SFWoA Questions...

1.) What time of the summer (June, July, or August) is the best time to visit (I visisted in the middle of last July, it wasn't crowded [compared to what I have seen at other parks] but the one op begged to differ)

2.) Is RWB being fully (or getting its first half) retracked this winter?

3.) Is any work being done to Villain? it was very rough the 2 times I rode it.

4.) Any word on the new/rumored hypercoaster?

Thanks in advance!

1. From what I heard (and saw) its never really crowded.
2. Hopefully
3. It was very smooth when I road last on Labor Day
4. Not going to happen.

1. I'd say it depends on weather and luck, on any given day any park can be packed or dead, last season I only went there once for a private event, so most rides were walk on, but prior years the park was never really packed, but the lines don't really seem to move even on the deadest days.

2. Who knows, but it wasn't to bad of a ride last season, as compared to prior years.

3. The Villian never really seemed to rough to me, come on now wood coasters aren't exactly meant to ride like a cadillac.

4. Would it really make a diffrence, either way, but I drive by the park from time to time and haven't noticed anything new in the sky as of yet,

Snap43-

Then you really haven't touched a good wooden coaster yet. The Villain was almost as bad as Psyclone when I rode it two summers ago, I can't possibly imagine what it's like now.

1. SFWoA was much more busier this past season than previous years. When Hurricane Harbor is open, the ride lines are short during the day.

2. I hope so but I don't think it will make the ride any better. Sure the second half that was retracked ran much faster than before but the ride is still rather lame.

3. I doubt if any work will be done on Villain but I think this year it ran the best it has since 2000, which resulted in some fantastic rides.

4. The hyper has been postponed (again), due to SFI's financial woes. It was supposed to happen for 2004 according to a source I knew at the park.

X Factor

I don't know about calling RWB lame. Its a fun ride. I suspect that the 1st half will be more fun if they do finish the retracking.

Villian was alot of fun. The crew helped also the day I was there. Dispatching with no stacking. It got really wild when the sun went down. The airtime and lateral's combo really helped it move up my list a bit.

I thought Big dipper was lame myself.

1.I don't know the answer to that, as I visit
the park in late august/early september and
most of the rides are walk-on or a 10-15 minute
wait.

2.I also dont know if its being retracked, but last
winter they redid most of the ride in the worst
places. They are trying to restore it to new, so
i'm assuming they may continue work on this the
winter

3.I didnt think Villian was rough...i thought it
was the same as the many times i had rode it
before.

4.A new coaster? HAHAhA dont make me laugh! IF
Six Flags were to put a new coaster in, it
sure didnt look it during Oktoberfest. But I
highly doubt they will add a hyper to that
park.

IMHO, Villian needs some TLC in a few spots, namely the bottoms of the first two hills. There's some bad shuffling going on there, and the trick track doesn't help much. The rest of the ride is fine.

My favorite time to visit is October, or late September.

I thought the Bobs had already been retracked? I know it felt much better, much smoother this year.

As for the Villian, yes I rode it maybe 5 times this year and it was a bit rougher.

A new hyper? I wish. ;-)

-Tina

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PKIEMPSOB said:
I thought Big dipper was lame myself.

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I'd have to disagree. It's a classic coaster filled with lots of airtime and some good lateral g's on the turns.

1. The best time to go is during the week as not many people are there.

2. Wolf Bobs will hopefully have the first half retracked but it's not certain. The top of the hill is already finished because of the accident this summer.

3. Villain is not rough because woodies are supposed to be rough. If I wanted a smooth ride I'd ride the Double Loop (The Smoothest Arrow in the World).

4. The hyper isn't coming. Even if they started construction now it wouldn't open until late in the season because the ground here tends to get very hard in the winter.

No, Villain is rough because maintenance is crappy and it runs crappy trains. Rough is not a good thing, wood or steel.

-Nate

'Ello Coaster Fans,

1. Yes, go during the week. SFWoA did have QUITE a few crowded days this past summer. As stated above SFWoA is a park very few Ohio Coaster Lovers will attend due to crowds. Even on busy days this past year though SFWoA ran Big Dipper with 2 trains, BKF 3 trains, Villain 2, X-Flight 2 etc. SWoA did a MUCH better job this year with keeping their rides running. The park is so big with so many things to do (non-coaster stuff) though, at that time of year by the middle of the day the park can be very, very spread out, thus helping the true coaster lover.

