SFNE 5/31 - Late openings, rain delay, & technical difficulties

My girlfriend and I arrived to a wonderful site; a nearly empty parking lot, at 10am. We hopped on the tram, went through the gates, and awaited the looney tunes dance to finish and the rope to drop. A huge mass of people ran to Superman. We figured, the park was empty enough, we could ride Superman later, and head to a different area of the park that would be empty.

So we went straight for Mr. Six's Pandemonium. We walked right on. Turned out to be a fun ride, perhaps a little too short, but certainly a wonderful addition to the park. I might've enjoyed the experience if we had spun more. 4 people in a car vs. 2-3 people in a car really makes a difference in the spin.

We next headed to Cyclone, only to find it was closed.

Next up, Flashback. Not the roughest boomerang i've been on, nor was it the smoothest.

At this point, we wanted to get on Scream, but they only had 1 tower open, and the line was at least 30-40 minutes long. So we went next door to Thunderbolt. I love the paintjob on the train, just wish they'd do the entire structure now. All of that new wood that looks like it's been put up just to hold the coaster up is a little daunting. We waited about 2 trains, then we were on. Back row. Airtime was extremely plentiful. Sometimes painful, sometimes unexpected, but certainly abundant. Was better than my rides on it from 2004. In the middle of the ride, my girlfriend says "my butt keeps coming out of the seat". Boy, i've got a lot to teach her.

We walked down the stairs towards SROS. These stairs are a pain in the arse. It's bad enough with the stairs that cross over the street into the park. An investment in escalators would be a wonderful thing, but I suppose Six Flags would never do that.

The SROS line was long, almost completely filled queue, so we moved onto Poison Ivy. Walked on with no wait. Whee...

When I first met my girlfriend, she had said Mind Eraser was her favorite roller coaster (she hadn't ridden SROS at that point), but I finally rubbed off on her, and now she hates it, so we skipped it.

Onto, Batman: The Dark Knight. 5-10 minute wait. Slowest crew of the day award goes to Batman: The Dark Knight. Continually stacked the trains. Fun ride, especially the first half. Second half gets a little boring, and a little rough. We both agreed that Medusa is the much better ride of the two.

Colossus (sp?) was closed. I believe it was closed the entire day. The Skyride was closed as well, presumably all day.

At this point, it's only 11:30. We decided to wait out in the Superman line. 2 train op, with several "minor technical difficulties" that probably added 30-45 minutes to our wait time. After 2 long hours, we were to board the very next train. Train got stuck on lift, with the other train stuck on the brake run. Shortly thereafter, mechanics arrived... and lots of them. I lost count, but there were over 10 guys at one point, working on something under the brake run. 10 minutes pass... they finally get it back into the station, and they announce that it's closed. So, we would have been on the next train, but it closed.

We headed to Guest Relations to explain the situation, and she gladly issued the exit pass to Superman for us, provided that it would open again.

We left the park at 1:30 to get some lunch, McDonald's. We arrived back at the park around 2pm to see Superman reopening, with a very short line. We waited it out, only about 10 minutes, and we finally got our ride. Amazing as usual. While the new restraints are restricting, they don't really take away from the ride. The crew was pretty fast, and it sure helps now that they've taken off the 2nd seatbelt. When we got off, the line was already filling up and probably a 30-45 minute wait, so we headed for Mr. Six's Pandemonium.

The line was quite big, probably an hour wait, so we skipped it and headed for Cyclone, which also appeared to be an hour wait, so we skipped that. At this point, the rain had arrived. Just a light drizzle. Flashback was a walk on, but when we got in the station, they announced it was closing due to weather.

Scream had finally opened up a 2nd tower, and the line was dwindling so we figured we'd wait out the rain in the Scream line. The rain got harder and the thunder arrived, so we went back to the car. By the time we got to the car, it was sunny again.

Back into the park around 4. Thunderbolt was a walkon so we did that again. Unfortunately, Scream had rendered a huge line again, so we skipped it. It was time to use our exit pass for Superman. We used it, were placed in the next to last car, and had another amazing ride. (Note: mist was on in 2nd tunnel, but not first.) When we got back in the station, the four guys in the car behind us, decided that they were gonna exit to the right, back into the queue line, instead of leaving to the left and leaving the ride. Thus, they were cutting in line, and would be riding again within minutes. I don't know why a ride-op didn't see this, or why the people in those rows let them come back through in front of them, but it was a sad sight to see.

All in all, a pretty decent day. Would have liked to have ridden the ferris wheel and the sky ride, but oh well. Superman still kicks arse after 5 years, and Thunderbolt is still pretty decent after 64 years. I just wish they'd paint it, and do some work on making it not look like it's gonna fall over at any second. Mr. Six's Pandemonium was an excellent addition to the park and i'm sure the crowds will love it.

Nice trip report. I love Superman always a great ride. Where in the park did they put the Mr. Six Coaster?

Over near Cyclone, it was built around the Vekoma Air Jumper.

Ahh ok cool. I'll be trying to get up there soon to check it out. It looks really fun.