Six Flags St. Louis (SFStL) Discussion Thread

[thisdougsforu]

Has the park announced when Boss will open? How likely is it that it will be open this weekend? I really want to ride it without the painful helix! I didn't mind the rest of the ride, but the helix really beat me up.

 

Yeah as others have said, the weather has not been conducive to getting it up and running. I would guess Boss probably won't be up and going for at least a few more weeks given the cold and rainy weather. Sorry, man.

[DavidB]

I can't believe I'm looking forward to trying out the Boss. I think it has been at least seven years since I've ridden it. Emily is still very apprehensive and I'll have to really talk her into riding. She'll probably immediately hate me for it, prior to my instant regret during the first drop.

 

Last year they worked on the bottom of the first drop and smoothed some of that out and removing the helix and redoing the turn around will eliminate the bumpiest part of the ride. Be sure to let us know what you think! And ride in the back to get ripped down those long straight drops....

[thisdougsforu]

As of right now, I'm planning on visiting tomorrow as I'm off work. Looking like the weather will actually be decent!

[Danrarbc]

As of right now, I'm planning on visiting tomorrow as I'm off work. Looking like the weather will actually be decent!

I'd be there if I didn't have to be at home for fiber installation.

[Airboss]

Currently in the park. Boss is testing. I'll try to get a video of it.

[Danrarbc]

Wonderful. AT&T is late for their install. I could be at the park

[Airboss]

Got a video. [youtu_be]

[/youtu_be]

[thisdougsforu]

Just got back from the park. Fun day. Cool vid on testing, I must’ve left before that.

 

Namtab was nuts. It was super intense! It was crazy not being able to see what was coming, particularly the loops. Really fun experience!

 

Something interesting to me was when we were in line to get in, there were a ton of folks giving surveys. I had nothing else to do while in line so I said sure. They asked if I had been or planned to go to Holiday World and/or Silver Dollar City this year. I said yes. They then asked the follow up- (excuse me for not remembering verbatim) could I rank the parks by which I thought were the most exciting. I said sure, SDC, HW and then SFSL last. Maybe that’s standard questioning as I don’t participate in Park surveys often while attending...but I sure hope it’s data collection for the purpose of potentially getting something big shiny and new to keep up with the jonesis!

 

Anyways, great day at the park. You all should check out namtab before it’s gone!

Also, I saw this posted. RIP Fling. I’d guess it won’t be an empty site for very long.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Good to see Boss testing, thanks for taking the video!

[HWFan]

It was cool seeing Boss cycling today. Thanks for posting that video. Especially with Thunder River running, it was starting to feel a lot like summer. I really like Colossus’ new cycle. A slow-moving, 12-minute trip around a constantly moving wheel really lets you take in the views more, in my opinion.

 

I’ve enjoyed all of the trip reports so far, so thank you to everyone who has posted. Today was my first day back at Superman for the new season, so while I was a bit rusty at the mic, getting to rehash my Jungle Cruise-type jokes was a real treat. Also, in reply to the post above regarding the survey, those types of in park surveys in addition to some other fun activities are all in a day’s work for the Marketing Ambassador team....which is actually looking for a few more members this season (in addition to all of the other fun positions available)! So if anyone is interested or knows someone who might be interested, head on down to www.SixFlagsJobs.com to apply before attending one of the weekly job fairs. Luckily anyone who has any employment-related questions can call 636-938-5300 ext. 6314 any day of the week from at least 9am-5pm.

 

I also know that there are a few teachers who come to this forum, so I want to point out that Six Flags is a popular job for teachers looking to have fun and make some extra cash. Some specialty positions are still available in departments like Cash Control and Security! Plus, if you plan on hitting up some midwestern parks this summer, as a Six Flags employee, you would get (at minimum) yourself and a guest in free at parks like WoF, HW, Dollywood, and SDC (in addition to a plethora of other attractions).

[prozach626]

^That's really cool that SF partnered with those other parks for free admission. I'm surprised.

 

The Boss looked like it was really hauling ass around that turn.

[teacherkim]

So, we also were at the park on Friday. We kind of enjoy the first few opening weekends as much for the chaos as the rides. I say that in a totally loving way, not complaining, but it can be it's own form of entertainment Did see Boss testing. I will reserve judgement til I ride it, hard sell for me, I liked the helix! I did not ride Namtab but the boy did and I was surprised that his opinion was "meh", he thought it was kind of weird.

 

Most rides were up and running if not right away by noon at least. Including Thunder River which with a windchill of about 47 I thought not even if you payed me, but there were people riding it, lol. Only non obvious ride closures for the day that I saw were Shazam and Boomerang.

 

JL, had a couple wonky screens that went blurry but I will say that the ride ops were doing a really good job at utilizing the single rider line and filling up all the cars. Much better than in years past.

 

Even though I love SFSL dearly as usual there were some not quite ready for first busy day incidents. Saw lines out the door at both JB's and the Primo's by Boss. We ate at the Go Fresh. Not sure what happened but they had some kind of medical emergency that slowed them down even more. First about 5 min or so after ordering an employee came out and told me that they had just run out of chicken and had to get more and it would be at least 10 min til our order was ready. Then I notice all sorts of commotion, frantic phone calls, security comes running, first aid team comes running.......next thing I notice is that the same employee who gave me the bad chicken news is being carted out in a wheelchair. He was conscious and I didn't see any noticeable injury. Previously, he was running around pretty frantically so guessing he passed out or maybe slipped and fell hard; however that is pure conjecture I really don't know what the nature of the injury/condition was. Of course, through no fault of their own, this put them even further behind. About 30 min to get a wrap and a chicken sandwich after the order was placed. I certainly hope the young man is alright but the point is that it appears the frantic nature of the employees being overwhelmed seemed to have contributed to the incident. I'm not blaming the employees they were working their butts off, but somehow they were not able to fulfill the orders in a timely manner. I'm guessing the same at the other venues since the lines were like FF lines without having anywhere near a FF crowd. I've seen this countless times during the first few weekends. Not sure if it is a lack of enough employees (kind of my initial impression), training, nerves as new people start new jobs (I'm guessing food service has the highest turnover), lack of supplies (they ran out of chips in the middle of all this) or some combination of all those factors. But, for whatever reason food service always seems to be particularly rough at the beginning of the year. The customers were being as patient as possible. particularly since many realized an emergency had occurred, but it was hard for many not to get impatient.

