SFA 7/29 (fairly short)

I was at Six Flags America earlier this summer, but Superman:Ride of Steel was down at the time due to a chain break. This weekend I made a return trip, in hopes of getting a few laps on Superman.

Mission accomplished, sortof. I got to ride Superman, but only once. :(

I haven't ridden the Darien Lake or New England ones, but I have a new #1 steelie! That ride is an airtime beast. We only got the one ride, in row 2, so I can't compare the air anywhere else on the ride, but WOW was that an ejector seat! :)

Unfortunately when we went back, the ride was down and the line had built up to what looked like over an hour. (Probably more the way they'd been running it -- see below)

Other than that, we took 2 laps on Roar (which I love) and Mind Eraser (which is ok, standard SLC, but the line was short), and one lap on Wild One and Joker's Jinx. Two Face was down.

Six Flags America is the worst place, IMHO, when it comes to dispatches. Lines were pretty much nonexistant for most of the coasters all day, but waits were still 30+ minutes. The first time we got on Superman, the outside maze was EMPTY. With two train operation, I was timing them at almost 5 minute intervals between dispatches! That's REALLY poor, guys. Ditto for Joker's Jinx.


As another comment, the tight, high horsecollars on Joker's Jinx and Mind Eraser smell absolutely DISGUSTING. Ugh. I may need to bring a can of Lysol next time I go :(

I love Superman, I love Roar. Wild One is great. But this park, like Six Flags Ohio, just doesn't fire on all cylinders. I'll go with my season pass to ride some rides, but I'll spend as little money there otherwise as possible. I've been to 3 Six Flags parks in my life (Great Adventure being the third, although not this summer),愀渀搀 䤀 欀攀攀瀀 挀漀洀椀渀最 愀眀愀礀 昀爀漀洀 琀栀攀洀 眀椀琀栀 琀栀攀 猀愀洀攀 椀洀瀀爀攀猀猀椀漀渀 ⴀⴀ 猀漀洀攀 最爀攀愀琀 爀椀搀攀猀Ⰰ 戀甀琀 㰀戀㸀㰀椀㸀渀漀琀㰀⼀椀㸀㰀⼀戀㸀 最爀攀愀琀 倀䄀刀䬀匀⸀ 㰀戀爀㸀 㰀戀爀㸀 㰀戀爀㸀 㰀戀爀㸀ⴀⴀⴀⴀⴀⴀⴀⴀⴀⴀⴀⴀⴀ 㰀戀爀㸀ⴀⴀ䜀爀攀最 㰀戀爀㸀 㰀戀爀㸀㰀愀 栀爀攀昀㴀∀栀琀琀瀀㨀⼀⼀眀眀眀⸀瀀漀戀漀砀⸀挀漀洀⼀縀最爀攀最氀攀最⼀∀ 琀愀爀最攀琀㴀∀开戀氀愀渀欀∀㸀㰀戀爀㸀栀琀琀瀀㨀⼀⼀眀眀眀⸀瀀漀戀漀砀⸀挀漀洀⼀縀最爀攀最氀攀最⼀㰀⼀愀㸀  㰀戀爀㸀ഀ਀ഀ਀ഀ਀ ⨀⨀⨀ 吀栀椀猀 瀀漀猀琀 眀愀猀 攀搀椀琀攀搀 戀礀 䜀爀攀最䰀攀最 漀渀 㜀⼀㌀㄀⼀㈀　　　⸀ ⨀⨀⨀

Five minutes with TWO trains? WOW, that's longer than I've clocked them with just one train (they were running at just about 4:52 the last time I was there). Also, I think there is just something about those extra high horsecollars, because the ones at SFKK (T2) and PKI (Face/Off) had a very similar (nauseating) scent.

Oh, I know the CAUSE of the stench. The foam rubber absorbs the sweat from the riders, which then festers all day in the heat... That's not actually totally the PARKS' fault, but they should at least CLEAN them.

They were actually very INCONSISTENT with the dispatches on Superman. I think part of the problem is the seatbelts on the Intamin megacoaster cars -- some people just can't seem to figure out how to OPEN them (I observed the same problem on Millennium Force).

I once saw a train leave the station as the other one was hitting the break run, but more often than not they were taking well over 4 minutes (the worst I timed was 5:12), hence my "5 minutes" comment in the original report :)


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--Greg


http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/