SFA 10/12 Great Day!

I'm home from college (Elon University in North Carolina) on fall break, so I decide to head to my home park SFA for a little visit. I am going with a friend from school.

We arrive at the park at aroun 1pm. Front lot is almost full. We get in and head right to S:ROS. One train (red) op. The ride was a walkon. Nice air..the ride really seemed to be moving. Next over to Batwing. Also one train op (as usual). This was a walk-on as well. Whoever said that Batwing has gotten rough was RIGHT! I don't understand how, but the ride seems to shake a lot. However, it still was a great ride. Heading out of Gotham City, I notice that instead of the usual trashcan in front of Joker's Jinx, they had a nice little sign that read "This Ride Is Closed For The Season" They had those on JJ, Iron Eagle, and Typhoon Seacoaster. Great job to Six Flgas on those because the trashcans blocking the que lines was tacky!

Next we head over to Wild One. Two train operation and a short wait. This baby was moving fast today too. AND the trim on the last turn was extremely like (almost just a slight tap) and therefore we had some nice laterals on the helix. I notice that Tower of Doom has all three sides working properly now. Next is Two Face. We wait about 20 minutes before boarding. Nice ride...always seems to give me a slight headache though.

After that we get food in Cayotee(sp?) Creek. Mind Eraser is running one train. We hop on that after we eat. Excellent ride, i really don't mind the shaking as the ride goes, it adds to the ride to me! As we get off they begin 2 train operation.

After that we do the cheesy Zambora of the Amazon bit...cute...scary to little ones! After that we head over to Roar. 2 train operation and a walk on. Another excellent ride from Roar! After roar came the haunted house! Just a little scary..not to much to write about.

At this point we had done pretty much everything we wanted (all the coasters!) The crowd is really starting to pick up. We decide to hit our two favorite coasters again (Batwing and Wild One) We would have done S:ROS again, but the line was back to the rails where the gift shop is.

We hop in line for Batwing and the line is about 3 que rails under the covering. Let me tell u...even with one train op..this line was moving really fast. We only waited about 30 min. There were no breakdowns and the ops were FAST!

As we exit the ride, we discuss how superman should be running two trains by now since the line has picked up quite a bit. I don't understand that at all. However, we could tell that the line was moving fast too. After that we do a "last season ride" on the Wild One!

Overall...GREAT day at SFA. The employees were very friendly, the ride crews were moving FAST on ALL rides. All rides gave great rides...lol! It was just a great day. I think SFA will have a promising year next season. They seem to be improving as the years go on. However, if they don't get a new big ride next year..i don't know if I'll get another season pass. It just depends on what they decide to do next season. But once again, I think they will continue to improve! Great Job SFA! See you next season!
P.S. It seems like a lot of peole from my school had the same idea. I ran into 3 people from my school while there. (I should have expected it since majority of the school population (outside of NC) comes from MD)
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So...you can't handle a rollercoaster huh? Well...you ARE the Weakest Link! Goodbye!
Number 1 Batwing Fan!
*** This post was edited by scoaster 10/14/2003 7:51:26 PM ***

I was at the park on Sunday as well. S:ROS at the most was about a 20-25 minute wait from the rails by the gift shop, however, front seat was between 30-45 minute wait. I think a good alternative to the front seat, with an equal amount of eye watering is the second row. It was great dropping from about 60 degrees at the top of the lift hill to about 50 degrees at the bottom.

That explains the reason why Mind Eraser had a line. They haven't ran one train on that coaster all season. I wonder why they are all of a suddent going down to one train operation? S:ROS? Mind Eraser? Next you know Two Face! (yes, that's a joke).

coasterguts said:

That explains the reason why Mind Eraser had a line. They haven't ran one train on that coaster all season. I wonder why they are all of a suddent going down to one train operation? S:ROS? Mind Eraser? Next you know Two Face! (yes, that's a joke).

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LOL, yeah that would be funny trying to watch them decrease the train number on Two Face. Leave it to Six Flags to try something like that!

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So...you can't handle a rollercoaster huh? Well...you ARE the Weakest Link! Goodbye!
Number 1 Batwing Fan!

Sounds like fun, I guess Six Flags figured, "Our rides are closed so often, we need to get nice little signs!"

I really wanted to go to SFA this summer but was unable to (went to SFNE instead). That is a shame that Batwing only runs one train, I wouldn't consider one station a crime, but one train out of three, c'mon guys.

I found it kind of funny that PGA put a "We're sorry for the inconvenience, but Stealth is only running one train today" sign up and it only has two coaches when I was there, it just shows that Six Flags doesn't even care to warn you.

As for the closed for season signs, it's a lot better than having people wonder if the ride will open or not. Basically the deal is a) Typhoon Seacoaster needs six to seven people to run it, which the park doesn't have at this time of the year, b) Joker's Jinx annoys the neighbors, and during fall it gets closed. It sucks I know c) Iron Eagle needs major work and heavy construction equipment, which will have to be done in the off season.

They did run both trains on S:ROS Saturday, but I don't know for how long, as I was transferred to Looney Tunes Movietown early in the day. I hear that the sensors were acting up again, forcing them back to one train.
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Did anyone ever bother trying out the seats on the KMG Tango? And if so, were they male?

Hey I-Fan! Had a good time on Sunday. It seems the park has steped things up this year. Even though S:ROS was running one training, it was still worth waiting for.

Have you heard what the plans are for Batwing in the off season? The park has got to be considering getting Vekoma in on the problems this ride is having and getting them fixed once and for all.

If you want a smooth ride on Batwing then I'd suggest riding in the middle seats(seats 2 &3) while it's not glass smooth it's more tolerable than the outside seats(seats 1 & 4),aas for Mind eraser tthis isn't the first time they've only run it with one train.

Back on opening weekend they only had the blue train running(red train was still being assembled on the storage track) but the line still moved fairly well.

I'm sure SFA has had it with vekoma & their less than reliable products,I'd say instead of having them try to fix the ride's problems they should just look into replacing it with something more reliable & comfortable,a floorless or even a regular B&M looper would be just fine with me.

I just hope they get both trains on S:ROS going by the 25th because that's when I'm headed to the park again,a long line with two trains certainly moves faster than a short line with only one train running any day.