singemfrc Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 Great news - I've heard from a friend at the park right now that Joker is running and loading both trains! Awesome! I've been trying to find an excuse to get out to Cali to go to SFMM and now it looks like SFDK is on the map as well. Any park with an RMC is automatically brought up a tier because they have an RMC. Now that Joker is open, SFDK is finally settling into that tier. That's so true, any park I previously wasn't excited to visit immediately gets put on my list when they get an RMC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire2box Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 ^Great news! Doug, great photos, and I'm glad you agree with me that it's the best in CA. And I'm glad to hear the sandwiches are open! I peeked at their menu and they have a lot of sandwiches with produce but none that were strictly vegetarian/vegan, but I'm hoping they let us request our own sandwiches so I can request all the produce on one epic salad sandwich! Also, when I was there last in May, it looked like JBs had some more craft beer options. Can anyone confirm? when I was in there Wensday it looked like they had a decent selection. More variety but I didn't see any craft beer that I know of. ShockTop stood out to me, but thats a Anheuser-Busch brand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_dreamfinder Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 ^Great news! Doug, great photos, and I'm glad you agree with me that it's the best in CA. And I'm glad to hear the sandwiches are open! I peeked at their menu and they have a lot of sandwiches with produce but none that were strictly vegetarian/vegan, but I'm hoping they let us request our own sandwiches so I can request all the produce on one epic salad sandwich! Also, when I was there last in May, it looked like JBs had some more craft beer options. Can anyone confirm? when I was in there Wensday it looked like they had a decent selection. More variety but I didn't see any craft beer that I know of. ShockTop stood out to me, but thats a Anheuser-Busch brand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAWKIN_coaster38 Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 ^ 12 options of beer, plus there's indoor seating. I'm really digging this new place. Definitely gonna have to check it out on my next visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singemfrc Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 ^ 12 options of beer, plus there's indoor seating. I'm really digging this new place. Definitely gonna have to check it out on my next visit. Since Superman is already into the upper queue and Joker is about 40 minutes even with both trains running, I think I'll go check it out right now. Especially since I have to stay here until 2:30 for the raffle drawing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire2box Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 ^ 12 options of beer, plus there's indoor seating. I'm really digging this new place. Definitely gonna have to check it out on my next visit. Since Superman is already into the upper queue and Joker is about 40 minutes even with both trains running, I think I'll go check it out right now. Especially since I have to stay here until 2:30 for the raffle drawing. Raffle Drawing? What's it for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singemfrc Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 ^ 12 options of beer, plus there's indoor seating. I'm really digging this new place. Definitely gonna have to check it out on my next visit. Since Superman is already into the upper queue and Joker is about 40 minutes even with both trains running, I think I'll go check it out right now. Especially since I have to stay here until 2:30 for the raffle drawing. Raffle Drawing? What's it for? Along with the backstage tour of the shark house this morning they had a wildlife fund raiser for marine wildlife and they had various raffle prizes including a more in-depth tour of the shark house with an opportunity to hand feed a nurse shark, a free dolphin experience, a signed giants hat, and a dozen other things. It was $5 for 10 tickets to be spread among whatever prizes you wanted. I entered but you had to be present to win at 2:30 and I just couldnt stay and left early. At least my $ is still going to a good cause. Oh well, park was way too hot and way too busy and half the thrill rides were down (not Joker though at least - still two trains - yay!) so I was way too bored. I'll post a full TR later tonight or tomorrow morning. The shark tour was worth the trip down there today though for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire2box Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 ^ 12 options of beer, plus there's indoor seating. I'm really digging this new place. Definitely gonna have to check it out on my next visit. Since Superman is already into the upper queue and Joker is about 40 minutes even with both trains running, I think I'll go check it out right now. Especially since I have to stay here until 2:30 for the raffle drawing. Raffle Drawing? What's it for? Along with the backstage tour of the shark house this morning they had a wildlife fund raiser for marine wildlife and they had various raffle prizes including a more in-depth tour of the shark house with an opportunity to hand feed a nurse shark, a free dolphin experience, a signed giants hat, and a dozen other things. It was $5 for 10 tickets to be spread among whatever prizes you wanted. I entered but you had to be present to win at 2:30 