SFGAm -- 5/5

• I used a coupon from my SFA season pass booklet again to get my girlfriend a ticket, and they had trouble again this year. The coupon clearly states to take it to a main gate ticket booth or whatever, but the woman there directed me to Guest Relations, which took longer. The guy there was able to help me, though.
• Most of the rides were running, which was great to see. Ones that I noticed not running were Loggers Run (not sure if I've ever seen this run, which is a shame), Sky Trek Tower, and maybe the falling star ride in Southwest Territory. Of course, Hurricane Harbor wasn't open yet, and I'm not sure if any of the kiddie rides were closed or not.
• All coasters were running with all trains, excpet Deja Vu, which was closed, and its train was in pieces on the ground. Of the 4 times I've been here, Deja Vu was only running 1 of those times, as far as I've seen.
• The new Wiggles World looks good, and they picked a good location for it.
• There were a lot of costumed characters out--possibly more than any other Six Flags park I've seen recently.
• For some reason, American Eagle had some seats closed on a couple of their trains. This should have been addressed before they opened--it's the first day of the season, so why should they be broken already?
• American Eagle's queue has been rerouted to next to the sky coaster. I like it better this way. The entrance looks better now, too. Wiggles World makes better use of the large white tent area.
• They should turn off the trim brake on the upside of the second hill on Raging Bull. It felt like it was going too slow on the next 2 hills/turns.
• Prices are getting too high for food and drinks. 20oz bottles are up to $3.50, and funnel cakes are up to around $6.49. Of course, people will pay, at least for the funnel cakes. There were definitely some decent lines for these, but the place where we got one was at least fairly efficient. And BTW, I mainly got a funnel cake because my girlfriend wanted one--I would've passed at those lines and price.
• We were line jumped by at least 8 people in line for Raging Bull. They should staff security over here if this is gonna happen.
• Pictorium was actually running. I had never been here, and it's a nice theater. But the show they were showing (some sort of 3D cartoon with Daffy and Marvin the Martian) was kinda lame, and it wasn't always clear to look at, which messed with my eyes.
• Certain places looked like they should have cut the grass and put down some weed killer or something.

The park has a good selection of rides and coasters, and it was nice to see how well things were running on opening day. Viper is a gem; I hope they keep it running as good as it is now. American Eagle is a good ride, as well. I prefer the left side. I didn't relize that the first drop actually goes below grade. Raging Bull is a great ride, though I think I still like Apollo and Nitro better. As far as Nitro goes, though, it's mainly just the ride I like. The station, queue, etc. are inferior to the Bull. Also, what other park has such a good selection and variety of inverted coasters as SFGAm? Add in the good selection of flats, other coasters, eating places, water rides, kids areas, water park, theming, and operations, and Six Flags has a real gem of a park.

I hope that this place only gets better, but at least it's one of the best they have already.

Also, I like the entrance plaza, but I like what (P)GA has done with theirs better--the fountains and topiary really look nice.

*** Edited 5/6/2007 7:45:10 PM UTC by rablat5***

Logger's Run and Yankee Clipper are both similar flume rides, so it's unusual to see them both running early or late in the season when the weather is still cool. *** Edited 5/6/2007 8:01:10 PM UTC by CoasterDude316***

While the rides are both similar, technically Yankee Clipper is a hydroflume, while Loggers Run is a standard log flume. I got to ride the one at (P)GA, which is basically the same as Loggers Run (they took Yankee Clipper out, I guess for Stealth), and I liked it.

Yankee Clipper is too wet for my tastes in this weather, since it has the water spraying up at the bottom of the final drop. On the other hand, Loggers Run doesn't get people as wet, and it has that cool double-dip as the final drop.