SFStL (long) & mini SFGAm
Associated parks:
None
I love having a SF Season Pass ! (warning: your season -parking- pass is NOT valid at other parks - they don't tell you that when you buy it !).
My home park is SFGAm, but I was in St. Louis this weekend, so of course I hit up SFStL (I haven't been there in years - since Colossus, the Ferris Wheel, was the new ride !). The park is still lacking coasters compared to other parks, but at least they are decent ones.
We left late night Wed, arriving at SF just after opening (we planned this to avoid the weekend crowds, and because the weather was bad, and looking to get worse). It was threatening to rain all day, and we did have cloudbursts a couple times during the day, but at most, no ride was closed for more then a 1/2 hour.
The park would have been totally empty if not for the multiple end of school year trips. No rides were running at full capacity, so even though it was a relatively small crowd, there were still fairly long waits for the popular rides. Anyway...enough about that, and on to the rides themselves...
We rode all the coasters running counterclockwise throughout the park...first up, Mr. Freeze. 1st time for me, and it's great. Definitely a front car ride. The restraints suck, and really limit your view in any seat but the front, plus you get more height in the front too, and a nice view on the backwards trip. The launch is great, just like V2, fast (70 mph as well), but the best part is the backwards trip through the tophat inversion !
On to the Boss...what a beautiful coaster...The line was full, but not out of the cue. Not too bad of a wait, as they were running 2 cars. I rode the back first, hoping for some amazing airtime on this nearly 3 min long twisting terrain woodie, but I was disappointed that the airtime was somewhat minimal. Pretty rough too. Not bad, but as far as airtime is concerned, it's not the Viper...but upon riding it again, I discovered that the prime seat is for this one is really the FRONT seat...rare on a woodie...WOW is this thing fast - 67 mph !!! Lots of head chopping and the banks and turns are great. I'm glad I waited for the front seat, or I might have never known how great this coaster can really be.
Off to the River King Mine train. This was my first ever coaster when I was a little kid, so it was great to relive the memories. It reminds me of the Whizzer a bit, how it goes through steep banked turns through the trees. It has 3 lift hills, but only 2 are drops, the 3rd is back into the station. The drops are nothing to get excited about, but all in all it's a great junior coaster.
The Screaming Eagle was next. How come I never hear much about this great out and back/terrain coaster ? This is a wonderful ride, especially in the back seat. In my opinion, it puts the American Eagle @ SFGAm to shame. Sure, it's not at tall, but it's just as fast and has WAY more airtime...this is SFStL secret gem.
Ninja...similar to the Demon, and other small looping/corkscrew coasters...just as rough too...but I like loopers, and this one offers some nice helixes and the 2nd loop pulls out 1/2 way, kinda like a boomerang, so it's a little different than it's sisters and brothers. A short line doesn't hurt either.
Batman the Ride...well we all know about this one already. It's suspended, and it's B&M, so it's great ! =) This one isn't an exact clone of the others though, the lift hill exit banks the opposite way, and although it's probably the same height as the original at SFGAm, it looks a bit taller.
We went through and rode everything at least twice, and Mr. Freeze and The Boss several more times. Our hotel was nearby, so we returned for a 1/2 day the next morning. It rained all day, but they kept the all the rides open during the time we were there. The lines were shorter too, so we managed to ride all our favorites multiple times between 10am and noon.
Despite the weather, all in all it was a great trip. Our original plan was to drive off to Louisville for SFKK, and also to PKI, but the rainy weather and a lack of money caused us to change our minds. Eventually though, I'm gonna do that ultimate vacation - the Midwest Amusement Park Tour --> SFGAm, SFStL, SFKK, PKI, SFWoA +CP !!! (probably will want to squeeze Holiday World and Indiana Beach in there too !). Anyone want to join me ? =)
- Joe
----------
(Whoops....forgot to edit the subject before I hit [submit], my original intent was to add a small SFGAm review and kill 2 birds with 1 stone, but since I was already running kinda long, I thought I'd make a 2nd post. Anyway...my SFGAm review will obviously be separate. Sorry about that.)
*** This post was edited by Joe Carroll on 5/29/2001. *** *** This post was edited by Joe Carroll on 5/30/2001. ***
My home park is SFGAm, but I was in St. Louis this weekend, so of course I hit up SFStL (I haven't been there in years - since Colossus, the Ferris Wheel, was the new ride !). The park is still lacking coasters compared to other parks, but at least they are decent ones.
