How is X lately? - CoasterBuzz

I am heading to So.Cal from April 18-26 and I am hoping X will be open. Could someone tell me if it has been open lately, how many trains it's running, what the lines have been like, and how smooth the rides are. Also have most of the other coasters been operating?

------------------
Sean Newman

Lots of info your looking for in the trip reports section. Many buzzers have been to SoCal in the last month or so.

------------------
www.coasterimage.com

As far as X goes, it's been running every day that I've gone (I've gone the majority of weekends over the past couple of months to check out Scream! construction), I've yet to see it down since last year. However, it seems to be a bit of a crapshoot as to whether or not you get one or two train operation. I get the impression that Saturdays are almost always two train, while Sundays (when I generally go) are questionable on two train. The last Sunday I went, it was one train, and last row on the left side (when facing the train's direction of travel in the station) was broken. If it's single train operation, you can expect waits anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half on a Sunday, while two train operation can get that down to under 30 minutes easily.

As far as other coasters go, Deja Vu was shut down, last I heard, and Colossus will probably be shut down until Scream opens. You're getting there after Scream's opening though, so Colossus may be back up and running by that point. I would expect Deja Vu to be running as well. Ninja has generally been listed under the closed rides at the front gate, but seems to regularly open up in the afternoons. Batman has been running single-train for the past few weeks at least while many others are two-train, I'm assuming that at least one of the trains is undergoing some rehab. Superman is still only running one track. Otherwise, everything else should be running nicely.

I guess thats what the park gets for operating year round, downtime. Is it just open on weekends through the winter?

Thanks Tom Servo. Do you know when Scream! is scheduled to open?

------------------
Sean Newman

Sean: around April 12th. You should be able to get it.

------------------
Mike Miller - Harbinger Of Doom - Killer Of Threads - Cheap Rates, Ask About Our Special!

Sunday after Solace it was a 2-train op, 90 min wait all day.

------------------
"Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx

Even though I'll have to wait for my Master's to be over with or retirement, before I ride X. I really enjoy reading good things about it with the rotten beginnings of this prototype. I hope all is well in SoCal!

------------------
There's nothing like a woodie...

Moosh: Wow, 90 minute even with two train? Was it just a ridiculous amount of Solace people there, or are crowds starting to pick up for the year? I've had less than 10 minute waits on X when there was two-train operation, so 90 shocks me quite a bit...

I went to SF MM on Janaury 18. X was testing at 9AM,all the way til openign and it had 2 trains. First ride was great, I was in heaven. It was very smooth. Second ride later that day was a little bumpy, butstill very enjoyable. I think which train u r on might ave something to do with it. The wait was abotu 2 hours.

10 minute waits!! When was that??? On a standard operation day, I have never waited less than 2 hours for X. A 10 minute wait would be only 3-4 train wiat with no line outside the station. I have NEVER seen the line that short.
------------------
SCREAM with me... in 2003!

The line literally did not leave the station. When you got off, you could just walk through the locker area and pick which row queue you wanted to get in on, generally with 2 couples in front of you. It was amazing, I've only had that experience twice there, but it's great when you get it. I rode 10 times that day, easily. It was a very cold day though, so I couldn't keep riding anymore once my hands & face had started to go numb ;)

One of the days was December 22nd of last year, the Sunday before Christmas. The park was nearly empty, and the weather was *very* cold for So. Cal., I think the high was somewhere just above 50. I was freezing my arse off, but I wasn't willing to pass up X lines like that. I don't remember what the other day was, but it was another Sunday where the park was near empty and they were running two trains. I wish I could predict when lines were going to be like that, I had though that Dec. 22nd would actually be crowded since all the kids were starting their X-mas break, but apparently I was wrong.

I just went yesterday (3-9) as well, and the wait for X wasn't all that bad, surprisingly. It was High School Physics day, so the tour bus lot was nearly full, and lots of high school kids running around. Batman, Riddler's, Goliath, and X all had longer lines than I've seen in months, with Batman's line stretching all the way to the queue entrance (albeit not following any of the switchbacks), and X's line was, sans switchbacks, almost to the queue entrance. Despite that, we waited just under an hour to get a ride on X with two-train operation (got in line at 2:45, were off the ride and exiting the area at 3:41). They're definitely improving dispatch times every time I go...the key is having two trains. It more than doubles the capacity as compared to single train, dispatches dropping from every 7-8 minutes down to every 3 minutes or so.

Do people think that X will fall apart, get rough, or valley? Have faith. It's a successful prototype.

------------------
Arrow "4D" coming soon to a park near you

I think it's less a question of safety or anything on the ride, and more that it's had horrid capacity issues. Even with dispatches every 3 minutes, that's still only 20 dispatches an hour, so it's only putting out about 560 people @ hour, nowhere near the 1680 @ hour advertised. The lines are always longest for it, with the wait being longer for the same number of people in line than almost any other ride in the park ('cept Deja Vu...yech).

I don't think that it will improve much anymore either. They obviously have rules that the unload train isn't allowed to move/rotate seats until all the riders are out through the exit gates, and checking the restraints after rotation in the load area takes a long time. Unlike most coasters, they can't just run along the side quickly giving the restraints a pull, they actually have to walk in between each row, reach around between the riders, and pull up on the restraints. They have two ride-ops per side doing this, usually, and it still takes longer than, for instance, running along the side of the Goliath train.

Doesn't help that at least one row regularly has its restraints get stuck in the unload station, so the ride-ops have to come by and manually release some people. It seems to me that if you are in any way holding onto the restraints, other than actively trying to pull them open, when they release, they get stuck. At least that's my experience with 'em...

Soggy said:
10 minute waits!! When was that??? On a standard operation day, I have never waited less than 2 hours for X. A 10 minute wait would be only 3-4 train wiat with no line outside the station. I have NEVER seen the line that short.
------------------
SCREAM with me... in 2003!

When I was at the park in early Feb., the line never left the station for most of the day, and there was only about a 4 train wait, but with one train, the wait was still 45 minutes.

Sean, looks like I will be in So Cal around the same time you will be there. I am not sure what days I am doing what parks though.

-Sean

Soggy said:
10 minute waits!! When was that??? On a standard operation day, I have never waited less than 2 hours for X. A 10 minute wait would be only 3-4 train wiat with no line outside the station. I have NEVER seen the line that short.
------------------
SCREAM with me... in 2003!

When I was at the park in early Feb., the line never left the station for most of the day, and there was only about a 4 train wait, but with one train, the wait was still 45 minutes.

Sean, looks like I will be in So Cal around the same time you will be there. I am not sure what days I am doing what parks though.

-Sean