Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

Six Flags America (SFA) Discussion Thread


Recommended Posts

Thanks for your responses! I actually don’t mind Apocalypse and enjoy a ride if there’s no line, as I can avoid most of the head banging by keeping my head forward.

 

Anyway I visited the park today, it was slammed (especially the water park). Wahoo River is open! I’ll have some photos up later today probably.

 

EDIT: I won't be able to get the report up until tomorrow, since I have to go to bed and I have work tomorrow.

 

Yup, I saw the river. Looking forward to Thursday, when they'll have it all finished.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mini TR, Wahoo River photos coming soon!

 

Note: I should be posting my photos of Wahoo River after I'm done writing this mini-TR

 

Headed down to the park today, pretty hot but not unbearable. The park was even more crowded than on memorial day! We had to park in a branch of the parking lot I didn't even know existed, and then walk to the park along the road which could really use a proper sidewalk. There was a tram but it was only running a single car and wouldn't have saved us anytime due to how poor it's capacity was. The line to get in was super long, probably took ~30min of waiting in line just to get in. Luckily, that was the worst part of the visit. Lines were reasonable in the dry park, but Hurricane Harbor was slammed. Turned out today was a bring a friend day, which explains much of the crowds.

 

sillySign.thumb.JPG.c089c08c6abd9ecd29d82946dadde6f7.JPG

I didn't know where to mention this in the report so I'll just put this picture here, but I found this sign quite funny :)

HHcrowds.thumb.JPG.2ce235e8c955b6089c79bebbe306f7e6.JPG

I have zero regrets in my choice not to ride anything at Hurricane Harbor. This is just a fraction of the huge crowds, you can see a bit more how crowded it was in some of the Wahoo River photos.

 

The first thing I did was head into Hurricane Harbor to check up on Wahoo River, which was open! More on that after this mini TR. As mentioned in the captions of the last photo, I didn't ride anything in the waterpark due to massive crowds.

 

Once in the dry park, I headed over to Superman for a back seat ride, since I had never taken one and was curious what it was like. The ride went down briefly while I was in line and most people left, so I decided to wait it out at the station hoping that it'd reopen soon. My patience was rewarded, and I got to walk onto the back row for a ride. I was hoping to marathon it while the line remained short but alas, it returned to it's original length by the time my ride was over.

 

I found the back row had two main differences from most of the other rows:

1). The back row provides some nice air on the drop that most of the other rows lack, which I always like.

2). The 4 main ejector hills give their air mostly on the way down instead of throughout the whole crest of the hill, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just different.

 

Overall the back row is fun and worth a ride if you have the time, but the front row is still by far the best seat on this ride.

 

SROS_lift.thumb.JPG.c93ddb97eadad02e0b624ad19dc206d6.JPG

One does not simply say no to an Intamin hyper! The guy in the yellow vest is back there b/c this shot was taken while the ride was down and the guy in the vest was explaining to everyone what was going on.

 

After S:ROS, I decided to give the Penguin water ride a try, since I had never rode before, some people had told me that you don't get too wet, and the line looked short. While in line, I debated whether or not to change from my sneakers into my crocs (I brought them in case I decided to do any water rides). I ultimately decided to put the crocs on, which was a good choice since the raft for penguin had accumulated a couple inches of water at the bottom. While I didn't have to wait too long for my ride, the operations were very bad for this ride when I was there. The ride itself was a bit weird. When going up the conveyor belts, if you had your feet on the ground, you could feel every individual roller on the belt. I did get decently wet on the ride, mostly because the twisty parts at the beginning pour many drops of water on the riders, though the drops feel more like they're from leaking pipes than planned sprays, but I didn't actually look at the source.

 

tl;dr for the below paragraph: Penguin went down for 5-10 min leaving lots of riders in the area behind the station. Several people got off despite it being against the rules, but to be fair the employees did little to enforce the rules and at least one op mistakenly told people they were allowed to hop off.

 

While we were waiting to get back in the station, the ride went down, and we had to wait 5-10min to get back into the station. While it was down, the other group in the raft asked the operator closest to them if they could just get out, and climb into the station. After some verbal exchanges between the group and the two ops, the op closest to our raft said that they could hop out. Unsurprisingly to me, it turned out that there had been some sort of miscommunication between the two ops. The op in the back of the station shouted to the group and the other op that they weren't supposed to be allowed to get out, but it was too late - the group was right next to the station, and it didn't make sense for them to turn around and head back to the raft since they were so close. Another group in a raft behind us asked to get out since one of them needed to go to the bathroom. I forget whether an employee told them explicitly if they had permission to get out, but after some talking with employees they got out, and climbed over the fence into the queue. No employee made any effort to stop them despite the fact that at least one watched the whole thing if I remember correctly.

