SFA-8/29/02-Really long

Despite a rather dreary weather forecast yesterday mymom,sister,nephew & I managed to have a nice couple of hours of fun at SFA.

Arriving at the park at around 2:30 pm we payed for the tickets(I used my season pass of course) and were inside the park,once inside we headed for the looney tunes section and the kiddie rides which is where my nephew spent his day having fun.

My sister & I headed for Gotham however and the first ride up was Batwing,which was a walk on because the park was basically empty,my sister had never ridden this coaster before and was a bit nervous at firsdt but after seeing one train go by she quickly decided to ride,we rode in car#3 and had a good but bumpy ride.

After getting Batwing out of the way we next headed for S:ROS,which is my sister's favorite coaster in the park,once again the ride was a walk on and we got the mid section of the blue train,the ride was good but not as much airtime as in the front.

Having goten a quick fix of speed and height from S:ROS we next headed to JJ,while walking to Batwing my sis took a look at JJ and said "that ride looks rather slow" her opinion soon changed however once we were strapped in and about to take off, we had a good crew working the ride on this trip and it showed because while doing the usual safety lecture the ride op launched us in mid -sentence,man it was cool.:-)

Next up I was dying for some wood so my sis & I headed over to Wild One,where it was as expected on a day like this a walk on.While waiting for the front seat as the next train approached I noticed a nice decorative touch,Wild One's trains now bear the SFA logo on them and it makes the ride look oh so much nicer.

As for the ride experience itself the coaster was living up to it's name and then some,I got mondo amounts of airtime on each & every hill,it was oh so good.

While in southwest territory we noticed that Two- face was down :-( it was the only coaster not operating all day so we never got on it,instead we headed over to Roar and were treated to yet another walkon for the front row,they finally fixed the lap bars on black train row #1 so now the ride is back at peak capacity,Roar provided us with some amazing speed and great laterals but no where near as good as Wild one had been running.

After Roar it was on to the old hang'n'bang Mind Eraser,which like everythiing else was a walk on for the front row,as usual the ride started out smooth but by the time we hit the sidewinder things got increasingly rough.

Having ridden all the pasrks operating coasters in only an hour and a half my sis and I headed for some flats,I wanted to ride iron eagle but no one was in line and it takes a minimum of 17 passengers to operate so we didn't bother waiting,we had to meet back at looney tunes movie town at 5 so we headed back there,on our way there we did however hit flying carousel as well as great race.

While in looney tunes movietown I took a spin with my nephew on great chase,so now I ca add another coaster to my count :-) (he's 5 by the way & not afraid of any of the rides,I can't wait to take him on the big rides when he's ready for it)Great chase was kind of rough for a kiddie/family coaster,I think Zamperla should stick to making flat rides which is what they do best but it was still a fun ride,I also enjoyed watching him have fun on Lion's den mini bumper cars,he loves that ride.

It was approaching the 6 pm closing time so we headed home,stopping off first at the wendy's on central avenue for a quick dinner before hitting the highway for home,all in all it was a great day for a trip to SFA.

Here are the ride ratings for this trip

Batwing: Walk on conditions and no breakdowns resulted in a good ride but a bit on the rough side.9/10

S:ROS:A great ride with lots of speed and walk on conditions,not as much airtime in the back though. 9.5/10

Jokers Jinx: A fun & smooth ride with great ride ops and a fun launch.9/10

Wild One: A great airtime filled wild ride the whole way,new train logo's and great operations:10/10-super screamer

Roar: while not as good as Wild One it was still running strong,great laterals but little to no airtime.9/10

Mind Eraser: Walk on conditions making for no wait in line but still a rough ride:8/10

Great chase: A good family coaster that's fun for the little ones but a bit rough for the big guys.7.5/10

Overall park experience was good,much better than an average weekend visit with no breakdowns except for Two-face and no line jumping whatsoever. :-) 9.5/10

I'll be taking september off but I'll be returning to SFA in october for a couple more trips and to have fun during the annual frightfest event,see ya there. :-)

You right about Batwing. The only place for a smooth ride is the front.

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-Sean

I don't see what everyone sees in SROS. I just rode the one at SFDL and it was incredible but I rode the one at SFA last season in the back and it was the roughest steel I have ever riden. Did I get it on a bad day?

medusafanatic, that would be my guess.....it's my fav steelie...

even though Goliath ranks RIGHT up there for me, we had a "bad wheel" during one of our ERT sessions (of course I sat in the seat directly over it)....we felt it SO strongly we were able to point it out to maintenance...it was shredded, and it did RUIN the ride.....

edit: of course, I've yet to get to SFDL or SFNE.....I'm betting they're the ONLY rides that can threaten for my top spot....

*** This post was edited by rollergator on 8/30/2002. ***

S:ROS has been running much smoother than it did earlier in the season and it's running both trains,I heard that it was at single train op a few weeks ago.

S:RoS is only good in the first 2 rows. Its smooth and you get tons of wind in your face. Batwing is alittle rough where ever you sit. Front is the only good seat, you get the good ride plus you don't see the seat in front of you. Vekoma ha! We have 3 of them, we really don't need or want another, well not for a long time.

Anyway, did you see anything new? Or do we have to wait another mounth or so? Or did you get some staff to just spill the beans, lol. (I wish)

I agree,why do most people waste their time in the back when all the good airtime is up front?

Ok If I was you on that day, I would have ridden Batwing like 50 bazillion times! Flying Dutchmens all the way!

Anyway, nice trip report. Even though Im only about 2 1/2 hours from SFA, ive never been! Im definately making it a priority for next year.

Well if we had goten there at around opening I would've stayed on Batwing for multiple flights but we only had a few hours to get all the rides in that we wanted,plus my sister isn't as in to coasters as I am.