Superman at SFMM

Well, cancel everything I said earlier on in this thread. According to Westcoaster.com, Superman has been testing and is rumored to be re-opening in a week or so. My bad! Will be good to ride Supes again when I spend an hour in the park renewing my pass next spring!

That's only if it stays open that long ;)

Yeah, an hour might be asking for a bit much...

Sorry, couldn't resist. On my one visit to SFMM, I really did come away unimpressed.

I enjoyed Superman more than X. I'll take some nice floaty airtime over the 'slug-fest-to-my-head' anyday.

Of course, I also liked Viper too, so whatda I know.

And it appears from the investor release that SFMM is not the top priority in the SF chain this time around (I know, shocking).

Looks like SFGAm and SFGADv are the 2 top priorities for the 2005 season and rightfully so.

I was at SFMM last saturday and they were running tests on superman b4 the park closed. looks like they will be reopening soon...then again that park has a host of issues to resolve, especially on Riddler's Revenge. The park was open till midnite and they have riddler on one freakin train!!!! I flew 3000 miles to go there and they have wait times of 2 hrs on DejaVu, 2:45 on Riddler and 3 hrs on X. I had to wait on X of course, and it basically made my trip somewhat satisfying. I'll just have to wait on DejaVu nxt summer when our trip to Chicago comes into fruition.

I just got a call that Superman has been cleared by the state, and should be open by Saturday. My source is fairly reliable, hopefully this is true!

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Chitown said:
And it appears from the investor release that SFMM is not the top priority in the SF chain this time around (I know, shocking).

Looks like SFGAm and SFGADv are the 2 top priorities for the 2005 season and rightfully so.

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It should be, it's a park that needs some major care. As for SFGam and SFGadv, anyone that thinks these two haven't *always* been top priorities, needs their head examined. I'll say it again, coasters alone do NOT make a park.

I think what we see going on here is that Six Flags Corporate has realized that just dumping coasters into SFMM isn't going to work for them. Thus (hopefully!) we'll see some of SFMM's other problems worked out over the next year.

It's not that SFMM is no longer a top priority, it's just that there are other things to dump time and money into besides coasters.

-Nate

That's Six Flags for ya.

There was a report on screamscape that a few people had seen the ride testing. Granted, some of the stuff that is on the site isn't true, but who knows.

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ThePhantomLives said:

1 train ops for RRv, Revolution, Viper and Batman during the MIDDLE OF THE SUMMER is brilliant

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I'm starting to think that it is. I was at SF Great Adventure two days ago and I noticed something. On the coasters that I actually rode, they did have two train operations. They however did have the slowest operators known to mankind. The line for Rolling Thunder was only a 4 train wait, but I timed it... 15 minutes. Medusa was a walk on... but still it took around 3 minutes to dispatch the train. Great American Scream Machine was a 1 train wait that took 8 minutes. I lost track on how long it took for Skull Mountain.

Of the other operating coasters, by 10:30 am the line for Superman Ultimate Escape (or what ever they call their flyer... I get confused with all of the Superman names in the SF chain) they already had a full queue. One side of Batman and Robin Chiller had a completely filled queue (the other side was down) and Batman the Ride's queue had over flowed into the midway. From a distance I didn't even realize that Chiller and BTR were open because they dispatching trains so infrequently. As for Nitro, it was listed as being "down" for the day, however by 11:30am there was a long line of people queued up at the enterance of its closed queue... did they know something I didn't? or were they just wishfull thinkiers? Either way... if they would have opened it right then and there, that queue would have been filled very quickly as well.

Now the interesting thing is this... the line for Q-bot (low queue, fast pass, or what ever SF calls it) was nearly as long as the lines for some coasters. While waiting for each coaster I rode, I saw Q-bot users boarding each train. Now each group of these people paid at least $20 extra dollars (more if there were more in the group) for virtual queuing or perhaps $60 extra if they wanted to use a "fast pass". When exiting Skull Mountain, I noticed that the line for the Q-bot users was at least 20 people deep.

Sooooooo.... Charge $10 a pop for parking, at least $24 for admission (lots of by one get one free admissions being used that day to save on the $45 admisison... and not counting season passes), and then make the lines so ungodly long and slow by poor operations that the only way to "enjoy" your day is to spend the extra money to use Q-bot.

So, in reality, it is quite brilliant. Make it really cheap to get in, but then just suck the money out of the wallets to "upgrade" to the q-bot. *** Edited 8/19/2004 12:55:52 PM UTC by SLFAKE***

Yes, S:TE was down long before the restraints issue. It was, like you said, sometime late last year.

I would love to get an accurate answer to why all these coasters failed inspection and took so long to reopen. No other parks in CA or the country for that matter are that bad.

The "new" Superman restraints just have the indicator on the lapbar like Xcelerator. No other changes that I know of.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, look at the little silver thing on the lapbar in this photo.

Apparently the ride is open again; so has anyone ridden w/ the new restraints?

Alright! The bad weather finally let up and Superman is open again. ;)

Even if Superman is open the park still shouldn't be considered as Six Flags' top priority, and I am glad it isn't anymore. Great Adventure and Great America are much better parks. However, I know Great Adventure also has problems with a few rides and reliability. As a frequent to Great America, I have always thought the service, ride reliability, etc. has been up to par with other great parks such as Cedar Point, who is known for things such as those. Although there is the tendency at Great America not to run rides to their fullest capacity. For the majority of visits, Raging Bull, Demon, and other rides that could have three train operation only run two. I have never figured out why this is because it appears as if all the rides are fully staffed and able to run at full capacity. Even so, I do believe Great America should be Six Flags' flagship park.

Back at the Mountain, it's nice to hear that Superman is running again, but are both sides running? It wouldn't come as a big hit if they weren't. With its opening lines in the park will be ever so slightly shorter, yet it is no excuse not to run more trains on rides that have the ability to do so. Running one train on Riddler's Revenge is just pathetic. There is no excuse for that. Now granted I haven't been to the park in over a year, but things couldn't have changed that drastically because they were running two trains on pretty much everything during a Sunday in February. I don't know, it just bothers me because I know small things like that can turn a normal wait time into a queue so long that it just takes away half your day. Now, I am not saying I can run the park any better, but some of this just seems like common sense.

The "flagship park" will be the one that can most conistently return on the (major) investments put into it. It's a financial thing, not a "which park is nicest" thing. The "flagship" parks of the Six Flags chain have always been SFGAdv, SFMM, SFGAm, and SFoT because they're the highest attended parks. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Given SFMM's current state, I think it absolutely should be Six Flags' top priority this year. It's time to get that park back in shape.

-Nate

Who cares? Y'all need to go to Knott's. 1/3 the size, 100 times more fun.

Although I really like the Gold Rusher. I think that Gold Rusher and Ninja are my favorites there. They should move the other coasters to Astroworld or Lake Darien, add a couple GCIs, and bring back the monorail (run it anyway), skyride, cars, and train.

Keep Colossus and bring back the PTC trains and unreprofile the thing to its original glory.

That with improved customer service will have me driving past Knott's once in a while.

Other than that, it is just a big fat mess.

And Tragic Mountain is right Mr. Bill. My uncles used to call it that in the 70's after a few unfortunate accidents.

From a finantial perspective Coasterdude318, your 100 percent right. It's to the benefit of the entire chain that all 4 or 5 (I'd include SFOG in there) flagship parks be in tip top shape, not just the one you happen to live closes to. ;) *** Edited 8/20/2004 6:54:25 PM UTC by DWeaver***

I agree with jan 97%! What about Goliath jan? This ride doesn't do it for you? It deserved mention. However, the analysis is otherwise perfect.