 

After the weird experience that was Penguin, I went to Wonder Woman to dry my feet off. This was actually my first time riding it despite visiting the park several times with it open, as every other time either the line was too long, or it was too cold for my to want to ride it. While dispatches were quite slow (Loading/Unloading + Ride cycle = ~7 min), one of the ride ops made did great job of making sure every ride was sent with all 32 seats filled, counting and grouping people in line while the ride was running and announcing to all the riders that he wanted every seat filled. I'll be sure to mention him in the SF satisfaction survey! The ride itself is quite fun, and pretty relaxing if you're not freaked out by the heights. It offers great views of the park (even if the park isn't super pretty), and was worth the ~20 min wait to ride for the first time and dry my feet off from Penguin. I actually felt the blood pull to my toes a bit on the ascent up. Side note: does anyone have good tips to avoid the feeling of blood pulling to one's feet on rides where your feet dangle? I've had the same problem on some B&M's.

 

Getting off Wonder Woman, I met up with the rest of my family. (Note: I forgot to mention that I was visiting with my family since I can't drive. My Mom and sisters spent the beginning of the trip at the wave pool while my dad spent his whole time in the dry park. My dad and I met up after I finished looking at Wahoo and spent the rest of the day together.) We headed back to superman for my sister and I to grab a front row ride (My sister's 1st front row ride on this coaster). We wound up waiting a bit longer than anticipated because it turned out that there were more people in front of us than we thought, and a couple with flash pass took the front row before we could get on, but it was definitely worth it (my sister who is gp also agreed that the front was worth the wait).

 

After S:ROS I grabbed a ride on Joker around the middle, which was good fun, and gave me my fix for coaster launches. I chose the middle as I'd ridden front and back multiple times each and wanted to try out the middle just because. With only 45 min left before we wanted to leave, I took a ride on Wild One (2nd to back, underrated ride with solid air unless on a wheel seat), and then we rode Zydeco Zinger, a Falling Star, to finish the day. The ride is pleasant and generally relaxing. When at it was at top speed, I felt mild uplift forces at the peak and a bit of tingling in my stomach. A little surprise with this ride was that my other sister spotted a toad sitting inside the ride's support structure, which was neat.

 

zyToad.thumb.JPG.5be2799228fa1c153b606d4fbd3a8c34.JPG

Zydeco Zinger, SFA's Falling Star, had a surprise toad inside! Photo taken by my mom.

 

Heading out of the park, a pair of employees were handing out free packs of Haribo gummy bears, which was a nice surprise!

Overall this was probably the least pleasant visit to SFA I've had over my past 5 visits (including this one) due to high crowds, but I still had a nice time in the end, and enjoyed getting to ride some great rides!

 

Wahoo River photos coming very soon!

 

Final Note: If anything I wrote in this TR was confusing to anyone, or if I made any significant grammar mistakes, don't hesitate to ask me about it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@JG-77 nice report. You actually write very well for a 15 year old.

 

Love that shot of the toad in the ride, perfect capture of the SFA ambiance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wahoo River Open!

 

Yes! Wahoo River is open to the public! I do not know how long it's been open, or if it's officially open (as opposed to a soft opening), but it is operating with riders!

 

I personally did not ride because Hurricane Harbor was slammed (It was bring a friend free day I believe), though it looks like it'd be a pleasant ride if there was little wait. The area surrounding the ride could use some work to make it look nice (grass and foliage should do it).

 

Onto the photos!

 

WR_sign.thumb.JPG.faa9592668f1f03f22c35c74c8ae9e5d.JPG

SFA's new for 2018 Wahoo River is open, and the sign is quite big.

WR_angle1.thumb.JPG.e113397146e593e690c026509a68dd87.JPG

WR_angle2.thumb.JPG.ca9b27df692e516ce8a6f6e65602b9e0.JPG

The dirt roads left from construction are pretty ugly, but could easily be solved with some grass and bushes if the park is willing to do that.

 

Also, it's quite difficult to see in this picture, but there are some water sprayers built into the walls of the lazy river a little over halfway up the photo and a bit to the left (near where the sidewalk-looking thing ends).

WR_bridge.thumb.JPG.1ff7e6d381359b71961a6c68de63da45.JPG

Note the water being sprayed from the bridge. Also as a side note: The drop-slide complex (is that the right term?) in the background was closed the whole time I was in Hurricane Harbor. Does anyone know whether this problem occurred just this day or if the slides have been closed for a while?

