Thrill seekers won't feel Deja Vu at Six Flags

[Coastinfire]

Roller coaster enthusiasts were given one last ride on Six Flags Great America's Deja Vu last month, during the final night of Fright Fest.

The thrill ride, which the Gurnee park introduced in 2001, will not be open next season because of high maintenance costs.

"It's a pretty maintenance-intensive ride," said Six Flags spokeswoman Brooke Gabbert.

After examining the amount of resources it takes to run the coaster, Gabbert said park officials determined the money could be better spent elsewhere. Gabbert could not confirm if the coaster will be sold or when it might be dismantled.

Read the Full Story at:<a href="http://www.pioneerlocal.com/gurnee/news/640242,gu-sixflags-110807-s1.article" class="news" target="blank"> The Gurnee Review </a>

[Trailblazer Tony]

thanks for the post! I've been waiting for an official story to print out for my records.

[cycamps]

^Same here.

[Mr.SIX]

Doesn't V2 cost more to operate/maintain than deja vu?

[Demon_07]

I doubt it.

[cycamps]

It might cost more to operate, considering how many times it's launched in a day...

[SFGAm07]

V2 cost a LOT more to operate/mantain than DejaVu. V2 cost more than every coaster in the park combined to operate and maintain, not only with regular operation but also major parts tend to break on it every year (Intmain) that are extremely expensive.
It doesnt get nearly as many complaints about downtime as DejaVu though, hence why Vu would get removed and not V2.

[Demon_07]

That mya be true but V2 is a much more popular ride. The attendance would probably drop even more if they took it out.

[Sireze]

Im shocked!!! And out of my 2 times visiting tha park i never even rode the ride.

[rielyboy10]

i do not think Deja'vu is being removed because it is a awesome ride fast and thrilling why would Six flags great america remove vekoma can fix it

[cycamps]

That mya be true but V2 is a much more popular ride. The attendance would probably drop even more if they took it out.

That is true, but it is only that way because of Vu's downtime. I think that if it was open more, it would be equally popular.

[FRD714]

i do not think Deja'vu is being removed because it is a awesome ride fast and thrilling why would Six flags great america remove vekoma can fix it

Ok everything you said there is wrong. First off, yes it is being removed. Second, Vekoma can't fix it, they can only make it worse.

[DejaVuGurl1203]

^ Too true.

Yes, of course Deja Vu was an awesome ride which many guests loved to ride. But that doesn't mean they won't take it down.

Six Flags likes to break our hearts. lol

[rielyboy10]

does anyone know why it is being removed and why cant vekoma fix it

[Tip Top Club]

Because Vekoma only screws things up, and it is being removed because of it's terrible reliability. Even though it's downtime has been steadily getting better, guests still see it as the ride that's closed all the time.

[demon boy]

Its all got to do with the mechanical difficulties all vekomas have, these types just seem to have a lot more of it. There are so many bugs in the system, they cant wast the money trying to fix it. There is too much downtime. It is a big money sucker and thats the main reason.

And everyone saying vekoma wont fix it, thats probably not true. This is one of the greatest designs PHYSICALLY vekoma has ever done. Not mechanically, but the actual ride is great and they cant lose such a good ride. Vekoma probably will try to fix it, just by themselves and not with existing rides.

[Tip Top Club]

You over estimate Vekoma, Kid. And it's not really one of the greatest designs Physically. I love the ride, don't get me wrong, I think it was the best coaster at the park, but it's a rehash of boomerang rides which are not exactly new. Not to mention the low capacity, even with no downtimes and the best crews, capacity pales. If you want people to ride a ride, they have to be able to.

[SFGAm07]

does anyone know why it is being removed and why cant vekoma fix it

Its fair to say because quite literally, Vekoma SUCKS. They were kicked off the project in 2001 because they did not fill their contractual obligations of getting the ride running on time and SF's maintenence staff had to get the ride to run properly because Vekoma couldnt do it. Vekoma did come to SFGAm a few times to re-program the ride and make modifications (I remember in 05 and 07) but everytime they touched it they just made things much worse.

There are so many bugs in the system, they cant wast the money trying to fix it.

They have spent a lot of money each year making modifications to get it to operate properly. Granted it did get better (I remember in 02 when it was NEVER up before late afternoon if it opened at all) but anyway given the rides reputation they figured it wasnt worth trying anymore.

