absolutely PERFECT, my photos suffer). Still, I worked with what I had.

 

Also, I'll be heading up to PA tomorrow for the Fahrenheit opening this weekend. I'll try to have that TR up here by either Monday or Tuesday, since that's the soonest I'll be back to my internet connection.

Ahh, goodnight Kings Dominion. You were even better than I remembered.

I asked why they kept the vertical loop yellow, and they said, "To make it look more dramatic." True. No color says drama better than yellow. ???

They began testing later in the evening.

Not much to say here, but it is a nice addition to the park. About time they got themselves a B&M.

And now some Dominator

Are they sure they have the right park?

Something tells me that this shirt is from last year.

Between the low crowds and the falling temperatures, this wasn't exactly a packed ride.

I'd actually never been on one of these before, but it was pretty fun.

I've witnessed kids have conniptions over seeing this van in real life.

I'm a sucker for any dark ride that involves shooting things, scoring points, and beating every guy in the car.

I finally was able to steal a child and get a Taxi Jam credit. Again, just a rough sketch of what my view was while on the coaster.

Ther perfect coaster for my backyard. If I ever become a millionaire, this is what I'm buying.

At the bottom of the weird Eiffel Tower thing

Scenery! You don't find stuff like this at most Six Flags. KD really is a nice park.

If it were legal, I think I'd marry a flyer.

Shockwave. An appropriate name.

I don't know what the general consensus is, but I much prefer Grizzly over Hurler. Still, I only have a photo of the station here.

This is the only picture I have of Hurler, and the quality of this photo is an excellent representation of how I feel about this woodie.

It's a fine mouse, but I forget about the sudden stop at the end. It QUITE LITERALLY knocked the breath out of me.

Richochet

Robb recently let me know that on-ride photos aren't exactly allowed by many park chains. And I'm not saying that I took a photo while ON Rebel Yell. But if I did (key word 'IF'), I think it would look something like this.

And the shot that everyone takes of this...

I gotta be honest here. I really don't like this ride. *headbang*

Anaconda. It's in the Congo section of the park, so I guess no one thought to research what continent anacondas are actually native to.

Or, well, maybe not ALL things that launch.

KD seems to have a soft spot for things that launch.

Yay! A new credit! This one was closed when I was here last.

Except for this one.

I realize a lot of these photos are out of chronological order, but I'm just going to group these by ride this time around.

I never could tell if the water actually hit the riders or not.

I've still never ridden one of these. I'm not usually prone to motion sickness, but this just does not look appealing to my stomach. Or any of my other organs for that matter.

No Avalanche this time.

I have to admit, I'm mildly impressed with the theming in this section. It's no Disney, but the effort is obviously there. I hope Cedar Fair keeps it up.

You can tell it's in the middle of the launch by the angle of everyone's legs.

These photos were actually taken toward the end of the day because the lighting was better, but man, does that coaster look neon or what?

Does anyone know how they came up with the name for this ride? I've got no idea.

First things first...

I cannot even BEGIN to explain how much the lack of centering of the sign drove me CRAZY. Well, at least we know the source, eh?

[Jew]

Great PTR!

 

We (when TPR last visited in 2006) must have gotten extremely lucky with SFA. It was hassle free and I got all my credits, rerides on the good rides, and didn't encounter and bad/slow employees. Well, Batwing was slow, but we got on like the 2nd or 3rd train of the day, so it wasn't horrible.

[natatomic]

^My experience with SFA wasn't what I would call "horrible" per se. It was fine, but that fine-ness was mostly due to low crowds, not necessarily on-the-ball staff. If it had been a busy day, I think I would have ended up curled up in a fetal position in a corner somewhere soaking in a puddle of my own tears.

[Immelman]

I enjoyed this trip report...it was funny which is always a plus. Gotta laugh at the Top Gun shirt and was that actual rust on the Mystery Machine? Or was "themed" to look worn out?

[natatomic]

^Actually, it's supposed to be mud.

[downunder]

I love that last picture, the colours are awesome, I wish my camera could get colours like that. I reckon Hanno, and all the other photography gurus with their hubble telescope like SLR cameras are shaking in their boots.

 

Talk about building anticipation for the TPR East Coast trip (and Behemoth trip), I can't wait to check out these parks.

 

I'm surprised you haven't been on the Ride Of Steel at SFNE, I thought it was awesome, definitely worth checking out.

[natatomic]

^Thanks!

 

I haven't had a chance to get to SFNE, mainly due to it being over 11 hours away from me. I guess I could fly, but man, is it ever expensive. Plus, you'd need someone to tie me down in my seat and sedate me.

 

Yeah...not the biggest fan of flying.

[cfc]

^My experience with SFA wasn't what I would call "horrible" per se. It was fine, but that fine-ness was mostly due to low crowds, not necessarily on-the-ball staff. If it had been a busy day, I think I would have ended up curled up in a fetal position in a corner somewhere soaking in a puddle of my own tears.

 

I think SFA is definitely a "springtime" park--it's probably hell on earth during the summer.

 

I really like the "neon" sheen of your KD pictures (and the awesome drawings)--excellent trip report. (I rather like the Grizzly, too.)

[CoasterEricHP]

LOL! I love the on ride photo's..

 

Years ago (like.. 2000) I heard from Cedar Fair about some on ride pictures I posted on an old coaster website. I was honored they went through all that work to yell at me though!

 

Great TR! I'll see you this weekend! Woohoo!

[Bucket]

What gorgeous pictures you take!

 

From your TR at SFA, I wouldn't have guessed that the park was unpleasant. Your pictures actually made me want to visit!

 

 

 

The color schemes on these two coasters are absolutely dreadful!

 

Oh, and why is only the loop on Dominator yellow? Is it unfinished or are they going to leave it like that?

[cfc]

^I rather like Dominator's yellow loop myself. But Shockwave's paint job is pretty bad. They used those crazy colors so that it wouldn't clash with the Nickelodeon stuff nearby (or so I'm told). It didn't work. (Shockwave used to be green.)