SFKK - April 8th

Two others and myself left Cincinnati around 7:45, to drive down to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom for our first trip of many this summer. We ended up arriving around 10:30, after stopping to eat.

Once the gates opened we went over and processed our season passes to beat everyone else that was going to(towards the end of the day this line was pretty long). After we finished the season pass processing we headed over for a ride on Greezed Lightnin'.

There was no one in line, so we walked straight on, and were the only three on the ride. This is a very simple ride but one of my favorites. Going backwards through the loop is a totally different experience. After finishing this ride we headed over to Road Runner Express.

I didn't get to ride Road Runner Express last year so this was my first time for this ride. I liked this ride a lot, after going up the first hill when they first start to drop you I thought i was going over the edge. Probaly the only ride i actually felt like screaming, but didn't lol. There was no line for this ride so we walked straight on this one also. The whips are this ride are crazy and make you feel like your going to fly off the edge on almost every one. After Road Runner Express we hit Greezed Lightnin' one more Time.

Again there was no line so we walked straight on again. There was more people on the ride this time then just us three. After our second ride on Greezed Lightnin' we decided to stop out Tin Lizzies.

I usually don't get too excited about riding the Tin Lizzies, or Antique Cars, whatever the park calls them, but there wasn't a line at all, and i haven't rode them in a couple years so we decided to get on. Short little ride through the woods and back, not very long, but nice view.

Now it is only around 11:00 if that, we were making great time through the park and were going to make our way across the bridge to the other side of the park.

We headed towards Thunder Run, and this is where our trip took a little bit of a hault. Again no line at all for this ride, so we walked straight up. But i don't know exactly what my GF was doing but somehow her hand got smashed between the lap bar and the car, and her hand actually to my surprise was bleeding pretty bad, not gushing blood, but dripping pretty much blood. I asked the driver for a band aid, he said they didn't have any and gave us a paper towel. The driver looked somewhat confused on what to do, and the bad thing was, he was training somebody. He didn't call first AID or tell us where first AID was or anything, as a matter of fact didn't even ask if we needed First AID. I told him there was blood on the seat and handle bar, he didn't really seem to care about that. Now i know from experience at Kings Island we are supposed to call in blood, and First AID comes out and cleans it up, and we aren't allowed sending another car out untill they clean it. But the guy sent us out without worries, now onto the actual ride itself.

Thunder Run was a fun ride, I enjoyed it, my GF was worrying more about her fingers then the ride. After we got off the ride we decided to head over to....FIRST AID. I pulled out my handy dandy park map and seen First Aid was back across the bridge. So we make our way back over there, to get the fingers fixed.

When we walked in there, there was a guy by himself, my GF asked to clean off her finger and for a band Aid, he said it was his first day, and boy could you tell, once she asked to clean it off and for a band aid, he just froze. Lol I honestly don't think he knew what to do. I feel really sorry if someone came in that actually had a problem. Finally got the fingers cleaned and put some band aid's on them and were ready to go again. The guy was extremely nice but just shouldn't be left alone.

We decided to go to Stargate SG-3000: The Ride. We figured my GF couldn't smash her fingers on anything on this ride. We waited about 10 mins for this ride which wasn't that bad. But the thing i didn't understand was they had just One person checking the seats inside this ride, which took a pretty long time. Overall this ride was alright, not that good but not that bad. I doubt i would ride it again though. After this we headed over the bridge and back to the other side for a ride on Chang.

There was a little bit of a line for Chang, and they were only running one train. We waited maybe 20 mins, give or take a little. The crew also seemed to be moving a little slow, and didn't seem to happy to be there. We finally got on the ride, now this is personally my favorite ride in the park. I love stand up rides, and this ride is really smooth. After this ride we went over for a ride on T2.

Again only running one train on this ride, so the line moved a little slow on this one also. I think we waited around 20 mins for this ride also. Now last year we rode this ride and i banged my head around 1000 times on this ride. This year it was a lot smoother and actually enjoyable. I would have rode it again but didn't feel like waiting in line for it. After T2 we went over for a ride on the Twisted Twins.

Last year on the day we went down the pink train wasn't operating. Now i know one of them is named Lola, and the other Stella, i don't know which is which so for this one its blue train and pink train. This year they had both the trains running so we decided to ride them both. Overall we waited maybe 10 mins for the pink one, and maybe 5 mins for the blue one. Personally i think the pink one is a lot better then the blue one. A lot more whips on the pink one. But i liked them both. After this ride we were pretty much done with the rides and walked around for a little just to see everything else.