and I just couldnt stay and left early. At least my $ is still going to a good cause. Oh well, park was way too hot and way too busy and half the thrill rides were down (not Joker though at least - still two trains - yay!) so I was way too bored. I'll post a full TR later tonight or tomorrow morning. The shark tour was worth the trip down there today though for sure. Sounds cool. How was the tour of the Shark exhibit? Any actual backstage area's? I also wonder if that expanded private tour would take people up on the catwalk above the tank. It would be nice if Six Flags would just release a video showing them caring for the sharks, manta rays and fish along with the catwalk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singemfrc Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Sounds cool. How was the tour of the Shark exhibit? Any actual backstage area's? I also wonder if that expanded private tour would take people up on the catwalk above the tank. It would be nice if Six Flags would just release a video showing them caring for the sharks, manta rays and fish along with the catwalk. Yes and yes. We got to go upstairs to the backstage area (hence no photos) but we werent allowed to go up on the catwalks. There was a green line on the ground around the tanks and we were told not to cross it. The raffle winner, however, would get to go up on the catwalk to feed the shark. They did do a little bit of feeding while we were up there which brought lots of fish and nurse sharks up to the top for us to see up close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laqueefa Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Anyone want to guess how busy the park will be this Wednesday? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singemfrc Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 TR for Sunday - I had just been to the park the previous weekend, but they advertised the special shark experience backstage tour for season pass holders so that enticed me to drive down again Sunday morning despite having a crazy busy schedule this weekend. Got home in Sacramento from San Francisco at 1am Sunday morning, then got up at 7 to drive right back to Vallejo in the morning for the shark tour which was scheduled for 10am. They really didn't do any kind of advertising for the event in the park other than the employees inside of the shark building, but once inside they had tables set up and a couple of their animal staff employees were there answering questions selling raffle tickets and telling people about the event. The backstage tour was advertised in the newsletter as a season pass holder only event, but they actually just let anyone who walked up and was interested go back and take the tour, which I thought was nice since there weren't a whole lot of people. In groups of 10 or so they took us out the back door around the corner and up the stairs that lead to the backstage area for the shark building. We were shown their quarantine tank where they are holding animals that are being separated at the moment, then we went through the kitchen where they prepare food for the animals, and then they took us into the large room above the tanks. There was a green stripe running on the floor about a foot away from the perimeter of the tanks, and we were told to stay behind the green line and that we could not take any photos. Understandable both. She grabbed some fish food from the fridge and tossed it in the tank for the bony fish (the not-sharks) and quickly most of the fish in the area darted up to the top of the tank to grab some food along with the nurse sharks. We were told they have to be careful when feeding around the nurse sharks because unlike the other sharks who won't eat more than a couple times a week, the nurse sharks eat just about anything whenever possible and would basically just eat themselves into a food coma if they were allowed to. She answered some questions that some people in the group had and told us about one of the female sharks that had what appeared to have some damage to one of it's fins. She explained that several years ago when they used to have male sharks in the tank as well, one of the male sharks was attempting to mate with this female who evidently was not as enthused about the idea and was putting up a fight causing some damage to the fin. The trainer told us that they get a lot of questions about it what with the current attitude of a lot of people, but it's something that happens commonly in the wild as well. Interestingly she said that this fin damage actually allows this shark a little bit better maneuverability on the bottom of the tank, so they actually have to be careful that she doesn't steal food away from other sharks that can't move as fast. She told us that they were holding a raffle and that one of the prizes was to get to come back later and go up onto the catwalks and hand feed a nurse shark. I entered that raffle, but the drawing was at 2:30 and you had to be present to win, and I wasn't planning to stay that long. We got out of the shark tour at about 10:25, so I thought great just enough time to get over and ride Joker a couple of times when it opens. Due to the access to the Shark building being necessary, they were doing rope drop in front of the dolphin discovery area rather than over by white rapids where they usually do it, and there were a lot of people waiting. They dropped the rope on time, but unfortunately despite Joker having been running test cycles since 10am, they didn't start loading riders until about 10:45. Lots of people were having trouble following