SF America 10/15/2004

First visit since 2000. Light crowds, as we arrived about 5pm. First went to Superman. The expected slow crew was there, but the ride still is great! 8/10. Then did Jokers Jinx. Slow crew. 7/10. Much improved with lap bars. I would not have rode that ride again with the shoulder harnesses.

Then to Batwing. They really should construct a path to connect Gatham City with Crackaxle Canyon. Batwing is great like the one in Ohio. Feels like someone will fall out with the restraint system. This will happen some day, but not this season. 7/10.

Then off to the best ride in the park, the Wild One. This ride is probably the best ride in the company since the Villian belongs to Cedar Fair. The ride delivers such force in the final helix. 9/10. Then to ROAR. Its okay, but time for track work. The only smooth section is the parh under the tunnel. Therefore, the water from, lets see, maybe rain, has shrunk the wood, and the gauge is off by about 1/4-1/2 an inch. Now, get to work maintenance guys. Trust me, I do this for a living. 7/10.

Rode the free fall. 2 out of 3 cars working. 7/10. Did the walk thru by ROAR, and not bad. 6/10. Thank God no line for a change. Then did Mind Eraser. A bit rough, but not painful. 6/10. The smoothest SLC is still at Geauga Lake, followed close by the Great Nor'Easter at Morey's. They had Blizzard River running, but the heavy rain closed it, so I will get to it next visit.

This is a good park that should be performing better. The games are decent, and they have lots of shows. They now need to jump to a few large food service locations to boost revenue, and reduce the number of themed areas. They should run with Gotham City, Crackaxle Canyon, Southwest Territory, Looney Toon Land, and some sort of Nautical land.

They will do well with Hurricane Harbor next year.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip. I have to agree that Roar has become pretty rough this year, especially that final turn into the brake run. On the other hand, Wild One is running like it was brand new and with the short lines the ride usually has, it is great for rerides.

As for the "reducing the number of themed areas," that's actually a reasonably good idea...the "Old Boston" area (the area around the Grand Theater" and the "Nantucket" area (mostly including that little row of buildings between Shipwreck falls and Iron Eagle) are both pretty undeveloped for themed areas. If they could extend the main street theme all the way to the Grand Theater, that might help a little, but I can see where you're coming from. As it is Gotham City takes up almost 50% of the park anyways.

Anyways, I'd love to hear which shows you went to. They usually do a good job with their Fright Fest shows. The keep the stunt crew around for a special "Scary Stuntshow" with a script just for fright fest, they use some of the Batman Stunt Crew and bike riders for a stunt scene on the train, and they get some other big names to fill other shows. They have Joe Romano...a magician who's been the headline performer at Universal and on the Disney Cruise Line as well as opening for many big name singers..whose been performing at the park for the last several years. His work is VERY GOOD and much better than you'de expect to see at an amusement park. It's REALLY a must if you get to SFA for Fright Fest...

Hey AJ,

You forgot about the pretty black, rotating cloud that came over the park while you were sitting in the Superman brakes for 5 minutes waiting for the operators to dispatch the second train!!!

Now that's a thrill ride!

I saw the opening scenes in the special halloween version of the wild west stuntshow & thought it was pretty darn good....of course the desire to hit more rides as opposed to shows wins out everytime so we didn't stick around for the ending.

If anything they need to add a little more to olde boston & Nantucket...especially in the area near octopus because other than that there aren't any really good rides over there at all.

For the love of humanity(& your head) Roar definitely needs some re-tracking during the off-season,it's getting to be so darn rough that it's almost unbearable...when it comes to re-rides give me Wild one any day or put new trains & much needed track work into Roar.

I would like to post a trip report reguarding Agent Johnson's fierce flatuence during our trip to SFA. Let's just say rancid tuna salad may smell better.

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ROAR__Aight said:
I would like to post a trip report reguarding Agent Johnson's fierce flatuence during our trip to SFA. Let's just say rancid tuna salad may smell better.

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...Aight

So that loud one at 6am in the PKD Best Western really did wake up the whole room? Who needs an alarm clock when you eat at Denny's?

...and the room next door