SFKK: the positives and negatives

This isn't really a trip report so I will post it in the General Buzz.

The positives:

1. Guest Relations: I want to give a shout out to Phylis in GR for her friendliness and going out of her way to honor my daughter's and myself's season pass vouchers. Even though policy states that season pass vouchers aren't valid for admission, she gladly checked out our vouchers from SFGAm and issued complimentary tickets for us on the 2 days that we visited the park. Phylis, I love you. :)

2. Employee friendliness: With the exception of a few, the majority of employees at the park were friendly and courteous. Some even wen't out of their way to put a smile on my daughter's face. That in of itself is a big plus in my book.

Now, the negatives:

1. One train operation on coasters: The trend continues here at this park. Management or maintenance haven't figured out that 1 train on coasters equals longer waits. Especially coasters like Chang and T2. Heck, even Thunder Run which is relatively short could constitute a second train. If the park is not crowded, it's tolerable, but I was at this park last July when it was more crowded, and the same operation was going on.

2. Lack of staff on flats: The worst has to be the Breakdance ride. Painfully slow loading and unloading. All with 1 rideop controlling it all.

In conclusion, I will say that the park is enjoyable as a whole. It's definitely worth a visit and on an employee level, you will feel welcomed to the park. To bad the other aspects haven't been addressed. *** Edited 4/5/2004 4:07:06 AM UTC by Chitown***

Chi: That's about how I felt about the park the first time I went. I though that only Holiday World had more "aiming to please workers". But like your experience with the Breakdance, I too felt the workers were slow as mole's asses. But I gave them a bit of a break because they genuinely seemed to *want* to do a good job.

BTW: I'm not sure that Thunder Run even *has* a second train. On my 4 visits there, I've never seen it.

Jeremy's right, Thunder Run has only one train. Quite honestly, I don't remember how park employees were during my one visit to SFKK after SRM last year. I was only there for a couple of hours, and I blew through everything as fast as possible so I could get on the road and head back home. I definitely didn't have a negative experience (except for TT only running one side, but that was not a big deal).

*sigh* - I'm glad you claim it's worth a visit. It seems like people walk away with mixed emotions. I can't wait to set my own opinion.

Positive:

They have a semi impressive lineup of coaters, and an even more impressive of heads with mullets. And it is only 1 1/2 hours from home

Negative:

Its in Kentucky, Yee Haw.

Neuski, I personally don't think any park is not worth visiting at least once, even if I don't hear a single positive thing about it. I much prefer to form my own opinion.

And I counted more mullets at Kennywood than SFKK. ;)

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Vater said:
I definitely didn't have a negative experience (except for TT only running one side, but that was not a big deal).

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Actually, if I remember right, you're pass processing experience was less than satisfactory seeing I walked by you several times while you were standing in line and you just wanted to get on the road :)

As for the one train operations you are expecting, it is definately inconsistent with Six Flags management goals for this season for better ride operations. I wonder if Six Flags will make good on any of their promises for this year? With complaints coming out of several SF parks arleady this year about one train ops I tend to think that this trend will not change in the future.

On the 2 occasions that I've been to the park, the major negative was that it was very crowded. Of course that's a positive for park management. Note: I have only been there in late June when the park would be in peak season.

Employees as previous described were courteous but slow. Coaster line up is pretty decent.

One area that has concerned me is the maintenance of the restraints on Thunder Run. I've heard several comments on this, and personally had the experience of having my belt unlatch during one of my rides.

Thunder Run is THE star of the show. There apparently WERE footers in place for the park to install transfer track/shed, etc....but the park PAID to have them REMOVED. Therefore, it is *exceptionally* unlikely that Thunder Run will EVER get a second train...:(. A real shame, IMO, becuase it's SUCH a good ride and they do seem to CARE enough about the ride to maintain it VERY well...

