Quick SFDK update and mini TR

[Mechanic]

I visited SFDK today with my youngest son and his friend from the neighborhood with whom he plays youth football. We arrived shortly after park opening and could tell by the parking lot being about 3/4 full that it was going to be a busy day. There was some sort of Jet Ski race/exhibition going on in the lake, but it didn't look all that interesting so we skipped that.

 

The good news is that Roar and Kong were both back to running 2 trains. Even at that, the park was pretty busy and had longer lines for the coasters than I'd care to wait in. To solve that problem, I ponied up for Flash Passes and we skipped the lines. Medusa's 3rd train is still partially torn apart, but appears to be in the final stages of re-assembly. I couldn't talk anyone into riding Kong, so I don't know how it was running, but all the other rides we went on were running well and ride operations were fairly smooth. We also got the most spin-tastic ride EVER on THBS by having just my son's smaller and lighter friend on one side of the car, and my son and I on the other side. We spun SO much that I actually got a bit of a headache that stuck with me for about half an hour or so.

 

I continue to be impressed by the performance and enthusiasm of the employees at SFDK. The ride op on Tasmanian Devil gave us all a little extra treat by spinning the ride after it had stopped swinging at the end of the ride cycle. At first it seemed he was just rotating the ride platform to line up the entrance and exit, but then he juiced it up and gave us a few fast revolutions before slowing it down and lining it up. It was pretty fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it, even if it did catch a few people off guard at first. You could tell he was having fun doing his job and it really showed.

 

The girl that came out and got the crowd pumped up for the tiger show really did a nice job as well. I could go on about the employees, but those were two that really stood out to me today. Even the very few employees that didn't seem entirely interested in their job were at least attentive and reasonably efficient. Whatever SFDK is doing to improve employee morale and performance, I hope they keep doing it. It's working.

 

In my experience, the park has continued to maintain and improve upon the turnaround they started a couple years ago. The 2 restrooms that I happened to use today were exceptionally clean and fully stocked. Photo op characters were in several locations in the park. I saw some dolphin-shaped themed trash cans near the bird show stadium that I had never noticed before. I didn't notice any litter anywhere today.

 

I'm really glad to have our home park be a good example of what Six Flags can do when they set out to make things as they should be. We'll probably be making another visit or two before the holiday season and then really looking forward to the "Holiday in the park" event that we enjoyed so much last season.

 

So, that's about it. Sorry for not having any pictures for you, but I realized that I'd left my camera in the other car when we were already about half way to the park.

[caliraiden]

I went to SFDK on thursday and can offically tell you that Kong sucked hard.. It was the worst ride ive ever had on it, possibly even worse than Mean Streak or Son of Beast.

[R.C.]

^Yeah, Kong was bad on Thursday. I'm just glad we got on with a walk-on...

 

I have to agree with you, Mechanic. SFDK has gotten so much better in the last few years. The ride ops have become a lot more efficient. On Thursday it seemed like Medusa didn't stack at all, unless they ran into a big problem.

 

The first time I got on Medusa I rode in the back and the guy next to me took off his veterans hat and put it around the seat belt. The ride ops noticed it and politely asked him to put it on the ground to the side of the station. He refused and tried to play the "I'm a veteran, I can do what I want" card. The ops kept politely asking him to leave it in the station. We ended up sitting there for about ten minutes, before the guy decided it wasn't worth it. The ride ops did a great job of remaining polite while enforcing the rules!

 

It's nice to hear that both Kong and Roar are finally running two trains!

[sfmmrules!]

I can't stand Kong & Roar (along w/all other GCI woodies. Kong has got to be the worst inverted coaster ever & those GCI woodies are too rough for me) Especially Ghostrider. That was even worse than Roar! My 2 favorites there are V2 & Medusa. SFMM OMG! Their coasters are so incredibly smooth-every one except Gold Rusher & maybe De Ja Vu.

[willh51]

I really liked Marine World when I went a few years back. Roar was a decent ride and I remember marthoning Medusa and V2, which was awesome. They also have some great flat rides. Of course the Top Spin and Frisbee are great, but so is the inverting one that is themed to a starfish or something.

[darklingscribe]

I can't stand Kong & Roar (along w/all other GCI woodies. Kong has got to be the worst inverted coaster ever & those GCI woodies are too rough for me) Especially Ghostrider.

