SF New Orleans - 5/2/04 - Megazeph Goodness

Make that 5/2/04

I was on the North Shore visiting my better half's family, and she suggested we sneak out on Sunday and hit SFNO since I've never been there before.....who was I to argue? :)

We pulled in to a very empty park around 2pm....the weather was gross, and the day before had been beautiful, so I guess a lot of folks wanted to stay home!

Roadrunner Express: I've said it before, and I'll say it again......Roller Skaters are the best ride that Vekoma makes! Well themed, and a lot of fun!

Jester: The transplanted backward Vekoma corkscrew. They should have named it "The Nasuea Inducer" or something! Made me quite ill, and made my girlfriend go to the bathroom for a protien spill. If the nausea wasn't bad enough it's a headbanger too. :)

Jester is where I experienced my first "Six Flags moment" of the day. We walked up the long queue in full sight of the ride up at the entrance of the station, after we got up the guy mumbled "Ride's closed". Way to go. Thanks for posting a sign, or at least raising your voice before I walked all the way up there. :( Anyway, it opened 10 or 15 minutes later. No big loss, I don't let that kind of stuff get to me, but that's what seperates an ok park from a great park. A sign or (GASP!), an employee at the entrance is always good.

Six Flags moment #2 came after Jester...there's a stage setup where people can sing Kareoke. Lord help us. It's loud, and the people that sing are the ones that shouldn't. I swore if I heard one more 12 year old girl sing "Waterfalls" out of key I would snap. Even William Hung would be better! In my opinion, this is not an assett to the park. Sure it might be fun for the person on the stage, but you should have seen the faces of the people walking by...I wasn't the only one. Just give me some nice Muzak rather than that, or better yet, nothing at all :)

Megazeph - Wow wow wow wow! What a great ride....pure CCI goodness. While I don't like G trains, they didn't bother me too much. I would have ridden more but 1 train-op with SIX minute dispatches made for 30 minute waits.

Wild Mouse - OK...I forget the name of it and am too Lazy to look it up, but a WIld Mouse is always fun. Every park should have one of these!

Batman: I missed this one in Tokyo, so was glad to catch it here. These are still bada$$ rides. I loved the paint job (black track with yellow rails and ties) and it was weird to see one with an outdoor station. This ride is a tremendous addition to the park....it really took them up a BIG notch.

Overall the park is quite nice with a nice setting and good selection of flats/rides....all in all, a nice little local/regional park. We had a good time, and I'll go back someday when the park isn't crowded. This park has the potential to be a GREAT small/mid-size park with better staffing/training and other general park improvements. *** Edited 5/11/2004 4:20:31 AM UTC by Peabody***

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Peabody said:
Six Flags moment #2 came after Jester...there's a stage setup where people can sing Kareoke. Lord help us. It's loud, and the people that sing are the ones that shouldn't.

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I know where you're comming from there, but that isn't just Six Flags. PGA had the same thing going for them a few years ago (let's hope they got rid of it)!

Always nice to hear about some parks that don't get mentioned too often. :)

What about Homey G's favorite ride, Catwoman's Whip?

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Wild Mouse - OK...I forget the name of it and am too Lazy to look it up, but a WIld Mouse is always fun. Every park should have one of these!

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The Wild Mouse is Muskrat Scramble....

Anyways, Six Flags New Orleans looks like a nice park, and so far SF hasn't been doing that bad with it, and I hope they continue to expand in the future!

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PT300 said:

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Peabody said:
Six Flags moment #2 came after Jester...there's a stage setup where people can sing Kareoke. Lord help us. It's loud, and the people that sing are the ones that shouldn't.

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I know where you're comming from there, but that isn't just Six Flags. PGA had the same thing going for them a few years ago (let's hope they got rid of it)!

Always nice to hear about some parks that don't get mentioned too often.

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Nope, Paramount's Great America still has it and is more annoying than ever.

I still am completely clueless as to how anyone can enjoy Megazeph. I think I have probably ridden an every seat possible and every time I've ridden it, except in the very front I am consistently bashed and come off with an extremely soar back. I personally think Megazeph would be a terrific ride if they actually padded the seats but I can't ride it anymore, thank God for B:TR.

MegaZeph's "born on date" comes after CCI stopped paying Tom Rebbie for his PTC trains...weird thing is that RCDB has Gerstlauer as responsible for the *construction* as well as the trains....hmmmm.

Riding backwards with inversions can make some of the strongest stomachs weak, and mine ain't THAT good to begin with....nonetheless, a *full-circuit* backwards steelie....I'll see YOU on June 13, Jester...:)

Brian *convinced* me to take some Dramamine with me when I get to SFNO, I will NOT be passing up a collection of flat rides like THAT...:)

gator, doesn't believe in Karaoke...

Nice And to the point Jeff. ThaNks! Maybe someday I'll Get thEre.

And BilL, what's the matter? Afraid Lorne will hear you and expose your true intentions?;)

-Robo

Ugh Moosh, Ugh.. it's all I can say. Sounds like you'd love it considering what you did to poor ol' Dawn. ;)

Billiam, you might need more than Dramamine to enjoy THAT thing. But God Bless... and... good luck!

Sunday operations are pathetic. Even though Saturdays are more crowded, the two train operations sometimes actually makes the wait times much shorter than on a Sunday! Someone I know commented about it this past Sunday and maintenance's response was that the lines didn't justify two train operation even though they were around 35 minutes long. Well sorrrrrrry... heaven forbid they actually improve the guest's visit. I hope this doesn't foreshadow things to come. Last year on Sundays, Mega Zeph and Batman were always in two train operation if their trains were available for the most part. In addition to that they were also in two train operation on Fridays. This made for some of the most pleasant visits I've experienced. The waits were usually about 5-10 minutes operating like that. However, doesn't look like we'll be seeing that this year.

Well, right now I guess I should just be glad they actually run two train operation on Saturdays. They were trying to get away with one train operation on Mega Zeph, which caused 1 hour + lines until some furious guest would scream at a supervisor, who would call maintenance out to put on a second one after it was basically too late... *** Edited 5/11/2004 10:07:51 PM UTC by Cameraman***

I love MegaZeph! It is fast, fun and furious. I am not one to ride rough coasters and I don't find anything rough at all. Can't wait to go in June.