We watched a ride on Mile High Falls, wow this ride looks like you get soaked on. Im not a big fan of water rides, and they were only running one boat so we didn't do this one. We decided to try and hit up Greezed Lightnin' one more time before we left.

Again no line for this one, so got on, but almost had a full car. Now you could tell from the blast we weren't going to make it through the loop, although some people actually thought we would. There we were sitting in the middle of track, out in the sun, stuck on Greezed Lightnin'. We sat out there for 10 mins, got a nice little tan while we were out there. They actually had an employee come out and talk to us while we were stuck. The guy that came out was a nice guy, we talked to him previously in the day while he was working at Tin Lizzies. Finally after a couple other people came out they pushed us back into the station. We didn't feel like getting back on so we went inside a couple of shops and decided to leave.

Overall a pretty good trip, I thought the park improved pretty much this year from last year. I bought a shot glass and a Mr. Six bobblehead which is awesome. It was sunny all day, and had great weather. Wasn't crowded at all in the morning, but picked up a little bit towards the middle, and end of day. The employees all seemed pretty good, and happy, except for the Chang crew and Thunder Run. Good way for me to start the season and i am ready for our next trip.

Ryan

Ryan R., Just for the record the first thing i said to your GF was that if she needed first aid. I'm sorry that i came across as if i didnt care because i did care. Everyone has there bad days and that was mine. I'm sorry about that and i hope shes ok.

Just wanted to apoligize for saying the driver from Thunder Run didn't ask about First Aid, he did, i don't think i was paying attention or missed it. Sorry for accusing him of not saying anything.

That's so weird that the guy who helped you, or didn't help you, or w/e actually posts on thsi site. Thats cool! :)

I can't believe the dissing on SFKK. Saying theride ops on chang didn't want to be there? SFKK staff is way better than pki's anyday! Anyways about the train thing PKI runs 3 trains on vortex even when it is a walk on, and that actually is slower than one train IMO!

SFKK has the second worst ride operations I have ever seen in my life...and that observation comes from several visits.

Also, please explain to me how three trains on a ride is slower than one train on a ride that is designed for three?

-Nate

---

coasterdude318 said:
SFKK has the second worst ride operations I have ever seen in my life...and that observation comes from several visits.

Also, please explain to me how three trains on a ride is slower than one train on a ride that is designed for three?

-Nate

---

Well when you have 20 people total on 3 trains and slow ride ops it adds up. Instead of waiting for the slow ops to check 3 trains you could have rode several times.

Also IMO sfkk's ride operations are way better than geuaga lake, hell maybe even better than cp.

LOL! Dude, seriously, what are you smoking?

Rarely have I witnessed ride operations as dangerous as what I've seen at SFKK, not to mention poor. A park that runs one trains on a ride that is designed for three is not "good." Cedar Point runs three trains on Corkscrew when it's not even busy. Go to SFKK on the busiest of days and it's likely you'll see Chang running with one train, and poor loading times at that. The place is a dump, and the ride ops are obviously negatively influenced by that. I think anyone in the industry would disagree with your assessments (but, then again, is that really surprising?).

I still don't understand how, if a ride is a "walk-on", three trains negatively effect your wait time. Maybe you should think about quitting before you're waaaaaay too far behind.

-Nate

"False reasons?"

Would you like to see the video of the T2 ride operator talking on the phone while she's supposed to be operating the ride?

How about the video of ride operators leaving their positions while the ride is in motion?

How about the video of the Thunder Run operator walking up and down the platform while the train was moving?

How about pictures of rides operating with the gates open?

I'm not "stirring up trouble," I'm telling it the way it is. Can I accept that the park is improving? Perhaps things are better so far this year, but there's a lot of improvement to be had. I'm more content to just accept the fact that it's a poorly-operated hole, the same way it has been for the past five years.

-Nate

i love sfkk. It is the best ran park i have been to. I dunno about those obligations but it is great now.

---

coasterdude318 said:
Maybe you should think about quitting before you're waaaaaay too far behind.

---

And that is coming from someone who thinks son of beast is the best wooden coaster on the planet.

I also agree that sfkk is a dump....at least it was last year when we went. I could list why, but I have better things to do with my time.

Question,

Dont you think that if you height check kids before they are sitting in the coaster train would speed up the line? For example....have an employee go into the line and measure the kids while the ride is going. That is one of my biggest bit#@ about six flags. Or better yet, have an entrance person.

This is a six flags thing, not just a sfkk thing.

---

SFKKThunderRun said:
Please come to the park this year, and I'm sure you will see things are much better!

---

Then again, the park has been open a whopping nine days so far. I'll wait to hear what people have to say when they visit in August, but I'd rather not put myself through the hell that is SFKK again this year.

