LoopScreweD Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 Just left SFGAM on my way home, a great day with the family trip report with photos later. Columbia Carousel through the trees! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willthegolfer Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 This is from the Goliath forum at SfGamWorld, credit goes to Iron Wolf 90-11. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vonni Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 I'm so excited to see construction begin! And even more excited to ride the finished product! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoopScreweD Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Ok so I had this trip report almost done when the page refreshed blank as a slate. anyways I'm only going to post a few pictures and my reviews of the ride for the Columbus Day visit. First ride of the day DEMON (walk on most of the day line built up by the end) ok so first ride in months for me and it seemed smoother on the loops, of course the horrible transition into the corkscrew isn't any better but it's nullified by sticking your head forward. Plain fun entry level with a theme that holds up better than any other in the park (batmans close). I'm going to try 2 separate out of ten ratings one for my personal feelings on the ride experience and it's ranking as a quality attraction. Personal enjoyment 7/10 Value to the park 7/10 Moving on to X-Flight Personal enjoyment 9/10 Value to park 10/10 (15min) Very fun visceral ride, as well as forceful in the hang-time and positive Gs. Consistent stacking for at least 20 seconds most of The day. Taking the long walk across the maintenance road and railroad tracks to American Eagle Red side Personal enjoyment 10/10 Value to park 9/10 (20minute wait). Now this is either standard procedure or Laziness, the red side of AE wasn't operating an hour after opening. However while in line the red side opened and the dumb GP didn't notice so we walked to the top of the stairs before meeting people. Fantastic ride through and though, in my opinion the best racing woodie in the US besides Lightning Racer. Great layout that's nice and varied non standard Unlike the Cedar fair racers. After AE we walked to southwest territory's resident Woodie Viper Personal enjoyment 7/10 Value to park 8/10(40 minute BS) The real problem that caused the wait to be this long was some biotch walked up the exit path with 6 of her kids kept calling one of only 2 operators over, holding up dispatches by minutes at a time.as for the ride Well it's certainly degraded a bit in the comfort level. The ride wasn't rough it just jerked around more than I can remember before which was fairly uncomfortable. Still fun all drops gave good pops into the air. Next was the Raging Bull Personal enjoyment 10/10 Value to park 10/10 (40 minute deservedly so one Que house open) SFGAMS signature ride since 1999, a crowd pleaser that while braked on the big airtime hill still gave a fantastic ride with surprising positive Gs in the figure eight. That's part one for now... Demons lift turn and drop through the trees! Dang it lady you ruined the shot Roll over spin move element Train executing roll over spin move maneuver Immelmann loop Lift hill through a tree! Nice quaint station. Love the buzzing lap bar release noise Something visible through something not entirely opaque Monster of the midway Now here's a new fadd DEMON through the scenery! Viperidae de la shakus Bull cutting loose from vipers queue. Weird HDR after effect randomly making a good photo? Marquee Photogenic opportunity taken Hella figure eight helix on that bull Photogenic opportunity taken Funky banking Pine tree attack! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GayCoasterGuy Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Park is open tonight, 6-10. Odd to be open on a Thursday. Probably gonna jet up there for a couple hours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willthegolfer Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 QUESTION- Which day at FF will have bigger crowds, a Friday or a Saturday / Sunday? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott2608 Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 QUESTION- Which day at FF will have bigger crowds, a Friday or a Saturday / Sunday? Saturday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willthegolfer Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Is Sunday about the same as Saturday? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatMan22 Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 I'm at the park tonight, was the only person on Viper for the first ride of the day. Odd sensation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Farmer Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 I'm at the park tonight, was the only person on Viper for the first ride of the day. Odd sensation... I'm glad you made this post- I wasn't aware that they're open on Thursdays. Looks like I may yet accomplish that first visit of the 2013 season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon8899 Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 Is Sunday about the same as Saturday? Having roughly the same weather Saturday was in 99 out of 100 parks I visited more crowded than Sunday. Do not know why exactly but guess many people want a day off before work or going to church on Sundays. So if you only can go during