 

Now, I have to tell you how I single-handedly killed Screaming Eagle yesterday. People before us slow to get out, I had to do the usual salmon going upstream push to get the drink bottles to the cubbies and so was the last one rushing back to get buckled in. Due to that I was really focused on the seat and noticed as I got in that there was a heavy metal bracket, about half an inch thick and about 2 x 4 inches with holes to be bolted onto something, laying loose on the floor in front of my seat. My first thought was, well that's going to flyout and hit someone in the face so I handed it to the ride attendant. Well needless to say they immediately shut the ride down and made everyone get off. Imagine a split second moment of everyone in the station (including my own son) staring at me accusingly as they closed the ride. I was persona non grata but of course it was the right thing to do. And the ride ops thanked me profusely for bringing it to their attention. They let us stand on the stairs at first thinking they could get us all back on quickly but the maintenance people decided it was supposed to be holding something under the seat on and I think that was it for Eagle for awhile. It was about 3:30 and we left shortly after that so not sure if it reopened or not.

 

My opinion after attending many many early season days is that the rides ops were doing a great job! My son said that even the split situation at Batman was pretty smooth. And there were lines at a lot of rides that don't normally have them, like Mine Train. I think being the first nice day in the whole month of March and no school for most had a lot of parents bringing out the smaller kids. Looneytoons was pretty busy. But they do need more workers or smoother protocol or something at food service. Yes, it was a good sized crowd but no more than any moderate summer day and they were just completely overwhelmed and having difficulty servicing the crowds. Again, all the employees I saw at food service were working hard, they just seemed "frantic".

 

Thankfully, no power outages that I am aware of which has happened more than once in the past!

[tanthonyam]

Did they get Xcalibur back open? I noticed last week a pic of the frame (wheel) without the gondolas on it.

[TNT]

Deleted 

 

[prozach626]

How polished is the park this year? Does anything look refurbished or painted?

[EliHorton]

Gosh. I kind of really want to get out to Six Flags St. Louis this year to try the new Boss. Maybe I can hit it up on the way up to Six Flags Great America. I wish they had put something in place of Highland Fling this year or kept it open another year. I'm thinking either a Tourbillon or a Chance Freestyle will be going in its place next year. Or, this is a wild idea, but I'd love to see them remove that upcharge skycoaster behind it also and add a second kiddie area with a kiddie coaster. Bugs Bunny National Park is a pretty small kiddie section and the smallest coaster in the park is Pandemonium. I'd love to see them add a DC Superfriends area. A while ago, Six Flags sent out a guest survey asking about kiddie rides at certain parks.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

How polished is the park this year? Does anything look refurbished or painted?

They're refurbishing several rides, but I wouldn't call it polished yet as those rides haven't yet opened for the season. The biggest change is that Colossus has gone to a slow continuous operation, so you get one time around now but it's really long. They say it should help capacity; I don't know, line seemed just as long as always to me. It does make for a different experience though.

[prozach626]

I guess it still takes some time to get the park looking closer to spick and span. When we went to SFGam this time last year the park looked like a shit hole. It seemed back up to par when we went later in the year.

[teacherkim]

You know I really wasn't specifically looking for spic and span stuff. More observing ride ops and such. Nothing glared out at me one way or the other EXCEPT that the roof over the lower queue of Eagle is still in really bad shape, but that's been the case for years. I did notice they had planted some spring flowers that do ok in colder temps to get some color in the park before they can put in the more summer type stuff in early/mid May. So, that was a nice little touch.

[teacherkim]

That's one thing I've noticed about the couple of European parks I have been too. The landscaping/flowers are out of this world. But I'm into that and so I notice, I'm sure some people pay no attention to that whatsoever.

[prozach626]

^I'm with you, to an extent. I really enjoy the overall experience of a park that cares about appearance, including the landscaping. This is one of the things which factors into BGW being one of my favorite parks SFSTL has gone a long way, not to say it's close to being perfect.

 

As far as the roof on the Eagle goes, I remember complaining about that and the general shape of the queue, last year. I initially thought that the replacement of the roof with be pointless, because people would just toss more gum and hair ties on it. I think a metal roof that can be power washed and would last for years to come would be the best solution.

[pauliemills4]

I will be at the park tomorrow. It's senior activity day, and my high school and several others have rented the park out. So are there any of the majn or bigger rides not open yet? Also since there's going to be a lot of teens which rides should I hit first before the crowd comes? I'll post any updates or anything that I see tomorrow.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Boss and Excalibur are not open yet. Let's see, when I was a teenage youngster I liked Mr. Freeze Forward Blast, or as we called it back then, Mr. Freeze. So go to that one.

 

Seriously, though, the park isn't open to the public tomorrow, so there is no "before the crowds come." Everyone there will have come by bus. I'd say if you want to do Namtab, go to that one as the line can be a little slow. Don't expect to ride much, and whatever you do get to ride, just enjoy it for that.

[TNT]

Deleted 

[teacherkim]

They are predicting storms in the afternoon so ride your priorities first or they may get closed down due to lightning. Dave Murray just apologized for the weather on behalf of Mother Nature on the evening forecast.