On the plus side, the park improved dramatically in the few years I had gone ('00-'02). Very happy to hear that GR, and the rest of the staff, (and Phylis in particular), took the time to make sure that Chi and Lil Chi had a good time at the park...:)

DannyP, my little sis Autumn (who did a rockstar marathon on GL), and I were at the park yesterday and really noticed nothing to complain about. Admitedly, it wasn't very crowded, but busy enough that coaster trains were always full (I love that...just the right kind of crowd). Staff was very friendly and playful with guests, but didn't hesistate to enforce policies. The op at Greezed Lightnin' told 3 pre-teen boys that he'd warned them once about hopping the fence, and since they had done it again, they weren't welcome at GL for the rest of the day.

T2 could have used a second train, but even with one, the waits were only about 20 minutes, the longest of the day. Road Runner Express never opened, but there were still people visibly working on it at 5:30pm, which made me feel better about it being closed.

Everything was running really nicely, and I almost liked T2. I rode it twice. Weird. ;) Chang provided my only headbanging of the day, aggrivated by the fact that I rode with my sunglasses on and the plastic arms felt like they were being shoved into my scalp. Ouch. Thunder Run and the Twisted Twin (Lola, I think) were both running great, though my seatbelt did come undone on TR.

The park was very clean, though one bathroom strangely had no soap in it, but did have a lovely assortment of silk flowers in a basket.

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Kick The Sky said:
Actually, if I remember right, you're pass processing experience was less than satisfactory seeing I walked by you several times while you were standing in line and you just wanted to get on the road :)

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Wow...I completely forgot about that, Bob. I guess I was trying to put it out of mind. Thanks a lot for bringing it back up! ;)

Yeah, that was pretty lousy. I think we moved about two feet between the first and second times you walked by...I was less than thrilled when I finally got inside for the picture-taking. My look of death proves it!

I can't quite remember, but I think the whole process took almost an hour. By comparison, my PKD season pass took about 2 minutes to process on Saturday.

This past sunday T2 was running two trains

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Vater said: I can't quite remember, but I think the whole process took almost an hour. By comparison, my PKD season pass took about 2 minutes to process on Saturday.

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Craziness. My pass processing at SFStL only took 5ish minutes last year. I would think that they would be identical systems. Was there that many people?

Also - I can't wait for T2. I have only ridden one SLC and had a blast. I really hope that this one doesn't change my opinion of them.

Now I just need to figure out when I'm going.

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Neuski said:
Also - I can't wait for T2. I have only ridden one SLC and had a blast. I really hope that this one doesn't change my opinion of them.

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Get ready for a hard let down. T2 was by far the worst SLC experience I've ever had, and I've ridden Mind Eraser at SFA!

*** Edited 4/5/2004 7:57:56 PM UTC by Rampage***

I rode ME at SFA yesterday & believe it or not it was suprisingly smooth.

Nice mug shot Vater although I've seen worse...a case in point would be my season pass photo for both 20033 as well as 2004,but hey the photo may look bad but at least it gets you into the park.

T2 isn't that bad. It's very jerky, but also very well padded. It's also my only SLC experience, and I liked it ok. BTW, I guess you got lucky, Derek. I've never seen it run two trains.

IMO, this park just seems to get better with each visit. Their coaster selection is pretty good, and the employees on opening weekend were awesome. The one-train operation is the only major negative I can think of. I just wish they'd paint Chang!

Yeah shocked me to. They started testing the 2nd train right after the park opened and 20mins later they were both running. *** Edited 4/5/2004 8:55:00 PM UTC by Derek*** *** Edited 4/5/2004 8:56:49 PM UTC by Derek***

If you're referring to yesterday when you say "this past Sunday," Derek, T2 was definitely NOT running two trains between 1-5pm.

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Vater said:And I counted more mullets at Kennywood than SFKK.

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Yes, but you must consider where Kennywood is located: 30ish min. from West By God Virginia!

And this is coming from a west virginian...who had a half mullet the end of last year, but my friends threatened to beat me unconcious and cut it off if i didn't;)

You should've seen the "Fem-mullet" we saw at Dollywood Saturday.