Hey, can I really write a short trip report? Nah!
We arrived at the park at 9:50 am. We parked (they've upped the parking back to $9, sheesh!) in a moderately full parking lot and headed straight in thanks to the half-price tickets I had gotten at work earlier in the week. ;) Unfortunately this was going to be a short trip since I had to be back home to go to class by 6 pm, which means we had to leave the park by no later than 3 pm.
Since we knew we'd be limited on time we decided to hit Acrophobia first thing before the lines got too long. So our first ride of the day was on..
Acrophobia: ...or not. There was an attendant at the entrance explaining the the ride wouldn't be opening until later in the day, but she couldn't give us an exact time.
Oh well, we decided to head over to the Gotham City area to hit..
Mindbender: Foiled once again! They were running empty trains, but had not opened the queue yet.
So we decided to hit Batman while they were testing Mindbender, so finally our first ride of the day was on..
Batman: The Ride: ...wrong once again. A sign at the front of the queue said the ride was down for maintenance.
This was the point that I started getting really upset and spouting off language that made some Marines nearby blush with embarrassment.
Seriously, I did not start shouting obscenities like a childish brat, but I was a little upset. I know rides break down and all, but for only 2 coasters to be operating (the mine train was down too) by the time that park had been open for 45 minutes, that is either extremely bad luck or very poor maintenance.
We decided to head to the back of the park and hopefully head off the crowds to GASM, Ninja, and Viper. We arrive at the vine tunnel to find out that the back of the park does not open until 11. Arrghhh!
Fortunately their Enterprise ride 'Wheelie' was working so since I've never ridden one of those we did that to waste time until 11. Fun ride, wouldn't mind having one in my back yard.
Finally at 11 they drop the rope and people start sprinting to the Ninja queue and in my mind I'm thinking 'WHY?'. Then I see how this is a perfect example of what makes the GP the GP. All they see is a red coaster that goes upside down and is called Ninja. They don't look up all its stats on the internet and figure out which seat to sit in for maximum Gs and least roughness, all they see is another coaster. Just thought that was a neat observation.
Finally we get in line for the GASM, so our first coaster of the day after being in the park for 1 hr and 15 mins was..
The Great American Scream Machine: Front seat ride on the 5th train out. Lots of fun and tons of airtime. Right before the breaks I stuck my hands up real high and jerked them down right before we went under the station roof (which I'm sure you can hit). It was funny hearing the people yell 'Watch out' and 'Oh $%@#!' right before I jerked my hands down. :)
Next we hit:
Viper: Walk-on, fun ride. Saw the markers beside it. Looks like they've been there a while. Who knows?
Ninja: We hit this next since the line was still short. Sat in the very back, a little jerky but not too bad. No headbanging. Actually quite enjoyable.
Mindbender was still closed after that and we passed on B:TR, Scorcher, and GA Cyclone due to full queues. When then saw that purple, blue, and yellow monstrosity testing. So we got in line to ride....
Acrophobia:
All I can say is WOW! This ride is the biggest rush I've ever had. The great thing to do is not be the first on it for your first ride, but watch others ride it and see they're reactions after they get off. Almost half of them sat motionless for a second or two in stunned silence before they got the nerve to get out of their restraints. I felt bad for my friend because he didn't realize that the seats tilted out at the top (even though I thought I had told him they did, I might not have explained it enough), so when we got to the top and they started to tilt he thought he was falling out.
I had never really grown fond of free-fall rides. I've ridden various versions but never really liked them that much. Yeah, they are thrilling. Heck, they even scare me more than coasters sometimes. I knew I had to at least try Acro, but I was more than a little apprehensive and wasn't expecting to enjoy it. Boy was I wrong. I absolutely loved this ride. It was the most intense and insane ride I've ever been on. This is by far my favorite non-coaster ride. Major Kudos SFoG!
We then went back and finally got on a just opened Mindbender. So our last ride of the day was...
Mindbender: Fun like always. First time I've ever ridden in the very front. Lots of fun!
By then it was time to head home.
Even though there were some frustrations at the beginning of the day I still thoroughly enjoyed my day at SFoG.
P.S. For you Deja Vu junkies ;) - No testing going on today. In fact it appeared that the cables were hanging on the outside of the structure. There were some workers climbing on the first lift tower in the morning, but no one was on it when I went by later. I have a feeling its going to be a long while before we're riding this one.
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Now I know the true meaning of Acrophobia.
*** This post was edited by SyntaxError on 7/30/2001. ***
