Six Flags St. Louis (SFStL) Discussion Thread

[HWFan]

^ SkyScreamer backwards is a ton of fun!

 

Also, does anyone know about the fire in the park last night?

[ZeroGravity55]

^ http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Crews-battle-fire-at-Six-Flags-in-Eureka-225003402.html

 

Doesn't look like it was to serious.

[SFZIP]

Something in Insanity Alley (by Batman) caught fire, was not a big deal, but it was the second fire at the park this year in the middle of the night.

[Brent York]

Are Saturdays at SFSTL's during Fright Fest busy? If so, which of the remaining Saturdays of this season do you think will be the least busy? I'm trying to decide which one to visit on. I don't care about any of the halloween things. We just want to ride rides (incl. all the coasters). My first visit.

[ArizonaGuy]

^^ I gotcha. I don't know if you have ridden them or not, but unfortunately they really aren't as good as they look. Last year I rode scream at MM and I really couldn't believe how boring it was. I was excited to ride it, so I really tried to like it, and it just didn't happen. I've also rode 'medusa' at SFGAd during it's first year of operation, but that was too long ago to comment.

 

Aren't Medusa (Bizarro) and Scream the exact same ride?

 

I actually like the dive loop elements on those floorless coasters. At least that would be a different type of coaster that SFStl has had.

 

In any case I'm sure a B&M is no where in sights for Sfstl anyways

Edited September 25, 2013 by ArizonaGuy

[theymitbgi]

Are Saturdays at SFSTL's during Fright Fest busy? If so, which of the remaining Saturdays of this season do you think will be the least busy? I'm trying to decide which one to visit on. I don't care about any of the halloween things. We just want to ride rides (incl. all the coasters). My first visit.

 

I would try to stick to Sundays. Saturdays before 5 are usually pretty good though. Fridays are definite non-no's unless you can catch a cool weather night and the park can be empty.

[HWFan]

Are Saturdays at SFSTL's during Fright Fest busy? If so, which of the remaining Saturdays of this season do you think will be the least busy? I'm trying to decide which one to visit on. I don't care about any of the halloween things. We just want to ride rides (incl. all the coasters). My first visit.

 

I would try to stick to Sundays. Saturdays before 5 are usually pretty good though. Fridays are definite non-no's unless you can catch a cool weather night and the park can be empty.

 

Exactly. If you want to go at night when it's really dark, then just remember, colder is better. If you wear plenty of layers, you should be just fine.

 

And I'm glad it was just a small fire. Fox 2 didn't give any information except it was a building at the front of the park. I was really scared that it was guest relations.

[SFZIP]

Are Saturdays at SFSTL's during Fright Fest busy? If so, which of the remaining Saturdays of this season do you think will be the least busy? I'm trying to decide which one to visit on. I don't care about any of the halloween things. We just want to ride rides (incl. all the coasters). My first visit.

 

Saturday's during Fright Fest are busy (as long as it doesn't rain), it will start off this weekend not real busy and then increase each weekend in October usually peaking on what this year will be the 4th or 5th Saturday (which will probably be in the top 5 attended days of the season, they usually are), but the majority of the attendance comes at night and not a Noon when the park opens, so if you go on a Saturday come early or expect large crowds.

[Brent York]

Are Saturdays at SFSTL's during Fright Fest busy? If so, which of the remaining Saturdays of this season do you think will be the least busy? I'm trying to decide which one to visit on. I don't care about any of the halloween things. We just want to ride rides (incl. all the coasters). My first visit.

 

Saturday's during Fright Fest are busy (as long as it doesn't rain), it will start off this weekend not real busy and then increase each weekend in October usually peaking on what this year will be the 4th or 5th Saturday (which will probably be in the top 5 attended days of the season, they usually are), but the majority of the attendance comes at night and not a Noon when the park opens, so if you go on a Saturday come early or expect large crowds.

Thanks. That's what I was thinking. Although someone told me it's busiest the first and last weekends.

[Woodie Warrior]

Thinking about going into a haunted house for the first time. Which house is the scariest or most intense? Which one is the least scariest?

[theymitbgi]

I would say last year blind fury was the scariest and the one by batman was the least.

[prozach626]

Just for clarification, are you talking Fright Fest haunted house, or a haunted house around St. Louis? Fright Fest does the best it can, but the haunted houses are pretty amateur compared to some of the attractions in the Metro Area.

 

I suggest you try out The Darkness in Soulard, which is consistently ranked as one of the best haunted houses in the nation. Don't go on a Saturday night, unless you want to wait about 2 hours in line. If you're old enough, a few beers will make the experience more fun.

 

Does anyone know if city museum does anything for halloween? I could imagine a pretty amazing haunted house setup in that place, with the slides and crawl spaces.