instructions not to put the lap bars down themselves making for slower dispatches than necessary. I got my first ride in the best spot, the back left seat. I then walked around to get a second ride in and noticed that for some odd reason they had open up the long switchbacks that wrap around the prelift track but had blocked off the second half of the shaded queue in the tent. I would have used the tent switchbacks first since they were in the shade. Unfortunately right before I got to the stairs the ride went down so it ended up being about a 60 minute wait for my second lap, so I then decided that the second would be my last. Unfortunately since V2, Kong, and Hammerhead were all down for the day and Joker, Superman, Medusa, and even Boomerang had unusually long lines it kind of left me with nothing I wanted to do. I don't know what's up with V2, it's been down forever and the disassembled train is just sitting in the station in pieces. Don't know about Kong either...last week it was down and they said they were working on getting it back up later in the day, but it never came up that day or since and there was zero activity over there Sunday. Superman was into the upper queue and Boomerang's queue looked nearly full. Medusa's queue spilled out of the station, but I didn't look to see how much they were using the switchbacks or how many people were being held in the station. Medusa can be deceiving that way. With it being so hot and busy in the park I decided to leave before the raffle drawing since I had to be back in Sacramento by 3:30 for a family thing anyway. I decided to take the new buses out to the parking lot that SFDK has now, just like the ones SFMM got not too long ago, and man that air conditioning was sublime. On the way out I noticed the parking lot was almost full. All but a small chunk of the upper G lot was full. When I drove out, I noticed that the fairground overflow lot was being used and there were already quite a few cars in there. Looks like the word got out about the bring a friend free deal. I think this must have been left here since Saturday, cause nothing was running before 10:30 on Sunday. Waiting for Joker to reopen. Hot day for the penguins, but they didn't seem to mind. Am I really this bored? No, not nearly bored enough to wait that long for Boomerang. Lots of cars in the fairground parking lot. Lots of cars in the fairground parking lot. 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cwf_777 Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 I was there yesterday too. When we first got to the park,the parking lot was nearly empty but the employees forced us into the fairground lot for apparently no reason, then let the cars immediately after us go to the real parking lot. This was especially annoying considering that we were in a group with multiple cars and we got split between the two lots. As for lines, we didn't end up doing too much. When we first got to the park we were waiting for others in our group so we went back to Boomerang, where we had no wait at all and walked right on. We then went to Joker (at this point about noon) where we had about a half hour wait. We then just kind of wandered around the park until we tried Pacific Rim for the first time (Nothing to say about that ). After that we went down by Medusa where we found close to no wait, as the switchbacks inside weren't being used at all, which may be why you saw the line stretching out. We ended up leaving after this due to the crowds and heat. Overall, not a very good day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAWKIN_coaster38 Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Yikes that does sound quite crowded. I might make a spontaneous trip tomorrow so I guess I'll get what I get! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Geek Mojo Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Question: I'm going to the park for the first time this weekend. I have the option of going Friday or Sunday. I was going Friday until I saw that they were offering an hour of ERT Sunday before the park opens for people who bring a coke can that enter the park. That hour of ERT sounds tempting, but something tells me it's going to be super crazy crowded Sunday and that my best bet will be go Friday with smaller crowds. As for the other day, I've reserved that day for California's Great America, so I'm just trying figure out if the hour of ERT will be worth it for SFDK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire2box Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Question: I'm going to the park for the first time this weekend. I have the option of going Friday or Sunday. I was going Friday until I saw that they were offering an hour of ERT Sunday before the park opens for people who bring a coke can that enter the park. That hour of ERT sounds tempting, but something tells me it's going to be super crazy crowded Sunday and that my best bet will be go Friday with smaller crowds. As for the other day, I've reserved that day for California's Great America, so I'm just trying figure out if the hour of ERT will be worth it for SFDK. well friday and sunday are both outside of the new, additional Bring A Friend Free days. Both are likely better then going Saturday but Sunday is the day before july 4th so people will likely have the following day off. So I guess go on friday if you have the choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singemfrc Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Question: I'm going to the park for the first time this weekend. I have the option of going