TR:SFA Opening Day 04/03/04

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chillforce5X said:

It just seems that enthusiasts expect more than the GP. Heck, it is the enthusiasts visiting the park in early season and not the GP so who is actually paying the $40 to 50 bucks anyway? Very few I would suspect and they do deserve the comebacks offerred by the parks for their less than stellar performances.

Whatever, your all going to complain until your happy that you have flamed the park of your choice to death. Yet, that park, if a thmer will have over a million visitors during the year, if a traditional park, will be near a million people, so after all your rants, what have you gained? Give me a park, any park, I will have a good time there despite you.

Ed

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Thanks Ed!
The day in question had the Mind Eraser running the entire time, yet Bills observation never even mentioned it. It's frustrating that those that "should" know about how well rides run in 40 and 50 degree temps, seem to forget, "every darn spring" and go off on the parks as if they aren't / weren't ready.

Sam

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2Hostyl said:

Yes, but with Hershey, 1) you know up front that several of the rides (i.e. all of Midway America) will be closed, and 2) they dont charge you FULL PRICE for half the park (but they do at SFA ;)).

Seriously though, if the park is only open with several major attractions down, is that really fair to the customers?

I'm not among the "Usual Suspects" that receive glee from bashing SF in general or SFA in particular, quite the contrary, I'm an ardent defender. But facts are facts, other parks have shown year in and year out that they can get 'up to par' from day one, so why cant SFA?

I invite anyone to answer *that* question.

lata, jeremy

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I don't have answers from past years, but I can assure you that this opening weekend proved to simply be too cold / windy or both for several coasters to run reliably enough to be opened.

JJ and SROS need to be at the very least in the mid 50s to run reliably, they also need relatively full trains at that temp to complete the circuit in a acceptable (by the safety system) time.

Also, traditionally SFA hasn't opened their two large water ride attractions probably for 2 reasons average temperature, and early season staffing issues. I would be willing to bet that the GP is accepting of water rides being closed below 65 degrees.

Had last weekend been 60 to 65 degrees we would have seen SROS and JJ running dependably.

I'm not trying to make excuses, i'm simply explaining what I see from my viewpoint.

I also need to point out that in the past 3 years SFA has made great strides toward having every ride running on a more consistant level, though, this weekend wasn't the greatest, on an average, they've been pretty good at keeping the closed ride board as empty as possible.

SAM

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isn't it better to have a park be open with what is ready than to have no park open in April?

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From an enthusiast's point of view, sure. From the business' point of view, probably not. Being obviously "not ready" does not encourage the first time visitor to come back.

Thank you Brian, that was my point precisely....heck, I want EVERY visitor that comes through the gates to WANT to come back, again and again....

....from the POV of a local non-enthusiast, the "cash cows" of the business...if, the ONLY time I visited my local park, most of the *major attractions* were closed, I'd be unlikely to come back. That means I don't come back with Uncle John and Aunt Susie and their kids when they're visiting....

From the NARROW perspective of an enthusiast, sure, I'd LOVE to see everything open year-round (like it is in MY neck of the woods, LOL)...but I fully understand the realities of the situation...

PLEASE realize, Sam, Ed, etc., I'm not interested AT ALL in *flaming* SFA, or any other park....I want them to be SUCCESSFUL. Right or wrong, I have some pretty strong feelings on what that TAKES...as always, please don't take anything I have to say personally, I certainly don't intend it that way...and I'm always interested in hearing "the other side of the story", so to speak....

I agree with you, to a point, but the simple fact is, you can expect all of the rides to be open some of the time, and you can expect some of the rides to be open all of the time, but you can't expact all of the rides to be open all of the time. I mean, as far as I've heard, the only ride (water rides not inclded) that didn't take ANY passengers opening weekend were Iron Eagle, Superman, and Joker's Jinx and only Iron Eagle was NOT testing, the teo coasters were. Unexpected events happen when a coaster takes it's first run of the season that can prevent it from opening on time and you just have to learn to accept that.

I mean, I can't think of very few parks I've visited where ALL of the rides were open at least some of the day. I mean, Cedar Point (2002) Wicked Twister was down both days I was there; SFMM (2002) X, Flashback, Ninja, and half of Superman were all closed; SFGAdv (2002) Viper and half of Rolling Thunder were closed; Hershey (2003) The Claw was down all day. And that's just some of the parks that I've visited recently, even worse, that doesn't even account for most of the flat rides (where SFGAdv and SFMM are a large victom). Yes, I KNOW why these rides were closed, every one, but all the general public gets is a sign when they get to the park. Rides are machines, machines are subject to malfunction, and just because it's opening day doesn't mean these rides are immune to malfunction.

I think both sides are sending mixed messages:

I think what rollergator, Brian and others are saying is, if the weather was 70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky would the park have been able to handle a crowd of 5 or 10,000 people without the second trains on JJ, Batwing and S:ROS. I don't think anyone has an issue with the weather or the fact that rides have problems with the cold, but the fact the second trains weren't ready to be used if they needed them.

What Coasterlover,Sam and Ed are saying is S:ROS, JJ and Batwing were ready to open on Saturday. However the weather was keeping them from opening and that was not the fault of the park.

I hope this helps clarify the message on both sides of the debate? *** Edited 4/6/2004 5:38:52 PM UTC by coasterguts***

freakylick,

I was at the park on Saturday, Sam on Sunday. I hope that clarifies that issue.

On sunday ME was running just fine because(after getting up the guts to ride)I was on the coaster later in the day.

