Associated parks:
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Other than my first florida coaster tripof 2002 in February this was my first coaster trip that was in a place that it closed for off season.
I woke up at 7 am and had to go to church at 7:30 (ouch) After church we got in the car at about 8:30 and drove to sfdl. The ride took about 3 hours and it seemed longer because it was in the middle of nowhere and I was extremely excited. I realized we were there because before you make the final turn to the right you pass this house that has a roof that is completly flat that has a grill on it and the owner's dog lying out there. It was sort of funny because there is no fence or any thing to keep the dog on the roof and he was just, well, laying there! Driving down the road we saw S:ROS in all its glory right next to the road. We pulled into the parking lot after paying the $7. The lot was about half full I'd say and it didn't look to crouded. We waited for about 10 minutes because there was only 2 groups of people in line but the ticket seller seemed to have some mental disabilites because he took an extra 20 minutes to get the credit card processed and his hands were extremely shaky that I thought he would type in the wrong credit card #! Finally at about 11:30 I think we got into the park.
Lets start off with this: My brother is 5 years old and 47 inches and LOVES rollercoasters his first was Big Bad Wolf at BGW. We started to walk to Predator, the first coaster you. As soon as we got there my brother darted to the entrance. Although there was no one there to check heights my mom quickly grabbed him and made him sit down because he is too short. Although I completely agree with theme park safety and don't want my brother to get hurt I believe that 1 INCH is not going to make a difference but rather what you think that your little brother can deal with. If you can be 48 inches and drop 310 feet, go 95 mph, and pull 4.5 g's then I think that my brother can go down a 85 foot hill and go 50 mph and pull 3 g's. Oh well so much for that! As my cousin and I entered the line it was about all the way down to the stairs and they were running one train. The 15 minute wait seemed MUCH longer because all I heard was my brother screaming because he couldn't go on. We finally boarded predator in 3:1 and we had a decent ride which seemed not as rough as last year but it was very bumpy. I don't mind it to be bumpy because thats what wood coasters are for! We then headed under Predators brake run to walk over to Superman. Again my brother was crying because my mom wouldn't let him go on. After fighting with her for 10 minutes my cousin and I got in line. We finaly realized that the train was stuck on the lift. Usually I would have waited but I wanted my brother to ride some coasters! We then headed to Viper which as all the other coasters (except ME) have a 48" height requirement. But since my father was fed up with my moms over protectiveness he grabbed my brother and we went in line. We walked through the long queve under the corkscrews and finally made it to the empty station. We got on the middle of the train and we were in the same car, my cousin and I in the front part my brother and dad in the back. Although my brother was a wee bit scared of going upside down he was excited. The ride was much better than last year. At Oktoberfest the Arrow Looper had so much headbanging it was unbearable but SF seemed to have gotten new OTSR pad things (you know the rubber things that go over the metal restraint itself) The ride was very smooth and was the only coaster with 2 trains the whole day. My brother loved it! Here is a picture of him on the ride he's so tiny compared to the otsr! After getting off Viper we walked right onto Grizzly Run the river rapids ride. Although there is no big drop its still lots of fun. I got a little wet but nothing like what I was about to face 2 rides from now. We then hopped on the Poland Springs Plunge, formerly Thunder Rapids. Whats funny is that the regulations sign still says Thunder Rapids. Although many people hate Six Flags Sponsers I like the name Poland Springs Plunge! We didn't get wet at all except for maybe a sprinkle. Finally the premier water attraction of the day: Shipwreck Falls. The construction crew did a great job with the theming and the ride looks great. Its the perfect expansion to a great (not perfect) park. I got on the ride preparing myself to be soaked. It was about 40 degrees outside but the wind chill made it feel much much colder. I entered the empty station. My cousin and I hopped on the front row where this guy gave a funny spiel with a southern accent. We as we made it to the top of the hill we quickly turned and went down. The drop was quite thrilling and the splash was huge! I was soaking wet from head to toe and probably had hypothermia. Although my cousin got off I stayed in the front seat for 8 more rides! I just kept going around and around all by myself. Finally I got off and realized "Shipwreck Falls wouldn't be complete without standing on the lookout bridge!" Here we go! I got completely drenched even though I already was completely drenched! Ok enough of water rides now we need to dry off! My family (except my cousin) were