Six Flags America 7/16/06 - JJ Now Open

Yesterday me and a friend of mine decided to head down to SFA since we hadn't been in a while. We both had season passes so we weren't worried about spending money.

Got to the park around 11:30 and headed straight for the back. We got in line for Batwing and was happy to see that they were running two trains in both stations. However, the right side was down for a little bit we assume because they sent 2 trains out of the left station before they started sending them out every other. Still a good ride but has gotten slightly rough. I noticed that all the road wheels don't touch the track at all times. The crew as actually running a little faster than usual. They often had 1 train on the lift before the other one hit the brake run. We only ended up waiting about 10 minutes.

Next up was S:ROS. Now what I don't understand is why they are only running 1 train on a busy Sunday. However, they were working faster than the usual lazy ride op pase that they have had over the past several years. The ride was definately moving very fast and we got a lot of air time on the third hill and on the bunny hops back into the station and a nice hard stop in the brakes. The train was having a hard time grabbing onto the lift though. I think the drive wheels pushing the train to the lift are moving slower than the lift chain because when the train would get up there to grab on, you could hear the chain banging against the train and when it finally caught on, it was a really big jerk.

While walking out of Gotham City, I noticed that there were ride ops and maintenance in JJ's station so I thought that they might open later in the day.

Next up was Southwest Territory. We rode TF:TFS first. For some reason this ride makes me nausous and I have no idea why. We only waited about 15 minutes and the crew was moving kind of slow. Later on in the day the ride was down and parked on the second lift for a long time. Mind Eraser was also down most of the day and parked on its lift at random points in the day too. I wonder if they are having similar problems with both Vekomas.

We then grabbed a ride on the Wild One. I LOVE THIS RIDE. It was my second roller coaster ever and I still love every minute of it. I love how the park brought back the history of the ride and put that old car in front of the entrance, and the history signs in the station. The crew on this ride was very enthusiastic and definately had a better attitude than the rest of the ride crews.
While going up the lift we noticed that Jokers Jinx was now open with 1 train.

After hopping off Wild One, we went back into Gotham City and hopped on JJ. We waited about 20 mintues because it was a full station and the line started to go in the outside que. The launch really doesn't do anything for me anymore, I guess I've ridden TTD one too many times. I still like the ride though. Its kind of slow in the middle, but definately picks up speed in the end and we went flying into the brake run all the way till right before the curve back into the station where we came to a hard stop. When pulling back in we noticed that the Yellow train is still in pieces next to a crain by the transfer track. Hopefully this one will be back on soon.

After JJ we rode ROAR. I still love this ride but like others have said it has gotten more rough over the years.

After that we grabbed lunch and after lunch we called it a day because it was so hot and my friend couldn't really take the heat. The heat really didn't bother me. I guess because I'm used to it from working at Cedar Point on that hot reflective maXair platform.

All in all it was a good day because we got to ride everything except Mind Eraser. I've noticed several improvements in the park and staff, but I still believe that SFA has a long way to go before it gets rid of its bad reputation. The only thing that really bugs me is the slow and lazy ride ops. Maybe I expect too much because of my CP training, but they definately need to work on improving that.

Lets hope that they get things together, I think this park has good potential. Also I forgot to mention earlier that while riding S:ROS, I noticed that they moved all the cars that were sitting between JJ and Wild One are now back by S:ROS's thrid hill and that area between JJ and WO is now an empty blacktop. I wonder whats going on with this!

*** Edited 7/17/2006 5:05:27 PM UTC by scoaster***

I'm pretty sure all the cars got moved for the Boom Boom Huck Jam show (at least I *think* that's where they had it).

Hmm... That's weird they would run one train on a Sunday. When I was at Darien Lake in late June, Superman was running 2 trains and the station was empty the entire day.

The red train has been giving the park problems this season. Often shutting the ride down first thing in the morning. I was at the park and the red train still sits on the transfer track.

I did ride Joker's Jinx today. I noticed the ride has a bit of a vibration to it now. Not sure if this because of new wheels, just the track is hot or what but definetly a vibration. It did seem to be running a lot faster as well.

I missed JJ by one day! they were putting the purple train back together saturday afternoon & firing off a few test launches but the ride never opened.

They were having trouble with the red train on Supes all day saturday & had to keep taking it offline but by close they had two trains going & we were on the last train of the night...I also noticed the loud banging coming from the lift whenever a train went out,sounds like the chain dog is catching really hard these days.

Mind eraser had a minor problem with the orange train saturday,I was stuck on the yellow train,car#2,right side in the brakes for a good ten or fifteen minutes while the techs were busy trying to resolve the problem...fortunately they were able to get the train back in & unloaded because my legs were starting to hurt from being locked so tightly in the seat for so long.I'm suprised that they continued having problems with it sunday.

I wouldn't blame the ops for being slow,it was hot on saturday so for once I can afford to cut them a little slack but what really stunk was the lack of operable rides....especially the water rides as both TSC & I believe RR were down all day & PBR didn't even have the misters on in the splash pool!

Rodeo,Flying carousel,TSC & RR were among the major rides that were down all day,the park really needs more flats big time because the lack of flats is really beginning to be noticed after riding the coasters al day long.

I was there today, JJ was running all day with a decently fast crew.

I missed Two-Face as it valleyed between the loop and second lift, right before I was gonna hit it. Mind Eraser was also up and down all day.

Typhoon was interesting, but was having block problems as our boat was stopped at the bottom of the last lift, the top of the last lift, and for almost five minutes on the final turntable.

Two Face valleyed? Missed that. Second Year in a row it had this little problem. TSC always has a block problems. I'm about to jump on the boat and say trash it.

Yeah, my ride is back open! And to answer the question about the blacktop area, that's where they held the Tony Hawk show. In the first year of operation as Six Flags, they had a circus there that was pretty good. That piece of land has a lot of potential for something big. You might have to reroute or build over the train though. We'll have to see what 07' holds.

After the 03 incident on two face I always get a little worried about it getting stuck on the lift while I'm on board....good thing it didn't valley when I was riding it saturday.

As for TSC I'm with you on scrapping it in favor of something a little more reliable if they can't solve the technical problems,they've had close to a decade to get it working right & still not much has changed for the better..not to mention many of the themed elements are in need of repair,as for the blacktop area by JJ I recall seeing a diagram 5 years ago on coasternet showing a couple of flats arranged in a triangular pattern around a central building.

Obviously those plans were either shelved alltogether,or put on hold indefinitely while SFI was slowly sinking deeper into debt between the 02 & 05 seasons so what is gonna happen there is anybody's guess now.

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coasterguts said:I did ride Joker's Jinx today. I noticed the ride has a bit of a vibration to it now. Not sure if this because of new wheels, just the track is hot or what but definetly a vibration. It did seem to be running a lot faster as well.

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I noticed the same thing on Poltergeist. Also on Poltergeist, the launch is not one continuous launch anymore. It seems to cut on and off through out the launch. The ride was unusually rough when I rode it two weeks ago. I'm going tomorrow so I'll see if it was just the humidity or something like that that happened to make the ride as rough as it was. It was to the point of being unenjoyable.

--cofan101

I'm also hearing JJ might be on one train operation the rest of the season.