SFA 4-13 Opening Day

After a long warm winter, it was time to return to SFA for opening day. After paying my $9 for parking, I proceeded to the front gate where I met up with several other enthusiasts. I wasn't feeling particularly eager though because their wasn't anything new. Sure, call me spoiled, but that's how I felt. The first glitch of the day occured when I tried to upgrade my parking pass to a season parking pass. The new computers (probably the same computer system that screwed up at SFOG) wasn't accepting my VISA card. Well, I figured I'll try later.

The gates opened at 10:30 promptly. Who did I run into but VACoasterFreak, proudly sporting a Coasterbuzz t-shirt.. No one ever looks like you expect them to.Of course me and GoWithGravity were on our annual what's changed from last year mission.The first thing we noticed was many more trashcans than in previous years. So many that I ran into one later in the day. The Sky Escaper area was fenced off, and isn't on the map anymore. Passing Joker's Jinx, we read a sign that put a big smile on our face. "Joker's Jinx is temporarily closed, Trains are undergoing modifications for your riding pleasure. "Can you say excellent? Every ride also has a line-jumping sign that explains with four rules what defines line-jumping. Will it work? Come on, get real. Probably the biggest dissapointment of the day was that there still was no bathroom in lower Gotham City.

We headed down to S:ROS and got multiple rides. I ran into 2Hostyl. Jim Fisher and daughter, and Weatherman down there. Then we headed down to Batwing where we got our next big surprise. No, not that it broke down. That happens every day. No, not that an engineer from Vekoma was still there, just like last year. No, the big surpirse was that the trains actually recline on the lift! Surprise number two was that they had two-train operation also. We got on board and as we were going up the lifthill we stopped and the anti-rollbacks kicked in. Damn. We waited around 5 mintues, and then our ride progressed. We all completely forgot how the G-forces just rip the blood out of your brain throughout the whole ride, which I usually enjoy. But I was really sore in my shoulders after riding. Maybe I just need to build up my tolerance for the year.

Four of us then took a ride on Krypton Comet, while Hostyl abstained. Then we headed back towards the front of the park, and took a ride on Typhoon Seacoaster. Yes, you read that right. They had six boats running today (I believe), which helped with the crowds. Roar was next, and it was amazing as always. GWG was commenting that after riding PKD's woodies for the last couple weeks, just how much better Roar felt. Last on my plate was The Rodeo. Unfortunately, I had to bid farewell to go to work, where I tried unsucessfully to get my parking pass again. Well, the women wrote a note for me, which will hopefully work the next time I return.

For an opening day, it wasn't too bad.Every ride was running in the park except for Joker's Jinx. But, since it had no trains, it would be a little hard to run. Lastly, it was a very well behaved crowd.

I'll be down there on the 27th,my plans for this weekend were scrapped =( and I hope they have JJ up and running I'm really surprised that Typhoon sea coaster was running this early in the season and that the park has finally gotten Batwing to run both stations.It seems the rumors are true about sky escaper's demise,I'm gonna miss that ride and it looks like the ferris wheel will most likely replace it next season.I'm surprised you didn't take Wild One for a spin did they add that new sign as was rumored to happen?and what was the que time for Batwing with multi train multi station operation?

*** This post was edited by BATWING FAN SFA on 4/14/2002. ***

Nice report! Kinda sad were going nuts o about 2 train op on Batwing, when it is supposed to run 3! :)

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Not MLK's words but mine..I have a Dream! I have a DREAM! I HAVE A DREAM!
I have a dream! That SFMM fans will be able to walk hand in hand with CP's!
AND no ONE cares what a coaster is and what a coaster isn't!

Well, IF had to go before the rest of us went of to Wild One, but once we got to it, it broke down. Both train were stopped on the track and they had to walk the pasengers off the trains. It was running later, but I also had to leave before I could get back to it. SFA was having a resonably good day yesterday. The train crews are still getting used to their duties, and many members of the riding public still can't operate coaster seatbelts -, but it's looking like another winner of a year for coastering at SFA. :)

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Ready to spring into a new coaster season! :)

It's unfortunate that you didn't get to ride Wild One. I thought that it was running very well. That's expecially impressive since I rode it about an hour after the park opened on opening day.

Well unlike the Weatherman who I still think is lying (inside joke :)), I *did* get over to Wild One. You see, I broke off from the group about 4pm to face the longest wait of the day, an hour to get my pass processed. After that, I was *going* to just proceed straight home, but I decided to just take a peek at Wild One. It was running so I sauntered over there and snagged a backseat ride....I daresy that Wild One was running better than ROAR; high praise from someone like me who prefers twisters. There was airtime on every (AND THE ROCK MEANS EVERY) hill including the second half of the double up, and like I said, I was in the last seat, not even the magical "Schmeck Seat" 1.3 (TM - Adam Sandy).

Hope that stays like that all year :)
jeremy
--who notes Batwing was rough as hell....(I felt my jaws shaking...)

yeah.....when Rob (Intamin Fan) came up to me, and said "are you Tim??", i was shocked at first, haha!! i had actually forgotten that i had posted in the meeting calendar...sorry I-Fan if i gave you a dirty look...and i second that remark about people not looking like you expect them too...i expected I-Fan to be around 30ish, when i saw him he looked 19....then later i indeed found out he is around early 30ish...haha!! anyway....perhaps i would have been even more nicer had he said "are you vacoasterfreak"?? hehe, who knows:) as always, it was wonderful to meet many other enthusiasts, such as Gowithgravity, Jim Fisher, and weatherman....i too had the pleasure of riding Wild One, and like 2Hostyl, i got the back seat...MAD air, i mean mad...it was great!! :)

Tim (who is also still suffering from sore shoulders from our 20 min ride on Batwing....great sharing a birds eye view of Gotham with ya I-Fan and 2Hostyl, haha :))

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"hi, my name is Tim, and im a coasterholic"...."Hi Tim!!" hehe:)

Yes, I guess I have Dick Clark disease, and that's a good thing.
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The word "definitely" is definitely the most misspelled word on the buzz.

dick clark disease....haha, thats great:) hopefully ill be stricken with that some day as well...:)

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"hi, my name is Tim, and im a coasterholic"...."Hi Tim!!" hehe:)