WR_bridge2.thumb.JPG.0d9d5db79bd3d9da5a6e191e535ff7e9.JPG

That bridge is the only way across the river. It's placed awkwardly such that you have to walk up that wood-fenced path to get there and down a path of similar length on the other side. It's not impossible that there's another way to cross that I missed, but this bridge was the only crossing point I saw.

 

Also, the stairs in the bottom of the pic are just for safety, not for loading/unloading (I'll show the new loading system later).

WR_bucketSplash.thumb.JPG.8f65d3cd684b1307a66b24c4dad3f40f.JPG

This is a fun feature right at the beginning of the ride. I'm really happy how this shot turned out!

WR_ugly.thumb.JPG.2e3d2db64c4f7522eaaee478d9bb3f07.JPG

Another shot of the remaining construction roads.

 

New Loading Method!

 

WR_Load3.thumb.JPG.7b979e5a64c9d48abd3b4710b2f32af1.JPG

Here's the new load area. I don't know how well it works since I didn't wait around to see, but it looks like a HUGE improvement from what it was before, which was a very small area with steps that was awful for capacity.

WR_Load2.thumb.JPG.fcefb0171d964ee7dae144627519efc9.JPG

From the loading area the water forks into two paths. Travel goes clockwise, so new riders would go into the left side, and return on the right. The one obvious problem is that there doesn't look like there's much to prevent people from going around as many times as they want. IDK what the park's rules on for re-rides are, I didn't stick around to see whether riders were being told to get off after one go or not. Even if they are only allowed around once, I have no clue how that would be enforced properly.

WR_Load1.thumb.JPG.72b83dbe5669111be52eefffe2d3eb31.JPG

Overview of the new load area with the sign in the background.

 

Overall Thoughts:

Wahoo River looks like a solid addition to Hurricane Harbor, and a HUGE improvement over the old lazy river. My one biggest complaint is that the areas right outside the river look quite ugly, though from what I understand construction only recently ended, and it is still possible that improving the perimeter of the ride is on the agenda. If the park decides to put in some grass, trees, and other foliage, than that would greatly elevate the ride! While it would have been nice to see a big new thrill ride for 2018, I'm not disappointed in this addition, and I'm excited to see what comes to this park in the future!

 

Final Note: If anything I wrote in this TR was confusing to anyone, or if I made any significant grammar mistakes, don't hesitate to ask me about it!

------------------------------------------------

Instead of making a separate post I'll just put this here:

 

I didn't know where to mention this in the report so I'll just put this picture here, but I found this sign quite funny

I've always found that sign hilarious.

Yeah, that sign is the definition of irony

 

@JG-77 nice report. You actually write very well for a 15 year old.

Love that shot of the toad in the ride, perfect capture of the SFA ambiance.

Thanks! Glad you liked it! I guess I can see your point about the toad

I will note that based on my experiences and what other people have written, SFA's ambiance has been improving......slowly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great TR for Wahoo River! I will be visiting in a couple weeks and lazy rivers are among my favorite water rides. I will have to see how it rates against the lazy river at my home water park - White Water (Atlanta). As for rules re: re-rides / trips around the river, I have never seen anything enforced; once you are in, you can stay in and go around as long as you like. The sign at White Water mentions being allowed to utilize the free tubes for one lap (at which time you give it to another rider) but again, this has never been enforced.

 

That is the really cool thing about wave pools and lazy rivers - instant refreshment - no waiting in line!

 

I look forward to visiting this IMO underrated park. I generally get in one visit per year but this time I hope to follow up with a visit to SFGadv the next day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hope you had a great time at Dollywood!!!

 

In all seriousness though. Great TR. Very well written, and glad you had a good time!

Thank you!

 

As a sidenote, I really hope to get out to Dollywood one day, there's so many great things about that place! Unfortunately, it will probably be several years before that happens - I won't be able to travel long distances alone for several years (due to age), and my family doesn't really have a good reason to trek all the way to Tennessee just for a theme park

 

Yes, the area around the river will be spruced up, with additional elements also. I'll take pics when the grand opening happens on Thursday.

 

The slide complex is working. Must have been broken just that day.

Great! I look foward to seeing how the area around Wahoo River will be improved, glad that park is actually thinking about aesthetics (though we won't know the quality of the additional work until we see it).

Nice to hear the slides aren't down for extended time, I loved those things when I rode them a year ago!

 

Great TR for Wahoo River! I will be visiting in a couple weeks and lazy rivers are among my favorite water rides. I will have to see how it rates against the lazy river at my home water park - White Water (Atlanta). As for rules re: re-rides / trips around the river, I have never seen anything enforced; once you are in, you can stay in and go around as long as you like. The sign at White Water mentions being allowed to utilize the free tubes for one lap (at which time you give it to another rider) but again, this has never been enforced.