-Nate

---

which coasterdude has clearly stated bugs him that our park does so often

---

It's not so much that it bothers me, it's a blatant safety violation.

I "hate" the park for all the reasons listed above, and then some.

1) It's ugly.
2) It's extremely poorly-operated.
3) The layout is terrible.
4) Nearly every ride there is low capacity (and those that aren't end up being low-capacity machines due to poor operations)
5) Employees are inattentive at best, rude at worst.
6) The clientelle leaves a whole lot to be desired.
7) Nearly everything in the park desperately needs a new coat of paint.
8) It's ugly.

-Nate
*** Edited 4/15/2005 5:01:00 AM UTC by coasterdude318***

---

coasterdude318 said:

---

which coasterdude has clearly stated bugs him that our park does so often

---

It's not so much that it bothers me, it's a blatant safety violation.

I "hate" the park for all the reasons listed above, and then some.

1) It's ugly.
2) It's extremely poorly-operated.
3) The layout is terrible.
4) Nearly every ride there is low capacity (and those that aren't end up being low-capacity machines due to poor operations)
5) Employees are inattentive at best, rude at worst.
6) The clientelle leaves a whole lot to be desired.
7) Nearly everything in the park desperately needs a new coat of paint.
8) It's ugly.

-Nate
*** Edited 4/15/2005 5:01:00 AM UTC by coasterdude318***

---

Here is a marvelous idea.. if you don't like the place.. guess what... DON'T GO! Is it that hard? I am sure the bottom line won't be hurt to bad by you not attending the park anymore... go to PKI, GL and CP... you must not have any gripes about such parks... enjoy your coaster riding elsewhere.

Did you miss this part?

---

I'll wait to hear what people have to say when they visit in August, but I'd rather not put myself through the hell that is SFKK again this year.

---

Thanks for your "marvelous idea," though (even though there are parks I'd rather frequent than CP, GL, and PKI), and thanks for registering just to post that.

-Nate
*** Edited 4/15/2005 6:37:16 AM UTC by coasterdude318***

I don't completely agree with nate on this one, but he does have a point. I'll break it down to show you guys a different perspective from someone who had a decent visit to SFKK:

---

1) It's ugly.
2) It's extremely poorly-operated.
3) The layout is terrible.
4) Nearly every ride there is low capacity (and those that aren't end up being low-capacity machines due to poor operations)
5) Employees are inattentive at best, rude at worst.
6) The clientelle leaves a whole lot to be desired.
7) Nearly everything in the park desperately needs a new coat of paint.
8) It's ugly.

---

1) I can't dispute that one, it is ugly (paint, people!).
2) Greeze Lightnin'. Nuff Said (read my TR for this one)
3) More bridges would be nice, totally layout change would be better.
4) I don't have a problem with this one because when I was there, the park was dead.
5) There were quite a few inattentave ride ops on my visit.
6) Can't blame the park for the people that visit.
7) Nearly everything in the park desperately needs a new coat of paint.
8) It's ugly.

I didn't see any dangerous safety issues going on while I was there. But here were my 'problems' with the park:

Only one side of the sisters operating, when there could have reasonably been both. The park was dead, but this was the second longest line in the park (behind Chang).

The park needs to paint everything and do some landscaping. This would actually help a lot! Some of the ride ops were just indifferent. This was a change from PKI the day before, where everyone was nice.

I'll exclude Thunder Run from all of the above, because the 2 guys there were actually doing a very good job, and were both very friendly, one conversating with me when I mentioned I had just come from PKI, and was going to CP and GL in 2 weeks.

I actually like the park and the rides, but it does need to improve. Better ops than CP, GL, or PKI? I believe that about as much as I believe your 26. I'm 24, all of my peers are around that age or mine, and I don't know anybody that has such poor grammar as you, and I live in Southern West Virginia!

Clint-who is trying to get back to SFKK this year, B.

Maybe because of all the blatent safety violations I listed above?

Oh, and PS:
You said: "Walking up and down the platform at TR was a problem that ENDED last year when I made sure my employees only height checked during loading, and NOT while the train is away from the station."

The funny thing is that I visited in October, and it was still clearly going on. It wasn't for checking heights either.

-Nate
*** Edited 4/15/2005 10:39:10 PM UTC by coasterdude318***

I was at the park last year, and at Thunder Run one of the ride operators clearly let a girl *WAY* too short ride. The lapbar was almost a foot from touching her legs. After my friend almost freaked out because they were going to let this girl ride, I mentioned something to the ride operator, who then basically told me that I was wrong and that they did measure her. Unless I went blind for about 5 minutes, the girl was NOT measured.