first timer's visit to SFMW -- 6/11/06

After we left PGA around 2-2:30PM, we made our way to SFMW. We hit some traffic on the way there, but we still had enough time to ride all the major coasters at SFMW at least once. I did miss Road Runner Express (or whatever it's called), but no big deal. The format here will be as usual. We stayed until about park closing, which was around 8PM.

--The park seems to be in a decent location, though there doesn't seem to be much room for expansion in the way of large coasters. I suppose this is one reason why they put a bunch of their coasters out front.

--Ugh. The CA floorless coasters have ugly parking lot placement. This meaning Medusa and Scream.

--Medusa is better themed than its NJ counterpart, my home floorless coaster. It also is probably the best floorless coaster that I've ridden. One that could possibly beat it would be SKC at SFFT, but I haven't been there since '98. It rides very smooth and graceful--and quiet.

--Kong is ugly and rides like your average older SLC. Why did they bother with on-ride photos for this ride?

--Roar wasn't as impressive as what I was expecting. It didn't deliver much in the airtime dept., though we did ride in the back. I did notice multiple differences from my home Roar at SFA, but, even though I like the MF trains, I think I like my home Roar better. The queue is also better done at SFA's Roar.

--V2 was interesting, and a unique twist (hehe) on the regular design. I know they did this because of the height restrictions, but I like that they did. I wonder why, though, they don't use the holding LIMs on the back spike anymore? They are still there. I liked the ride, though.

--Boomerang and Cobra were about average for those types of coasters.

--Zonga was in pieces in the parking lot. Me and my friend took turns sitting on a piece of track and we took each other's pictures. Not every day you get the chance to sit on coaster track. What was the reason for taking this down? The spot where it was looks bad--it's just a giant slab of concrete with a station setup along the one side.

--Contrary to PGA that morning, this park seemed more crowded. The lines for the coasters weren't too bad, except for Kong, and that wasn't awful.

--The SF parade here was even more pitiful than at SFA.

--The food was fairly ok, and we got a lot--the meals were large bacon cheeseburgers and lots of fries. Still pricey, though--over $14 for my meal and a drink.

--The marine portion of the park could use some work. There also seemed like they may have had too many animals in a couple of the tanks. Did they move some here from SFWoA? What was this park like before Premier? Did they run it as good as Sea World or far from it?

--The rapids ride wasn't running, and the Zamperla inverting hammerhead ride (whatever it's called) may have run intermittently.

--Do they use the show arena by the lake anymore? It seemed wasted when we were there.

--From a distance, the park looks cool. Up close, it looks kinda trashy and not very well done. The front of the park did not look all that great. SFA definitely has one of the nicer entrances of the Six Flags parks that I've been to, even though I don't really like SFA a whole lot.

--2 train op on Medusa and Roar. All other coasters had 1 train op. This is acceptible, except for Kong. Do they even have 2 trains for this? It was nowhere in sight.

--Nothing exceptional about the park employees noticed here. There seemed to be an overabundance of employees at the food place we went to, though.

--How popular are the animals at this park? It seems like SF has tried to squeeze too many thrills in here and hasn't done a good enough job at taking care of the animal portions of the park.

Overall, I was not very impressed with this park, which is in contrast to PGA earlier that day. Even though SFMW does have a better coaster selection, that does not totally make or break a park experience. This is probably one of, if not THE, worst-looking SF park that I've been to. At least they have Medusa, which is pretty much the best thing there, IMO. *** Edited 6/20/2006 10:02:47 PM UTC by rablat5***

You paid $14 for burger, fries, and a drink?

Did you have a way to exit the park and find another place? You could go to a nice restaurant for that price!

Glad it was fun though! *** Edited 6/21/2006 1:43:42 AM UTC by SteveWoA***

That's pretty much what a day at Marine World is like, as it is my old home park. Kong never operates in the mornings. I'm pretty sure it's always had just one train. Did you ride Vertical Velocity? It's typical and I suppose you could skip over it. The Roar at Six Flags America is much better. And about the animal shows, you don't want to know how often the "great and mighty" Shouka refuses to come out of her cage and they end up cancelling the rest of the day's shows. Yes, the parade is pathetic. Zonga's pieces are no longer sitting in the lot.