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I finally made it back to SFOG on Saturday after attending the opening day fiasco. Needless to say, many things were improved, and I had a wonderful day! The park was EXTREMELY crowded, but thanks to Lo-Q, I got a lot of rides in.
I arrived at the park around 9:20, and went to get my pass processed since the computers were down on opening day. They gave me a coupon book too, so now I have 2 of them! I went to the gates as they were opening, and went straight to get my Q Bot.
The Lo-Q renting area is a little unorganized. That, and I think the employees get promoted from Dippin Dots to Lo-Q Attendant! First, the video says there is a minimum of 2 people per QBot, but the sign says singel people can rent one. Good thing I got one for myself only w/ no hassle. I asked the woman about how many people in the park have QBots. She said 30%. Isn't it supposed to be 10%? I'm sure she was clueless, but it was funny.
I waited for the rope to drop, and ran to S:UF. I was about the 10th person in line and they just opened the queue. Most people went to the right in the station, so I went to the left. I got a backseat ride on the 2nd train of the day!
S:UF - 3 rides in a row (2 back, 1 in 2nd row), no wait at all for 1st hour the park is open. This ride is AMAZING! Even though it's short and kind of boring after the pretzel, that one element is SOOO GOOD it's worth the reride over and over! In the back you get slammed into the pretzel so quickly that you don't know what hit you. Towards the front, you go from floating, and then transition into the really high G's. Either way, it's an awesome experience, and when you exit the pretzel you float right back into flying position ever so gracefully. Being a FL resident, I normally don't cre for B&M's, but this one is an exceptional coaster. It will probably be cloned, which will be a good thing so more people can enjoy it!
After these 3 rides, I needed a break, so I went to GASM for a back seat ride w/ a 5 min wait. I didn't use my LoQ yet since I was riding with some kid that I met on S:UF.
GASM: 1 ride, back seat. It was running SO much better today! I got great airtime off he turnaround drop, and on the entire last run! Plus, for some reason, you don't come to a complete violent stop anymore at the edn in the shed. They slow you, and then you move rapidly into the station.
I then decided ot go to the rest of the park and take advantage of my LoQ. It was great because it lets you enjoy flat rides and wait for food and such while waiting for bigger and better things at the same time. The only problem is that the LoQ waits ended up being about 45 mins, and since there is a lack of flat rides at SFOG, you couldn't ride any other coasters while being in the virtual queue for another. Oh well. I'll give my synopsis of the rest of the rides for here on out, as well as some ideas for improvement.
Acrophobia: 1 ride. I really like this drop ride. I tried the "jesus" pose, and it was okay. I think it was scarier for my first ride back in March. It still gives a great rush though!
GA Cyclone: 1 ride, back seat!!! WOW!!!!!!!!! I've only ridden this once before a few years ago, and wasn't impressed. This time it was awesome! I got standing air on hills #2 and #4 which was very unexpected! I wanted to ride again, but it was crowded and the LoQ wait was even long.
Freefall: 1 ride. I still like this ride, even after getting stuck at the top of the one at SFMM. It's not as good at Acro, but there was only a 10 min wait, and I had time on my QBot until I rode Mindbender.
Mindbender: 2 rides, front and back. This is my favorite Schwartzkoph (sp?) looper! The g's in the loops are incredible, especially the "third" inclined loop. The back was okay, but the front was more fun, especially with the ejector air.
Batman: one ride, row 7. I don't think I can ride the BTR clones again. Everytime I get off of them I can't walk because they are too intense. My feet go numb during the ride, and it kind of freaks me out. No other inverts do this to me (even Fire dragon). It's wonderfully intense, but the numb feet thing is creepy.
Wheelie: Yes, I rode the enterprise for fun, and it was okay. Felt kind of sick afterwards though.
Monster Plantation: 1 ride. This was the surprise of the day! I hadn't been on it before, and it was a really fun dark ride! the only problem was the AC wasn't working too good in the 1st half of the ride. I liked the marsh scenes a lot!
Dahlonega Mine Train: 1 ride, OUCH! This ride is SO painful and jerky! It kept slamming into my back throuhout the ride. I will never ride it again. I only went on it for the count since I'd never ridden it before.
Well, that's about all I went on. I didn't ride the Scorcher because I went on it a couple times the last time I was there, so it wasn't on the top of my list. I also didn't ride Ninja becuase I don't like concussions.
Deja Vu is a different story alltogether. There was a sign outside saying "This ride is closed for the day", and there was another one saying "This ride is undergoing maintenance to further improve the safety of your visit" or something like that. They were testing it all day however. I thought it would have opened later in the day around 3, but it didn't. I left the park at 4:30 and it hadn't opened by then. The ride op out front said that it was working fine and he couldn't see why they weren't opening it. Then he said it would probably open around 5 or 6 PM. Then a manager came out and said it wouldn't open at all because there was an "alignment problem between the pulley and the train". I think he was jsut making something up to have a reason. The real alignment problem is that Vekoma and roller coaster design just don't go together, but that's a different story.
As for suggestions, here they are:
1) Get a new queue for the mine train!!! The individual lines for each row are SO long that it takes forever. There is somewhat like a 7 train wait for each row! It takes forever.
2) For LoQ, have a separate rental and return line. At the end of the day people were crowing the area trying to rent and return, and it was confusing. Why should I have to wait for someone to explain how to use one, when all I'm doing is dropping mine off.
3) Also for LoQ, have the ride time on the check in sign before you scna your pager. Either that, or have the ability to cancel ride reservations. I got kind of upset that I scanned something with 45 mins left in the park, only to have an hour LoQ wait and not get to ride it. I would have scanned something else for that.
4) Get more flat rides!!!!! Since LoQ doesn't give you enough time to enjoy the other major attractions, they should have more flats to enjoy while you are in the virtual queue.
5) Redo the lines for food areas. They were stretching well into the midways and causing traffic flow problems.
6) Operate Deja Vu at some point in the day!
That's all folks. Feel free to comment (if you've made it this far)
-Matt
Ha ha ha. GASM will still stop violently if the other train is still in the station, then it will slowly advance to the ready brakes and stop again, then into the station. We try to get the trains out quickly, but slow loaders and other problems can cause that to happen. ;)
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JFRice: What time did Deja Vu open at? I've already ridden the one at SFMM, but still wanted it for the count. Did you get a lot of rerides? I would never have gotten on what I did without the Q-Bot. I couldn't believe that the queues were full for almost every ride!
-Matt
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800,000 years in 7 seconds: Time Machine the movie or next S&S creation?
I guess I used incorrect wording. When you scan the QBot, it ives you a time to come back. You can do anything you want, including riding any ride you want, until your appoitnment time. I was just saying that the regular lines were so long, that you'd miss your appointment time if you waited for any coaster while in the virtual queue.
-Matt
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