June 13 & 14 SFA -Should we wait next year for Shapiro co come around?

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OP AWESOME said:
I realize that all coasters are different but you stated that you liked Batwing and not X flight. Did you realize they are the same layout?

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Yeah, I did. I just don't know why I like Batwing. I felt X-Flight was iffy, and maybe it's just riding the ride more that got me really liking it now. I still feel that Superman Ultimate Flight is better, but Batwing is high up there.

Would I rush to get to SFA or PKI when I could go on Superman? No, it's not the same thing, but yet it kind of is. It has different elements, but yet they still have a loop (pretzel's better), and they both have in-line twist elements. It's just that Batwing is a little rougher.

Batwing has corkscrews and X-Flight has zero-g-rolls.

Now the thing with avalanche is the location & nature of the ride.Many times the ride appears "closed" simply because the ops panel is obscured from view & as a result people pass on by heading toward superman instead.

I was thinking that the ride should be moved to a spot in the park where it'd recieve more guest traffic & octopus's pad in Nantucket sounds like an ideal location to me.

As for operations they really need to work on that more,I'm still rather ticked at how the ops on two face didn't even open the gates for those of us in the queue after loading about half the train with flash passers last week,

I went to SFA a couple of weeks ago and although I only spent 2 hours there, it was easily the worst park I've been to. Rude/stupid employees, painfully slow load times, many rides not running, and just a general look of disrepair seemed to be the theme at this park.

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Coasterkid200 said:
Batwing has corkscrews and X-Flight has zero-g-rolls.

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No.

-Nate

(hint: see Borg Assimilator)

Again CP Chris, let's look back in history--say two years ago or more. What were the big orders from Six Flags? That'll be two Goliaths, one El Toro, and one Tatsu. And the year before that brought us one Kingda Ka and total rethemed area, not to mention an enormous Hurricane Harbor at SFGAM.

Add it all together (and there were more smaller attractions added at some other parks), and you've got a heck of a lot of money being spent on specific parks and not others. There are a lot of rides that need new paint.

Thankfully, Joker's Jinx got a new paintjob in the past two years, but the tunnel has already faded (they should see if they have a warranty). Batwing, unfortunately, looks absolutely terrible right now, and it looked good up until last year.

At least they redid our existing waterpark with new paint and put in two new slides for the change to Hurricane Harbor in 05', but so much more could've been put in.

I totally agree with you about load times. For example, S:ROS takes two-minutes from station to brakes. A train can be released out of the station when the other train is out at the last helix. They used to be able to pull it off from time to time. Now, they just wait until the other train comes back and the train in the station might still not be loaded. Even the gp were noticing how slow things were going last weekend.

Train in the station can be released as soon as the train on the track clears the third hill. IN 03 The superman crew used to be able to do it all the time.

SFA is falling appart, they are so far understaffed because of the new HR director thats clueless. Then people that have worked at the park for a couple of years are getting fired because of minor mistakes, past enployment history no longer counts for anything. They'd rather have new kids that don't know anything than people that know the park inside and out.

I get my season pass at SFA, and my visit to process the pass is the only time I visit in a season. Last year I renewed my pass online, and didn't visit until Frightfest. You could tell the park has been trying to make things better, but there is only so much they can do given the fact they just don't get the money to invest in the park to improve as the other bigger SF parks.

I renewed my pass online again this season, and still have yet to make a visit. I have been to Hershey, Dorney, Kennywood, Knoebels, Cedar Point, Busch Gardens Europe, Kings Dominion, and Great Adventure. They burned so many people in the past that they don't even want to give the park another. I am not talking enthusiests. I am talking about the general population that maybe visit one or two parks a year. I know that just by talking to friends, family, and coworkers that have visited.

In talking to people the complaints are all the same. "Most of the rides weren't running." "The staff, and patrons were all very rude." Then add to either, "I'd never go back again." The park has just earned that kind of reputation, and it's really hard to turn that around. People don't want to go and spend their hard earned money where they aren't treated good, or aren't getting the value for their hard earned money.

I always at least try to visit once a season just to see how things are running. They do have a few good coasters, but when it comes down to it I am going to spend my time at a park that I know pretty much every ride is going to be operating. That's why I opt to go somewhere else.

Visited the park for around an hour today, and it was pitiful, though pretty crowded (for SFA). Closed rides included Two Face, Roar, Superman, Skull Mountain (TSC), and Tower of Doom (expected because of the accident at SFKK). I really don't like this park much anymore.

You guys don't know what the heck you're talking about. SFA is great! They try their hardest each and every year and all you can do is complain just because half of their rides are down. Pathetic. Give them all of your money, get half of the value, and like it. Even get yourself a Q-Bot so they can have even more of your money and you wont have to wait in any of the twice-as-long-as-they're-supposed-to-be lines.

Quit your crying and give them your money already. If you don't like SFA, why don't you just send them a check or money order for a few hundred dollars or so and stay home and watch TV? Same price, more fun.

...And y'all think you always know what I am going to say next? I showed y'all, didn't I. ;)

^^From what I heard two face got zapped by lightning last week during the storms we had & fried the computer so it'll be a while before it's back up & running.

We don't have Q-Bots at SFA Dexter,just those stupid flashpass tickets.

Well buy a bunch of them then...LOL. :)

Seriously though, I've had fun at the park a few times. I really like their coaster lineup (for the most part), and TSC (Skull Mountain) was a blast the few times it was open.

Speaking of SM, did they remove the turntables or does the ride still travel backwards sometimes? The ride was so cool that making it a forward only ride wouldn't be such a bad thing. I love the skeliton pirate theming.

Skull Mountain is only forwars now. No more backwards.

Skull Mountain has one turntable. This is the one right before the final drop.

Cool. So they took out the turntable before the coasterlike bunnyhop?

It really was a fantastic and unique ride (even though the backwards part has changed to forwards) and I am happy to hear that it may be working better. I only wish that they would enclose the final drop a little more because you can see behind the ride from the mouth of the skull, but that's just nitpicking. Why isn't there more discussion here about Skull Mountain?