SFA Fright Fest TR (Starting 10/7/05)

Well personally, I'm glad I missed out on the last day of the season. Just thinking about a possible parking lot mess that I've been involved in before confirms to me that it was probably a good day to stay home. Sure, I was thinking of one last trip on Wild One, but hey, it's not going anywhere (that I know of). The trip to Great Adventure Friday night wore me out anyway, both physically and financially (the tolls and gas just kill going up and back).

That's right, I remember why we waited so long Coaster Lover, Superman vallied during morning test runs. I completely forgot about that.

I-Fan, the park really didn't get crowded till about 4:00pm and even then the parking lot wasn't all that packed. I rode Superman 5 times in a row Sunday Morning. A two train wait for the front row on Wild One, One train wait on Roar, Walked on to Joker's Jinx. The crowd wasn't bad in the morning and I don't think the crowds were that bad on Sunday night. Even though they were gearing up like it was a major event.

Actually, Superman didn't open at all on the first day because of the valley. We actually had to wait for the second day of opperation to ride Superman.

I think the second day we waited 6 hours.

To those who were there last night (closing night), Batwing's wait about 20 minutes before close dropped down to about one train or two. Those people who opted to stick it out were blessed to receive multiple rides before close.

I noticed they were using heaters to keep the area under Superman and JJ warm this past weekend. Finally, some ingenuity in keeping the rides running at this park.

Yeah. I was supposed to be trained as a Superman Op on Saturday, but I wasn't because the person who was supposed to train me had to go to Jinx, etc., etc. Anyway, those who were at Superman with me for those few minutes talked about how we were going to enforce the no-smoking policy to its fullest, lol. Then a mechanic pulled out a cigarette and lit it up, just to make fun of our paranoia. I did not find the joke as amusing as he did.

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sirloindude said:
If you want some info on Sam, he got royally stapled on Batwing this past Sunday. I literally just walked up the to the platform on Sunday when the operator told me that. I bit my tongue to avoid bursting out in laughter.

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Sounds like you're the typical SFA ride op that couldn't give a crap about the guests. Its no wonder everyone thinks SFA is a crap hole, people like you make it that way!

I don't know who this "Sam" is but its a shame that you, an employee of six flags, would think it funny that "any" guest had a bad time on your ride.

If you knew who Sam Marks was, you would probably understand. And it was mostly the irony that the president of a coaster club would bear the brunt of a potentially accidental staple that I found humorous. Had the girl who did it known who he was, she probably wouldn't have done it. Of course, this is even assuming it was an intentional staple, which I am not overly inclined to believe. The person who did it rarely worked Batwing and may have done so completely by accident and Sam flipped out without giving that possibility consideration.

Oh, and if you for a second think I don't care about the guests, why would I try to have conversations with alot of them, ask them how their day is, thank them for their patience and understanding when the ride breaks down or when GUESTS start acting like jerks amongst each other or to ride ops, or check their trains as fast as I possibly can in an order to keep lines moving? Not enough proof? How about my broken, clearly exhausted voice last night when I went to the PA to announce that Batwing had gone down for technical difficulties? Helen Keller could tell I was upset by the whole situation. The other person working my station with me and I were already stressed out enough by the fact that we had to load both stations, alternating with each successive train due to the technical difficulties plaguing the first train, and then we lose ours. Much as I appreciate the much-needed breaks on occasion, last night was not the night to lose Batwing. And guess what? Both trains reopen simultaneously after only a few short minutes, the line is now down to only a train or 2, and they are getting sent out almost as soon as they roll back in to the station.

Simply put, I care more about guests than most SFA ride crew members you will ever meet. I love it when guests come up to the platform in a really good mood and I love it when they leave the platform in one. I like joking around with them, too. It shows them I love the job. Heck, half the time I apologize to guests for the actions of the crew, because I found many situations to be completely unacceptable.

Sirloindude, who is a little annoyed that someone's first post would be an attack spurred on by a misunderstanding of a joke. Wait, wasn't my first post an unjustified attack? LOL. Again, sorry about my past misdeeds. Oh, and sorry to the crew of the SUV of Justice, who probably could've provided a better response than I. *** Edited 10/31/2005 9:30:32 PM UTC by sirloindude*** *** Edited 10/31/2005 9:37:17 PM UTC by sirloindude***

SFKK:I can personally vouch for Sirloindude's performance as an op seeing as I was over at Batwing saturday evening.

He did a superb job at loading & disptaching trains that night,in addition to his fine performance during the day when I saw him running the ride....sure wish the crew over at supes was even half as fast & respectful as he happens to be.

Once again kudos to Sirloindude for a job well done & hopefully we'll meet again next season. :)

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sirloindude said:
If you knew who Sam Marks was, you would probably understand. And it was mostly the irony that the president of a coaster club would bear the brunt of a potentially accidental staple that I found humorous.

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Well to be honest I was in the next car from Sam when this situation happened. The ride op did the same thing to me, but I was expecting it and braced for impact and blocked the bar from injuring me. The ride op literally flung the bar into me heaving it like a sledgehammer. That is NOT the way ANY ride should be run. I heard him tell the op "that hurt". and she said "It's supposed to" and then she walked toward me.

After the ride Sam asked the lead op to explain to her that its possible to load people without hurting them, and he blankly stared at Sam and didn't apologise, nor even acknowledge that he heard Sam.

