Deja Vu - Two Down, One To Go?

I hated Six Flags Great America's version. I hated going up the lift backwards with those loose harnesses, and when we hit the bottom of the drop it felt like we hit the bottom of the first drop. Ouch.

SFMM likely doesn't have the budget to remove Deja Vu even if they wanted to. Purely speculation on my part, but with Psyclone removed and Flashback up next, that should give Deja Vu fans at least another year to get the SFMM credit.

Get your rides now, my hunch is that it's still on the block.

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Richard Bannister said:Having said that, I think the pinnacle of this design is very much the "Invertigo" with the face to face seating.

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Interesting you say that. I've commented several times that I considered the Invetigo *on par* with Vu. Usually I get "pfffft, not even close". One of my MANY complaints with Vu has always been the seating (mostly for reduction in capacity reduction). But I always failed to mentioned in my "pro" arguments for the Invertigoes that their sdeating configuration is a major BONUS in their favor. It's a big hit...(but you kinda have to trick the people in the next row into switching up so you can watch the face of your riding partner).

The Vus grabbed ALL the attention for the vertical drop, but that coupled WITH face-to-face seating might have been considered too much for some riders to handle. The seating fiasco definitely wasn't the MAIN problem with the Vus....but it sure didn't help!

(mostly for reduction in capacity reduction).

Did you visit the Department of Redudancy Department today? ;)

^LOL, apparently I did, apparently. :)

Capacity was so low it was reduced twice? ;)

I'm glad I was able to bit all of the Vus, as I'm a huge fan of the ride. I was never a fan of waiting for them, and always thought something like Mr. Freeze's station would have served it better, but then they would be even MORE complicated. ;) The only one that really had problems on my visit was SFOG's when we got stuck facing the sky for almost 15min.

Hopefully they'll get some major refurb work and be installed somewhere else. It seems like a concept that could be executed better, with a bit more tweaking. We need a 2.0 IMO.
*** Edited 10/30/2007 1:17:57 AM UTC by GoliathKills***

I loved the colors of the coaster. I loved the name, ALOT. One of the coolest names IMO. I loved the way it looked and the vertical spikes. Never got to experience a Vu but I kinda wish I did now...hopefully I can get out to CA before SFMM's is pulled.

spent a sunday evening and monday morning at SFGAM in 2004 ride was closed most of that time but we got in line with a cop telling us we don't know if or when it will open. Well not three minutes they tested and opened, three ride wait for the front seat.

Loved the backward fall in the front seat. The rest of the ride was lame compared to the smaller version.

Chuck,who says thats the only Vu credit I got.

No surprise SF is getting rid of everything thats a huge money eater that either doesn't run or isn't popular.

I do believe that when Deja Vu at SFGAm was actually working, it was rather popular. Well judging by it having a line all of the time. Although that could be due to the capacity. I know Sunday was awefully crowded. I actually waited 90 minutes to ride Batman. How sad is that? I will miss the ride....but I hope it's eventual replacement will be something to enjoy.

We did find out that they still have an arm for the old Skywhirl built into one of the warehouses that would be next to impossible to get out of the building. They also had an issue with the double decker carousel bearing which luckily California's Great America actually had in storage so they were able to repair that over the winter. Fear not SFGAm replenished the spare since that time.

I'll never visit my homepark again. They are taking out the best ride in the park 7 years after it was put in. It's one of the most frightening coasters out there and definitely one of the most popular at the park.

Plus, it's been working much better in the last few seasons.

What the hell is going on?

My question was; What made this ride so damn complicated to operate properly?

I mean if you think of the basics of this ride, The two catchcars, two cables. How did that make it so damnned complicated?

Yeah, especially considering V2, deja's weak sister, seems more complicated but runs almost without a hitch.

^^It was all about PERFECT timing. It's a lot more complicated than you think. The ride has to hit the perfect spot for it to catch. It only can be a little off before something goes wrong, and it miscatches. Cold weather, windy days, and raining days meant that it will most likely miscatch.

Sometimes, it doesn't hit the catchcar perfectly, and than it misparks, or it will retract on the second tower. It's all about being perfect, and that's what kills the ride. There should be more room for error on this ride.

The ride also overheats enough. What do you expect? Lift 32 people weighing in at how many pounds for how many seconds on a 90 degree angle, and also including the train weight is darn heavy as heck. Both towers of the ride have to do it, and the first hour has to do it twice.

Of course, you have the occasion you can't get out of the harness thing. The problem is that people would lock there harness too tight, or an employee would lock it too tight, and they were stuck until they did unlock, and lock thing.

^V2 is really simple. It has LIMs. They are just negatively and postively charged magnets. There are multiple sensors that just tell the ride how many times it has to go back and forth. It stops on the 4th back and forth on the spike. Big whoop. It's not that complicated. The ride just overheats once and awhile, and mostly during the hotest part of the day.

You can feel the heat from the round cyclinders of the ride. That's the only problem. It is usually down for a couple of weeks every year. This year, it was just down for a week or so. Maybe, it was like 4 days. One year, it was down almost a month in the middle of summer. The LIMs burn out! *** Edited 10/30/2007 4:12:14 PM UTC by Spinout***

I guess I never really looked at it that way with the timing and everything Spin.

Thanks for the explanation.

I for one am bummed about DV closing. Absolutely my favorite ride at SFGrAM.

I understand the problems with it, but it seemed to be running a lot more reliably recently (it was almost always open when I was there)

Front seat ride on DV was hard to beat... not only did going up the back spike freak me out, but going up the forward spike and catching (or hoping to catch) on the catchcar also made me nervous (in a good way)

I for one shall miss it!

Yeah, spinout, but doesn't Face/Off have basically the same configuration except for the vertical lift. (The element which, to me, places DV well above the earlier generation).

^I don't know how Face Off, or an Invertigo works. I know how the regular boomerang works. Can you explain how Face Off works? I was trying to get on Two Face this year, but it wasn't open. Do they have two seatbelts on Face Off, and does it have a cable, or is just a chain like the Boomerang?

Face Off is a hybrid between the two. It uses chains, but has a catch car on each chain. There is only one seatbelt and the seats are closer to an SLC than anything else. There are no brakes in the station, instead the catch car lowers the train into the station at the end of the ride like a DV.

Overall, I've always found DV to be a much more satisfying ride with incredible lifts and the larger elements that still (IMO) deliver.

There are brakes in the station of the standard Inverted Boomerang as well as before the loop on the return.

Chuck

I am also firmly in the "I will miss it" crowd. I had very good luck with it over the years and probably took a spin in every row at one point of another. Obviously the front was great, heading up the second spike with nothing in front of you...but the last row single seat put you in a world all by yourself to experience going up and up and up and up for who knows how long before you're suddenly headed through the too-close-for-comfort leg choppers of the tower and back through the station. The ride was always very comfortable for me, without a single headbang on all my rides (maybe I just had practice on how to ride from Shockwave). Did it have its flaws? Of course it did...but all great innovations do. I will admit that I wasn't a fan of the seating arrangement, but other than that, I loved everything about this ride. I can only hope that it doesn't join Shockwave in coaster heaven...it would fit very nicely with a retheme to Thor at Mount Olympus! =)