Associated parks:
None
My 10th trip to SFMM: $25
Meal at SFMM: $10.37
On-ride photo: $9.00
Waiting eight minutes for the money seat on X: priceless.
I came on this trip for three reasons. It was cheap, I love X, and I wanted to make Scream! my 75th roller coaster.
I went on the trip and none of my friends could make it, so I thought I would have a day of coastering alone. I’ve split off from my group at amusement parks before, so it’s no big deal, but the nine trips I’ve made to SFMM before have been with someone. Before the bus arrived to pick us up, I met Aizhan. Aizhan was a very cool person to hang out with and she enjoyed the roller coasters, which is always a plus!
We left Arizona early and we arrived in California to eat breakfast really early. The sun was rising so I took a picture of it. Very pretty! We stopped at Denny’s and I got the Moons Over My Hammy. Sorry, no picture this time.
We arrived at SFMM two hours before the park opened! Sweet! After they let us through the security gates, we went to the main gates. We were right up front with about three rows of people in front of us. X was testing before the park opened. It was a good sign.
The gates opened and it was the running of the bulls to X. We ran past people up the hill to X. We were there as they opened the queue and there were line jumpers everywhere. We got to the area before the station and the employee who tells people which way to go let us go either way. You know what this means! Parking lot side, baby! We walked straight from the entrance to the queue to the station. We were that far in front! The only waiting we did was in the station. Of course, I made for the back seat. The line for the back is right there and there were only four people in front of us and X was running two trains. Sweet. Two guys in front of us asked us if we wanted to get in front of them. Double sweet. We waited a little bit and it was our turn. From the beginning of the queue line, I started my timer on my watch. Eight minutes from there to sitting in the seat. Ahem. EIGHT minutes! The longest I’ve waited for it was 4 and a half hours, and the shortest was about 45 minutes. Nothing will beat this wait. That’s simply incredible.
Oh my gosh. I love X so much. I took two pictures from the lift hill. The first drop is going to take a lot to beat. The last time I rode it, the cold and wind made it go a little slow through the course. Today was warm and not windy, so we FLEW through the ride. Inversions, half and halfs, raven turns, ahhhh! I love this ride. It’s simply the best roller coaster I have ever ridden. Aizhan seemed to enjoy it too. I got that from all the screaming.
We got some pictures of X and Viper then got in line for Viper. Some of the queues were closed for Viper so the back of the train had a long line. I told an employee in the station that the queue wasn’t open and that people were spilling out on to the midway. She started telling people to go into the other lines. It helped a little.
Viper is a great ride. The back seat delivers nice forces down the drop and in the inversions. Viper has good laterals and vertical Gs. The corkscrews offer some nice hangtime. Our photo got taken but the headrest in front of Aizhan covered her face.
After the ride, Aizhan told me she wanted to ride something that “just goes up and down.” Goliath it is! (Hey, I didn't cut off the 'H'!) We walked all the way down to it and got in line. Remember the flaw in Goliath I talked about in my last trip report? Check out the photo. After waiting about 20 minutes, we were in the back seat. The last time I went, my friend told me that SFMM doesn’t allow single riders in back seats for whatever reason. I saw a single rider in the train before us. We got in the back and began our ride. The first drop delivers great airtime and the camelback does, too. The brakes didn’t seem to be on very much at all and the helix seemed a little more forceful than the previous times I’d ridden it. Goliath became Aizhan’s favorite roller coaster.
Next up was Scream! Scream! would be my 75th roller coaster and my second floorless coaster. I decided to wear my Kraken shirt to celebrate this little milestone. Kraken was my first floorless coaster.
We waited 20 minutes for the front seat. Scream! was pretty good, but the seat vibrated a bit. I rode in the front row to get the floorless feel. I lifted my feet in the dive loop because the illusion got to me that my feet would hit a rail! The zero-G roll is the best element. The cobra roll has a nice snap to it. The helix after the brakes (which were barely on) was nice, but the speed hill after it was great! There’s some good airtime in it and you fly through it really fast. The corkscrews are fun and the finale is twisted and has a small pop of air. Scream! had some vibration thing going on in the seats. Aizhan noticed and pointed it out to me. I noticed it in the first three inversions. Scream! was good, but not as good as I thought it would be. The vibration takes something away from the ride. Maybe it just needs time to break in. I just hope they fix the stacking problems. We waited over a minute in the brake run and a train finished the course and waited behind us as the train exited the station! 7/10
Next up we went to Gold Rusher. I waited about five minutes for this one. That was the longest I’d ever waited for it. The park sure was a little crowded today. Check out the line. The front seat is fun. I like this ride a lot, but the back seat’s better.
We went to Revolution next. The wait was only 20 minutes. Revolution in the back seat is really fun. There was some minor head banging. The loop pulls some really nice Gs and they are pretty sustained through the whole thing.
We headed to Log Jammer next. It’s pretty fun and has some nice scenery along the ride. Aizhan didn’t know that the second drop was the largest so she got pretty scared when I told her that the best was yet to come. What a fun ride!
We got some food at Food Etc. Boy, this stuff is pricey. It’s not that good either. I see why my friend had us leave the park for lunch last time. Oh, this is crazy! Since 1999, I have made two trips a year to the park. I think I’ve gone too many times because this time I recognized an employee at Food Etc. I don’t know his name, but I recognized the face.
After eating, Aizhan wanted to ride another water ride so we walked to Arrowhead Splashdown. I noticed that Ninja was running today. I rarely see it running. The wait for Splashdown was 20 minutes. She wanted a photo on the ride so we checked it out at the exit. The photo was OK, but she decided not to get it.
We walked around and she tried her luck with a game. One dollar would get a very light beanbag that you would toss at a balloon hovering over a column of air. The prizes were kind of small so the game couldn’t have been too difficult. She missed. Just to the left!
