Deja Vu at SFMM Reopens!

SFMM's was closed all of July as well. I believe it was July 2nd when I made it to the park and it just had skelletons of the trains on the track.

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ShaneDenmark said:
Wow I knew these things were unreliable but had no idea it was that bad. 8 months down at SFMM? Thats unacceptable. Who's doint the work to modify these things, SF or Vekoma? And who picks up the tab for these mods? I guess I'm glad I got to ride every coaster at SFMM when I was there 1 year ago this week. And I really liked Deja Vu, so it saddens me that they aren't good as far as reliability.

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Again, 8 months seems long - because what is considered the "off season" for most other parks is year round for Magic Mountain. Considering this, if Great America's DV was at a year-round park it would be around 10-11 months of downtime for that one ride.

Right I understand the whole offseason vs year round park deal. But still, 8 months? Thats like saying a ride at a seasonal park was being rehabbed all winter long plus 2 months of the season. I know the concept of "catching" the car on the second tower has proven to be less than ideal. But what else is up with Deja Vu? Are the motors on the lifts junk? Is the computer at fault? What gives? And I know the train seating configuration is confusing and that slows load times. Why not use an Invertigo style train with 4 across seating? That would be fun. *** Edited 4/3/2004 1:42:38 AM UTC by ShaneDenmark***

Enthusiast A: My Deja Vu was closed longer!

Enthusiast B: No, mine was!

A: Mine was!

B: Mine was!

A: Mine!

B: Mine!

Geezus...has the season started yet?

The invertigo train has the back to back 2 abreast seating....not 4 abreast.

It wouldn't make a difference in load times due to less confusion either,Two face should have the forward & backward rows clearly marked on the gates because I nearly ended up in a backwards facing row last year despite waiting for a forward row....the train doesn't always line up right with the gates.

Another reason why the invertigo train won't work is due to the mechanisms of the lifts being so different,Deja vu uses a lift cable & pully sled to lift the train while the invertigo uses a standard chain dog type set up so the two aren't interchangable.

Batwing....gotta disagree here. I think what SD was suggesting was a variant of the Invertigo trains, where seating was 4-across instead of two-across. Seeing as how that would effectively reduce train length, it would probably work in terms of increasing drop height (thus speed). If the increased g-force at the bottom of the drop (and the beginning of the pull-out) was within acceptable ranges, then that MIGHT work (meaning eliminating the valleying issue).

Plus, I *do* blame the seating configuration with confusing guests, even ACE folks during ERT had trouble figuring out which seats went with which rows, and none of the DVs seemed to have signage to help alleviate that situation. My guess is it added *about* 10-15 seconds to each load AND unload, meaning 20-30 seconds per dispatch, which is alot when there's one train. Working out the catch mechanism defect to accommodate a *better* train design shouldn't be TOO hard....although installing LIMs would probably work better at this point, LOL. *** Edited 4/3/2004 4:40:28 AM UTC by rollergator***

The funny thing Bill is that the original Invertigo was supposed to use LIMs, and that's why it was over a year late in opening....they couldn't get it to work!

Rollergator- Thats exactly what I meant, not an exact swap but a variant of the Invertigo train. An even simpler solution with the trains they have is to rework the station. Instead of having the inside seats be 1 row and the two outside staggered seats be another, set the que up to split and enter from either side of the track. Then you could have one middle seat and one staggered seat be a "row" on either side. Not the best solution but maybe a little easier to understand.

I went to SFMM one April1st and 2nd. On the first day I rode Deja Vu, I was suprised it was opened. Then when we went on the second it was closed again. At least I got on. I'm used to rides closing down.