I've seen this over and over at SFA so it's no wonder that their ops are as poorly rated as they are.

I've been a lurker and had signed up to do my first trip report, then I read your comments...

It's just sad that any ride op would do what she did, but it doesn't surprise me that it happened at SFA.

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BATWING FAN SFA said:
SFKK:I can personally vouch for Sirloindude's performance as an op seeing as I was over at Batwing saturday evening.

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But if I remember correctly, you don't know the difference between wild mouse track and a cell phone tower....

Actually, it wasn't a cell phone tower, it was blue crates. LOL!!! :)

Let's not start up with that again as it was about two or three years ago.

^^^^You just said you didn't know who Sam Marks was! What was the point of that attack if you did? And now you go on and explain that you saw the whole situation? Okay...

And for the record, the lead op was not too impressed with her actions, as evidenced by the disgusted tone in his voice when he explained the incident to me. Also, he may not have known what to say to Sam as perhaps he didn't know why she did it either.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know whether to believe you or not.

But anyway, let's look at Batwing from an op's perspective. Batwing isn't an overly comfortable ride, nor will it ever be. I've worked Vekoma flyers since May, and let me be the first to tell you that alot of people are gonna get it down hard. Yes, it does hurt. It's supposed to come down tight, and if it hurts, it hurts. That's life on a Vekoma flyer. Knowing the crew member in question, she's rarely a Batwing worker and it came down hard. I'd also like to clue you in to the fact that alot of the hip bars are stiff from being under-maintained and they come down really hard. I've had tons of accidental staples and they are unavoidable. $10 says Sam got one too. And if Sam can't live with a tight hip bar now and then, perhaps Sam needs to stay away from Batwing.

My personal opinion-it was not intentional, Sam was the unfortunate recipient of one of the seats with stiff restraints, it was a crew member with little ride experience who did what she thought she was supposed to do, and none of it was intentional. Lay off SFA ops, OK? I'm not overly impressed with alot of the ops there, either, but I can tell a guest with an I-got-stapled-if-it's-down-more-than-1-click attitude from a guest who is truly the recipient of a genuine staple. Sam is definitely not the latter. Lay off the girl, and next time consider the fact that maybe being well-restrained is the way it's supposed to be.

Amen Sirloindude as Batwing...along with Two face & Mind eraser are the coasters I always want to be stapled into.

Now Wild one,Roar & Supes are a nother story alltogether,I ohh so loathe the new belts at Supes as the buckle gets pressed right into you when they staple you with that darn lap bar....I much prefered the belts that had the buckle near the side over the current ones any day.

I much preferred the lack of shinguards. Those Intamin megas had little leg room to begin with. They really didn't need to lose more, but what are ya gonna do. The ride still owns, and that's what counts. Shame I couldn't get but 4 spins on it all year, but that's what living in Ohio all summer will do to your SFA visit count, lol.

And getting stapled on Roar is completely unecessary and I can't stand it when ops do that. Really kills the ride.

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sirloindude said:

The lead op was not too impressed with her actions, as evidenced by the disgusted tone in his voice when he explained the incident to me. Also, he may not have known what to say to Sam as perhaps he didn't know why she did it either.

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"I'm sorry" is not so darn hard to come up with is it? He just stared at Sam when Sam tried to explain the situation. And never said a word.

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To be perfectly honest, I don't know whether to believe you or not.

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Well I was an eye witness you were somewhere else.

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But anyway, let's look at Batwing from an op's perspective. Batwing isn't an overly comfortable ride, nor will it ever be. I've worked Vekoma flyers since May, and let me be the first to tell you that alot of people are gonna get it down hard. Yes, it does hurt. It's supposed to come down tight, and if it hurts, it hurts. That's life on a Vekoma flyer.

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Those bars are meant to be pushed down, not flung like sledgehammers, the issue was not about the bar being snug, it was about it injuring him by the impact of the bar hitting his body, had I not blocked the bar with my arm I would have been injured too!

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My personal opinion-it was not intentional

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so she accidentally slammmed the bar down?

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I can tell a guest with an I-got-stapled-if-it's-down-more-than-1-click attitude from a guest who is truly the recipient of a genuine staple. Sam is definitely not the latter.

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Weather you admit it or not the crew was uncaring and inept reguarding the potential injuring of a guest, even a simple "I'm sorry" probably would have been acceptable, but standing there staring like the person didn't even exist would have pissed me off too!

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Lay off the girl, and next time consider the fact that maybe being well-restrained is the way it's supposed to be.

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"Sorry" is probably all it would take to to fix the problem, it's so easy to say.....

Whoops, sorry. I missed the part of your post that said she flung it down. My goodness, I never fling hip bars down unless the seat is empty. I know how fast those things can go down. In that case, the attendant is 100% to blame, and lack of experience has nothing in the world to do with it. I just didn't picture her as the type to do it, unless the operator got confused and told me it was one girl when it was indeed another. If it was the other girl, sadly, I'm not too surprised he got stapled. There was one girl who had a pretty short fuse and guests would often bear the brunt of it. Although, if it was the other girl, then the irony isn't as humorous. *** Edited 11/2/2005 7:24:14 PM UTC by sirloindude*** *** Edited 11/2/2005 7:26:53 PM UTC by sirloindude***