Photo TR: Six Flags New England - May 7, 2006

ECZenith · May 7, 2006

Six Flags New England

May 7, 2006 (Sunday)

My girlfriend Ali and my mother Kathy and I arrived in the parking lot about 10:15 to find it only a quarter full which is a beautiful thing. We had just gone to the park 2 weeks ago, but Catapult wasn't running and we didn't get to hit some of the coasters... so on to round 2.

We immediately took the "shortcut" at the entry plaza through Crackaxle Canyon to the North End. The street performers were EVERYWHERE and the general employees were extremely friendly. All smiling faces all day-Great job here SF...

Pandemonium (Gerstlauer spinning coaster) was a walkon so we took advantage... This coaster typically has one of the worst waits in the park and here we are just jumping into a waiting car. It didn't spin all that much because the weight was pretty much evenly distributed but still a fun ride. I like how it goes below ground level a few times with the last bunny hops.

After riding Pandemonium for the first time since it opened last year, it was time for the new star of the show...

Catapult (S&S Sky Swatter) This big, impressive-looking machine was testing with water bottle dummies when we came for spring break, so to see the entryway open was good news. We were the only three on the ride cycle so once again another walkon. This was my first time dealing with the "new style" S&S restraints that come from the side over the lap and the short OTSRs. They actually aren't too bad-not the most comfortable but not as some make them out to be. OK down to brass tacks... This ride is nuts! The cycle was a little short but it was definately a unique ride experience and worth checking out. I'm surprised this ride has received so little attention... THANK YOU TEXAS! More on Catapult(should of left the name as SWAT) later...

Cyclone was closed so we headed over to Blizzard River, the Hopkins rapids ride. We walked right onto our boat and had a cool ride with a few splashes but no major soaking. I like the fact that the ride actually has some theming, but I appreciate even more that they took away the penguin/batman theme... The DC area is far from the ride and there's already Batman The Dark Knight out of place in the South End.

Another walkon was Time Warp (Vekoma Air Jumper) which I haven't been on since it got its paintjob to match Pandemonium. Pandemoniums tracks twist around this floorless kamikaze-type ride and its fun watching the cars spin all around you as you make the inversions. Always a cool ride.

We took the skyride (no wait of course) to the middle of the park to ride Scream!, the 3 S&S tower complex with one turbo drop and two combo towers. Only the combo towers were running... We waited about 2 cycles. Awesome as usual. Nothing like the anticipation before the blast downward.

After Scream! it was time for some Intamin goodness-but not without first riding Nightwing ("RARE" Huss Fly Away) There was no wait-but I swear there is always someone throwing up on this thing. It's basically a Huss Enterprise with lay-down "flying" carriages... nothing that intense. I guess the visuals do it. Two weeks ago we left the line after waiting half an hour for two puke cleanups on two different cycles. Sure enough, as soon as our ride was over, a girl ran over to the side of the fence and launched... What is it with this thing???

Now onto Superman-ZERO wait. They were running the trains with empty cars. I only got three rides but could have gone for more. Superman was running fast and the airtime was plenty. Mist isn't on in the tunnels yet...

After some overpriced food we walked over to the South End for Batman, hitting Kontiki (Chance Alpine Bob) along the way. Before we got to Batman, we noticed Splashwater Falls-the "new" spinning raft ride from Texas had no wait so I got another ride on that. Great fun, much better than the tiny log flume it replaced.

Batman The Dark Knight was a walkon and I took a ride in the second row. Fun little B&M floorless, already a little rattly but still a cool ride.

Mind Eraser was still closed (I actually ride SLCs...) as well as Double Trouble, and of course Chaos is gone. With nothing else to do in the South End we headed back to Crackaxle Canyon for more Huss-ification hitting the wave swinger and Twister (Top Spin) along the way.... It ran a pretty weak program. Even with no-one in the queue they run an insanely short program which rides all riders wondering why the hell they even bothered.

Tomahawk! One of my favorite flat rides, the classic Huss frisbee was performing well as always with a burst of speed and intensity in the spin at the end of the ride cycle. We were going to make Tomahawk the last ride of the day until we saw that the freshly painted Cyclone was running!

We waited three trains (they were running one train) to get into the station to have the ride break down on the chain lift. Minutes, and I mean mere minutes later maintenance had the thing going again. These guys are good. Kudos again to SF on the rapid service. We rode the front seat. It's still rough as all hell but I find that to be the charm of the coaster, the way old white-painted woodies are supposed to be. The retracking helps smoothen and is noticeable but like I said, don't expect the coaster to be "born again", it's still got that kick.

Well, I said earlier there was more on Catapult so here it is. As soon as Cyclone was fixed and I was next in line (getting closer to the window in the station) I could see that Catapult had stalled nearly vertical! I've heard the ride does this sometimes but it looked like especially the riders on the top were stranded facing downward-looked quite uncomfortable. The ride was stuck in this position nearly 10 minutes before they were able to get it to balance out. It stood in the up but not rotating position for about another ten minutes... As our Cyclone train passed right by the raised gondolas you could see people were pretty shaken up and there was more than one person "flipping out". First aid workers were seen checking some people out but everyone seemed OK... It wasn't that big a deal and everyone looked physically healthy. It was down for a while after that but on the drive home I saw it working. (Don't know if they were just testing or if it had opened back up.

So a GREAT day at SFNE, one of the best times I've been.

Thanks for reading, I should have photos up soon.

B.Toast · May 8, 2006

I hope you enjoyes SWAT/Catapult, it really is an incredible experience. They need to build more!

I'm jealous of your Superman air now!

viking86 · May 8, 2006

I have ridden Slammer @ Thorpe park and its a really impressive ride. It looks scary as hell from the ground, but its just alot of fun once youre on it!