the weekend go Sunday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricGarbo Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 I went to the park last night as well. Everything was a walk on even with some rides being on single train operation. The park may have only been open for 4 hours but that was more then enough to ride everything several times. It's a great feeling when you're coming down the brake run and you know that you that you don't even have to worry about getting out of your seat if you want to ride again. The night was capped off with an hour of ERT on X-Flight from 10PM-11PM. There were about 8 of us and we got around 15 rides on. It was absolutely freezing, though! I've never been so cold after an hour of riding like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Farmer Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 I went to the park last night as well. Everything was a walk on even with some rides being on single train operation. The park may have only been open for 4 hours but that was more then enough to ride everything several times. It's a great feeling when you're coming down the brake run and you know that you that you don't even have to worry about getting out of your seat if you want to ride again. The night was capped off with an hour of ERT on X-Flight from 10PM-11PM. There were about 8 of us and we got around 15 rides on. It was absolutely freezing, though! I've never been so cold after an hour of riding like that. One of the best times I've ever had at a park was when Great America did Last Blast some time ago. The park was open on the first weekend November and it felt like 11 people (employees included) in the world knew. It was pretty damn cold, there were walk-ons all day, and the season was capped off with a string of laps on Iron Wolf just as some sleet was starting to come down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aesthyrian Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 I'm at the park tonight, was the only person on Viper for the first ride of the day. Odd sensation... I'm glad you made this post- I wasn't aware that they're open on Thursdays. Looks like I may yet accomplish that first visit of the 2013 season. Only one Thurs left and it's this one, the 24th. If you are a season pass holder you get ERT on raging bull from 10:30-11pm. Oh, and not to be rude or anything, but sixflags has a pretty helpful calender on their website that tells you the days they are operating per month. Take care, I hope you make it out thurs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezer17 Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 I went to the park last night as well. Everything was a walk on even with some rides being on single train operation. The park may have only been open for 4 hours but that was more then enough to ride everything several times. It's a great feeling when you're coming down the brake run and you know that you that you don't even have to worry about getting out of your seat if you want to ride again. The night was capped off with an hour of ERT on X-Flight from 10PM-11PM. There were about 8 of us and we got around 15 rides on. It was absolutely freezing, though! I've never been so cold after an hour of riding like that. One of the best times I've ever had at a park was when Great America did Last Blast some time ago. The park was open on the first weekend November and it felt like 11 people (employees included) in the world knew. It was pretty damn cold, there were walk-ons all day, and the season was capped off with a string of laps on Iron Wolf just as some sleet was starting to come down. I was there for this too. The last day the park was open, it was dead as hell. I was able to ride Batman, Whizzer, Demon, Iron Wolf without getting off. The only time I got off was to switch seats. It was cold as hell too, but I had a great time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batmanfan80 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Went there Sunday very briefly. Due to circumstances beyond my control, we only ended up having dinner at that new BBQ place and riding Viper. The ride is still running awesome for me. We just go to the row adjacent to the height measure thing. There was a pretty healthy line for Viper around 7:30ish. Maybe took 20 minutes, perhaps more. Park was pretty crowded considering there were only about two buses at 6:30. The back lot still had a lot of cars in it. To me, it's definitely worth driving 50 miles even if only to ride Viper once. I'm lucky I can do that. Most people in this country have to travel a lot further than that to get to a decent theme park. Hopefully I can get at least two more 5+ hour days in before the season ends. They could draw crowds in November, I bet. Only if they advertised enough. Guess it would depend how many weekends they have to close because of weather. If the sun is out and there's no snow or anything, they could draw year round nowadays. Some of this October weather can be pretty brutal and looks like it isn't deterring too much attendance yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewman35 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 . They could draw crowds in November, I bet. Only if they advertised enough. Guess it would depend how many weekends they have to close because of weather. If the sun is out and there's no snow or anything, they could draw year round nowadays. Some of this October weather can be pretty brutal and looks like it isn't deterring too much attendance yet. They draw for Fright Fest, but I don't think they'd draw at all past that. For one, it's usually much worse weather in November. Plus, the last few days they are open in September are usually pretty empty (and I can say from firsthand experience, this year the last weekend day they were open was one of the lighter crowds I've ever seen). There has also been at least one year when they opened the weekend after Halloween and there were NO crowds (which is why they don't do that anymore). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TunaSled Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 QUESTION- Which day at FF will have bigger crowds, a Friday or a Saturday / Sunday? Saturday Then explain to me Sunday 10/13. Oh mah gahd. Saturday 10/12 was way more manageable. Sunday was packed to the outer parking lots. Batman was 2+ hours all day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batmanfan80 Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 The question is what kind of a draw do they need to be profitable. This country doesn't seem to be as into this stuff as much of Europe is. You see all these awesome places in Germany alone. When I go back and read about 49,000 people being there on 10/27 last year, I have to wonder if they really need anywhere near that to be profitable. These season passes must be a good deal for them as they push them very hard all the time. Most people I know love this place, but they procrastinate forever in actually making the trip. I'm definitely curious if Goliath ends up being a big draw next year. The culture is different now. Very different from the days of Shockwave, Iron Wolf, and Batman awing the general public. Goliath will probably be the first ride with a chance of repeating the sense of awe those coasters gave off 20+ years ago. I'm not sure that it will though. The growth of coasters has exploded since the days of GA being the cutting edge park, it takes a lot more to make something people will take note of. The September attendance being lower probably has a lot to do with people wanting to wait until the end of October to show for FF. That and maybe a lack of awareness as to the park being open since they usually close some parts of September. To make November work they'd just need for people to be aware. Without some special event, it wouldn't draw anywhere close to FF, but may still be profitable. A buddy of mine just went to Magic Mountain 3 times a little over a week ago. Said there were barely any lines. Think the most he waited was 45 min for Full Throttle. X-2 had been down for maintenance over a month he heard. Makes me wonder if it ever gets days where everything has a 2 hour wait like we do here. Did GA do good business this past May? I don't see any real difference in being open in early May vs some of these offseason months. Weather is usually about the same aside from the occasional winter storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewman35 Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 I don't see any real difference in being open in early May vs some of these offseason months. Weather is usually about the same aside from the occasional winter storm. According to Wikipedia, at Midway Airport (close enough), the average high temp in April is 59.2 , May is 70.2, and November is 48.6. That's a pretty big difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batmanfan80 Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 I remember a lot of Mays that were cold almost the whole month. Sometimes it can get summer-like. The average probably comes from temps that aren't very constant throughout the month. The weather is still real iffy. I wonder if they ran the rides in 30 degree temps last night. Cedar Point workers said their weather is all over the place, sometimes they were wearing thick jackets in summer. I believe the quote was "this is Ohio, we don't have seasons". Never researched that myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aesthyrian Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 I wonder if they ran the rides in 30 degree temps last night. They sure did, and all 40 of us there had a fantastic time haha X-Flight did shut down for the night early, maybe because of the low temps. I slightly remember they had an issue the first season with it not running in 40 degree or less weather or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPDave Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 ^ I thunk they get generally weary of running heavy trains in the cold. Even if the ride has been running all day, as I understand it there is an increased risk of valleying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanM64 Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 ^That makes sense. I went on Thursday night, the place was dead! X Flight and Raging Bull were down (I assume due to the cold- I know Bull has valleyed before), and Viper was down for a bit, but opened back up, so I was able to ride that at least. Going once more tonight, then no more amusement park trips until 2014! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aesthyrian Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 Raging Bull went down? I rode it practically nonstop from shortly after 10pm to 11pm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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