all around the park and I couldn't find them and didn't really even want to find them so we entered to line for ME. After waiting about 30 minutes we got in to the front seat line which was suprisely short. It was very funny because there were these 2 guys in front of us. There was this rather "large" may you say ride op. One guy took the other guys head and stuck it on the plexiglass window and started moving his mouth and saying "I love your big butt! How much are you selling yourself for?" The ride op gave them a dirty look and everybody around us was laughing. Then one guy stuck the other guys head into his pants (well not all the way) and started shouting "look at this pe*v! Tell him to get out off my pants!" Then he kept yelling at the ride op telling her to scream "Justin is a pe*v!" over the mic. She then called security and they recieved the boot. Bye Bye! That helped pass the time as I was standing there shivering. This hot girl had a towel that she let me borrow to dry off. Thanks She asked me what ride I had been on and how that I was so brave. It sure was my lucky day! We finally got on ME in the front. As we were going up the lift my legs were shaking so much. Not because I was scared but because I was freezing cold! The ride appeared better than I remembered. Although there was some headbanging I positioned my head so it didn't hurt and had a pretty good ride. Getting off I met my parents by the french frie place. We ordered a hot dog and fries and a drink for each of us. Then my mom being a health freak said to the 60 or so year old woman "aren't you supposed to wear gloves? Yes I'm sorry. Well, I want another hotdog!" So because of my mom we waited and extra 10 minutes for the hot dogs and then gobbled them down. We then decided to go to S:ROS. We got in the 1/3 full queue expecting a long wait but we were greeted by only about 15-20 even though there was only one train! This resulted because the ride ops were super quick. Kudos to them! We got on and had a wonderful ride in 1:2 the secret seat because since it combines with the front seat, it is usually passed over! I had some people start yelling at me because I was cutting but deaf guy was doing all these finger things at me and then another deaf guy understood what I was doing and let me by. The ride seems to be running faster than usual and had awesome airtime on the 3rd hill and bunny hops. We rode another 3 times after that. Actually it was only supposed to be 2 but my dad was in the next train after I went and he was a single rider. I asked the wonderful ride op if I could ride again and she said yes! SF is nice now! Another great ride. We got in line for predator and waited about 20 minutes. I asked this fat guy if I could go twice because the train before had a single rider and so would my dad. He replied "Will you give me 10 bucks?" in a very snotty way which pissed me off. I better not push my luck with getting rerides. When my dad and I got on to my dismay there was brakes on the first drop! Oh no! It led to an extremely boring and bumpy ride. Getting off angry I walked over to boomerang to get 2 rides with my cousin in. There was nobody in line so they let me go again! Also the ride up was nice by saying "do you want the restraint tighter or is this ok how it is?" I wish more ops would do this even though it is very unSFlike. I love boomerang I don't care what anybody says I love 'em. After getting off boomerang we met my parents at the front of the park. I said I needed to take some pictures of the braking system for my coaster project so they let me and my cousin hike back over to Viper which was still a walkon with no one in the station. I took some pictures of the brake system in the station and some POV shots on the first drop. Suprisingly they didn't catch me w/ the camera. I was all out of film because I took a ton on S:ROS and SWF that I just decided to go back to the front where my family was waiting. We got some fried dough and Icees and I got my self a sfdl hat. I was so tired that I slept the whole way home in the car when we left at 8:00! I had a great day to start out the coaster season and hopefully many more!
To sum it up:
S:ROS - 4 laps - 1 train - 20 minutes
Predator - 2 laps - 1 train - 15 minutes
Viper - 2 laps - 2 trains - walkon
Boomerang - 2 laps - walk on
Mind Eraser - 1 lap - 30 minutes
SWF - 8 laps - 2 of 2 boats - walk on & stay on
Grizzly run and PSP were both 1 lap walk ons
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Check out CoastNY at www.angelfire.com/ny5/coastny
*** This post was edited by Superdude on 5/27/2002. ***
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Check out CoastNY at www.angelfire.com/ny5/coastny
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-Sean Newman
83 coasters and soon to be more
Life is a roller coaster Ride It!
Thanx gadvman! Actually there were only two reasons i rode:
1. Since it was 2 days old
2. Because there was NO LINE at all I figured I might as well do a marathon since I was already wet and since I wouldn't be able to do one this summer because it'll have a long line.
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Check out CoastNY at www.angelfire.com/ny5/coastny
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