2. I hoping to due a drive by soon on SFWoA. Strange thing about RWB is that they didn't close it down for FrightFest like they have in all the past years. They kept it open and fully running. So most really don't know if they will start the retracking. I can tell you, they have A LOT of wood still there by MBT for all the retracking. So far they got the lift hill, and second half done...I would look for them to start around late Feb. with Ohio weather (though they could tear of the wood right now.)

3. I agree with most, Villain is a wooden coaster!!! And yes, this past year was one of the best for the ride, it FLEW all year long! They have added a anti-rollback strip right on the "brake-run turn" in late Sept. this year. The only thing I would change right now is move that trick track up to the part where the midcourse brakes are. Trick track needs to be take at a little slower speed to get the full effect.

4. The hyper is coming...maybe not this year or next...but it is coming, that's obvious for most in this area and at the park. Things that have been done this past summer to add to the drama is the city/township/etc did vote AGAIN to raise the height level even higher for SFWoA :)I would look for overall park improvements again for SFWoA just like this past year which most people who went can tell you it was a DRASTIC improvement from other years!

"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
http://OhioThemeParks.com

What I heard last season was that the RWB retracking is a three-year project. The first year was complete...they re-tracked it from the midpoint to the end of the ride. The person I talked to said that the plan for the second year (this winter) was to re-track it from the transition point mid-ride backward to the first drop, then in the third year they'd re-build it from the station to the top of the lift.

They had a problem with the lift hill this summer, but fixing it didn't require rebuilding the track, just the structure beneath it. So the top of the lift still hasn't been re-tracked.

As for Villain...I think they should just remove the trick-track entirely, as it rides like a mistake. Fix the hammering at the bottoms of the first two drops, and the ride would be in fairly decent shape. Even better, replace all the padding in the train with something significantly softer...!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Or just replace the G-trains with PTC's.

Thanks for the input. RWB was great when I rode it, its a rather fun little woodie. As for Villian, I think SFI should go the route of Holiday World and replace the Gerstlauers with PTC. Villian's first to hills were terrible, and I didn't even notice the trick-track, mainly because I wanted to get off due to its roughness (which is sad when the CLP Blue Streak to me felt smoother than Villian). I am hoping to return there this year.

I've experimented with riding in gerstlauer trains and I've found that the second row of any given car has a very annoying vibration. This is true to the extent of most wooden coaster trains but it seems to be much worse on gerstlauers (maybe it's just me?). Last car row 1 is the best spot for air I've found since it delivers a smooth yet wild ride. I've heard the trick track is rather annoying on Villain since it is taken at such a high speed. Perhaps they should, or will, add some reinforcements to the sides of the track to smooth it out? SFNO did this to Mega Zeph's trick track (which I thought wasn't necessary at all since it isn't taken that fast) and it was dramatically smoother. Aside from the lapbars and lack of padding I've found gerstlauers basically the same as PTCs in many aspects and have found several coasters running PTC trains to have been much worse.

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PKIEMPSOB said:

I thought Big dipper was lame myself.

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What did you do, sit in the middle of the train? The backseat of BD is the best seat in park IMO.

As an aside i can see by driving by that parts of the Big Dipper are being retracked as the track has been removed and is now being replaced.

1. Best time to go is through the week or on Fridays due to the kids and high schoolers are still in school.

2. Don't see the reason why the would wanna retack the station and lift hill on RWB. I think they'll get it done before March and it'll run like it did back in '88. I was also suprised that they had it running during fright fest when it's usually shut down.

3. Rode Villain about 40 times this year, and not once did I complain about it being "rough" or heard anyone say they felt it was rough. If you like a smooth ride on it, ride in the front seat but the best seat on the whole ride is the next to last row. As far as the trick-track goes, I think it's fine where it's at. Rode in the front a couple of times and couldn't feel it like you do when you ride in the back.

4. A lot of people were saying that the hyper was coming in 2004 with ACE bring their coaster tour to the park and also how the parks attendence matched 2000's numbers. But, it looks like it has been put on the back burner yet again for another year.

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PKIEMPSOB said:
I thought Big dipper was lame myself.

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Have to agree with what rolacostaking said, must of sat in the middle of the ride. Back is a good place to seat, but a even better place to sit is just like Magnum's "Ejector" seat, which is 1-3. *** Edited 12/3/2003 1:13:20 AM UTC by Jeff Rowe***

Nope I sat in the back actually. No airtime and painfully dull ride.

From a Big Dipper lover, That coaster washboarded so bad this year it COULDN'T BE ENJOYED!

Chuck, who has had great rides on it and knows it's much better than it ran this year.