Impressions from SFKK, May 28

"We rode (insert coaster name here), then we did (insert miscellaneous flat ride here), then my buddy wanted to (insert inappropriate behavior here)," etc.....

What I've just described is the standard read of about 90% of trip reports you can find here on the 'Buzz. Not that this style doesn't have it's place, mind you, but you can do a search and pull up any one of these and get a feel for what's up at any park.

What I'm going to do for my trip reports from now on is stick with the format I started with on my HoliWood Nights report (http://www.coasterbuzz.com/forum.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=44768), and just give you all some general observations about the rides/service/atmosphere, etc. Because, c'mon, do you really care what I ate for lunch that day?;)

So, on the the report...

- Surprisingly light crowds for a Memorial Day weekend. Perhaps the high heat was drawing most into the waterpark.

- I love the fact that after two disassemble/reassemble moves, the ol' Tidal Wave, I mean Greezed Lightning, still has the fog horn that sounds at launch. Brings back memories, it does. Just quit trimming it so frakkin' much, SFKK! It barely gets up the rear spike on the way back.

- Coastering (especially the waiting in line part) is just plain more fun with someone to talk to. We ran into a fellow Wisconsin couple we met in line for the Voyage the night before, and we wound up hanging out with them the rest of our time at the park

- ATTENTION PLYMOUTH, WISCONSIN COUPLE: I feel like a complete @$$, but with all of the folks we met over the weekend, I can't remember your names. I gave you my e-mail address by Greezed Lightning and haven't heard back, so if you read this, drop me a line.

- A Vekoma hang 'n' bang isn't the horrific exprerience to newbies that it is to us. My friend Lisa (who added said Vekoma as coaster #7) actually liked T2.

- Thunder Run is still the undiscovered gem of this park. Proof that Six Flags can do wood if they want to.

- The Twisted Twins with those horrible G-trains were proof that Six Flags can also screw up wood quite easily, even in the same park.

- You gotta love marketing moxie. Placed in direct view of entering drivers, and of riders ascending the lift of Stella, there's a gigantic billboard advertising the Voyage and Holiday World. You go, Paula!

- Something I've never seen before is a plexiglass enclosure on the bridge over SFKK's hyrdo-flume exit. Usually, that spot is where people stand to get drenched, but the enclosure allows the experience without the wetness.

- The new paint job on Chang looks quite nice, but if it were me, I would have done her up in dark red and gold to really drive home the Oriental theme. If you want to see what the old paint job looked like, check out the repair house. Oops! Missed a bit, guys!

- I never noticed before, but there are actually real bamboo trees surrounding Chang's entrance/exit. Nice touch!

- In addition to the paint, Chang got some maintenance love this off-season too. It's quite smooth and powerful without much lateral toss. Easily my number 2 stand-up behind Riddler's Revenge.

Well, that's it for the park. I could bore you with minutae about the stuff after, but this isn't RoadTripBuzz.com, now is it? ;)

Later,
EV

Nice! I do like your style, Eric.

I hope they have that bamboo in pots, because that stuff grows out of control and you can't kill it! My brother-in-law bought a house that had some in the yard and the stuff will probably take over the entire street some day!

By the way, nice trip report, and I agree about Thunder Run, great coaster.

-Tambo

Yea, this is the style I have been using lately as well. I find it easier to put together, and also more to-the-point.

"- Thunder Run is still the undiscovered gem of this park. Proof that Six Flags can do wood if they want to."

Well, SF didn't do this wood, though they are at least maintaining it. And yes, it IS the gem of the park.

"- A Vekoma hang 'n' bang isn't the horrific exprerience to newbies that it is to us. My friend Lisa (who added said Vekoma as coaster #7) actually liked T2."

I actually like this ride as well. I've ridden a few other ones, but there's something(s) about this layout that I like better or whatever. This is the older, original layout, which is slightly different than the more used newer layout (see Thunderhawk at GL).

"- Something I've never seen before is a plexiglass enclosure on the bridge over SFKK's hyrdo-flume exit. Usually, that spot is where people stand to get drenched, but the enclosure allows the experience without the wetness."

Actually, I think Hersheypark did this years ago on their giant shoot-the-chutes, Tidal Force, which is an OD Hopkins model, I think. It wasn't an enclosure, but it was on the front part of the bridge (the side the wave hits). I had thought that it was because the force of the water could throw people backwards or something. Hershey's, if I remember correctly, had holes in it, and that let some of the water through.

"- The new paint job on Chang looks quite nice, but if it were me, I would have done her up in dark red and gold to really drive home the Oriental theme. If you want to see what the old paint job looked like, check out the repair house. Oops! Missed a bit, guys!"

I agree that it looks nice, but it seems a bit Mantis-esque to me. Even the trains do, too. I agree that dark red and gold would have looked nice and would have gone with the theming better. *** Edited 6/7/2006 9:05:28 PM UTC by rablat5***

- Ever since I first rode Thunder Run, (approx. 5 years ago), I've loved this coaster. It still easily ranks in my top 10 woodies. And SF has done a great job upkeeping TR. The Hurler at PKD is a twin to TR, (just turned the opposite direction), and it is among the roughest coasters I've ever ridden.

- And for such a simple concept Greezed Lightnin' really is a blast. Never have I been so close to coming out of a coaster, yet have had so much fun at the same time.

- It's good to hear about Chang too! It's always been a pretty decent stand-up, and I'll be sure to hit up yet this season.

- And lastly, the one ride that has always eluded me at SFKK is Penguin's river raft ride. I hope that this trip we'll be able to enjoy it. It's either always too cold when we go, or the thing is broken.

rablat,

I didn't get close enough to see whether the enclosure had holes or not.

FF,

The Penguin river raft was indeed running that day. It's queue was packed to the gills, thus fueling my thoughts behind the shorter lines at most of the non-water rides.

Now, if y'all ask nicely, I will tell you what we had for lunch that day, if you're truly interested...;)

Later,
EV

The enclosure is weird. There is one section that is pretty much enclosed, then there is a part where there is glass in front but no roof. Then you can just stand out of it and get soaked. I work at SFKK and Greezed is going Nuckin' Futs! One day last week, I was working road runner and Greezed valleyed. The day after, which I wasn't there for, it valleyed three times! To my suprise, I found out that when it does they don't remove the train from the track. They just hook it up the the weight a different way and pull it up the front spike. That ride is going through some problems.:( And one last thing, Hellivator was struck by lightning on the day I saw Greezed Lighnin' valley and it still isn't up yet...

I really enjoyed T2 on Friday of that weekend. The train still bounced like the cars are attached with bungee cords, but I didn't experince any headbanging, just a little rubbing of the ears. I actually rode the thing twice in the very last row and would have gone again had anyone else in the gang wanted to. I've always enjoyed SLC's despite their poor tracking. If you can avoid the headbanging, they are very fun IMO. I find T2 much more exciting than most of the coasters at the park.

Thunder Run and "Greezed Viper Wave" (GL) are great rides. What is up with that trimming on GL though? It's a shame the hills on TR's second half don't deliver like that first triplet.

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Nascarlvr987 said:
Yeah, I would have prefered other colors on Chang too, but at least it is better than the big bottle of Pepto Bismol it had previously. They actually picked the colors through a contest for local middle schoolers. Those colors won.

Good PR. Bad color choices.

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Pepto Bismol? When was it pink? Originally, it was all yellow. Then, SF gave it some sort of Medusa-like paint job if I'm not mistaken. Now, it's blue and yellow. It still doesn't look bad overall, but a more unique color combo might have been nicer.