 

That is the really cool thing about wave pools and lazy rivers - instant refreshment - no waiting in line!

 

I look forward to visiting this IMO underrated park. I generally get in one visit per year but this time I hope to follow up with a visit to SFGadv the next day.

 

Glad you enjoyed! I guess the ability to go around indefinately around the river is pretty neat! I don't frequently go to water parks, so I'm not used to the ways lazy rivers generally work (the last time I was at a water park was over a year ago - in SFA's hurricane harbor!).

 

I hope you enjoy your visit! Be sure to tell us how Wahoo River stacks up

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey there..I'm a California resident, my home parks are SFMM/KBF/SFDK/CGA, and I'm coming out to the east coast for the first time the end of Sept. I noticed Batwing listed as temporarily closed at the moment, and I know that can range from just scheduled/annual maintenance to mechanical failure/repair, to "what are you talking about it's running right now"....anyway my question is has anyone heard if there was something happened to cause major (multi month) down time? I'd guess not or it probably would have been mentioned in this thread, but thought I'd ask anyhow

 

I haven't ridden a Flying Dutchman or Premier Spaghetti Bowl yet, so looking forward to trying those!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm, It does seem to be listed as closed. In the past few years it hasn't closed for some type of mid-season maintenance. It may just be closed due to the 4th of July Fireworks coming from that area but if it ends up being closed any longer It is likely a mechanical problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well when I was there today, I saw a sign posted "Batwing is closed until further notice". I'm assuming it's either for maintenance or because of the fireworks.

 

But more importantly, I noticed the ACE Landmark plaque at Wild One

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey all, had a quick question I thought someone one here might be able to answer quick.

 

I'm headed up to SFA on Friday, and recently purchased an SF Gold Pass. However, I bought it with SFMM as my home park. In the past, at Cedar Fair parks, I've bought my platinum at one park and redeemed elsewhere. Would it be possible for me to pick up/use my pass at SFA even if I don't have the physical card from SFMM yet?

 

Thanks in advance if anyone knows!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^^-- No. In fact you could have probably paid less for a pass if you knew you were picking it up at SFA instead of a bigger park, or at least that was the case when I started mine. As you might guess, if you're getting a better price at SFA you can't pick it up where the prices are higher.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey there..I'm a California resident, my home parks are SFMM/KBF/SFDK/CGA, and I'm coming out to the east coast for the first time the end of Sept. I noticed Batwing listed as temporarily closed at the moment, and I know that can range from just scheduled/annual maintenance to mechanical failure/repair, to "what are you talking about it's running right now"....anyway my question is has anyone heard if there was something happened to cause major (multi month) down time? I'd guess not or it probably would have been mentioned in this thread, but thought I'd ask anyhow

 

I haven't ridden a Flying Dutchman or Premier Spaghetti Bowl yet, so looking forward to trying those!

 

When I was there yesterday, July 4th, I saw the sign that read "closed until further notice" with benches across the path. If it was closed for fireworks only it would have closed at an early time like Superman, Wonder Woman, Penguin, Joker, and Riddler did. The train was not on the track and there was no one down at the station.

 

Points from my visit yesterday (I feel like bullet points are easier to read):

 

-The park was the most crowded I have ever seen yesterday. All 3, yes all 3 lots were full (give or take a spot here and there). I was scared the lines would be long but it seems 75-80% of the people there were in the water park.

 

-I got there at about 1 pm and Superman, Wild One, Apoc. and Joker's Jinx only had 1-2 trains waits if you wanted the front/back seats. Every other seat was a walk on. Roar was down when we got to it. Ragin Cajan went down as well but they did have all of the water sprinklers on in the line.

 

-ME was running only one train, the other one was in pieces on the hold track. The operations were terrible. I get its hot. I also get its your choice to work at an amusement park.

 

-The Penguin had a long wait due to only using 3 rafts. I was happy to see they are back to using both penguins at the end. The waterfall near the end was completely either shut off or not working. Our raft did not spin at all. Not worth the wait unless it spins.

 

-The park over all looked good. Lots of flowers and clean pathways. Also, looks like some of the signage has been updated - swings, trains, etc.

 

-Waited about 15 minutes for the new lazy river. Wasn't worth it. It "looks" good but its really no different then what they previously had. All they did was add 5 water effects (one of the waterfalls does not even cross the river) and make the walls taller and to look like wood (I think). The wave effect would have been neat if there was actually a wave. Its more a ripple. After you go around once they let you keep going if you don't mind giving up your tube.

