Photo TR: SFMM in Holiday Season 2015-16

[gus1971]

As a farewell to 2015, my family and I headed for a road trip in California, starting in LA all the way to San Francisco by the Pacific Coast Highway and then back to LA in 2016 early days.

 

We managed to stop by SFMM and spend a full day at this park to get to know its latest additions such as Full Throttle (YOLO), Green Lantern and Twisted Colossus.

 

Following TPR fellows' advices, we got a Platinum Flash pass that has entitled us to get as much rides as possible that day.

 

The park was full but not overcrowded. Longest waits were for Batman, the ride (about 2h), Superman, Yolo and, as expected, Twisted Colossus.

 

We arrived before gates were open and after getting the FP device, headed straight for TC to queue normally since FP allows only one ride on this coaster. However, I could not refrain from stopping by and queueing Yolo first, once its line was really short in the early day (about 15min). As Yolo was also a single-ride on FP, we decided to get advantage of it.

 

1) FULL THROTTLE - what an amazing smooth and fun ride. Launch was decent into the very tall vertical loop. Ride was somehow short to me, but again very enjoyable and thrilling. I was hoping more from the backwards launch, speaking the truth. The brake-run on the way down the outside loop hill was cool.

 

Leaving this coaster, we went all the way to Twisted Colossus. Queue was still reasonable that time and we decided to wait to ride it instead of using our Flash Pass credit that early.

 

2) TWISTED COLOSSUS - we were so looking forward to ridding the new revamped Colossus, an old passion since “National Lapoon`s Vacation” flick. It was the best ride of the day. The coaster was not as intense as other SFMM ones such as X2 and Tatsu. TC delivered a top notch ride: smooth, fun, thrilling, great first drop, fun station-to-lift section, etc. My only criticism on this coaster is not the coaster itself, but, for some reason, trains were not running in perfect sync (second and third rides with no sync at all). I do believe the coaster is to be much more exciting when you do experiment the racing/dueling trains. And that was not delivered that day. The closer we got to that was to share the lift - while in blue track, with a bit advanced train in green track. So I do missed going thru the inversions all along the second train. Other than that, Twisted Colossus rules.

 

After TC, we started to revisit the old coasters.

 

3) SCREAM - the brand new paint coat makes this coaster pops from the skyline. It was a cold and beautiful blue sky day, and Scream orange and blue supports and tracks were inviting any incoming guests to ride it. Although B&M is my third favorite coaster brand (after Intamin and Schwarzkopf) and that I do enjoy a lot their designs, for one reason I tend to believe that they are somehow getting lazy in terms of the coaster elements. IMHO, turns out that SFMM B&M coaster collection (Scream, Batman, Riddler) delivers very similar layouts and ride experiences: lift, curved down-hill into loop, Dive-loop / heart line flip... mid break run, 2 corkscrews, brake run. So all these 3 rides deliver very little variation in terms of ride experience. Point to the amazing high positive forces that Scream delivers in its helix.

 

4) APOCALIPSE - nothing good to say about this one. For one reason I tend to believe that SF take poor care of their wooden coasters. Not only at SFMM, but also at other of their venues. Wooden coasters are my favorite. But Apocalypse really stood for its name: it was almost the end of the world (at least it was almost the end of my day!). The coaster was rough and tough, as a mix of old Psyclone and Flashback. It was THE worst ride ever! And I do recall riding this coaster like 4 years ago and having enjoyed it quite a whole lot. The sound boxes were removed from the trains and I could see some nails needing hammering. I would bet trains had square wheels. OMG! It was painful and led my party to a collective migraine. We left the coaster feeling so uncomfortable that we had to stop and rest for a while and do easy rides such as the bumper cars.

 

5) GREEN LANTERN - amazing, amazing, amazing! 11 out of 10. What an wild and unpredictable ride, packed of intense forces and feelings. It was not totally new to us once we rode INSANE at Grona Lund. But it was so good to ride this crazy Intamin machine once again.

 

6) SUPERMAN - only one track was running that day, but I had the chance to ride it backwards for the first time. It's fun. Regular fun.

 

7) NINJA - the coaster was running fabulous. Although I am not very fond of Arrow`s, and giving the age of the coaster, Ninja was in great shape. A wild and twisting ride among the trees.

 

8) TATSU - needless to say this is one of my favorite B&M coasters. The pretzel loop is still very intense to me and I always feel I will black out when the train dives into this element. Not to mention that this beast flies beautifully along the hillside and top, mingling with other structures like the observation tower and Revolution. I do think it is in need of a new coat of paint.

 

9) GOLIATH - I love the first half of this coaster. Excellent drop, great airtime hill after the turnaround. But as all rides at SFMM are full of curves and helixes, I wish Goliath could be a air-time coaster packed of crazy hills only. The second half of it is too intense to me, with very high positive G`s and many twists.

 

10) GOLD RUSHER - painful. Seems to be neglected.

 

As it seems we are aging fast, we did not have the stomach to bear riding X2, Viper and Riddler that day. So we saved these rides to a future visit.