Roar was having the most downtime of any coaster all day....the proxies kept screwing up & the lap bars also jammed up in the front row(this was after Sam left for the day)even Wild one had trouble because on the last train of the day we came to an abrupt halt the instant we hit the brake run & maintenance took what seemed like a half hour just to get our train back in the station.

If it weren't for the cold temps more coasters would've operated,after all the grease in the wheel bearings gets very stiff when the temperature drops below a certain range resulting in the ride running much slower thus increasing the risk of it valleying before reaching the station.

The season is still young & I'm sure they're doing everything in their power to get rides up & running by the time the peak season rolls around....the rides may have been down for the most part this weekend but the staff & atmosphere of the park made up for it...especially seeing all the new paint & landscaping they've done this year.

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coasterguts said:
freakylick,

I was at the park on Saturday, Sam on Sunday. I hope that clarifies that issue.

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My bad...My sincerest apologies to Sam...Post was deleted.

Sean *** Edited 4/6/2004 6:10:19 PM UTC by freakylick***

I went to the park on Sunday, got there at 4 thinking I had four hours in the park, and found I had an hour to get my season pass and get on some rides.

With what seemed like maybe no more than 100 people in the park, I had almost no wait to process my pass, which was great because I'm used to waiting for at least an hour on most opening days.

I was able to get some good, very windy, very chilly rides on the two woodies and Tower of Doom. I noticed that Roar had gotten some new wood for what looked like structural reasons on the bottom of the track inspector hand rails. I actually felt that the ride was a little bit smoother throughout, besides the last turn of course.

I didn't bother going over to Gotham City because it "appeared" to me that the Gotham City Trio were all down (S:ROS, JJ and Batwing), plus, I only had an hour.

I really noticed a major improvement in customer service this time. It seemed like all the staff was much more courteous and friendly than I've seen before. Even the ride operators and attendents all appeared to be enjoying working although it was very windy and cold. Oh well, the park didn't get any new major attraction this year, but they sure seemed to have gotten some new customer service!

Overall, I wished there were many more rides open, but with the weather and all and the low turnout it makes sense why only a few things were open. It worked for me because I only had an hour.

I'm just so happy I didn't have to wait forever to get my pass!

Can't wait till it gets warmer.

Well I heard from someone who went today & guess what.

S:ROS,JJ & Batwing were all down the entire day! I don't think they can blame the weather for it this time because it's been in the mid to upper 70's for a good part of the day....my guess is JJ can't run until the other train is put back on & due to noise restrictions but as for S:ROS I don't know but I suspect it was for mechanical problems,same thing on Batwing as well.

Roar hasn't improved much this year at all...I found my rides on sunday to be rough & full of vibrations & replacing just a few planks of lumber won't remedy that problem but updating to some new trains with better articulation sure would.

Gezzz.... If Batwing didn't run all day how did I ride it at 11:00 this morning. It was running this afternoon as well. It was down a little while (between 2 and 4), not all day..

S:ROS and JJ didn't open while I was in the park (I left at 6:45). The maintenance staff and a couple of casually dressed guys (not your typical SFA Mechanics) and a couple of mechanics for SFA were working on S:ROS all day. They would start it, watch it, stop it. Sometimes it tested several times in a row and then they would work on it some more. They seem to be paying an awful lot of attention to the final brake run. There was also a crew working on JJ today as well. I saw it test one time. Also JJ ran last year without the other train on the track. What would not having the second train on JJ have anything to do with it running?

Roar was running great today. I didn't have one complaint about it. Rode in the black train.

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coasterguts said:
Gezzz.... If Batwing didn't run all day how did I ride it at 11:00 this morning. It was running this afternoon as well. It was down a little while (between 2 and 4), not all day...

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Thats the problem! BATWING FAN SFA does not report anything near the facts!

They glance around and make assumptions based on a few mins of observations.

If they would simply report that something was down when they went by it, rather than assuming that the ride was down ALL DAY, they might be believed in their comments. However BATWING FAN SFA consistantly reports incorrect info, and wild rumors as the TRUTH! (remember the wild mouse track near the cell phone tower?)

Get with it dude! if ya can't remember things, take a pen and paper and write it down.

SAM

I am going back this Saturday, and I hope that SROS is up an running. JJ would be a bonus, but I really want to ride SROS.

I don't understand why someone with a SFA ride in his screename is so negative towards that park. I agree with you Sam. You have to take time walk, and actually check out the rides before you make the assumption that they are closed. Just because you didn't see it operating doesn't mean it isn't open.

I am not the biggest fan of the park, but my visit last Saturday really changed my perspective quite a bit. I am returning this Saturday, so that says a lot. Last year I went there and processed my season pass, and only visited one more time after that. (Never visit on gospel day. I made mistake of doing that 2 years in a row.) This year it is the 2nd weekend of the season, and I am already making a 2nd visit.

I am hoping the SROS & JJ are up, but if they aren't I can still have a good time with what is open. Marathon laps on Roar anyone? ;)

I always take notes while at the park so I can post an accurate TR to highlight the days events while at the park.

Usually while eating lunch my friend(you've met him before Sam) & I will take note of the rides we've been on up to that point also taking note of what rides are up & running when we go to them to ride.

Now the info I got on yesterday's operations were from a member over at SFN who I was talking with via IM & I simply reported in my post yesterday the information that he specifically gave to me....I wasn't even at the park at all yesterday & won't be back there til may 1st because my friends & are only able to visit the park once per month during the season on average.