 

I actually find Roar to be the second most enjoyable woodie in California, right behind the Giant Dipper. Though I understand that a lot of people just don't like the shaky ride a wooden coaster gives. And Ghostrider is a CCI design (I used to get GCI and CCI mixed up as well).

 

Glad to see that you had fun on a busy day at SFDK Mechanic. I, myself, find it hard to enjoy most parks when they are nearing capacity even if I have flash passes.

[Goliath513]

I went to SFDK on thursday and can offically tell you that Kong sucked hard.. It was the worst ride ive ever had on it, possibly even worse than Mean Streak or Son of Beast.

Kong sure sucked that day, but not at a Mean Streak level of suckage. Remember how we could see the reason for it being so rough before we even rode it? God that was a horrible ride and a waste of time even with the walk on.

 

I'm still amazed how V2 had a walk most of that day while Kong had a full station.

 

I can't see how you dislike Roar on the same level of Kong. Just because it's not as smooth as an Intamin prefab, doesn't mean it's a bad ride. Roar has all elements a wooden coaster should have for an enjoyable ride! GCI rocks, but the CCI Ghostrider still ranks above Roar for me even if their other coasters suck.

[caliraiden]

^Haha the damn left side wheel wasnt even touching... god... we coulda died lol

[Mechanic]

I went to SFDK on thursday and can offically tell you that Kong sucked hard..

 

I realize that I'm in the minority, but I actually like Kong. I'm tall enough that my head sticks out far enough to not get my ears punched by the restraint. I've honestly never had a "bad" ride on it and although it's certainly not anyone's definition of "smooth" I've never found it be exceptionally rough. My wife has never minded riding it either, but my kids all wince in pain at the mere mention of it. To each their own I suppose. I haven't been around to enough different parks to really understand why so many people dislike Vekoma coasters so much. I haven't hated any of the ones that I have ridden. In any event, as I said, I didn't ride it yesterday so I can't comment on how it was running that day.

 

I have to agree with you, Mechanic. SFDK has gotten so much better in the last few years.

 

Absolutely! I had begun to get into the Six Flags basher rut several seasons ago after a few less than entirely pleasant visits to the then Marine World, and Magic Mountain parks. I have since been very impressed by the efforts that both parks have made to turn things around. I just haven't noticed nearly as much improvement in employee morale/performance at SFMM as I have at SFDK.

 

It's nice to hear that both Kong and Roar are finally running two trains!

 

I was really surprised to read in someone's TR from just last week that they had recently been running only one train on those rides. While that's been fairly common operating procedure for the spring season, it was awfully late in the summer to still have been running one train operation. I can only imagine what the lines would have been like if they had only one train running on those rides this past weekend.

 

I had forgotten to mention in my original post that the MCBR on Medusa seemed to have considerably less brake effect than I remember from previous rides. Maybe it's just because it had been a while since I'd ridden it that it felt different, but I could have sworn that they used to slow it down a little more there. By no means am I complaining, it's just an observation. Perhaps someone that works at the park that happens to read this can confirm or deny?

 

Thanks for the comments.

[Goliath513]

I went to SFDK on thursday and can offically tell you that Kong sucked hard..

 

I realize that I'm in the minority, but I actually like Kong. I'm tall enough that my head sticks out far enough to not get my ears punched by the restraint. I've honestly never had a "bad" ride on it and although it's certainly not anyone's definition of "smooth" I've never found it be exceptionally rough. My wife has never minded riding it either, but my kids all wince in pain at the mere mention of it. To each their own I suppose. I haven't been around to enough different parks to really understand why so many people dislike Vekoma coasters so much. I haven't hated any of the ones that I have ridden. In any event, as I said, I didn't ride it yesterday so I can't comment on how it was running that day.

Unless you have not been on Kong within the last few months, I can understand where you are coming from. Back in May when I had rode it before, it was actually decent. And for a tall guy lime me whose head sticks above the restraints, it wasn't the head-banging that made it painful. The bumpiness probably through our backs out of alignment that ride on Thursday.

 

 

-Sam "it was just THAT bad" J

[Mechanic]

^ Yikes! Maybe I should be glad that no one wanted to ride it with me. It probably has been about two months since I last rode it. It ran fine for me then, but it sounds from your experience that it's gone downhill. Now I guess I'll just have to ride it to see how bad it really is.