Friday or Sunday. I was going Friday until I saw that they were offering an hour of ERT Sunday before the park opens for people who bring a coke can that enter the park. That hour of ERT sounds tempting, but something tells me it's going to be super crazy crowded Sunday and that my best bet will be go Friday with smaller crowds. As for the other day, I've reserved that day for California's Great America, so I'm just trying figure out if the hour of ERT will be worth it for SFDK. This whole weekend is likely to be very busy at both parks, so if you can get any ERT that's probably a good idea. I didn't see the ERT deal for SFDK but if theyre doing that Sunday, then I would go to SFDK on Sunday at opening to get the ERT and do CGA on Friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Geek Mojo Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Need a can of coke. ERT July 2, 3 and 4th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_dreamfinder Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Question: I'm going to the park for the first time this weekend. I have the option of going Friday or Sunday. I was going Friday until I saw that they were offering an hour of ERT Sunday before the park opens for people who bring a coke can that enter the park. That hour of ERT sounds tempting, but something tells me it's going to be super crazy crowded Sunday and that my best bet will be go Friday with smaller crowds. As for the other day, I've reserved that day for California's Great America, so I'm just trying figure out if the hour of ERT will be worth it for SFDK. Even without the ERT, Friday is the better option especially considering it's your first time at the park. Between July 4th festivities, fireworks, and hordes of people on Sunday due to the next day being a holiday - chances are you won't have a good park experience. Friday will be less crowded allowing you to enjoy all that the park has to offer which includes the unique animal elements. Whichever day you go, please share a TR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VegasBaby Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 I went to the Coke ERT last year during 4th of July weekend and only Kong and Medusa were open, but they were complete walk-ons during that first hour. The ERT is even better this year since it includes Joker and Superman, which typically have the longest lines in the park. I would go Sunday with the ERT as you should be able to get multiple rides on each of those during that hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singemfrc Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 Oh lol I was the one who posted that. I guess I just dismissed it from my head so fast I forgot about it since I knew I couldnt go those days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAWKIN_coaster38 Posted June 29, 2016 Share Posted June 29, 2016 Was at the park yesterday and might stop by today for a bit. No more than 15-20 minute waits for Joker all day with some 10 min or less waits. I got 12 rides in, might post a few ride photos if we have any good ones. This coaster seriously never gets old. My only concern/complaint are the sounds the ride is currently making. There is a harsh grinding metal against metal sound on some of the turns, and a loud roar at the bottom of the drop and a few other high g places. I don't remember ever hearing these sounds on TC or Wicked Cyclone so maybe Joker just needs to break in more. Don't get me wrong, the sound is nothing compared to the awesomeness of this ride, and I'm sure it'll be fine, but has anyone noticed these sounds on other RMCs in their first few months of operation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiftThrill Posted June 29, 2016 Share Posted June 29, 2016 I know both NTaG and IRat squeak a little going into the lift hill but I don't recall any out of the ordinary sounds coming from them. Outlaw Run is pretty loud but it makes awesome sounds. Then again, all of these were ridden significantly after opening year, so who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singemfrc Posted June 29, 2016 Share Posted June 29, 2016 All those noises are normal, the squeaking/grinding happened on Twisted Colossus when it was brand new too, it seems to be caused by the trains' shocks/springs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGuy Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 All those noises are normal, the squeaking/grinding happened on Twisted Colossus when it was brand new too, it seems to be caused by the trains' shocks/springs. Even being normal, the sound is very loud. I could hear it from the parking lot. It's coming from the front, and in the front car, you really feel the vibration. It's not annoying, though. It ran perfectly today. No breakdowns and it operated with at most a 20 minute wait all day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singemfrc Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 All those noises are normal, the squeaking/grinding happened on Twisted Colossus when it was brand new too, it seems to be caused by the trains' shocks/springs. Even being normal, the sound is very loud. I could hear it from the parking lot. It's coming from the front, and in the front car, you really feel the vibration. It's not annoying, though. It ran perfectly today. No breakdowns and it operated with at most a 20 minute wait all day. Yes, still normal. Was very loud on TC when it opened too. It will die down with more cycles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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