[Vonni]

^ Granted it has been about 10 years since I went through The Darkness, but I was not impressed. And I'm very very easy to scare, and it didnt scare me at all. Now like I said, its been 10 years, so maybe it has stepped up its game.

[RKO]

Just for clarification, are you talking Fright Fest haunted house, or a haunted house around St. Louis? Fright Fest does the best it can, but the haunted houses are pretty amateur compared to some of the attractions in the Metro Area.

 

I suggest you try out The Darkness in Soulard, which is consistently ranked as one of the best haunted houses in the nation. Don't go on a Saturday night, unless you want to wait about 2 hours in line. If you're old enough, a few beers will make the experience more fun.

 

Does anyone know if city museum does anything for halloween? I could imagine a pretty amazing haunted house setup in that place, with the slides and crawl spaces.

 

Yeah, it's consistently ranked very high by a magazine that the owner of Halloween Productions Inc publishes. . Darkness sucks, check out creepy world in Fenton same guy just a better haunt.

Edited September 28, 2013 by RKO

[Peeps28]

I agree.the darkness is not that scary.erebus haunted house in Pontiac Michigan is the one you want to visit if your heavy into haunted houses like my wife and I.

[Woodie Warrior]

I meant at Fright Fest. I am easily scared (I'm scared by the scare zones at the park). So is the Batman haunted house the least scary?

[TNT]

Deleted 

[Woodie Warrior]

My trip report from opening day of Fright Fest 2013:

 

Fright Fest is always a fun time at the park. Scare actors, creepy music, themed spooky areas, and rides in the dark are always fun. But this year, the whole thing didn't click. Yes, it is opening day, but with an event with such little days, the kinks should have already been worked out at dress rehearsals. I'm hoping when I go back in October the event will be much different. I didn't go into any haunted houses since we left around seven, but here is what I think is not working this year:

 

1. Six Flags doesn't know what will scare people. I watched as people were laughing at the scare actors and being freaked out by the loud fireball machine. I only got to see Freaks Unleashed (when all the scare actors gather in front of the Palace), so maybe in their scare environments it works better. There were some cool things, like the pop out baby in the stroller, but people just aren't scared by these people in the daylight. This leads into #2.

 

2. Fright Fest's hours don't work. The scare actors aren't scary at all in the daylight. I think they should open the park at 2-3 daily, and then have the scare actors come out at around 7:30 or 8, not 6, and keep the park open until 1 or 2 in the morning. Just a thought.

 

3. The shows are the same. Why can't Six Flags come up with original shows anymore? There haven't been any new shows in a few years, and Love at First Fright is just boring. They didn't even change the setlist or add any new jokes. I'd rather see this show if they made it like Bill & Ted, with lots of pop culture parodies. The year LAFF opened, they did this well. At least the singers are okay. Deadman's Party is definitely worse than last year. The freak show was pretty good actually, the guy just needs to work a little on his jokes. I like that they have multiple versions though, so you can come back and see a different show every time.

 

4. The decorations aren't finished yet. Half of the inflatables were either halfway blown up or just torn up and laying on the ground. But the decorations already up look pretty cool. I like the spider arch and the tree of bloody shows.

 

5. The train ride isn't even open. The idea of a Christmas-Halloween mash-up sounds cool, but why is it no

 

I'm sorry if anybody who works at the park is offended, but I think the park wasn't ready, and that is my honest opinion. Decorations started going up early September, so the park should be ready. Even if it was the first day, there were dress rehearsals for everything, right? I'm just hoping it will be better next weekend.

 

I will hopefully have haunted house and paintball ride reviews in October.

[SteveStL]

I agree.the darkness is not that scary.erebus haunted house in Pontiac Michigan is the one you want to visit if your heavy into haunted houses like my wife and I.

 

I agree. The Darkness is not scary, heck it isn't even all that dark! It is a long walk-thru and has got a lot of cool animatronics, but scary it is not!

[theymitbgi]

My trip report from opening day of Fright Fest 2013:

 

Fright Fest is always a fun time at the park. Scare actors, creepy music, themed spooky areas, and rides in the dark are always fun. But this year, the whole thing didn't click. Yes, it is opening day, but with an event with such little days, the kinks should have already been worked out at dress rehearsals. I'm hoping when I go back in October the event will be much different. I didn't go into any haunted houses since we left around seven, but here is what I think is not working this year:

 

1. Six Flags doesn't know what will scare people. I watched as people were laughing at the scare actors and being freaked out by the loud fireball machine. I only got to see Freaks Unleashed (when all the scare actors gather in front of the Palace), so maybe in their scare environments it works better. There were some cool things, like the pop out baby in the stroller, but people just aren't scared by these people in the daylight. This leads into #2.