 

-I actually LOVE that they did away with the tubes on Reef Runner/Paradise Plunge. Now you do not fly across the pool and almost hit the steps.

 

-The tram they have is pretty pathetic. Its a pick up truck with a small tram car attached to it. The 2 stops are pretty sad too. One of them is in the middle of an intersection (the one in the 3rd lot).

 

-Waiting 45 minutes in line in the water park fora piece of pizza was pretty irritating. If they are going to sell whole pizzas that take 13 minutes each to bake they need to have a separate window where you pick them up at.

Edited by alilstronger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey all, had a quick question I thought someone one here might be able to answer quick.

 

I'm headed up to SFA on Friday, and recently purchased an SF Gold Pass. However, I bought it with SFMM as my home park. In the past, at Cedar Fair parks, I've bought my platinum at one park and redeemed elsewhere. Would it be possible for me to pick up/use my pass at SFA even if I don't have the physical card from SFMM yet?

 

Thanks in advance if anyone knows!

 

I had a Gold season pass from SFOG and wanted to change to membership. SFA was my next SF park to visit and I live about halfway between them, so a trip to SFOG just to do that was impractical. So I called SF and they told me I'd have to come to SFOG to get my membership card OR I could cancel my season pass and buy the membership from SFA and they would issue a refund for the pass. So that's what I did. I just sent the confirmation number from both sales and the money was back in PP account in about 10 days. I was given a full refund as I had picked up the pass in November, but had yet to use it for a 2018 visit.

 

There was verbiage on their website's FAQ that passholders changing over to membership would be given pro-rated SF bucks to spend at their home park based on the number of visits you've made. That option was not very attractive. That's why I called. YMMV

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey all, had a quick question I thought someone one here might be able to answer quick.

 

I'm headed up to SFA on Friday, and recently purchased an SF Gold Pass. However, I bought it with SFMM as my home park. In the past, at Cedar Fair parks, I've bought my platinum at one park and redeemed elsewhere. Would it be possible for me to pick up/use my pass at SFA even if I don't have the physical card from SFMM yet?

 

Thanks in advance if anyone knows!

 

I had a Gold season pass from SFOG and wanted to change to membership. SFA was my next SF park to visit and I live about halfway between them, so a trip to SFOG just to do that was impractical. So I called SF and they told me I'd have to come to SFOG to get my membership card OR I could cancel my season pass and buy the membership from SFA and they would issue a refund for the pass. So that's what I did. I just sent the confirmation number from both sales and the money was back in PP account in about 10 days. I was given a full refund as I had picked up the pass in November, but had yet to use it for a 2018 visit.

 

There was verbiage on their website's FAQ that passholders changing over to membership would be given pro-rated SF bucks to spend at their home park based on the number of visits you've made. That option was not very attractive. That's why I called. YMMV

 

From their website....

 

If I buy a Season Pass at one Six Flags park, can I activate it at another?

 

No. You must activate your Season Pass or Membership at the park you purchased it from. For example, if you purchase a Six Flags Magic Mountain Season Pass you cannot use it at any other Six Flags theme parks until you first pick up your Season Pass ID card at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ Which is why I posted about calling. There may be a workaround that isn't listed on the website. Here's what the site had to say about upgrading from season pass to membership:

 

I have a 2018 Season Pass. Can I replace it with a Membership?

 

While it is not possible to apply the cost of your 2018 Season Pass to a new Membership, we will for a limited time be able to offer you in-park spending credit more or less equivalent to the purchase price of your 2018 Season Pass in the form of "Six Flags Bucks." Six Flags Bucks can be used to purchase most things in the park including food, merchandise, etc. and will be valid for the rest of the 2018 season.

 

Until April 20 or within the first 30 days following park opening this spring (whichever is later) we will give you credit close to the purchase price of your 2018 Season Pass. After that we will pro-rate your credit based on the number of times you've visited during 2018.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree and disagree on Wahoo River. The only disagreement is on thinking it is about the same as last year. It is most definitely longer, AND actually moves along. The amount of effects were pretty pitiful; that is very true. Lol,...I liked the wave generator. Thought it was just enough for the ride. Kind of makes me wonder if they are 'truly' done. I need to go back to the announcement. How many features was it supposed to have?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I doubt west coast racers is for SFA. Maxx Force is a possibility however. If Roar closes this month maybe that could be the name of it when it opens as an RMC next year

 

Maybe Hell will freeze over and an official announcement will be made that Roar does get RMC'd

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/