SFGAm 5-11-03 - My first S:UF ride?

Well, today was my first trip to Great America this year. My friend Steve and I got to the park at around 9, and they opened the gates at 9:30. It was windy at this point but not drizzling, and we didn't see any coasters testing as we were waiting for them to take the chain off under the bridge so everyone can run to Superman. By the way, I know this has been mentioned tons already here before, but the entrance to the park looks outstanding, the flowers on the side of the reflective pool are growing in well, and the Columbia Carousel's paint job looks awesome (it was just done last year)... it was just nice to be back after all the wait during the off-season!! So... when we all ran to Superman we saw the sign it was closed due to weather conditions. The staff member explained it was due to the wind, and it could take 10 minutes, or the whole day for the ride to open....So we decided to try something else.

Then we walked around the park and noticed we could not see any coasters testing, and Demon was closed. We headed to Southwest Territory and decided to try Raging Bull... we waited outside of the qeue for a half an hour, and finally decided to walk around some more when we realized it wasn't going to open anytime soon. We saw what appeared to be ride ops "wiping down" the trains (from the heavy rain the night before?) but it was hard to tell from the distance, and it never began testing. It started to drizzle lightly at this time, and we saw V2 running while we were waiting in Bull's qeue, and I believe I saw some riders on it, but by the time we got there it was closed.

Whizzer was open and people were riding it, so we went to wait, but then it started to drizzle more, and then that closed down. So we decided to go eat at Mooseburger Lodge in the mean time because we were both kind've hungry, and we couldn't really see any coasters open. The food there was decent, but not as good as I expected. I had the barbequed ribs and a coke... and the total was about $17.50!! Firstly, I didn't get much ribs at all (half a slab at most), and what I did get had more fat on it then I am used to. The potato wedges and cole slaw it came with were good however, but the price for that was quite a bit high. They had some apple dumplings with caramel sauce out which Iooked pretty good, but I was too full to try one. My friend got a hamburger and said it was okay. The scenery in Mooseburger is very well done, and I bet it looks great when a band is playing in the attached restauraunt (I forget the name).

During the course of the day, *EVERY* coaster was closed, except for Iron Wolf briefly at the beginning of the day, and Whizzer at the beginning also like I mentioned earlier... but there was one that stayed open through all the drizzling and winds... and that is... Batman: The Ride! It even became the subject of our jokes, such as, "Batman's a trooper all right... he ain't a wuss like the other coasters.." Hey, anything to keep us entertained! ;) We rode it about 5 times (I've never had a bad ride on this coaster), and most of the times there was nobody in the station, and nobody was waiting for our row. However, one of the ride-ops said we had to leave and go around if we wish to re-ride. I can understand why they do this, but on a day like this when all the other coasters are closed, and when as I'm walking out, I see them close all the empty harnesses and sending out many empty rows, I would think it would have been a nice gesture to help make the best out of this day for the customers...

We then went to see the IMAX show in the pictorium, "Adrenaline Rush." It was pretty good, and had some nice visuals, but the presentation was a little sub-par where there was a piece of hair that stayed on the screen for literally 10 minutes and I could see people around me pointing it out to each other, and other pieces of dust that were distracting to the presentation (I'm also an IMAX projectionist, so I might be pickier than most in this regard.. ;)) The host for the pictorium, who made the pre and post-show announcements was probably the most unenthusiastic person I've ever seen do the job... monotone voice, completely reading from a piece of paper, get someone outgoing and energetic for that job please!! After the show, we walked around the park some more and decided to ride some flats, we rode triple play, river rocker, east river crawler (back and as good as before!), and riccochet. But after awhile, it just got boring repeating the same things, the drizzling was constant and it was just really cold at this point. We went to the arcades and played several games of air hockey to kill some time, and then went to Firehouse to get some breadsticks (those are always really tasty.) At this point though, we were getting bored of doing the same things, and between that and the weather, we decided to head home.

The park was extremely empty all day today, the midways were almost completely scarce as the day went on. We left at 5:00, and the park was open till 8, but we were beginning to wonder if Six Flags might close the park early and give everyone re-admits who wanted them. All the coasters but Batman were closed, many of the games were closed, it just wasn't an ideal way to start the season for me, but I can't blame the park for the that because of the bad weather. As we were leaving, the parking lot was the least filled I have ever seen it when leaving the park, there was at most 100-150 cars. I didn't get to ride Superman like I wanted to, but now it just makes me look forward to Coaster Con that much more!! First TR I've posted here, hopefully you all liked it...

The park did close at 5:45, we also made comments about Batman too. Thats one incrediable coaster, that and Spacleys are both troppers lol. No re-admits though when they closed the park early.

------------------
Final Deja Vu Count for the 2002 Season: 52
Superman: Ultimate Flight Count (SFGAm) = 40
http://www.SFGAmWorld.com

Well crowds also could have been low because it was Mother's Day.

I'm just glad I went on Saturday!

I feel your pain... I was there yesterday as well. Iron Wolf reopened around 5:00 (I guess they figured that if the rain wouldn't drive everyone off, Iron wolf would just knock them unconcious...). When I finally gave up and left at about 5:30, I counted 50 cars in the lot.

Mine was the yellow, weird-looking truck!

I feel your pain too man. As far as the employee issue goes, it's still pretty early in the season and the newbies really just want to learn and do their job. So I predict that when you go next maybe later this month or early next month while it's still slow you'll see a lot of fun things going on. SFGAM has always had employee's that are fun and interactive with the guests.

-Chris