First time:SFKK (long): 8-31
Associated parks:
None
We arrived at the park at 11:15. We were pleasantly greeted by a sign that said $4 for parking. We were shocked that parking was so low, since we were at a Six Flags park. We ended up having to park pretty far away because there was some major event at the Expo center. We just hoped all these people wouldn?t head to Six Flags afterwards!
We were able to bypass the ticket line and walked right in the main gate. The first thing we saw once we entered was Hellevator, their Intamin drop ride. We decided to come back to it later and head for Road Runner Express.
Road Runner Express: We waited about 30 min. for this one the first time. I had never been on a wild mouse coaster until this one. This coaster exceeded my expectations as the effects of the single person cars made you actually feel as though you were going to plunge off the ride! The only bad thing about this ride was that they had both sets of trim brakes turned on hard. These trims HURT! But all in all, a fun ride and neat experience. We ended up re-riding this one twice later in the day when we experienced only a 5-10 minute wait both times. Rating: 3.5
Next we headed across the footbridge to the side of the park with most of the main attractions. We headed straight to Chang, as this was the coaster I was probably looking forward to the most.
Chang: What can I say? This coaster was AWESOME! We waited 40 minutes for this ride the first time, but we were able to ride it three more times later in the day with no wait exceeding 15 minutes. This coaster has some awesome elements. The dive loop was my favorite experience of the ride. This ride has a disorienting layout, and I could never figure which direction we were headed in next! Another neat aspect about this ride is the fact that the track comes pretty close to the queue line and midway surrounding it, so you have a chance to watch this ride up close before experiencing it. I enjoyed riding in the front seat the most because it seemed to be smoother. We rode in the last row the last time we went on it and it seemed rougher than in the front. That was the only time I experienced roughness on the ride. Rating: 5
After Chang, we went on Chaos, which is an interesting flat ride. It is somewhat like an Enterprise, except the seats face outward and are able to spin 360 degrees. This was an awesome ride, and I was able to re-ride it several times because the line was nonexistent.
After a bout on Chaos, we headed to T2. I had read on coasterbuzz that the entrance was confusing because of the Batman sign, and used that helpful knowledge to enter T2?s queue line without difficulty.
T2: Now, I had never been on an SLC before this one, but I came prepared for roughness. The queue line was only 5 minutes long, and before I knew it, we were headed up the lift. The shoulder harnesses on this one have some nice padding that eased the head banging a bit. I actually somewhat enjoyed this one. I don?t know if this SLC is any smoother than the others are, but it wasn?t nearly as bad as I expected it to be. The ride did seem awfully short however, but it was still fun. One time through on this one was good enough for me. Rating: 3
After T2 we journeyed around to Twisted Twins. Not a lot of landscaping in this area, as it was mostly fencing and paving with no signs of trees on the side of the walkway. This area was practically vacant, and it made me wonder how this park manages to stay in business when all of their stores and restaurants are closed down. We arrived at Twisted Twins to see that only the green side (Stella) was running.
Twisted Twins (Stella): This was actually a decent woodie. I had heard that the Gerstlauer trains kind of ruin the ride and make it quite rough. I really enjoyed the ride. It had pops of air and gave a good long ride. It would have made it more fun if they had Lola (pink side) up and running to experience the ?dueling effect. The ride op told us that it would be up later that day, but we never saw it running. The wait for Stella was about 15 minutes, but as the day went on the lines grew longer. We only went on this one once, but I would have loved to go on it again, had the lines not grown so long. Rating: 4
We then headed to Thunder Run. This ride was tucked behind the Flying Shoe ride and was kind of hard to find.
Thunder Run: This was a GREAT coaster! This coaster had great air time in both the front and back seats. This coaster had so much speed right up till the brake run before entering the station. What an adrenaline rush! I had not heard much about this coaster, and it definitely exceeded my expectations. The crazy thing is that this ride only had a 10 minute wait our first trip and about 15 minutes for our 2nd ride of the day, while the line for Twisted Twins was easily over a half hour. This coaster didn?t have any rough patches and it was sheer speed throughout. Rating: 4.5
We then rode the Flying Dutchman, which were swings shaped as wooden shoes. It was a relaxing ride and had cute themeing. After that, we headed to the kiddie coaster of the park.
Roller Skater: I was basically riding this for the track record. A really cute coaster with cars shaped like roller skates. Overall, this ride was fun and went a bit faster than I thought it would go. Rating: 2.5
Some other rides we went on later in the day were: Himalaya, which gave extremely long ride cycles, Thrill Park Theater, (they were showing Dino?s Island II, which I?ve seen quite a few times) Hellevator, (Intamin drop ride) and Breakdance, a variation on a classic scrambler.
Unfortunately, Quake was not running, which I was hoping to ride. It seemed like it hadn?t been up and running for quite a while. The Swinging Pirate Ship also looked abandoned, as did SkyCoaster, Turbo Bungee, and the go-karts. Both the River Rapids ride and Mile High Falls had been drained, so it did not leave guests a quick option of getting soaked on this hot day. All in all, SFKK has great rides and coasters, but it seems like they need more help running their park. The steel coasters had 2 train operation all day, while both woodies had 1 train operation for the whole day. I was wondering if it was like this all year? We practically had to walk halfway across the park just to find a soda vendor that was open. You would think Labor Day weekend would bring in big crowds and they would want to be prepared. Also, it doesn?t seem like this park has much room for expansion. They haven?t gotten a new ride since 2000, and they desperately need something to liven the park up a bit
As noted above, Thunder Run only has the one train. They used to have footers where a transfer track could be added, but I believe they took them out a few years ago when they redesigned the queue line.
As far as I know, Twisted Twins hasn't dueled all season. They normally run the green side in the morning, then switch about mid-afternoon to the pink side and run it the rest of the day.
And, yes, the games, shops and restaurants have been closed in the TT area all season.
sfcoasterfan, nice TR....thanks!
CC, The Twins (Sisters, Siblings, whatever) ran both sides, and dueled, the day before SRM....the entire time we were there (~4 hours)...really were running better....they were both walk-ons, even got a couple re-rides...a BIG plus for the park to allow re-rides, and just ANOTHER way in which SFKK improved....it isn't always "new rides, new rides", there's MANY ways a park can improve....and this one DID...sure, it's the weakest CCI, but even still a good ride with good upside and lots of laterals..Stella, IMO, is a bit better than Lola....
on to the others: RoadRunner Express....that really is just a "typical" overbraked mouse...go to HP, PKD or to MiA and you can get a mouse without "vicious braking"...WHY do parks set those brakes SO tight......Chang, certainly not MY fav, but a good addition nonetheless, rounds out the park's coasters nicely (how's that, Brian?).....T2 is an ordinary SLC (trade name: Vekoma Hang and Bang), rough on the tracks, but has the BEST padding on the OTSRs...makes it much more enjoyable......Thunder Run, my favorite Summers-Dinn other than the newly revitalized Ga Cyclone...the work done to it has paid off, and I really am surprised that lines haven't grown to require a second train...go figure.......RollerSkater, could be a better ride if they didn't try to get the train SO long as to occupy the entire track length at once...possibly my least-fav version of this model, never really picks up the speed of the others....
Not sure what's up with Quake, glad we got to ride it last year...seems like it would be a maintenance dept's version of job security, lol....The flying dutchman (Der Shoes) is really cool, saw a older tub on e-bay recently...heard great things about the Rapids ride, wetness-wise, haven't done it yet....again, thanks for the great TR!
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