That mya be true but V2 is a much more popular ride. The attendance would probably drop even more if they took it out.

V2's popularity is the only thing keeping it up, SF im sure would be more than glad to get rid of it if it didnt still bring people in (anyone notice 2007 was the first season it wasnt SBNO for a period of 2 weeks or more?).

The main problems with DejaVu are not mechanical (though it has its share) they are with the rides PLC system that cannot be programmed to run the ride consistently.

[tp41190]

^ I wouldn't say that Vekoma sucks. At least they are trying to make something new and take risks...unlike B&M which just make clones of everything. I for one am happy Vekoma made a great thrilling ride even with it problems. That only means that they can try to make it again but even better.

[cycamps]

It seems like it's mainly their giant inverted boomerangs. The classic boomerangs never had problems.

[SFGAm07]

^ I wouldn't say that Vekoma sucks. At least they are trying to make something new and take risks...unlike B&M which just make clones of everything. I for one am happy Vekoma made a great thrilling ride even with it problems. That only means that they can try to make it again but even better.

B&M not "taking risks" is why they have continued to be profitable whilst many other manufacturers have gone bankrupt the past few years. "Making clones of everything" has nothing to do with B&M, they give the park what they want. If the park wants a clone, they will build a clone. It's not worth it to a park to build a big rollercoaster when its going to have a lot of downtime, Dick Kinzel even said it himself TTD was the worst investment he has ever made, no matter how good the ride is when it break down a lot all it does is cause mass amounts of complaints. Hence, why you see so many proven rides being built now (Mack mice, Gerstlauer spinners, B&M, etc).

It seems like it's mainly their giant inverted boomerangs. The classic boomerangs never had problems.

Most Vekoma's are pretty reliable but get extremely rough after about a year of operation. The other Veko I recall having a lot of problems was Odessey which is a giant SLC that had to be re-tracked cause of all the stalling problems.

[tp41190]

^ Actually, because it is the same type of lift system, with a catch car, boomerangs usually had a lot of down time as well. Its not as bad as say dejavu or TTD/KK, but they still have there problems.

But I just think that it was great that dejavu would rarely miscatch for the type of system it used. I mean, catching a car vertically at that speed would take a lot of programing and testing. And you are saying that they suck? I am actually glad that it had the amount of up time that it did have for the amount of mechanics it used.

[cycamps]

Could the downtime of TTD and Kingda Ka bring their fate? Look what happened to Vu. I'm hoping that the fact that the parks payed $25 million deters them from even considering it.

[SFGAm07]

Dont get me wrong I think its operation was fascinating as well, but try explaining that to the 32 people stuck on the ride and 600 people in line when the ride miscatches as often as it did (depending on what time it was in the season, normally in the spring and fall it would miscatch and summer it would retract at least a few times a week, and often many times in a day).
Put yourself in the parks position, you've got 20,000+ people all looking forward to the ride and its closed. A good percentage of that will translate into complaint letters to the park/corporate and make people not come back.

Hell, I was at CP last year and MF, Mav, and TTD were not up on time. MF broke down while we were in the station even after it was up late, WT broke down while we were in line, TTD broke down while we were in line (and while we were on Iron Dragon we heard TTD's queue speakers saying it was down after we had ridden it), Maverick went up late, we got on it when it opened, we went back later in the day and it was having an extended downtime, it went back up so we got in line, it went down about 5x while we were in line. And this was all in the course of one day. Obviosley its not like this every day, but looking at our day you think all these POS Intamin rides breaking down so much would affect a persons desire to go back to CP? Damn right...

Compare that to a ride like Raging Bull where it does go down often at all, most of its downtimes are cleared in just a few minutes with the flip of a key, and is NEVER down all day (there have been a very rare once a year type thing where it will have a downtime for like half the day, but thats it). It makes far more sense for a park to want that kind of ride, hence why you see so many clones.

[tp41190]

TTD and KindaKa are both record breakers. TTD is the tallest with lapbars, or what ever record Cedar Point claims. And KK IS the tallest coaster. So I don't think those rides will be going anywhere anytime soon.

Dejavu was just a boomerang, it had 3 clones, and didn't break any records. So it was cheaper for them to remove it, because it really wasn't doing anything for the park.