Quick TR on Ragin Cajun at SFGAm.

It's short and sweet so here goes.

Dropped my daughter off after a tornado filled weekend near Indiana Beach. Since my daughter lives near SFGAm, I popped into the park at 8:30pm Monday hoping the new coaster was open.

Luck would have it that it was. I was about to ride my very first spinning mouse coaster.

After a 25 minute slow capacity wait, I finally boarded and was accompanied by Mark who is a ride op supervisor.

The first half of the ride is your typical mouse coaster with no spins. Once you drop down and hit the double up, the real fun begins. First turn and your car spins uncontrollably through the rest of the turns and a couple bunny hops.

Very cool ride and a good addition to the already great diversity of coasters at SFGAm.

Thanks for reading.

What were you saying about capacity not being a problem? :)

Seriously, I rode Ragin' Cajun this weekend and was impressed by the ride itself. It was my third Reverchon mouse, and though not as good as Exterminator, it was miles better than the other non-themed ride (the one traveling the fair circuit). Ragin' Cajun did seemed to spin a whole lot more than the others however. I especially liked how close the first switchback is to the rapids ride.

That said, I'm still fearing what that queue is going to be like weekends this summer.

-Nate

Never said it wouldn't be a problem. The rideops were still getting used to the ride so lets give them some time.

It's still a good addition to that area even if capacity wont be the greatest.

I realize ride-ops are still getting used to it, but you can still only dispatch cars about every thirty seconds (meaning maximum capacity is 480pph, AKA horrible). While I'm happy the park added a nice family coaster, I still continue to stand by my point that there were higher-capacity options out there.

One thing I forgot to mention in my first post was that I found the ride to be extremely jerky (moreso than the other two I've ridden). This was more than the average wild mouse jerks, and everyone who rode with me complained about the jerkiness and lack of padding in the cars. I don't know how that will affect smaller riders (that is, children).

I also pity anyone who gets caught on the ride during a ride stop or e-stop. Brace yourself!

-Nate

I was also there on Monday, and yes, it is a great ride. However, it was a little jerky.

Very true on the jerkiness. However, I have come to accept mouse coasters and the heavy laterals to cause this. I told Mark that they could stand to pad the bars that accompany the lap bar.

It would be a simple fix of adding foam padding if need be.

I guess the amount of jerkiness was about what I expected given that it is a Wild Mouse type ride.

I rode it on Sunday when the place was deserted and it was a walk on at that point so I never really observed how the ride behaved.

I was a little disapointed at first that the car wasn't spinning much but once it got to the second half of the ride is was all spinning from that point.

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coasterdude318 said:
I realize ride-ops are still getting used to it, but you can still only dispatch cars about every thirty seconds (meaning maximum capacity is 480pph, AKA horrible). While I'm happy the park added a nice family coaster, I still continue to stand by my point that there were higher-capacity options out there.

-Nate

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The way I look at it is that the park just added an overall capacity of 480 pph. Sure the ride itself seems like a capacity nightmare but in the overall scheme of things it helps ease the composite capacity of the park some. For someone like me who will probably only ride this coaster when it's really dead, long lines on this attraction mean those people won't be standing in line for things I do want to go on. With the addition of the new flat rides, overall park capacity is increased even more.

Unfortunately, if the park's attendance increases because of a new attraction, it doesn't work like that.

-Nate

Nate

Seeing they havent totally blitzed the advertising on the new attractions my guess is they are just there to help with the already out of control capacity problems in the park. Then again I'm sure you will come back with some negative retort to this as well since you do the negativity thing so well...

No, I do the realistic approach well.

I don't know what ads you've been seeing, but I've heard the "our thirteenth coaster!" sell more times than I can count. Of course they're going to advertise any new additions. I'd also argue that capacity at SFGAm is far from "out of control."

Then again, I'm sure you'll come up with a typical enthusiast-minded response.

-Nate

Actually Nate, that wasnt a typical enthusiast-minded response. I know for a fact from an unnamable source that the park has been struggling for some time now with capacity issues and that is one of their top priorities in issues to rectify. The biggest complaints the park gets during the summer months is that guests go to the park and only get to ride three or four things the entire day. This is why Great America is one of the few parks this year to get a capital budget and why Great America gets new stuff every year.

Then again, you probably wouldnt understand that since you can only come up with negatives for anything anyone ever says. You're nothing but a damned troll.

Nate, Nate, Nate

you think the park attendance will increase that much? As Bob said, SFGAm added FIVE attractions this year. If each one only averages 400pph, that is a total increase of 2,000pph multiply that by 11 hours a day the park is open during peak season, that comes out to an addition of 22,000 ppd.

I don't think the park attendance will go up that much based on the new rides. And if you do you must be ig....nah, I won't use your favorite word.

I have to agree with Kick The Sky on this, I haven't seen one advertisment for any of the new Mardi Gras rides. The only Six Flags advertisment's I have seen are the one's with the dancing old guy, and I saw a season pass one that mentioned the "Mardi Gras party" but not any of the new rides.

And once Ragin Cajun is running to full capacity, the full queue will probably be under a half hour. Right now it's only running a 4 car operation, and it is able to run 9 I believe. Once all 9 cars are running, Im expecting the line to move twice as fast.

I think that SFGAm, like many parks of similar size, have leveled off in terms of attendance.

I'm still wondering how Nate can in the same sentence say that one ride is better than another one that is the exact same thing.

I rode it 6 times and each time a supervisor was running the ride or one was nearby.

Someone mentioned that right now the wait with a full queue is about 75 minutes.

The only problem I had with banging around was with the seat divider and not with the lap bar.

Twice while riding it a supervisor had to move the car a bit to get it going.

I visited the park on 6/1/2004 and the ride was not open all day.

SFGAm's current attendance is far less than what it used to be. Consider that.

But no, I don't expect attendance will increase that significantly. I also don't expect those rides will make a major dent in the queues of your favorite rides. My only point was that there are better capacity options out there that, IMO, the park would have been wise to pursue not to necessarily increase park-wide capacity, but to increase capacity for families who are going to wait forever for the new mouse. That's it. I don't know why anyone would take issue with that.

Jeff, if you're referring to my comments regarding the other Reverchon mice, Exterminator obviously gets the nod for being well themed. The other one was rough as hell. Did you wonder the same thing whenever enthusiasts raved about Hershey's mouse and complained about BGW's?

-Nate
*** Edited 6/2/2004 8:56:53 PM UTC by coasterdude318***

I waited through the full queue on Monday and it took about 50 minutes, with 4 cars. The crew was doing a great job loading and unloading the cars very quickly.

I wasn't aware of any other comparisons, Nate, only your own. I've been on Exterminator and Primeval Whirl, and didn't find them to be any different aside from one being in a building. They are, in fact, different from one ride to the next because of the spinning. My first ride on any of them was OK, subsequent rides have ranged from fabulous to boring.

It's all about how the mouse spins...

And it spins (Ragin Cajun) pretty fast.

I kind of like the idea of having the top first half as a normal mouse coaster with laterals and the second lower half having the free spinning action.

More elements than a normal mouse coaster.