SFA -- first Saturday in June

Went to SFA again (3rd time this year) for their Christian Youth Day. As usual, I'll just list some observations, etc.

--got to the park between 2-2:30; out of 20 ticket windows, only 3 were open; they finally opened a 4th one, but it took us a little bit just to get a ticket (for my girlfriend--me and my friend have season passes)

--Huricane Harbor looks really good overall. What happened to the rock climbing wall in HH, though? They also have a lot of the lounge chairs near the pool, which is nice.

--Joker's Jinx was down and had no sign of activity from what I saw. Same goes for Typhoon Seacoaster.

--Shipwreck Falls was down when I saw it, and I never saw them get it back up, as far as I know.

--Avalanche was actually running, and it looks better than it used to in its old location and theming.

--Batwing was running 2 trains and stations still, which is a good sign. ToD still running 2 sides.

--The bathroom that I used this time looked better from what I saw.

--The park now offers preferred parking for $25. I'll save $10 and just walk.

--The Chik-fil-A there seemed a little better than the stuff at PKD.

--The Batman stunt show was back, though I didn't go watch it. It seems like it might be the same basic one that they've been using for a while.

--Iron Eagle's old spot still looks the same, with the wood and latice work. It seems like it would be a decent spot for local bands to set up and perform.

--There was a Dippin' Dots stand in HH that was 50 cents cheaper than the ones in the amusement park. These, in turn, were 50 cents cheaper than they are at SFGAm this season.

So there have been improvements at the park, but they still have a ways to go. For a Saturday in June, there should not be 3 major rides down, along with 3-4 out of 20 ticket windows open. The park is definitely overpriced, and the $25 "preferred" parking just adds to this.

I'm glad, though, that I'm getting some major use out of my season pass this year. Actually, I think this will be the most use out of a season pass (in terms of multiple parks) that I'll have EVER gotten, period. By the end of the season, I'll have used it at:

SFA
SFKK
SFGAm
SFGAdv
SFMM
SFMW

and there's a possibility of adding the following to this list:

SFDL
GE
SFNE

Anyway, say what you want, but Six Flags STILL hasn't delivered in terms of ticket/parking/food prices for what you actually get. I hope they keep on the path of improvement, and I know it won't be overnight. But I still think they should have left prices where they were, improved quality first, then slowly increased prices. Fortunately, I WILL get my money's worth out of the season pass (which, if anything needed to go up in price, this should have been it).

I suspect JJ is down because of a problem with the same type of ride, by the same manufacturer at another park. At least, that's the speculation I'm hearing.

You failed to mention Avalanche is running forwards and backwards (at least it was Sunday while I was at the park).

SWF is normally a very reliable attraction at the park. Whatever the problem is, it's not minor. They've drained the water and that can't be a good thing. FWIW, since they did have the water drained, they had people sweeping the trash up on Sunday. When is the last time you saw that at SF?

The Batman Stunt show has added lots of Pyrotechnics this season.

Chances are the Dippin' Dots stand in HH willn't be .50 cheaper than the rest of the park the next time you go back (should've kept that one quiet).

Not sure about TSC. Hopefully it's down so they can improve it (capacity wise).

You didn't menton the new trees, hanging baskets and flowers planted throughout the park. Since landscaping is always a big complaint about the park.

*** Edited 6/5/2006 7:36:58 PM UTC by coasterguts*** *** Edited 6/5/2006 7:37:13 PM UTC by coasterguts*** *** Edited 6/5/2006 7:45:05 PM UTC by coasterguts***

I recall reading on the SFAFans board that Roar was down as well,as for JJ being down does anyone know if Poltergiest & PKI's FOF have been shut down as well?

I hope they can get both rides back up by the 10th because that's just gonna stink with the increased crowds over at the other coasters making the queue time worse than it normally is.

If he went on Saturday, which he did, ROAR wasn't down.. at least not while I was around. We rode it a couple of times. TSC was up and down a lot on Saturday. It started testing around it's normal time and was running for a while, but there was a problem later and they just shut it down an hour or so before dusk (when it usually closes).

Rablat, were you there for the concert? Or did you just happen to be there on the same day? Jeremy Camp and Aaron Shust were both fantastic, a great concert, especially considering how good of seats I had.

^ Yea, I was there for the concert. I've seen Jeremy multiple times before, and he's usually fairly good. They were having trouble with the sound on Saturday during Jeremy's session.

As for Aaron Shust, they were decent, though it was more of an acoustic set than what's on his CD--would've been nice to hear what that would have sounded like.

^^ Roar was up and running when we went to ride it.

Do you think JJ is down because of what happened to Chiller? I know Chiller has had issues in the past, and I don't recall JJ being shut down because of that.

I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to Avalanche. Back in the day it used to run forward and reverse--did they change this to just forward? I haven't ridden the thing in years. At least it looks better where it's at now.

I did notice the giant potters on Main Street, though I had read about/saw that on another website.

That's my understand Rablat5. While I can't confirm it and I'm really going out on a limb and speculating here, this is not official information from any park and everything I'm basing this on is rumors (it's just coincidental) and from other sites.... It's my understanding, ALL of the Premier Lims have/were shutdown until an inspection is complete. However, I read on another site, while PKI's FoF was down for a while, it was back up by Sunday.

My uncle and cousins were there that day. He said that it was a pretty good day. They picked up their season passes and did a few coasters. My cousin and he got stuck on the Superman break run, lol. It was also my younger cousins first Wild One ride, which he loved. We are going to CP in 2 weeks, and he has promised Iron Dragon, Mean Streak, Blue Streak, and some others. :)

Mr. Freeze at SFSL snagged some of the electrical wires that power the LIM's on the tower spike last Tuesday morning. Six Flags (and other parks?) want to check all of the other Premier rides to make sure that the wires are all "tucked" out of the way of the train.

That's good news for the coaster but unfortunately I won't be able to make it this weekend.

It turns out my friend injured his back while at the park of all places last week<I wasn't there of course but got the call last night> so it looks like I'm out a trip to SFA for quite a while...maybe even the entire season.

From what I was told last night his injury occured from riding what he described as the "slower rides" with his GF who doesn't ride coasters so I'm hoping he doesn't have anything such as permanent nerve damage which would keep him out of the park indefinitely.If he injured his back on something as simple as a flat ride in the park then chances are it's pretty bad because that's never happened to me before.

I've come home with a slight headache from riding the rougher coasters in the park & exhaustion from walking around all day but nothing as bad as back pain before.

Please let us know just what happened after you find out.