We left late night Wed, arriving at SF just after opening (we planned this to avoid the weekend crowds, and because the weather was bad, and looking to get worse). It was threatening to rain all day, and we did have cloudbursts a couple times during the day, but at most, no ride was closed for more then a 1/2 hour.
The park would have been totally empty if not for the multiple end of school year trips. No rides were running at full capacity, so even though it was a relatively small crowd, there were still fairly long waits for the popular rides. Anyway...enough about that, and on to the rides themselves...
We rode all the coasters running counterclockwise throughout the park...first up, Mr. Freeze. 1st time for me, and it's great. Definitely a front car ride. The restraints suck, and really limit your view in any seat but the front, plus you get more height in the front too, and a nice view on the backwards trip. The launch is great, just like V2, fast (70 mph as well), but the best part is the backwards trip through the tophat inversion !
On to the Boss...what a beautiful coaster...The line was full, but not out of the cue. Not too bad of a wait, as they were running 2 cars. I rode the back first, hoping for some amazing airtime on this nearly 3 min long twisting terrain woodie, but I was disappointed that the airtime was somewhat minimal. Pretty rough too. Not bad, but as far as airtime is concerned, it's not the Viper...but upon riding it again, I discovered that the prime seat is for this one is really the FRONT seat...rare on a woodie...WOW is this thing fast - 67 mph !!! Lots of head chopping and the banks and turns are great. I'm glad I waited for the front seat, or I might have never known how great this coaster can really be.
Off to the River King Mine train. This was my first ever coaster when I was a little kid, so it was great to relive the memories. It reminds me of the Whizzer a bit, how it goes through steep banked turns through the trees. It has 3 lift hills, but only 2 are drops, the 3rd is back into the station. The drops are nothing to get excited about, but all in all it's a great junior coaster.
The Screaming Eagle was next. How come I never hear much about this great out and back/terrain coaster ? This is a wonderful ride, especially in the back seat. In my opinion, it puts the American Eagle @ SFGAm to shame. Sure, it's not at tall, but it's just as fast and has WAY more airtime...this is SFStL secret gem.
Ninja...similar to the Demon, and other small looping/corkscrew coasters...just as rough too...but I like loopers, and this one offers some nice helixes and the 2nd loop pulls out 1/2 way, kinda like a boomerang, so it's a little different than it's sisters and brothers. A short line doesn't hurt either.
Batman the Ride...well we all know about this one already. It's suspended, and it's B&M, so it's great ! =) This one isn't an exact clone of the others though, the lift hill exit banks the opposite way, and although it's probably the same height as the original at SFGAm, it looks a bit taller.
We went through and rode everything at least twice, and Mr. Freeze and The Boss several more times. Our hotel was nearby, so we returned for a 1/2 day the next morning. It rained all day, but they kept the all the rides open during the time we were there. The lines were shorter too, so we managed to ride all our favorites multiple times between 10am and noon.
Despite the weather, all in all it was a great trip. Our original plan was to drive off to Louisville for SFKK, and also to PKI, but the rainy weather and a lack of money caused us to change our minds. Eventually though, I'm gonna do that ultimate vacation - the Midwest Amusement Park Tour --> SFGAm, SFStL, SFKK, PKI, SFWoA +CP !!! (probably will want to squeeze Holiday World and Indiana Beach in there too !). Anyone want to join me ? =)
- Joe
----------
(Whoops....forgot to edit the subject before I hit [submit], my original intent was to add a small SFGAm review and kill 2 birds with 1 stone, but since I was already running kinda long, I thought I'd make a 2nd post. Anyway...my SFGAm review will obviously be separate. Sorry about that.)
*** This post was edited by Joe Carroll on 5/29/2001. *** *** This post was edited by Joe Carroll on 5/30/2001. ***
Jeff said:
"How about adding some paragraph breaks?
Sorry, it's my first long post to CB.
Plus it was pretty late. If you notice,
the post I made after that is broken up.
- Joe
d7droog52 writes:
>I'm pretty sure the Boss hits 67mph not 77
Yes. I was mistaken. www.rcdb.com puts it at 66.3 mph. It's still the 3rd fastest woodie in the world. Since I haven't ridden Son of Beast yet, that makes it the fastest woodie I've ever ridden (no wonder the rain hurts when you're in the front car !) :)
>I'm pretty sure the Boss hits 67mph not 77
Yes. I was mistaken. www.rcdb.com puts it at 66.3 mph. It's still the 3rd fastest woodie in the world. Since I haven't ridden Son of Beast yet, that makes it the fastest woodie I've ever ridden (no wonder the rain hurts when you're in the front car !) :)
You must be logged in to post
