SFA - the ok/pretty good stuff:
-The Wild One
-The Joker's Jinx
-The Mind Erase
-Other Traditional Rides
The Wild One is a good old woodie with no wait. Joker's Jinx is a launch coaster that is tightly twisted. It is not as rough as I expected. The Mind Eraser is a little rough but a good inverted coaster, nonetheless (and the "ear pads" are thick and soft!) We walked right onto the front seat with no wait. Nothing remarkable about this group, but worth riding.
SFA - the "down side":
Superman - Ride of Steel (lame)
Two-Face (dead)
Theming (not much)
Scenery (not much)
Restaurants (especially no air-conditioned ones!)
Employees (rude, stupid acting)
The Guest List (not too...ummm... diverse)
Maybe my problem with Superman is that I've ridden Apollo's Chariot. I saw where Superman was a 200' (+/-) tall coaster built around the same time as AC @ BGE and my expectations were high. Superman is just plain disappointing. After the first hill, the ride has nothing worthwhile (almost zero airtime, for example). The coaster looks and feels like a cheap carnival ride. And, speaking of cheap carnival aspects, a lot of the park resembles a low-end county fair, especially "Gotham City". Other than Coyote Creek (the western themed area) the theming makes no sense or is non-existent. The "AMERICA" theme is a waste. So many possibilities, so little execution. Two-Face (a boomerang coaster) wasn't running. I heard SFA hasn't run the thing since a chain broke (or something like that) last year! It's just sitting there; a tribute to the mediocrity of the park.
So, the family enjoyed the day and the price of admission was good ($25) but we probably won't return soon. The flyer is the single truly unique feature (among parks in the area). The rest of SFA's coasters are clearly surpassed by those at other Mid-Atlantic parks (although Roar might be as good as any woodie around, including Grizzly).
If you want a great ride, go for the front of the blue car. If you want a ride with a bunch of airime and a great ride, go to the back of the blue car. On the back of the blue car- you get about 4 seconds of airtime on the first drop. NO LIE. Then, second hill, you get a tinie-winie bit of airtime, depending on how loose your seatbelt is. Then the third hill- at least 5 seconds of great 'air'. On the red train, the last 3 bunny hops are boring, and nothing happens. The BLUE train, however, has about 3 seconds on each, and probably the most intense air time with them put together. I think that the blue train is just faster than the red train, or something. So, if you trust me enough if you ever go back, wait for the blue train.
Two-face is down from when it was struck by lightning last year. Now, SFA is too lazy to fix it up. Joker's Jinx is okay, but sucks any where besides the back. I like the back because the whole ride is faster and better because you get whipped around the tight turns. It still is kinda smooth... Batwing is probably my 2nd favorite coaster there.
The waterpark, I'd say, is what SFA most focuses on. The last time we got a coaster was '01, with batwing! and the year before that, Superman! For me, the best 2 coasters came right after each other and then shut down the coaster buissness.
I would love to know what you would think about Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL since it is "American" themed too. It would be a good comparing and contrasting since SFGA tends to be one of the more liked parks in the SF group
It reallly caught me by suprise by what you just said... If you've been reading my other stuff on S:RoS at other articles, you would know that they were running only the BLUE train up until about more than a month ago. (Heck, even when the season started [on April 26th], the red train wasn't even on the transfer track! It was nowhere to be seen!) Then, they tried putting up the red, but had problems, and then also the next time I went. When I went last, the tuesday before you went (like I already said), it seemed as though the BLUE train was having problems, not the red. I guess when you went, the blue was having more difficulties.
Oh, and when you said you wished you knew before you went, why didn't you just asked? Well, you might not have known that I'm a regular SFA guy... Did you post an article on it, Peter?
And I agree that Batwing is awesome. Much better than Great Adventure's Superman. (Although it's no Tatsu!)
Oh, more info on my phone- I'm not sure when I lost it. I know I had it before roar. Then, me and my friend went to the pirate ship. After that, the spinny stand up thing. We went over to superman, and in the que, I noticed that I had lost my cell. Even in the blue train, I couldn't enjoy myself. So, we went back to all 3 rides- spinny stand up thing, pirate ship, and roar. I reported it to guest services, and then it felt like I could have fun again. We rode superman 3 more times, and I made sure I took out all of my stuff from my pockets.
My 'theme park shorts' that I always wear to theme parks, have very tight pockets when I sit down, like they're stretched. When I'm standing up, they're sort of loose. So, I noticed last night (after I posted the one above), that I had to have lost it on the spinny stand up thing.
I know someone found it and took it, because we tried calling it (on my friends phone), over and over again. The first few times, it would ring, then the next time I tried, it rang, and someone picked it up and turned it off. I waited a minute, and then every single time, there was no ring, just me, on my answering machine. Audviosly, someone turned it off.
