SFNE- Friday 10 MAY
Associated parks:
None
Headed down to SFNE last Friday May 10 to get my Season Pass processed and to have a few hours at the park - since I live in VT and it's a 2.5 hr drive down I went down on Thurs. eve. and overnighted in Springfield area. Fri. a.m. I got to the park just after opening at 9 a.m. and the parking lot was almost empty - I have never seen it with so few cars, so I figure man, am I gonna have fun here today! What I *didn't* see are the dozens of schoolbuses parked in another lot - it was "Physics Day"! But still the park was not that crowded.
Got my pass processed and headed immediately over to S:ROS and the line was very short...but what should have been a 30 min. wait max turned into an hour because the ride broke down twice and they had to call in maintenance both times. Happily I met up with a fellow ACE member in line and we talked and passed the time and it didn't seem all that long. Well when I finally rode it was as awesome as I can ever remember it being - such an incredible coaster - the "hang time" coming over the lift hill hump into the near vertical drop is amazing and after that it's just air-time heaven all the way! Well my friend tells me Batman -DK is a walk-on and so after riding I head over there and we take a couple of spins on it around car 4/5; I am not terribly impressed - just not that great and my head got banged around on the shoulder restraint a bit. Then we decide to head over to Cyclone and walk all the way over there only to find that it is CLOSED for awhile!
So we walked back to near the Emporium and my new friend has to depart so I head back over to S:ROS but the line is just too long and I have a limited amount of time at the park (had a flight to catch later that afternoon at Bradley)... plus it looked as though it was still breaking down periodically and I thought to myself, "man this line is gonna take forever"... so I walk over to Mind Eraser (not my favorite coaster by a long shot but I figured what the heck?)- well after a half hour in that line, one of the trains gets stuck on the lift hill and 2/3 of the line disperses and leaves (including me!). I went back over to Batman-DK and waited about 25 min. in line until it has mechanical difficulties too and they decide to remove one of the trains.... well, after doing that they don't seem to be able to get the removed track section to fit properly back in and some blinking red light is causing them to run back and forth and examine the place where the track sections meet. Well ultimately they decide to do a test run even with the red light blinking ( I have not idea what that meant!), and it seems to run without getting hung up, so they opt to put live bodies back on it again. I head for the front seat this time and MAN what a different ride - *totally* different! It was a great experience, really felt like I was flying. Some say the very back seat gives the same sensation but can't imagine it being better than the front ;-)
After B-DK I walk all the way back over to Cyclone and it's up and running! Wait about 30 min. for it and go for the last car which I've heard gives the wildest ride on this one.... well it certainly did - I nearly got thrown out of the train at least twice during the ride ! Was sitting next to a guy who had never ridden a coaster before and I though, "wow, what a baptism of fire" but he really loved it too.
After this grabbed a quick lunch in the park and had to get going to catch my flight but it was a fun 5 hours at the park, for sure.... I just didn't understand why everything kept having repeated mechanical trouble; I mean, Mind Eraser got one of the trains stuck *again* while I was standing in line at B-DK! And, S:ROS was having what seemed to be either the same or a similar mechanical difficulty every time they had to stop it. I understand the 2nd train will be back up and running by the middle of next month, but if they're having this much trouble with just one train let's hope they'll be able to handle 2! I couldn't quite tell whether they were just being overly cautious or whether it was just "early season kinks" they were working out of the rides... In any case, it doesn't look like Batman -DK will be drawing huge numbers away from the S:ROS line; let's face it, people know a good thing when they ride it, and S:ROS is where it's at! It's got wonderful airtime and a masterful, ingenious design.... I can't wait to go back and ride it again and again this Season!!
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The legend lives!
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