 

2. Fright Fest's hours don't work. The scare actors aren't scary at all in the daylight. I think they should open the park at 2-3 daily, and then have the scare actors come out at around 7:30 or 8, not 6, and keep the park open until 1 or 2 in the morning. Just a thought.

 

3. The shows are the same. Why can't Six Flags come up with original shows anymore? There haven't been any new shows in a few years, and Love at First Fright is just boring. They didn't even change the setlist or add any new jokes. I'd rather see this show if they made it like Bill & Ted, with lots of pop culture parodies. The year LAFF opened, they did this well. At least the singers are okay. Deadman's Party is definitely worse than last year. The freak show was pretty good actually, the guy just needs to work a little on his jokes. I like that they have multiple versions though, so you can come back and see a different show every time.

 

4. The decorations aren't finished yet. Half of the inflatables were either halfway blown up or just torn up and laying on the ground. But the decorations already up look pretty cool. I like the spider arch and the tree of bloody shows.

 

5. The train ride isn't even open. The idea of a Christmas-Halloween mash-up sounds cool, but why is it no

 

I'm sorry if anybody who works at the park is offended, but I think the park wasn't ready, and that is my honest opinion. Decorations started going up early September, so the park should be ready. Even if it was the first day, there were dress rehearsals for everything, right? I'm just hoping it will be better next weekend.

 

I will hopefully have haunted house and paintball ride reviews in October.

 

Woodie,

 

Glad you made it out to FF today. My family and I made it out also. Maybe we should all try some sort of meet up at sometime, with some folks from the old board.

 

While I agree with many of your points, like moving the hours back. Starting the scary stuff during the daylight, really doesn't work. The park should be open until at least midnight if not later on a Saturday night. I was really pleased with the amount of scare actors during freaks unleashed, seems like twice as many as years past. The costumes and make-up do a fair job in creeping out the teen audience and younger, the older crowd, not so much.

 

We watched LAFF, which is normally our favorite part of FF, but was completely and utterly disappointing. I'm really tired of the same person playing Witchy, although Frankie, Griff, and Wolfie were pretty good. They did change the playlist slightly from last year(took out Werewolves of London and added Little Red Riding Hood song, also seem like Frankie's song/rap was extended by a verse or two).

 

We also caught a little of the freaks unleashed dance show, like previously stated, same old, same old, same routines, same costumes, pretty bland. We stopped and watch the Freak show for about 5 minutes and have seen pretty much all of his material before, so it doesn't really hold our interest.

 

The decorations I thought were great, the spider arch by the moons cars was pretty cool(not scary, but neat looking). The two NEW small FREE walkthroughs both seemed pretty well done. The butcher shop/restaurant near the log flume was cool, even though it seemed the scare actors were on a break when we walked through. The clown walkthrough behind Funnel Cakes/Johnny Rockets was also well done, especially with one of those cool spinning tunnels.

 

We also stayed out of the haunted houses tonight, even though with the low crowd it would have been a great night. Will try to get to them in two weeks, which is the soonest I think we can return.

 

Anyway so much for the ramble.

[Woodie Warrior]

The only people I saw screaming were 10-12 year old girls. And they make up a small percentage of the total visitors. There were many scare actors, but the only one I saw scare other people was the zombie with the stroller.

 

Yeah, while it is a good show, LAFF has been at the park for three years and it is getting old. I forgot, but yeah the wolf guy got his song changed. Other than that, there were no new songs or jokes. Nobody laughs at the show anymore because everyone has already seen it. The cast hardly changed. Frankie, the Wolf, and the Green witch are the only changes in the cast.

 

A hint for those who don't like to be scared but want to see others being freaked out: stand on the Palace Porch during Freaks Unleashed. No scare actors go up there!

 

The butcher shop/restaurant near the log flume was cool, even though it seemed the scare actors were on a break when we walked through. The clown walkthrough behind Funnel Cakes/Johnny Rockets was also well done, especially with one of those cool spinning tunnels.

 

We walked through the area near the butcher shop, but was there really a walkthrough that we missed? Or is it just another scare zone?

 

Was the clown walkthrough full of scare actors or was it just illusions?

[ZeroGravity55]

I was also at the park on the first day of Fright Fest. I didn't get to do any of the extra attractions, because I was on a tight budget. Basically, me and my friends were there just to ride the rides, so I'll just leave you guys with some thoughts.

 

1. American Thunder was running absolutely amazing. It's REALLY re-rideable, and a has few good pops of airtime. Today was one of the first times I got to put some significant laps on it and it's easily one of my favorites rides there.

 

2 The Boss and RMC sometime soon? The Boss wasn't running that bad, but I'm pretty sure the helix and a few other spots wanted to kill me.

 

3. Props to the ride-crew on Batman. They were able to help my friend, who is a little on the heavy side, get his restraint locked in so he could ride. He wasn't able to ride Mr. Freeze for that very reason and was worried that he wouldn't be able to get on some of the other rides like Batman.

