A patriotic adventure at SFWOA Long

A couple friends wanted to go to SFWOA with me and with bring a friend free day, I couldn't pass this up. I drove the 2 hour trek from Pittsburgh. First off I want to say that the fastlane thing is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. I will also say that I will not wait 2.5-3 hours for one ride. We got in the park and decided to bite the $10 bullet for fastlane passes.

Got in the mass of people to the right of the entrance about 10:40. When the rope dropped we cut our way through toward X-Flight. Got there and were told "it would not open til 12 or 1." We had fastpasses so I wasn't concearned. Ran then over to SUE to see that it wasn't running. Just wanting to ride something, we walked on the Minderaser. Not a vekoma fan but this wasn't that bad.

We decided to go to the other side of the thrill side when nothing else was open. I still needed to ride Serial Thriller to put it on my list. 20 min wait, I don't like vekoma and this one assured it. We saw the BKF line about 35 mins, so we would use one of our 5 fastlanes. Except there is no fastlane for BKF. They have it on Grizzly Run and RRE but not this. Oh Well, waited and had a good ride toward the back on this floorless. Went to do the wolf bobs except it was closed. Walked over towards Villan to see the car stuck on the lift.

We then strolled back towards the main entrance, now about 1 to ride X-Flight. To get to the fl entrance you have to go right by the line. After hearing a few non-family words shouted to us and my friend who was stopped by a man about 6'3 250 lbs who I thought would hurt him, we got in the shortened line. The fl people got the station near the ride all to us. We still waited about 25 mins. but got on and rode it. My parents who decided against the passes, stood in the standby for 2 hrs and 40 mins. They got on the same time we did on the other station. Great ride, if only they hold more employees on the station the line would be smaller.

Walked toward Big Dipper to see a 30 min wait. Fl #2. We walked up the exit and on the next ride we got car 2 seats 2&3. This fl hear was dumb because people tried to coordinate seats together and we just screwed it up causing even more headaches. The ride was good but I felt so bad for 10 mins.

Hopped on the boats to the marine side. The 2nd boat hasn't been inspected yet so the line was pretty long. It was nice and saved our legs from walking around twice. Saw the penguins, pearl divers and ducks. We got some fries and drinks at the Lakeside cafe. I didn't even realize that sf season pass holders get 10% off food until the girl asked me if i had a pass.

After lunch we decided to take it easy a bit. Touched the slimy batrays, saw some sharks, and met some hilarious and wet pirates. After the show we waited about 20 mins for the Bermuda sim. Nothing to write home about on this it was okay. Strolled across the bridge and waited about 20 mins for RWB. The fl here is anyseat you want except the front or back. This was just as bad as the BD. Okay ride, but I think there is something with SF and mistreating woodies.

Went over used fl #3 for villain walked up and got a seat toward the middle. They had 2 lines roped off and it worked pretty good. Headed back over to X-Flight for fl #4 a 2 hr. wait was only a 10 min. wait for a seat toward the back, one of the best seats in the train. Wanted one more on BKF and saw a 30 min line. Even better they had (gasp) 3 trains running. There was a still a lot of stacking some with 2 trains stacked, but it was okay. It then started raining a little and we decided to go towards the front of the park to meet with family.

Now it was about 8:45 and we were walking toward the front until we were stopped in front of the flume. An older man probably in his 40's passed out right there in the midway. It looked like rubber-neckers on the parkway. No one would move. It was so hard to get an emergency cart to him. Everyone who parked at the animal side wanted to get to their car and we wanted to get to our car on the thrill side. It was nuts people pushing little kids out of the way as the heavy rain and lighting started to come. We got through this and rode the rain out at a gift store near the front. After hearing the fireworks were still on we went toward the lakeside by the giant wheel and got a good view of them. The parking lot going out wasn't much better. Watching tons of people flood toward the exit during the storm it still took about 25 mins just to leave the lot. Some work needs to be done there.

Notes:
Today was very crowded and sometimes it was hard to walk. With it being so crowded maybe they could run some rides with full capacity. SUE was down all day. Big Dipper ran 1 train. RWB ran 1 train. Double Loop with about a full que all day only ran 1 train. Mr. Hyde's ran for about 2 hours all day. The monorail was closed after about 3.

This park needs to run rides at full capacity on what could of been one of the busiest days of the year. I would recommend buying the $10 fastlane it saved us about 5 and a half hours in line.

I was also there on the 4th with my mom and I thought the park seemed overwhelmingly crowded and the waits for the main rides and the boat to the other side were very long. However, we both enjoyed ROADRUNNER EXPRESS, SKY SCRAPER, HAY BALER, BATMAN WATER THRILL SPECTACULAR, ALL-STAR PETS, DENIM AND DIAMONDS, "PIRATES" 4-D HIGH TECH ADVENTURE, and SEA LION AND SEAL COMMUNITY POOL. We also thought the areas on the wild ride side were well themed, i.e. Coyote Creek, Rockville, Gotham City, etc.

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http://www.bw.edu/~mzarzecz