 

Flash Pass saved the day. Nevertheless, I must say day paying extra money per person for X2 and having only a single ride on Yolo, Superman and Twisted Colossus kind of upset me. Thanks to all TPR members who advised us to get it, in previous posts.

 

Hope you all enjoy the pictures. We, for sure, had a blast at the park.

 

Happy 2016 to you and yours! Wish you all a year full of happy thrills and rides.

 

Gus.

SFMM welcomes the Holiday Season

Superman and Lex Luthor Drop

Tasu

More Tatsu

Tasu sexyness

Tatsu's pretzel loop

Tatsu

Apocalypse the killer ride

Twisted Colossus has great trains

A rare moment were traiins are almost 'n sync.

Twisted Colossus waking up killer instincts in its riders.

Scream

Scream interlocking corkscrews

What a coaster skyline!

c

More of Green Lanter

Goliath

Batman the ride

Batman and my fave invertion

Batman

The main plaza

Full Throttle is amazing

More Yolo

The crazy drop into brakes

Because You Only Live Once!!!

Edited January 21, 2016 by gus1971

[Imagineer Josh]

Wow, great TR! I especially love that last photo of Full Throttle.

[viking86]

Great photos! I must say Scream really looks fantastic in it's new colours, really stands out against the sky. I also love the 3rd last photo of Full Throttle, with the train heading into the dive and with the low sun in the background.

[cfc]

YOLOcoaster is a lot of fun. Twisted Colossus is very good even when it doesn't duel--and amazing when it does. Thanks for the photos.

[coasterbill]

When we went a few years ago Apocalypse was one of the best rides in the park, it's a shame they let it go to hell.

[thedlr]

Nice photos! I enjoyed the TR.

[gus1971]

Hi guys, awesome to see the report listed in the main page. Thanks!

 

When we went a few years ago Apocalypse was one of the best rides in the park, it's a shame they let it go to hell.

 

Me too! I rode it in its glorious day and it was a smooth face-paced twisted ride that really got me thrilled. Now, it is a pain machine I want to skip badly. Anyone else has ridden it recently to corroborate (or not) with my opinion?

 

Twisted Colossus is very good even when it doesn't duel--and amazing when it does.

 

Could not agree more on this. It is a very very fun ride either way. Although I miss a more family-oriented coaster @ SFMM (to me, old Colossus and Revolution filled this blank nicely in the pest), TC is thrilling and the green track is amazing. The odd, twisted, bumpy start also adds a lot to the fun. Now I am looking forward to riding other Rocky Mountain beauties... From all reported here, they seem to be doing magic with old wooden coasters such as Texas Giant, The Rattler, and so on.

 

I am glad you are enjoying the report. Cheers to you all!

[Canobie Coaster]

Hi guys, awesome to see the report listed in the main page. Thanks!

 

When we went a few years ago Apocalypse was one of the best rides in the park, it's a shame they let it go to hell.

 

Me too! I rode it in its glorious day and it was a smooth face-paced twisted ride that really got me thrilled. Now, it is a pain machine I want to skip badly. Anyone else has ridden it recently to corroborate (or not) with my opinion?

 

Twisted Colossus is very good even when it doesn't duel--and amazing when it does.

 

Could not agree more on this. It is a very very fun ride either way. Although I miss a more family-oriented coaster @ SFMM (to me, old Colossus and Revolution filled this blank nicely in the pest), TC is thrilling and the green track is amazing. The odd, twisted, bumpy start also adds a lot to the fun. Now I am looking forward to riding other Rocky Mountain beauties... From all reported here, they seem to be doing magic with old wooden coasters such as Texas Giant, The Rattler, and so on.

 

I am glad you are enjoying the report. Cheers to you all!

 

When I rode Apocalypse in 2014, I thought the ride was bouncy but not rough by any means. I really enjoyed the ride's pacing. I'll be making a visit later this year, so it's a shame if the coaster has deteriorated that much.

[Arthur_Seaton]

Me too! I rode it in its glorious day and it was a smooth face-paced twisted ride that really got me thrilled. Now, it is a pain machine I want to skip badly. Anyone else has ridden it recently to corroborate (or not) with my opinion?

It's inconsistent, seemingly dependent on what train is running. At its best, its a rough ride, but not that much worse than other woodies. At its worst, it's horribly jarring and will give you headache within minutes. I've ridden it quite a lot as of late and haven't really been able to identify a consistent source, but if you look closely at the track on slower spots like the brake run, you can see how buckled some of it is. While I do think it's worth a ride as it's a relentless coaster, it's a crap shoot as to what state you'll be in when you get off it.

[jonskinny12]

I rode Apocalypse in August 2014 and, while somewhat rough, it was one of my favorite coasters in the park. I'm going again next month and I'm sad to read about the terrible state it seems to be in now.

[coasterer]

We rode it in September. I love GCIs, so I didn't hate it, but it wasn't good (probably one of the worst GCIs I've ridden, especially in terms of roughness). My wife, who is not as familiar with them, thought it was awful. Couldn't wait to get off of it.

 

Great report! Thanks for this!