8/19/01 - Six flags Darien Lake...VERY Impressive

This is a Six Flags Park? Seriously!

Granted, I've only been to Six Flags Ohio/Six Flags Worlds of Adventure and now Six Flags Darien Lake; but my opinions of these two parks differ so greatly that it is nearly impossible for me to attatch the Six Flags moniker to Darien Lake. I'm impressed.

We (several friends and myself) had been planning this trip since the end of June and our choices of parks were SFWoA & SFDL. No one but me had been to Six flags Ohio. While I was impressed by the rides at SFO/SFWoA, I wasn't impressed by the park/opertaions. The horror stories coming from people at this early stage in the year added to my dissuasion to take my non-coaster enthusiest friends to SFWoA. So, I/we decided to go to SFDL.

My first impression of the park was when we drove through a curve and saw the glorious sight of Superman: Ride of Steel; followed by Predator, Mind Eraser, and Viper.

Superman: Ride of Steel
I love this ride...what more can I say? Looking at it; it would seem boring because of all the flat track in between the hills. But once on it it just seem right. The first drop is great and the mist is really refreshing. And the third hill is the best hill on any coaster that I've ridden.

I rode Superman:Ride of Steel 3 times and give 5/5 rating.

Predator
Good to look at. That's the most I can say for this ride. I rode in the second row of the first car. It rode alright up until the top of the lifthill. In fact it rode good up and down all the hills. It was at the bottom of these hills where it showed it's true colors. I have never been bounced up and down like this as on this coaster. It's crazy...something really isn't right here. It feels like there is about 6 inches of play between the rails and the upstops. And why it only does this at the base of every hill I don't know. If it wasn't for this I would like the ride, except for the lackluster finale. My plea, SFDL: please fix the trains and make the last several hills smaller so that you get an intense finale.

I rode Predator 1 time and give it a 1/5 rating.

Viper
I love this looper. Especially the second and third inversions. It is smooth and intense for such a small ride.

I rode Viper one time and give it a 4/5 rating.

Mind Eraser
I don't have the headbanging problem that everyone else seems to have with these rides, so I'm a big fan of Vekoma's SLCs. They're short, but intense the whole way through: they don't let up on intensity until the end of the ride.

I rode Mind Eraser 1 time and give it a 4/5 rating.

Boomerang: Coast to Coaster
Another ride that I like. Sure, they are cloned all over the place, but I found it to be a good ride.

I rode Boomerang: Coast to Coaster one time and give it a rating of 3/5.

The Park
The park was very clean the entire day. I saw no trash cans overflowing and no litter on the ground. The landscaping was beautifully done and well kept. Service was friendly and quick. The ride-ops were awake and peppy, especially the ones for Superman and Mind Eraser.

The park I give a full 5/5 rating. It was everything a park could be...it has some great thrill rides but maintains the care-free atmosphere. I did not rush to ride any ride except the last ride of the night; S:ROS, near closing time. I WILL be coming here in seasons to follow.

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Benjamin Jones | Yet another coaster-craving yuppie

Nice TR--I look forward to my first visit there a week from today. How many trains were they running on Superman? I hope they are running at least two when I am there :)

Yes they were running full capacity on every coaster. All of the crews were very efficient and had minimal stacking...I was very impressed.

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Benjamin Jones | Yet another coaster-craving yuppie

Nice report.  Someday I will get there to experience one of the "other" S:ROS.

BTW...according to your profile, you have traveled back in time!   (birthdate?!?)

Ahh... Darien Lake. How I love the park! My first visit was last August, and unfortunately, I cannot make it out there this year. I considered Superman to be one of my favorite new steel roller coasters, and the Predator to be one of my favorite wooden coasters. I also love the atmosphere.. very nice and clean park.

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Chris B.
http://sfwoa.tripod.com/
Radioheader08@netscape.net

nice TR, the attitude and overall feel of the park could be in a downward spiral now  that six flags has added the fastpass system similar to SFWOA's. The last thing SFDL needed was a fastpass system considering we only have 5 coasters.

I agree with the SLC i have no problem with any of them exept T2 at SFKK.

The day that I went was the first day of FastPass.  We ended up waiting for about 15 extra minutes in line for Superman because SFDL's version let's the FastPass users choose any seat they want.  So, it ended up that there were basically entire trainloads of FastPass users that got on in front of us.  Booing went on (I can't blame anyone, but most of the users were small children with their parents).

The ride-ops explained the reason this was occuring and they told all patrons to go and complain to guest services so they could get FastPass out of there.  You know there's something wrong with this "program" when your own employees talk bad about it.

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Hey, I couldn't agree more! If I were there, I'd be booing along with them and probably goto Guess Services to complain about it... mostly because I think it's useless in a park of SFDL's size. It should only be reserved for the much bigger and popular parks such as Islands of Adventure, Worlds of Adventure, and Magic Mountain.

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The Great Escape... Soon to become Six Flags Adirondack Escape!!!

I love darien lake!  Unfortunately i think it's overlooked by many people.  I don't care if they have a fast pass system...I'll wait the extra time!  This park has such a wonderful atmosphere.  Another ride that really sticks out in my mind when i think of the park is defeinently the ferris wheel (at night it looks amazing!)  Also, the laser light show is a good way to end the day.  This is acually my fav. six flags park (been to sfa, sfgadv) and i see alot coming to it in the future.  Go sfdl!!!!!!

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Coastercraver said:
Predator
Good to look at. That's the most I can say for this ride. I rode in the second row of the first car.

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That's the bumpiest seat in the whole train, in my opinion. Even bumpier than the very back seat. Now, first row, first car...to me, that's a totally different ride. A lot smoother than the other seats. I don't really mind it being bumpy that much. One day I rode it almost 10 times, and it didn't make me uncomfortable at all.

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My Fave Quotes: http://hometown.aol.com/mirage179/

In my opinion SFDL has to be high on Six Flags main priority parks.