SFA in the Wintertime

Today, I went down to auditions for Technical Help (I'm a sound guy). It was kind of spooky of course, because nobody was there, except for the performers. Most of the rides were wrapped in white shrink wrap, and the Tilt-a-Whirl was completely dismantled, except for its base. Iron Eagle (Zamperla Rotoshake) was sitting in many pieces. Now for the question you're wondering; I confirmed that nothing new is coming this year. But, at the beginning of the auditions they had a Kenyan acrobatic team perform, and they kicked much ass. They wouldn't have been out of place at a Cirque du Soleil show. I didn't get a chance to confirm if they're the new show in the main theatre, but I hope they are.

Are you talking about the performers that go to these parks to try and get a performance job there? If so, thats so funny. Were the bands bad? It always seems that those bands and singers and stuff are pretty bad. I shoudl audition for a guitar role at a park, show off my mad shredding skills!!!! lol

Thanks for the heads up I-Fan...it doesn't suprise me too much to hear that it's gonna be an off year after we just got Penguin's blizzard river last season but we better be getting some new stuff in 05 to make up for it,I think I'll hold off on getting an 05 season pass until I know for sure what's on tap for that year,I've already got an 04 pass so I may as well use it.

When you said Iron eagle is "sitting in many pieces" does it mean the ride is being removed or just being repaired? I'm sure you of all people here know just how much trouble that ride was giving the maintenance staff last season what with it getting stuck all the time.

If it does go then a new flat should replace it pronto...I mean we've already lost our enterprise & it's going on 3 seasons now without a replacement for it...I think they may need demolition permits to remove the main structure before a new ride can be added which is why nothing's happened there yet.

As for the prospects of a possible new coaster for 05...while 04 is an off year & thus may improve our chances of it happening in 05 I doubt it will ever happen because I think SFI is flat out done with the park as far as coasters are concerned,they probably feel as though 8 different coasters are enough for the park & just don't feel the need to add yet another one...we're still waiting for that runaway car ride to be built along with the dark ride & ferris wheel,which I actually believe might turn out to be a package deal as far as the ferris wheel & runaway car ride are concerned.

There were no bands there, just singers and dancers. The singers seemed to fall into two categories: theatrically trained, or passable for American Idol (you know, the people they let slide through). They are conducting stunt auditions right about now as I type this. They were looking for actors for the western show, and bike riders for the Batman Stunt show.

I'm sure the park has every intention of keeping Iron Eagle. That's what I was told at the end of the season. They just needed to replace a motor (I believe) that involved taking the whole thing apart. I was also told it would take two cranes to take it apart, but there were no cranes there today.

I suspect it's the main drive motor which needs replacement & that would most certainly require the removal of the arm from it's base in order to perform such work.

How were some of the other rides doing as far as maintenance is concerned?I'm hoping Mind Eraser will finally get a new coat of paint this year...sure I never ride the thing anymore but it would still be nice to see it get a touch up for asthetic purposes.

I also am hoping they give Roar a good going over because it was really getting rough in 03,I'm sure the trains are probably getting their annual rehab work done(they should fix the padding on a few seats this time)& the lap bar covers need replacement as well.

The Roar trains are getting their rehab. I saw them as well as Wild One's trains at the PTC shop a few weeks ago. I wish they SFI would do that with Rolling Thunder's trains, would be nice to have some new, soft padding on those seats.

*** Edited 1/24/2004 10:19:21 PM UTC by Black 7***

LOL,from what I've seen in pics of RT's trains it looks like they could use some new ones alltogether.

Speaking of train rehabs I wonder if they're gonna be late on Two face's train again like last year...as most of us recall it took a couple of months just to get the train out of the shop & back on the track.

---

BATWING FAN SFA said:
How were some of the other rides doing as far as maintenance is concerned?I'm hoping Mind Eraser will finally get a new coat of paint this year...

---

I didn't see any new paint, except for Falling Star which looked better from a distance. I was only able to tour the front left side of the park, due to the auditions being in the Crazy Horse Saloon.

Yeah I noticed it at Frightfest last season that Falling star was in the process of getting a new coat of blue paint and I also heard that cyclone(scrambler) was being re-painted this season as well.

I just hope we'll be seeing something new in 05(a new coaster perhaps?) although I doubt it that we'll get that lucky given SFI's financial state,I guess we'll have to keep an eye on what happens during the course of the 04 season to learn more.

The way it looks now I believe we're on an "every other year" schedule when it comes to new ride additions to the park...we got Batwing in 01 & took 02 off for improvements & general maintenance & then added PBR(not the beer folks) in 03 & are currently taking 04 off as far as new ride installations & with that in mind we'll probably be getting something new in 05,although I think it'll just be another flat.

I don't think we'll be getting a new coaster again until after SFDL gets one first...along with SFA SFDL has had to go the longest without a new coaster so if SFI doesn't feel the need to add a new coaster to SFDL I don't think they feel any differently about SFA...otherwise we would've gotten a new coaster by now.