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I paid a visit to SFMM last Sunday (10 May 09). It was Mothers' Day so I took advantage of the free ticket that comes in the Season Pass coupon book and invited some friends. Big thumbs up to SFMM on that! Having a season pass is fun and great but having those coupons for free/cheap tickets really lets you get some cheap friends out to the park too.
I was in no rush to get to the park seeing as how this was probably my 8th or 9th trip in 2009. I got there at about 1:30 PM. Judging from the parking lot, I expected there to be moderate crowds. Simply not the case. Apparently mom is not a fan of the park because the place was pretty empty. Here's a few of my observations.
Goliath: Walk up. No line, running two-trains, and not stacking them either. Can't ask for much more than that so I took the opportunity to get my first front row ride on Goliath. Pretty awesome.
Papa John's Pizza: Had a great meal. Using the coupons in the book and their family meal deal, me and the other three grown men I was with were able to eat a full meal with free souvenier mug refills all day for about $30. And the thing that's going to have all the SF-haters eating their words, the young lady behind the counter took my order, coughed, then apologized that she needed to wash her hands before continuing. Brilliant.
Restrooms: A few of them around the park simply could use some renovation, however, each and every one was as clean as it could be. In fact, during every trip to the restroom that day, there was currently an employee servicing that restroom. Nice work.
Batman: No line here either. Running two trains but they definately were stacking them. It's a bit of a short cycle but it doesn't get much easier to unload/load than a B&M invert. Not to mention they were stacking big time.
Deja Vu: Great ride but even on a day where no other attractions had lines, this capacity nightmare still had a 45minute wait. There's only so much you can do with one train, but the intervals between trains were definately longer than necessary.
Colossus: Not a very good ride anymore. The first half is fairly fun but the block trim simply destroys the rest of the ride. The final turn takes so long, you literally forget you're on a roller coaster. A bit sad, but I can't see MM gaining much by pouring a lot of money into this thing. Hopefully Terminator picks up a lot of the slack here.
Tatsu: No line here either, just a short wait in the station. Running two trains on one station and brilliantly. This ride has had a history of stacking leaving you dangling in the blocks for long periods. They were actually doing a fantastic job on Sunday. The train in the station was dispatching just as the other train was pulling into the block. Very nice.
X2: Just a short wait here. About 15 minutes. The line was prety much to the stair/ramp split. Crew was doing great work here too. Intervals around 2:30 or so. I really think they were maxing out given the current single station load/unload configuration. Train was rotating seats for dispatch as the on course train was arriving and in many cases it was rolling out as the on-course was arriving. Rides were great. Music and fire were both working, always a plus! :-) Both rides were toward the back so they were a bit rough in the final Raven turn. The good news is that it doesn't hurt if you know it's coming. ;-) I would've gone on this gem way more than twice had my friend not lost his phone and killed the mood. :-(
All-in-all a great day. SFMM continues to impress me with their unrivaled value! Not only are the Play Passes priced right, the coupon books really allow you to have a "day at the park" experience complete with food, games, and take-homes for cheap. And the park has really started to do things right. Clean, friendly, and (more) efficient. Keep up the great work. The more I go, the more I want to go back. Bring on Terminator!
Rockdown
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