While walking around, we saw some kids fighting with those little inflatable hammers. They were socking each other really hard! This kid got a good hit.
We hit Gold Rusher again. This time we rode in the back. It's still fun after all these years!
We decided to go to Arrowhead Splashdown again since she wanted a photo to show to people back home in Kazakhstan. The line was a little shorter than before, and I took some pictures from the bridge that passes over the ride. Right before the first drop, I looked at the operator sitting there and I said, “Sir, my feet are wet.” Down the last drop, I covered her face and made a nasty face to the camera. I really should have bought that photo since it was so hilarious. She was a bit upset but I told her we’d get on again to get a good photo.
We hopped back in line and waited about 12 minutes. She sat behind me this time so I couldn’t put my hands in front of her face. Before the last drop, I saw the operator and told him, “Sir, my feet are still wet.” This got a laugh out of him. The photo was pretty good. I made a crazy face to the camera and she smiled.
ThrillShot started testing and I snapped a picture. The ride would test all day. I have a few pictures of it.
We got in line for FreeFall. I tried the penny trick which was awesome! I even caught it before the vehicle curved to the brakes.
We walked over to see if Batman and Scream! had short lines, but they didn’t. We were thirsty so we went to the Colossus Cookery where we were told to Eat Out Loud! I asked a woman for a cup for ice water and she gave me a small thing. I looked to my right and Aizhan got a huge cup of water. That’s what you get for batting your eyelashes to the guy who gave you the cup. Here’s a comparison of the cups.
Then I did something random. That's all.
We got in line for Riddler. A sign said the wait would be about two hours, but the wait was only about one hour and 45 minutes. While waiting in line, a train stopped on the lift. I guess someone had a loose article with them because employees walked up to them, walked around, then left and the lift was started again. We got in line for the back since it had less people in it. No, not because it’s awesome there. I’ve heard that the #2 train on Riddler, Jerry, is the fast train. I could see it going through the course while waiting in line. It seemed to be going a bit faster than the other trains. The sun had set, but it was still light outside. We were up next and guess who shows up? That’s right! Jerry! Yes! I started yelling and jumping around because I was excited. The sun was down, Jerry was up, and we were in the back. This was a great ride. The inversions and forces are great and it’s incredibly smooth. The oblique loop is a lot of fun. The brakes are hardly on at all, but I didn't notice any airtime dropping out of them. The last corkscrew is the greatest corkscrew I have ever been on hands-down. No wait: hands-up! That’s how I rode Riddler! Wheeee!
We headed to the Orient Express and made our way down the side of the mountain. We got a cool view of one of Revolution’s turns. We rode the Grand Carousel and had a good time. I rode on my high horse while she kicked back.
After that, we hung out in the Flags store. We put on some dorky sunglasses and bought some candy. Aizhan and I tried on some stupid hair things. There was an ugly orangutan in there so I took his picture. Then Aizhan decided to give him a hair thing and hang out with him. Wow, we’re goofy.
Now it was time to leave. We got in the bus and drove right by X. It flies through the course at night. The next time I come to SFMM, I have to get in a night ride on X. Yeah. That’ll rock. I love this park, even after ten visits. We finished our time in California with a meal at In-N-Out Burger. This trip will be remembered.
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I was asked to describe X in one word. The word? -- OhmygoshwhathaveIgottenmyselfintothisisthescariest
thingintheworldhelpmeIamgoingtodieAHHHH!!!
*** This post was edited by haux 4/28/2003 4:27:12 AM ***
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"Adventure, Excitement. A Jedi Craves Not These Things."
Tell me about it on the stacking issue though! Most of it is due to a horrid station design. Obviously, most people want to wait for the front, but there's not enough queue for the front, so you get lots of people who are willing to take the other rows, but they don't go through because they think they're cutting. Most of the time that the trains stacked, as far as I could tell, was when the ride-ops were sitting and waiting for somebody to show up in each row while threatening to send out empty trains if they didn't get at least somebody in each row. Michele and I were about 8 people back in the front row queue and were telling people farther back in line that there were plenty of empty rows, and there were lots of takers. These people just needed to be told that they could go through, and then there were no problems filling up the row queues.
The question remains though, why did it end up being our job to inform guests that other rows were open? There was one ride-op standing in the corner of the station, why wasn't he handling this? If they're that worried about it, how about have an employee help people navigate the queue? Just like X, the station design is awful. Why didn't they learn anything from Riddler's and Goliath's stations, those work great with the front row queues. Argh.
Anyway, we ended up going to X next, and after waiting for a bit more than an hour and finally making it to the actual queue area, we saw an employee replacing the 2-3 hour wait sign with a 3-4 hour wait sign, just after I noticed that I hadn't seen a train dispatch in at least 10 minutes. I asked her about it, and was told there were "mechanical problems" with one of the trains and that it had been removed from the track. We were hungry, and we gave up, and went to Chuy's. BTW, if you're ever not in the mood for In-N-Out (not being a Californian, I'm willing to bet that won't happen for you), Chuy's has some excellent chicken and an awesome Quesadilla. It's over near In 'n' Out on The Old Road.
Anyway, like I said, it sounds like your trip was far better than mine, so congrats! I hope all future trips go that well!
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I was asked to describe X in one word. The word? -- OhmygoshwhathaveIgottenmyselfintothisisthescariest
thingintheworldhelpmeIamgoingtodieAHHHH!!!
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I was asked to describe X in one word. The word? -- OhmygoshwhathaveIgottenmyselfintothisisthescariest
thingintheworldhelpmeIamgoingtodieAHHHH!!!
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Kevin Stone
NoLimits Dev Team
http://www.nolimitscoaster.de
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