 

4. Other than corporate advertising and pricing, you would never notice this is a corporate ran park. I walk into the park and see the Park President sweeping, and talking to guest. Almost every employee I encountered was very friendly!

 

I had a great time and my experience today has me considering making multiple visits next year while I'm in the St. Louis area!

[HWFan]

The decorations I thought were great, the spider arch by the moons cars was pretty cool(not scary, but neat looking). The two NEW small FREE walkthroughs both seemed pretty well done. The butcher shop/restaurant near the log flume was cool, even though it seemed the scare actors were on a break when we walked through. The clown walkthrough behind Funnel Cakes/Johnny Rockets was also well done, especially with one of those cool spinning tunnels.

When it comes to the spider arch, speak for yourself. When I was leaving the park at about midnight, my arachnophobia got me to completely turn around and go the other way.

 

Anyway, I wanted to add that in my opinion, Blind Fury is the number one maze. I really enjoyed it compared to Insanity Alley and Total Darkness, which were okay, but not as fun as Blind Fury. I also really enjoyed the clown walkthrough scare zone. My guess is that next weekend, starting the fourth, things will start to fall into place.

[prozach626]

I agree.the darkness is not that scary.erebus haunted house in Pontiac Michigan is the one you want to visit if your heavy into haunted houses like my wife and I.

 

I agree. The Darkness is not scary, heck it isn't even all that dark! It is a long walk-thru and has got a lot of cool animatronics, but scary it is not!

 

I don't get scared in haunted houses. I can't when I know it's all a set. I just like to look at the stuff... I guess that's why I like the Darkness. Then again, I haven't really been to many others.

[Zcev5454]

Went out to Fright Fest last night and man it was busy! Pandemonium had a 1 hr wait at 6 PM and I heard Colossus was using multiple gondola sets instead of just one. I only did the haunted attractions (minus Zombie Paintball Apocalypse) and here's what I thought:

 

Prices for Mazes:

$10 each, $15 for Slasher Pass ( unlimited entry to all 4), and a $25 Express Slasher Pass ( unlimited entry + front of line access).

 

Spoiler Alert!!!!

 

Slaughterhouse- The corn path under the building was uninteresting without any fog to separate the actors from your range of vision. For those who visited last year, the in-attraction photo has moved to a much better location with some better opportunity for scared faces in the picture. It definitely got me! Also, the end seems to have a pretty anti-climatic scene with your group walking around some 55-gallon drums with a CGI effect in the background. The pacing seems to be a little off, yet it still delivers scares, especially with the hydraulic "electric cage." 6/10 for me.

 

Blind Fury- This is probably my favorite haunt out here this year, just as it was last year. The whole beginning scenes are the exact same, with a little show in the first room. After the moving-wall maze, there is now the mirror room. The only thing I miss was the toy monkey room right after the maze section. He has been moved a couple scenes forward, yet it is so foggy (on multiple times though) that you don't even recognize that it's supposed to be a monkey, and you just hear the symbols. The spinning tunnel is one of the best I've been in and the dark zone really heightens the fear. LOTS of loud noises and air cannons this year, which make this more of a high-startle attraction instead of the creepy factor of a toy factory. The doll characters are much, much better than before. 8/10

 

Insanity Alley- While this hasn't done much for me in the past few years, I would now consider it to be on par with the rest of the Fright Fest attractions. Lots of air cannon machine guns are used and more fog is filled in between the "scenes." My favorite part is still the "sinking dirt" in the first minute or so behind the Batman lockers. That gets me every time, and everyone seems to not expect that at all. This is one haunt to save for dark, as there's no roof whatsoever and the fog disperses quickly out there. Very short, yet somewhat effective. 5/10 just for how short it is.

 

Total Darkness- Having done a blackout-type maze before, this met my expectations very well. The only problem is that it's very low capacity ( but it has to be being a physical maze in the dark). You and up to 4 others are given a rope so you don't separate and are sent down the theater stairs in the dark. When you turn the first corner, the fun begins. It's extremely loud with eery sounds and screaming echoing through the whole theater. The actors are actually pretty good at finding your group in the dark and whispering in your ear and brushing past you. The total time in the maze is about 3-4 minutes on average, but it feels like a lot longer when in there. It's completely dark except for a slow strobe light about halfway though, and your eyes don't seem to adjust to it. 8/10

 

 

I also went through the Circus and Cannibal walkthroughs near Total Darkness and the log flume, respectively. They are in normally backstage areas that the park has opened in order to expand the free entertainment. Very well done! My favorite actor has to be the ghostly lady with the baby carriage "pop-up," or the 3-4 people in black Morph Suits.

 

This years event is much scarier and thorough than it has been in the past!