The weather was absolutely beautiful (note Eric Humphrey’s trip report had to have been from the day before), and I hadn’t been to SFA since last Tuesday, so I decided to take a trip down to Largo, MD. At about 4pm I arrived. The first thing I see pulling up to the gates makes me a little angry. Parking is now $9! I’m upset, and I have a parking pass. I’m hoping this is for a major upcoming project, because I can’t understand why parking has gone up $2 in the last two years. Getting a reasonably close parking spot, I head inside and I see that the park is slammed! That’s what you get when the weather is nice, I guess. I first headed back to Batwing and the wait was about an hour-and-a-half. This was my 15th ride, and I still loved it. The one thing I consistently heard while watching from the exit was, “Long wait, but it was awesome and/or worth it!”. It’s nice to see the park slowly becoming a major player in the area. The photo, which is taken in the helix, looks great also. One of the main Batwing ride ops told me that two-train operation is not far off. He said a lack of electricity was to blame for one-train operation, but he pointed to a brand new transformer out in the field that will be put into use any day now. Here’s the rest of my ride list and comments:
S:ROS-Two train operation, but one of the ride ops is taking her sweet old time checking lapbars, so the line wasn’t moving super fast.
Joker Jinx-Rode in the yellow train and had a fairly comfortable ride.
Two Face-Lines was unbelievably short for how crowded it was. I guess everyone was over in Gotham City riding Batwing.
Wild One-Rode the back seat with a 40-something year old man who was scared out of his mind! He held onto both handle grips, and he buried his head in my chest! That caused me some pain, but it was also really funny.
Typhoon Seacoaster-The line was reasonably short, and they had the waterfalls and most of the darkride effects inside the tunnels turned on, which was really nice.
Roar-Believe it or not, it had a small line, but the crew was kicking butt! I’ve never seen it run this well. They actually had the trains loaded before the other train made it to the covered transfer track (the end of the ride). Trains were rolling right through this section. Excellent.
Ride Closures:
Sky Escaper (Enterprise knock off)-This has been down for a while, and I’m not sure why. I’ve never heard of the company who made it, so I hope it isn’t a part issue. This ride goes back to Wild World days, so I hope they keep it operating.
Penguins Polar Express-Chance Alpine Bobs
Returning from the injured list:
Shipwreck Falls-OD Hopkins Shoot the Chutes
Broke down while in line:
Iron Eagle-It was about 10 minutes to closing, so that’s pretty good for the Zamperla maintenance headache.
Ride that had a line, that I thought was funny that it had a line:
Riddle Me This (Round Up)
Considering the crowds I did pretty well in roughly 5 hours.
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Batwing-Bow Down
So the On-ride photo is by the helix?? If so, get a on-ride photo on the ride posted ASAP.
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"Pootie Tang!"
Yea you right, I went yesterday 7/5/01, not 7/6/01.
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Batwing Flights: 1
if you want a good batwing photo I suggest getting the 5 by 7 print,its a bit pricey at 9 bucks but worth it.
I have noticed that the queue lines for Batwing have been really long. But that may be a thing of the past when they get the other 2 trains into operation.
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Canalman
I was there on 7/6 also. The park was extremely busy. I didn't notice that Batwing was working until it was too late for me to ride it. I had to leave by 6:00. I had a great time.
Do you think 2 trains will be running by this Thursday?
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"Roller coaster favorite ride..." ~Blink-182
Yea i hope they get at least a 2 train operation by thurs. or fri. cuz im from the west coast and i cant wait to ride a second generation flying dutchman this friday. Stealth is a great ride but with all the hype i heard about batwing, the anticipation is getting too much for me.:)
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Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity.
PGASFMW, post when you're coming on the trip meeting section, and I'll see if I can meet up with you.
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Batwing-Bow Down
